Highland Lakes church of Christ

Have you ever stopped to think that everything in life runs according to rules and laws? Even mechanical items like cars, computers, and others things that can be operated come with “rules” or instructions. And if we freely comply with these rules and/or laws, and instructions, we reap great dividends, but if we disregard these life rules, we will meet failure.

Have you ever thought that the greatest motivation in life is love? This is actually one of those “life-rules”! We know that without love an infant cannot survive; without it children’s minds and character get warped; without it teenagers become delinquent, and homes break up.

And have you ever thought that, though love is a command, if we only love because it is commanded, it is not a genuine love. The nature of love is to be spontaneous, unselfish and outgoing, existing only for its own sake. It is to heal, not hurt, and is deeply distressed and grieved when unrighteousness rears its ugly head.

This is a very important principle to teach and recognize. Without this “rule of life”, institutions and nations have stumbled, crumbled and fallen, mechanical items have been ruined.

This right and righteous kind of love is called “agape”. It is the unselfish love that is concerned for the welfare of others, for their very good, their growth and up-building. It is the love that God has for us, God Who is the Creator and Father of all. It is the love that is unselfish, that does not seek its own advantages, that prefers the good of one’s neighbor to one’s own. It lifts one up and inspires to do unselfish deeds, to lead an unselfish life. It does not fulfill one’s selfish desires, but forgets self by serving one’s fellow man and finds fulfillment and happiness in such actions. The one who has “agape” as a life goal will overcome the thinking of our materialistic times and will truly be filled with the Spirit of God. He will reap the great dividends of those “life-rules” and be truly successful and prosperous in this life and the life to come.

“If the righteous receive their due on earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner!” — Proverbs 11:31

It was Titus Vespasian who lamented one evening that he had lost a day, because of that day he could remember no good action.

Have we not lost many of our days? What if all of those days should be brought against us at the time of accounting? What will our record be when the books are opened? It’s a sobering thought, is it not?

The words of T.S. Eliot, from the “Chorus From The Rock” might be taken with terrible seriousness as the epitaph for our present society:

A cry from the North, from the West and from the South

Whence thousand travel daily to the time-kept City;

Where My Word is unspoken,

In the land of lobelias* and tennis flannels

The rabbit shall burrow and the thorn revisit,

The nettle shall flourish on the gravel court,

And the wind shall say; “Here were decent godless people:

Their only monument the asphalt road

And a thousand golf balls.”

How, do you suppose, will we be remembered? In the ancient city of Joppa a disciple of the Lord died. The inspired record says: “She was full of good works and acts of charity.” Dorcas apparently had no lost days. What a way to be remembered!

In 1918, William M. Golden made a resolve it would be well for us to follow:

Each day I’ll do a golden deed

By helping those who are in need;

My life on earth is but a span,

And so I’ll do the best I can.

The Bible calls upon each of us to be “redeeming the time” so that there are no lost days.

• John Gipson, Searcy, Arkansas

* Here: the Lobelia plant used for medicinal use to cure certain ailments and to overcome addictions.

Upcoming Events

Sunday, October 26th:

 Doug Wheeler will report on Nigeria to the combined adult class at 9 AM. He will preach for us at 10 AM.

 There will be a fellowship luncheon followed by a short devotional (Ken Darnell). We will dismiss for the day.

Wednesday, October 29th:

 Singing night (John Brewer/Ken Darnell).

 Visitation Team #2 will meet on this night instead of October 22nd !

Sunday, November 2nd:

 Combined adult class (Ken Darnell)

 Sunday morning sermon (Ken Darnell or Charles Greenawalt).

 Sunday night sermon—Delton McGuire (Cherokee Home for Children)

Wednesday, November 5th:

 Regular classes.

Sunday, November 9th:

 Richard Emperado will report on the work in the Philippines to the combined adult class at 9 AM. He will preach for us at 10 AM.

