The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
December 3, 2006
In
This Issue:
The
Next Generation
by
Steve Klein
God
is the Sustainer of Life
by
Glen Young
The Next Generation
As Solomon looked at life under the sun, he observed that "One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever" (Ecclesiastes 1:4). With the passing of each generation, knowledge, values and even faith are handed down from the older to the younger. Paul thanked God for the "genuine faith" of Timothy, which he says, "dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also" (2 Timothy 1:5).
Sometimes the older generation does not do a good job of transmitting what it should to the generation that follows. Sometimes the younger generation refuses to receive what was left them by their forefathers. When this occurs, the consequences are almost always negative.
British anthropologist John D. Unwin conducted an in depth study of eighty civilizations that have come and gone over a period of some four thousand years. He discovered that a common thread ran through all of them. In each instance, they started out with a conservative mind-set with strong moral values and a heavy emphasis on family. Over a period of time, the conservative mind-set became more and more liberal, moral values declined, and the family suffered. In each instance, as the family deteriorated, the civilization itself started to come apart; and in all eighty cases the fall of the Nation was related to the fall of the family. In most cases, that civilization fell within one generation of the fall of the family unit. (from Zig Zeiglar)
The effectiveness of one generation in bringing along the next generation not only has ramifications for families and nations, it also has great ramifications for God's people. The reality is that the error that one generation accepts in moderation, the next will accept in excess. In this way, standards of personal morality, decisions regarding the work of the church, and doctrinal soundness can degrade tremendously from one generation to the next. There are churches which were once faithful that have changed so drastically from what they were a generation ago, that if someone from the previous generation rose from the dead and visited, they would think they had walked in on the worship assembly of a completely different religion.
The Psalms have a lot to say to us about the need to faithfully transmit God's truth from one generation to the next (cf. Psalm 22:30; 71:18; 78:4-6; 145:3-4). There is an especially poignant passage in Psalms 48:12-14, where faithful Israelites are instructed to "Walk about Zion, and go all around her. Count her towers; {13} Mark well her bulwarks; Consider her palaces; that you may tell it to the generation following. {14} For this is God, Our God forever and ever; He will be our guide Even to death." Just as the Israelites needed to know exactly how everything was to be in Zion so that they could pass the information on to the next generation, the older generation of today needs to know exactly how things are to be in the church in order to pass that information on to the next generation.
What will the church at New Georgia be like a generation from now? Much will depend on the job we do today of passing down truth, helping the young develop their abilities, and being examples of diligent laborers ourselves.
--Steve Klein
We are told in James 4:14, "whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Many are the mysteries of physical life, not the least of which is its length.
We live in a time when much emphasis is placed upon the prolonging of our physical life. There are those who act as if we can live forever in this physical state. Their doctrine is one of "eat the right food, get plenty of exercise and don't put foreign substances into your body." No one should encourage people to eat fatty foods, be couch potatoes nor to put alco-hol, cocaine, nicotine or any other drugs in their bodies. Neither should we leave people with the impression that they can cheat death by subscribing to the doctrine of good health.
We think of death as coming to those who are sick. Is this always true? In Deuteronomy 34:7, we are told, "And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." Though Moses had no physical reason to die, he died anyway. The Lord spoke of one in the New Testament who forgot that he could not live forever. The fields of a man brought forth plenty. "And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?" (Luke 12:18-20). The rich man could have filled his body with all kinds of "health food" and he would have still died. He could have been a marathon runner capable of running twenty-six miles and he would have still died. He could have been someone who never smoked, drank alcoholic beverages or used drugs and he would have still died. Why? Because God said that night his soul would be required of him.
We must learn the lesson which God en-deavored to teach Israel, namely, God is the sustainer of life.
Moses told the Israelites, "And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live" (Deuteronomy 8:3). Did Israel survive the wilderness wanderings because they ate the manna and quails? Did they survive because Moses would always lead them to water when they were thirsty? No, no, a thousand times no! They survived because God sustained their lives! He used means such as the manna, quails and water from dry places, but it was God none the less. This concept should be no problem to those who understand the omnipotence of God.
In the creation, we are told that "God said," and where there was nothing, the worlds were framed (Hebrews 11:3). By His word, God cre-ated the universe and by His word, He holds it in check. For this reason we "...ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that." (James 4:15).
What is the Lord's will? That men shall not live forever in a physical state tainted by sin. "And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: there-fore Jehovah God sent him forth from the gar-den of Eden..." (Genesis 3:22-23a).
It is appointed unto all men to die (He-brews 9:27). No one shall escape the grim reaper. Are you prepared for his coming?
Glen Young