Article: Mailing It In by Rusty Hilliard

For those who enjoy online blogs, I highly recommend focuspress.org. Based out of Nashville, Tennessee, this website has a number of very interesting and well-thought out articles dealing with subjects which impact today’s Christian. Recently the authors published an article titled: “MAILING IT IN.” The major thrust of the article is examining different areas of the work of the Lord in which we have stopped working for ourselves, and are instead expecting someone else to do the work for us. I was inspired after reading this to research the phrase “mailing it in.” I came across the following quote which discussed the origins of certain phrases.

“Mailing it in has nothing to do with the mail and everything to do with delivery. The phrase refers to the act of performing a task or job with the minimal amount of effort required to satisfy the person who has hired you to do the work. But that's not all. To "mail it in," there has to be an understanding (express or implied) that the performer of the task is capable of better quality work than what is being delivered. Accordingly, mere hacks cannot "mail it in" the way an A-List Hollywood star or top-selling author can. Indeed, the strange thing about "mailing it in" is that a person has to earn the privilege through status or past, top-notch work.”

I have chosen to highlight the first sentence for a reason. Those first few words contain a great lesson for you and me as we strive to do the work of the Lord here in this local area. You see, it isn’t a problem with the mail (the message), the problem is with the delivery (the messenger.) Folks, God didn’t “mail it in” when it came to our salvation. Instead he gave us all he had to give in the form of his “only begotten son.” (John 3: 16) The question for ourselves is whether or not we are “mailing it in” when it comes to our delivery of the message which he has given to us.

Are you, as the performer of the work of the Lord, “capable of better quality work than what is being delivered?” As Paul stated in Philippians 1: 21  “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

This verse doesn’t allow for anything less than our best effort. In fact, this verse repudiates the idea of “mailing it in” all together. -Rusty-

Bulletin cover Nov. 2, 2014

Article: Owner of a Lonely Heart? by Rusty Hilliard

Musically speaking, I am a child of the 1980s. Few time periods in music history can match the power ballads of the 80’s. For example, consider the following titles the next time you are feeling alone.

Roxette: “It Must Have Been Love, but it’s Over Now.”

Patti Labelle: “On My Own”

Bonnie Raitt: “I Can’t Make You Love Me If You Don’t”

Bonnie Tyler: “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (If you were a woman named Bonnie in the 1980’s, it appears that there was a good chance that you were sad and alone.)

Heart: “Alone” (Nothing like cutting straight to the meat of the matter.)

White Snake: “Here I Go Again On My Own”

These lists prove a couple of things to us. First, your preacher has a horrible taste in music. Secondly, this list also reveals to us a basic human need for companionship. As people, we don’t like being alone.

One of the first needs which God addressed following the creation of mankind was loneliness. In Genesis 2: 18-20 we read “And the LORD God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him.”

We know that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and from his rib he formed woman, and from that day forward we have strove together in love and in life.

As great as it is that we have a partner with whom we can share our lives, we Christians sometimes act as though we are serving God from inside our own personal box. In fact, when Christ began to call His disciples to follow Him, it is interesting that He didn’t call them one-by-one, but in Matthew 4: 18-22, He called them to come work together.

“And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.”

Just as Jesus called these disciples together, so we should work together for the cause of Christ. When we refer to the “CHURCH”, we aren’t speaking of the building, rather we are talking about the body of Christ that is composed of each individual Christian. We have those around us upon whom we can lean for help and support, let’s come together in the vineyard of the Lord.

Rusty-

Bulletin Cover October 26, 2014

Singing & Picnic Oct 18 in Bartow

Semi Annual Picnic and Sing at Mary Holland Park in Bartow, FL at 11:00 AM - ? Saturday. Sponsored by Polk County area churches of Christ. Bring a covered dish,a chair and a good singing voice and enjoy God's beauty and wonderful fellowship.

Bulletin cover 10.19.2014

Article: Callouses by Rusty Hilliard

Anyone who has ever played guitar will tell you that there is a very painful process that all guitarists must experience on their way to becoming the “NEXT BIG THING.” When you first pick up a guitar, be it electric or acoustic, following your first few times playing your fingers will hurt and be painful to the touch. There are a couple of solutions that can be tried in order to help the struggling student survive the pain.

