OceanSide church of Christ

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OCEANSIDE’S THEME FOR 2023:

Looking Back, Looking Within, Looking Out, and Looking Up

Victor M. Eskew

 

            God has given many marvelous gifts to man.  One of these gifts is his mind.  Man has the ability to think, reason, will, understand, know, come to conclusions, purpose, remember and express his emotions.  Yes, all of these things spring from man’s heart, his mind, the control center of his body. 

            In the upcoming year, the members of the OceanSide congregation will be urged to use their minds to look in four directions in 2023.  First, we want each of us to look back.  The past is valuable to each one of us.  First, the past tells us how we have reached our present position.  The past is the foundation upon which the present is built.  Aren’t we glad we have the 27 books of the New Testament?  These books reveal the beginning of the church.  They give us the pattern for the church to follow today.  Paul expressed this idea when he wrote to the church at Ephesus.  “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, bur fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;  and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;  in whom all the building fitly framed and joined together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord:  in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22) 

Second, the past contains a multitude of lessons for each of us to learn.  In Romans 15:4, Paul writes:  “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were writing for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”  What things were done right in the past?  What things were done wrong?  What things could have been done better?  There is an old adage that says:  “Those who fail to learn from the past are bound to repeat it.”  Yes, we will be looking back both to appreciate and to learn.

In addition to looking back at the past, we need to look within.  Every child of God needs to spend some quality time examining himself.  Paul exhorted the Corinthians to do this in 2 Corinthians 13:5.  “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.  Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”  Self-examination is not an easy task.  It is not easy for each of us to be honest about who we really are.  We love to see our positives, but we like to cover up our negatives.  We certainly do not long to see the sin that can be found in our lives.  But, if we do not do this, we might be castaway even though we have initially obeyed the gospel.  The apostle affirms this in 1 Corinthians 9:27.  “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection:  lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

A third direction in which we will be looking it out.  Jesus tells us:  “Say ye not, There are four months, and then cometh the harvest?  Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).  The mission of the church is to reach the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ (Mark 16:15).  Regardless of the date on the calendar, there will always be lost souls who are out in the world.  We do not need to shut our eyes to this need.  We need to open our eyes and look out.  These lost ones are our friends and neighbors.  They are school mates, co-workers, and our associates in our hobbies, sports, and clubs.  They are the strangers of our community.  They are our fellow-citizens in the United States.  They are people from foreign nations all over the world.  We may be the only messenger they will ever hear.  If we do not say something to them, they will never know of the salvation found in Christ Jesus the Lord.  Yes, we must look out and bring them in.  “Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid them to the marriage.  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good:  and the wedding was furnished with guests” (Matt. 22:9-10).

Looking up is the last direction we want to be concerned with this year.  Because we live in the world, it is easy to get caught up in the world.  Since we cannot see into realms above, it is easy to concern ourselves with only those things we can see, the physical, the carnal things of life.  Paul exhorts us not to do this in Colossians 3:1-2.  “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our citizenship is not in this world.  Our citizenship is in heaven according to Philippians 3:20.  That place needs to constantly be our focus.  It was the focus of the great patriarchs of the Old Testament.  The writer of Hebrews tells us of their heavenly aspirations in Hebrews 11:13-16.  “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.  But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly:  wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God:  for he hath prepared for them a city.” 

Yes, in 2023, the OceanSide church of Christ will be looking in four directions.  We will look back at the past.  We will look within our hearts and souls.  We will look out to the harvest fields that are white.  And, we will look up to our eternal abode called Heaven.  As we plan for the upcoming year, we hope that each member will provide us with suggestions as to how we can best accomplish these four things.  Can you imagine what a church can be if it would truly look back, look within, look out, and look up?  Let’s become that church!