Omaha Church of Christ

by Dr. Gregg Marutzky

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’
Luke 2:7-14

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The birthday of a person is the time to celebrate the life and character of the person. We celebrate the impact they have had on our life and the difference their life has made. What a different world we would live in without the birth of our Lord. His life was a short 33 years but what an impact. His ministry was a mere three years but the difference is eternal. We all can connect to a very personal God by the humble nature of the Messiah’s birth. Since the Savior was born in a barn and slept in a manger normally used to feed the animals, we are draw to the Creator of the universe. We have a model for living due to the life of Jesus. We have hope after death since the Lord died and was resurrected. We have the forgiveness of sins due to his sacrificial death of atonement on the Cross. We can understand God due to the descent of Jesus to earth.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

Jesus came to earth to reveal God to us. He had to empty himself into a human body to become a man. Our Lord had to let go of his equality with God in heaven to come to earth. The theological implications of the incarnation are numerous. Jesus died on the cross for the salvation of mankind. Therefore God died on the Cross for each one of us. Jesus was fully human and fully God. He was not half man and half God but fully all human and all divine. How could Jesus be both? According to Hebrews 1:3, The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. Jesus reveals to us the attributes of God. We see the love and goodness of God in the relationships of Christ. We see the compassion and mercy of the Heavenly Father as Jesus lived on earth. The justice of God and his forgiveness are displayed at the Cross. Praise God we can celebrate Christmas! Without the birth of Jesus we would be groping to understand God. We could witness many of his divines attributes in nature but how clear and personal a picture could we really have. Where would we be without the words of Jesus. The truth which guides our lives would never have been recorded. How lost we would feel without His’ message from heaven. His heart resounds from the record of his life. We feel the love over 2000 years later.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:15-20

Happy Birthday Jesus! We remember your birth to gain faith, hope, and love. We celebrate the peace in our lives because you brought it to us from heaven. We celebrate Christmas because you are our Savior and not our Santa. Santa is for our children, you are for our soul. We are grateful for what you have brought to us and for what you have taken away! Thank you for coming!

We meet for class before Sunday Worship Service at the Westside Community Center. Service begins at 9:30 am.

Fall Classes focus on the Book of Romans

The Westside Community Center is near the corner of 108th Street and Grover Street. Below is a link to a Mapquest(R) map. We hope to see you here!

Map of 3534 S 108th St
Omaha, NE 68144-4910, US

Written By Tom Jones

Over the last twenty three years, twenty five Restoration Forums have now been held bringing together men and women from the Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ in the acapella tradition to build relationships and to break down the wall that has existed formally since 1906 between these two streams of the American Restoration Movement.

Restoration Forum XXV was just completed in Joplin, Missouri, on the campus of Ozark Bible College. For the first time, to our knowledge, those of us who have been part of the International Churches of Christ and its immediate predecessors were included on the program.

I heard of the Forum (then called Restoration Summit) when it was held first in 1984 while I was still living in Missouri. I read with considerable interest about it in a publication begun by Don DeWelt known as The One Body. In May when I saw in a current issue of The One Body that the last Forum had been scheduled for September of this year, I contacted the organizers and asked if Gregg Marutzky and I might make a presentation about the International Churches of Christ. In July, after sufficient time to find out about us, we received word that we would be given a place on the program.

Sheila and I drove from Nashville and Gregg drove from Omaha. We had dinner together Monday night. The Forum opened on Tuesday morning. I would guess that there were about 200 to 250 registered participants. Speakers on the program best known to many of us from our background in Churches of Christ included: Rick Atchley, Rubel Shelly, Marvin Phillips, Jerry Rushford (Pepperdine) Royce Money (president of ACU), and Doug Foster (ACU dean). In attendance was Lynn McMillion, editor of the Christian Chronicle. Well-known leaders from the Christian Churches were also on the program. Many of these people have hearts that come through with great clarity even when being heard for the first time.

There was a good spirit at the meeting. Only those eager to build relationships tend to attend. Worship was done both with acapella and instrumental music. Both groups sing new songs in the praise genre that we in the ICOC fellowship usually do not know, but familiar hymns were mixed in. The messages were Christ-centered, biblical and delivered with conviction, though the preaching style of many of the speakers tends to be more low-key than our guys. The question and answer sessions after two presentations were characterized by candid questions and by honest and humble answers.

