8/10/2019 Good News 1955 (Vol v No 01) Jan
1/8
T h e
N a t i o n a l
M a g a z i n e o f
T H E
C H U R C H
O F G O D
Unconverted
Church
Members?
Soiiietinzes ezjeu
Gods
people ueed
t o
be
A W A K E N E D
to their real sp ir i t id s tate Here
s
revealed the S H O C K -
ING condit ion ma n y of you are in
by Roderick C. Meredi th
A I N F U L AS
it may be, much as we
hate
t o : idmi r i t , Gods rriinistcrs
P
ave conie to realize t h x there
are inany individuals physic:illy nmo?zg
Gods people
who :ire
spiritually n o t of
Gods church. They are progressing to-
ward
a
certain destination-the
lake
of
fire
This could ensily incluck
Y O L
Before you were baptized and began
bui lding
a
Christian character, you
should have sat down t o
c01112t
the cost
-as
Jesus
said i n Luke
14:25 -33 . He
said you were to love
God
more than
a q , rclrt;r,e+ven you r o w n wife-and
more than year oion life also (verse
2 6 ) .
He concludcd by saying, So like-
wise, whosoever he be of you that
for-
saketh not nll that
h e
httth, he cannot be
my disciple (verse 33
) .
Have you recrlly forsaken A L L that
you have?
Do
you really consider that
your life no longer belongs to
you ,
but
to
God-to do with
as H e
wills?
There is
no
use kidding yourself.
Some of you new converts-and som e
who have been
in
among Gods people
for
yedrr
dml y f w s
still have a
CARNAL
mind I t s t ime for even Gods people
to
w a k e
up.
Now le t me explain.
Like Corinthian Church
Among the s t ronges t and most cor-
rective epistles that the apostle Paul
wrote were his two letters to the Corin-
thians. He addressed them as the
Church of God ( I
Cor. 1 : 2 ) ,
yet he
said
there are
c o n t e n t i o m
among you
(verse 1 1 ) . Some were following one
tJm2 instead of CHRIST. Others were
following other
men.
Because they liked
n ~ e n s ersons
in-
stead
of
Christ, because they had a spirit
of contei z t ion or
argument about many
things. and because they
h a d
not f u l l y
S U R R E N D E R E D to God and th e guidance
of His Spirit , Paul could not write to
them as he would to fully converted,
spiritually minded pcoplc. Instead, he
said, And I, brethren, could not speak
unto you as unto
spiritual,
but as unto
turnul, even as unto
babes
in ChriJt
( I Cur.
3 : l ) .
And that
is
the exact
conditioiz
of
some
of
you who now read what 1
write
Many of you still
look
on things
from the point of view of a
CARNAL
mind. You have seen much of the truth
as
a
correct argument,
2nd
you
have
gone along with it and been baptized.
But when a particular truth is applied
to
you personally,
you often resist
i t
and stick to your own way.
A s many have indicated by their ac-
tions-which speak loud er than wor ds
-they want to go along with God and
His church up to a point. And what
is beyond that point that they
are un-
wil l ing to give up?
The answer is SELF Tha t big part of
self
they still think is pretty good, after
all, and that they never learned to hate,
to R E P E N T
of,
and to B URY i n baptism.
All
this inay be revealed when a situ-
at ion
arises
where the human . r d j has
to be denied in order to obey God. Per-
haps a couple has
to
split
up
in
order
to obey Gods commandment agains t
adz~l tery .
Maybe a
man
has to give up
his life-long job in order to fully keep
Gods
weekly and
anizwl
sabbaths.
I t might be that someone in the
church has been given an honor or po-
sition that you thought you-your self
-shuuld have.
Or
perhaps you th ink
Gods
minister has offended you i n
some way.
Suddenly, your spiritu al attitude
changes-and we find that yours was
only a sarface
conversion-at least
so far
-and tha t you have surren dered to
God
only
u p
to
a point .
T h e n
y o u for -
get about Gods conditions
of t o t d
JMr-
r e d e r and you began setting forth
conditions that God and H is church will
have
to
meet
in
order
to
keep
i l l
J J N ~
good graces.
You will often begin to accuJe one
of
Gods ministers and perhaps compare
him unfavorably with another minister.
