HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH EZINE

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CHULA VISTA BOOKS Chula Vista Books is owned and operated by Mark and Teah McWhorter. We carry a wide selection of Bible related materials--ladies' books, childrens' materials, commentaries, apologetics, lectureship books, missions books, class books, debates, sermon books, church history, topical studies, Bible covers, Bibles, tracts, BCCs and more. We also send out used book lists from time to time. Unfortunately we do not have a catalog at present but invite your inquiries. If you would like to be on our mailing list, send us your email address. Mark McWhorter, 420 Chula Vist Mtn Rd, Pell City AL 35125, Phone 205-338-1843 THE LORD'S WAY Does your congregation have a web site? Can you add, update and delete information from your existing web site easily? If you answered no to either question visit The Lord's Way. This new service allows you to create a web site for your congregation and update it yourself whenever you want by simply completing online forms. The service is designed for any congregation that wants a web site that contains current, updated and fresh information but does not want to invest the time and money in learning about the inner-workings of the Internet. Your new site will be packed with information about your congregation. Visit us and take a tour! BOOKS WANTED I would be interested in any preacher(s)'s libraries that are not in use. I promise to put any and all books to good use, either by myself, or other preachers or preaching students. Please don't let them sit in boxes out in the garage. I would gladly pay for postage, and if you require, I may be able to purchase them from you. Please call or email, Tim Smith at: (903) 935-7448; EMAIL. CHRISTIAN, RELIGIOUS, HOMESCHOOL BOOKS AND MORE Lebanon, TN Phone: 615/443-3643 JADE Books is a family-owned business; we sell books by faithful Christians, reference books, Bibles/covers, Bible materials, homeschool books and more. We extend discounts whenever we can, especially to preachers and preaching school students! Visit our web site; use a credit card on-line, e-mail or phone to order CLICK HERE. THE CHRISTIAN HOMESITE The Christian HomeSite offers free sites to any church of Christ congregation. Absolutely no charge to the congregation, unless a unique address is desired. This is a personal web ministry and I have never asked for any support. Currently, it is one of the biggest church of Christ sites and we're always looking for more good material. I think every congregation should have at least an info page on the net, so people can find them when desired. Here is a page with required info to have a site: Click Here Terry Collins. SPIRITBUILDING.COM To help build your spirit for the contest of life, try Spiritbuilding CDs and books. We carry a broad selection of wonderful accapella CDs and tapes in a variety of styles and plan to add contemperary uplifting music soon as well. We offer books on church growth, home and family, and gift books. We also carry thousands of items that are not presently listed. If you'd like to buy with a 10% discount under retail and no sales tax just email us your order. We carry any material by Zondervan, Baker, Word publishing, Word Entertainment, Kirkbride, Tyndale, Thomas Nelson, Howard, Veggie Tales, and hundreds more. As well, we carry most material published by brethren today including class curriculum, home school curriculum, and commentaries. Check us out CLICK HERE.

LINKS TO HELP MAKE YOUR DAY! Wings of Hope Traces of the Kingdom BulletinGold Ezine Secular Links of Value Alabama's Scenic Byway The Gospel Gazette Online Household of Faith Ezine Archives Massive # of study aids Links! Numerous Christian Resources Tony Horton cnlglfg.com

MUSINGS OF JOEL If you are not as old as I am, and most folks aren't, you probably do not recall the old time farming, with horses and mules, or even oxen, and doing much of the row cultivation and harvesting strictly by hand. It was certainly a rough and tiresome method of farming here in the rural South, especially in our immediate area of hills and mountains, very little level land with good sandy soil, but mostly hard red clay with many, many rocks on slopes and hillsides. We had to work from just after daylight until sundown, with a short break for lunch. We always used mules, they were more gentle and steady than the fiery horses or the creeping pace of the oxen. All these animals were pitiable. They worked the hours that we did, but they pulled the plow through that red clay while we only wrestled to steer it and keep it in the ground. But God blessed most of us with a good life of health, the best foods and fruits, cool, unpolluted water, fresh milk and eggs. And it taught us that our livelihood was not a handout. One of our neighbors, who was not a Christian in his earlier years, when approached by my father, and/or other Christians in an effort to get him to come to church made the remark, "I do not believe a man can live a Christian life and farm the land that I've got!" Fortunately, he later did become a Christian. And as years past, came the advent of farm tractors and other machinery that took some of the backache out of raising crops, plus many of us left the farm. I don't think I have ever been as happy though as when we were going through those difficult years. No air conditioning, no refrigerators, no televisions, very few cars (my father had a model T Ford until 1937.), outdoor toilets, kerosene lamps for light at night, and on and on. Those were modern times, consider life during Jesus' time.

