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Family is so important. I had not seen
my father nor my brothers and sisters in West Virginia for ten years.
I had not seen loved ones in Texas for ten years, maybe longer.
This summer I made up my mind that I had to go for a visit.
I flew into Austin on July 18 and was picked up at the airport by Neil
and Martha Carroll, who live in Liberty Hill. Martha is the sister
of my first husband, who was killed in a car accident. Monday we
drove to Brownwood, Texas, and spent several days at the home of Paul
and Lucille McClung, my first in-laws. I'm sure some of you know
them since Paul has been a faithful minister of the gospel in Texas and
Oklahoma for more than six decades. What a great time we had
visiting, sharing memories, and putting up figs and peaches.
On Thursday, July 22 I flew to Dallas-Ft. Worth, then to Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. My sister Debbie and her husband drove up from
Fairmont, West Virginia, and picked me up. Friday we drove from
her house to my sister Patty's house in Cameron. My father joined
us for dinner. Saturday we spent all day going from house to
house, visiting with friends and relatives. Sunday I was
privileged to attend church in Cameron and to visit with church members
I had not seen for thirty years. After church Sunday, 25 of us,
including my brothers David, Dean, and Douglas and their families,
gathered at Patty's house for a family potluck and a long afternoon
visit. Then I said my good-byes and drove back to Fairmont with
Debbie and Ron. Monday they took me back to the airport. I
had a three-hour layover in Dallas-Ft. Worth. My first husband's
brother and his wife, Larry and Gail McClung, live nearby. They
took me to their home for a wonderful dinner, then back to the airport
for the flight to Santa Barbara, California.
Friday I said good-bye again, this time to my 22-year-old son, Michael.
He flew to Japan, where he will spend his senior college year studying
Japanese. Please keep him in your prayers that he will be safe and
find a church where he can worship.
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Panning for more
Gold
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preacher's articles this issue
Forsake Not the Assembly
by: Paul McClung
I can understand why people will quit a
social or civic club, or even a fraternal order, but I find it difficult
to understand why a person will quit the church of the Lord. If
you inquire of the church quitter, he will always give you an excuse,
but I am convinced that in most instances, it is only an excuse.
He may blame it on the church or some particular person in the church,
but this is not the real reason. The real reason is that his faith
has grown weak.
I realize that attendance does not make a Christian, but I challenge you
to find a person who is not providentially hindered who ever
demonstrates more than a token of Christianity in any other respect. I
know a number of shut-ins who read and study their Bibles much at home,
but I don't recall ever meeting a person who just willfully or careless
forsook public Bible study and worship who ever read or studied his
Bible much at home. I know of members, who, when they are absent
because of sickness or being out of town, always send their contribution
to church or make it up when they return, but I can count on one hand
the number of members who just forsake the assembly and then give to the
Lord when they are absent.
I know of members who work on Sunday who will volunteer to do church
work which they can do at home or at some other time than Sunday, but I
have never been approached by a member who just "lays out on
Sunday" to volunteer to do church work. When a man forsakes
the public assembly for worship, he usually begins to let up in every
other active work of Christianity.
This bulletin will go into the homes of members of the church who are
guilty of "forsaking the assembly" (Heb. 10:25). It is
not my place to say if you can miss one service or two or ten or
one-hundred and still go to heaven. It is my place to exhort and
warn you of the danger and possibility of falling away from the living
God (Heb.
3:12, 13). You cannt absent yourself from God's family and stay
emotionally attached to the people of God. You cannot have a
steady literary diet of newspapers, textbooks, stock market reports, and
magazines and never study God's Word and sustain your faith. You
cannot fraternize all the time with worldly people and expect to grow
stronger in the faith. You cannot fail to exercise your spiritual
qualities without growing spiritually weak. Do not forsake the
assembly.
Paul McClung is a retired minister and an elder at the 4th and Stewart
Church of Christ in Brownwood, Texas.
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Which "Demas"
Are You?
by: Edd Sterchi
A study of Demas is an interesting one.
