[Biblemat] A>60,000 Products (Kent Heaton)

[Kent Heaton]

60,000 Products

(Kent Heaton)

 

Catalogs fill my mailbox on a daily basis. If I had a nickel for every piece of "junk mail" received over the years, I would be a wealthy man. A recent catalog caught my eye advertising church products. Seventy-two pages are filled with advent wreaths, candles, communion cups, Christmas and winter bulletins, anointing oil, tithe and offering envelopes, candlelight service sets, white ushers' gloves, songs for communion CD, certificates, record books, pew and usher supplies, baptismal robes, clergy and choir robes, church apparel, DVD's, maps, charts, flags, register boards, hymnal boards, food service, tape, binders and filing supplies along with printer cartridges; and that does not include the 60,00 products found on their website. This all comes with a toll free number.

"And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch" (Acts 11:26). Barnabas and Saul would never have believed how much the church would change from those early days at Antioch to our modern concepts of religion. The early Christians were simple people who worshipped God in "spirit and truth" (John 4:24) without all the trappings of a commercial world. "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together" (Acts 20:7-8). There were no fancy ornaments of special candles that filled the house. A group of saints gathered to hear the power of the gospel from the lips of one of God's servants. They were not worried about how much time was spent; they only wanted to hear about the good news of salvation.

No one worried about getting the choir ready or the PowerPoint correctly set or the white gloved ushers scurrying about to make certain all the tithe envelopes are prepared. Paul wore no special garments (even though he was an apostle) and his message was not governed by how many weeks were left in Lent and Christmas and New Years and Easter and the Fourth of July and the upcoming election of the Emperor of Rome. He did not dig his sermons out of sermon books but the book of truth received from the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16,17). 

Philip, the evangelist, "went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing" (Acts 8:5-6). The work of Philip was evident "when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike" (Acts 8:12). Remarkable to our modern day theologians, Philip did not offer spaghetti suppers, cake raffles, kids night out, judgment houses, carnivals, concerts, mother and father days, pumpkin sales and a host of other modern day conveniences to bring the masses to Christ. He preached only the gospel of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:16).

Thousands obeyed the gospel in the first century upon the simple creed of truth only - no need for 60,000 products. I wonder what we are missing today? I suspect we only need one thing - the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Kent Heaton
207 NE Fourth Avenue
Trenton, Florida 32693
352-463-6916/3793
www.trentonchurchofchrist.com
www.northfloridabiblecamp.com
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