THE BABY AND THE WASH By T. Pierce Brown Some have coined such expressions as, "Throw the baby out with the wash," "Lean over backwards to stand up straight," and various other ones to describe what is conceived as an over reaction to a situation or philosophy. Perhaps in the church those who practice that phenomenon may be called "ultra-conservative." At any rate, although labels such as "liberal" and "conservative" may be dangerous, deceitful and divisive, there is little doubt that most of us use various labels to identify things and persons in some fashion. Without trying to attach an opprobrious label to anyone, I think it might be helpful to suggest one or more areas where it seems that some brethren have done disservice to "the baby," and perhaps not even eliminated the dirty wash. Since there has arisen in the church various aspects of the "Pentecostal movement," such as tongue speaking, direct operation of the Holy Spirit in conversion, there are those who have taken the position that if God does anything in answer to prayer, this would be a direct operation of the Holy Spirit and the idea must be condemned as false doctrine. Some attempt to modify that idea by saying, "God may providentially do some things," but they seem unable to explain exactly what they mean by that. There should be a clear distinction between a miracle that was apparent to all who saw it that it was a miracle, and God acting directly on a situation and causing something to happen that would not otherwise have happened. For example, when I pray for a sick person, I see nothing strange or wrong with praying that God heal the sick person. If God does it, I have no way of knowing that He did, so it is not a miracle in the Bible sense. However, it does not solve the problem to pray that God will bless the doctor, the nurse, the medicine, and all means that are used and still deny that God does anything. It is no more a miracle for God to heal the sick person than it is to bless the doctor's hands that they may do something that they would not have done otherwise. When God "providentially" got Moses' mother to put him in the ark and got Pharaoh's daughter to come down to the river at the same time Moses drifted to the spot, He was acting, just as surely as He was acting when He turned the river into blood. However, the first was not a miracle as the second was, for no one could tell that God had anything to do with the first situation. How He got Moses down there at the right moment without anyone seeing His hand in it, or without overruling the will of anyone, we do not know. This is why we have used the term, "providence." However, by the use of that term, we do not have to deny that God is still active in the affairs of men. To do so would, in terms of this article, be throwing the baby out with the wash. There is another area where it is possible that some of us are trying to throw the baby out with the wash. We have a group in the church who see nothing wrong with accepting as a Christian brother anyone who claims to accept Jesus as Lord. It matters not that they have neither understood nor obeyed the gospel. This ungodly, unscriptural practice has led some brethren to so react as to stigmatize and ostracize any who would say a good word about some denominational preacher or practice, or even be courteous to their members. To them, the expression, "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" means that you sin even if you play golf with a denominational preacher. If you do not call a specific denomination by name when you point out some false doctrine, you are presumed to be a liberal, compromising the truth. The baby still needs to be washed, and the dirt eradicated. We just need to be careful that we do not do more harm than good by the way we respond to situations. Jesus was teaching approximately the same thing when he gave the parable of the tares and the wheat. He did not mean that we are to disregard the tares and pretend that they are not there, or that they are as good as the wheat. He did include the idea that we are to be careful that we do not root out or trample down the wheat as we get rid of the tares. We are not to get rid of them in the sense that the Roman church got rid of heretics -- by burning them at stake, or otherwise killing or persecuting them. We are to have no fellowship with them as brothers in Christ, but we are not to take vengeance on them or punish them as God alone has the right to do, and will do in the judgment day. Published in The Old Paths Archive, (http://www.oldpaths.com)

