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| Bulletin: October bulletin
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VACATION CAMP –
Our
This is the third in the series of the study on the book of Genesis. The first, “In the Beginning God....”, the second “The God of Abraham” and this year, THE SOVEREIGN GOD”. The Campers will be taught God's Sovereign Choice of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Jesus to accomplish His will in an amazing way. God made it clear to all throughout the ages that He is the Sovereign God, a God of His word, a God who works through His people to bring His blessing to the world he created; a God whose love and mercy is unyielding, unshakable, and even unfathomable.
We praise God for all the members who have agreed to help out in one way or another to make this Camp possible. Our God has supplied our need for teachers,
Please pray for the Camp Planning Committee and all who are involved in the Camp that we may all seek to bring Glory to His Name
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Is There A Pattern ?
Are we being too picky ?
Love has its own language, calling us from “Must I?” to “May I?”
The Lord took
But the church He takes by the heart.
As with
Not “my Master”
(Hosea
M
y wife has never asked me to tell her that I love her or to buy her a Christmas present. (in fact, she regularly insists I needn't buy her any presents at all. I am not fooled.) I would be a foolish man (in more ways than one) if I were to conclude that her declination to ask for such things indicated that she was disinterested in them, or that they were unimportant. On the other hand, there are things she has asked for that are, comparatively, trivial. “Can you pick up a bag of milk on the way home?” I hope my love outweighs the milk. The fact is that we cannot evaluate an action's importance based simply upon whether or not our loved one requests it. (Although, after this, she may very well ask that I stop writing articles about her.) There are some things love doesn't ask.
Why is it, then, that when it comes to church function, so many feel that unless the Lord has given an explicit command, He has no preference, that we are free to do as we choose? It has been well said, “We act as if we are under the law when we obey only what is prescribed.”
When we turn to the New Testament, we discover the Lord's letters of love to His Church. Certainly there are commands. But the epistles are far deeper than that. Love ought to prevent us from automatically assuming that we have unrestrained license to do as we please whenever we are left without a direct command.
So it is that we take seriously the New Testament
pattern for the church as well as its
commands. The Bible is not a cold, lifeless rulebook. It is God's authoritative record. The Lord promised His disciples that He would build His church (Mt.
Often we are told that the pattern wasn't authoritative; it was simply the church in its infancy, and the church was meant to grow and develop. But there are many problems
with that claim. Not the least of which is that it is tantamount to saying that God gave His apostles a watered-down version of the church because they, presumably, couldn't bear the full-scale model. As we study the New Testament, we see that they collectively and consistently set an example for the form and functioning of the local church. As a rule, we ought to refrain from thinking ourselves wiser than the apostles.
One last word of warning. The sad truth is that, in practice, if we are willing to forego the pattern, we will quickly find reasons to ignore the commands as well. Dispensing with the pattern is rarely, if ever, the result simply of a desire to remain true to the Word. It often flows from a yearning to reshape the church to our liking. Once we head down that path, we will find it increasingly easy to jettison the commands (They are cultural!”) along with the pattern.
So can we find explicit commands for every aspect of the church? No. Does that mean our Lord has no interest in how His bride behaves? No again. There are some things that love doesn't ask. There are things it doesn't need to.
By James Martin, Editorial Uplook/May-June 2007
.
One last word of warning. The sad truth is that, in practice, if we are willing to forego the pattern, we will quickly find reasons to ignore the commands as well. Dispensing with the pattern is rarely, if ever, the result simply of a desire to remain true to the Word. It often flows from a yearning to reshape the church to our liking. Once we head down that path, we will find it increasingly easy to jettison the commands (They are cultural!”) along with the pattern.
So can we find explicit commands for every aspect of the church? No. Does that mean our Lord has no interest in how His bride behaves? No again. There are some things that love doesn't ask. There are things it doesn't need to.
By James Martin, Editorial Uplook/May-June 2007
.
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