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Three Events and Three Lessons Last week I was on vacation and we took off for Louisville. I find it more than a little ironic that while growing up vacations meant leaving the city and getting away to the farm. Now, vacation time means getting away from the house and going to Louisville. As I got to thinking about it this week there were three things that happened last weekend that invokes three important lessons. God Is Good and Satan is Wrong Last Sunday night we went to South End church of Christ in Louisville, Aaron Erhardt preaches there. He had a good lesson on identifying the church Jesus built. Apparently Sunday morning he talked about the church being the Kingdom of Christ. Sunday night he talked about the scriptural names of the church, its organization, and work. However, what I will remember happened at the end of services. A young man, and I do mean young, lead us in the closing prayer. Among the things he prayed for was that the people of the world will understand that God is right and Satan is wrong. The plainness and simplicity of the statement struck me. Throughout the Bible we see Satan trying to deceive mankind. In the Garden of Eden he told Eve that she would not die when she ate of the forbidden fruit. Yet we know that God was not lying, but Satan was. How often today do we find people questioning the moral goodness of the Bible? Drunkenness is condemned in the Bible, but Satan says it is just having a good time. Fornication and adultery are clearly condemned in various passages, but the world says it is OK. Homosexuality is condemned in Romans 1, but we are constantly hearing that it is just an alternative lifestyle. One problem for the world is understanding that God is right and Satan is wrong, or God is good and Satan is evil. Jesus, in His prayer that God's word is truth, John 17.17, states that Satan is called the father of lies, a deceiver, and a murderer. How many of us would invite a known liar, swindler, and killer into our homes? But many will follow after Satan. If we can ever get our neighbors to see the righteousness of God and the evil nature of Satan, we will be able to convert more of them. Valley Boys Last Sunday morning we went to Valley Station to worship. I had not been there since 1996, but this congregation along with Antioch in Ohio County were instrumental in my preaching. The elders at Valley Station conducted some training classes and encouraged a number of us to give invitations and lessons. If I counted right, at one time, about 9 men left Valley Station to preach somewhere else. As it happened to turn out, the Sunday morning men’s class is dealing with elders and their work. At one time Valley Station was a large congregation, but now it has about 70 people on Sunday morning. While Eli and I were in the men's class Regena, Hope, and Noah were in a ladies’ class. It was in that class that one of the ladies said that her Dad is considered one of the "Valley boys." Our children got a kick out of that. They said being a Valley girl is bad, but being a Valley boy is worse! Actually I consider it a blessing to have been a part of that congregation in the late 1970's and early 80's. This is one reason I really want to encourage the men here to take part in teaching Bible classes, giving Wednesday night invitations, and preaching sermons. The church is a teaching institution. While I am not against a college teaching the Bible, I think it wrong when congregations give their task of training young men to preach to another institution. "And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2.2). Bulletins Left on the Counter Monday afternoon I got back to the office. Once there I realized the bulletins I had ready for August 8th were still on the counter in my office. Hopefully most of the members here realized that there was no bulletin last Sunday. (BTW- That bulletin is on the table in the foyer along with this bulletin.) I selected two articles that I thought worthy of your reading. However, you cannot read a bulletin that is not available. This got me to thinking about seed left in the barn. No matter how good the seed is, it has to be sown before it can produce anything. Jesus in the parable of the sower said the seed is the word of God, Luke 8.11. If it is taught it will produce Christians. Our task is to sow the word of God. It is not ours to keep and hoard, but to share with those around us. -- Dennis Tucker |