THE POUND
PROCLAIMER
Volume IV
February 2009
Number 4
Sing
to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day
to day. Psalms 96:2
HAS
“CHRISTIANITY” CRASHED?
Have you read this one? It’s been around
a while. “...Bill Gates reportedly
compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, ‘If GM had
kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving
$25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.’” General Motors issued a press
release. “If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be
driving cars with the following characteristics: 1. for no reason whatsoever,
your car would crash twice a day. 2. Occasionally your car would die on the
freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close
all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and re-open the windows
before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this. 3.
Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to
shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the
engine. 4. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was
reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only
five percent of the roads. 5. The oil, water temperature, and alternator
warning lights would all be replaced by a single ‘This Car Has Performed an
Illegal Operation’ warning light. 6. The airbag system would ask ‘Are you
sure?’ before deploying. 7. Every time a new car was
introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again, because
none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car”.
The author of the above sentiments is
unknown to me, but I think it must have been written by a hacker, “Tongue in
cheek”. I got to thinking; there is some truth about crippled, “crashing”,
computers, just like mine. My computer’s operating systems gets hit with
viruses, Trojan horses (spy-modules) embedded in secret recesses of the
hard-drive. It causes my system to CRASH! I have replaced hard-drives, chips,
monitors, printers, cables, and all manner of little costly goodies for many
years.
American religions, like computers,
“CRASH”. Religions claiming Christ as their King are over-loaded with viruses
and Trojan horses. Churches created by men crash as a result of Bible ABUSERS.
“For some reason you should simply accept this.” On the other hand: Jehovah did
not give man a malfunctioning inferior product. Consider God’s eternal plan for
the church, “9and to make all
see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages
has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known
by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,” Ephesians
3:9-10. This text says
that Jehovah has clear understandable plans for the make-up of His church.
Unlike man-made inventions, the Bible does not have a faulty “operating
system”. We can understand it. God had clear intention. Christ prayed that His
“truth” should be honored by his disciples and stand as a unifying bond. Christ
prayed for unity. John 17:17-21, “17Sanctify them by Your
truth. Your word is truth. 18As You sent Me into
the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19And for their
sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be
sanctified by the truth. 20I do not pray for these alone, but also for
those who will believe in Me through their word; 21that they all
may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one
in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
The New Testament is a lot like the
Macintosh computer. It operates under a simple format. When we take just God’s
New Testament plan for worship and salvation, the confusion is eliminated. The
New Testament is one simple unitizing, operating system. It never needs a new
“chip”, new “motherboard”, or “mother-church”. It never requires “upgrading” or
“reprogramming”. TAKE TIME TO READ THE “USERS MANUAL”. Practice New Testament
Christianity. Restore the New Testament Church in the 21st century. Jesus said:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” Matthew
24:35.
“For
the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”, (Hebrews 4:12).
John E. Gurtler
Stoney1@dnet.net
The Editor’s
Page
I am not one who revels in statistical
evidence as a method for proving my arguments. I know that polls are for the
most part skewed to the wants and needs of the pollsters. However, statistics
are more reliable due to the fact they are based upon data. As long as the data
is accurate, the statistical conclusion will be correct.
I rarely notice statistics when they are
published, but a recent article in The Associated Press addressing the birth
statistics in the
Behind the number
is both good and bad news. While it shows the
The birth rate
rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an
all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend that started years ago.
More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older.”
What do Mr. Stobbe’s
words tell us about our society? It tells us that we should be alarmed by the
lack of morality exemplified by these numbers. Just think; forty percent of
babies born in 2007 were conceived from the sin of fornication.
Mr. Stobbe also
wrote, “For a variety of reasons, it's
become more acceptable for women to have babies without a husband, said Duke
University’s S. Philip Morgan, a leading fertility researcher.” We are
told that a “variety of reasons” have made it acceptable for women to have
babies without husbands. There is no reason (or reasons) that can justify
people abandoning the moral bearings set forth by God. The “reason” babies are
being born out of wedlock can be explained by people giving over to the lusts
of the flesh. It is just that simple.
It is past time we stopped trying to find
“a variety of reasons” to justify sin. The pursuit of this kind of reasoning is
leading this once great nation down the path of destruction.
We are told in the book of Proverbs
that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but
sin is a reproach to any people” (14:34).
History affirms that a nation can remain prosperous when and only when it
practices the moral standards set by the omnipotent Jehovah God. Nations have
fallen by the wayside of history, because they became corrupt from within.
The failing prosperity we are
experiencing today is directly related to a decline in moral integrity. To be
strong and prosperous we must be able to trust what we are told by those who
lead us. Lying is a sin and it is destructive to financial wellbeing. Illicit
sexual activity such as adultery, homosexuality, child molestation, etc.
destroys the very fabric of society.
“The
lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked,
what is perverse” (Proverbs
10:32). Let us be like the righteous that our lips speak what is
acceptable to God.
WORKING FOR THE
MASTER
The
Work Of Preaching
The classroom is a wonderful place.
Within its walls, students are challenged to open their minds and embrace
knowledge. The wise student will take every opportunity to listen and learn.
However, that is not the whole story. The knowledge obtained in the classroom
must be transferable to life. Nowhere is this more important than in the work
of preaching. The preacher must do more than arrive at a particular academic
level. A preacher can become proficient in his knowledge of the Bible. His
knowledge may even extend to verses that instruct him in his work. This
knowledge will be of no value unless he has the common sense to apply it to his
life.
