Port St. Lucie Church of Christ
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Port St. Lucie Church of Christ
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From Then The immortality of life is one that is full of misconceptions, especially by those who have blinded themselves by denominationalism. The thing most often heard concerns itself with the “furniture of Heaven” and the “temperature of Hell”. The source of all life must be considered. Think of a life force surging through the physical universe greater than anything ever before imagined. Something makes it tick and throb with life. As life is mysterious it can be seen to have force and this force pervades the entirety of the universe. This life-force is imperishable, the evidence forces the honest to see Him, and if this Force were to cease or be stopped all would come to nothingness. As some cannot conceive that there is a God, those who have considered both sides of the question cannot conceive of a complete state of nothingness! The “spark of Life” is from parent to parent. Before we become parents man can be traced all the way back to the original parents. As is often reasoned, life after death in this body is no more and no less mysterious than life before birth. Life is HERE, nobody I know or have read about believes otherwise; why doubt life hereafter?? The dissolution of the body is no barrier to logic; immortality is very logical. If the brain would seem to be the seat of life, it is not the SOURCE of it and for that matter the brain does not even enter into the subject of immortality, immortality leaves the brain with the body in the grave!! The brain does not produce thought (as the liver secretes bile), but is itself the means of transmission of that thought. From whence cometh the thought? They tell us that every 7 years we change completely in taste, chemical composition, and personalities. The body changes in every tissue. While we live in this body we then would have to understand we have worn out many a body, yet we are the same! The “I” and “you” that has worn out several bodies is really what we call this it, that is the ‘I’. If the personality survives bodily changes, why could it not ‘survive the grave’??!! If the spirit survives the shock of birth, why not the ordeal of death? Life transcends physical limits. Life presents itself in spirit a thousand miles from where it abides in our human frame (the love of a military man for his wife and children, the love of an old man for his wife now deceased 30 years, for example). We live not only where we breathe, but where we love!! Since life is too big for the physical body, and that life is not the body or any of its parts, is it not too great for the grave?? A Creator which produces the mind, must possess reason, else the creature is greater that the Creator! Reason is not packaged, cannot be bought or sold, and is not a composite of all who live in this human frame. It is reasonable for a man who dreams of fulfillment to one day consider this possibility. It is reasonable for a man who loves another soul to one day reason eternity with that soul without separation. It is reasonable for a man to have lived and loved to know his only chance of complete fulfillment is an eternity together while a man who hated the wife of his life, fought, argued, and was vexed with every anxiety known to man would NOT want to look forward to her as part of his reward but would know she MUST be part of his Hell!! Such things are reasonable! It is also reasonable to know that if man cannot keep the love, joys, and brightness of his life in check or control he must look to one of greater might and magnitude than he who for him can accomplish these things!! God is not an invention of the mind of an incapable being, He only is the extension of all that man sees about him in the wonderful thing we call Creation! For in the Creation of all things nothing is left incomplete!! Life without God is incomplete, man never knows who he really is!!
News of the Family
Matthew Wiley left for his service in the Navy. Life will be far different for Matthew. Keep him in Prayer. A good foundation often needs a little help. Plan on writing our service men often. Austin’s operation is supposed to be the 22nd of July. Keep him in prayer asking that the surgeon’s knowledge be vast enough to aid nature put in place by our beneficent Creator. Many have had a round with the virus passing through our area. When a brother or sister is out who usually attends call them? We were with Austin 4 hours in the Emergency Room last evening. He seems to be fine. Tierra and David Watkins grandfather passed Away. The funeral was in Tallahassee last Wednesday.
Riddle for the Week
It is transformed, and it never becomes extinct. What is it? From Then, II The order of physical life is reliable. The stars in their courses, the electrons in their motions all show the order of design. Gravity does not vary wherever its law is found, as far as we know gravity even keeps electricity in its current channel. A universe that keeps faith with its physical calculations does not play false to the inner, invisible parts of life. We are created to think, love, and hope. These are as essential to our nature as hunger and thirst. A world where there is air for lungs, food for the stomach but no answer to the deepest and highest hungers of the soul is not the world God created and placed man in. Any thinking man will rebel at such a conclusion. The integrity of the universe is at stake if man is here only by chance, for if there is no law that governs our existence and we came about without reason and intelligence, all that exist which allows anything else to exist could never be explained or understood. The longing for continuance of life is normal and extends from primitive people to cultured persons. That man before scientific discovery had no doubt about the life beyond the grave is a fact that calls loudly for explanation. As we grow old we are just getting fit to live! Just understanding the “how to” to live acomplishes no purpose if man dies and is no more! Who is animalistic enough to call a deceased loved one a few particles of matter that is no longer? That fair, beautiful spirit whom we loved and with whom we shared life is not excluded nor extinct just because they are no longer in a physical body we can see and touch!! In a law abiding universe, the hunger of the soul MUST have a response to what exist hereafter. Science in all its glory cannot and never has produced any answer suitable to understanding our beginning much more our end!! Science affirms that nothing is wasted. Even the leaves blown by the wind are only transformed, not destroyed. Shall man with a mind, soul, and spirit fade into nothingness?? Having spent such painstaking efforts to design such a frame for us to inhabit will the designer annihilate such? If He were to so do, the ruler of the universe is far worse than man who waste all his time on this earth not preparing for eternity!! If life ends in death, this universe is not only irrational, it is immoral!! A benevolent life ends in a vicarious death in the flower of age. A malevolent, hardened old sinner lives a century. Where is the rationality of this, where is the compensation, the retribution, when is “right” ever rewarded? Where is justice? If life ends at death and man comes about by chance, not created, would it be better for man if he had never allowed his innocent children to breathe? The God of the universe is more than mere Energy, He is more than a Force, He waits to be a JUDGE. He is defined as a child-loving Father, Matthew 7:7-11, who does not give a stone for bread, He does not then give the stone of extinction to children who’s highest and noblest hunger asks for the bread of immortality and eternal life, those children who have made choice and desire to be with Him!! If the soul is not immortal, human life is a farce!! If it is immortal, man is a fool to ignore it!! If not immortal, the moral nature is a lie, there would be no need, man could destroy man at will without ever considering justice. If not immortal, desire is a deception, aspiration a mocking falsehood, and hope a destructive illusion!! Death may separate soul and body, but the soul does not die. The tie that joins the soul and the body is untied, unfastened, and the soul is released from the frame that will inevitably decay and join one that has no possibility of decay!! Death becomes a merciful provision. The Innocent might tolerate physical maladies looking to something better, but to a fallen being, subject to age, decay, and injury; physical immortality would be an awful curse!!
