Several years ago I read a "Dilbert" comic where Dogbert designed "The only newspaper anyone will ever need."   The cost was a bit prohibitive ($1000), but Dogbert pointed out that the headlines on this paper never hanged: hence, it is the last newspaper anyone would ever need.   If I recall correctly some of the "headlines: were: "Wildfires in California", "Oil prices rise" and "Trouble in the Middle East."  What made the comic funny was the fact that these headlines do, in fact, seem to repeat themselves often.
The "Trouble in the Middle East" headline really made me think.  How long have the Jews and Arabs been at odds with each other?  Literally thousands of years.  The land they fight over even at this date seems a far cry from the Promised Land we read of in the Bible.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of "milk and honey" flowing any more.   The mighty cedars of Lebanon are, in large part, gone.   Yet the animosity continues with both sides laying claim to the land that belonged to their father, Abraham.  
I wonder what Abraham would say about this? 
Actually, I think the Bible tells us what Abraham would say.  We certainly are given a clear insight as to how he thought about the Land.   Have your Bible handy?   Good.  Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 and look at verses 8-10:

⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
⁹By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Abraham certainly appreciated the land that God gave him.  But even more, Abraham wanted to go to the land where God WAS.  (Heaven) So great was Abraham's desire to go be with God that he lived life here on earth as a stranger.  That's a good way to look at this life.   Even at its best we are only promised a life of about 70 years on this planet.  How can that compare with an eternity with God?   It can't.  People in the Middle East....and all over the world...would be better served if they took their eyes off of this world and turned their eyes toward God...and the eternal city where He lives.

See you soon,
Bill

September 2010: From the desk of the Elders

What a beautiful summer God has blessed our Church family with!  As the
Fall season approaches, we can look forward to the great harvesting time of year. One might think that I mean this in a human, material way, but I want for us to think of our harvest in a Spiritual way. Soon we will be picking the fruits of our labor (vegetables and fruit). This is a time when we share our fruits with our friends and family, but I would like us to think about our Spiritual Harvest.

We should be planting our seeds to those who don't know Jesus Christ as their savior. This would then allow us to come back to answer questions they would have and thus giving us an opportunity to harvest our labor toward leading people toward acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  We have been taught by the words of God himself, (and I quote in Galatians Chapter 6 verses 6-10):
(6) Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.
(7) Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
(8) The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Sprit, from the Sprit will reap eternal life.
(9) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
(10) Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

To our family in Christ we pray: Let us give thanks to God for his love for us, through Jesus Christ.  May our walk with Jesus, in our lives, produce an abundance of good harvest for God. We know that our reward awaits us, where no one can take it from us. Happy Harvest to all the saints at Rose hill Church of Christ!
Sincerely yours, through the Blood of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Gene Beretich

Greetings!

Fall is just over the horizon.  I wrote in the May contribution that it has been my dream for several years to plant a small orchard alongside the creek bed to honor those members of Rose Hill who have gone onto their heavenly reward. A small grove of apple, peach, plum, and pear trees will honor those who “bore good fruit” during their earthly journey.     I am excited to report that the orchard has been started.  Theresa and I donated and planted 2 red delicious apple trees. They are alongside the creek-bed near Rolen Road.  Fruit is a nutritious food.  It builds our bodies into strong healthy servants for the Lord.  When the children now and in the future see the apples, peaches, plums, and pears hanging on the limbs, it will remind them of the kind of lives they should lead in order to be “nutritious” to their brothers and sisters in Christ….and to the rest of the world.  If anyone would like to donate a pair of trees, please let a deacon know.  It will be greatly appreciated. 

