The Champions Spirit
Volume 69, Issue 3
Jan. 24, 2010
In This Issue
“The Reliability of the Bible”
You’re reading it. Not just a book—the Book!
Book by Book...chapter by chapter.
What was that you read? The world was created by God! The same world suffered a catastrophic flood because of man’s great wickedness! The Israelites marched out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea on dry ground! Now in Leviticus we are seeing God’s nature—holiness—as well as man’s great unholiness!
Now, you’ve read it...can you believe it? Is the “Book of Books” trustworthy? Reliable? Accurate? True?
Or, is it a book that men compiled just to fill their few days upon this earth with a little bit of hope—even if it is the made-up kind?
Most likely all of us have, at one time or the other, asked ourselves these or similar questions. I don’t believe that such questioning is a bad thing at all. On the contrary, I believe that it is good to question, to go to the right sources, and find a solid basis for our faith. If we don’t, the faith will never truly be our faith!
Saturday and Sunday, February 6-7, we will have an opportunity to look at some of the answers to these questions as well as others as Eric Lyons of Apologetics Press will present five lessons on The Reliability of the Bible!
On Saturday there will be two presentations, sandwiched around a meal. One is entitled: “Why Does a 'Reliable Bible' Matter?” The other is “Principles for Dealing with Alleged Contradictions.”
Sunday, the three lessons will be “Is the Bible Reliable?”, “Was Jesus Reliable?”, and the concluding afternoon lesson will be, “The Scientific Accuracy of the Bible.” Tell your friends and neighbors about this seminar. Make plans to be here with your entire family. Eric will do his part! Let’s do ours and support this seminar.
—Larry Keele
FAMILY MATTERS...
We are always glad to welcome those who have chosen to visit with us. If you have not done so, please take a moment to complete one of the visitor cards which you will be given by either one of our young men or that you can find in the card rack by the song books. We are glad you came and hope you will come again soon!
We are happy to welcome Darlene Ewell as part of the Champions family. Darlene and her mother have also donated a New King James Study Bible to the congregation. It will be kept on the desk in the library for anyone who might like to use it as a reference aid.
Also, coming on Wednesday evening was Freddie Gibson. Freddie, along with his family, will be moving into our area in a couple of weeks. He wants to both be rededicated to the Lord and to place his membership with us.
Both the men and the women of the congregation had “extra-curricular” activities this week. Thursday, the men enjoyed “Men’s Night Out” and Saturday the women had a great “Ladies’ Day” with food, speakers, and fellowship. It’s great to be a part of such a living, active family!
Parting Thought: Hurt might be long-lasting, but joy can be everlasting!
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!
Jeremy’s Junction
It's late Wednesday night (actually early Thursday morning), and I have seen and heard a lot of stuff today. Without going into personal details, I'd just like to mention that we have some wonderful teens here at Champions. We have teens who have gone through some very tough times and are still loving God. We have teens who would stay up late to talk with a friend to show them that God loves them. We have teens who love to express their spiritual nature to each other and to those around them.
In Wednesday night class, we called Madison Phillips to sing to her and pray for her. This phone call definitely invoked an emotional response from our class. Madison is a dear, sweet young lady in our youth group who was admitted to the hospital Tuesday for an emergency appendectomy. When we called tonight, her fever had gone up, and she was having to stay another night in the hospital. Madison is a very brave girl. She loves Jesus, and her parents are very Godly people. Many prayers have gone up for Madison and she has been called and visited by people who love her. Her mom's Facebook wall is covered in posts from people who want to let the family know that they are praying for them and they love them. It is difficult sometimes for us to see our spiritual brothers and sisters (and little sisters) suffer. I think that this shows that we love each other deeply. I could see that in the eyes of our teens Wednesday night when we called Madison.
Our prayers continue to go out to Madison and her family and whoever else may be suffering. Please continue to encourage each other and pray for each other whenever you have the opportunity. Let us strive to love each other as God loves us.
—Jeremy Geurin
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. ( II Corinthians 1:3-7)
John’s Jogs
“BIBLE BASICS”
As we embark on our “Look at the Book” reading, studying and having all our sermons and lessons going through the entire Bible this year, there are certain basics that we ought to commit to memory. Here are some of them:
The Bible was written by about forty writers over a period of 1400-1500 years and yet in perfect harmony. It is composed of two major divisions: Old (3 letters) Testament (9 letters = 39 books) and the New (3 letters) Testament (9 letters) – 3 X 9 = 27 books and 39 plus 27 = 66 books in the Bible.
The Old Testament is divided into five sections: Law (5 books), History (12 books), Poetry (5 books), Major Prophets (5 books) and Minor Prophets (12 books). Develop a theme of 5-12-5-5-12. Commit to memory one group at a time. Law: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. History: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I&II Samuel, I&II Kings, I&II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther. Poetry: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel. Minor Prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. They are only designated major and minor because of length of the books, not importance. There are 23,068 verses in the Old Testament.
The New Testament is also divided into five sections: Gospels (4 books), History (1 book), Pauline Letters (written by Paul = 14 books), Other Letters (7 books), Prophecy (1 book). Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. History: Acts. Pauline Letters: Romans, I&II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I&II Thessalonians, I&II Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews are generally attributed to Paul, but some question if it was Paul. Other Letters: James, I&II Peter, I,II& III John and Jude. Prophecy: Revelation. There are 7, 958 verses in the New Testament.
If you’ve never committed the books of the Bible to memory, it’s not difficult to do by just working on one section at a time until you have it down pat and then move on to the next. It then becomes easy to find the scripture for which you are looking. More on this next week.
—John Qualls
Kathy Gerber had another birthday this week. At her age she may not be able to bowl this year.