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Abe Announces Retirement From the Pulpit

Abe Announces Retirement From the Pulpit

 

Capture

Capture 2008!              

       On Wednesday August 13, the youth group “captured” the incoming 6th graders. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the capture, let me give you a brief summary. The youth group went to each of the incoming 6th graders’ houses (or where they were spending the evening) and “kidnapped” them. Once all of the 6th graders had been captured, everyone went back to the church where we played games, ate, and spent the night. The youth group does this as a fun way to initiate the 6th graders.

      Capture this year was incredible fun, I think, for everybody. The first person we captured was Hannah Reed. When we got to her friend’s house, where she was “staying” the night, we found her face covered in what looked like tribal war paint, but was actually lipstick. Also especially memorable was when we captured Eleanor Carre. We ran into her living room to find her in a pink bathrobe and pajamas. The other 6th graders we kidnapped, William Edwards, Carly Rind and Gabby Govert, were equally surprised to see us. Hopefully each of them feels welcomed and accepted into the youth group and will enjoy being a part of it. 

“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Romans 15:7 

Saved By the Bible

        This story came across my desk a week ago that is worthy of sharing in order to illustrate a point:                 

       “Ten days ago, Pfc. Brendon Schweigart, age 22, was on a mission to recover a tank that had broken down in Bagdad, Iraq. Upon reaching the tank, he was struck in the chest by a sniper’s bullet. Fortunately for Schweigart, the bullet embedded itself into a Bible he carried in his shirt pocket. The Word of God had quite literally saved his life!”              

       Mr. Schweigart’s experience reminds me of a passage in the Bible. “Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so  prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” (James 1:21).               

      Pfc. Brendon Schweigart learned that keeping a Bible near your heart can literally save your life, but more important than that, keeping The Word in your heart will also be able to stop the attacks of the Devil and will save your soul.           

       No, the Bible cannot save your soul. The message contained in the Bible can save your soul providing you believe it and allow it to create faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. A saving faith recognizes our need for salvation from sin. Salvation is a word that expresses deliverance. For example God used Moses to lead His people out of Egypt after 430 years of cruel treatment. After there observance of the Passover Moses lead them to the Red Sea where God again miraculously opened up the Sea so Moses and Israel cold walk through the waters on dry ground. After which Pharaoh and army followed them into the sea and the waters destroyed them.              

       So Israel had a physical salvation from Pharaoh and his army. This was God’s deliverance. In the same way the Apostle Paul uses this historical event to illustrate for us spiritual salvation. In (I Corinthians 10:1-2) “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”            

      With faith in Jesus Christ as our Passover and Deliverer we to can have confidence that God will do the same for us. As the Red Sea was the demarcation for  Israel so our baptism is our demarcation from Satan’s territory. Just as the Passover fore shadowed the crucifixion of Jesus as our Passover, so the crossing of the Red Seas fore shadows our baptism. That is salvation by faith through the blood and the water. That is life in Christ!            

      Yes, the Bible can benefit us physically, and above all spiritually and save us eternally. 

The Distinctive Nature of the Church of Jesus Christ Bulletin 33

                    We live in a world of pluralism where one is as good as another. Therefore, whoever steps out and says no to this philosophy is a bigot. I for one declare that “Pluralism” is contrary to the distinctive teaching of Scripture. The Scriptures do not blend all religious belief systems together and form one big union as this teaching tries to proclaim. Pluralism is popular in both the secular and the religious communities. Much of our legislation that is enacted these days is based on this doctrine. Consequently, there are laws enacted that discriminate against Christian beliefs. An example is in the way the secular mind tries to interpret “Separation of church and state.” In the same way, there are those in the religious community who take the position that just because it is called a church we must all work together because we are all working toward the same goal.

                  Well, before I go any further, let me make clear, I am not a bigot. I don’t want to sound as though I believe that there is one church that has it all together; therefore, that one church would be the only true church. On the other hand, I do not believe that because a group calls itself a church we must automatically accept them as a part of the Church of Jesus Christ.

               What is the “distinctive nature” of the church of Christ Jesus? It is clear that Jesus built the church (Mt. 16:18). Therefore, it is distinctive from anyone else who would make a claim otherwise. It is distinctive from any atheistic belief system. Atheism denies the divine origin of the Bible. To the atheists, there was no God who existed prior to the Bible, God who produced the Bible and protected it from its avowed and persistent enemies. The church is distinctive from atheism in that it accepts creation as outlined in Genesis 1 and in scores of other biblical references. Atheists reject both the Creator and His creation.

                  The church of Jesus Christ is also distinctive from Idolatry. Over and over, the Bible declares in no uncertain terms the doctrine of monotheism. The Bible recognizes the existence of idol gods without giving any credence to their validity. The Bible refers to the God of the Scriptures as “the true and living God,” as opposed to the idol gods that are referred to as “dead gods,” because they are inanimate objects.

               The church is distinctive from Judaism. While the church was born out of Judaism,  it  has no spiritual fellowship with present day Judaism. Of course, there are various branches of Judaism today. There are at least three in number: 1) Reformed Jews who for all practical purposes see the Torah as just a history book. 2) The Orthodox Jews who cling to the Torah in a very legal way and do not give credence to the New Testament. 3) There are the Messianic Jews who believes Jesus has come, and they have a deep regard for Jesus as Savior. However, they have one foot in each covenant. Of course, Christians see the Old Testament as fulfilled by the New Testament.

               The church must always be seen as a distinctive entity as we have pointed out. Next week we will notice other distinctions. The church as an entity is totally unique.