Peace

Paul K. Gregory

Bill's Blotter,

VBS 2010 is almost here!  Our theme this year is "The Sower" (curiously enough based on Jesus' Parable of the Sower)
We are going with a new format this year: instead of the traditional week-long Vacation Bible School we are going with
a ONE DAY VBS patterned after a day of Christian Service Camp.  The schedule is listed below:

8:00 Registration
8:30 Opening
9:00 Class Period #1
9:45 Class Period #2
10:30    Snack Time
10:50    Praise and Worship Time
11:30    Class Period #3
12:15    Lunch
1:00 Rest Period
2:00 Crafts
3:00 Recreation
4:30 Clean Up
5:00 Supper
6:00 Evening Activity
7:00 Missionary Time
8:00 Campfire
9:00 Dismissal

VBS is open to all young people age 2 through, and including, grade 5. 

Our Missionaries are Cory and Rachel Shain.  They are going to Africa to work for Wycliffe Bible Translators.  Make sure
you bring your offering money when you come!  We will only be taking up ONE offering...Saturday night.

Hope to see YOU there!

Bill

I can’t believe that there are still people who do not believe in God.  Our family recently took a trip to the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.  We went to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in Tennessee.  Breathtaking!  God’s majesty!   And yet people still don’t believe.  They say it all started with a big bang.  Call it what you will, but it still had to be molded and made beautiful.  It was molded and made beautiful by the hands of God.  Time and erosion do not make things as beautiful as they are, such as the Smokey Mountains, the Grand Canyon, and Niagara Falls.  Let me tell you, I had a big bang in my kitchen once.  Did you ever put anything in a pressure cooker and have it explode?  Well I did.  It was a pot of beans.  Imagine a big bang of beans exploding on your kitchen ceiling!  Time and erosion is only going to make it moldy and crusty!  Ladies, I believe we are going to have an explosion at Rose Hill.  A spiritual explosion and with the help of our Lord and Savior we can help mold it and make it beautiful.  Our meetings start back up in September.  See YOU then!

Upcoming Events

8/7 – VBS
8/15 – Live Nativity Planning/Luau Potluck
9/11 – Finish cleaning Kitchen 10:00 a.m.
9/16 – Meeting 6:00 p.m.

The dog days of August are upon us, the days when it gets so hot and humid no one wants to do anything but sit in the air conditioning.  I plan on doing my share of that.   However, while we are all just sitting around, I suggest that we can make good use of the time by doing something that I believe Christians have gotten away from.   That something is meditating.  Meditating has gotten a bad rap recently because the meaning of the word has been abused by certain religions.  They claim that when meditating we should empty our minds of everything.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  David was a man after God’s own heart and he spent a lot of time meditating, which he talked about in the Psalms.  From the Psalms we find that we should be meditating about the following:

The Law of the Lord                                  Ps 1:1-3
God’s unfailing love                                     Ps 48:8-10
God’s miracles, mighty works, and wonders    Ps 77:11-13, Ps 119:26-28
God’s precepts, ways, and decrees               Ps 119:14-16, 22-24

This is a lot to think about, but August should give us plenty of opportunity.

A Different Type of Vacation Bible School
It is officially Summer: and that means Vacation Bible School!  Normally that would mean starting on a Sunday evening
and running five nights with a closing program on Friday night.
Not this year.

This year we are going to have a "One-Day-All-Day" VBS.  It will take place on Saturday August 7 and will run from 8:00 am
to 9:00 pm.  The day will be modeled after a day of Christian Service Camp.  Here is the projected schedule;

8:00 am Registration
8:30 Opening
9:00 Class Period #1
9:45 Class Period #2
10:30 Snack Time!
10:50 Music and Missions Time
11:30 Class Period #3
12:15 Lunch
1:00 Rest Period
2:00 Crafts
3:00 Recreation
4:30 Clean-up
5:00 Supper
6:00 Movie Time!
7:00 Evening Activity
8:00 Campfire
9:00 pm Dismissal

VBS is for young people in the Toddler age thru Middle School.  For more information call the church office at
(740) 927-6444.

See YOU there!
Bill

Linda and I put in a garden again this year.  It is predominantly a container garden, with a few raised beds.  This is because our yard has approximately 32 gazillion tree roots in it.   We have planted a variety of things: tomatoes, potatoes, beans, squash, melons, peppers, strawberries and gourds.   It is an ambitious project.  

