An Oklahoma preacher encourages a congregation, and the brotherhood, to work against abortion.

by Rick Popejoy, preacher with the Lindsay OK church

Horrible and despicable deeds, put into practice by ancient men, came to be practiced by God’s people in the days of Jeremiah. God’s own people began to worship the false gods of Molech and Baal. The worshiper would take their newborn babies and offer them as human sacrifices (Jer. 7:31-32; 19:5-6; 32:35; 2 Chr. 33:6).

This practice came right out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s daughters, in an act of rebellion against both Lot and God said, “let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him” (Gen. 19:32) and that is exactly what they did (Gen. 19:33-35). As a result both daughters had children. The youngest daughter’s son became the father of the sons of Ammon (Gen. 19:36-38). Molech is described as “the abomination of the children of Ammon” (1 Kgs. 11:7).

Astonishing how that one sin of indiscretion by one or two, can lead down a slippery slope of surpassing all moral national boundaries.

While the Ammonites primarily sacrificed post-natal children, it is no coincidence that God condemns them in the book of Amos “because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border” (Amos 1:13). In other words, they took the children right out of the womb for their own profit.

Today we have given the false gods of human sacrifice new names: Career, Convenience, and Money. We have now come full circle in our evil. Today, mothers walk into the slaughterhouses of abortion clinics to have their offspring ripped from their bodies so that their careers are not hindered, their conveniences are not disturbed and the money in their bank accounts does not dwindle. Now that’s real progress!

In my sermon delivered on the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, I said,

“Today, we must speak up for the innocent ones. One of the things that Jeremiah spoke against was the practice of taking their little children and throwing them into the fires at Hinnom (Jer. 7:31-32). A couple of weeks ago in this series I spoke about the moral atrocity of abortion and the upcoming anniversary of Roe vs Wade. One good man, almost in tears, met me at the back and ask the question, What can we do to stop this wrong? Here is my answer to that man (and to all of us):

“We must speak up! Therefore, I offered this challenge to the congregation. Let me challenge every member of this congregation to join me in a Speak Up For The Innocent Campaign. The goal of this campaign is simple: To stop Americans killing of their own children. The plan: that every day we will speak to someone in some form about the innocent children we send to the slaughter houses of abortion clinics in American, above 4000 daily!

“Ask everyone you know to join in this campaign. Write letters to family members, friends, television and radio stations; congressmen, judges, the President (running or residing). Use every means possible, through emails, tweets, comments on Facebook or any social network. Flood our communities with the message that we can no longer tolerate this moral massacre, and that we are outraged by the carnage of convenience. Plan to do this with me, every day, for an entire year (until January 22, 2013). At the end of this year, we will evaluate what has been accomplished and where to go next in this battle for the children. Let us rid ourselves of this legacy before the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.”

I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed at my brethren’s response to this subject. As one good sister pointed out on Facebook, “It’s amazing how many people, members of the church don’t think about this due to believing we can’t win! We are the David and this is the Goliath!” Because the Lord’s church has a grasshopper complex (cf. Num. 13:33) it rarely has any impact upon society. It has lost it’s savor and in most cases is good for nothing (cf. Mat. 5:13)!

Then I read Jerry McDonald’s article on this same subject and was invigorated. Here is a sample:

“Even religious people have become desensitized against abortion. Something that ought to bother every man, woman, boy or girl who claims to follow Christ to the point that they get fighting mad about it, just doesn’t seem to bother us anymore. We say, ‘Oh, well, I won’t ever have an abortion, so it is not something that I need to get involved in.’ One preacher once told me that he thought that I was wrong for trying to fight abortion because after all those babies would go to heaven and if they lived they might not. What kind of reasoning is that? Whether they go to heaven or not is not the issue. The issue is, ‘Who gives us the authority to kill those innocent babies?’ God doesn’t! Oh, yes, it was the United States Supreme Court; the same institution that once said that the black man was the property of his white owner. Now who today is going to say that the Supreme Court was right in that decision?”

I then found out that many of my brethren here in Lindsay had taken me up on the challenge and are now working hard daily to speak out about this cruel subject.

Are you ready to be an iron pillar? Join us in speaking up for the innocent ones, before it’s too late – not too late for them — too late for us! We have been silent too long!

Take action:

• Preach and teach frequently against America’s 4000 daily abortions.
• Ensure repeated emphasis on sexual purity since 80% of abortions are performed on single women. The sin of fornication leads to the vast majority of pregnancies terminated by induced abortion.
• Offer ongoing Bible studies specifically designed for women and men who have committed the sin of abortion and wish to avail themselves of the healing power of scripture. These studies can be adapted for individual self-study or group-study.

HARDIN, Ky. (BNc)

“My Kindle Fire is essentially my Bible now. No more paper Bible. It’s where I make my notes,” Daniel, who’ll be 26 next month, wrote in a recent blog post. He explained how he does it.

