In This Issue of The Hillsboro Christian

By Brad Clouse

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)

“With truth, Christ made people aware of their hopeless, sinful condition; with grace He offered forgiveness to all who would come to Him in faith.” (Charles

Swindoll)

Everyone needs grace. Everyone needs truth. We find both grace and truth in Jesus Christ.

Throughout the Gospels, we see the grace of Jesus in His interactions with others. Full of grace, He dined with tax collectors and sinners. He loved the unlovable. He touched the untouchable. In Matthew 9:36, we see the compassion that Jesus had for people, seeing that they were harassed and helpless. With grace, He invites all who are hurting and burdened to come to Him: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus was full of grace.

Jesus was also full of truth. In John 8:1-11, we have recorded for us an interaction that Jesus has with a woman who was caught in adultery. She is presented to Jesus by the religious leaders, who were using this situation as a tool to get at Him. With one sentence, Jesus dismantles their attempt to trap Him: “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (v.7). After her accusers are gone, she is alone with Jesus. He declares to her, “Then neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin” (v.11). Jesus was fully aware of what this woman needed. He did not fail to speak to her the truth about her sin. While at the same time, He treated her with gentleness and respect.

Jesus was full of grace and full of truth. As we interact with people, we must follow the example of our Savior and be people full of grace and truth. Kevin DeYoung writes that “We need to be grace people and truth people. Not half grace and half-truth. Not all grace on Mondays and all truth on Tuesdays. All grace and all truth all the time.” As followers of Christ, let us continually offer grace truthfully and share truth graciously.

The theme for this month’s newsletter is GRACE & TRUTH. In this edition, Adam takes some time to expound upon the balance between grace and truth. Also, Micah shares how grace and truth are expressed in our worship as God’s people. May this newsletter be an encouragement and a blessing to you.

One last thing when it comes to grace and truth. The mission of the Hillsboro Church of Christ is “Building bridges of grace that bear the weight of truth.” Our community, our schools, our families, and our relationships need the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. Will you please pray for our church staff as well as our elders as we seek to continue carrying out this mission?

In Christian love, Brad

About The Author

Brad Clouse, a Louisville, Kentucky native, graduated from Louisville Bible College in 2010 with a Master's Degree in Sacred Literature after earning his former degrees at the same university. Brad served at smaller churches in Adair County Kentucky while in college before being called to Ohio in 2009. Brad ministered to the New Vienna Church of Christ congregation for 12 years before being called to the Hillsboro Church of Christ as the Senior Minister.

He is pictured here with his wife, Julie.

(Randy Alcorn)

“For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” (I Corinthians 14:33)

With biblical grace and biblical truth, we are entering into a new series on Sunday mornings entitled WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES. During this series, we will take the time to see what God’s Word has to say about gender, sexuality, marriage, divorce, and purity. When discussing these issues, we must honor and obey what God’s Word says. Whenever man seeks to operate outside of the boundaries of His Word, there will be chaos, confusion, and brokenness.

May 28: “In His Image” – Genesis 1:26-31

June 4: “United as One” – Genesis 2:18-25

June 11: “Haven’t You Read?” – Matthew 19:1-12

June 18: “Family Matters” – Ephesians 6:1-4

June 25: “Undivided Devotion” – I Corinthians 7:1-40

July 2: “At All Costs” – I Thessalonians 4:1-8

As your minister, I am asking you to spend some time reading these passages of Scripture. Specifically, I ask for your prayers in preparing and preaching these timely messages. While doing so, will you also spend some time praying for our church family as we enter this important sermon series – that our hearts will be open and receptive to what God’s Word has to say? Through this series, may we, as believers, also be encouraged to continue standing firmly upon the holy Word of God.

God bless you all!

Brad

By Adam Steele

I tend to be pretty hard on myself mentally. For a long time, I would evaluate almost every interaction I had with people throughout my day. I would wonder how I was perceived or how the person I spoke to understood what I said. I would wonder if I was too harsh or if I needed to say more than I said. Knowing if I said too much or too little can often be a struggle. If I was too harsh or not harsh enough. Too forgiving or not forgiving enough. Now, this type of thinking can lead to some really painful and unhealthy places, but I think it touches on something that every Christian has to navigate, the balance between grace and truth.