The core of preaching work is interaction
with people. This interaction will either make or break the preacher’s success.
The Scripture teaches that the evangelist’s love for men is paramount to his
work. The man who does not like people is not suited to do the work of
preaching. He must like all people. He must like those who like him and he must
like those who do not. Now, we all know that it is easy to like those who like
us. It is a totally different story when it comes to liking those who do not
like us.
Because preaching is a public endeavor,
the preacher is going to be exposed to both those who love him and those who
hate him. Any man who fails to understand this fact is in for a difficult time
should he choose to do the work of preaching. The preacher’s interaction with
people creates a unique set of pit falls. Paul alludes to this when writing 1 Timothy 6:11-12, “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness,
gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith”.
One of the pit falls to the work of
preaching is the inability to distinguish style of preaching from biblically
accurate preaching. Every man has a particular style of delivery and every
audience has a predetermined idea of how preaching should sound. An emotional
type delivery, accentuated with an undulating voice, is thought by many to be
‘real preaching’. To others, a lecturer reminiscent of a favorite college
professor is a more appropriate style. Whether the preacher is either of these
or somewhere in between, there is going to be those who praise him. Likewise,
there will be those who think he should cease preaching altogether. Those who
judge a sermon favorably, because it fits a preferred style of delivery create
a danger for the preacher. There is a real danger that preachers will become
more concerned about pleasing the audience than presenting biblically sound
sermons. The test of a ‘good’ sermon is its content, not the style in which it
was presented.
A second pit fall to the work of
preaching is friendship. This may sound strange being that preachers must be
friendly to all. If allowed to happen, friendships can cause the preacher to
avoid confronting sinners with the ‘truth’ they need to hear. Paul knew that
rebuke was a necessary part of the work of preaching. He told Timothy and Titus
to rebuke the sinner (1 Timothy 5:20; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus
1:13; 2:15). The preacher
is to rebuke the sinner even if they are a personal friend. When done with zeal
and dedication to truth, the work of preaching will take people (even the
preacher) out of their comfort zone more often than not. The temptation is to
overlook the sins of personal friends and stay within everyone’s comfort zone.
Those who give in to friendship’s allure are making a mistake with eternal
consequences.
A third pit fall to the work of preaching
is success. The preacher who is able to ‘close the deal’ soon becomes known as
a ‘mover and shaker’ among the brethren. There is nothing more exhilarating
than to teach someone the gospel and have them to obey. The saving of souls is
the focus, not who is the ‘salesman of the month’. The preacher must not be
lazy. Neither should he become the caricature of a pushy used car salesman.
There is a real danger that preachers will depend on ‘salesmanship’ rather than
the gospel (Romans 1:16). Success through charisma may fill a
church’s building with warm bodies, but does it fill the
Pit falls are dangerous because they are
hidden. The work of preaching demands we be ever watchful lest we fall. The
preacher should, “Do your best to present
yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
THE LAST WORD
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Romans 13:14
We have put on Christ. Yet we still
have weaknesses to deal with, even sins we think we cannot shake. Well, maybe
some of those problem areas are there because we are not heeding the fullness
of this command. Look at the middle of the verse.
When we think about it, how many of the
sins we deal with are quite simply the results of plans (provisions) we have
made to let the sins go forward. In other words, we are making the choices that
will lead to doing the sins we say we want to stop doing. We line things up for
the sins to happen. To overcome those sins, it may mean changing some things in
our lives. We may need to change where or with whom we spend our free time; or
maybe what we watch or where we shop. It could be even more serious, not free
time, but where we work or live.
Putting on Christ calls for radical
change within us; change that will truly show we are new creatures in Christ.
As you go through the day ask yourself if your words, actions
or thoughts are making provision for the flesh or for Christ!
Joe
Joe Shane, evangelist
Middleburg
middleburgchurchofchrist.org
####################
WHAT MUST
I DO
Hear: Rom 10:17
Believe: Heb 11:6
Repent: Lk 13:5; Ac 17:30
Confess: Matt 10:32; Ac
8:36
Be Baptized: Ac 2:38;
22:16
TO BE
SAVED?
###################
FAMILY
MATTERS
AUDIO SERMONS & RADIO PROGRAM:
If you would
like to hear a sermon you can access our Audio Sermons page. Also on this page
is a place to access our radio program [WALKING BY FAITH]. Place your cursor
over the title, WALKING BY FAITH radio program and click. This will take you to
a page where you can download a program. The program is a weekly so there will
be a new program uploaded each week. We also keep the sermons updated as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
Time of Services
Sunday: Bible Classes—10 am
Assembly—11 am
Assembly—4 pm
Wednesday: Bible Classes—7 pm
E-mail: gyoung47@comcast.net
All questions or comments regarding the
content of this bulletin should be directed to the editor. He may be reached at
the e-mail given above or at
Our desire is to send The Pound Proclaimer to those who want to receive it.
If you received The Pound Proclaimer and do not want to receive it in the future, you
may unsubscribe by clicking here - ebulletin-unsubscribe@poundchurchofchrist.org
If you are not subscribed to The Pound Proclaimer and wish to subscribe click here - ebulletin-subscribe@poundchurchofchrist.org