“Olive Tree has released it’s apps for the PC and for Mac. These have changed the game significantly. They were the missing link. The PC and Mac apps will allow you to enter notes using your computer and sync them to Olive Tree’s sync service. By doing this, you have your notes on all of your devices, as well as in the cloud,” Daniel said.

Writing in the paper Bible may be easier, but the disadvantage is that what’s written is hard if not impossible to change. Also, notes can be lost if the Bible is lost or damaged. Then, there’s the advance of technology that will not likely change:

The reality is this: I’m no prophet, but the chances that we’ll go back to some archaic way of living during my lifetime are fairly slim. Technology will likely continue to advance, so whereas I used to use paper, I’ll likely have some sort of digital medium available to me for the rest of my life. Think about that reality for yourself. We will likely progress deeper into digital mediums, not regress back into paper.

“I feel pretty good about making the switch. I feel even better that my notes will be preserved in multiple places, and in easier-to-use, searchable formats as well”, Daniel said.

Daniel represents one among many who are adopting new technologies for study and service. His experience highlights the advantages that digital formats offer to Christians.

Turner first became associated with churches of Christ through a prison ministry when he was serving a four-year sentence, having been convicted in 1986 for tax fraud by setting up a fake church for the purpose of selling tax-evasion schemes.

After being baptized in 1986, Turner encouraged his daughter to attend the church of Christ. She has remained an active and faithful Christian to the present time.

Turner published a book in 1990 entitled, ‘Tax free. How the super rich do it’. He had set up a new organization through which he sold offshore tax evasion schemes.

After an investigation by the IRS, Turner and one of his clients, Daniel J. Leveto, were indicted on February 15, 2001. Both men left the United States.

Turner went to Sint-Maarten, which was one of the locations of his off-shore scheme, then to Holland, South Africa (where he met Leveto) and then to India.

Leveto went to Belize, then to South Africa (where he met Don), Mexico, and Canada.

Leveto was arrested in March of 2004 at a Hubbard, Ohio truck stop. He was convicted of tax fraud on October 14, 2005 and sentenced to 46 months in prison. He appealed but lost the appeal.

The scheme involved Leveto’s selling his business to a sham foreign trust purportedly located in the Turks and Caicos Islands. All profits were distributed to another sham foreign trust creating the illusion that the profits were distributed as foreign source income to foreign beneficiaries, eliminating US income tax liability. Using debit cards he then channeled the profits back to himself in the US.

When Turner went to Sint-Maarten in 2001 he claimed he was going as a missionary and he associated with local churches of Christ.

Later that year, he went to Holland where he continued to promote his tax-evasion scheme. Roy Davison, although he did not know about the indictment, warned people who had been approached by Turner that the scheme was illegal.

From Holland Turner went to South Africa and then finally went to India in February of 2004. There he also claimed he was doing mission work. He arranged for two young boys to live with him, although they were not orphans, promising to care for them financially. He used their pictures as he tried to raise funds.

In India he set up a program called America’s Medical Solutions to help people in the West go to India for less-expensive medical treatment and to help Indian doctors and nurses find employment in the West.

When in the US raising funds for his activities in India, he learned that he was still wanted although it had been more than ten years since his indictment, so he turned himself in at Erie, Pennsylvania in July, 2010, rather than waiting to be arrested.

He was held in supervised custody at Diocesan Lodge until his trial in September, 2011, and his sentencing in January, 2012. After sentencing he was taken directly from the court to prison.

HARTFORD, Ala (BNc) — An early morning fire destroyed the Hartford Church of Christ building Sunday morning, January 15, 2012. Jim Simmons, local preacher for the church, stated he received a call around 3:00 a.m. that the building was on fire. Although the cause of the fire is under investigation by the state fire marshal, some think it started from an electrical shortage. The small congregation of approximately 15 members is meeting in a nearby trailer until a new building is erected.

Hartford is a small city, located in lower Alabama, populated with 2,624 people. The church building is located at 801 Commerce Street. For more information contact Jim Simmons at 334-886-3202 or Terry Whaley at 334-701-9690.

CUSCO, Peru (BNc) —

With a splash of color and the word Distinto (distinct) in huge letters, the quirky font catches the eye of passers-by.

The billboard asks, “Why is Christianity different?”, and gives information about the church.

“It’s a new ad to draw in more people from the community for a special series we are having. We think people here in Cusco will respond well to something like this, based on what we have seen in the past,” Allison said.

For a larger size image, click on the picture.

DOVER, Ark. (BNc) —

The most popular free Bible study program for the PC is called e-Sword. The Mac version, which uses the same resource files, is Eloquent.  Across the Internet, thousands of Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, and books are available for it—the vast majority of them for free.

So what could be the problem? Bradley Cobb, a preacher from Oklahoma explained.

“After doing a thorough search online, there were only four resources for e-Sword which were done by the Lord’s church: J.W. McGarvey’s commentaries, Alexander Campbell’s Living Oracles translation of the New Testament, The People’s New Testament by B.W. Johnson, and the Condensed Bible Cyclopedia by Ashley Johnson,” he said.