I must admit that bell peppers have always caused me the greatest problem.   I can usually get big, green beautiful plants, but the fruit is often small and disappointing.   One year the dwarfish peppers tasted just like grass.   Yuuuuck!  

THIS year I did a little research and I may have found my problem: I was using too much nitrogen fertilizer on the peppers.  This produces beautiful foliage...and virtually no fruit.   Hopefully, this year I'll do better.  

The peppers of my past remind me of how certain Christians behave.  They are showy.....but pretty barren in the fruit department.  We must always remember that what matters most to God is our fruit production.  He is serious about producing love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and so on (the fruit of the Spirit) in our lives.

A pretty, but barren, pepper plant is a waste of time, energy and space.   An unfruitful Christian is worse: they have wasted God's great gift of Grace.  

Be fruitful folks.

See you soon.

Bill

People always say you should never discuss religion or politics.  I think I'll go for the Daily Double and do both.   Actually, I'll let the Apostle Paul do it.

If you have your Bible handy, turn to 1 Timothy 2:1-4:

¹I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—

²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

³This is good, and pleases God our Savior,

⁴who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

There can be little argument that Americans are becoming increasingly divided over political ideologies.  You see it in the Opinion Pages of the local newspaper; you see it on television and on the Internet.   People are always railing against the current Administration (or the last one).  No one seems happy and everyone has a solution.   Most "solutions" involve looking forward to the next election.   The Scripture cited above, though, cites the importance of praying for the current Leadership.     

Here is the uncomfortable question: do you prayer for our government leaders?   Paul gives some very good reasons for doing so.  Let's break it down:

1)  That (in order that) we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

2)   Doing so pleases God

3)  God wants all men (including government officials) to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  

I'm sure that at least a few of you reading this column will be tempted to argue: "But so-and-so doesn't deserve to be prayed for!" Well...do any of us DESERVE it?   If we go on merit all of us are in trouble.  All of us who are Christians have been touched by the grace of Christ.   He wants to touch all people.

Let's make it our goal this week to pray that that happens.....for our leaders.

See you soon!

Bill

Know Who You Are

Its graduation season.  If you have ever sat through one of those seemingly endless ceremonies you may have heard the speakers tell the graduates, "Know who you are."   This appeal to self-esteem is designed to give the hearer confidence as they get ready to go out and face the world.   The problem is that the world is pretty big and it just LOVES to chew people up. 

Far more important than knowing who you are is knowing WHOSE you are.   If you are a Christian, you are a child of God.  A child of the King. 

Bill Gaither summed it up beautifully in the words of the song listed below.

It’s Because of Whose I Am.

I’ll never understand how He saw a piece of clay and said “I want it, I’ll use it”
The greatest mystery is that somehow, in spite of me,
He said “I’m gonna love you”
He took me in His arms said “This child belongs to me”,
He placed me in His kingdom, Now I live like royalty
It’s not because of what I am, not because of what I’ve done,
It’s because of Whose I am

I’ll never understand, while I was yet a slave,
He said He’d buy me. He’d save me.
He clothed himself in flesh, became the final sacrifice
so I could know redemption
He took the stripes upon His back so that I could walk in health,
Then He broke the chains of death now I can live forevermore,
It’s not because of what I am, not because of what I’ve done,
It’s because of Whose I am

My Father is Lord of everything from here beyond forever
He’s given me His name, said if I’d ask anything
He’d gladly give it,
He put a robe upon my back, placed a ring upon my hand,
Said the riches of heaven were all mine
It’s not because of what I am, not because of what I’ve done,
It’s because of Whose I am.

It’s not because of what I am, not because of what I’ve done,
But its because He first loved me. His grace has set me free.
His blood is flowing through my veins. I’m adopted by The King.
It’s because of Whose I am. 

See you soon,

Bill