THE BEACON - Electronic Edition - 8/2/05 Wednesday Night Services a.. At Wednesday night services, the Bible is taught, the word of God Almighty. b.. Wednesday night services increase our faith as we better understand and appreciate the unsearchable riches of God. c.. Wednesday night services are a midweek respite from life in a sinful world, a recharge of our spiritual batteries. d.. Wednesday night services help prepare us to meet life's challenges. e.. Wednesday night services help build stronger character. f.. Wednesday night services provide an opportunity to associate with brethren and encourage each other. g.. Wednesday night services provide an opportunity to bring others with you to hear the gospel of Christ. h.. Wednesday night services enable us to join our hearts in prayer and praising God in song. i.. Wednesday night services may be the time when you hear some truth that will change your life forever. If you don't attend Wednesday night services... What do you do with that time? How does that activity compare to these blessings? Which activity will better help you go to heaven? Which is a better use of your time? - by Whit Sasser ______________________________________________ Preaching Out Of Season In 2 Timothy 4:2, Paul said, "Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction." What is meant by this expression "out of season?" Sometimes, the reception one gets to gospel preaching shows it to be "out of season." Though there may be some initial interest, in the end there is not much fruit born to our efforts. Where is good preaching "out of season"? It may be out of season in a local church. This is Paul's chief concern when exhorting Timothy. In the assembly of the saints, a time would arise when gospel preaching was no longer desirable. Paul seems to say, "Preach it anyway, even if it is unseasonable, for as long as you can." We do not simply preach in the church as long as there are favorable results. Another "out of season" application would be in the preaching we do to the world. Some places have more favorable responses to the gospel than others. What if you are living in a place where the word falls on deaf ears? You preach it anyway! Paul had a much better response from the people of Berea than in Thessalonica (Acts 17:11), but he preached to all of them! A third idea is that preaching is sometimes "out of season" due to changing times. Although at one point in our history, New Testament preaching became popular, and many flocked to hear it and obey. But now it is hard to find interest today, much less obedience, and the temptation is to blame ourselves. At best we feel guilty and at the worst we begin to employ carnal tactics to "draw" people to the gospel. Preaching God's word is just sometimes "out of season," and it may be that is the case right now. What are we to do? Remember that we are called to faithfulness, not results. The increase is God's doing and should there be none, we must continue preaching. Noah preached over 100 years and unless he converted his seven family members during that time, he converted NO ONE! Was he a failure? Absolutely not. This goes to show that we cannot lose heart in preaching when it is "out of season." Pray for the spiritual harvest to whiten again and for the preaching of God's message to be "in season" once more. - by Kyle Campbell _______________________________________________ Willing To Die How many people would you be willing to die for? Be honest now! Maybe your husband or wife, one of your children, but the list starts to get pretty short after that, doesn't it? Can you imagine dying in the place of a convicted criminal? Someone is scheduled to die on death row for murder, and you say, "Please let me take his place!" Not very likely, huh? Paul was so right when he said, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:7-8) Why would Christ do that? Only the love of an Almighty God could be willing to sacrifice so much. We should respond in praise, and in a desire to give all our love and obedience to the One who loved us more than life itself. - by Alan Smith ____________________________________________ Pointless Preaching The famous denominational preacher Charles Spurgeon complained about a fellow preacher whose sermons he said were "little better than sacred miniature painting" and amounted to "holy trifling". Spurgeon went on to explain that: "He is great upon the ten toes of the beast, the four faces of the cherubim, the mystical meaning of badgers' skins . . . and the windows of Solomon's temple: but the sins of business men, the temptations of the times, and the needs of the age, he scarcely ever touches upon. Such preaching reminds me of a lion engaged in mousehunting." (Spurgeon's Lectures to His Students) Spurgeon has been dead for over 100 years, but the situation has not improved. There's precious little preaching that addresses the real problem of sin in men's lives. Most preachers (like Spurgeon himself) teach a perverted doctrine that could not save a man even if he was convicted of his sin. Paul says that they are "accursed" (Gal. 1:9). Churches of Christ are not immune from this problem. We see more and more of this 'pointless preaching'. The test of a preacher's worth has come to be his ability to entertain and make folks feel good, rather than his ability to proclaim God's truth in a way that provokes men to obedience. Too many sermons that are preached do not include any information about what one must do to be saved. Such efforts clearly miss the mark. There is a proper place for words of comfort such as Paul preached (1 Thess. 1:11). But these positive words of peace need to be based on the foundation of true obedience, or else they are meaningless. - by Greg Gwin ____________________________________________ Trends . . . One out of four Americans (25%) purchase a lottery ticket each week. And, those who claim to be "born again Christians" are just as likely as non-Christians to purchase a lottery ticket (23% to 27%, respectively). - via Barna Research Online Luke 12:15 "And Jesus said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." _____________________________________________ Some quotes worth pondering . . . "I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man." - George Washington "Kindness is a language which the dumb can speak, the deaf can understand." "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." "If you feel you have no faults ... there's another one." "The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement." ______________________________________________ News from Collegevue . . . July 31, 2005 Greetings and welcome! We're glad you are here today, and we especially welcome our visitors. New Member: We are happy to report that Missy Kahl has asked to be identified as a member of the Collegevue congregation. Her address is: 1790 Blackburn Lane, Spring Hill, TN 37174; phone 446-6078. Please make Missy feel welcome here. Continue to pray for those who are sick, including: Buddy Hood, Lynn Keeton's father and also her mother-in-law, Alvin Lunn, Tina Overton, Eloise Andrews, Jerry Riggins, Diana Meade's father, and others. The Thursday morning class begins again this week. Remember that it is open to both women and men. Please come! (Be sure to pick up a lesson for the first class meeting. They are in the lobby today.) The singing class continues following the evening service today. Wade Shelton encourages those 30 years old and younger to attend. Our new call-in program began last Thursday evening. As was announced, this is an "internet only" program - so you must have an internet connection to be able to listen. The program airs at 8pm on Thursdays, and you can log on at our website (www.Collegevue.com). Plan to listen, call-in, and also try to tell others about this new effort. Our first program had listeners from Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, and Oregon! Figures for the week of 7/24/05: Sunday, Bstudy, 127; AM, 160; PM, 125; Wed., 147; Contrib., $2390 ______________________________________________ "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. ______________________________________________ Visit our website at: www.Collegevue.com email us at: collegevuecoc@bellsouth.net contact the editor (Greg Gwin) at: greggwin@bellsouth.net