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Birdwell Lane Church of Christ Big Spring, TX |
Weekly Thoughts - November 2007
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04 - A SUCCESSFUL SEMINAR 11 - CREATION/EVOLUTION SEMINAR 18 - THANKS GO OUT TO ALL OF YOU 25 - THE CALL FOR MODERN WORSHIP PRACTICES - Inspired by God or Devised by Man? |
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A SUCCESSFUL SEMINAR Nobody wants to be a failure. No congregation wants to fail when attempting to do the Lord's work. And no work is more important than preaching the gospel. Our Seminar begins in just over a week. Surely, we want it to be a great success. How can we be sure that we will have a successful seminar? Many of us have safety deposit boxes. We understand that it takes two keys to open our safety boxes. We keep one key and the bank keeps a key. Whenever we want something from the box, we take our key to the bank. We put the bank's key and our key in the box. Together the keys open the box. One key is not enough to open the safety box. It requires two keys working together. I believe that both these keys are absolutely necessary. What is it that we must have in order to have a great seminar? We must have (1) PRAYER and (2) EVERY MEMBER WORKING. We cannot hope to be successful without lots of sincere prayer. We must fill our days and nights with prayer on behalf of this seminar. We MUST have God's help. Let's not give up, but flood heaven with our prayers on behalf of the seminar. The second key is every member working on behalf of this seminar. This is absolutely essential. The first key will not work without the second. Only when prayer is joined by work will we have a successful seminar. And everyone must be willing to help -elders, deacons, ministers, and each member. We can have a great seminar. It only takes everyone working with all of his or her hear. Our CREATION/EVOLUTION SEMINAR is almost here. Do you want it to be a great success? Remember the two keys: prayer and every member working. See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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CREATION/EVOLUTION SEMINAR Our seminar with Brother Harrub will start at 7:00 p.m. Friday. I hope that you have planned to be here and to bring someone with you. This will be a seminar for the ages. Did humans evolve from ape-like creatures? How old is the earth? Did humans and dinosaurs coexist? Do we believe because of blind faith or do we have evidences to back up our belief. I invite you to join us as we investigate the evidence. These lectures are FREE and open to all ages.
Brad Harrub currently serves as the co-Founder of Focus Press. In addition, he is the coeditor of Think magazine. He earned a doctorate in Anatomy and Neurobiology. He is the coauthor of the book Diamonds in the Rough, The Truth About Human Origins, Matters of Life and Death, & Investigating Christian Evidences. He was an invited speaker to the International conference on Creationism, he has appeared on the television show "Origins." COME SHARE THIS TIME WITH US. YOU WOULD BE OUR HONORED GUESTS. See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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THANKS GO OUT TO ALL OF YOU Our seminar with Brad Harrub is now history. The lessons were well prepared and delivered by our Brother. To his elders I say thank you for allowing him the time to be with us. To our elders, thank you for having him here for this important series of lessons. To all of you who attended the lectures words are not enough, I am thankful to each and every one of you. Our attendance over the three days was really quite good. We had visitors from surrounding communities and a good number of congregations. To all of you from Birdwell Lane to those from surrounding communities and congregations, I want to express my “thanks” for your support of our seminar. To those who were not here, you really missed a chance to grow in the grace and knowledge of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You missed a chance to learn more clearly just how Satan is attacking our minds, affecting our kids and infiltrating the church with his false idea of evolution. We were allowed the opportunity to investigate the evidence so that we can stand strong against him. Did humans evolve from ape-like creatures? How old is the earth? Atheism’s Attack on America. Is the book of Genesis a Myth? The Dinosaur Dilemma and the scientific accuracy of the Bible were the topics of nightly lessons. Thank you Brad for being with us. Our next effort will be a Gospel meeting with brother Ted Kell in April of 2008. See ya Sunday, Ralph |
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THE CALL FOR MODERN WORSHIP PRACTICES Inspired by God or Devised by Man? Worship must be based upon knowledge of God’s word, and it must be done with the right attitude. Any attempt to add anything new to the worship of God and proclaim it as worship is to create our own righteousness (John 4:24). Clapping, humming, shouting, raising holy hands, or dances of joy among many other distracting things are not worshipping God decently and in order (1 Cor. 14:40). There cannot be found any authorization for these acts. Some in the Lord’s body today would seek to justify some of these practices based upon the way things were done in the Old Testament. They may attempt to use passages such as Psalm 47:1 and Psalm 5:11 in an attempt to justify such worship practices as clapping. We must also recognize that David offered sacrifices of animals in worship to God as well as burnt incense. The crux of this issue is that the things contained in the Old Testament that were performed in worship to God were only a shadow (Hebrews 10:1). Such things were abolished according to Paul’s writings to the church at Ephesus (Eph. 2:15). Therefore with common sense, we can deduce that any appeal to the Old Testament as an authority for worship practices today is in error. God has authorized the following as elements of worship: Singing (1 Cor. 14:15); Praying (Acts 2:42); Preaching (Acts 20:7); Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:20-30); and Giving (1 Cor. 16:1-2). Each of these acts must be carried out exactly as prescribed in the New Testament. One cannot restore New Testament Christianity and hold to modern worship practices devised by man! Bulletin Digest |
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