“It is different to what I thought it would be”. Keep Matthew, Jason, and Shawn in prayer as they serve in our Armed Forces. Austin’s operation will be soon. Keep him and His surgeon in prayer. The PIT’S quote and preach next Sunday evening. Finger foods follow for the July birthdays.
Grievously tormented, but he couldn’t leave Home. Faith is amazing! Who was he? From Then, III If the soul is not immortal, human life is a farce. If it is immortal, man is a fool to ignore it. To be an immortal being would require an immortal nature. Death separates the soul from the body, not the spirit. The tie that joins the two is loosed. The bondage that sin imposes on the body cannot be the bondage wrought by sin, it has to be the bondage brought about by decadence. Death, therefore, is a merciful provision, not a tool of some tyrannical being unhappy with our behavior. Christ destroyed the curse of death which is separation from His presence, but did not destroy death. To the Christian death is just another step in the epoch of continued existence. It relieves the soul of dominion of flesh. Flesh weighs heavily in the decisions made in the body. Care for unimportant things afforded our bodies and the pitfalls brought on by the desire to comfort and satisfy the body is no longer important. Many times I see even the members of the Lord’s Church who have seemed to have lost faith in immortality, or so it seems by the way they are living!! I see them living as though tomorrow will not bring eternity and today is all that matters. They ‘give up’ when the battle has not even begun to rage, settling for mediocrity instead of “the glory that shall be revealed in us”!! When considered from the eternal aspect, age is only counted in the babyhood of our existence. Here we become the children of eternity where ‘old as Methuselah’ is only an infant of days with millennial cycles unfolding and unending!! The grandeur of Heaven will erase any desire to ‘return to Egypt’ Our invested liberty, in a universe of unparalleled freedom, will cause us to be over-joyous because we followed the Master of the Universe instead of the Chief of the Failed creation of God!! What is the meaning of “I”? What is this “I”? Who is it? Of all the words used this word is used more often than any other word in our vocabulary yet many don not even know what this “I” is!! Is it my Body? The body is only the outward garment worn by ME. The body can be measured and labeled as portions of lime, silica, iron, water and other elements. It changes every 7 years. The body “I” am in today is not the body of my birth, my teenage years, or that which “I” wore when I first became a Christian. “I” have worn several bodies since I first debuted on this planet, but, the “I” am the same!! “I”, the REAL MAN, stands behind the body looking through windows of eyes, receiving messages through portals called ears, and traveling about on one of the least considered parts of my anatomy, my feet! In all these bodies the “I” RULES . “I” possess this body, “I” make plans and dreams for this body as though it actually belongs to ME!!, and it most emphatically does not!! If “I” am not careful, “I” will become a thief, for “I” will take what is not mine, use it as though it is mine, mock it making it participate in sin and introduce things made up of chemical composition into it which will eat it away and destroy it’s ability to function; and “I” have not been given permission from its owner to do so!!! One thing I must remember as a Christian, this tabernacle “I” dwell in belongs to God!! “I” cannot mark it, burn it, color it with tattoos or epithets, eat it to oblivion, or join it to a harlot, this body “I” live in was a gift given, and I am expected to respect both the gift and the Giver!! “I” am not MY BODY”. “I” am not my Brain (all have a brain even IF we do not use it!!). If “I” am my brain, which brain is “I”? Its tissues (cells) have changed repeatedly, but this “I” is the same in spite of all these changes of the brain. Like my body, my brain is something that belongs to its Creator and will not be in Eternity!! The brain decays, “I” remain!!
July 28, 2002
News of the Family
Matthew’s address is on the bulletin board. There also You will find Shawn’s and Jason’s. Write them when you can. PIT’S quote and preach tonight. Birthday celebrations afterward. Bring your finger foods and plan to stay. I am told our first AA meeting last Friday evening was a great success. We plan meetings for NA and ALLENON. our desire is meet people who need help and have already Repented to some degree. Austin’s surgery is tomorrow. Edmita’s son did not have to as yet have surgery; they are trying braces.
Riddle for the Week:
He was more valuable than swine, but not on the open Market, he dwelt in tombs, not in any town, and no chains Could bind him, but God did. Who was he? From Then, IV The shortest word in the English language is “I”. The most used word in this language is “I”. “I” this, that, ought, will, can, do, remember; all of these expressions are used so-o-o many times we become complacent in its definition. What is this “I”? As we discussed last week it is not my brain. The brains tissues (cells) are the same in spite of all I can feed it in learning, memorizing, or trained response. Like my body, my brain is something that belongs to ME, but who am “I”? As the brain decays, I remain as strong, as vibrant, as disciplined, as energized with new ideas as ever. I must conclude that the brain is not the “I” for the brain is apart of the anatomy of everyone that is pronounced DEAD, yet the “I” dies not, but moves outside the house in which it resided for a time. I find the brain to be but an instrument of the “I”, the spiritual being behind the brain. Everything involved in conscious personality is related to the brain, but from the brain, not originated!! The brain can be the seat of thought without being the source of it. “I” not only use the brain, but “I” educate, train, fit the brain for its work The brain itself has no knowledge or thought that is inherent, for children born without even a brain stem possess instincts of sucking, falling, hot and cold, and elimination of waste and more. Who taught them, from which ancestor in the evolutionary chain (JOKE!, HA,HA) did they get these?? The brain itself has no knowledge or thought-no power to originate thought. From whence cometh thought?? Which tree in the evolutionary tree shall we look to find this one?? The difference between the brain of a baboon and a man is in the being behind it, not the size!! The difference between the brain of a Gorilla and a man is not just that their skulls sit in a different position on their shoulders, again, it is in the being behind it!! It is not the brain that thinks, remembers, wills, loves, hates, or obeys. On the dissecting table the brain is a mass of cells, nerve centers suffused with blood. Do you think this bleeding organism originates thought?? Build a brain identical to the one inside your skull and see if the man-made works like the God-made!! You think heart transplants are popular!! Think if some wealthy man could transplant the brain of an Einstein or any other genius into his own body or that of his children. Soon we would only have designer children!! Cosmetic surgery would have a new rival!! What is it, what part of it, where in it does the brain think, remember, will, obey?? Can we take out of the brain those murderous impulses and replace them with intellectual, noble, pleasing thoughts?? NO!!, the “I” is not found in the brain. IF A BRAINLESS CHILD DOES NOT POSSESS THE REMEMBERING, OBEYING, MEMORIZING FUNCTIONS, WHEN DO THEY ORIGINATE AND FROM WHOM DO THEY COME?? No erudite student of true Science would ever think that what thinks, remembers, wills, and obeys is a bleeding mass of tissue called the brain!! Is the “I” Thought? Feeling? Emotion? NO! the real “I” is the conscious or unconscious person behind them all, greater than they, even if all put and harnessed together. The “I” possesses all these and still is something MORE!! Thoughts, my will, fear, joy, pain is all mine and no other person of my species experiences them as do I!! These emotions, joys, pain, and obedience are a possession of “I” but they are not me!! These emotions are not co-dependent on each other. If “I” think it can “I” necessarily “feel” it? My emotions, feelings, obedience’s, desires change, yet “I” am the same!! I want to find out where in the brain we find conviction, we need a lot of this stuff!! Just think if we could bottle a little, we could save a lot of our families!!
