Email Us
Find a
Congregation Near You!
The Cornerstone
This is the Stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the Chief Conerstone." Acts 4:11
Pulbished to Support the Work of the West End Church of Christ, Richmond, Virginia
Volume 9 * Number 14* April 8, 2007
Fellowship
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” I John 1:6-7
The word fellowship means to participate, communicate, share or associate with another. When I am doing what is right, I have fellowship with God. There is communication and an association between the two.
When I walk in darkness however, the relationship I have shared with the Father is severed. It is severed because God cannot dwell in darkness where I am now dwelling. There simply is no darkness in Him.
Another relationship which is formed while walking in the light, is the fellowship we enjoy with fellow Christians. I have fellowship and communication with them. But, just like the relationship with God is severed by sin, so is the relationship with my brethren when I walk in darkness. II Thessalonians 3:6 “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which ye received of us.”
Fellowship is a treasured thing. Let us walk in the light so we can have communion with God and others.
Stacy Crim
(Even though this next article was written a number of years ago now, I was encouraged by it. I hope you are also. Nehemiah 4:6 “So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. sdc)
Lift Up Fallen Hands
Robert Turner
Little churches dying on the vine? That depends on saints in those little churches, but it is its not dictated by the size of the congregation. We must not use small numbers as an excuse for despair or idleness.
A Kentucky church of about 50 members has published a small, neat four-lesson correspondence course. They ran a 30 second commercial on radio, one per day, five days per week, for one month, varying the times of day to hit a wide audience. They had 100 requests for the correspondence study; and when they sent it out (all four in one mailing) they included a letter offering (1) an 8-lesson course, or, (2) an advanced 12-lesson series, or, (3) an "In the Home" film presentation of God's saving plan. There were 49 requests for one or the either of these.
The members are training to "man" the operation, a formidable task for so small a group, but they can do it. Following the Wednesday night class they were given bulletins and parts of a mailing list, and each sat down then and there to hand address them. There is something truly thrilling in seeing a group of saints working together.
Such a church has already grown, even before numerical increase.
The new program will cost $1,200.00 annually — about what their present bulletin printing and mailing program takes, so they have decided to drop the bulletin mailing so they can afford the radio and correspondence work. It seems a wise choice. Those 50 members, ordinary working-class people, give over $600.00 per week now to further the Lord's work. Their capability will expand with prayerful, thoughtful use of what they now have (2 Cor. 8:15; 9:6).
A 500-member church in the same city has a quarter-million-plus budget ($9.86 per person, per week, compared with over $12 per person for the small church). We can't measure one church by another (2 Cor. 10:12), nor can we compare the dedication of individual hearts, but we commend the attitude of brethren in the small church toward God's word, and mankind. They remind us, anew, that God does not measure with man's yardstick.
Plain Talk April 1980 &
Impugning God’s Holiness
Kent Heaton
It seems easy for man to challenge the Holiness of God by calling upon His name as if He were a vending machine awaiting the fleeting coins of man’s whims and desires. Athletes raise a hand to the heavens acknowledging a successful score as if the Creator made it possible for His divine power to permit lowly dust to achieve victory. Hollywood performers lift hands of thanksgiving to the Holy God of Heaven allowing them to have a job as actors on stages of man’s fleshly desires. Celebrities of our day extol the virtues of friends who die to the arms of God in promise of Heaven. The Holiness of God is not a virtue to seek for but a character measured by man’s rebellion to everything sacred in the personal nature of the Lord God Almighty.
Long ago Jehovah told His people, “Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them: I am the Lord. Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the Lord which hallow you” (Leviticus 22:31-32). Keeping the commandments of God is what allows man to approach Him and seek His blessings. People like to live any way they want and then plead the blessings of God to be upon them. That is profaning the name of the Holy God of Heaven.
God is not in the business of football, basketball, baseball and whatever sport we have to fill our desires. He has no part in the success of Hollywood performers degrading His Holy character. Not everyone goes to Heaven!! It is a surprise to man to know that “Narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leads unto life, and few are they that find it” (Matthew 7:14).
Impugning the character of God’s holiness is described by the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 7:9-11. “Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye have not known, and come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered;’ that ye may do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, saith Jehovah.” The philosophy of living like the devil and then believing God will be required to bestow His blessings upon man is the greatest lie perpetrated upon the hearts of mankind.
We cannot lift up God’s name in school but everyone seems to lift His name up to their own glory. Jehovah God has become the great cheerleader in the sky that we thank for winning football games, basketball championships, movie contracts, mansions, cars, wealth, health and anything else that we want in life. God is our pet; our puppet; our pretentious giver of all we want. "As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord God: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols” (Ezekiel 20:39).
We need to be reminded, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts” (Malachi 3:5).
&
Back to Current Year Bulletins