THE BEACON - Electronic Edition - 5/25/99 DYING TO SELF When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, being counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dying to self. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinions ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take in all in patient, loving silence, that is dying to self. When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any impunctuality, or any annoyance; when you stand face-to-face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility -- and endure it as Jesus endured, that is dying to self. When you are content with any food, any offering, any climate, any society, any raiment, any interruption by the will of God, that is dying to self. When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendations, when you can truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self. When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and in desperate circumstances, that is dying to self. When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart, that is dying to self. "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 16:24-25). - author unknown ______________________________________________ About Your Attendance Preachers should never have to preach on attendance. It should be obvious that when a Christian does not care to attend all the services, his interest is elsewhere. It is foolish to assert that we have a passage which pronounces anathema on those who don't come on Sunday and Wednesday nights. We don't need one. All we need show is that interest and attendance are connected and that a person who is truly interested will attend. Now you can try to explain that away all you want and when you are finished it will still say the same thing: a person who is able yet does not attend the services is not interested in what is going on at the services. Bring your excuses, pronounce your justifications, rationalize all you want. And when you are done, the parable of the sower will still affirm the same thing: prepared soil is the only kind which results in produce. - Dee Bowman ______________________________________________ Divorce Times Four Jesus is very clear about those who take marriage vows lightly as if they can be dismissed: "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." (Matthew 19:9, NKJV) It is entirely possible that four people could ultimately lose their souls because of what one person did when he put away his spouse. Count them with me . . . The man who divorced his wife without scriptural cause . . .the one whom he marries . . . the one whom he divorced . . . the one that she marries . . . four people lost . . . Let all of us who are married keep our word (our vows) to each other with all the strength that God has given. - Bob Hines ______________________________________________ "So Great Salvation" Hebrews 2:3 "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him." Christians should think long and meditate often about the wonderful salvation that God has made available to us through His Son. Look at this text, and realize that we are the recipients of a: *"Great Salvation": It is great because our past sins have been forgiven; we enjoy a present relationship with God as our loving Father; and we have the hope of a beautiful future in eternity. *"Spoken Salvation": Too many people in the religious world are trusting their subjective feelings concerning their eternal souls. They wouldn't do that if it involved their material possessions or their financial security, but they do it with their souls. It simply makes no sense. God does not ask us to trust our salvation to such uncertainty. Instead, he has given us His spoken word, whereby we can learn and understand the things essential to salvation (Rom. 1:16; 10:17; Eph. 3:3-5). *"Confirmed Salvation": We can be sure that the salvation offered through Jesus Christ is legitimate. The message of salva-tion was confirmed by the men who knew Jesus, who saw Him, heard Him, worked with Him. They were eyewitnesses to His life, and their words and accounts assure us that these things are true. In fact, their willingness to die for His cause is one of the surest proofs of all. Furthermore, God also confirmed their testimony by way of the miracles they were empowered to do (see the previous verse, Heb. 2:4). *"Conditional Salvation": A key word in this great text is the word IF. It clearly teaches that our salvation is conditional upon meeting the requirements set forth in God's word. God offers us this wonderful gift. We show our willingness to accept it by doing His will. Salvation is for "all them that obey him" (Heb. 5:8,9). - Greg Gwin _____________________________________________ Trends . . . The World Population Reference Bureau in Washing-ton, DC, estimates that there were 1.6 billion people on earth at the beginning of the century. They also report that the world's population will surpass the 6 billion mark before January 1, 2000. This means that there are more people living today than the sum total of all those who have lived and died throughout history. Think about this in regards to Jesus command that we should "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). _____________________________________________ Some quotes worth pondering . . . "Whoever gossips to you will be a gossip of you." "A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter." (Proverbs 11:13) "Ignorance is always swift to speak." "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." (James 1:19) ______________________________________________ News from Collegevue . . . New Members: We are excited to welcome Mike and Chris Johnson as members here at Collegevue. Please do your part to make them feel "at home" here. Add this information to your directories: 5016 Hays Drive, Columbia, TN 38401; phone 840-8322. The bi-monthly Saturday evening devotional will be at the Hobbs' this week. Plan to attend this special Bible study at 6pm. Next Sunday we will have the first of several Sunday evening singings. Wiley Deason will be here to lead us during our regular 6 o'clock assembly. In June we'll have our "quarterly singing" at 2pm on the 27th with James Coburn. Wiley will return on the last Sunday in July and August. So, we have lots of singing scheduled. Plan to be here for all of these. The dates of our Summer Bible Series have been changed. The new dates are June 28 - July 2. Mark your calendars! Today is the final day to submit names of men to be considered for the office of deacon. Please see one of the elders. Our children's Bible drill will be at 5:40 this afternoon. Our numbers have been down recently. Be sure to bring your kids for this special time of Bible study. Figures for the week of 5/16/99: AM, 94; PM, 71; Wednesday, 79; Contribution, $1875 _______________________________________________ "The Beacon - Electronic Edition" is sent out weekly from Columbia, TN, and contains articles and information taken from the most recent "paper" bulletin of the Collegevue Church of Christ. We hope you will use this material in any way you can that will glorify our Father. Please give proper credit to the respective authors. - Greg Gwin ggwin@edge.net