temperature Friday and the doctor admitted him As of yet we don’t know how long he will stay hospitalized. Keep him in prayer! Leanna is in California visiting friends and grandparents for the next two weeks. She now understand what “jet lag” is all about. Laxer and Myrna got back from vacation Tuesday Evening. It was good to see Myrna for Wednesday evening services. Bill, Wanda, and Wilma have been away for the last two Lord’s Days. They are back. Good to see and talk to them. Riddle for the Week:
Him, for He was holy, He observed Him, yet killed him. Who Was this poor wretch? From Then, V We are still looking for the “I” that is the lord of the soul and spirit of man. Everything involved in conscious personality is related to the brain, but not originated by it. The brain can be the seat of thought without being the source of it!! “I” not only uses the brain, but “I” educate and fit it for its work!! The brain itself has no knowledge or thought-no power to originate either. The difference between the brain of a baboon and a man is in the being behind it. It is not the brain that thinks, remembers, wills, obeys, or intends. If one could dissect the brain all they would find was a mass of cells, nerve centers suffused with blood. If the same brain is dissected when this individual dies, one would find the same mass of cells, nerve centers suffused with blood!! What learned, what grew, what became more wise?? ‘I’ do not die, cease, where does the “I” go?? “I” am not the brain and the brain is not the “I” that is me, in fact “I” control, possess, and use the brain as though it belongs to me (as I do my right hand or arm while “I” am in the body) for it is mine, but I am not the brain!! The “I” is not thought, feelings or emotions, either!! No, the real “I” is the conscious person behind all I do, is greater than my earthly tabernacle, and cannot be produced by mankind (and he has tried). All that is of my tabernacle is mine. “I” have been allowed to use, abuse, or destroy what God prepared me. If ‘I’ think, ‘I’ feel, if ‘I’ desire, ‘I’ plan, if ‘I’ want, ‘I’ make plans to obtain, yet the “I” remains the permanent thing behind everything. Though my body constantly changes “I” constantly fuel my life as though I own it!! This “self” that is within me has conviction, opinions, duties, and desires. It knows, has a consciousness of right wrong stored in it that allows “me” to make proper decisions!! The “I” is a permanent-behind –the scenes, separate pre-existent totality who wanted a place to belong!! This self has conviction: “I” will always be, live forever, and if ‘I’ claim the right Lord, ‘I’ will spend eternity with my one true friend, from whom “I” began. Paul writes about “a law written in our hearts” Romans 2:15, and the apostle John calls this “I” the light in every man. John 1:9 ‘I’ am not of this Earth, ‘I’ am from above! The “I” is not the Soul! Adam became a living soul. Instead of saying I have a soul, I should say I am a soul, a living soul. The Supreme Spirit touched with His finger the body of Adam and the true Adam began to be. As an electric spark flashing into his body, Adam becomes a living soul. I know the soul is not the “I” for “I” can lose it!! “For what is a man profited; if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26 Gaining the world loses the “I”. “I” am the invisible immortal being clothed in a material body in this stage of existence on the planet Earth. “I” am the emanation from God’s nature intended to live in harmony with Deity for “I” was born to serve the Lord! Can the “I” be destroyed? If “I” have survived the rigors of physical child birth, emergencies untold, and sustained all subsequent changes of every part of the body-will the “I” not survive the putting away of the whole body at death?? You, “I” must live forever and ever-whether exalted or degraded in character or station, you or the “I” are forever, never can we get away from Life. Let the soul feel its own dignity, measure its own worth, and know its importance for look what God did to show its value, He gave His only begotten Son!! He created it, stamped it with His own image; redeemed it by the incarnation and death of Christ. Just what is the “I” that it means so much to God? God’s value which He set on the soul is without comparison. Who, what am “I”? August 11, 2002
help raise another young man to preach the gospel. Congratulations are in order!! Melanie’s mother was admitted to the hospital, then to ICU Wednesday evening. Keep her in prayer. Leanna is flying in from California, today. Pray Her flight is safe. Barbara’s grandson will be visiting her soon. Her other son and wife announce the expectancy of a child. Keep them in prayer. Labor Day will be on us before we know it. Ladies Make your plans soon for our get-to-gather. Theresa’s step-father, John, had emergency surgery. He had a growth on his back. It was found to be benign.
Riddle for the Week
Message, and was the residency for an apostle. Name the city.
