September 2015
The Trumpet
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“The trumpet shall sound…and we shall be changed”
(I Corinthians 15:52)
Volume 9, Issue 9
Pastor’s Pen
"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest... and you shall find rest unto your souls." (Matt 11:28-29). These comforting words from Jesus represent a tremendous shift in man's relationship
with God when compared to the Old Testament.
The dispensation of the Old Covenant was that of distance. When God appeared, even to his servant Moses, He said, "Draw not nigh hither: put off thy
shoes from thy feet, for the place where you are standing is holy
ground." (Exodus 3:5); and when He manifested himself upon Mt, Sinai, one
of the first commands was to: set bounds about the mount so his chosen people couldn't touch it (Exodus 19: 12). In the sacred worship of the Tabernacle
the thought of distance was prevalent. The masses of people did not enter the
outer court, the priests were the only ones to go into the inner courts and the
High Priest was the only one to enter the Holiest of Holy. He did that only
once a year, following a specific ceremonial cleansing.
The lesson to be learned was that sin was so utterly offensive to God that it
caused a chasm in our relationship with him. The divide was so wide that
man could no longer come into his presence. But then Jesus came and everything changed. No longer was man commanded to go but, instead, compelled
to come. The idea of distance was replaced with nearness. What sin divided,
the cross united.
Inside This Edition
Pastor’s Pen
page 1
Deacons Report
page 2
Putting on Full Armor of God
page 3
Calendar
page 5
Early Childhood Ministry
page 6
Birthdays and Anniversaries
page 7
The love of God reached down to man in the incarnate deity of Jesus. Our stain of sin has been
washed away by the blood of Christ. The cross has
provided a bridge and now the joyful proclamation
of God is, "Come unto me...”. The lesson is now
that safety and refuge can be found in the presence of God. We come by the way of the cross, grow
through sanctification, and draw near through experience. How great and marvelous are the works
of our Heavenly Father!
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We are reminded in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal
life."
May your heart will be filled with love, joy and praise for the blessing of Jesus
Christ; through whom we have access to God.
In His Grip,
Pastor Jim
Deacon Family Ministry
These past few months have been a tremendous blessing for the deacons and our
entire church family here at FSBC. It was a very special time for all of us to see
Paul Ferrulli ordained as a deacon on July 19th. I personally want to thank Paul
for the time, energy, and commitment he put into preparing for the Presbytery
Board and his willingness to accept this calling from the church.
The deacons are also grateful that Mark and Rachel Barnes, Vincent and Raedena
Brooks, Dan and Martha Hazelbaker, Ben and Stephanie Hoffman, and David
and Heather Tippery have all agreed to become Family Ministry Partners in the
Deacon Family Ministry. We would also like to thank Pete and Margaret Berry,
Chris Boesl, John and Shannon Crowe, Doug and Susan Croyle, and Don and
Janet Nesbitt for their continued service as FMP’s.
Please don’t hesitate to contact your FMP or deacon if you have any needs, concerns, prayer requests, or praises you’d like to share with them.
Sincerely,
Jim Clark
Deacon Chairman
Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child is a ministry formed by Franklin Graham that takes Christmas gifts and the Gospel to underprivileged
children all over the world. We are collecting items to fill shoeboxes in November. Each month we will highlight a different item to bring in.
But, please remember we will take all types of donations at any time! For September please bring in hard candy and lollipops.
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Putting on the Full Armor of God
Apologetics - From Bob Neubauer
MISCONCEPTIONS AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Various misunderstandings and misconceptions have been and often are held by
believers. So let's see if we can correct some of those problems.
Let's begin with the oft repeated statement that Constantine made Christianity the
official religion of the Roman Empire. Remember that until Constantine became
the Roman Emperor Christianity had been an illegal religion. Christians had been
persecuted and killed since the earliest days of the faith. The persecutions were not
always empire wide and they were not constant over the first three centuries of the
church, another mistaken belief. The primary reason for the illegal state of the
faith was because Christians claimed to be the only true religion. The Romans didn't mind what you believed as long as you accepted other religions. Of course,
Christians could not do that. So, they suffered. But, in the year 313 Constantine
ended those persecutions and make Christianity a legal religion. Constantine was
born February 27, 272 A.D. and died May 22, 337 A.D. Christianity did not become
the official religion of the Roman Empire until the year 380 A.D., forty three years
after Constantine died. By the way, though Christianity was made legal in 313 it
was initially only accepted in the western part of the Roman Empire. Remember
Constantine became Emperor by use of military force. He did not in 313 control the
eastern part of the empire. In fact, that control was not achieved until 324. That is
why the Council of Nicea was not called by Constantine until 325. And yes, there
was no separation of church and state at that time. That idea continued right into
the Reformation. Luther wanted to have a free church, one not controlled by the
government, but that was not possible. He needed the protecting of his elector or
Rome would have killed him (Luther's elector was one of the seven electors of the
Holy Roman Empire - the electors chose the Holy Roman Emperor).
One of the criticisms offered against Martin Luther was that for his famous hymn
A Mighty Fortress is our God he used a tune from the beer halls. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Just let the tune from that hymn run through your mind
and then try to think how such a ponderous melody would have been used for a
beer garden song. Luther has frequently suffered this kind of mal treatment, much
of it coming from Roman Catholic sources.