I went with a concern that there might be an emphasis on unity just for the sake of unity, but several speakers went out of their way to make it clear that unless unity results in greater efforts to carry out the mission of taking the gospel to the world, it will not serve God’s purposes. Marvin Phillips was clear in saying that unity will not matter unless it comes from submission to the Lordship of Jesus. “Jesus will not be Lord at all until he is Lord of all.” Though there was not a lot of emphasis on it at this meeting, it was evident that those in this group share the same convictions about how one responds to the grace of God and becomes a Christian. That apparently had been made clear in their twenty-four earlier meetings.

On Wednesday afternoon there was a place on the program for people to visit one of the many ministries of the Christian Churches in the Joplin area. Those who wished to hear “What’s Happening with the International Churches of Christ” were given the option to attend our session and many chose to do so.

I first shared an overview of our history; Gregg then shared about our mistakes and sins. Next I shared about the good things we had learned that we did not want to lose, and finally, Gregg shared about possibilities for connecting in the future with their churches. Our presentation was followed with about thirty minutes of Q & A. Questions were good, and were asked respectfully.

At one point Lynn McMillion, editor of the Christian Chronicle, referred to my statement that in1986 the Chronicle editor at that time had announced that they would print no more stories about the Boston Movement. He said, “Tom, that was then and this is now. The Chronicle will be happy to print any news about what is going on in your churches.”

Another brother from the Churches of Christ said he was from a very legalistic wing of that group and that we in the ICOC were not the only ones who needed to do some apologizing. Still another brother from the McKnight Road Church in St. Louis asked us to forgive him for not reaching out more to our leaders. More hands were up for comments or questions when we had to end. Gregg, Sheila and I were surrounded by many after it was over. Some offered to volunteer to help with DPI; others just wanted to encourage us or talk about people we had in common.

Sheila, Gregg and I enjoyed a very encouraging time with Doug Foster who is associate dean of the school of theology and professor of church history at Abilene Christian. He had read the manuscript of my new book on the way to the Forum and shared that it gave him a very different perspective on our movement. He has a great heart and is a person I look forward to connecting with much more. After the event, he emailed this note: “Thank you so much for the time we could spend visiting with you, Sheila and Gregg. I think there is great potential for learning and being encouraged and enriched by one another in the “mainline” and ICOC bodies. I hope we can continue our conversation and contact in the future.”

Back in July, Sheila and I had lunch with Jim and Anne Bevis. Jim was one of the originators of the Campus Evangelism (CE) Program in the ‘60s that spawned the Campus Advance effort at the University of Florida that eventually became the Crossroads Church. At that lunch, we had mentioned we were going to Missouri for the Forum. Jim immediately said he and Anne would pray about going. For the last thirty years they have had an inter-denominational ministry but more recently have been reconnecting with some of their Stone-Campbell roots. On Tuesday when we arrived for the opening session, Jim and Anne were some of the first people to greet us. What a thrill! We may not be at all the same places theologically as the Bevises, but in all our times with them we have been greatly encouraged by their love for Christ and giving hearts.

On another personal note it was so good to be reunited at the forum with Larry Sharp who became a disciple of Jesus in our ministry in the ‘70s, served an internship in campus ministry with us and has gone on to serve 27 years as an evangelist for the church in Normal. Illinois.

I will have a good bit to say in my new book about why I believe these kinds of times are important. There is no Forum planned for 2008, but everyone was encouraged to pray and see where God leads. We shared with the group our plans to advance dialogue through our www.connect4change.net Web site. If you have not visited this site, try to do so soon.

Just one bit of reflection:
During the forum, I would notice things that were said and done differently from what we have known our recent history in the ICOC. Noticing my own tendency to judge, I kept thinking of how judging others was such a part of the church culture I grew up and such a part of, particularly, the “acapella” wing of the Restoration Movement as I knew it in the mid-twentieth century. I think I understand that this happened in reaction to a good deal of theological flabbiness in the religious world, but the outcome was often arrogant and ugly. This passage from Romans kept coming to my mind. I hope to reflect on it and write more about it later.

Romans 14:10-13

You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written:

” ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will confess to God.’ ”

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.

And finally there is the great message of Romans 15:5-6:

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope that the changes to the website make it a better resource for folks to use. The changes are listed below:

• Sections are grouped better.
• Sitemap on the top-right corner should make it easier to find what you want.
• Sunday Announcements are now included. If possible, weblinks are provided where they are helpful.
• Teen Information is under Ministries.
• Teen events are in the Teen section and in the Announcements.
• The sitemap shows the section where you are currently browsing in RED.
• New Links have been added.
• Midweek schedule, Sunday service, and any other events I know are in our calendar.
• Dates on the post are clearer. It will say “August 6th, 2007″ instead of 08062007.

As always, feel free to email me: john [at] omahachurchofchrist [dot] net if there is anything else you would like added or to point out errors.