In your mind, and
in
your words, you
will try to create sides. You will have
the same
carnal,
contentious spirit that
some of the people a t Corinth had. You
may begin co j i d g e or
acczse
others-
often God s minister-and forge t the
fact that God is
3 ~ ~ 7 1 ~
UDGE,
that
Christ
is the living He&
of
Gods church, an d
that Gods ministers
are
responsible to
8/10/2019 Good News 1955 (Vol v No 01) Jan
2/8
Pnge 2
The
GOOD NEWS
January, 1955
t ians)
stxrted
ioiit
arith
oil
in their lamps.
But the x i s e virgins took extra oil .
They took e s t n t pains to continually re-
ceive more of Go ds Spiri t , symbolized
by thc o i l .
But the unwise virgins didnt g ~ o w
spiri tually. They were .relf-si?tisfietl a n d
complacent-perhaps
.ipitiircally
proziil.
They weren t /iiuzgeYiiig ;ind
t
for righteousness. They thought they
would
get by all right.
When t hey came t o en t er i n t o t he
mar r i age scpper , t he Lord said: I KNOW
Y O V
NOT.
T h e y
had
r u n o u t
of
oil-out of
Gods S p i r i t
They hadn t been
g r o w i n g
spiri tually. They st i l l
had to
be regard-
ed as CARNAL-minded--as bab es in
Christ
( I
Cor. 3 : 1 .
Yes rhcre have
u l i u q ~ been the
izoo distinct classes of people
within
the
visible
church of God.On e i s go ing i n t o
the kingdom. The other i s not .
W h e r e
d o
Y O U s t and?
C a r n a l P r i n c i p l e
Each
UIK u l y u u
l ~ a d
X~LT I
cxaiiiiiir
yourself in the light of these facts.
It
mat t er s no t how l ong you
think
you
have been converted-this
means
you
Remember t ha t we are commanded
to GROW in grace and knowledge
I1
Peter : 18 . You must cont inual ly dr ink
in
m o r e
o f
Gods
Spi rit to grow-and to
become spiritually mi nded ,
A spiritual
mind wi l l be wi l l ing to
&nit ersor and
change.
It wil l
groiu
into tzcu truth.
Spiri tzeal-minded people l ove Gods
law, and NOTHING shall offend them
(Psa l ms
119:165).
They wi l l not be
continually gett ing their feelings hurt
by
Gods minister or by others, and they
wil l not 1oi.e thi.r
pre.re12t
world l y sy.s-
t e m
( J a m e s
4 :4
) .
O n the o ther ha nd, the cLi rnal- in inded
person is easily upset by an ythi ng and
everybody. He i s not looking to Ch r is t
-but to 7 i i d . r per.co77.r.
N a t u r a l l y he
ndl find fault.
H e i s always quick to stumble on
L ~ J eal o r i inagined stumbling-block,
because instead o f grozoitzg-he has
remained
u
spi r i tual babe wi th a c a r d
mi nd .
H e
wil l
nccuse m d f ind fau l t espe-
cially with
Gods
w o r k a n d H i s m i n -
isters--and will try to
find
his i u u y
arouizd t he
lniu
of
G o d
a n d t h e goueriz-
meizt of God in the Church.
In his presence, a converted person
usually senses that he niust be careful
to avoid an argunient or hu r t feel -
ings.
The
carnal mint is stubborn,
un-
yielding,
selfish.
P;ILIIwrote: The currial mi nd is
e n m i -
13
agai ns t God : fo r it is not subject to
the law of
Gvd.
neicher indeed mbe. So
rhen they that
are
in the flesh c : x n l
PlCtl.SC (.O?Zti77Z/e
O?Z pd
8/10/2019 Good News 1955 (Vol v No 01) Jan
3/8
The
Parable
of the
UNJUST STEWARD
-what
does it mean?
ihis p i r u b l e , f o r d
in
Luke
16, has
perplexed ever1 the lerrr?red
commeiztcrtors.
H e r e is the plniiz, clear explaizatioiz.
by Heiwiaiz
L . H o e h
P E N
Y O ~ . I av of Atonement, fast day, Monday,
September 2 6 , begins with the pre-
vious sunset.
Festival
o f
Tabernacles, begins sunset
Friday. September 30, ends sunset
Sabbath, October 8. Both annual
Sabbaths fall on the weekly Sabbath.
The
GOOD N E W S
Pr i n t ed i n the
U.S.A.
R E T U R N P O S T A G E G U A R A N T E E D
Box
1
1 1 Pasadena California
Ser. 34 .65
(e),
P.L.&R.)
U. S
POSTAGE
P A I D
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FORM
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