THE GLORY DAYS

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

THE GLORY DAYS

(Eccl 7:10) Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.

Bruce Springsteen has a song entitled “Glory Days” where he describes bumping into once popular school friends who were longing for the former good old days. These were the light-hearted times when they were in their prime and the world was at their feet. It’s what we call today the “rear-view mirror syndrome” and it’s what Job was struggling with. But is that where we should have our focus? It’s time to put away the yearbook and get out the notebook because God wants to fill our future with good days to come. These are the new GLORY DAYS!

Job was looking back to better days (Job 29:1-6). A wave of sentimentality came over him and he told his friends how great things used to be. He felt close to God. His family had that togetherness. He was respected in the community and people sought out his counsel. He had means and was able to help the less fortunate in their time of need. He had security and the future looked bright and the only direction in his life was forward.

We can all look back to happy times in our lives. If you really think about it you can select certain periods in your memory where you felt joyful and content. You were in your prime and things were just fine. But I believe that even in a world of strife and woe, God gives us happy times in life. (Psa 128:2) When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. (Gen 30:13; Deu 33:29; Psa 127:5; Psa 144:15; Acts 26:2)

In chapter 30 Job goes on to compare his present circumstances with his former glory days and he laments. He said even his servant’s children mock him and his plight. People abhor him and even spit on him. He intimated that his best days were over and he had been placed on the shelf as an item no longer useful. All he felt was his present pain. He cries out to God but receives no answer. He felt this was all unfair after he had done so much good in life. He ended by saying basically that his musical instrument was now accustomed to playing sad songs. (Judg 6:12-13; Ezra 3:10-12)

Did Job ever get his glory days back? The answer is “no” and “yes.” He couldn’t relive his old glory days but neither was he supposed to. God had new glory days ahead for Job. (Job 42:10) And the LORD restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. We too are not to go back and try to relive the former glory days. We can’t go back, we can only go forward. And because of God’s grace in our lives we can overcome our current struggles and enter our new glory days that will make our former glory days pale in comparison! (2 Sam 7:19; 2 Cor 3:7-11; 1 Cor 2:9) Because of Jesus…these are the good ole days…THE GLORY DAYS!!

Louie

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THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT

(Gal 5:22-23) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

There’s nothing like fresh fruit. There’s something attractive about the look, smell, and taste of fruit. When the Holy Spirit controls our lives we will bear fruit for our Lord that builds up believers and attracts sinners to Christ. Pray over each one and you will be fruitful for our Lord!

- LOVE (agape) is listed first because it is the foundation of the other graces (1 Cor 13:4-8a). (John 15:13) Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

- JOY (chara) is a deep and abiding inner rejoicing which was promised to those who abide in Christ. Different from happiness which is based on happy circumstances. (John 15:11) "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

- PEACE (eirene) is an inner repose and quietness, even in the face of adverse circumstances. (John 14:27) "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
- LONGSUFFERING (makrothumia) is patient forbearance towards others and slowness in avenging wrongs. (Eph 4:2) with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.

- KINDNESS (chrestotes) is benevolence (love) in action. (1 John 3:18) My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

- GOODNESS (agathosune) is uprightness of soul and an action reaching out to others to do good even when it is not deserved. (1 Sam 24:17) Then he (Saul) said to David: "You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil.

- FAITHFULNESS (pistis) is the quality which renders a person trustworthy or reliable. (1 Cor 4:2) Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

- GENTLENESS (praotes) is meekness; the right use of power and authority (power under control). (Phil 4:5) Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

- SELF-CONTROL (egkrateia) denotes self-mastery and relates to curbing the fleshly impulses just described in Galatians 5:19-21. (1 Cor 9:27) But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Louie

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JEHOVAH WITNESSES

SHEPHERD TO SHEEP

JEHOVAH WITNESSES

The Jehovah's Witnesses was begun by Charles Taze Russell in 1872. He had difficulty in accepting the doctrine of eternal damnation and so came to deny this teaching of the Bible. He also came to reject the Trinity, the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. When he was 18 Russell organized a Bible class in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1879 it was his desire to popularize his ideas. He co-published The Herald of the Morning magazine with its founder, N. H. Barbour. By 1884 Russell controlled the publication and renamed it The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom. He also founded Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (now known as the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society - WTBTS). The first edition of The Watchtower magazine was only 6,000 copies each month. Today the Witnesses' publishing complex in Brooklyn, New York, pump out 100,000 books and 800,000 copies of its two magazines--daily!

After the death of Russell on Oct. 31, 1916, a Missouri lawyer named Joseph Franklin Rutherford took over the presidency of the Watch Tower Society which was known then as the International Bible Students Association. In 1931 he changed the name of the organization to "The Jehovah's Witnesses." Succeeding leaders have been Nathan Knorr, Frederick Franz, Milton Henschel, and Don A. Adams. Today the religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism!

Jehovah's Witnesses are best known for their door-to-door preaching, distribution of literature such as The Watchtower and Awake!, and for their refusal of military service, saluting the flag, and blood transfusions. They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or other holidays and customs they consider to have pagan origins incompatible with Christianity.

The Jehovah’s Witness religion has made a number of predictions about the end of the world. The first was 1914 – they based their prediction on prophecies from the Book of Daniel. After the end did not come, they changed the meaning of the prediction and stated that it was the date that Jesus would begin to rule invisibly. Some other years that the group have predicted the end of the world to come are: 1914, 1915, 1918, 1920, 1925, 1941, 1975, etc. (see Deut 18:20-22)

Here are some of the major aberrant teachings of the Jehovah Witnesses (JWs):

- TRINITY: JWs find it difficult to worship “a three-headed God.” They call Jesus a “mighty god,” but not the Almighty God— Jehovah. (See Gen 1:26; Mat 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14)

- DEITY OF CHRIST: JWs teach Jesus was created by God and that He had been the archangel Michael in heaven before He came to Earth. Their translation of John 1:1 from their New World Translation says the Word (Jesus) was “a” god. (See Mat 1:23; John 8:58; John 20:28; Phil 2:6; Col 2:9; Titus 2:13; Rev 1:8)

- BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS: As for Jesus’ resurrection, the JWs insist that Christ did not rise bodily from the dead, but only as a spirit who looked as if He were a body. (See John 20; Rom 1:3-4; 1 Cor 15)

- CHRIST’S FULL ATONEMENT: Man is saved through works and perfect obedience to Jehovah—by being and doing exactly what the WTBTS teaches. (See Eph 1:7; Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5)

The next time you hear a knock on the door don’t feel intimidated. Remember Jesus died for the JWs too!

Louie

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CCNORCO BEACH BASH/BAPTISM

CCNORCO BEACH BASH is Saturday, August 27 (NOT AUGUST 20...that was a bulletin typo), 5pm at Huntington State Beach. Come for a fun time of eating and fellowship around the fire pit. Enter at Brookhurst Ave. and Coast Highway and look for the CCNorco signs. Parking is 15.00 so think about carpooling to share the expense. Why not come early and enjoy the surf and sun if you so choose. Bring your own food/beverage,recreation equipment, blanket and jacket and we'll praise 'till sunset! There will also be an opportunity to be baptized in the ocean. (Psalm 93:4) The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.

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