In my experience, we are wired to lean in one direction or the other. For some of us, acting and speaking with truth comes very naturally. We probably enjoy being “right” in an argument. We often tell people the truth even if it hurts a little. We may say things like, “I was just being honest.” We all need people in our life whom we can trust to give us the truth even when we don’t want to hear it. The problem is that if the truth is all we focus on, we will often come across as blunt and mean. We tell people the truth regardless of how it will affect them. We are probably not the best people to speak to a friend going through something difficult or struggling with past mistakes.

Others of us are wired to give grace first. We are more concerned about maintaining the relationship than we are about saying what needs to be said. We will often give the people we are in relationships with the benefit of the doubt. We tend to be empathetic and try to understand the deeper factors in someone’s life. When we see something negative in another person, we try our best to understand the why behind their actions. The problem is that if grace is all we focus on, we often don’t say what needs to be said and will allow people to walk all over us. We may be great at comforting someone who is hurting but struggle to confront someone who needs confronting.

The truth is that there are times when we need to bring truth to bear, and there are times when we need to extend grace. Knowing which is required at which time is the hard part. It is so easy to get it wrong. This is one of the reasons that Jesus is such a great role model. John 1:14,16-17 says of Jesus, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.” What an amazing description of Jesus that he was “full of grace and truth.” Each of us, by default, tends toward either grace or truth. We are strong in one and more deficient in the other; Jesus was full in both. We see this at work throughout Jesus’ ministry. He always seems to know the proper way to respond to each person he encounters. If you were a Pharisee hiding behind your selfrighteousness, Jesus would deliver some very hard truth. If you were Zacchaeus trying to catch a glimpse of him, he would notice you. If you were a scribe trying to trap him with a tough question, Jesus would often refuse to answer or ask you a question of his own. If you were a person in need of healing, he was always able and willing. If you were the woman at the well or the woman caught in adultery, you would get grace and truth in plentiful supply. Jesus was a master at looking at a person and knowing just how much grace and truth that person needed.

We are called to be like Jesus. Which means that if our default setting is truth, we need to extend some extra grace. It means if we are wired to extend grace, we must be willing to give the people we care about some hard truth when the time comes. Grace and truth are difficult to balance, and we must all struggle with this balance as we mature in Christ. Hopefully, we are more like him today than we were yesterday and more like him tomorrow than we are today. As the Holy Spirit works in us, we will become better and display full truth and full grace. Each of us has been given so much truth and so much grace that we should strive to do the same for others. Let’s be like Jesus and walk in grace AND truth.

Grace and Peace, Adam

About The Author

Adam Steele is originally from western Pennsylvania. When he was eleven his parents moved to West Virginia where he lived through his time in high school. Adam attended Central Christian College of the Bible in Moberly, MO.

While in college he met his lovely wife April. Adam and April have two children Silas and Sadie. Adam has a passion for ministry and for God’s word and has served as Youth and Families Minister at HCC since 2016.

Special offering for Shalom Orphanage raised over $14,350.00

Butler Spring Christian Camp asked us to donate 100 bottles of assorted condiments you went above and beyond by almost doubling that amount you donated 193 bottles

Gifts in memory of Mary Gall and Eleanor Stephens were given by Don & Sue Gall

AREA 937 is collecting peanut butter for the month of June

• Life Line Screening, the nation’s leading provider of preventive health screenings will be at Hillsboro Church of Christ on Wednesday, August 23, 2023 from 9am-4:30pm. Screenings are fast, painless and affordable. We travel around the country, working with thousands of churches, health clubs and community centers in an effort to screen asymptomatic people for stroke and vascular disease. A stroke occurs every 40 seconds and yet up to 80% of strokes can be prevented. Three key tests check for blocked carotid arteries, an irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation, and high blood pressure, which are the three leading risk factors for stroke. Other tests check for abdominal aortic aneurysms and hardening of the arteries in the legs. A bone density screening to assess osteoporosis risk is also offered and is appropriate for both men and women. Other services include blood tests, including cholesterol, glucose and c-reactive protein screenings, as well as take-home colon cancer early detection tests. For more information regarding the screenings or to schedule an appointment, call 1-888-653-6450 or go to https:// llsa.social/HC.

