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Here’s one sample of MANY articles and news stories in One Magazine:

FIRST GLIMPSE: Hidden Treasure?

A driftwood fire crackled merrily, and the smoky smell of coffee wafted through the cool morning air. Easing back on my elbows in the powdery sand, I waited with a smile for the old, blackened coffee pot to finish perking. I yawned and stretched as I admired early morning clouds tinged with pink on the distant horizon.

After backpacking five miles through soft sand and scratchy underbrush the previous evening, my daughter and I discovered a pristine location near the end of the deserted Gulf island we set out to explore. Tucked into a hollow between two enormous sand dunes, we raised our small, worn tent against an enormous drift log. After scavenging firewood, we spent a fantastic evening roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. My last thought before drifting off to sleep was how much I enjoyed the sound of crashing waves on the shore. Perfect.

Eight hours later, as dawn slowly brightened to brilliant sunrise, I savored my coffee and simply relaxed as I waited for Sleepyhead to stir. Running my toes through the sand, I wondered for the umpteenth time how sand could be so soft.

“Ouch!” A sudden sharp pain between my toes put a damper on the otherwise idyllic morning. Reaching down, I pulled a short length of corroded chain from the sand. “Litterbugs!” I exclaimed with disgust, rubbing the small cut left between my toes. Shaking my head, I shoved the corroded metal into the side pocket of my hiking shorts to discard later. At that moment, a sleepy face surrounded by tousled blond locks poked from the tent door. “Do I smell coffee?”

We turned attention to breakfast, breaking camp, and retracing our route back down the island. Four hours later, we arrived at the parking area scratched, sunburned, sweaty, and ready for shade. We stowed our gear and, after a last glance at the scenery, prepared to head for civilization.

Remembering the refuse, I stepped over to the drab green trash bin. As I drew back my hand to toss in the chain, I froze. The hours of rubbing back and forth in my pocket had removed the corrosion and turned the links a soft, golden glow. The trash had become treasure! A trip to an antique dealer confirmed it. The buried chunk of corrosion was not only gold, but pure gold—scarred and worn but just as precious.

Jesus spoke clearly about treasure in His Sermon on the Mount. He taught followers one’s “treasure” says much about the condition of the heart. Obsession with the material, a lack of generosity, and misplaced confidence in wealth (Luke 12:27-34; Matthew 6:19-21) point to a heart divided, torn between two masters—God and money (Matthew 6:24). In contrast, generosity, careful stewardship of resources, eternal values, and faith God will provide reflect a heart fully devoted to God, not distracted by the glittering baubles of this life.

Most important, we must not bury our most precious treasure: salvation. Christ’s gift of redemption is not something to be hidden or hoarded but shared. Like a candle in the darkness or a shining city on a hill (Matthew 5:14-16), God’s grace should gleam from our lives, pointing others to a treasure far better than anything marked by an X on some tattered parchment.

Hidden treasure? No way! Not for the Christian.

About the Columnist: Eric K. Thomsen is managing editor of ONE Magazine. Email: eric@nafwb.org.

I believe I speak for everyone when I say that it was great to be back together with a semblance of normalcy. But, what is normal anymore? If you attended you would have felt the same sense of happiness and sense of urgency to spread the gospel. Part of the experience of being at the meetings is we get to be around other like-minded believers, encourage each other, and get motivated to do go back out and share the gospel!

Pastor Faron Thebeau did a fantastic job of bringing the word and firing us up to jump into the mission–the great commission! He shared a little of what God is doing through him and his ministry at Mosaic Church (that he planted) in Rolla, Missouri. Faron is “becoming all things” and doing whatever he can to “reach as many as possible” in the diverse city that God has sent him. The Mosaic has a unique opportunity to engage with people from many countries around the world. Faron is capitalizing on these and making disciples.

