Our Centenarian is Gone

Posted on by BETH

Kuthi Muthu was with the church at Lock Street for as long as I can remember. In her younger years, she was married to leper and bore him eight children, yet she never contracted leprosy.   I can’t remember her ever being ill enough to have to go to the hospital.  She was a winner.  Unfortunately she and her husband did not rear their children in the Lord because they did not know about the church until the children had grown up.

Age 80
Age 80

As she aged and became a widow, she sometimes spoke of being cold during the rain season.  That complaint was easy to understand, because I too felt the cool dampness even in my house during the monsoons.  I gave her a sweater and hoped it would warm her.  Then one day she came saying her stomach hurt and she needed help to feel better.  We took her to the local hospital where she was admitted for a few days for observation.  The doctors there claimed she had cancer and sent her home to die.  Not willing to give up so soon, we took her to another hospital in the area where we were told the same thing, except that these claimed she was too old to treat.

After trying four more hospitals, we finally took her to an elderly lady doctor in the village who had sympathy enough to try to find out what Kuthu Muthu’s trouble might be.  The diagnosis was related to her feet and legs and she she was treated for tropical Filariasis (sometimes called elephantitis). It obviously affected her stomach too.

A younger teacher at CTTS volunteered to carry her breakfast every morning along with the prescribed tablets for treatment.  The medicine was harsh and she seemed to grow weaker and sicker quickly.  The young man continued to monitor her and give what the doctor prescribed.  One day she fainted and sustained a rather nasty bruise and cut to her head.

In all this, Kuthi Muthu never wanted to miss an assembly of the saints.  Even when she was so sick she could not walk, she asked for someone to carry her to the meetings.  Likely because she thought her time was near, she came bringing a cloth bag filled with wadded up rupees (Indian money) and requested to be able to donate that to the church one day.  Some covetous soul who heard about her gift berated her and said, “You should  have given that money to your children!”

Her children…ah, yes, those eight she bore to the leper…those eight who were not members of the Lord’s body because they had been reared in paganism…those eight who couldn’t wait to occupy her house…

Not one of them wanted to take care of her in her old age!  Mind you a son and his family had moved into her house–supposedly for that purpose, but they would not even give her a cup of tea in the mornings, nor would they feed her anything but waste food.  Students and teachers from CTTS took it upon themselves to be sure she ate three meals a day and had the medicine she needed.  We could not assume her family would allow her access to good food or medicine even if we sent it there, so this had to be part of our personal daily ministry.  It was literally a trip to find her three times a day and give her what she needed–our chance to be used by the Lord to visit the widow in her affliction…(James 1:27).Kuthi Muthu at 84

Finding Kuthi Muthu was not always easy.  She learned early to avoid the brutality at home, so she walked, and walked, and walked from morning until late at night. There were times we found her on the roof top of her four story apartment building.  She lived on the third floor, so going up one more floor by the stair was nothing to her.  Later, when someone blocked the stairs, she used the metal ladder bars outside the apartments to climb all the way up the apartment walls.  She said sitting in the summer tropical sun was better than listening to the fighting in her home (Prov. 21:19).  One day she complained about never having a chance to rest in her own house and cried about the treatment she was getting.  Someone asked her if that gave her a chance to return good for evil, and she agreed it did (Matt. 7:12; Luke 6:31).  She was willing to be defrauded (1 Cor. 6:7).

There were so many trials during those last years, but Kuthi Muthu seemed to conquor her temptations and remain strong.  We too had trials along with her and were often tempted to give up, but the journey was a blessing for all of us.  She passed from this life last month and many will miss her sweet, yet strong will to do what was right.

ALCOHOL

Posted on by BETH

beer_toastSome of the most beautifully done commercials advertise beer. They’re gorgeous; they really are.

Those breath-taking horses, the sweet little colt… very appealing. That little child on crutches, the one whose medical bills were paid by the beer company, is so touching.

If we had realistic beer commercials, what would they be like? Would we see a man standing at the sink, heaving up his stomach? Or a little girl lying under a bar stool, sleeping, while her mother “drinks away” her sorrows?

How can a picture show the deep, agonizing depression in the aftermath of adultery, because a husband’s judgment was clouded by drink?

I wonder how the beer companies’ track record is with children. I mean the children whose lives they improve with their charitable donations, compared to the number of children born dead, or with chronic seizures, gross deformities, and retardation, because their mothers are seduced to drink – by these very commercials. Not to speak of those sweet faces we see on the billboards, slaughtered by drunken driving, and the living ones, whose faces never make it to the billboards, because they are too disfigured. Or the loneliness of the ones that are robbed, by the same means, of a mother’s loving touch….

Study more about Alcohol  with this Power Point presentation.

