The Church Of God in Virginia

N.A.C. To Be Held June 22-25 In Oklahoma City, OK

 There's a new sense of energy in the Church of God. We need your participation and energy to propel us forward. Please invite your congregation to join you in making plans to be at the 2015 Convention and General Assembly, June 22-25, 2015. The theme and roster of speakers are still being finalized, but we want to be sure you save the dates on your calendar!

In recent years, there has been erosion in General Assembly participation. We are seeking to reverse that trend, for the General Assembly to once again become the propelling force of new ideas and initiatives for this movement. Pastors are the core of the General Assembly; the pastors of the 2,137 congregations in the United States and Canada are the most important and influential audience we have. Many churches are in the budget-writing process for the 2015 fiscal year. It's now November and we want to be sure you include travel plans to the convention in your church budget for next year.

At your national offices we are urging the board of every congregation to sponsor their pastor's attendance. Simply put, we need you there! If your congregation is unable to underwrite the cost of your attendance at the Convention, we hope you'll be in touch with us. We'd like to be a part of helping you to discover a creative solution. If any of our team can speak to someone on your church board on your behalf, we will. If we can place your name on a list of pastors seeking help, we may be able to connect you with a group of pastors from your region who want to attend together and share expenses. Contact us at 1-800-848-2464 or  BMoss@chog.org

W.C.W./W.C.G. Supports Wesley Medical Clinic

The Christian Women Connection/Women of the Church of God (C.W.C./W.C.G.) recently had the privilege to financially support the Wesley Medical Clinic of Abingdon, VA.  Wesley Medical Clinic is an outreach ministry of Pleasant View United Methodist Church in Abingdon.  This ministry provides free medical care for uninsured persons.  Kathy Neace has been blessed with the opportunity to serve alongside Rev. Barbara Farmer, the Director of the clinic, and Dr. Jane Toothman, a retired physician.  Along with other faithful volunteers, they not only provide medical care, they also enjoy ministering the love of Jesus Christ to those who come to the clinic. “It brings joy to my heart that the W.C.W/W.C.G was able to share the love of Christ back to Wesley Medical Clinic.  C.W.C/W.C.G. was able to donate $1,400.00 to this specific ministry, and they send their thanks back to us, and recognize Christ as the ultimate provider of this gift.  As the State Missions Resource Coordinator of W.C.W./W.C.G. I say PRAISE THE LORD!” (Kathy Neace)

Riverside and Gordon Road Serve in Honduras

Riverside First and Gordon Road Churches in Fredericksburg took a joint mission trip to Honduras in June of 2014, where we built a house for a widow and conducted VBS for the local children.  Heart to Honduras Missions Organization does an amazing job of coordinating the work and ministry, the lodging, and the food for the groups. I recommend this group highly because they also take the perspective of helping the people to help themselves. They do not simply hand out help. They allow the locals to feel a part and a sense of pride and joy in being a part of what God does. We stayed in a nice facility with flushing toilets and refreshingly cold showers. We were not hampered by mosquitoes (why did God invent mosquitoes?). The work temperatures were hot, but not unbearable. We also worshiped twice with the local church and those were great experiences.  Several other churches from other parts of our country each had their own mission projects to endeavor and we had a great time of fellowship with them at our lodging camp and in the worship services. This year we will minister our mission trip in the U.S. by going to the Appalachian Mountains to one of the poorest regions in our country. World Vision will coordinate the trip and we will stay in a college dorm at a University in the area. (They have actual hot water showers!) World Vision provides the lodging, food, and evening activities and worship.  Teresa Baez, from the Gordon Road Church, is our coordinator for the 2015 Mission Trip on June 21st. If you want information, you can reach her at her email address: Teresa Baez teresabaez10@gmail.com 

Snares That Satan Has Set (part 2)

