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Birdwell Lane Church of Christ Big Spring, TX |
Weekly Thoughts - September 2006
| <---- August 2006 | -- | October 2006 ----> |
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03 - "JESUS CHRIST THE LIVING SON OF GOD" 10 - "THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AND ERROR" 17 - "A NEED TOO LONG NEGLECTED" 24 - "IS CHRIST IN SUBJECTION?" |
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"JESUS CHRIST THE LIVING SON OF GOD" Acts 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. NKJV EVERY LORD'S DAY we meet with the saints around the Lord's Table. We are lifted up as we remember the death, burial and resurrection of our dear Lord. The prayers are sweet and uplifting, drawing us to the realms of love and spiritual nourishment. The bread is broken in memory of His broken body. The fruit of the vine is taken that we might remember His blood which was shed for our sins. These few moments of spiritual fellowship (koinonia) are compelling and satisfying. We are brothers and sisters in the family of God partaking of the same spiritual feast. 1 Corinthians 11:26-28 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. NKJV The Greek term koinonia (fellowship) has really come to have significance in my life as it has taken on additional meaning in the last few years. As we draw closer into a caring-sharing relationship with other members of the Body of Christ, we draw nearer to the "heart of God" for His Son died and gave His life for the church. I believe we have not properly appreciated the fellowship and friendship we know in the church family. The sweet, warm, abiding fellowship which we experience around the Lord's Table and with one another in the Church is a true gift of love and grace, and we should accept it as such and be a thankful people. See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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"THE CHURCH OF CHRIST AND ERROR" God gave Ben-hadad into the hands of Ahab, King of Israel, to be mercilessly slain. But Ahab SPARED Ben-hadad because the latter called him "brother" and offered him a share in his pilfered estates. This is identically the means by which "organized religion" enticed and won over to its platform the people who introduced "instrumental music" into the church of Christ. It was BROTHERLY in its bid for co-operation. It offered the honor (?) of rating those folk as a "sister-denomination," all of which stand condemned in the Word of God. Ahab was easily inveigled into accepting Ben-hadad's "brotherly" proposal, and this is what it cost him: 1 Kings 20:42 42 Then he said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.'" NKJV Precisely that very punishment has come upon these people because when its fathers had the denominations in their power (in the early days of the restoration), they refused to continue to slay them with the SWORD but made a LEAGUE with them and UNITED forces with them to corrupt the truth; and now the brethren who introduced the 'instruments of music" has given its life for the prosperity and upbuilding of denominationalism, and has virtually lost its individuality, being absorbed into the denominational system as a VASSAL thereto. Well, AHAB has died that Ben-hadad might live to harass the kingdom of God. Brethren, let us who have not "bowed the knee to Baal" intensely "preach the Word." As organized religions are delivered into our hands (and they shall continue to be), let us in kindness, but firmness, demolish their citadel and take their usurped territory for Christ the Lord; and let us not pity their institutions, but overthrow them, and thus "by all means save some." They are now, even as their Phariseean and Sadducceean prototypes were of old, the enemies of Christ our Lord, and no healthy progress can be made by His church until it recognizes this truth and until we enthusiastically and persistently unsheathe the SWORD against them. Pity for them is unlawful and disastrous. We STAGNATE when we are at peace with ERROR. This stagnation is apparent in the existence of CLIQUES and HOBBIES among us; each making itself a TEST OF FELLOWSHIP. These inside FACTIONS are a CURSE among us, due to our LACK of aggression against our common and chief foe - organized religion in the sectarian field. If we are not careful, we shall walk straight into perdition ourselves through compromise. The Pharisees and Sadducees of Christ's day were His chief and ONLY FOE, for it was RELIGION that demanded and secured His death. Today the cause of Christ suffers ONLY from "organized religion´ in its various forms. See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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"A NEED TOO LONG NEGLECTED" "Brethren, we can take this old world for Christ any time you are ready." Over the past decade population has grown at an annual increase of 20.5%. While growth in the church has remained pretty constant at 11.5%. Are we growing or swelling is a question that might need to be answered. This editorial appeared in the Christian Chronicle and really sums up the problem throughout the brotherhood. It is used here by permission as a means of stirring up our consciences. "A former member of the church of Christ for years was persuaded to become a Jehovah's Witness by two of their workers who knocked on his door and taught