good news 1955 (vol v no 01) jan

8/10/2019 Good News 1955 (Vol v No 01) Jan

1/8

T h e

N a t i o n a l

M a g a z i n e o f

T H E

C H U R C H

O F G O D

Unconverted

Church

Members?

Soiiietinzes ezjeu

Gods

people ueed

t o

be

A W A K E N E D

to their real sp ir i t id s tate Here

s

revealed the S H O C K -

ING condit ion ma n y of you are in

by Roderick C. Meredi th

A I N F U L AS

it may be, much as we

hate

t o : idmi r i t , Gods rriinistcrs

P

ave conie to realize t h x there

are inany individuals physic:illy nmo?zg

Gods people

who :ire

spiritually n o t of

Gods church. They are progressing to-

ward

a

certain destination-the

lake

of

fire

This could ensily incluck

Y O L

Before you were baptized and began

bui lding

a

Christian character, you

should have sat down t o

c01112t

the cost

-as

Jesus

said i n Luke

14:25 -33 . He

said you were to love

God

more than

a q , rclrt;r,e+ven you r o w n wife-and

more than year oion life also (verse

2 6 ) .

He concludcd by saying, So like-

wise, whosoever he be of you that

for-

saketh not nll that

h e

httth, he cannot be

my disciple (verse 33

) .

Have you recrlly forsaken A L L that

you have?

Do

you really consider that

your life no longer belongs to

you ,

but

to

God-to do with

as H e

wills?

There is

no

use kidding yourself.

Some of you new converts-and som e

who have been

in

among Gods people

for

yedrr

dml y f w s

still have a

CARNAL

mind I t s t ime for even Gods people

to

w a k e

up.

Now le t me explain.

Like Corinthian Church

Among the s t ronges t and most cor-

rective epistles that the apostle Paul

wrote were his two letters to the Corin-

thians. He addressed them as the

Church of God ( I

Cor. 1 : 2 ) ,

yet he

said

there are

c o n t e n t i o m

among you

(verse 1 1 ) . Some were following one

tJm2 instead of CHRIST. Others were

following other

men.

Because they liked

n ~ e n s ersons

in-

stead

of

Christ, because they had a spirit

of contei z t ion or

argument about many

things. and because they

h a d

not f u l l y

S U R R E N D E R E D to God and th e guidance

of His Spirit , Paul could not write to

them as he would to fully converted,

spiritually minded pcoplc. Instead, he

said, And I, brethren, could not speak

unto you as unto

spiritual,

but as unto

turnul, even as unto

babes

in ChriJt

( I Cur.

3 : l ) .

And that

is

the exact

conditioiz

of

some

of

you who now read what 1

write

Many of you still

look

on things

from the point of view of a

CARNAL

mind. You have seen much of the truth

as

a

correct argument,

2nd

you

have

gone along with it and been baptized.

But when a particular truth is applied

to

you personally,

you often resist

i t

and stick to your own way.

A s many have indicated by their ac-

tions-which speak loud er than wor ds

-they want to go along with God and

His church up to a point. And what

is beyond that point that they

are un-

wil l ing to give up?

The answer is SELF Tha t big part of

self

they still think is pretty good, after

all, and that they never learned to hate,

to R E P E N T

of,

and to B URY i n baptism.

All

this inay be revealed when a situ-

at ion

arises

where the human . r d j has

to be denied in order to obey God. Per-

haps a couple has

to

split

up

in

order

to obey Gods commandment agains t

adz~l tery .

Maybe a

man

has to give up

his life-long job in order to fully keep

Gods

weekly and

anizwl

sabbaths.

I t might be that someone in the

church has been given an honor or po-

sition that you thought you-your self

-shuuld have.

Or

perhaps you th ink

Gods

minister has offended you i n

some way.

Suddenly, your spiritu al attitude

changes-and we find that yours was

only a sarface

conversion-at least

so far

-and tha t you have surren dered to

God

only

u p

to

a point .

T h e n

y o u for -

get about Gods conditions

of t o t d

JMr-

r e d e r and you began setting forth

conditions that God and H is church will

have

to

meet

in

order

to

keep

i l l

J J N ~

good graces.

You will often begin to accuJe one

of

Gods ministers and perhaps compare

him unfavorably with another minister.