Here we have a man who is a Christian. He is only mentioned three times
in the New Testament, and sadly when you look at them in chronological
order, you will see a story of apostasy.
In Philemon 1:24, Demas is called a "fellow worker." Not
long after that, Paul mentions Demas and Luke in Colossians 4:14, where
Luke is called "beloved" but nothing is said of Demas. He is
mentioned by name only. He is still among the number of disciples, but
nothing else is said of him good or bad. By the time Paul writes His
second letter to Timothy, Demas has forsaken his Christianity and gone
back to the world (2 Timothy 4:10).
Demas' life, as mentioned in the Scriptures, reveals to us the three
types of Christians: those who are actively working for the Lord, those
who are just here and that's all, and those who have fallen away.
Which "Demas" are you? Are you the Demas who is doing, the
Demas who is dawdling, or the Demas who is dying?
Edd Sterchi is the minister of the Church of Christ that meets in
Harrisburg, Illinois. His email is sterchi@midwest.net
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Shepherds
by: Jay Kelly
To the elders among you, I appeal as a
fellow elder, a witness of Christ's sufferings and one who also will
share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God's flock that is
under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must, but because
you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager
to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples
to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the
crown of glory that will never fade away. I Peter 5:1-4.
Sometimes we forget that a lot of
scripture falls into the reminder category for many of those to whom it
was first written. Paul, and I am sure the others who planted and
watered churches, taught them about elders and their particular work.
But, as we are human, we need to be reminded from time to time.
Shepherding the flock is hard and time-consuming work. It can often seem
like a thankless task and drudgery. That is when we need to be reminded
of not only the work, but also the reward.
The Chief Shepherd is, of course, Jesus, and I believe Peter is making
an allusion to the ideal of elders being the most Christ-like men among
us. It is common for Godly men to see their faults more than those
around them if for no other reason than they are constantly comparing
themselves to Jesus.
Peter reminds our elders that he is an elder as well and counts it a
worthy occupation, though he is also an apostle. He does not claim
apostleship and therefore superiority, but rather equality in purpose
and superiority only in experience.
Peter is not giving us the qualifications of elders as much as he is
reminding those who are elders, and those of us who aren't, of the
nature of our shepherds. It is just as easy for those who are not elders
to forget they work for the Chief Shepherd in watching for our souls.
If we rebel against that, what will the Chief Shepherd think?
Jay Kelley is the evangelist for the church of Christ in Colby, Kan. His
e-mail is jkelley@nwkansas.com
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Building Upon the Rock
Foundation (Matthew 7:24-27)
by: Mel Martin
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus relates
a lesson about two houses, which for all practical purposes are the
same. The point of difference in Jesus' lesson is not found in the
house or the elements that beat upon the house, but in what happened to
the houses and why.
What is the house? The house is what constitutes the life of man.
It is man's morals, heart, ambitions, seat of reason and conviction, and
all that constitutes the life of man. As we build our house, our
life may not seem all that much different from that of our neighbors,
for both the joys and the sorrows of life fall upon the just and the
unjust (Matthew 5:45). Both the wise and the foolish must deal
with the natural affairs of the world. Because of this, we might
reason that we are no different from the pagan. Yet, if our house
is built upon the rock, we will find that when the rain descends, and
the floods come, and the winds beat upon our house, it will stand.
The fool is he who does not discern that the sand, though presently
peaceful, is not a permanent and sure foundation of life. To be
wise, we must build our life upon the sure and solid foundation of
Jesus. What does it mean to build our house upon the rock? Jesus
begins this parable by saying, "Therefore whosoever heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which
built his house upon a rock." Building our house upon the
rock, then, means hearing and doing the will of God. It is
obedience. Obedience is doing WHAT God says. Obedience is
doing ONLY what God says. Obedience is doing ONLY what God says
and ONLY in the way God says to do it. Obedience is doing ALL that
God says.
Mel Martin preaches for the Lincoln & Tunnell Church of Christ in
Santa Maria, California.
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