THE POUND
PROCLAIMER
Volume III
September 2008
Number 11
Sing
to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day
to day. Psalms 96:2
WHO IS A
FAITHFUL MAN?
It should be the desire of all men to be
accounted faithful to God. The man who desires to be faithful must know what it
takes to be faithful. Too often, men have declared themselves faithful when in
reality they were lacking the characteristics of a faithful man. A faithful man
has a deep abiding personal faith in Jehovah God. He is fully convinced in his
own mind that his personal beliefs are founded in the Scripture (Romans
14:5). Therefore, a study of the characteristics of a faithful man
must be rooted in a sincere examination of God’s revealed word and an honest evaluation
of one’s personal beliefs.
If man is to please God, he must believe
that God exists and that God rewards those who seek after Him (Hebrews
11:6). While faith includes a mental acknowledgment that God exists,
it is not confined to that one connotation. It also connotes a confidence that
God and the faithful maintain a Father and child relationship. The faithful are
sons of God (Galatians 3:26). As a son, the faithful can draw near to
the throne of grace and thus have access to mercy and grace (Hebrews
4:16). When men find it hard to believe that God cares about what
goes on in their personal lives, they don’t have a deep abiding personal faith
in God.
The lives of faithful people abound with
blessings (Proverbs 28:20). There are blessings which come in the
day to day lives of the faithful, “Jesus
said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or
sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the
gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and
brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and
in the age to come eternal life’” (Mark 10:29-30). This doesn’t suggest
that the faithful will have an over abundance of material wealth. It does mean
that he will have all his physical needs supplied (Matthew 6:25-33).
Added to this, are the spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3) which
succor the faithful through trying times. The faithful understand that these
blessings will often be accompanied by persecutions (2 Timothy 3:12).
Faithfulness is not always easy, but it is always rewarding.
A faithful man will use and develop the
talents which have been entrusted to him. God gives to men different and
several talents for the purpose of producing spiritual fruit (Matthew
25:14-30). Those who take what the Lord has
entrusted to them and use it, will be called good and faithful servants. Those
who fail to use their talents, regardless of their excuse, will have taken from
them that which they have and be cast into outer darkness where there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. The talents which God has entrusted to us are
our souls and our possessions. The Israelites of long ago were told to “Only take care, and keep your soul
diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they
depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your
children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9).
Our possessions are but things we can use
to further the cause of Christ. The faithful will be liberal givers (2
Corinthians 9:6) for they know “In
all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the
weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more
blessed to give than to receive’” (Acts 20:35). The faithful man labors
with his hands not only to provide for his own (1 Timothy 5:8) but
also to give for the care of the needy (Ephesians 4:28).
The faithful man realizes the importance
of the local church and will join himself to the work (Acts 9:26). He
dedicates all of his talents to accomplishing the work, for he knows that by
works, faith is made perfect (James 2:22). He does not wait for
some great work to perform nor does he excuse himself because his talent is
less when compared with others. He is willing to do the little things (Luke
16:10) for he knows to be faithful in a little means he will be
faithful in the greater.
Many men have proclaimed their
faithfulness and even more think of themselves as faithful, yet, the Preacher
says, a faithful man is hard to find (Proverbs 20:6). We have mentioned a
few characteristics which are found in faithful men. There are other
characteristics which could be mentioned. However, these will begin to show us
that a faithful man can be identified by the fruit he bears (Matthew
12:33). It does no good for a man to declare he is faithful, if he
doesn’t have the fruit to back it up.
The Editor’s
Page
We have just completed a gospel meeting
with Gerry Sandusky. It was a week of spiritual feasting. We were challenged to
rise to greater heights of service to God. We were given opportunity to
reaffirm our hope in our eternal inheritance. The hope of which we speak is one
that produces progress in our lives. This is a progress that is seen in both
our outward conduct and our inward character. It moves us to do better than we
have done in the past.
Hope is a necessary commodity when it
comes to faithful living. There are many incentives and motivations that
influence us through life. We acknowledge that there is power in the various
incentives and motivations we encounter. Self-interest is one of those
incentives that is a strong motivation. It is not
altogether a bad thing. When self-interest causes us to seek salvation, it is
an honorable incentive.
However, it is hope in a loving and
compassionate God that moves us to higher standards of character and
accomplishments. When Paul was imprisoned in
We need to have the same hope that formed
Paul’s life of courage and service. John tells us the hope manifested by Paul
is one that will purify the one who has it. Consider John’s words, “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies
himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:3). Self-centered desires
do not have the power to ‘purify’ us nor transform us into the faithful servant
Christians should become. Nothing can motivate us to honor Christ in our lives
or in our deaths like the hope of being participants in the eternal inheritance
from God.
If we wish to see what was accomplished
in our meeting go forward, we need to embrace the hope that is in Christ and look
to the future. A failure to share our hope with those outside of Christ will be
held to our account and could cause us to forfeit our hope.
Pray that our aspirations will be to
honor Christ. When this happens, we will have meaningful change in our lives
and will ignite an enthusiasm within this church that will consume us; an
enthusiasm that will create a fire which will not be quenched until every soul
in Pound, VA has heard the gospel.
THE LAST WORD
A SERMON IN
HUMOR
It was a hot
August night. The preacher was hammering away on the subject of the church. He
said, “The church is like a baby.” The members agreed with a hardy ‘AMEN!’
“Before a baby can walk, he must crawl.” Bellowed the
preacher. “AMEN”! Cried the audience. The
preacher continued with great agitation, “Before a baby can run, he must walk.”
Again a loud “AMEN”! Then the preacher brought his point home. “The church here
has been walking long enough and now it needs to run”! “AMEN, AMEN”! Resounded through the building. “But in order for the church
to run it takes money!” Screamed the preacher. There
was dead silence for a moment then a brave voice was heard to say, “LET HER
WALK PREACHER, LET HER WALK.”
####################
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
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