It was great meeting with everyone and seeing what all is happening in all of our churches around the state, seeing what new ministries are in the works, and just being encouraged. The world may be going the wrong direction, but God is most definitely doing big things! If you, or your church is ever tempted to think otherwise, I challenge you to reach out to your brother and sisters in the church. Talk with each other. Share what God is doing. Hear what others are doing and what God is doing now, so that you will know with certainty that He is still working. Go and make disciples!

It is not the practicing homosexual we are battling with. And It is not the LGBTQ agenda that is sweeping through our country that we are up against. The battle is with the Enemy who is up to the same tricks since the beginning in the Garden. “Did God really say…” Today the same lie is, “Does the Bible really say homosexual?” I believe what the church needs to be prepared for is to know how to enter into this ever-growing battle. Tactics are key in knowing what to engage in and what is simply irrelevant. For example, I often hear Christians retort, “You were not born that way.” That argument will often stop the conversation from going anywhere as the two erect walls. It’s a great way to end the talk. Why is it not the battle? Because we’re all born into sin anyway. I have no problem with agreeing someone is born that way, or has those urges. I won’t grant that God made them that way, however. The reason I have no problem with granting them saying they may have been born that way is because we all have sin and we must be born again. So that’s not the battle you engage in. 

What is the battle?

The battle has to be on scripture and what it says or doesn’t say. If there is no objective standard to which we adhere to, then there is nothing to which we can point to as truth or not. There is no truth. Everyone makes their own standard. Relativism is self-defeating, though. I made a TikTok video on this, because you don’t need a long time to refute it. Simply as one question: “Is relativism true?” 

So what does scripture say on this matter? The Old Testament and New Testament both address it. There is a movie coming out called 1946. It is about the supposed mistranslation of the word “homosexual” in the RSV translation. It’s important for the church to be prepared for this, because this movement is picking up steam like no other time in history. And from a cursory glance, it doesn’t seem like we are prepared to address it in a biblical way, or that we’re doing a very good job. 

There are really six passages that typically are looked at as referring to homosexuality: Genesis 19 (Sodom and Gomorrah), Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:10. My intent with this is not to do an exhaustive teaching on this, but to highlight the discussion that is going on, with the hopes of pushing you to research more. We need to be educated and prepared. And then when we are, we have to enter into the arena. But always remember that the goal is not to win an argument, but to win a brother or sister. 

Often the argument is raised that in the Old Testament, if you are going to hold to some of the standards (e.g. homosexuality being a sin), then you have to hold to all the commands (e.g. you can’t mix certain fabrics, or plant field with two kinds of seeds). 

In the New Testament, often the argument is that the word and acts being described are not completely clear. There is not a consensus (more so with those of a progressive lean) as to what is spoken against. In the movie that is coming out, the claim is that the decision to translate the Greek word “arsenekotai” in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and from the root “koitais” in 1 Timothy 1:10, was wrong. In modern translations it is translated as homosexual. The argument is made, however, that it should be translated as “boy molesters.” In Romans 1, where it says, “Man shall not lie with man as with a woman”, the opposition believes it should be “Man shall not lie with young boys as he does the woman.” 

And finally, when someone tries to claim that Jesus never referred to homosexuality, I remind them that He did affirm a biblical marriage of a man and woman. Which is an indirect way of referring to homosexuality. 

This is simply scratching the surface of a subject that is growing and we must be prepared for. We can’t turn a blind eye to it. And it’s simply not enough to say, “The Bible says it! I believe it and that settles it!” We can’t say that, because people are using the Bible and even going back to the original languages to affirm their sin. My hope and prayer is that we approach this prepared, knowledgeable, and with love and compassion. People aren’t the enemy. They are no better than you or me. Many are blind and deceived. Many are grasping for answers. Some are just waiting for a Christian to actually take time to show them they love them and that God loves them. This is the world we are in. God didn’t call us to hate anyone. He called us to love everyone and bring the truth in love. Our responsibility, church, pastor, Christians, is to study God’s word and know it (2 Tim. 2:15), to preach it all truthfully (2 Tim. 4:2), to be ready at all times for people asking us why believe it and do it with compassion (1 Pet. 3:15), and to do it now (John 4:35)!