The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at New Georgia

Tim Johnson, editor

January 26, 2003

 
In This Issue:
Worship from the Heart
By Alan Smith

The Smudge on Your Face
By Steve Klein

Bible Milk
By Johnnie Edwards

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Worship From The Heart

  A little boy asked his father what was the highest number he had ever counted. Replying that he didn't know, the father asked his son his highest number. It was 973.

  "Why did you stop there?" wondered the father

  "Because church was over."

   I suspect that you have probably sat through worship services where your mind was focused on something just as trivial rather than on God. It's easy to let the mind wander. "I can't wait to see the ball game this afternoon." "I wonder what we're having for lunch." "I've never noticed before that the carpet down there is starting to unravel a bit." Is it any wonder that we so often leave the worship assembly with the feeling that it wasn't very meaningful?

   Worship should be a time when we are confronted with the majesty and glory of God. As we reflect on God's power, we realize how much we need Him in our times of weakness. As we reflect on God's wisdom, we realize how much we need Him in our times of indecision. As we reflect on God's holiness, we are made aware of our own sinfulness and the need for forgiveness. As we reflect on God's love, we realize the effort God has gone to to make that forgiveness available.

   It's not a ritual we go through every week. It is an opportunity to express our praise to the One who means more to us than all the earth. As we truly worship and praise God from the heart, we become more aware of how much we want to live close to Him. We leave with the challenge to "be holy as He is holy."

   "For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due His name; Bring an offering, and come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth." (Psalm 96:4-9)

-- Alan Smith
via The Beacon

 The Smudge on Your Face

   Have you ever had a friend tell you that you had a smudge of grease, food, or make-up on your face?  What did you do?  If you're like most folks, first your mind races with questions like "How did that get there?"  "How long has it been there?" and "Who else has seen it?"  Then, if you are caught in this kind of situation without a mirror, you rub your face at the point you estimate the blot to be and ask, "Did I get it?"  

   Your friend responds, "No, you smeared it!"  

   You roll your eyes, rub again and ask, "How about now?"  

   "OK, you're fine," you're told; and you believe it.

   We often deal with sin like a smudge on the face.  At first we don't realize its there.  Then we're not sure how it got there.  Next we blindly try to rub it off before too many others see it.  Our inability to see ourselves and our pride combine to make our spiritual faces into messy smears of sin.  Folks tell us we're OK, and we believe them without checking a mirror.

   God has a solution to the smudges of sin.

  1. He has given us a Mirror.  God's word is like a mirror in which we can see our spiritual selves.  It ought always to be with us -- in our hearts.   As it guides our steps, it can even keep us from getting sin smudges to begin with. "Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You" (Psalm 119:11).

  2. He wants us to look into the Mirror regularly.  When we look into the mirror of God's word, we can clearly see the smudges of sin.  If you want to keep smudges off, you must be one who "looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it" (James 1:25).

  3. He expects us to clean ourselves up accordingly.  God has provided the means for us to clean ourselves through His word and His grace when we see that we have been stained by sin. When the Psalmist asked, "How can a young man cleanse his way?"  They answer was, "By taking heed according to Your word" (Psalm 119:9).  By following the instructions of God's word, and taking advantage of the cleansing power of Jesus' blood, we can cleanse away the smudges of sin. "Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1).

  The Lord has provided the means for us to see ourselves and be cleansed.  We must take advantage of what He is provided.  He is not like some overzealous grandmother with a wetted handkerchief who is always daubing at the grimy faces of unwilling grandchildren.  He pleads with us to "cleanse ourselves."

-- Steve Klein

Bible Milk

All of us are familiar with milk. Most babies begin their lives by drinking milk. Milk is a good source of calcium needed by our bodies. But, are you aware that there is spiritual milk mentioned in the Bible? Let's take a look at Bible Milk:

  1. A Metaphor For The Word. When the Lord refers to milk, He often has in mind the word of God. The apostle Peter said, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" ('Pet. 2:2). As a baby needs milk to grow from physical birth, so the child of God needs the word of God to grow to the obtaining of eternal salvation.

  2. Milk Contrasted With Solid Food. There was division among the Corinthian Christians. There was "strife and divisions" in their lives (1 Cor. 3:3). Because of this problem, they had to be put back on the bottle, so to speak, because they were not ready for solid food. Paul put it this way: "And I, brethren could not speak unto you as unto Spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able" ('Cor. 3:1-2). Do you need to be fed with milk or with the meat of the word?

  3. Milk For A Time. God expects His people to grow. As a babe begins with milk, we begin with the elementary things of the Bible, but we must grow up. The Hebrew writer was concerned about the lack of growth among these early Christians when he said: "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat" (Heb. 5:12). Have you grown since you first became a Christian? Can you teach or do you have to be taught again?

  4. Milk Of The Flock. Paul refers to early Christians drinking of the milk of the flock he feeds. "Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock?" (1 Cor. 9:7). This passage shows that those who "preach the gospel should live of the gospel..." ('Cor. 9; 14). The Lord expects those who benefit from the teaching of others, that they support those who do the teaching.  This is one reason it is scriptural to pay as gospel preacher as he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are a few people around who oppose a man being paid a wage as he preaches the word. Paul said, "I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service" (2 Cor. 11:8). Paul received support from the church at Philippi as he preached in Thessalonica (Phil. 4:15-16). Let's all remember that "...man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4).

-- Johnnie Edwards, 
via Elletsville Church Bulletin, 
Elletsville, IN