From Then, VI Whether exalted or degraded, you and I will exist forever and ever!! Never will we be able to get away from the being that is us. Let the soul feel its dignity, measure its value by what God has done to redeem it, and man for the first time will see his value. God created us, stamped us with His image, redeemed us by incarnating His Son, His Son died the cruelest death devised by man, entered the Strong Man’s house, and resurrected in glory. This man could never devise. God’s values the “I” immeasurably!! Again, the “I” is not the soul nor the spirit, it is the union of them. The “I” began at creation. There are three stages of Life as we know it. The first stage of existence, that that is before the hereafter, is our existence on this physical planet called Earth. This life is but a single stage in God’s plan. What is called death is the end of this career and the beginning of a new life through which death is its birth. This new life is merely a new stage of our existence, a promotion, if you please, the prospects of which should stir the blood within us!! Here the “I” lives with a body woven around me. This stage is vastly more important than any other stage of my existence for it is on this stage all else depends. All future stages of existence depend on how this life is lived. In this stage-acts make habits; habits makes character; and character determines destiny!! This stage ends with the crisis of death. Death is the sundering of the soul and body. Because we have not experienced death we fear it. Because we cannot conceive of life outside this physical existence, we must depend on Him who was and has traveled here. He made known the direction to success. We fear, we shrink from the unknown. Yet, we had no more experience with this life at birth!! We entered this existence unafraid, unconcerned about tomorrow, innocent of any adjustment which would have to be made. How can we not face the fact of death without fear, as birth gave us much, death will give us more!! “A leap into the dark”? This is how a renowned atheist described death but how does the God who created life describe death for His children? It is far less dark and less a leap than feared. I am reminded of many who have thought themselves hanging blindfolded from a window being told they are over a yawning abyss, in terror of an awful fall, when, no longer able to hold on, fall four inches!! There was no less terror, no less fear; but the reality was different than believed. We do not ignore sickness nor the pain associated with dieing, but these are but the birth pangs of our eternal existence. As the pangs of birth are not now remembered, will the pangs of death be any different, there?? The poet cries out; “There is no death, what seems so is transition.” God’s Word teaches us that death is birth, and what life conceals, death will reveal!! As infant eyes open from the darkness of the womb to the sunlight of a new life, so our eyes that closed in the darkness of death will open to a “light that never was on sea or land.” This act of death, like the act of birth into this life will not be as the first birth!! No one will come into this “other” world to loneliness. On arrival, beaming eyes of joy await, love unbounded surrounds, and reaching out to receive us into eternal birth are the arms of parents/friends who are experienced in this new existence prepared (we hope!), and ready to guide us until we leave their moorings. Then we will become guides for those we love as the cycle continues until He who has conquered death will forever destroy it!! 1 Corinthians 15:24 All those who die in Christ are “carried by angels” to the other side. This indicates a saved soul’s passing into the unseen as attended, does it not? As they arrive at another temporary place (unless they are alive when our Lord returns) they will be greeted as in the first birth, in the arms of those who love them!!
News of the Family
Bring what you put on the sheet in the foyer. The church will provide the hamburgers and hotdogs. We hope to have another great time. Bring a friend! Theresa’s aunt is better, but will never be whole. She has lost half her heart. We pray she recover IF she will obey the Lord. Leanna has a safe trip back from California. She Is back in Orlando to start a new semester at UCF. Linda and I thank you for your prayers in Leanna’s behalf. Tierra will be leave soon to start her college career She is studying to become a nurse. She will be in Miami Keep her in your prayers. Remember our brethren in the Armed Forces. Shawn Dimsey is to be out the first of September.
Riddle for the Week:
We are in it, but we can’t be like it. We will leave it but they who love it will not. If it overcomes us it will damn us. What is it? From Then, VIII As the anxious eyes of an infant open to this life, we with bated breath open our eyes to life eternal on the morning of our graduation. A day that will never see an evening sunset. As the infants eyes open from the darkness of the womb to the sunlight on this earth, so will eyes that close in the darkness of death open to a “a light that never was on land or sea.” And “I”, the union of my soul and spirit WILL be there!! The solemn responsibility of this earth life is understood to be probation. Here we prove ourselves “worthy of eternal life with Christ” or worthy of eternal misery. The possibility of clemency cannot be introduced to encourage the careless. Men often when given a loop hole use it to their own destruction. “It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah” is a warning against rejecting and ignoring the “mighty works” we have had the opportunity to study. “Beaten with a few stripes” is not a suspended sentence for any who have access or knowledge of the Master’s Will!! Often asked but not answered, in this passage our Lord deals with those who have family or friends that “never knew the way of righteousness”, not those who knew and would not obey!! In the Old Testament Law there was a distinction between sins committed through ignorance and presumptuous sins. Number 15: 29-30 Ignorance seems to allow mercy. He that knew not his Lord’s Will, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten (because he might have known his duty better) but with few stripes; his ignorance excused in part, but not wholly!! For example, “through ignorance the Jews crucified the Lord of Glory”. For them Christ pleaded ignorance: “Father, forgive them; they know what they do”! The knowledge of duty allows no clemency. Knowledge adds to the aggravation of sin. God will inflict more because of knowledge. It argues for a greater degree of willfulness and contempt. “For to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required” is no satisfying comfort to we who know!! This begs ability, learning, family acquaintance which would cause closed-mindedness, societal prejudice, and opportunity. That our Lord even mentioned this causes great hope for all the loved we “presume” would be as honest with the truth as we would hope. And why not hope!! Outer darkness is absence of light resulting from blindness of sight. The Joy of Heaven will be as impossible to the unholy as music is to the deaf ear or the beauties of nature are to the blind. How can those who have spent all their time in sin on this earth ever develop an eye for the beauties of that that God has prepared for His Own?? Musical illiterates have no patience, nor appreciation for the masteries of music. They accept far more readily something that requires no training, diligence, or art. This so-called screaming and profanity from un-trained voices heard today should show us why denominationalism is so readily accepted and truth does not get much a chance!! Probation in this life simply means that in this first stage of his being a man either is or is not blind-hearted (and he makes that determination) making himself incapable of higher things in the life to come that are reserved for the faithful!! Recognize how awful Law is that will damn willful sin. Sin stands against light. Sin, tolerated, will lead to the darkening of that Light. There is no wonder that denominationalism is so readily accepted. Denominationalism is an indictment against Almighty God!! The “Deeds done in the body” will cause the “door to be shut” to those who have rejected the Magistrates Law. Reject Christ here, abandon hope in the hereafter!! Light cannot shine when we close the curtain or take out the window!! The inner sensitivity called the conscience can be so altered that it will not repudiate any error. This is very troubling!!
August 25, 2002
them success finding happiness they could not find here. They plan to be in Georgia by the end of September they announced. The Labor Day Picnic is coming soon. Make plans and invite friends. A sign-up sheet is in the foyer. T-Shirt orders must be in by this Wednesday evening. We hope to get them before the Picnic. The “food program” was a great success. Those of us Who got our food were very pleased. New September Menus will be available next Lord’s Day. There is free parenting materials in the Kitchen. See Theresa for distribution. Birthday celebrations and a carry-in will be after the evening service. Everyone bring your finger foods. We would like Charlie, George, and Joe to meet for after the morning service to discuss our roles in the “safe house” program.
