THE POUND
PROCLAIMER
Volume II
December 2006
Number 2
Sing
to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day
to day. Psalms 96:2
MARY’S BABY BOY
Well, it is only
356 more days till Christmas. Do I hear a collective groan? Now that the hoopla
leading up to it has subsided and all that is left is stuffed stomachs, empty
wallets and a fearful looking for of February 1st when the bills arrive, we
don’t want to think about Christmas.
Much has been
said about putting Christ ‘back’ into Christmas. The appeal is to move us back
to the ‘true meaning’ of Christmas. While this article is not an expose` of the
origin of Christmas, permit me to say, Christ never was in Christmas. History
will bear this out to anyone who is inclined to investigate. But I digress.
Why do
multitudes of those who call themselves Christians, insist on emphasizing the
birth of Christ? There is no scripture that instructs us to do so. There is no
command from God, so why is so much made over Mary’s baby boy?
I agree that a
large part of Christmas’ attraction is its appeal to the lust of the flesh. The
sound of Christmas is the ‘beep-beep-beep’ of the cash register scanner at Wal
Mart.
How ever true
this may be, I believe there is something that is far more devastating than
crass commercialism and our fascination with material things. It is how we
perceive Christ.
Think about it.
Jesus is promoted as the ‘Christ Child.’ He is a babe in His mother’s arms. He
is a helpless infant who must be protected by His parents. He is Mary’s cute,
cuddly baby boy who brings joy and gift giving to the world. This is the kind
of savior the world seeks. This kind of savior doesn’t put any demands upon
worldly people. He just loves everyone and wants all people to feel joy in their
hearts. Some may be asking, what’s wrong with that? Nothing so long as we don’t
forget that Mary’s baby boy grew up and became a man. And not just any man. He
became the teacher in
His teaching was
characterized by demands that one must change from their unholy ways, a change
that must come from the heart (John 3:3; Luke 13:3, 5 cf. Matthew
23). His life was an example of being consumed with zeal for the
righteousness which is from God. On an occasion when Jesus cleansed the
I am persuaded
that too many want to keep Mary’s baby boy in the manger. However, God allowed
Him to grow into manhood and turned Him loose to reprove and rebuke sin. To the
worldly, an adult Jesus is too harsh. They long for a baby Jesus to soothe
their conscience. Their solace comes from a manger; not from abiding in the
TRUTH (2
John 9).
“For the time is coming when people will
not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for
themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander off into myths” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
The Editor’s
Page
The story is
told of a mid-westerner who was vacationing on the
“Why are you
throwing starfish into the sea?”
“The tide is
going out and if they are still here when the sun rises, they will die.” And
without breaking his rhythm he continued tossing them out to sea.
“That’s
ridiculous! There are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. You
can’t really believe that what you are doing could possibly make a difference!”
He smiled, bent
over and picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully, and remarked as he
tossed it into the waves, “It makes a difference to this one.”
The devil would
have us believe that the task of spreading the gospel is too big for a small
local church like unto the Pound church. When we contemplate the coming year
and what we feel should be done, we are somewhat disheartened by the magnitude
of the work and the limitation of our resources. The reason this happens is
because we are not thinking like our Lord. Certainly our Lord came to save the
great mass of humanity; of that there is no doubt. And yet, the Lord teaches us
that one soul is important. It is important enough to be sought after. Hear the
words of the Lord as recorded in Luke 15:4-7. It is here the Lord
uses the example of a shepherd leaving his flock to seek one lost sheep. His
application was that one soul of man is so important to God that the same
concern and effort is directed toward him. A single person is so important that
there is great rejoicing in heaven when one lost soul is found. We must not
allow the devil to rob us of the joy of seeking the lost.
As we enter the New
Year, we may become overwhelmed by the number of lost souls around us. We must
not let it deter us from the task at hand. We need to get busy. We can
accomplish much in the service of the Master, one soul at a time.
