March/April 2007

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<div> James Russell, Elder</div> <bR> <div> Dear Brethren and co-workers,</div> <bR> <div> God's inspired scriptures place a high priority on the importance of keeping the truth of Christ exalted and distinct from all other systems of thought! When our Lord Jesus Christ began His ministry, it was soon obvious to all that He was doing a new thing. Reading Matthew Chapter 9, we see Him forgiving sins, healing the sick, raising the dead, and associating with sinners. The people said, "...... it was never so seen in Israel" (Matt. 9:33 ). Immediately the Pharisees and establishment attacked saying, He is working by Satan's power, "..... He casts out devils through the prince of the devils" (Matt. 9:34). Others went to Jesus and asked why He didn't make His disciples keep their rules. His answer deserves the thoughtful analysis of every called out Christian, "Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved" (Matt. 9:17).</div> <bR> <div> New wine, you may or may not know, is still fermenting. It bubbles and heaves, emitting gases, and is expanding. Old wineskins are dry and rigid and brittle. Such was the condition of Judaism in the time of Christ The pressure created by new wine must go into soft new skins, which are flexible and pliable. This represents the Holy Spirit and God's vital truth at work in the heart of man. Jesus' revolutionary teachings could not be reconciled with the reactionary dogmas of Judaism.</div> <bR> <div> It is for this reason, many churches of God are no longer of any use to the Lord. They have engaged themselves in a Laodicean attitude - neither hot nor cold. They have grown dry and rigid - inflexible and unresponsive to truth - God's truth. Their called out life is all about conserving the status quo and to resist putting on the "new man" of change!</div> <bR> <div> Three points need to be made here:</div> <bR> <div> 1. God is always doing New Things. In the Old Testament God said, "Behold I will do a new thing"(Isa. 43:19 ). At the end of the New Testament, He said, "behold, I am making all things new" (Rev. 21:5 ). Between those two promises we see God making a new covenant with a new people to whom He gives new commandments and new doctrines, and a new ministry of the new living way, resulting in a new person who will live his life in a new way, by growing in grace and knowledge.</div> <bR> <div> 2. God requires a certain kind of people to do His new work. Christ calls these people "new wine-skins." Why? Because they are eager to expand and <U>take in new truths </U>when proven from God'os Word. God's people are to be flexible in their methodology. God's called "watchword" is "Lord what would you have me to do?" (Acts 22:10).</div> <bR> <div> The problem with wineskins is that they age and become dry and brittle, resistant and unyielding, stiff and set in their ways - stiff-necked. Old wineskins prefer old wine. It doesn't make waves, or stir things up. Old skins like everything tame and predictable, comfortable and un-challenging. Now at the age of seventy, I still see ways in which my old mind resists change and finds comfort in its rut. So I have to fight against it. Because a rut is just a grave with the ends missing!</div> <bR> <div> I urge you brethren, whatever your age, to resist this creeping negativism that wants everything the same, resisting God's new truth that He wants to share with you.</div> <bR> <div> <B>3. Fortunately, God said He made His way life eternal. </B>"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John10:10). And in Psalms we read, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To shew that the LORD is upright: He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him" (Ps. 92:12-15). This beautifully describes God's called out one! The righteous flourish like a palm tree that grow from the <B>inside</B>, "For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day"(2 Cor. 4:16). Cedars of Lebanon, are tall and strong yet are fruitful in old age just as God'os called are to be - full of sap and green. "Full of vinegar," we used to say. Alive and sassy.</div> <bR> <div> This is what God does automatically in the lives of people who live in obedience to Him. Jesus chose His disciples (see Matt.10). One characteristic distinguished the twelve: they were all "outsiders." God the Father wanted men with a total commitment to His Son Jesus Christ, and a willingness to obey Him at all costs! That meant being different, not defending the status quo. In the 17th century B.C., Hosea called on God'os people to "...break up the fallow ground." Two hundred years later Jeremiah preached the same sermon "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till He come and rain righteousness upon you"(Hos. 10:12). "For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, 'Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns'"(Jer. 4:3). A hard crust had formed over the soil, making it impossible for seeds to penetrate, so farmers had to sink a deep turning plow into the soil, to break and soften it up, before it could grow a crop.