Riddle for the Week:
He carried a load only ask of the Lord. He was not asked nor allowed to deny the burden. He had two sons Who was he?
From Then, IX From this life we begin the Second Stage of Existence. This is not the Hereafter, it is the near Hereafter called in the religious community the “intermediate state”. This term is used for an arena of existence between life on this planet and life with the Lord. Second Corinthians 5:8 Waiting souls and spirits are separated from this life in every respect unless a report comes from home by one KNOWN who has departed this life. Ecclesiastes 9:6 This state and life, before the resurrection, is in two places. One is in the heart of the Earth, a place called in the Greek tongue Hades. This word is by definition “unseen”. It had two spheres. A place called Paradise and another called Tartarus. Dividing these places was a great Gulf that could not be bridged. Here, the saint and sinner resided until the coming of Christ to redeem those held in the bondage of sin in Paradise. When Christ “entered into the strong man’s house”, He spoiled his goods and took Satan’s captives held captive. Revelation 6:10 Because sin was so damning, there was no sacrifice God the Father would accept that would be considered worthy to remove sin. Matthew 12:25-32, Ephesians 4:8-10, Hebrews 2:14-15, Isaiah 14:9-20, Hebrews 10:4 Following death, Christ entered Hades. “He who knew no sin became sin” and because God “laid upon Him the iniquity of us all”, Isaiah 53:6, Christ, with His angelic guard, Matthew 26:53, approached the kingdom of Satan. Luke 10:18, Revelation 12:7-14. At His coming to the Hadean World “all Hell was stirred up”(the part where the righteous abode), Isaiah 14:9. Christ overthrew Satan, took Satan’s bounty held captive and resurrected. Those with Him came back to our arena of existence. Here, they waited for Christ ascension to the Father. Because of Christ, the perfect sacrifice, they, as well as we who are in Christ, are to reside and be with those who had died and had never sinned. Ephesians 2:10, 3:10-14, Matthew 16:18 They, as well as we, who are in Christ, will await the final Resurrection in Paradise, the third Heaven. 2 Corinthians 12:3-4 Ascended with Christ, some of them, whose bodies were not spoiled, would testify of His victory in the Hadean world. Matthew 27:53. Christ stayed on this Earth 40 days before ascending on a cloud to the Ancient of Days. Daniel 7:13-14 When our Lord said to the Thief; “Today, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise”, He was speaking of the intermediate state in the heart of the Earth He was about to re-arrange. He was not speaking of the third Heaven, the abode of the sinless dead. The wicked dead? They too have a temporary and eternal abode. Temporary, wherein is great pain, suffering, and thirst always conscious of their anguish, 2 Peter 3:7, a conscious reprieve at the Second Coming, then, a return to something worse: Eternal Damnation!! This place is called Tartarus.. In Tartarus there is vivid remembrance, feeling, comfortless existence, where time is not counted. The rich man of Luke 16 keenly felt misery. The damned have a conscious and vivid existence, it is not a sleep of non-existence. (Death does not break our consciousness for there is no cessation of life). Jesus said; “I Am the God of the living, not the God of the dead”. Matthew 21:31-32 Paul said: “I knew a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I knew not.” Second Corinthians 12: 1-40. Death made no difference in consciousness. Again, Abraham lectured the rich man such: “Son, remember”. How could one unconscious know anything? Death provides no chasm of memory but proves that memory is something more than impressions on the gray matter of the brain!! Memory leaves with the soul. Death breaks no covenant with memory, pain, joy, or consciousness!!
September 1, 2002
News of the Family
the Lord and placed her membership with the saints that Meet here last Lord’s Day. Welcome, Sheila. We hope to be of help to you and you to us. Her husband John also attends with her. Tomorrow is the Picnic. Plan to be here as early as you would like. Some of us will probably be here around 2:00pm. Bring a prospect and we will all enjoy the fun. Don’t forget our soldiers away from us. Keep them in prayer and write them if you can. Theresa has the bulletin list. Check to see if the names are on it you want the bulletin sent. The menu is available for this month, see Theresa. You can still get your T-shirts.
Riddle for the Week:
Daniel prayed about it, David wanted to know it, and Abraham looked for it all his life. What was it? From Then, X From Hades to the side of the Ancient of Days, this is the trip Jesus made when on a cloud He rode out of His temptation. Luke 22:28 What a time of ecstasy for Him who had ‘endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself’. Abraham’s bosom, the name given the Paradise of the Hadean World, had been the place Christ had promised the ‘thief of the cross’ a reunion. “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise” tells more in this declaration. All of the modern philosophers think Jesus meant “today shalt thou be with Me in Heaven”, and so they read this statement, but Christ had “not yet ascended to His Father”, John 20:17, therefore, Heaven, the place which is also called Paradise was not the destination of Christ and the thief that day!! Hades is a ‘life of waiting souls’. It is clear they are conscious of their situation, have vivid remembrance and feelings about those whom they have left behind. Some are in pain, some in comfort. Lazarus and Dives were actively alive, each feeling, each knowing. Dives was keenly aware of his misery while Lazarus was clearly conscious of comfort. Luke 16:19-31 In this in-between-world men are living in a state of life as conscious and vivid as those of us who are alive on the atmospheric part of this earth; death does not break continued consciousness; there is no break, the soul and spirit continue in conscious existence. While here, Christ had said: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living”. Matthew 22:31-32, Mark 12:26-27. The apostle Paul, when telling of his “out-of-the-body-experience” testified he did not know whether he was “in the body or out of the body”. John, in receiving the book of Revelation, knew he was “in the spirit”. Both knew they knew; they were not unconscious. The intermediate state of man is not a Rip van Winkle sleep we all take waiting to suddenly awake at the Judgment-in a moment- as if no interval of time had lapsed in between. We do not go unconscious at death and suddenly awake at the sounding of the last Trump. Enoch’s translation, Hebrews 11: 5, Moses and Elijah’s appearance on the mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17:4, the seat beside Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Matthew 8:11, John in the spirit, Revelation 4:2, Lazarus and Dives, Luke 16, and Paul in Paradise, 2 Corinthians 12, and the consciousness of the damned of 2 Peter 2:4 all testify to the conscious existence of a life beyond the pale of existence, here! Death provides no chasm of consciousness. The Hadean world is a place of clear memory, unclouded by the events of our every-day activities. “Son, remember” were the words that rang out off the walls of that World that no longer can be communicated by the damned. What was it like for men like Abraham to be in a world with those who had rejected the God Abraham had served while on the earth? Sure, they could tell there was a difference, but was that all the righteous were to receive for service to the God they had served? How could that joy of being better off for having served God not have been dulled being separated from the unrighteous by only a great gulf? Did it make some cry out in despair or did they always know Christ was coming to redeem them from the domain of Satan? Memory is something MORE than impressions on the gray matter of the brain- memory is in man, the “I”, himself, who is behind the brain and directs it, and therefore MUST go on with him when-ever and where-ever the “I” goes!! “In thy lifetime, thou hadst good things and Lazarus evil”. Active memory will be as much a part of eternal Hell as temporary, it is far better to “try and fail to succeed, than to fail for never trying at all”!! Running from God, here, will only make the torture of Hell worse!!
