A NEWSLETTER FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE GREENWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST

VOLUME 2 NO. 9                                            APRIL 17, 2005

A MIGHTY WIND

BY STEVE NIEMEIER

The Lord has certainly dsplayed His wonderful touch in giving us the beautiful day that he has at the time of this writing.  The wind is blowing bringing a nice breeze to this warm April day.  A day such as this makes one very thankful as the past winter moves away and beautiful spring days such as this reminds us of the power and wisdom of God in the creation of seasons for our enjoyment and the replenishing of His creation.

The phone rang a few minutes ago and on the other end was a dear friend of mine that serves as an elder at a congregation in southeastern Indiana.  As we talked about the different issues that the church of Christ is facing one could not but help to look outside and see the trees in the glistening sun and the wind blowing the few leaves left from last fall from one yard to another.

Doesn't that sound like the mighty wind that is blowing in the church today?  It seems as if the Hymenaeus's and Alexander's (I Timothy 1:20) stir up things in one congregation and then move on to another one and start stirring them up there.  Unfortunately, the congregation that they started stirring up things in first did not handle the situation properly and drew a sigh of relief when they moved on to somewhere else.

Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that the Lord loved the church and sanctified her and cleansed her so that she whould be spotless, holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:22-27).  This should be enough for all of us to understand that we as faithful children of God should strive to keep our local congregatin pure and without blemish.  Why is it that we struggle to do so?

Paul certainly understood this when he dealt with the church at Corinth in I Corinthians 5.  Yet today we seem to hesitate to make the righteous judgment on a sexually immoral person that may be attending our congregation.  Should it be any surprise then when we see others following in that same path of sexual immorality?  What about immodest dress?  Paul instructed the gospel preacher Timothy about this in I Timothy 2:9.  Are we then at liberty to just let it go?

When Timothy was given his charge to preach the word in II Timothy 4:1-5 did Paul fail to mention about those that would not endure sound doctrine?  At one time we might have had difficulty defining fables but not any more as the pulpits are full of men speaking fables!

Paul also was direct to the point in II Thessalonians 3:14 when he stated that anyone not obeying the word of the epistle should be noted and avoided so that they would be ashamed.

My fellow brethren the mighty wind of each local congregation shirking their duties is spreading dead leaves throughout the brotherhood.