ANNOUNCEMENTS

COLVIN STREET CONGREGATION, ANNISTON, AL, ANNOUNCES NEW RADIO PROGRAM For those in the listening area of WDNG (1450) AM in Anniston, Alabama tune in for the Colvin Street church of Christ's radio program on Sunday mornings. The time slot is 9:30 A.M. - 10:00 A.M. CST The regular speaker will be Elbert Lewis. SOUTHEASTERN LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR CHRIST The future of the church rests on our ability to train effective leaders. There will always be a need for leaders to rise to the occasion as servants, Bible class teachers, ministers, deacons, and elders. Believing that such training should begin at an early age, Leadership Training for Christ provides an opportunity for youngsters, beginning in the third grade, to recognize and develop leadership skills. Training is Biblical, practical, and in-depth. Leadership Training for Christ provides local congregations an opportunity to work with children and teens on a year-round basis. The second annual SELTC convention is being planned for March 29-31 in Mobile, AL. For more information please see our website Click Here or call 205-988-5808. BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE, SCOTTSBORO EXTENSION The Bear Valley Bible Institute, Scottsboro Extension (BVBISE) is half-way through it's second year of operation under the oversight of the elders of the Broad Street Church of Christ in Scottsboro, Alabama. The school is an extension of the BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE of DENVER. 40 courses (and eight out-of-class mini-courses) completed over a four-year period lead to the Bachelor of Biblical Studies Degree. The Associates Degree may be earned in half that time. One course is taught each month (except July and December) in two all-day Saturday sessions along with outside assignments. The school is TUITION FREE. The only costs to the student are for required texts & materials, and a $5 fee each Saturday to help cover the teacher's expenses. The teachers are academically well-qualified and experienced gospel preachers who know and love the Bible as the verbally inspired and authoritative word of God, and who volunteer their time and work as a labor of love. BVBISE is committed to training sound and able Bible teachers (men and women), and faithful gospel preachers for service in the kingdom of Christ. The format is designed to make this training possible for men and women who must continue their jobs and other pursuits while they study. Credit is given for previous college or preacher-school study. A preacher-school graduate may be able to earn the Bachelor of Biblical Studies Degree in as little as four months of study. For more information please contact the Broad Street Church of Christ, 613 South Broad Street, Scottsboro, AL 35768. Phone: 256-574-2489. EMAIL

PARTING SHOTS FROM JOEL

Nadine & Joel Hendon

Doctors notes found in medical records. *Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year. *On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it had completely disappeared. *The patient has been depressed ever since she began seeing me in 1983. *The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed. May God bless His faithful children where ever they are.

THE CHARCOAL-BURNER AND THE FULLER A Charcoal-Burner carried on his trade in his own house. One day he met a friend, a Fuller, and entreated him to come and live with him, saying that they should be far better neighbors and that their housekeeping expenses would be lessened. The Fuller replied, "The arrangement is impossible as far as I am concerned, for whatever I should whiten, you would immediately blacken again with your charcoal." Like will draw like....Aesop

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Household of Faith Ezine is planned to be published every two weeks beginning in September, 2001. Materials in this are gleaned and compiled by the editor, Joel Hendon. Our purpose is to help present items of interest to New Testament Christians, to furnish a "meeting" place for Christians to help other Christians by doing business with them and for other such interaction.(...let us do good unto all men, especially unto them that are of the household of faith. Gal 6: 10). To submit any messages, articles, ads, announcements or comments, Click Here.

Policies & Charges: Subscription to this ezine is free and may be started simply by requesting it via email to the above address. All members and congregations of the New Testament church of our Lord may submit announcements which will be published free. Classified advertisements, likewise, will be published free until further notice. If the volume of ads becomes overwhelming, a small charge may become necessary. Under no circumstances will charges be made without notification to subscribers. We reserve the right to decline to publish any article, announcement, ads, or other such materials for any reason such as limited space, anything considered undesirable from a Christian's point of view, or any other reason. It is very likely that we will receive many more articles than we will be able to run. All submissions should be kept as concise as practical.