Mt. Olive Church of Christ

Newsletter for January 2012

This page was last updated: January 22, 2012

Material to be published in the monthly news-

letter needs to be submitted by the 3rd

sunday of each month.

Thank You

One of my favorite phrases, if not my favorite, is “…and the Lord added.”  For Carolyn and me, in every ministry in which we have been involved, this has been the beginning of the announcement of someone coming to Christ.  We get the wording from Acts 2:47:  “…And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

When we accept Christ, we become a part of His body – the Church.  We don’t join it; He adds us to it.  For someone to say, “I want to be a Christian, but I do not want to be a part of the Church,” is a total contradiction.  You can’t be one without the other.

We live in an age when the Church has been unmercifully divided.   Someone might ask, “To which church are we added when we become Christians?”  The answer, very simply, is, “We’re added to the Lord’s Church.”

Then the question is asked, “Does it matter to which denomination of the Lord’s Church you belong?”  First of all, we need to realize that when the Lord’s Church was established, it was one.  It was the Lord’s Church at Jerusalem, Antioch, Philadelphia, etc.  Everyone believed and taught the same message.  If they did not, people like the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter, James and others sent letters to the congregations showing them where they needed to go back to the original.  There was only one Church, and it is obvious from the New Testament writings that God wanted and still wants His children to be a part of that Church.

For almost nine years now Carolyn and I have sought to teach you the simple New Testament message.  The message has not changed in the past 2,000 years; it hasn’t changed in the years we have been with you, and we have no plans to change it as we move into 2012.  Our message is, simply, “Let’s go back to the Scriptures.  Let’s imitate the pattern God has given us in His Word.”  If we will do this, we can be sure that we are where God wants us to be.  We can be sure that our names are written in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.”

If you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, why not do it now?  We’ll be glad to help, as will our Christian brothers and sisters.  It is the most important decision you will ever make.  It will bring you the greatest blessing you can ever imagine.  The Apostle Paul summarized it nicely when he said, “…I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.” – II Timothy 1:12

In Christian love,

Russell