him their doctrines. While talking with him about the differences between his present beliefs and the Bible, he said: "Do you mean to tell me, after I was in the church of Christ for 16 years and know better, that you are obeying Jehovah God's command to preach the gospel to the whole world? I know approximately how many workers you have in foreign countries; furthermore, I know the attitude which many members of the church of Christ have relative to preaching the gospel to the entire world. That attitude can be summed up in these words, "Let someone else do it. We are too busy to be very much concerned." You know that what I am saying is the truth. During all my years in the church of Christ, I seldom heard of members going from house to house with the gospel like the early church did and Jehovah's Witnesses do. I right now can tell you of people I know back in Tennessee who live within half a block of churches of Christ with several hundred members and who have never been told once what the church of Christ stands for. A typical member of the church of Christ that I knew said this, "Let's put up a church building, hire a preacher, and have one or two meetings a year. All those who really want to know the truth will come to our services and be taught." I'll admit that the picture has changed some since I stopped attending the church of Christ several years ago, but you know that what I am saying is still to a large extent true. Jehovah's Witnesses do not own many meeting places. Those we do own are generally very plain and inexpensive. The fact that less than 5% of our total money collected is used for housing expense. The major portion of it is used directly in the publication of what we believe is the good news of Christ's Kingdom. While you in the church of Christ are at ease in Zion, meeting several times a week in your luxurious buildings, we are going from house to house, in the highways and by the wayside, throughout the earth, telling people of Jehovah God. You have less than 400 workers outside the United States: we have 10,000. Jehovah's Witnesses are the only ones who are now preaching in every nation under heaven. Even if, as you say, The Church of Christ is the true church, I"ll take my chances outside because the church of Christ is not obeying the first command of the One whose name it wears." Not too pretty of a picture but too often found to be the truth. Only you can make a difference, will you COMMIT TO DOING IT? See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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"IS CHRIST IN SUBJECTION?" A Bible Student says he recently heard "that when Christ came to earth, one of the results is that He permanently ended up in subjection to the Father." No, Christ has always been in subjection to the Father, and wants it so (John 8:29). The Father was and is always in charge, and the Son is always subordinate. It was the Father who "made the worlds" (Hebrews 1:2), but He did it through His subordinate Jesus (Col. 1:16-18). The Father was in charge when He said to Jesus, "Let us make man in our image"(Gen. 1:26; Jn. 1:3). When Jesus came into the world, He "emptied Himself" (Phil. 2:7) of His previous glory (Jn 17:5) and riches (2 Cor. 8:9), but not of His deity (Jn. 1:1; Col. 2:9; Heb. 13:8). However, He was still subordinate to the Father and very properly said, "The Father…is greater than all" (Jn. 10:29) and "The Father is greater than I" (Jn. 14:28). The Father is in charge, and it s He who forgives our sins, as He listens to His subordinate, the "intercessor" Jesus (I Jn. 2:1). And in eternity Jesus will still be subordinate to the Father (1 Cor. 15:27-28). Though the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit are all one God (Deut. 4:35;39; 6:4; Jn. 1:1; Heb. 9:14), they are not one in authority. Christ belongs to the Father, and the Father is His head, and the Father is "above all" (I Cor. 3:23; 11:3; Eph. 4:6). The Father sent the holy Spirit into the world, but He did it in the name of Jesus because He had given to Jesus "all authority in heaven and one the earth" (Jn. 14:26; 15:26; Matt. 28:20). The Spirit's work is to make known "the things that he" received from Jesus (Jn. 16:14). It "is clear that the one who subjected all things to" Jesus "is the exception" (I Cor. 15:27), the supreme authority. "Undeniably, the mystery of godliness is great" (1 Tim. 3:16). "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out!" (Rom. 11:33). Yet, on a practical basis, God expects us to know Him and heaven depends on our knowing Him: "This is eternal life, to know" the "only true God and Jesus Christ whom" the Father has "sent" (Jn 17:2). A God of love, does not require the impossible, "and His commandments are not burdensome" (I Jn. 5:3). The wayfaring man, though simple, can come to a saving knowledge of God (Isa. 35:8). "Be not foolish, but understand what is the Lord's will (Eph. 5:17). The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have done all that they could, wanting nobody "to be lost," wanting "all people to be saved" (Jn. 3:16; 10:15; 1 Tim 2:4; 1 Pet. 3:9). "Both the Spirit and the bride [the church] say, come," and let him who is thirsty come. Let him who craves the water of life receive it without cost" (Rev. 22:17). See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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