In your mind, and

in

your words, you

will try to create sides. You will have

the same

carnal,

contentious spirit that

some of the people a t Corinth had. You

may begin co j i d g e or

acczse

others-

often God s minister-and forge t the

fact that God is

3 ~ ~ 7 1 ~

UDGE,

that

Christ

is the living He&

of

Gods church, an d

that Gods ministers

are

responsible to


2/8

Pnge 2

The

GOOD NEWS

January, 1955

t ians)

stxrted

ioiit

arith

oil

in their lamps.

But the x i s e virgins took extra oil .

They took e s t n t pains to continually re-

ceive more of Go ds Spiri t , symbolized

by thc o i l .

But the unwise virgins didnt g ~ o w

spiri tually. They were .relf-si?tisfietl a n d

complacent-perhaps

.ipitiircally

proziil.

They weren t /iiuzgeYiiig ;ind

t

for righteousness. They thought they

would

get by all right.

When t hey came t o en t er i n t o t he

mar r i age scpper , t he Lord said: I KNOW

Y O V

NOT.

T h e y

had

r u n o u t

of

oil-out of

Gods S p i r i t

They hadn t been

g r o w i n g

spiri tually. They st i l l

had to

be regard-

ed as CARNAL-minded--as bab es in

Christ

( I

Cor. 3 : 1 .

Yes rhcre have

u l i u q ~ been the

izoo distinct classes of people

within

the

visible

church of God.On e i s go ing i n t o

the kingdom. The other i s not .

W h e r e

d o

Y O U s t and?

C a r n a l P r i n c i p l e

Each

UIK u l y u u

l ~ a d

X~LT I

cxaiiiiiir

yourself in the light of these facts.

It

mat t er s no t how l ong you

think

you

have been converted-this

means

you

Remember t ha t we are commanded

to GROW in grace and knowledge

I1

Peter : 18 . You must cont inual ly dr ink

in

m o r e

o f

Gods

Spi rit to grow-and to

become spiritually mi nded ,

A spiritual

mind wi l l be wi l l ing to

&nit ersor and

change.

It wil l

groiu

into tzcu truth.

Spiri tzeal-minded people l ove Gods

law, and NOTHING shall offend them

(Psa l ms

119:165).

They wi l l not be

continually gett ing their feelings hurt

by

Gods minister or by others, and they

wil l not 1oi.e thi.r

pre.re12t

world l y sy.s-

t e m

( J a m e s

4 :4

) .

O n the o ther ha nd, the cLi rnal- in inded

person is easily upset by an ythi ng and

everybody. He i s not looking to Ch r is t

-but to 7 i i d . r per.co77.r.

N a t u r a l l y he

ndl find fault.

H e i s always quick to stumble on

L ~ J eal o r i inagined stumbling-block,

because instead o f grozoitzg-he has

remained

u

spi r i tual babe wi th a c a r d

mi nd .

H e

wil l

nccuse m d f ind fau l t espe-

cially with

Gods

w o r k a n d H i s m i n -

isters--and will try to

find

his i u u y

arouizd t he

lniu

of

G o d

a n d t h e goueriz-

meizt of God in the Church.

In his presence, a converted person

usually senses that he niust be careful

to avoid an argunient or hu r t feel -

ings.

The

carnal mint is stubborn,

un-

yielding,

selfish.

P;ILIIwrote: The currial mi nd is

e n m i -

13

agai ns t God : fo r it is not subject to

the law of

Gvd.

neicher indeed mbe. So

rhen they that

are

in the flesh c : x n l

PlCtl.SC (.O?Zti77Z/e

O?Z pd


3/8

The

Parable

of the

UNJUST STEWARD

-what

does it mean?

ihis p i r u b l e , f o r d

in

Luke

16, has

perplexed ever1 the lerrr?red

commeiztcrtors.

H e r e is the plniiz, clear explaizatioiz.

by Heiwiaiz

L . H o e h

P E N

Y O ~ . I av of Atonement, fast day, Monday,

September 2 6 , begins with the pre-

vious sunset.

Festival

o f

Tabernacles, begins sunset

Friday. September 30, ends sunset

Sabbath, October 8. Both annual

Sabbaths fall on the weekly Sabbath.

The

GOOD N E W S

Pr i n t ed i n the

U.S.A.

R E T U R N P O S T A G E G U A R A N T E E D

Box

1

1 1 Pasadena California

Ser. 34 .65

(e),

P.L.&R.)

U. S

POSTAGE

P A I D

Permit

No. 703

Pasadena California

FORM

3547 REQUESTD

good news 1955 (vol v no 01) jan

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