2017

Today’s editorial lesson is comprised of several random thoughts that I’ve had over a period of time, sort of odds and ends that I jotted down on a slip of paper thinking that they might someday make a good lesson topic.  The problem with this system, which is really not a system as that implies an order to it, is that I find a lot of scraps of paper with a thought scribbled on it.  With each one not being enough in of itself for a full editorial, I’m combining a few of them here today that I hope will provide you with some meaningful spiritual thoughts.

My initial little thought relates to our having just started out a new year - 2017.  What I’d like to have you consider about this coming year is “attendance.”  I’m not referring to absence due to valid reasons, such as illnesses etc, I’m talking about a willful disregard for the services of the church.

In either regard, valid or not, do not entertain the idea that your absence won’t be noted.  People will miss you whether you realize it or not.  They miss you because they love you and are concerned about either the health of your body or your soul.  A beautiful picture of this is mentioned in 1 Sam. 20:18 where Jonathon is telling his best friend David that he’ll “be missed because his seat will be empty.” There are many “empty seats” in all of our lives.  Seats that once were filled with our loved ones.  Let’s not let our “seat” in the services be one of them.

On one of my scraps of paper I saw where I had written down a little saying and I think that it might be pertinent to be considered today.  It simply reads:

   

    TRUTH IS STILL TRUTH, EVEN IF NO ONE BELIEVES IT.

    A LIE IS STILL A LIE, EVEN IF EVERYONE BELIEVES IT.

My lesson, in regards to that little saying is for us to remember three things said by the Apostle John.  In John 8:32 he says: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Then in John 17:17 we find these words: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”  And lastly, in John 14:6 Jesus says this: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

For this portion of my thoughts today, I think I’ll entitle it “BUT IT DID....”  You know, there’s been a lot of things that have occurred that people said wouldn’t happen.  Here’s some that I thought of and you can probably think of some others.

Nr. 1, the Titanic.  That great ocean liner that was said to be “unsinkable.”  “BUT IT DID....”  My second example is about the “experts” telling us that an attack on the U.S. wouldn’t happen because there are oceans between us and the terrorists.  It’s just too far for them to come.  “BUT IT DID...” on 9-11-2001.

For my third example I’m going to use the city of New Orleans.  Here again, the “experts” told us that the city was safe.  That the levees would withstand any storm and that the city wouldn’t flood.  “BUT IT DID....” in the form of Hurricane Katrina which has been described as being “the single most catastrophic natural disaster in U.S. history.

My purpose, my aim for this thought is to tie the idea recognized in those three examples (and others) into something else that many believe will never happen.  In Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, in chapter 15 verse 12, he says that there were some saying that there was “no resurrection.”  IE: that it had not occurred.  But then he refutes that false belief in verse 20, essentially saying “BUT IT DID...”

Today there are many who disregard the warnings of Jesus and the apostles about a day of reckoning coming - a “Day of Judgment.”  They don’t think that it will ever happen.  At least they go about their lives showing no evidence of a belief in Christ returning to earth, taking the righteous home with Him and everything about the earth being destroyed.  “BUT IT WILL...”  (2 Pet. 3:10-12)

My last little thought stems from something I thought to be interesting and made a note of it.  Being the treasurer for our congregation, awhile back I opened a letter from our bank which turned out to be an announcement regarding a new program they were offering.  What tweaked my interest was that it was addressed to: “The owner of the Church of Christ.”

My first thought was, you’ve sent it to the wrong address.  So I checked the envelope and my suspicions were confirmed.  Sure enough it had our street address on the mailing label.  It was sent to the wrong address.  The purchaser of “The Church” resides in heaven having paid for it with His blood on Calvary.  Perhaps the bank either doesn’t know heaven’s zip code and probably never read Acts 20:28.

That’s enough short thoughts for one day’s editorial so I’ll conclude these little items of consideration with something I heard while watching an old cowboy movie entitled “Ride The High Country.”  It was something that Joel McCrae said to Randolph Scott that caused me to make a note of it and ask you to consider its message.  He said, “The Lord’s bounty in not for sale, but the Devil’s is.”

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey