Our_Bulletin_8_3

Family News and Notes

Building Fund If you are able and have plans to contribute to this fund you may do so today.

Reminder to the men of the congregation. Don't forget the Men's Business Meeting following evening services next Sunday. Your presence is important.

The Summer Youth Series is now over. It was a great success and attendance was really good. We look forward to next year.

Mark your calendar now FELLOWSHIP LUNCHEON, Multi-purpose Room, following morning services on August 24, 2003.

The Mount Vernon church of Christ invites you to a Skating outing on Sunday night August 10th from 8:15 PM to 10:15 PM at the Mount Pleasant Roller Rink. Please bring $3.00 to pay for you admission.

Alice Lovelady has been sick at home the last several weeks and not able to attend services. Please remember her in your prayers.

Dana Rigano (Daughter of Weldon & Jo Ann Miller) had surgery last Wednesday and all went well. At the printing of this bulletin she was expected to be able to return home. The family expresses their thanks for your continuing prayers and concerns.

Last news this editor had regarding Elna O'Neal is that she was in Baylor Hospital in Dallas. Her doctors are attempting to regulate her medicine. She was in Room 321, Johnson Building, Baylor Hospital. She hopes to return home soon.

Carl Lee had eye surgery last week and was able to return home Thursday. He is doing well and is to return for further surgery on a date yet to be determined.

THANK YOU "Dear Brethren: Thank you for all your cards, help with purchasing flowers, etc., and other expressions of sympathy following Grandma's passing. I appreciate you all very much.

Your in Christ,

Lee

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(from Bulletin Digest)

The Most! a great list

The most destructive habit..........Worry

The greatest joy.........................Giving

The greatest "shot in the arm".....Encouragement

The most powerful force in life... Love

The greatest asset.......................Faith

The deadliest weapon.................The Tongue

The most powerful channel of communication... Prayer

The worst thing to be without......Hope

The most satisfying work............Helping Others

The ugliest personality trait..........Selfishness

The most effective sleeping pill....Peace of Mind

The greatest problem to overcome....Fear

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PRAYER LIST:

Justin Barker, Louis Bell, Billy Carter, Woodrow Cooksey, Sandra Cooper, Julia Ethridge, Howard Horton, Corine Hudson, Carl Lee, Alice Lovelady, Elna O'Neal, Alva Mae Sheets

ALSO: Ray Nell Benson, Judy Betts, Dana Rigano,

Mary Taylor

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ANNOUNCEMENTS...........Wayne Pickrel

SONG LEADER...................Weldon Miller

PRAYERS Sunday

AM First Prayer...............Woodrow Cooksey

AM Closing...............................Wade Miller

PM First Prayer..............Rhodney Freeman

PM Closing..........................Grady Duncan

PRAYERS Wednesday Nite

First Prayer............................William Embree

Closing...............................Fred Harkrider, Jr.

COMMUNION FOR AUGUST

AM....Grady Duncan.......Gene Campbell

William Embree......George O'Neal

Roger Grimes.........Lewis Robertson

PM....Weldon Miller.........Bob Hedges

ATTENDANCE COUNTER......Grady Duncan

TRANSPORTATION......Call..Frankie Sargent

903-572-2647

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The Expansiveness of Christianity

by Lee Moses

In the June bulletin, the question was asked, "How much inclusion does 'inclusive' include?'" Many try to expand the boundaries God has placed for membership in the church of His Son to include homosexuals, adulterers, denominationalists, and other unrepentant sinners. Certainly the Lord will not add such people to the body of the saved (Eph. 5:3-6). However, there also are and have been prejudiced individuals who would place restrictions which God has not allowed. Jesus condemned the scribes and Pharisees of His day: "For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in" (Matt. 23:13).

This was far from the modus operandi employed by Jesus. At Jacob's well in Sychar, Samaria, He met a Samaritan woman and engaged in a fruitful spiritual discussion with her (John 4). When Jesus' disciples came to Him and saw Him talking with this woman, they "marvelled that he talked with the woman" (4:27). As time progressed, Jesus talked with many other Samaritans in the city. Brethren McGarvey and Pendleton in The Fourfold Gospel point out three ways the expansiveness of Christianity is portrayed in this incident:

1. Breaking down the walls of racial prejudice. Jesus' disciples were not the only ones who "marvelled that he talked with the woman." When Jesus first initiated conversation by asking the Samaritan woman for a drink, she responded with a question of her own: "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?" (4:9). The inspired text adds her reasoning: "For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." She was greatly surprised by Jesus' request, and by the fact that He would condescend to speak to her. Jews thoroughly detested Samaritans. While Jews might do business with Samaritans if necessary (4:8), by their tradition they would not receive any courtesy or favor of them. They were not to ask, borrow, or receive anything from them.

Jesus did not consider tradition a valid reason to deny sincere people the opportunity to learn the way of salvation. He was not as concerned with maintaining the favor of prejudiced men as He was with seeing the will of God fulfilled. If only Peter had learned this lesson a little better (Gal. 2:11-13) . . . if only mankind today would learn this lesson a little better . . .

2. Elevating woman. Jesus' disciples amazement was not only caused by their sight of Him speaking to a Samaritan, but also by seeing Him speak to a woman. Men were not to speak to women in public. One Jewish tradition stated, "Let no one talk with a woman in the street, no, not with his own wife." Added to Jesus' transgression of Jewish tradition was that He was speaking to her concerning spiritual matters. Recorded in Jewish tradition are the words, "Let the words of the law be burned rather than committed to a woman." Other cultures held women in even lower esteem than did the Jews.

God created man and woman with different roles in mind, but He never created either inferior to the other. In light of first-century society's dismal view of women, clearly Christianity lifted up women to entirely new levels. The New Testament instructs husbands, "Dwell with them [your wives, LM] according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered" (I Peter 3:7).

3. Lifting up the degraded and sinful. For those who were not true children of Israel, there was no apparent hope for the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 2:11-12). As all have sinned (Rom. 3:23; I John 1:8,10), the Samaritans of Sychar were lost. These were the people truly in need of Christ's words of life. Although the Jews had been blessed with the

stewardship of "the oracles of God" (Rom. 3:1-2), the Old Testament Scriptures, the Jews largely rejected Christ. Yet these Samaritans, classified with Gentiles and "dogs," received Jesus gladly and believed His word (John 4:39-41).

There are religious systems today which teach "once saved, always saved" many of these systems also teach "once lost, always lost." They teach that Christ did not die for the "reprobate," but only for the "elect." Jesus died for the world (John 3:16; Heb. 2:9), and desires to see all the world saved. Jesus never seriously told sinners to stay in sin, but commanded them to come out of sin that they might be free (cf. John 8:11). No matter how lost one appears to be, he can be lifted up by Christ.

Christianity is an expansive religion. This can be seen by how quickly it spread throughout the world following the day of Pentecost. While the definition of what makes one a Christian is certainly narrow (I John 1:7), Christianity provides expansion for humanity. The current states of many are in need of this expansion.

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