March/April 2010

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<div> <A HREF="id238.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="May/June 2003">May/June 2003</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id231.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="March/April 2003">March/April 2003</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id228.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="January/February 2003">January/February 2003</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id221.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="November/December 2002">November/December 2002</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id215.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="September/October 2002">September/October 2002</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id211.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="July/August 2002">July/August 2002</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id207.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="May/June 2002">May/June 2002</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id203.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="March/April 2002">March/April 2002</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id199.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="January/February 2002">January/February 2002</A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>Elders Letter</B></div> <div> James Russell, Elder</div> <bR> <div> Dear Scattered Brethren and Co - Workers,</div> <bR> <div>      Spring is about to begin, ending a six-month drought of hearing God's seven step plan-for salvation. It is the time and season`to examine; test and evaluate our six-month dry spell to see how well we did-these last few months on our own. Did I keep up with my Bible study? Did I pray as I should? Did I fast often as Christ instructs? Did I work putting on the new man?  Did I manifest the fruits of God's Holy Spirit? Did I build stronger faith in God and His Word?  Questions such as these we are to be asking our self before Passover. WHY?: "I the LORD search the heart, I try [test] the reigns [conscience], even to give everyman according-to his ways; and according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer 17:10). "The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves-such as be of a contrite spirit."(Psalm 34:17-18). The broken heart and the contrite spirit are two essential, characteristics of true repentance.  Repentance requires CHANGE OF DIRECTION!    </div> <div> <I>     In 1974, MR. Armstrong wrote in a letter - “The Church of God grows in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”!      </I></div> <div> <I>     “Forty-seven years ago, I received the shock of my life. It must have compared to the shock experienced by Saul of Tarsus, when God blinded him and struck him down as he approached Damascus. He had believed the new Message announced by Jesus of Nazareth to be completely FALSE. To be shown, suddenly, that he had been persecuting the very Son of the Living God, believing the OPPOSITE of God's TRUTH, was the shock of his life.</I></div> <div> <I>     Likewise, when God called me and opened my eyes to see in the Bible that "Christianity" was not teaching the TRUTH revealed in the WORD OF GOD, but in most basic areas precisely the opposite, I was simply dumbfounded!</I></div> <div> <I>     If what I knew as CHRISTIANITY was virtually the antithesis of the teaching Jesus Christ gave to His Church, where was that true Church which Jesus said would never cease to exist?  WHERE? He said the gates of the grave would never prevail against it. He said He would never leave nor forsake it.</I></div> <div> <I>     But WHERE was the true Church Christ founded with and through the original Apostles? It had to exist. Jesus said the gates of the grave would never prevail against it. He said He would never leave nor forsake it.</I></div> <div> <I>     I knew this: it had to be a church accepting and proclaiming BIBLICAL TRUTH. It had to be a church teaching repentance of SIN. And since sin is the transgression of God's spiritual Law, it had to be a Sabbath-keeping church. It had to be a church still kept in the name of God the Father. It had to be a church proclaiming to all the world the Gospel of the KINGDOM OF GOD.</I></div> <div> <I>     One thing more especially impressed me. The individual Christian must be constantly GROWING in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ( II Pet. 3:18).  The Church is merely the sum total of its individual members, collectively. Therefore, especially since we live in a world in which ALL NATIONS have been DECEIVED by Satan - a world in which the churches of "Christianity" teach doctrines and follow customs diametrically OPPOSITE to the pure teaching of the WORD OF GOD, the true Church of God MUST be a Church which is constantly GROWING in truth and confessing and correcting ERROR.</I></div> <div> <I>     But I could find no Church which had been willing to do that.  I do not know of a single Church which in our time has ever confessed its teaching on major doctrines was in error and which has corrected that error; nor one which has accepted NEW (to it) truth.  Yet that is one of the criteria of the one and only true Church of  God.  And there is only one such Church.”  </I>Mr. Armstrong’s thoughts came clear after reading Apostle Paul’s writings in the New Testament.   <I>“</I>For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor 12:12-13-27).  “ So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Rom,12:5). <I>     </I></div> <div>      The mind set of Mr. Armstrong could see the Churches on the corners were not teaching the truth from God’s word.  So a “change” was needed!     </div> <div>      "Change" means different things to-different people. To some it means: challenge, excitement, new frontiers,  progress, stimulating growth, while to others it can connote: uncertainty,  foreboding, disorientation and apprehension and then to a  few it may mean virtually nothing as they drift along with the current. </div> <div>      To us in the Church of God constructive, proper change should convey all the-exciting things I mentioned  plus even more.  For indeed as former President Franklin Roosevelt allegedly said, "The  most  permanent thing in life is change."  Repentance  means change. Life and growth, even growing old means constant change.  The world changes-even we have to go through major"changes."</div> <div>      Without change  time would stop. We no longer live in the time when change was so slow that it would  pass unnoticed in one persons lifetime.  “Change” now is like an avalanche coming at such an °accelerated rate” that this new USA government and nations of the World can not keep up with the challenging changes.</div> <div>      God’s called  have a  huge job before us- to feed the sheep God has given into our charge, the kind of meat that helps them cope  with this change.  To remain stable, loyal, on course- looking forward to each day with renewed  anticipation.  We should know the basic immutable precious truths revealed by God, which never change.  Our understanding may change as we grow to a more perfect  knowledge of God's plan and purpose, which is the tremendous destiny for man. </div> <div>      The condition extant, both in the world and to some degree within the Church that some find disorienting, worrisome and threatening will probably be with us for the coming, troubled years. But it should be, if our eyes are pinned on the hope that lies within us, the transcendent God-given destiny to mankind, the  unchangeableness of our great God and His promises that while the masses around us are anxious and confused we have calm, an serenity, a hope, an inner peace, not with standing the usual cares and concerns we may experience.</div> <div>      Ezekiel, written for our day-expresses,  “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves [ change ] from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.  Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?   For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye”( Ezek 18:30-32).   It may appear  "change" is an over worked word but it's with us to stay! </div> <bR> <bR> <div>                               Church of God, In Truth</div> <div>                               P.O. Box: 1120</div> <div>                               Kimberling City. MO 65686</div> <bR> <div>                               Tel: 417-338-0033 </div> <div>                               Fax: 417-338-0031</div> <div>                               E-Mail: cogit@flash.net</div> <bR> <div> James Russell. Elder                    Pete Fleming. Elder               Martin Martinez. Deacon</div> <div> Tel: 417-338-0033                    Tel: 830-885-5502               Tel: 787-786-5856</div> <div> E-Mail: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="mailto:cogit@flash.net" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:cogit@flash.net"><U>cogit@flash.net</U></A></FONT>               E-Mail: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="mailto:pmf06@gvic.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:pmf06@gvic.com"><U>pmf06@gvic.com</U></A></FONT>     E-Mail: marty@ucint.com</div> <bR> <bR> <div> Our Sabbath Conference number is toll free 1-888-206-2266.  An automated speaker will ask for your access          code.  Call or e-mail for new code number.  Internet conference address is http://www.postponements.com.   </div> <div>                                               Sabbath connection time is 11:30 AM Pacific time zone.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>