Everyone wants to be Merry, or Happy all the time, but especially at Christmas. I sure do! The problem is life doesn’t always cooperate.

Circumstances that make you and I happy ebb and flow depending wholly upon what happens next, or what has happened in the past. If you were invited to the right parties, received that special gift you dreamed of, or the crazy aunt behaved herself when the family was gathered are some of the things that contribute to “happiness”.

Leaving the turkey in the oven far too long, having transmission problems on the way to grandma’s house, or your family misbehaving at the Christmas table are a sampling of things that tend toward us not being “happy”.

The truth is, for the most part, we simply can’t control our circumstances. Other people, mechanical things, the local news, politics, the economy and the list is endless of the things that are completely beyond our reach. So, if your goal is to be happy, good luck!

True contentment is deep-seated and unshakable, it rests not in our happenings but rather in our relationship with God through Christ. The joy he gives (a far more precious thing than happiness…) is unwavering. Knowing that the Creator is “for” you and that He loves you perfectly, produces joy the Bible describes as “unspeakable”, so my attempt to adequately describe it will fail.

The knowledge that without regard to what happens today, or Christmas day, everything will be all right because of whose you are and where you are going wells up in a heart of joy and confident living that brightens the day of those who observe your steadiness in troublesome times. I hope that this Christmas and the approaching new year you will know the “Joy” of Christmas and every day because of your total trust in the Joy-giver.

Because God loves us so very much He invaded our humanity to live among us. He was in every sense “God with us!” Yes, Jesus came to do what we could not, perfectly be obedient to all of God’s desires for humans. He finished the job well! Then, in the supreme act of love he took upon him the sins and failings of us all and died for us the death we faced. Then in 3 days he rose from the dead so now this gracious offer could  be announced.

 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

What a gift! I hope each person who reads this will cherish this love gift of God this Christmas and know the joy only He can give.

Royce Ogle
Monroe, LA

The original founders of the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement (RM) had known, understood, and preached Jesus Christ. However, from the second generation forward, Jesus Christ himself gradually faded from view as the primary subject discussed week after week from the pulpits of Churches of Christ, to be replaced by “the Lord’s church” (or “The New Testament church”) and “the plan of salvation.” In his book titled The Core Gospel: On Restoring the Crux of the Matter (ACU Press, 1992), the late Dr. Bill Love, a Jesus-man and Bible preacher of uncommon giftedness, painstakingly documented, generation by generation, this gradual but undeniable change in the message preached by the most influential preachers within the RM during its first century.

In his mercy and from time to time, God raised up various men to call the Churches of Christ back to their proper subject–Jesus Christ. One such messenger was a man named K. C. Moser (1893-1976), who led out with an article entitled “Preaching Jesus,” published in the December 1, 1932 issue of the Gospel Advocate, the major Church of Christ publication of influence east of the Mississippi River. Moser’s title came from Acts8:35 which, in the older versions, says that when Philip encountered the Ethiopian eunuch, he “preached to him Jesus.” Philip did not preach a system of religion, or conditions of salvation disconnected from the atonement. He proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God who bears the sins of the world.

K. C. Moser simply pointed out that to do otherwise is to make grace void and to turn conditions of salvation into pure law. When Philip encountered the eunuch, Moser argued, he “preached not a plan, but a man.” That phrase, and its counterpart “the man, not the plan,” quickly caught on throughout the Churches of Christ among parties of both persuasions. “The Man, Not the Plan” remains the shorthand way of referring to this controversy among the Churches of Christ even today.

During the following year, 1933, Texas preacher R. L. Whiteside began a response to Moser’s teaching on Romans. Both men actively advanced their respective views in sermons, classes, and by every means at their disposal. Moser set out his Jesus-centered teaching on salvation in two influential books. The Gist of Romans was first printed in 1957 with a second edition in 1958. The Way of Salvation was issued some time later, and it was the catalyst that provoked publication of Whiteside’s commentary on Romans. Unfortunately, at almost every important point throughout Paul’s grand epistle, rather than explaining the text of Romans, Whiteside comes dangerously close to merely explaining Romans away.

Approximately a decade after that, my own first religious article to be published in a major brotherhood journal was a piece called “Emphasis: Christ,” Firm Foundation,LXXIV:45 (November 7, 1967). It was immediately attacked and denounced by articles in four or five other smaller journals. My crime, according to these critics? I was preaching the Man, they said, and not placing proper emphasis on the Plan. I thanked God that he had put me in the right place, and prayed that I would always occupy it. A few years later, I published a little book titled THE GRACE OF GOD, which was all about Jesus and salvation through trusting in him. I sent a copy to K. C. Moser, then still alive. To my enormous delight, he wrote back a hand-written note expressing appreciation for the gift, and stating that I was teaching precisely what he believed the Bible to teach.

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This from my esteemed friend Edward Fudge, EdwardFudge.com.

Edward is a gifted attorney, author of several books, thinker, scholar, and mightily used Bible teacher with a broad ministry to many groups in addition to his own beloved churches of Christ. His popular graceEmail is received by thousands each week and you can subscribe HERE for this free service.

Above all else Edward Fudge is a Jesus man, grace, gospel-man whom I am thrilled to call my friend.

Royce
Monroe, LA

We use the word “church” in a far different way than our first century brothers and sisters did. They never once said “Let’s go to church”. They understood that “church” was the gathered people who were believers in Jesus. We do use the word with that meaning in mind but we also use it to mean a building where we meet together once or twice a week, or what happens in the building. I don’t have a problem with saying “Let’s go to church”, I use “church” in that context and meaning frequently. But, there is another problem.

For some reason the building where we meet on Sunday has become a holy place to many people. In fact, many of our church of Christ folks believe the auditorium is more holy than the class rooms or the fellowship hall. For example, some churches will allow music with instruments in the sound track in the fellowship hall but not in the “worship center” or whatever name they have for it. And, some believe that women can speak in a class of mixed adults but not in the “worship assembly”. I have friends who would not dare come to worship on Sunday in the same clothing they would come to a Bible study in one of the class rooms. For some reason unknown to me people think the biggest room in the church building is a holy place.

Not any of these things come from the New Testament. There were no “church buildings” in the first century. People gathered in homes, temple court yards, by the sea, and I suppose any other suitable spot that was convenient. There were no pulpits, so the pulpit is no more a holy place to speak from than is a table in the kitchen.

Because of tradition ingrained over hundreds of years we have adopted ideas that are special to us and guard them as closely as Holy Scripture. The church building has no soul! It’s the people of God who are the “church”. If they meet in someone’s home, if they meet at a ball park, or in a picnic area by a lake, they are the local “church”. These closely held traditions have led men to make rules about what can and cannot happen in the biggest room in the building on Sunday morning. That is not a good thing. None of those man-made rules furthers the cause of Christ and the good news about Him.

We don’t go to “church” to be in God’s presence, we are in God’s presence all the time. If you are a true disciple of Jesus, when you move a part of the church is moving. And when you speak, the church is speaking. Our speech, our actions, and our attitudes should be no different on Saturday afternoon than on Sunday morning, where ever we are.

So let’s stop playing games. Let’s go to church and let’s be the church from Sunday to Sunday. A watching world needs to see genuine Christians living simple, loving everyone, and making much of Jesus.

Royce Ogle
Monroe, LA