First, you can apply Apple Cider Vinegar to the tips of your fingers both before and after playing. When trying this method, you might also want to ice your hand for a few minutes along with the vinegar. Secondly, you can adjust the action on the strings of your guitar. The action on a guitar is the distance between the frit board of the guitar, and the strings. If the action is set too high, it will make the guitar harder to play. Finally, coat the tips of your fingers with clear finger nail polish. It offers enough protection to allow the player to still move around the strings with ease, and yet avoid the pain which have stopped so many through the years.

However, the best advice for a burgeoning guitarist is to play through the pain. You see, the more you play, you begin to develop callouses on the tips of your index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers. These callouses form a hard protective layer of skin over the fingers which you use to play, and this allows you to play longer and longer.

With guitar, callouses are a good thing, but when the conversation turns to the heart of the child of God, far too many of us have formed callouses where they shouldn’t be. Nehemiah 2:17, reads: “Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.”

By the time that this speech is made by Nehemiah to the children of Israel, the walls around Jerusalem have been gone for 125 years. In fact, the remnants of the nation which God had chosen as His own have been living in the rubble heap for some 10 years at this time; they’ve seen the destruction that is Jerusalem. So, why then does Nehemiah bring up the devastation that is obvious? He does it for a very simple reason: the broken walls, the burned gates, the devastated city was normal, and had formed a callous over their hearts. Therefore, before the rebuilding could take place, Nehemiah had to break through the protective coating on the hearts of the Israelites.

How many of us have become calloused to sin? We see God’s Word being violated, burned, misapplied and twisted each day, yet we just say that this is the way of the world. Folks, that is your calloused heart speaking. As children of the living God, we need to break through the hard coating that is over our hearts, and stand against the “wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6: 11) We should remove the politically correct tag that so many of us have placed upon our chest as a badge of shame, and go to war against the darkness which threatens our families, country, world, and even our Father’s house. (1 Timothy 3: 15, Numbers 32: 6)

Fall Festival coming soon

Columbus Day, October 12, 2014

Columbus Day

Look just beyond the yellow slide on the playground and draw a line in your mind 522 miles southeast toward the Atlantic- flying over Fort Pierce and then Freeport, you will come to the small Bahamian island whose original name was Guanahani. Lush and green split by a lagoon, twelve miles long, five miles wide, it was the scene of an inevitable miracle.

In 1485, 34-year-old Genoa native Christopher Columbus proposed to King John II of Portugal a voyage to discover a short cut to the Orient. Abounding with spices and gold, it was widely theorized that the far away East could be reached by going west. He was rejected. In 1485, he tried again and failed. Dejected, he made one last attempt and appealed to the new, united Spanish monarchs. Queen Isabella I was impressed but a committee scoffed, it was impractical. 

For two years, through bouts of frustration, he continually lobbied the royals. They were intrigued but too engaged in the Reconquista of Granada, a war to rid Spain of an Islamic invasion from north Africa. For nearly 800 years, the Muslims were a thorn in the Christian Spain. Innumerable battles kept them at bay, finally, on January 2, 1492, the last Muslim ruler was defeated.

Watching this completion of victory, Christopher Columbus thought of passages from the prophet Isaiah. 

42:10 Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise from the ends of the earth,You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

41:9a “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar!

51:5 “My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And my arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait upon Me, And on My arm they will trust. 

Columbus seized the opportunity to appeal to the queen… and was rejected. Thinking his cause was lost, he left town on a mule. Yet, when the king heard of her decision he vetoed it and had Columbus returned to the castle. On the evening of August 3, he set sail.

Five weeks later, at 2 am on October 12, 1492, sailor Rodrigo de Triana shouted “Tierra! Tierra!” (Land! Land!). Columbus led a prayer.

“O Lord, eternal and omnipotent God,

Thou hast, by Thy holy word,

created the heavens, the earth, and the sea;

blessed and glorified be Thy name;

praised be Thy majesty,

who hast deigned that,

by means of Thy unworthy servant,

Thy sacred name should be acknowledged

and made known in this new quarter of the world.”

Upon landing, Columbus named the land after Christ the Savior, in Spanish, “San Salvador.”

Across 522 miles, across 522 years, Christ remains San Salvador. His wisdom, His Word, His wonderful love still guides us through uncharted waters. The isles have heard Him; and in this land of flowers (Florida), we, the inhabitants from the East and all other directions, recognize that our hearts and our prayers point blessedly upward. In Christian love, let’s turn the world upside down. –Jason Goldtrap

10 12 14 Bulletin New Elders

Severo Hernandez baptized on September 18, 2014.

Romans 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Church Bulletin October 5, 2014

Come join us for worship service at Life Care in Winter Haven