September 8, 2002
News of the Family
Day evening. Lillian comes to Christ from the Roman Catholic Church. Welcome her into this Christian Community, here. Sheila Crumbaugh was sick and unable to be with Us last Lord’s Day. Hopefully, she can be with us, today. If you are a first time visitor, please fill out a little yellow card handed to you. We would like to keep a record of your visit. Thank you. Our picnic was great fun and the food was also great. Thanks to all who came and participated. We always look forward to these get-togethers. Listen to the Radio programs; WCNO 89.9 FM, Monday-Friday and WPSL 1590 AM, and WAXE 1330 AM at 8:00am every Sunday morning.
same church, they were of the same family but were not of the same tribe, and they died before there message became a reality. Who were they? From Then, XI Death makes NO break in consciousness, memory, or me; the only difference is where I live. Unlike birth, death does not discontinue or begin anything, it just continues what has already been. For the Christian the next stage of existence begins the fulfillment of a long awaited reality, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord”. When the prophet Stephen was in the act of leaving his physical body he cried out; “Lord Jesus receive my spirit”. Many have thought this a prayer when in fact it was the next step. Paul reminds us “being absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8 On the Mount of Transfiguration we were privileged with knowledge some have not gleaned. On this occasion we see man in his three states of existence. Peter, in the physical state , Moses, in his spiritual state (called the house from heaven, 2 Corinthians 5:2), and Jesus in His glorified body (that for which we all await the resurrection, Philippians 3:21, 1 John 3:1). Having seen this over and over man has not recognized it. The butterfly is a representative of the three bodies shown in God’s nature. The worm changes into its transitional body, the cocoon, and finally blossoms into a beautiful butterfly and yet it is the SAME animal all the time!! Would anyone want the worm to remain in its physical state and miss the beauty for which his Creator intended? Shall we be greater fools in Paradise than we are here? If “far better”, as described by the apostle Paul, better than what?? The only thing with which we can compare our existence in Paradise would be the life lived in this present realm. If conscious: conscious in what type of body? Is the “house from heaven” not always present when we are at home in this body? In the Greek language, this body is our oikadonen, our permanent home. We are made with two different bodies, the mortal house or skenos from the word tent a temporary dwelling, and the house from heaven, the oikadomen, a far more permanent house. It is like the stages of a space ship. There is the initial rocket which burns for a while and is thrown off. Another rocket then burns until the ship gets into orbit. Neither rocket is the pay-load or the important part. The mortal house will be “taken down” when death occurs as God loosens all the parts. This “loosening of all the parts” is called DEATH. When this happens, we will not become extinct, we will just throw off the first rocket!! We possess memory, and we all will have memory; but how can we remember when our brains remain in the tomb? Shown in nature, confirmed by scripture, man, the “I”, has all these without any human body available!! We are a continuation of the same being, just as the worm!! Now you can understand a child with no brain stem or one that is retarded. Abraham was buried and “gathered to his people”, Moses was told to “Get thee up into the mountain and die, and be gathered to his people”, and David said; “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me,” but Jesus told the thief; “Today, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise”. How could this be? If they did not recognize, then they could not have known any of these things. What is apparent but not discussed is that souls recognize souls!! How else could this be explained? Samuel, Saul, Moses, and Elijah all are on record as seeing a spiritual vision apart from bodily form or shape. The great apostle John writes: “we know not what we shall be like, but we shall see Him as He is and we shall be like Him.” 1 John 3:2 HOW COULD THIS BE?? Many things we are not told by God how He shall do things, we are not to worry about the how. We had better leave that up to God!! He probably has already got it all worked out!!
September 15, 2002
News of the Family
heard daily around here. The Dimpsey’s are to get their Remodeling permit soon for the Day-Care. All the brethren away in the Armed Forces need to be kept in our prayers. Theresa will be in Orlando this week. Keep her in your prayers. It will be ‘beg and plead time’ on WCNO this week. Tell you friends to join in next week for the program.
Riddle for the Week:
the Phoenician tongue his name meant “Priest of God”, his priesthood was never declared. Who was he? From Then, XII Shall we be greater fools in Paradise than we are here? I asked this question some time back and no one has answered. Is there a Paradise be for us? Who has instructed us as to the life shortly beyond our existence, here? Some of these questions must be answered or we will never know until death is experienced the verity of Christ revelations. All of our information comes from one source, Christ. He came “to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light.” 2 Timothy 1:10 He came to become “Lord both of the dead and the living.” Romans 14:9 Is the intermediate state of the redeemed something we can know? Paul writes; “For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” Philippians 2:23-24 Can we have any confidence in revelation if the source of the revelation is not validated? Are we going to be greater fools in Paradise than we are here?? If we are conscious of existing in Paradise when we are there, in what form will this consciousness take? Absent of the brain, for it is left in the body when buried, how will man be know? Science has made great strides convincing modern man how important the brain is and in the meantime, discounted the “I” to non-existence!! If we have a memory in Paradise what will we remember? Abraham said; “Son, remember”. Luke 16:25 Who gave us this account? Is His word trustworthy? Some might discount the second stage of our existence, but who are thy calling a liar? If man will always exist, that man will always BE, that it is our nature to BE; the “I” of which we are studying deserves a lot more attention. The “I” is the continuation of the same being that it was while it lived in the tabernacle of flesh while here!! If there is no conscious awareness after we leave the body who made up all this we have been referencing by scripture? If there is no consciousness after this life, what meaneth the scripture; “But ye are come ….to the spirits of just men made perfect”? Hebrews 12:23 Are we not to look forward to a reunion and fellowship with kindred spirits? Who is this “family in heaven”? Ephesians 3:15 Has anyone actually ascended into Heaven? Can one ascend into Heaven without a body? If no one but Christ has ascended into Heaven, with whom shall we be and where? We, who have obeyed the gospel of Christ, have left our mortal bodies here on this earth!! If there are no spirits with whom we will fellowship, life after death would be a lonely existence like solitary confinement? Is punishment to the spirit here (loneliness) joy to the same spirit, there? It is not the pain of death that gives death its horror, some know NO pain, but that dread of the uncertain-unconscious-darkness-mysterious sleep–the tomb-the grave, the unknown, that man dreads. The scriptures teach us that life in the unseen Paradise will be with all the personality-inner feelings-individuality we have had here and we will be with a company of kindred spirits where loneliness is forgotten!! At the hour of our passing, Christ, the death Angel, will be waiting to welcome us and take us to Paradise. We see three stages in our life history. First, the existence in this body, next the existence when this body is severed and the “I” continues, and finally the third stage, the final-the ending of ages. The Judgment-Heaven-Hell- stage that is still future for all humanity will only be a memory!! What death is to the physical, the Judgment is to the intermediate. Judgment Day is truly the end of the AGES of Man! Ageless, man will then be as AGELESS as the God who made him/her. This is all we should all be preparing!!!
