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 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 6 *   Number 43*  October 22,  2006

FRIENDSHIPS

A close friendships is very dear to us. Often times a friend is a person who is closer to us than a physical relative. (Proverbs 18:24) It is a person with whom we can communicate with and trust. Someone we can work through the struggles of life with. Deuteronomy 13:6 identifies a friend this way, "…thy friend, which is as thine own soul,.."

David and Jonathan had such a friendship. "Jonathan loved him as his own soul." I Samuel 18:1 Their friendship superceded a King’s relationship with his servant, and a father’s relationship with his son. Their friendship was based upon their trust in, and loyalty to God and, their loyalty an trust with each other.

To have such a friend, we must be a friend. We must show ourselves to be friendly. (Proverbs 18:24) We must love our friends at all times, (Proverbs 17:17) and sharpen them. (Proverbs 27:17) Job was not so fortunate to have such a friend. In fact he had three friends whom he identifies as "miserable comforters." (Job 16:2) In his time of despair and affliction, they only poured salt upon his wounds, accusing him of sin. Not much of a friend.

There are some friendships we should avoid.

We should not strive to be a friend with an angry man. Proverbs 22:24-25 says, "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul."

We should not seek to be friends with the world. James 4:4-5 "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

The Bible says that rich men have many friends. (Proverbs 14:20) This type of friendship is based solely upon circumstances. Take away the wealth and the friends will fly away unto another. Real friendships run much deeper and do endure.

Which leads us to the last point, how important it is to be in a friendly relationship with God.

Abraham was such a man. "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God." James 2:23

God spoke face to face with Moses "as a man speaketh unto his friend" Exodus 33:11 Can you imagine communing with God face to face as a friend?

Jesus said, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." John 15:14

We too can cultivate such a friendship with God and Christ. We can trust Them because They will always do us right. We can communicate unto to the Father, through His Son because They care for us, (I Peter 5:7). We can walk with the Father in humble service in the Kingdom of Christ and reap the everlasting benefits of Their great and marvelous love.

Stacy Crim

 

Theistic Evolution

Ron Boatwright

Theistic evolution is a contradictory system of belief where one attempts to believe in God and at the same time attempts to believe in atheistic evolution. This is a vain attempt to try to straddle the fence. Theistic evolution is an attempt to have the long ages necessary to accommodate atheistic evolution to take place while at the same time allowing God to "mysteriously" extend His creation over 4.6 billion years. God told Moses in Exodus 20:11, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them." The creation took place in six literal days because God said so. Theistic evolution is a compromise of God’s word and basically infers that God lied about what He claimed to have done.

In 1 Corinthians 15:45 we read that "The first man Adam became a living being." Adam was the first man on the earth, not Pit-down man and not Neanderthal man. After God created Eve we read in Genesis 3:20, "And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." Every person now living or who has ever lived on this earth descended from Adam and Eve.

Theistic evolutionists say that the Genesis account of the creation is a myth, which is what Satan wants us to believe. They feel they must somehow reinterpret Genesis chapters 1-11 to allow for the billions of prehistoric years, which evolutionists must have for evolution to even be feasible. Most theistic evolutionists also believe that the worldwide flood in Noah’s day was also a fairy tale. But we read in 2 Peter 3:5-6, "For this they willingly are ignorant of….whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." Can one be any worse off than to be willing ignorant?

Saying that the creation and the flood accounts were mythology is an attempt to cast doubt and discredit the Bible. If Satan can create doubt in one part of God’s word he can create doubts elsewhere. We must not compromise God’s word in order to accommodate the false views of evolution. We must hold fast to the perfect, infallible, and authoritative word of God.

www.netbiblestudy.net

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ATTITUDES ALSO TEACH

Robert Turner

"Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment" (Jas. 3:1).

Surely we know James is not discouraging teaching, but seeks to impress us with the serious responsibilities of teaching. A careless remark, misuse of scripture or the like, uttered in private conversation, may have a devastating result when repeated, multiplied, and applied in a way you may never have dreamed. How much more when the teaching is done from the pulpit, or written, to be embalmed for generations unborn.

Yes, we can take ourselves too seriously — imagine we have influence totally unreal; but better this than irresponsible scattering of tares.

Yet, teaching must be done; and as none of us are infallible but are subject to err in teaching, a second safeguard must be employed. We must develop an attitude toward our work that promotes humility rather than "editorial arrogance"; that permits speaking or writing with conviction without feeling that all who differ with us are Satanic ogres, bent on corrupting the brotherhood. If our motives are right we can teach truth and correct error without leaving the impression we think we are savior of the church.

If we truly love souls, and our purposes to lead people out of darkness into light, all the more reason to cultivate their confidence and impress them with our fairness and good will. We defeat these noble purposes when we pounce upon every conceived missed word or wrong judgment as grist for our mill. A teacher assists hearers and readers to know and understand more perfectly, and encourages them to live a better life. Reproof and rebukes are made with a heavy heart, not as haughty ego trips.

So, there are two requirements of the godly teacher. The content of his teaching must be pure a right; but he must also do his job in the right way, with the right spirit. Our text seems pointed more toward the latter. Bitter envy and strife must give way to wisdom from above — that is pure, peaceable, gentle, etc. (Jas. 3:17-f). Plain Talk March 1983 Vol. 20 No. 1

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