</div> <bR> <div> God is calling on us to do the same. The remedy is for each of us to: 1) Recognize the tendency to grow cold and resistant to God, and the resulting danger; 2) Renounce our resistance to God for what it is: the sin of unbelief; 3) Recommit ourselves to God's ways and truths; 4) Renew our relationship daily in prayer, in order to stay usable for God in our calling. Those who claim to represent Christ to this world allow His Word to pierce their conscience and transform their minds. There is no "culture war" to fight. It's already lost. Truth's conquest of falsehood only begins with the source of "Truth."</div> <bR> <div> The exhortation of Paul's letter to the Colossians is for us today, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ"(Col.2:8). This needs to be reiterated today more than ever. Paul tells us to not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, "Be you not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, 'I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,' saith the Lord Almighty" (2 Cor. 6:14-18)</div> <bR> <div> From the context, we see that the real danger He is pointing out is our association with <B>"bad doctrine, not "bad" people.</B> We are never to forsake sharing the truth of God'us message with unbelievers. We have to throw off the yoke of our partnership with human wisdom and follow Christ's instructions with all our being - if we want to be found in His will. Hosea reminds Israel [ Spiritual Israel ] of their willful ignorance by saying, " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou have forgotten the law of thy God ...." (Hos. 4:6). These people were practicing syncretism, committing idolatry with other gods, mixing and mingling religious practices with the worship of the true God.</div> <bR> <div> We witness this practice of polluting going on in the Churches of God today. HOW? By their <B>postponing</B> all of God'us appointed Holy Days, beginning with the Lord's Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread that will this year be kept two days late, followed by Pentecost, seven days late, and the Autumnal Holy Days, three days late! All these late days and dates are "uintercalated" from the Hebrew Calendar which is established through the teaching of Judaism, that Christ <B>condemned</B> throughout the Bible. They are recognized as being the "tradition of men".</div> <bR> <div> Brethren, Jesus Christ sacrificed His life's blood for us. Christ stated to Moses, as He dealt with Israel in His capacity as God of the Old Testament; "The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are: and when I see the blood, I will <B>pass over you</B>, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And <B>this day</B> shall be unto you for a memorial; and you shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; you shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. And you shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when you be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as He has promised, that you shall keep this service" (Ex.12:13-14, 24-25). Instructions for Moses to tell Israel about the Passover did not stop here. "And the LORD spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'uLet the children of Israel also keep the Passover at His <B>appointed season [appointed time]</B>. In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, you shall keep it in His <B>appointed season</B>: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall you keep it.'u And Moses spake unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the Passover. And they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month at even in the wilderness of Sinai: according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel" (Num. 9:1-5).</div> <bR> <div> Now is the hour to repent - "change"and put on the new man [new wine in the new wine skin!]. Study God'us Word with fasting and prayer. Let God's Holy Spirit <B>lead you into truth from His Own Words </B>and not from the 358-9 AD Hillel II, calendar intercalation on Judaism'us holidays! Prove all Things for yourself as to when <U>God's appointed times are</U>! Don'ut fall into Satan's trap and let a postponement day consume you and keep you from being in God'us Kingdom!</div> <bR> <div> In Christian love,</div> <bR> <div> Church of God, In Truth</div> <div> P.O. BOX 2109</div> <div> Corona, CA. 92878 USA</div> <div> Tel: 951-737-0559</div> <div> Fax: 951-279-7302</div> <bR> <div> Contact: James Russell, Elder Or Pete Fleming, Elder</div> <div> Tel: 951-737-0559 Tel: 830-885-5502</div> <div> E-mail: cogit@flash.net E-mail: pmf06@gvtc.com</div> <bR> <div> Puerto Rico / Philippines:</div> <div> Martin Martinez / Sotero Sonza</div> <div> Tel: 787-786-5856 / Tel: 063-335238729</div> <div> E-mail: martin2k@onelinkpr.net  E-mail: soterosonza@yahoo.com.ph</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Our Sabbath Telephone Conference number is <B>toll free:</B> 1-888-330-9937. An automated speaker will ask for your access code. After the beeps, enter 346041 followed by the # sign. Hook-up time is 11:30 AM Pacific time zone. The Sabbath Internet Conference is found at: http://www.postponements.com  Also at 11:30 AM Pacific time zone. Click on live sermons!</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>