Newsletter Vol.2, #4—January 22, 2006
Matthew 7 21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Not My Personal Experience --Larry
As a young minister, I was asked by a funeral director to hold a grave side service for a derelict man who had died while traveling through the area with no family or friends. The funeral was held way back in the country. This man would be the first to be laid to rest at this cemetery.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became lost. Being the typical man I didn't stop for directions, but I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the crew and backhoe, but the hearse was no where in sight.
The workmen were eating lunch. I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to the side of the open grave to find the vault lid already in place. I assured the workers I would not hold them long, but this was the proper thing to do.
As the workers gathered around, still eating their lunch, I poured out my heart and soul. As I preached the workers began to say “Amen! Praise the Lord and Glory!” I preached, and I preached, like I'd never preached before. I went from Genesis all the way to Revelation. I preached for 2 hours and 45 minutes. It was a long and lengthy service. I closed in prayer and it was finished.
As I was walking to my car, I felt that I had done my duty and would leave with a renewed sense of purpose and dedication, in spite of my tardiness.
As I was opening the door and taking off my coat. I overheard one of the workers saying to another.
"I've been putting in septic tanks for 20 years, And I ain't never seen nothing like that before."
A Covenant With His Eyes
Jeff Smith
He was nineteen years old and had just recently obeyed the gospel. There were still several issues he was diligently trying to work through, but his new zeal was strong enough, he thought.
When the preacher spoke on Matthew 5 last Sunday, however, he became a little discouraged. “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart.”
His commitment to Christ a few months ago made the thought of committing fornication or adultery loathsome to him. He had even begun talking to his friends about their bad sexual habits. Now the Sermon on the Mount was staring him in the face and he realized that, in God’s eyes, he could be guilty of the sin without ever lifting a finger.
He listened to the rest of the preacher’s lesson, which touched on Paul’s admonition to ladies in 1 Timothy 2 to dress modestly. He heard some words from Proverbs 5, 6 and 7 and learned how dangerous an immoral woman can be to the heart and faith of a young man like him.
He left the meeting house a little worried that day and spent the afternoon on his couch with the Bible open before him to those passages he had noted from the sermon:
Matthew 5:27-30: Looking at a woman to lust for her is tantamount to committing adultery in the heart. Extreme measures should be taken to avoid falling into this temptation.
1 Timothy 2:9: Women should dress with modesty and a profession of godliness in mind. Publicly worn short skirts, shorts and dresses, and low cut blouses and modern bathing suits do not profess godliness but carnality.
Matthew 18:6-9: There is great evil in becoming a stumbling block and those who dress immodestly in a public, mixed gender setting are showing blatant disregard for the souls of those of the opposite sex who see them and may fall into lust. Skimpy clothing is designed to catch attention and focus it on private parts of the body, which tend to inflame the senses.
Prov.5:15-20: Married men should learn to be satisfied with their own wives and single people should control themselves until they enter a marriage covenant in which sexual needs can be fulfilled properly (Heb.13:4).
Prov.6:20-29: An immoral person will flatter and allure through her charms, so that a vulnerable man will stumble.
Prov.7:6-27: This temptation is so strong that many young men fall into it before they realize what is happening.
Prov.11:22: “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.”
The young man began to think about the way he dressed and the way girls at his school dressed. He went to his dresser, found a few pairs of shorts that he realized could send the wrong signals, and disposed of them. But dealing with others’ dress would not be so simple.
As he walked across campus, he found himself averting his eyes from things that he used to delight in seeing. He repeated the words of Job like a mantra: “I have made a covenant with my eyes; Why then should I look upon a young woman?”.
It was not going to be easy, but the young Christian was devoted to overcoming his weakness and avoiding the temptation as best he could. He arrived at the meetinghouse for evening services and started for his pew when he began to notice something that had not impressed him before. The young ladies were almost universally dressed in modest skirts and dresses. Nothing so tight, so short, so sheer as he had seen outside. The few young ladies in short skirts looked wildly out of place and he actually pitied them as he resolutely averted his eyes from his own sisters in Christ.
Jeff S. Smith, Evangelist, Woodmont church of Christ, Ft.Worth, tx ~ http://www.electronicgospel.org
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"They Were All Wrong”
Author Unknown
A good many years ago, a preacher went into a town where there was no New Testament church. He preached in a house of worship and then in the market place of the city. Soon the religious leaders of the city heard him and invited him to address them. They thought if his religious claims seemed meritorious to them, they would fellowship him. But to their dismay and confusion, he preached that they were wrong and he was right; that their worship was not acceptable to the God of heaven. He preached that the church to which he belonged was the only true church of the living God. Such a preacher! Don't you know he hurt their feelings? Evidently they were sincere. Surely he could have made a nice talk and got away without causing any discord! Who was this preacher anyway? His name was Paul, and he preached this sermon in Athens. It did cause some stir. It did not please those leaders at all. They got up and left before he finished. But the sermon pleased God. You can read it in Acts chapter 17. There is no room in Christ's church for a compromiser.
THE CARDINAL'S ADVICE
Here is an excerpt from an address by the cardinals in the Roman Church to Pope Pius III, which is preserved in the National Library of Paris, folio No.1068, Vol. 2, pp. 650 and 651. Pius III lived in 1503.
"Of all the advice that we can offer, Your Holiness, we must open your eyes well and use all possible force in the matter, namely, to permit the reading of the gospel as little as possible in all the countries under your jurisdiction. Let the very little part of the gospel suffice which is usually read in mass, and let no one be permitted to read more. So long as people will be content with the small amount, your interest will prosper; but as soon as the people want to read more, your interest will fail. The Bible is the book, which more than any other, has raised against us the tumults and tempests by which we have almost perished. In fact, if one compares the teaching of the Bible with what takes place in our churches, he will soon find discord, and will realize that our teachings are often different from the Bible, and oftener still, contrary to it."
Upcoming Debate on Religious Debates Web Site
"The Bible is complete and inerrant and is the only guide to Heaven for man."
Affirm: Larry A. Bunch
Deny: Billy Rojas
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"By the Bible's own account it is incomplete and not necessarily free of error; it also includes statements that tell us that there are other ways consistent with the Bible that can lead to Heaven."
Affirm: Billy Rojas
Deny: Larry A. Bunch
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