____________________________________________________ THE GOSPEL OBSERVER "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20). ____________________________________________________ August 6, 1995 ____________________________________________________ Judging "In Context" by Robert F. Turner Scriptures are not the only things that must be judged ``in context.'' Human relations are largely a series of ``interpretations'' of one another and will be grossly in error unless we take our fellowmen ``in context.'' This is the principle back of the proverb: ``Judge a man only after you have walked a mile in his moccasins.'' Sometimes the seeming ``chip'' on a brother's shoulder may actually be his way of reaching out to you. It may be a burden you should help him bear. We do not seek to justify sin with psychology nor to deny individual responsibility before God. But there can be no ``righteous judgment'' apart from the ``whole story.'' From Joe Creason of the Louisville Courier Journal (and if he doesn't stop telling Texas jokes I am going to leave off the credits) comes an illustration of my point. It seems an elderly mountain farmer, driving a mule-drawn wagon, had been involved in an accident with an automobile. Now he was suing the motorist, claiming personal injuries. ``But isn't it true,'' the defendant's attorney asked, ``that after the accident, you said you never felt better in your life?'' ``Well,'' the claimant began, ``that morning I got up, hitched up my mule, put my hound dog in the wagon and....'' ``Give us a yes or no answer to my question,'' the attorney interrupted. At this point the judge tapped the gavel and directed the lawyer to let the farmer answer in his own way. ``Well,'' the claimant began again, ``that morning I got up, hitched up my mule, put my hound dog in the back of the wagon, and jest got over the rise in the road when this big car barreled into my rear end. ``My mule was knocked to one side of the road, my hound dog to the other, and I was pinned under the seat. Directly a police came along, seen my mule had her leg broke, pulled out his pistol and shot her dead. He went over to my dog, seen he was hurt bad, and shot him in the head. ``Then,'' the farmer continued, ``he come over to me and asked, `Well, how are you feeling?' And shore enough, I said, `I never felt better in my life!''' -- Via Pause--Ponder--Profit, July 1995 ___________________________________________ Learn To Navigate by James W. Adams Like spoiled babies who beat their heads against the floor when things are not to their liking, many professed Christians spiritually beat their heads against the floor of life when their circumstances are unfavorable. Their frustrated wailing and angry reactions create problems and unhappiness and change not at all their circumstances. Our life upon earth is often described as a pilgrimage upon the sea of life. The analogy is quit apt. With this in mind, an ancient seer said, ``The pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm the winds.'' Just as there are storms and angry billows upon the sea that confront every hapless mariner, so our journey on the sea of life is fraught with many difficulties. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they were told that it would be so--''sorrow, pain, toil, and death'' would be their lot (Genesis 3:16-24; Romans 5:12). So it was that Job could say: ``Man is born unto trouble as the spirits fly upward...Man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble'' (Job 5:7; 14:1). Cursing the storms and the billows will change nothing. They will come, and endure them we must. However, there is something we can do. As pilots of our frail crafts on the ocean of life we can ``learn to navigate''. We should begin our training with the attitude of the old sailor who prayed, ``Lord, the ocean is so great and my craft is so small''. We will never become successful pilots by ignoring the certainty, power, and destructive possibilities of the storms and their consequent billows, nor the frailty of our crafts; i.e., the weakness of our flesh and our proneness to err (Romans 8:1-4; 6:23). This emphasizes the absolute necessity of having with us in our boats our mentor, the Master, Jesus. We cannot ply the sea of life and overcome its storms and billows without Him. Under His tutelage and by His power working in and through us we can face the gales and plow through the billows to the ultimate ``haven and rest.'' With His word as our guide and the sanctifying influence of His saving power, we can meet every difficulty. As large as is life's ocean, as powerful its storms and billows, and as frail our craft, we can learn to navigate its waters. With faith in Jesus Christ as our chart and compass, love as our motivating power, and hope as our anchor, our Creator will hear our feeble cries and bringing us safe into the harbor of that ``city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.'' (Hebrews 11:10). Let us face life in an imperfect world, service to God in congregations of imperfect humans with characteristic human problems, and difficulties that are often awesome in their proportions with a sense of reality and a spirit of resignation. Let us not, like pampered babies, beat our heads upon the floor and wail for deliverance. Let us rather, rise in the strength of our God, trust in the redeeming work and sustaining power of His Son, with faith in the all-sufficiency of His word and learn to pilot our boats through the storms and the billows. With the Master in our boats, like the disciples on the stormy sea of Galilee we will not perish (Luke 8:22-25). -- Via With All Boldness, June 1995 ___________________________________________ Quit Doing Nothing by Jamey Hinds God's greatest opponents are Do-nothing Disciples. Do-nothing Disciples are a popular lot, and that is what makes them all the more dangerous to the Lord and His kingdom. Do-nothing Disciples are not a new phenomenon--even in the first century, they were there doing what they do. It could be accurately said of them, ``This people honors Me with the lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'' (Mk. 7:6-7). Now credit must be given to many Do-nothing Disciples since they are at almost every public assembly of worship. But they don't comprehend the importance of living like Christ outside the boundaries of the building's walls since many of the words taught go in one ear and--at record pace--exit the other because Do-nothing Disciples believe firmly that nothing the preacher teaches applies to them. Obviously the condemnation of Do-nothing Disciples is that they do nothing. Yet, the Scriptures teach that, as Jesus' followers, we are to ``Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was'' (Jas. 1:22-24). In another place, the Lord Himself taught, ``Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell. And great was its fall'' (Matt. 7:26-27). Do-nothing Disciples are ignorant of the fact that--by our thoughts, words and actions--we're either for or against the Lord--''He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad'' (Matthew 12:30). And so, practically, Do-nothing Disciples are--in their ignorance and laziness--doing something as they are against the Lord, scattering abroad in their laziness (Matthew 25:24-30). ``Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith'' (II Cor. 13:5). And if we're found lacking--that we're actually Do-nothing Disciples--than may God bless us with the courage to change and quit doing nothing and start doing something right now. -- via The Old Path II, July 9, 1995 ___________________________________________ Trends of the Time! We know of a man in a certain Texas town who would not consent to having his name placed before the congregation for consideration as an elder. ``No,'' said he. ``I drink quite a bit and love to dance, and I don't think elders ought to do these things. I'd rather be just a faithful, humble (emphasis mine, -- C.V.) member of the church and let someone else serve as an elder.'' -- Selected by Carl Vernon, via The Old Path II, July 9, 1995 ___________________________________________ Call Today About Our BIBLE FILM SLIDES ________________________________________ Tri-State CHURCH OF CHRIST 1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101 Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class 10:50 A.M. Worship 6:30 P.M. Worship Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742 e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go ________________________________________