 Sunday night, Joe will preach, finally again! . . . after his & Teri’s vacation, October 26th to November 2nd.

About the Emperado Visit!

The Emperados will be staying with Cary & Brenda Miller on Saturday, November 8th and Sunday, November 9th. The family consists of Richard, Becky and teenagers Jennylyn, Jennylou and Grant. Would you like to help out with the noon and evening meals during their stay with us? If you can help with this, please sign your name to the sign-up sheet that is on the bulletin board.

Our Monthly Fellowship Meal . . .

. . . will take place at noon on October 26th, so that we can enjoy Doug & Diane Wheeler as our special guests. Members, be sure and stay for this good time of fellowship together! Hosts and hostesses will be: Cary & Brenda Miller, James & Vicky Williams and David & Sherry Zoller.

VISITING FOR THE MASTER

VISITATION PROGRAM Team #2 (leaders: Cary & Brenda Miller) will meet on Wednesday, October 29th, at 6:30 pm in the Library for their assignments.

Sylvester Imogoh, our missionary in Nigeria, informs us of a collection he is raising to help the widows in the church there. The winter months are a very difficult time . . . food cannot be grown or gathered from the wild. This is particularly hard for widows who have little opportunity to earn an income and buy food. If you would like to help these sisters in Christ, please give your gift to one of the elders or Joe. On a check, make a notation that it is for the church widows of Nigeria. We will see to it that the funds are sent to Nigeria. This collection must be finished by October 26th. We hope to hand Doug Wheeler the check while he is with us that Sunday. Doug will send the final money wire for 2014 to Nigeria on October 31st.

Also, a big “thank you” to all who so generously took part in giving the $3,500 for the purchase of Bibles for the students in the Ukraine! May God’s richest blessings be with all the givers and those who will learn about our Father in Heaven who loves us more than we can imagine. — Joe

I’m sure you’ve been through trying times, perhaps the loss of job or a loved one. While surrounded by sorrow, you might have found that it helped to fix your mind on one thing, something positive and productive. For instance, work can be a true blessing. We call it “staying busy.” But Paul counsels us in Colossians 3:1-4 to set our hearts on Christ in such a way that every facet of this life is transformed by its relationship to Him.

We know we are destined for heaven. We realize we are citizens of another world. Therefore we are to set our hearts on the things of God, which are perfect and beautiful, rather than the things of this world, which are in disarray even at the best of times. When Paul wrote this statement, he used a verb tense that means “keep on doing this,” as opposed to a one-time action. In other words, it’s not “think about heaven at this moment.” It’s “keep on keeping your mind immersed in God and in His Word, all the time.” This is a discipline too few of us have mastered: the art of heaven-based thinking. Some call it the practice of the presence of God.

We need to understand what it means to “set our hearts.” According to Paul it means that our “desires and thoughts, wishing and thinking, the whole of our emotional and intellectual energy is to be directed toward (heaven), where Christ rules at God’s right side.” I imagine every one of us has centered our desires and thoughts, all our emotional and intellectual energy, on the various earthly goals in the seasons of life. Can we think and feel with the same intensity about Christ?

In times such as these we have to look somewhere for answers. The psychologist tells us we should look within. The opportunist tells us we must look around. The optimist says we should look ahead, and the pessimist says we must look out. But God says we should look up – even when we feel down.

Think for a moment about a compass that you might carry on a hike. You can turn your feet in any direction, but the arrow of the compass will faithfully point to magnetic north. That way, should you ever become lost, the compass will align your position for you. In life, our true north is Christ. Whatever direction our world’s path may twist, however off-path it may wander, our lives should point faithfully to the one and only Lord of every place, every time, every situation. When He is our determining point, everything will find its proper orientation.

“Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). Vance Havner put it this way: “Christians are not citizens of earth trying to get to heaven, but citizens of heaven making their way through this world.” What do you think?

Thoughts from reading “Stay Centered” by David Jeremiah (Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World) — via Ken Darnell