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Monthly Newsletter for March 2003

The Pastor’s Pen

Hello Brothers & Sisters,

Linda & I recently made a trip to Colorado Springs to begin organizing Festival ’03, a Festival of Tabernacles celebration. We have been truly blessed by God this year with a wonderful hotel and meeting facilities for the Festival this fall. This year’s Festival will be Saturday, Oct. 11^th through Saturday the 18^th.

We have reserved meeting space & sleeping rooms at the Wyndham in Colorado Springs, 5580 Tech Center Drive.

Facilities Include:

· Outdoor pool

· Indoor heated pool

· Fitness center/spa

· Gratzi Grill-Northern Californian & Italian cuisine

· Chats Lounge

· Safe-deposit boxes

· Laundry facilities

· Shuttle van

· Business Center

· Walking/jogging trails

· Complimentary USA Today Newspaper

· Best view in the Springs

Guest Room Features:

· Non-smoking rooms available

· Coffee maker

· Direct high-speed Internet access

· Hair dryer

· Iron/ironing board

· Mini-refrigerator upon request

· Cordless phones

· Alarm clock/CD

· Cable/in-room movies

· Nintendo Game System

Our Festival ’03 rate is a bargain at $75.00 per night for 1 to 4 people per room. The Wyndham is generously giving us a complimentary full buffet breakfast each morning in Gratzi’s Restaurant (a $12.95 + tax value)!

Call 719-260-1800 & ask for the Christian Church of God’s Festival ’03 special rate. Veronica will be setting up a link at our website at www.christianchurchofgod.org so that you can make reservations directly over the Internet if you wish.

Activities will be planned soon. We will have a planning session for all of you interested in helping with planning. Some of the possibilities include a Pikes Peak Bike Ride, Pikes Peak Cog Railway, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Horseback Riding, Dinner at the Flying W Ranch, a trip to the Royal Gorge, Seven Falls, Garden of the Gods, Cave of the Winds. The Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family and Cowboy Hall of Fame, Olympic Training Facility and Cripple Creek are other sites worth visiting.           

We will have an exciting array of special guest speakers this year & the Church of God 7^th Day in Denver may be joining us for one of the Sabbaths. Looking forward to your help & participation enhancing this year’s Festival experience!

Your brother,

Jeff Booth

Truth, Justice, and the "American way"

American is a blessed country, we as Americans have received and enjoy many of those blessings. Along with the prosperity doled out to America has been a natural by-product, the attitude of superiority. This short article is not a political statement, but I wonder if we as American Christians realize how much our attitude is affected by this American attitude of pre-eminence?

We often wonder why much of the world hates us, and for good reason the fact is many do hate America. Little wonder given the overall attitude the majority of American’s exhibit. Please understand I am not saying that our way is incorrect, I think we have been given the most wonderful system know to man (it is however not God’s system)!

The question is are Christians also affected by the American attitude, and more specifically how does this background affect our mindset towards the truth of understanding that God has blessed us with?

God gave great blessings to America, no question about that fact. God also has given to us a very precious blessing in understanding His truth. We know that His word is truth; we have been blessed with the knowledge of that truth. If we are following the American way it will lead us into the wrong attitude, an attitude of moral supremacy.

I think many of the problems that the Christians as a whole experience come about from an attitude of moral supremacy, which is just a nice way of saying "self-righteousness".

Some realize this problem and react to it, in a variety of ways. Some abandon the truth, thinking this will solve the problem, but it doesn’t – doing so only creates additional problems. Our purpose today is not to examine this issue but instead to look at a more productive method of addressing the prevailing American attitude of superiority that has such a negative impact on Christianity.

Jesus told us that the truth would make us free, and it will – but only if we accept the truth with an attitude of gratitude and humility. This is critical, knowing the truth will only benefit us if we accept the truth in humility. The knowledge of the truth doesn’t provide us with any moral or other superiority; the truth is there to show us the nature of God. As we learn more about God, we should become even more humbled. It is self-righteousness that leads us down the path of moral superiority. The truth should lead us to humility.

God’s grace and love provide all glimmers of any righteousness we may have, it is not of our doing or understanding.

It is time to revisit the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus, particularly the 4^th chapter. Paul urges us (God preserved these words for our edification) to walk in a manner worthy of our calling – with all humility, gentleness, patience, showing forbearance to one another in love. This is the exact opposite of the attitude of I am better than you!

Read then entire chapter it is timely for us, and verse 15 instructs us to speak the truth, but notice how we are to speak the truth.

Truth, in particular God’s truth is a wonderful blessing; let us not insult the glorious grace of God by thinking this gift from God somehow makes us superior, the truth should humble us before each other and before God. I urge you to read and take to heart the truth of God, don’t abandon the truth at the same time; don’t allow yourself to abandon God by having the American attitude of moral superiority.

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