Discouragement
often comes when we do not see the results we expect. Nowhere in His word, does
God say we have to get results. What He does say is that we must try. It is the
planting and watering of the seed that is our responsibility. If and when we do
our part, God will give the increase. 1 Corinthians
3:5-6. We need to use our available resources, and then be satisfied
with the increase which God gives.
In the year that
is before us, pray that we will be diligent in our service to the Master. We
can take the potential we have and build upon it or we can wallow in
discouragement; it is our choice. The year ahead can be more successful than
the last. The requirement is simple, planting and watering, one soul at a time.
The young man
was undaunted by the magnitude of saving the starfish. May we be as undaunted
in saving men, then, we will truly make a difference.
BE YE THANKFUL
Thankfulness is
one of those neglected Bible subjects. I don’t mean that we are unaware of
thankfulness being in the Bible. We just don’t give it the kind of thought we
should. Being thankful is extremely important to a faithful Christian life.
The Old
Testament hero, King David, understood the importance of being thankful toward
God. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he
is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalms 118:1) This
statement is found several times in the Psalms, thus indicating the prominent
place David gave to giving thanks to God for His steadfast love.
Ingratitude is a
plague upon society. When men leave off the gentle virtue of being thankful,
they degenerate into selfish children who think that they should receive
anything and everything they desire. Like a two year old, they see something
and say, “I want it, NOW!” If they do not get ‘it,’ they become sullen and bemoan
their miserable life. However, if they do get ‘it,’ they revel in their new
gift without ever being grateful to the giver.
As Christians,
we must not be as those who are unthankful. “And
let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in
one body. And be thankful. ... And whatever you do, in word or deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him” Colossians 3:15 & 17.
Not only should
we learn the lesson of being thankful, but we should learn the lesson of being
thankful for the correct things. Again, like spoiled children, we become
overwhelmed with disappointment simply because we fail to get what we want.
Too many
religious people think of God as the genie in the bottle. They expect to be
granted the fulfillment of their every wish. They should learn a lesson from
Job. “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you
still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.’ But he said to her, ‘You
speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’ In all this
Job did not sin with his lips” Job 2:9-10. Are we thankful when
evil comes our way? James says, “Count it
all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,” James
1:2. To be filled with resentment, anger and remorse because life is
not the way you think it ought to be, identifies you as a thankless person.
So what, if we
do not have the fine house we want. Jesus didn’t even have a house (Luke
9:58). If we do not achieve greatness and stand before the
multitudes to a cacophony of adoring adulation, we are in good company. Jesus
was despised and rejected of men (Isaiah 53:3) and then crucified like
a common criminal though He was innocent (Luke 23:4).
When you pillow
your head tonight, will you be thankful for the day which God has given you?
Even if it was a day filled with many kinds of trials? Be thankful Pilgrim; be
thankful for the proper things, for godliness with contentment is gain (1 Timothy 6:6).
####################
WHAT MUST
I DO
Hear: Rom
Believe: Heb 11:6
Repent: Lk 13:5; Ac
17:30
Confess: Matt
Be Baptized: Ac
TO BE
SAVED?
###################
FAMILY
MATTERS
RADIO
PROGRAM:
The Pound church
sponsors a weekly radio program called Walking By Faith. Walking By Faith airs
each Sunday at 9 a.m. over WDXC, 102.3 FM radio station. The program has aired
since last March. We are bringing this to your attention because we upload the
program to a web site. If you would like to check out our radio program you can
download an MP3 file of a weekly program at http://www.savefile.com/projects/1021069.
Each file is approximately 7mg in size. We will keep four or five weeks on the
site at any given time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Pound church web site = www.poundchurchofchrist.org/
WALKING BY FAITH
9 AM
102.3 WDXC Radio
The Pound Proclaimer is published monthly by the Pound
All articles by the editor unless
otherwise stated
Editor: Glen Young
Phone: 276-796-5767=Office
804-365-8694=Home
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E-mail: gyoung47@ntelos.net
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