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Birdwell Lane Church of Christ Big Spring, TX |
Weekly Thoughts - October 2009
| <---- September 2009 | -- | November 2009 ----> |
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04 - NO BULLETIN THIS WEEK 11 - ALL IN THE FAMILY 18 - IT’S HISTORY NOW 25 - THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST |
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NO BULLETIN THIS WEEK |
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ALL IN THE FAMILY Paul’s favorite name for believers was brethren. He used it at lest sixty times in his letters. In the two Thessalonian letters, he used it twenty-seven times. Paul saw the local church as a family. Each member was born again by the Spirit of God through baptism and so possessed God’s nature (1 Peter 1:22-25; 2 Peter 1:3-4). They were all part of God’s family. It is tragic when believers neglect or ignore the local church. No family is perfect and no local church is perfect; but without a family to protect him and provide for him, a child would suffer and die. The child of God needs the church family if he is to grow, develop his gifts, and serve God. What are the essentials for a happy, thriving church family? How can we make our local congregation more spiritual to the glory of God? Why not try these three things as a start: 1. FAMILY LEADERSHIP 2. FAMLY PARTNERSHIP 3. FAMILY WORSHIP See Ya Sunday, Ralph |
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IT’S HISTORY NOW Our seminar with brother Joe Wells is now history. What it will mean to the future depends on what each of us as individuals do with the information given. Will we take the things Joe said to heart and accept the challenge or will we sit back and wait for the next fellow to do what we need to be doing. No one can control your response to the message but you. Joe did his job in communicating and verbalizing the problem with culture in our kids and in our homes. What we do is really the thing that will determine if the seminar was a success or a failure. Friday and Saturday he outlined the problem we face in our homes and in the Body. Sunday he gave a solution which will work only if you and I as individuals take heed to God’s purpose for us. How we respond will determine our individual commitment and our individual integrity towards absolute truth and our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. What are YOU going to do in the battle for souls, homes, our kids and grandkids and our nation that WILL make a difference. Remember YOU are the point man. See Ya Sunday, Ralph |
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THE TEACHINGS OF CHRIST Examine His teachings. All His basic principles breathe the democratic spirit. But His teachings spurn the established boundaries of His day. They leap across conventional gulfs across the deep chasms which yawn between race and race, between class and mass, between sex and sex, and between sect and sect. Take any commandment. Who is outside the range of its decree? Take any beatitude and trace the range of its orbit. Who is omitted from the circle of its boundary? All races and people are of equal sacredness. Character is more important than talent. Responsibility is measured according to endowment. Neighborliness is to be defined by the circle of necessity and not by the limitations of race. The success of life is to be measured by its secret fidelities and not by its popular triumphs. In His teaching, Jesus endorsed the scriptures. “Thy word is truth.” Always Jesus supported what He said and did by the Old Testament. Never repudiating its revelation and authority, He brought everything to the test of that authority. No statement did He disclaim, no prophet disown. He accepted its fundamental doctrines about creation, about man, about righteousness, about God’s purpose of grace. He accepted its history as the preparation for Himself. He used it to justify His mission, to illumine the mystery of His cross. He enforced the essence of its law and restored many of its ideals. But above all, He fed His own soul with its contents, and in the great crises of His life, sustained Himself upon it as upon the living and sovereign Word of God. One who believes in Jesus ought to be willing to believe in His endorsement of the scriptures. Nineteen hundred years after He spake, millions of followers quote His words. Starting like small ripples on a smooth lake, Jesus’ words became tidal waves the engulfed the whole world. See Ya Sunday, Ralph |
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