The Bulletin
of the
Church of Christ at
New Georgia
Tim Johnson, editor
March 1, 2009
In
This Issue:
Put
it to a Vote!
by
Steve Klein
What
will Your Children Remember?
by
Lowell Blasingame
Put it to a Vote!
Last Sunday's issue of the Huntsville Times carried the following headline: Presbyterian Group Votes NO on Gays' Ordination. The article explains that, "Representatives of North Alabama Presbyterians voted about 3 to 2 against . . . the ordination of ministers who are gay." The article also stated the following:
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"The North Alabama vote was taken Saturday in Athens during the quarterly meeting of representatives of the 32 Presbyterian (USA) congregations of North Alabama, which include churches from Florence to Scottsboro."
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"The local vote was 48 against and 34 for. That brings the vote of the 173 presbyteries nationwide to at least 40 to 23 against changing the wording in the church's Book of Order."
We are thankful that three out of five Presbyterian representatives can still understand that homosexuals shouldn't be put in leadership positions in churches. The article did not state what percentage of Presbyterian leaders also believe that those who are guilty of sexual perversion such as homosexuality should actually be withdrawn from by churches (1 Corinthians 5:9-13). I would be interested to know the answer to that.
Actually, the article brought to mind several questions and concerns that I'd like to know the answer to, the chief of which is this: Where in the world did anyone ever get the idea that right and wrong can be determined by a vote of mortal men and women? I can assure you that they didn't get it from the Bible! The Bible repeatedly and consistently shows that man does not have the ability to determine what is right, and that the majority of men are virtually always wrong. Consider the following passages:
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"You shall not follow a crowd to do evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to turn aside after many to pervert justice" (Exodus 23:2).
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"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).
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"O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).
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"The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9).
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"Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:8).
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"And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:9).
The apostle Paul said of the Jews that "that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3). Attempting to establish one's religion by a vote is roughly equivalent to what the Jews were guilty of doing.
Presbyterians have a long and storied history of determining their doctrines and practices by democratic processes. Many other religious groups do too. God has a long and storied history of telling men what is right and expecting them to believe and obey it, not vote on it!
-- Steve Klein
The Psalmist said that a man's children are "a heritage of the Lord," (Psa. 127:4). Most admit that there is something badly wrong with parents who do not love and value their children as such.
Parental love motivates us to be concerned about our children's welfare and seek what is best for them. We try to train them to eat properly so they will develop strong healthy bodies. We warn and advise against dangers of which they are not aware. We make decisions for them until we think they are mature enough to make their own.
Unfortunately, parents often fail their children in the most important area of all in life - the need for seeking first the kingdom of God (Mt. 6:33). I once visited with a father and tried to impress upon him this need. His response to me was that when he was a child his mother made him get up on Sundays and go to the little church in the community where they lived and he made up his mind then that when he became a man of his own, that he wouldn't go until he wanted to go. This man later in life came to recognize that need and obeyed the gospel but his son, who was in his formative years when I talked with his father and needed a father's example, didn't get such then and today is not a Christian. Fathers are admonished to bring up their children "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," (Eph. 6:4). Timothy's unfeigned faith is attributed to the example of a godly mother and grandmother (2 Tim. 1:5). On the other hand, of Ahaziah it is said, "For his mother was his counselor to do wickedly" (2 Chron. 22:3).
Jeremiah made an observation about his generation that its sin was written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond upon the table of their heart and horns of their altars, "Whilst their children remember their altars and their grooves by the green trees upon the high hills," (Jer. 17:1-2). Judah's example was imprinting the future of their children - it was being decided by what they remembered from the example of their forefathers.
Statistics recently released from a study made reveal the tremendous impact of parental example in the lives of their children. It was learned that children growing up in homes whose parents actively participated in the work of the local congregation had a tendency to be more active in the work of the congrega-tion when they became adults than those whose parents manifest little or no interest in the work of the church. In fact, very rarely did parents who spasmodically attended and took no part in the work of the congregation have children to become active members when they became adults. They exhibited the same undependable traits that their parents did.
I can conceive of nothing more heart rending than for one seeing his child condemned in the day of judgment and know that he had influenced his child in the wrong way. Jeremiah said that Judah's children would remember her altars and groves. His point was that their idolatry would influence their children to serve idols and incur the wrath of Jehovah and that they were partially responsible for it by their examples.
What will your children remember? Will it be that you never obeyed the gospel, or that you turned back and ceased to serve the Lord, or that you constantly complained and found fault with your brethren in the Lord? Will they remember that you could sit on a backless bleacher for a two to three hour ballgame or in a boat fishing, but that an hour on a bench in the church building had your back killing you? Will they remember that you skipped services when kinfolks came, or for a golf tournament, or for the opening day of deer season? Will they remember that you bought the best with which to golf, hunt or fish, that the price of gasoline, motels and food never kept you from Mountain View, Pigeon Forge or the beach, but you never could drive fifty or a hundred miles to worship with brethren and encourage them in a gospel meeting? Will they remember that you were always early for the movie, first at the picnic and in the stands before the first pitch of the ball game, but that you never seemed to be able to get to worship ser-vices before the singing had started?
Remembering you will be a major factor in imprinting the lives of your children and grandchildren, is this what you want?
"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid" (1 Tim. 5:24-25).
-- Lowell Blasingame
Via Taking a Stand with Christ, Vol. 12, No. 6, June 2006, Van Dorn
Street church of Christ, Grenada MS