The Champions Spirit
Volume 68, Issue 49
Dec. 13, 2009
In This Issue
“Snow”
Rarely does it appear in Houston. Often the time between events is not measured so much in days or months, but in years! Snow. A snowy day can be a wonderful blessing of the Lord. To get the type of snowfall we had the other day is a wonderfully amazing—and rare—thing!
Snow brightens and makes everything look clean—and unless one happens to get out in it and get stuck or have some other mishap, it provides an inspiring, sometimes breath-taking sight. Whether the most majestic of mansions or the county dump, a thick blanket of snow makes everything sparkle like diamonds as the sunlight beams down upon it.
Of course, that which makes the snow glisten is the same thing that makes it melt away. Then, we once again see the reality of the underneath—the mansion or the dump.
When we are told that sins can be washed “whiter than snow” (Psa. 51:7), we can readily see how being forgiven of our sins makes us feel pure and clean. The beauty of this biblical use of snow is of its great covering power. Sins that separated us from God (Isa 59:1-2) are now covered. That brings us to the great difference!
Unlike snow, the blood that makes us pure in God’s sight doesn’t melt away and reveal the “other” side of us! The blood remains. And...as we walk in the light as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus His Son keeps on cleansing us from all sin! (1 Jn. 1:7) Isn’t it wonderful that through the sacrifice of Jesus we can indeed be “Whiter than Snow!”
—Larry Keele
FAMILY MATTERS...
Welcome to today’s services of the church of Christ in Champions. We are thankful to have each of our guests and hope that you will make it a point to come to be with us again.
Two special guests among us today are Justin and Sara Taylor. They have come to Houston to visit with us concerning our need for an Education and Involvement Minister. Currently, Justin has been working with the Memorial Road church of Christ in Oklahoma City where he is finishing his work as a two-year intern. Justin will teach a combined adult class in the auditorium and will preach in our morning service. We welcome the Taylors and pray that God will bless them with many years of fruitful ministry.
Again, we offer our thanks to all those who made the Progressive Dinner such a success! For those of us who might “just show up,” there might be a tendency to forget that a number of “someones” have put in long hours planning, scheduling, decorating, cooking, and cleaning to make this night possible. We applaud their effort and the service they performed for the rest of us. May God bless them for their work!
Remember 2010: A Passionate Pursuit for the Word. This will be a year devoted to the reading of the Bible and an introduction to its great books!
Be with us!
Thanks to Glenda Gibson for sharing with me a collection of sayings and thoughts “Bloom Where You Are Planted”—collected over the years. The parting thought this week comes from her collection.
Parting Thought: How can anyone ever love you for who you are if you become someone else to be with them?
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!
Jeremy's Junction
I really enjoy the singing at Champions. I feel we do a great job of incorporating a mixture of new songs and old songs into the worship service. Personally, I enjoy them both. For example, I love singing a new song like "There's a Stirring" one minute and following it up with "The Old Rugged Cross." I think that is really neat.
Sunday morning, we sang a song called, "I Exalt Thee." It is a beautiful song. I noticed, as did others, that the echo the teens are used to hearing was not written in the music. Something happened during this song that really made me think. The girls who sat in front of me started to go ahead and sing the echo. I remember thinking that sounded beautiful but noticed a look on their faces that said, "Uh-oh, we're the only ones singing this." The next time through, however, they were not. From what I could tell the rest of the youth group girls chimed in, as did several of the women who were sitting behind us. The next time through, the congregation all got into it. It sounded beautiful and I hope that you were as moved as I was.
What started with Elizabeth Killough, Madison Hicks, and Madison Phillips and a few others (Liz and the Madisons were the three in front I could see) ended with all the ladies adding to the echo. It's amazing what influence you have when you step out to praise God. I am sure our girls had that nervousness that comes with singing a part that no one else knows. Still, they sang with their hearts and before long, they were no longer singing alone.
When we sing, we should pluck the strings of our hearts. We don't need to worry about what people will think when we sing praises to God. In doing so, we show that God is number one in our lives and people will be drawn to that. It is the same way in our everyday lives. Our lives should be a living praise to Him. When people see us, hopefully by our standing out on our faith, they will be inspired to echo what we echo: That we exalt God.
Special thanks to Elizabeth Killough, Madison Hicks, Madison Phillips, and the girls who helped start the echo in the song. It was a beautiful moment that reminds us ministers why we do what we do.
"Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." (Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1)
—Jeremy Geurin
John's Jogs
MERRY CHRISTMAS OR HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Be careful what you ask for, you may get it!! For years I’ve heard the expression “they’re taking Christ out of Christmas” and, my brethren, and occasionally I’ve said it myself, “He was never in it.” Now that it has essentially happened that Christ has been taken out of Christmas, why am I not happy about it?
I know that Jesus was not born on December 25 and that He would have told us when and how to celebrate His birth had He wanted it celebrated. I have a real concern with putting all the emphasis on Baby Jesus and forgetting a Crucified and Resurrected Jesus. I am opposed to special type worship services connected with Christmas. However, that does not mean that I cannot speak the term nor preach sermons and teach lessons with the spirit of the season in mind. But note that all this has to do with our own fundamental belief system of how we should conduct our worship to God.
The reason that I’m not happy with the present situation is that this is just a part of the broader over all agenda of the ACLU secularist politically correct crowd to take Christ and ultimate God completely out of the public arena. There is an old axiom that you can control a society by controlling the language. Note all the big store advertising is everything about Holiday and nothing about Christmas even Holiday Trees instead of Christmas Trees. Some stores are even forbidding their salespeople from saying Merry Christmas to customers. Fortunately a couple of the stores have changed their policy from pressure from “Christian” groups. If Christians of all stripes don’t wake up to the cultural war that is being waged against us, we are going to continue to lose our way of life.
These groups want to restrict all spiritual activity to the church buildings and then I’m not sure they wouldn’t go further once that is achieved. Of course, ultimately they want to change the nature of the country into one of pure secularism with no absolute right or wrong concepts and that cannot be achieved as long as there is a strong and viable religious organization in action.
Let your federal, state and local political representatives and the merchants where you shop know that you want God and Christ to continue to be welcomed in public facilities.
—John Qualls