OUR CHANGING WORLD

 

While I become more involved in our computer each month, I have my problems. The other day I was composing an article on the word processor when all that I had done suddenly disappeared. I made a wrong move and all my labor escaped into the deep recesses of the computer. I called on Ouida for help and she soon retrieved my literary treasure. I find myself moralizing about the antics of this mysterious device. Once I have composed a few paragraphs and then decide to quit for awhile, I cannot shut off the computer without telling it to "save" what I have done. If I do not save it, it might not be there when I return. If I forget to do this, a message comes on the screen "Do you want to save this?" I have to respond with a "click," yes or no, before the computer will let me go. I sometimes think of our busy, fleeting days when a lot of things are said and done and stored in God's computer. At the end of a day I imagine a voice asking me, "Do you want to save the things said and done today?" It would be nice if at the end of each day we could click out the bad and save the good, but life's computer is not like that. It is not a bad lesson to learn that we are to "walk circumspectly" and thus take heed to what we put into God's computer to start with. And is this not what forgiveness is, when God clicks out the bad, even as we record it' never to be brought up again? Wow! 

This should reach you in time to remind you of two significant gatherings. The Bering Drive Church of Christ in Houston is celebrating the bicentennial of Alexander Campbell's birth with a program on "Reflections on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Churches of Christ," May 27-28. Speakers include Rubel Shelley, Carl Ketcherside, and Roy Osborne. You can get a special deal at a nearby Holiday Inn. The church's address is 1910 Bering Dr., Houston 77057. The other important affair is the reunion of the old Hartford Forum that Carl Ketcherside and I began back in 1958. All who ever participated are invited to return May 20-21 to the East Maple Street Chapel in Hartford, Illinois. Carl and I will both be on hand, the Lord willing. Contact B. E. McCann, 127 Donna Dr., Hartford, Il. 62048.  

The Calvin Presbyterian Church in Houston recently ran an ad in a Houston paper that included, "Our motto is 'In Essentials, UNITY; In Non-Essentials, LIBERTY; In all things, CHARITY."' While we count that slogan our own, it does go back to the Protestant Reformation and belongs to the church at large. All factions among us have always approved of the slogan, but we've never been able to agree on what is essential and non-essential, or matters of faith and matters of opinion, as the slogan often goes. Maybe the Presbyterians can do a better job, and they may need it as much as we since they are divided into at least 16 different sects.

Billy Graham recently preached for the first time in China. He was heard by an overflow crowd of 1500 at the Beijing Christian Church. As he always does he preached Christ and him crucified. He also met with the premier of the city who was quoted by the press as saying, "China can never be prosperous and strong with only material development.  It also needs spiritual forces."  

The man who recently won a million dollars in the Florida lottery is a member of the Church of Christ who never gambles, not even on lotteries. He even voted against the lottery. He found the winning ticket in the parking lot of his business. Always a tither, he gave $100,000 of his winnings to his church.  

Then there is the story of the janitor at Bethany College who didn't win a million dollars but made that much in the stock market over a period of 30 years. A bachelor, he left most of it to the college. No one around had any idea he had that kind of money since his life style was one that became a janitor. When this story was published by the Associated Press, Ouida and I were especially interested since I was on the faculty at Bethany when Larry Hummel was a janitor. I often consulted with the professor of economics about investments, but apparently consulted with the wrong man! It shows once more that we cannot judge by appearance. We just might have surprises like that in heaven.

I recently claimed in an article in the Christian Standard that many if not most of the members of the Churches of Christ no longer believe that instrumental music is necessarily a sin and that it should not be made a test of fellowship. This was recently confirmed by a series of articles by Steve Ink in Image, edited by Reuel Lemmons, in which some of the old arguments against instrumental music, such as Noah and gopher wood, are questioned. One Image article said, "In the case of adding the instrument to the assembly, there is no violation of any command. Adding the instrument does not prohibit singing, etc." Coming from a non-instrument Church of Christ journal, this hermeneutical honesty is very encouraging.  

The Central Church of Christ, 1710 W. Airport Freeway, Irving, Tx. 75062, announces its Second Annual Choral Festival, June 4. Ten Church of Christ choruses will spend the day rehearsing and being critiqued by Dr. Charles Nelson, Artist-in-Residence at ACU. The public is invited to the Finale in the evening at 7:30 p.m. where each chorus will perform separately and then join together to form a mass acappella choir. This should be acappella music at its best.