But materials by denominationals number in the thousands. Bradley is working to change that. Recently, he has contacted many preachers and writers who have commentaries online, requesting permission to convert them to e-Sword format.

“Everyone has been really enthusiastic about it, even those who use other Bible study programs,” he said.

To date, Bradley has created over a dozen e-Sword resources produced by brotherhood writers, and they have been downloaded over 3600 times in the past two months.

Among the new brotherhood e-Sword resources available for free download are these:

• The Modern Literal Version (New Testament translation)
• The Holy New Covenant (New Testament translation)
• The Old Paths Version (partial New Testament translation)
• Foy E. Wallace’s commentary on Revelation
• Gary Hampton’s commentaries on 24 books of the Bible
• Brad Price’s Commentaries on Romans and 1 Corinthians
• Manly Luscombe’s study guides and commentaries
• Charles Rose’s commentary on Ephesians, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter
• Mark Dunagan’s commentaries on most of the NT
• Alexander Campbell’s Lecture on Demonology
• The Campbell/Owen Debate on the Evidences of Christianity
• Christian Baptism by Campbell
• Delusions: an Analysis of the Book of Mormon by Campbell
• Treatise on the Eldership by J.W. McGarvey
• Jesus and Jonah by McGarvey
• Studies in Ambiguous Passages (RA Main)

All of the above can be found and downloaded from the Gravel Hill congregation’s website where Bradley serves (click on “e-Sword Files”).

Anyone who has books, translations, or commentaries they would like to make available for this program is welcome to contact Bradley by email.

Others are also starting to make material available in this format.

Freed-Hardeman University has recently made Hugo McCord’s translation as well as their latest lectureship book available in e-Sword format at reasonable prices.

The number of e-Sword resources done by New Testament Christians is still small, but growing, thanks to initiatives like Bradley’s.

His final weeks were lived at Hospice Niagara where he was tenderly cared for. He lived a good and eventful life. David was born in St. Catharines, Ontario to William G. and Gladys Ralph Hallett on Oct. 11, 1935. His parents and oldest brother, Edward, are deceased. Surviving are brothers Fred (Dianne), Bruce (late wife Nancy), Dennis (Sandra) and William and his sister Joyce Andy Bernais).

David attended Memorial and Central Public Schools. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy at 19 and trained as a cook. On shore leave, he spent much time with the Church of Christ in Halifax. After the Navy he trained as a nursing orderly. When an opportunity came to accompany a team of teachers and preachers into the restricted tribal areas of northeastern India, David said, “Yes.” During the next 30 years, 1963- 1993, because he was needed, he “wore many hats”: missionary, teacher, minister, counselor, protector, nurse, cook, all-around “uncle”.

Highly respected in the community, he came to be called, “The Teacher”. David became director of Alpha Bible College in remote Shillong. This hostel provided safety and opportunity for young tribal men to finish high school, university level courses and to study the Bible. David remained in India through difficult times: dangers, turmoil, food shortages, political upheaval, tribal warfare, curfews and military alerts.

After 30 years, due to severe health problems, he returned to Canada to stay. Many of his former students (government officials, police officers, bankers, and high ranking military officers) came to tell him goodbye.

The 76th lectureship will be held Feb. 5-10, 2012. The 2012 lectureship book of 490 pages written by nearly 100 writers deals mainly with General Epistles: James to Jude.

It will be available in hardback the first week in February, but e-text versions are available now. The e-text versions will work on the following devices: Downloadable from Amazon, readable on the Kindle; or online from Barnes and Noble in Kindle, PDF, and ePub formats readable on mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, and iPod using the iBooks and Kindle apps.

The printed book retails for $19.98 and the e-text version is $9.99. Formats are available for Logos and Accordance Bible Software programs for $4.99.

All the lectures from 1953-2012 are available on CD in PDF format for $25.00 plus shipping. For more information, go to the Freed-Hardeman website or contact Tom L. Childers.

Childers is a gospel preacher, computer consultant, and former adjutant teacher at Freed-Hardeman University. For the last 19 years he has produced the 1953-2012 FHU lectures in various electronic formats.

GRAND BLANC, Mich., (BNc) - Members of the Grand Blanc church mourn the passing of one of its longtime members on Dec. 2.

Wilma Kilgore, 83, died at the Pines of Burton in Burton, Mich. Her funeral was conducted on Dec. 5 at Brown Funeral Home in Grand Blanc.

In the funeral sermon, Sister Kilgore’s life was compared to Paul’s words to Timothy as an example “in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12ESV).

Sister Kilgore was born on Mar. 21, 1928 in Flint, Mich. She retired from General Motors in 1984 after 30 years of service. Survivors include two sons, Gary D. and Frederick Stan Kilgore; six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Stancil, in 1976.