September 22, 2002
News of the Family
I was wrong about “beg and plead week”. It starts with Monday. I am assured that if the monies are not raised this next week, we will be back on the week after. Matthew flew into Pensacola last Thursday. Charlie and Liz are waiting to se when he can come home or they go to see him. Shawn Dimsey and family are due to be released from the Service the first of October. We are all looking forward to their coming to live in PSL.. Leanna is in today. She will return to Orlando Monday morning.
Riddle for the Week
Sign. It has no parallel, replacement, or substitute. From Then, XII For all the years I have been trying to search the mind of God I never caught the total significance of the Judgment Day (maybe you think I still haven’t!). I knew that only the saints will be judged on that day, not for sins but for reward, I knew the sinner would not “stand in the judgment”, Psalms 1:5, and that this day will be the most terrible reprieve from punishment and anguish that only God could conjure. The sinner will be relieved of pain and anguish just to return to pain, NO day of relief will ever again be offered. I knew that Christ would use this day to glorify His Church with a “job well done” ceremony before all who had made light of us while on this earth; but as THE day to separate the earth-life and intermediate-life from eternal-life I had never imagined!! On this day everything changes that was ever known. Life will continue, as has been shown in the previous articles, but life will not be the same. The saint will live in the euphoric glory awaiting the glory we have looked, prayed, and anticipated for so many years of trials and dishonor while the sinner will finally get the payment for his/her deeds of disobedience. If the payment for service is the antithesis of payment for disobedience, the horrors of Hell, yet undescribed in scripture, reveal the “glory that shall be revealed in us”!! Just think, one day time will come to a complete stand-still. Earth-life as all mankind has experienced it will close as the Earth vaporizes in fire and smoke. The world crisis called the second advent will be on us. At this crisis the Lord places the dread drama of the Judgment on the souls of the redeemed. The sinner has to stand by in unbelievable horror and merely watch (probably hoping somehow, someway the God he/she disobeyed has changed His mind and allowed the second chance the Jehovah Witnesses’ have lied about to occur). The saints who are amongst the redeemed who “left their first love”, “put their hand to the plow and turned back”, or “forsaken Christ having loved the pleasures of the present world” are deciding by this time their previous sentence to the Hadean World after death was now finally a mistake and are resting rather comfortably among those who on the earth they were not too glad to accompany (and yet there is still an agonizing doubt)!! Time is non-existent, night will not come, events will continue. Although we are accustomed to day being ended by night, here, day continues. THEN, there comes a call from Christ and His Church proudly begins to assemble in rank and file around His Throne. THE GREAT SORTING OF HUMAN SOULS IS NOW BEING COMPLETED!! The future has become the present; all those who were resurrected with bodies are being sorted some to the right, some to the left!! NOW!! Sheep go of their own accord following, as accustomed, the commands of the One on the Throne. Some begin to break rank creating chaos and confusion (they always wanted THEIR WAY) and bands of angels immediately separate them from the others. The Judgment of character (not citizenship), continued obedience (not whether they were baptized for the remission of sins), and conscience (the reason obedience was rendered or refused) has begun. It is a judgment of doom, Matthew 13:43, 7:21-22. It is a judgment of separation, Matthew 25. It is a judgment of retribution, Colossians 3:25 It is a judgment of finality. Mark 10:15 Now, the laughing and fun-making has all stopped, now, there is not ONE dry-eyed saint. The next thing to which our attention will be drawn is the cry, unbelievably loud, unbelievably horrible, unbelievably surreal of those who had almost been forgotten who had been looking on while the events of the Judgment of the Church of Christ had been taking place. Oh! wait!!, some of the saints are joining them!!
News of the Family
Day evening. Dale comes to Christ after many years of study which began when a now deceased saint, Emma Hall, took him in and taught him the gospel. Welcome to the family of God, Dale. Birthday celebrations will be after the services this evening. Plan to stay and enjoy the fellowship. Keep those in the Armed Forces in prayer. Tiffany is doing well, keep her in prayer. Shawn and his family will be here, soon. The Radio programs begin again this week. Pray God’s blessing as His Seed is sown in the hearts of those who listen. Stuart Church of Christ has a new minister starting with them next Lord’s Day. Ray Frizzel is not known to us. We pray his work with the Church in Stuart will benefit the cause of Christ there.
