BIBLE CORRESPONDENCE COURSES AND PERSONAL WORK.

I want to encourage the members of the church of Christ to keep up the good work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. As of the printing of this newsletter we have "156" people in our community that have signed up to take one or more of the Bible Correspondence Courses we offer.

I do not believe that I have ever been associated with a congregation that has been so interested in taking the message out of the church building and sharing it with the people in the community in which we live.

But we are only following the commands of our Lord Jesus Christ. He commanded us to go with the pure gospel and teach men everywhere - Matt.28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 8:1. So many today just set back and do nothing. They say, "here is the church building and if they want to come in and hear gospel and obey that's fine with me but don't expect me to do any kind of personal work." Some would like to put a sign on the front of the church building that says, "the end of your search for the friendly church." But I ask the question, "whose looking?" Others think we ought to be "keepers of the aquarium rather then fishers of me." Then there are those who have no excuse, they are not going to do anything at all, period. Some how we think we can go to heaven on the coat tails of other personal workers. The Bible does not teach that.

If we think we are going to win the world for Jesus Christ by just opening the church doors on Sunday morning hoping someone might stumble in and obey the gospel, wake up! The message of the New Testament church was Jesus Christ and Him crucified - 1 Cor.15:1-4. The church was commanded not to set back on their blessed assurances but get out into the communities in which we live with the gospel- Acts 5:42.

So many today are indifferent, lethargic, and just plain lazy. What should be of concern to us is that it takes the average church member 5 years to bring another soul to Jesus Christ. And what more interesting me is that some never do bring another person to Christ their whole life as a Christian. It maybe because they never talk to anyone about Him.

In some congregations the membership does not do any personal work because they do not believe anyone is lost. Some how God is going to save everybody. In other churches no personal work is done among the denominations because they do not believe that denominational people are lost. The first reason is called "Universalism." All will be saved. If that is true why did Jesus have to come and died, if God was going to saved everybody anyway? The second reason is called "Faith Only." Somewhere along the line the idea as gotten into the minds of church members that if you confess Christ as Lord, you are saved. There are according to them no other acts of obedience necessary. That means then that a person does not have to be baptized for the forgiveness of his sins. This goes against so many passages of scripture - Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16; Acts 22:16; 1 Pet.3:21.

Let us remember that Jesus came into his world to save the lost - Luke 19:10. Can we do any less if we love Jesus. Let's be praying that God will cause a fire to be burning in our souls for the salvation of the world. Let us then use every scriptural method He has provided to bring that to pass. God has promised to give the increase if we will but only plant the gospel seed.