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Newsletter for April 2002
The
Pastor’s Pen
Rom
1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith
to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. 18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 20
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without
excuse: 21
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not
as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. 22
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, dishonour
their own bodies between themselves: 25
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and
served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.
Amen. 26
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for
even their women did change the natural use into that which is against
nature: 27
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the
woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working
that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence
of their error which was meet. 28
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which
are not convenient; 29
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness,
covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit,
malignity; whisperers, 30
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors
of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural
affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (KJV) The
Church is going to help our youth remain virtuous and rise to a
level of godliness in a world that sinks evermore into godless immorality
and moral relativism.
We will do this by introducing a timely and relevant Christian
program of sexual purity through abstinence to aid our youth in
their fight against immorality and worldliness. 1Thes 4: 1
Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order
to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge
you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2
For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority
of the Lord Jesus. 3
It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you
should avoid sexual immorality; 4
that each of you should learn to control his own body in
a way that is holy and honorable, 5
not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know
God; (NIV) Beginning
with the Sabbath of May 4, at 10:30 a.m., and concluding with the
Sabbath of June 15, Susan Chiappone & Frank Johnston will be
leading our young people through a highly successful program called
“GAME PLAN”. It is
a class designed to help teens make wise, responsible decisions
for their future by choosing abstinence until marriage.
By respecting God’s institution of marriage, respecting and
honoring their bodies and by waiting for the one true love they
will
exchange wedding vows with, young people can be spared the humiliation,
the suffering and the painful consequences of our culture’s loose
and immoral behavior. Disease, teen pregnancy, and a loss of self-esteem
through respect for one’s self are the obvious consequences of immoral
behavior. In this class,
our young men and women will learn about the emotional, mental,
and social health that results from following God’s instructions
and the spiritual implications of ignoring our Creator and His Heavenly-patterned
marriage relationship. We
know that most young people who succumb to pre-marital sex deeply
regret their choices and wish that they could have had some support
and education to help them stand up for what is right.
The Church, through this class, continues to support our
fine and wholesome youth in their Christian walk. 1
Cor 6:13
…... Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord;
and the Lord for the body15
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall
I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of
an harlot? God forbid. 16
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is
one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the
body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own
body. 19
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your
own? 20
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (KJV) 1
Cor 6:18-20 18
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits
are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his
own body. 19
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit,
who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your
own; 20
you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
body. (NIV) We encourage
our youth to invite their friends and parents are welcome to preview
the material if they so choose.
This is the kind of program that can save a young person
from disastrous choices and ensure a most wonderful and joyous wedding
day! Jeff Booth Last
month pictures of tragedy once again shocked us.
This time it was not a tragedy of terrorism, but pictures
of a young girl taken from her home.
Danielle Van Dam of San Diego, California abducted from the
safety of her home, kidnapped from her bedroom.
Almost immediately suspicion of law enforcement pointed to
a neighbor across the street. The
question I want to examine is what causes a person to loose sight
of right and wrong, of simple human decency? Some
very alarming information gives us a background as to the magnitude
of this problem; each month here in America 2,100 children are reported
as missing. Yes some run away, and true there are some who are abducted
by a parent in custody disputes, but many of these children are
victims of a growing problem – abduction by a pedophile.
These perverted twisted individuals have no morals, they
don’t appear to have any morsel of human decency left in them –
they are totally without love, and apparently without basic understanding
of right and wrong. What
causes this? As computers
grew in popularity a number of years back, programmers developed
a saying, “garbage in garbage out.”
What they were saying is that for a computer you only get
out of it what you put in.
Computers don’t develop information on their own. Our
mind is somewhat like a computer; what we put into our mind, is
what will come out. When
we see the results of a pedophile, we see the results of pornography.
Their mind has been filled with garbage so out comes garbage.
Input is what develops our thinking and as a man thinks so
is he! Many
who would not dare put dirt into their automobile engine, think
nothing of viewing garbage, of reading trash.
The prevailing thought is that “nobody knows, nobody gets
hurt”, tell that to the hundreds of parents who each month loose
their child to some perverted, selfish, undisciplined jerk who didn’t
care enough about his mind to guard what went in.
It all started years before and it has everything to do with
mental diet. For
Danielle’s abductor and murder, I doubt if he woke up one morning
thinking “I think I will look at a bit of porn today so that I can
begin ruining my mind.” You
see it takes longer and starts much more subtly.
Guard your mind, take careful care of what goes
in or as Paul said to the Church at Philippi, “Finally, brethren,
whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things
are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if
there is anything praiseworthy let your mind dwell on these things.”
The good things that we need to dwell on are found in God’s
word, this is good food for the mind, not garbage.
The results are good, not evil. Remember, garbage in garbage out.
A diet of garbage is what causes the hundreds of evil tragedies
like Danielle’s. The
constant onslaught of garbage from print, TV, the Internet, and
society in general has an affect on our minds.
Let us avoid corruption by filling our minds with God’s word,
ingesting words of life. Joe Kirkpatrick |
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