Riddle for the Week
They ask to sit among the Gods, they were brothers, And their mother was a cousin of Mary, the mother of the Lord. Who were they? From Then, XIII In the ages of the far future through stern discipline and punishment for sin, all men shall at length be restored, redeemed, made holy and happy. This is the doctrine of Universal Redemption. The only trouble with this doctrine is it is a lie from Hell! That all souls who fail of the grace of God, eternal life shall be punished, not by eternal torment, but annihilation, complete loss not only of God and Heaven, but “I” will NOT cease to exist. Ceasing to be, forever and ever, man will never know the FULL anguish, eternal misery. Complete destruction of body and soul will end what began in non-existence. Nothing is lost or harmed. The “I” will become non-existent. It must have taken A long TIME to think up this lie. It is more complicated than the previous lie and soothes the sinner into a deeper sleep in the mire of degradation All who die in sin shall be banished from God’s presence and exist in a state of conscious suffering for all of Eternity. This concurs with the teaching of the Scriptures for the future life: the man who is redeemed will live gloriously well with the good from all ages of existence while the damned shall live in an unutterably painful existence with the evil; with the garbage of mankind. Malignity of sin will mean misery and ruin to the impenitent, irretrievable ruin. The fatal, irrevocable result of unrepented sin surrounds three words. Damned, Hell, and Everlasting. The word damn is heard often. Every time it is heard it is spoken by those who give it no consideration. It means to condemn, to judge adversely. “Woman, neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.” John 8:11 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16:16 “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.” Romans 13:2 Hell, the Greek word Gehenna, is used 18 times in the New Testament. Once it is translated from the word tartarus, 2 Peter 2:4, five times from the Greek word Hades, the unseen realm, twelve times from the word gehenna a word that was a metaphor from Hinnon, a valley outside Jerusalem where garbage, debris, dead bodies of animals and unclaimed humanity were pitched. In this valley a constant fire burnt, we are told. Hinnon had previously been the place the Jews offered their children to the god Moloch. Everlasting is from the Greek word aionios. It means all of the period to which it refers. If it refers to time, it is not limited. If it refers to timelessness, it is infinite. “And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on then that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 So horrible is the punishment of the wicked, God used figures of speech to describe it, not words. To misuse the teaching about this place is to cause it to lose its power as a deterrent. Then, there is Heaven. To the finite mind, Heaven is inconceivable. No experience man can have will prepare him for this Place. It is impossible to realize. As the spiritual body is analogous to the earthly, as the oak is the result of the acorn, as the Lily is the result of a bulb, and the flower of the seed; so Heaven is end of the righteous!! Heaven is supreme joy. Heaven is to be a condition as much as a place. There must be a Heaven somewhere, no other conclusion befits a benevolent Creator!!
Ilene Singletary were baptized into Christ last Lord’s Day evening. Rickey comes to Christ from the Baptist denomination while Ilene comes from Roman Catholicism to be a new creature in Christ. Welcome to the Body of Christ. Linda is in Tampa. October 2nd was David’s birthday and she went to visit. She will be returning this afternoon. Pray for her safe return. There are new food lists for the food program. See Theresa. If you are visiting with us for the first time and do not Understand what is taught or read; please ask your question before leaving. We will not be confrontational. Barbara is flying next week to attend her daughter’s Wedding. Keep her in prayer.
Riddle for the week:
has him as head never mentions him (although 24 other brethren From Then, XIV Is Heaven real or is it the result of the fertile imagination of a man mocking mankind? Heaven is to be IF eternity has a purpose since it is THE expression of LOVE of one Deity to another, It is the final revelation!! Interestingly, Heaven is not described as is Hell. Man needed to know what to avoid but not what God has in store for “them that love Him”. Heaven is also somewhere. I am not sure it is as much an address as a situation or maybe both. It seems it is always used as such in scripture; all we can be sure about is that Heaven will be where those who possess the nature of God are. Another interesting thing about the situation or place called Heaven is that it is always associated with Joy, Happiness, and Fulfillment!! It is the ultimate adoration expressed for anyone, anytime. Here, the “redeemed from all the earth” will be busily engaged for all eternity. Here, there is no thing as SIN. Here, the chief cause of sorrow and separation will not be. Here, no curse or result of sin will be. Never in Heaven will imperfection be nor there a dead level of existence! Some have chided the saint with the perceived boredom they think Heaven will have. As God has made us to always achieve, improve, learn, grow, and think, how would Heaven not be but a sped up version of all the above? How would anyone ever be “bored”? (It has always been my personal opinion that anyone who could consider Heaven boredom need not consider going to this glorious place!!) Here, the best, most obedient, best improved, highest attained, fondest associates will live. How could that create boredom?? If it is, I would like a little of this special boredom, AND I will take all you want to miss!! Here, all the characteristics of personality are explained and glorified. We will then know WHY we were as we were, understand WHAT we were to God, and see the PURPOSE for His plan. There will never be any un-employment. Life (as we know and define it) means growth, activity, learning, and improving. Unlike life on this planet, labor that does not weary the soul will be ours. Disappointment will never mar the placidity of that society and with all of this our picture is still marred with illimitable imagination that will be far short and inadequate for God’s expression of Love to all who labored for Him and His Son, here!! They who hope to enter this wonderful existence MUST begin by doing God’s Will here, for that is ALL THAT WILL OR CAN BE DONE, THERE!! Anything you don’t like about God, here, you had better get fixed. God said; “I change Not” so don’t think Heaven will be made up of a society of the “do nots” and the “me-ocrats”. If you don’t do His will here, how can you expect to convince Him His will is not important, there?? Just for one moment consider the majesty of such a place. We all have seen the fine attainments of man’s architecture, imagine, there!! We do have a small comparison. Compare a man-made church with the Church of Christ. The purchase price of the Church of Christ with the price man or men have paid to establish, theirs! Imagine what man would have come up with IF Christ had not given His church for them to make a damning copy. How will it be in Heaven? There is no language allowed man to describe the realm of the spiritual. As the “natural body” is not the explanation of the “spiritual body”, what can explain to man what God has not revealed??!! Jesus sought not to indulge His people with elaborate descriptions of the life beyond, all He said is, “I go to prepare a place .. that where I am you may be also”. For those who live in the true purpose of this life, death is a graduation into “the life that is life, indeed.”
News of the Family
Christ Sunday evening. Joe comes to Christ from the Roman Catholic Church. We are pleasured to add Joe to the list of new Christians. Let us all pray for and help him grow in the Lord. Matthew Wiley came home on a flying week-end trip. It is his first time home since entering the Navy. We all Looked forward to his return, especially his Mother and Father. Rebecca Burton was too sick last week to attend either Service. Keep her in prayer. If you are visiting with us for the first time. Please, fill out a first time attendance card.
Riddle for the Week:
The whole seed was cast off yet the promise did not fail, the physical is only a small part of the whole, and God, without injustice, selected Isaac, rather than Esau. What is it? |
384 E Midway Rd
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Preacher/Evangelist: Joe Wilson
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