Many people suffer because they are busybodies.  We read in 1 Peter 4:15-16, “But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people matters.  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter”.  Again Peter brings to mind Jesus words:  “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake” (Matthew 5:11).  Christ will send his Spirit to strengthen those who are persecuted for their faith. The reason the Gospel is preached is so that folks will stop doing what they want to do and start seeking the Will of God in their lives.  When folks mistreat us, we can pray, “Lord, how do you want us to treat them?”  It is not a question of whether we treat them with kindness, but it is how we treat them with kindness.  Many folks get discouraged over persecution and tribulation.  The world is not satisfied with letting the Saints alone to live as Saints.  They get angry that the Saints uphold the Bible standard.  There is a separation between holy folks and unholy folks.  The world does not want their sins to be revealed, so people become angry.  That is the spirit of the devil in them.  Child of Snares That Satan Has Set (part 2)  God, the devil is angry.  He fought to keep us, and then Christ came along and snatched us from him and that made him angry, so he wants revenge, and he wants us back.  He does not fight by rules of fair play.  He is out to get us by any means.  As human beings, we value the flesh.  That is the reason it is just a matter of time until he gets some individuals to give up.  The enemy of souls is ruthless. Peter said in 1 Peter 4:3, “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles – when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries”.  Many people are comfortable with living in sin.  Sad to say, more Saints of God are becoming comfortable with the world.  Many people cannot understand why the man or woman of God preaches against some things that the flesh wants to do.  We need to be honest.  Many people think, “What’s the harm in the way that I dress?”  Also, more and more people like the world’s entertainment.  They are polluting their minds with ungodly books, movies, and comedies, which cause them to become more and more like the world.  Therefore, they do not see anything wrong with these worldly activities and worldly entertainment, and they are succumbing to more and more ungodly spirits, and then they try to justify them. Saint, we ought to love God so much that we avoid anything that would cause us to lose the fervency of our experience.  We should have a personal relationship with God.  People whose lives change radically at conversion may experience contempt from their old friends.  They may be scorned not only because they refuse to participate in certain activities, but also because their priorities have changed and they are now heading in the opposite direction.  Their very lives incriminate their sinful activities.  Mature Christians should help new believers resist such pressures of opposition by encouraging them to be faithful to Christ.  First Peter 4:12 says, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.”  Why do Saints act so surprised when they go through what the Word of God says they will go through?  We should not think it is strange.  We should expect it to happen.  Many people down through the years have become discouraged because of what they were going through the Bible says that God will not put more on us than we can bear.  If we will bear it, He will make a way for us to get through it. The Apostle Paul told Timothy in First Timothy 4:7 to “Exercise thyself rather unto godliness.”  When we do physical exercises, we get stronger physically.  Likewise, when we exercise ourselves spiritually, we get stronger spiritually. The way we exercise is by going through the tests and trials of life.  We should not allow trials to get us down.  God has not left us or deserted us.  We must let the Holy Spirit build us up.  To train ourselves to be godly, we must develop our faith by using our God given abilities in the service of the Church.  Are you developing your spiritual muscles?  We must exercise ourselves.  Being saved is like reading a good novel:  we want to find out what is going to happen at the end.  What we are going through may not feel good, but God is still alive.  On one occasion Job said, in so many words, “I know my Redeemer liveth.  I do not feel Him, but I know that He is alive”.  One day our eyes are going to see Him.  This is what keeps the Saints going.  It is not strange for a Child of God to suffer.

Why We Still Need the Church of God Reformation Movement (part 3 of 3)                    
 
5. The truth of prophecy is still clouded over by false teaching. Prophecy today is either looked upon as symbolic and only relevant to a bygone era, or literal and mostly a promise of an earthly paradise to come in the future.  Maybe the greatest reason we still need the ministry of the COGRM is to combat the false teaching about prophecy.  Even in this movement there is a good deal of apathy about prophecy with the notion that it is irrelevant to the modern church. There is one large segment of the Christian church that looks upon prophecy as something that was meant for Israel or the early church and is no longer applicable today except in symbolic theological meaning.  Although there can be symbolic applications from some of prophecy writings we must not forget that prophecy was always meant to really fore-tell what was going to happen to God’s people Israel in the Old Testament and God’s people, the new Israel, the church in the New Testament.  To relegate it to only spiritual applications is taking away the real purpose to encourage the church down through history as it has lived out the prophecy of the Revelation of John. On the other side of the coin there is the large literal interpretation that relegates much of prophecy to the future.  This is a materialistic utopian hope that is founded in human wishful thinking and destroys the real purpose of prophecy. The COGRM emphasis on the historic interpretation of prophecy is rare and seldom tolerated in denominational churches.  Without the COGRM the parts of the Word of God that are prophecy may be relegated either to little influence or too much worldly influence on the church. 6. Divine healing is still needed today and sadly neglected by mainstream Christianity. In the early days of the movement when doctors were rare and disease was rampant, divine healing was often the only hope for the sick.  It is no wonder that divine healing services were popular and a regular part of most gatherings of the church.  Even then the denominations of the day condemned the movement for exercising a gift they thought was only given to the Apostles and no longer applicable. Today, especially in the affluent American church, the practice of divine healing prayer is not part of even the largest denominations.  Anointing with oil and praying for the sick is seldom practiced even though it is clearly a Biblical practice recommended to the church.  There is still a need for the COGRM to demonstrate to the world that divine healing is not dead.  There are still poor and helpless people who cannot afford doctors and whose only hope is in the “healing stripes of the Savior”.  Even among the affluent there are new and deadly diseases that have no cure in modern medicines.  God has not abandoned His people.  There is still the promise of divine healing through prayer.  The passion and death of the Lord Jesus brought healing for both body and soul. 7. The unity of believers is still looked upon as an ecumenical movement instead of “reaching a hand of fellowship to every blood-washed one”. By strict adherence to creeds and man-made rules denominational Christianity has shut out dissent and discussion of the truth.  There is still a need for the COGRM to demonstrate that sects and creeds are not necessary.  Christ adds to the church those that are saved and the COGRM has the best chance in Christianity to show the world that Christians can debate the Word of God and still be brothers and sisters in Christ. Do we still “see the church” as our movement founders saw it?  In another song by Naylor and Byers is both the challenge and contentment of the COGRM that we need to regain. The church of God one body is One Spirit dwells within and all her members are redeemed and triumph over sin O church of God I love thy courts Thou mother of the free  Thou blessed home of all the saved I dwell content in thee.