Where: Hillsboro Church of Christ

When: Wednesday, August 23, 2023

ALL TRUSTEES AND ELDERS WERE

Confirmed

By Micah Herrick

"The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:1924, ESV)

This moment comes from the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. As they wrestle back and forth, and she is repeatedly confronted with the truth, there are some important things that we need to learn about the tension that exists when we properly worship our God.

"You worship what you do not know…" (v19). The Samaritan people believed themselves to be worshiping the God of Abraham. The problem for them began not simply in error over location but in a complete understanding of who God is. It seems, historically, that they worshiped God in the same manner that the surrounding nations would worship their local deities. They viewed him as the god of their land, and as such, he was diminished far below his rightful place as the creator of all things, high and exalted in heaven. Because they did not understand the magnitude of the one they worshiped, they were effectively worshiping a small, weak, idolatrous representation of the true God. Of this, we must be careful. When we skew our view away from the truth of the person of God, we fall into a deep and idolatrous false worship. Commentator Matthew Henry puts it this way, "Ignorance is so far from being the mother of devotion that it is the murderer of it" (Vol 5, 170).

The Jewish people, in contrast, were in a much better position because they had a true understanding of whom it was they worshiped. But as it stood, Jesus declared that "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (v23). Now Jesus is confronting the next reality. The Jewish people worshiped in truth; they knew whom they worshiped, but not in spirit. The next challenge we must contend with is the reality that we can be so molded and shaped by the tradition that we are contained within that we view worship only through the lens of "proper practice" rather than an expression of gratitude. Worship is our response to God for who he is and what he has done, through Jesus, all the time reflected by what we say and do–both personally and corporately. If we fall into the trap of believing that worship can only happen through the confines of "proper religious practice," we can fall into the error of worshiping the One True God but not through the lens of the actual act of the salvation of the Son and the regeneration of the Spirit.

We worship because the King of Heaven brought himself down to our plane and shattered the bondage that held us in sin and despair. He freed us at the cost of his own perfect blood. In light of that reality, our spirits should be in constant awe of His glory and grace. Our worship should not be bound by location or practice but should be a continuous outpouring of our existence because of what he has done to set us free, make us whole, and invite us to be His!

About The Author

Micah Herrick began ministry in 2012 after being commissioned for ministry by his home church, White Oak Christian Church, in Cincinnati, OH. Micah is currently serving HCC as Worship Minister, as well as leading our Evangelism team and coordinating our online presence. He has served in both Youth Ministry and Worship Ministry in Richmond, IN, and Knightstown, IN, before coming back to Ohio to serve in Hillsboro.

He is pictured here with his wife, Rebecca, kids; Rowan, Luci, Kennedy, and Finn, his mother and father; Steve and Valeri Herrick.

Allie Roush made the decision to be immersed into Christ during our 10:30 service on May 7th. The Holy Spirit has been at work in her life for quite a while and we are so excited to see her be able to respond to His prompting. If you see Allie around in the near future, be sure and congratulate her on this life changing decision.

Welcome to the family, Allie!

Allie Roush

Looking for a daily connection to scripture? Grab your Bibles, let’s go through the Word!

We’ve created a daily morning devotional that you can find on YouTube, Facebook, or our website.

Brad, Adam, Micah, James, and Dave have worked hard putting this together. Each day one of the guys breaks down a few verses of the text for us to connect with in more understandable chunks. Each one lasts 3-5 minutes long.

What a great way to start your morning! Check it out!

God has been at work in amazing ways at Hillsboro Church of Christ. As evidence of that fact, on May 21st Jaya Reed and Aubree Miller were both immersed into Christ during our second service. Please join us in welcoming them into the family of God.

Congratulations girls, we are all so excited for you both!