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What is Gambling? (part 1)

Posted on by BETH
Gambling

(Outline notes taken from a sermon on the same topic)

I. Gambling Defined

  1. Legal – “Gaming or playing for money; or betting on the result of a game; the playing of a game of chance or skill for stakes.”
  2. Dictionary – “To play or game for money or other stake; to hazard; wager. Connected with gambling is the strong element of uncertainty, the large chance of losing.”
  3. Popular View – “Getting something for nothing without rendering service or exchange of goods and is essentially stealing and a form of robbery.”
  4. Psychiatrists – “A compulsion. Habitual gambling is a mark of a disturbed personality, an undesirable character trait.”
  5. Summary – Gambling involves three parts:
  • Chance is a major element. Some skill may be needed.
  • A prize or payoff in cash or merchandise.
  • To be eligible for the prize something must be placed at risk.

Can we obey all of God’s commands?

Posted on by BETH

Which of the commands of God is too grievous (literally, weighty – 1 John 5:3) to obey?  Is there any command that is more than we can bear?  He says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).  If we can bear it, why would we not bear it?  Which one of the commands of God can we not obey?   Someone argues that we can obey all the commands from time to time, but we will never come to the point where we obey all the commands all of the time.  Is it that we can not obey God’s commands or is it that some folks do not want to obey God’s commands?  He has not given us impossible commandments.  Which thought can we not take captive with his weapons?  His weapons are powerful, to  the  “. . .bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor 10:4,5).  If his weapons can take every thought captive, why do we not do it?  Which fiery dart can Satan throw that the complete shield of faith can not quench?  The shield of faith can make us able to quench all of Satan’s fiery darts.  In fact, this is one of the chief commandments.  He says: “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Eph. 6:16).  If we are able (though his weapons) to quench all the fiery darts of Satan, why do we not do it?  Is it not lack of faith that causes some to say that we can not obey all of the commands of God?  The power is not in us, but “. . . the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God”  (2 Cor. 10:3,4). He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (Eph. 3:20).  What is left beyond what we can ask or think?  Notice the context of that statement.  Paul is praying that the brethren will be filled with all the fulness of God – the heart of God or Christ.  Our Father is ready to help us in all we ask or think if our purpose is to fulfill his purpose.  Through Christ we can obey all of the commands of God.  Now we want to consider the “power that worketh in us.”

NEW TESTAMENT PERFECTION

Posted on by BETH

No man can be perfect in the world’s definition of perfection.  However, God’s ‘perfection’ and the world’s ‘perfection’ are not the same ‘perfection.’  The world tends to define the word ‘perfect’ as ‘never making a mistake.’  Some insist that if a man were perfect like Christ he could never have sinned at any time during his lifetime.  To live an entire lifetime without sinning even once is impossible, for: “For all hav sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).  This is not the Lord’s definition of perfection.

Someone may ask why there is such a determination to teach perfection.  The obvious answer is because it is part of the whole counsel of God.  Who would not want to teach everything the Lord teachers.  Second, it is a command of God (Matt. 5:48; Heb. 6:1).  Third, Paul’s aim was to ”. . . present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Col. 1:28). Fourth, this word incorporates descriptions of the pathway of spiritual growth (Eph. 4:12,13, James 1:2-4).  Before we consider the pathway, we first need to have a more complete picture of the goal itself.

Jesus gives his own definition of perfection.  “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40)  This is a general description which applies to all masters.  Perfection for any disciple is being “as his master” (Luke 6:40). John the Baptist and the Pharisees made disciples (Mark 2:18; Luke 5:33).  When John the Baptist’s disciples were finished, they were like John, and the Pharisees’ disciples were like the Pharisees. “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.  It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord” (Matt. 10:24,25).  Jesus’ disciples would naturally be like Jesus when they were completed.  In line with this purpose he said “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5) and “. . . arm yourselves likewise with the same mind . . .” (Pet. 4:1, 2).  If we obey the command to have the mind of Christ, we will be that much like Christ.

Jesus called for disciples to follow him in order to become like him.  Before they could be like him they had to know him.  Jesus called for men to know him.  He said “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me” (Matt. 11:28-30).  The disciple can not become like Christ unless he first knows what he is.  Jesus described what they should learn about him: “. . .for I am meek and lowly in heart.”  If his disciples follow him, they also will become meek and lowly in heart, like their master.  “And Jesus increased in wisdom. . .” (Luke 2:52).  Jesus disciples will also seek to grow in wisdom as their master did.  Jesus said: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:19).  He left his disciples an example so they would sanctify themselves.  “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb. 5:8). Jesus learned to obey by suffering.  His disciples will also follow his example and learn obedience by being willing to suffer what Jesus suffered.  What did Jesus suffer in order to learn obedience?   “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (1 Pet. 2:18-21).  Jesus did not suffer so that we would not have to suffer.  He left “us an example, that ye should follow his steps.”  The scriptures inform us that Jesus was not born ‘perfect’ but was “made perfect” (Heb. 5:9). “For it became him, for whom are all things . . . to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10; 5:9).  Jesus is the captain of our salvation.  He was ‘made perfect’ by the things which he suffered.  He “suffered being tempted” (Heb. 2:18). “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).  Jesus’ faithful disciples will grow to be perfected by following in his steps.