A common lament from believers is the idea that wouldn't it be great if we could go
back to the early church when Christianity was pure. Have you ever read the book
of I Corinthians? Paul had to write them two letters to deal with the multitude of
problems at Corinth and that still wasn't enough. Around the year 96 the church at
Rome sent them a letter (known as I Clement) and it seems they were still dealing
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with many of the same problems Paul had addressed. And remember that all of our
modern day heresies were first seen in the early church. A hierarchical understanding of the Godhead in which the Father is greater than the Son or Spirit such
as we find in Mormonism and the Jehovah Witnesses was begun by Arius and dealt
with at the first ecumenical council at Nicea in 325 A.D. The modalistic understanding of the godhead was first propagated by Sibelius in the late third century
and replicated in modern times by oneness Pentecostals. One thing the early Christians did have was a much greater knowledge of and understanding of the Old Testament. The New Testament didn't start to be written for a couple of decades after
the Lord's death so the Bible of the earliest Christians was the Jewish scriptures.
When we read in Acts 18:24 that Apollos demonstrated from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, this could only have been the Old Testament since the first
words of the New Testament had not yet been written. Interestingly I Clement is
one of only a couple of early church documents that were seriously considered for
inclusion in the cannon but did not make it. There was a II Clement but that was
found to be a spurious document produced somewhere between 95 and 140 but not
by Clement of Rome. Clement of Rome is claimed by the Roman Catholic Church as
one of the popes in the succession of Peter but though Clement was a Bishop in the
Roman Church there was at that time and almost to the middle of the second century a plurality of bishops in the Roman church.
There is a tendency to allow our dislike for change to affect our beliefs. One thing
that has been negatively impacted by this problem is the veneration by some of the
King James Version of the Bible. There is a huge difference between having a preference for the King James which is just fine and saying that the King James is the
only correct translation. If you are over the age of sixty chances are you grew up using the King James. And because the King James was the English translation used
by almost everyone for centuries it is easy to fall into the trap that it must be the
only God approved translation. Some have even gone so far as to say that if the
King James differs from the original Greek the King James must be correct. The
underlying Greek text for the King James was produced from only a half dozen or
so Greek manuscripts from the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Greek text behind the modern translations comes from more than 5800 Greek manuscripts many
of which are much closer to the original. Careful comparison between the manuscripts has enabled us to get back almost 100% to the original text which means
the modern translations are more accurate to the scripture that God gave us. Now,
certainly the King James will get you to heaven, but so will the New American
Standard, the NIV, the ESV and the Holman Bible. So which translation should
you use? As one man has said, "Use the one you use a lot."
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Ministry Opportunities at FSBC
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Ladies’ Leadership Team Meeting (6:30 p.m.)
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Awana Starts (6:00 p.m.)
5
Ladies’ 1st Saturday Workshop (2:00 p.m.)
6
Pot Luck Fellowship (12:30 p.m.)
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Labor Day - No MDO
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Barbeque at Artz’s (11:00 a.m.)
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Ladies’ Bible Study Starts (9:00 a.m.)
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Air Force Appreciation Day
22
Sunday School Teachers’ Training (6:30 p.m.)
25
Fit One Expo
26
Fit One Run
26
Awana Boise Conference
Finance Committee
The wonderful giving of the members of First Southern has enabled the
church to complete the new roof debt free. The roof was a major concern as a
failure with the old roof could have done major damage to the church building. In addition, the regular giving has improved to the point of meeting all
the essential budget areas. As the Lord continues to bless we look forward to
other building improvements that will benefit the church in both the short
and long term.
The finance committee members are Wes Sheppard, Pete Berry, David Tippery and Bob Neubauer. We meet as necessary to deal with the church finances, working with our church treasurer Ken Anderson.
Lost & Found
Found - two leather, NIV Bibles one of which is engraved, Jody E. Kinsfather. If this belongs to you, a relative or friend contact John Ring at First
Southern Baptist Church in Mountain Home.
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Early Childhood Ministry
The Early Childhood Ministry currently consists of two sections, Children's Church for children four years old to the
first grade, and the nursery for children ages zero through
four. The nursery has had an average of 15 to 20 children
on Sunday mornings and Children's Church has had about
8-12. We have established a solid volunteer rotation but
could always use extra help in these two areas.
During the last regularly scheduled business meeting it was brought to the attention of the church that we have a need for a third ministry that would be added to
the Early Childhood Ministry. This third ministry would cover children in the 2nd6th grades during the morning service on Sundays. Please pray about the creation
of this third ministry as it would help meet the needs of our families with children
in this age range. If the church decides to create this ministry, we will need even more volunteers to lend a hand. If you
are not involved already or know someone that would like to
help, please prayerfully consider joining the Early Childhood
Ministry team. You can contact Mrs. Heather Tippery or
Mrs. Jessica Lundberg for more information.
Heather Tippery
Common Grace
Common grace is a term used to refer to how God deals with people in all areas
not directly related to Salvation. It says that there is a measure of grace extended
to unbelievers as well as believers and that it is given to all equally. Jesus teaches
about common grace in Matthew 5:43-45, "You have heard that it was said, 'You
shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for them who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father
who is in heaven; for He cause the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends
rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." So we are to be even handed in our
treatment of non-Christians and Christians. Be careful though to recognize that
the love of you enemy differs from your love of a friend in one respect. Because you
treat your enemy well does not mean that you are to trust him. He is still your enemy.
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Joke of the Month
(Comedy) Corner
Q. What goes up when the rain comes down?
A. An Umbrella.
Q. If I have it, I don’t share it. If I share it I don’t have it.
What is it?
A. A Secret.
Q. I’m tall when I am young and short when I am old. What am I?
A. A Candle.
September Birthdays and Anniversaries
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10
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William Rector
Bill McCormack
Bob Neubauer
Melanie Sease
Devon Osgood
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17
18
22
27
Kaitie Blalock
Taylor Clay
David Tippery
Carol Ellis
Eva Kaiser
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Nelson & Pam Culp
Larry & Liz Sears
28 Rich & Jessica Lundberg
If you do not see your name here and would like to:
please contact the church office at 587-3828 and let us know your birthday
and/or anniversary.