in, it reminds one of the manifold blessings we have in the fellow ship of the church—those cheery greetings, the warm handshakes, the prayers for one another, the thrill of singing praises to God and the searching messages from God’s choice servants. No sir! I would never be a shut-in by choice. But wait! There are peo ple who are “ shut-ins by choice.” They simply do not choose to at tend church. We must reach these “ shut-ins by choice” and break open their prisons with the gos pel of Christ. Strange as it may seem, I had not thought of this latter group as shut-ins before, but they are. Surely their condi tion is much more perilous than the “ shut-ins o f necessity.” Our God will care for our church shut- ins and bless them and reward them for their faithfulness, but these “ shut-ins by choice” are eternally lost, without God, and without hope. QI]
Church Senior Citizens are the most important people in the world. They are our former Sun day School teachers, our former church trustees, the saints who prayed us into the kingdom. Why, they are our parents, our own relatives. How can we be so care less! I wonder how we can help shut- ins worship.'A bulletin mailed to each shut-in, to arrive on Satur day, giving the order of the church service for that Sunday, rather than sending a bulletin that is a week or a month old, would be fine. Inside of the bulle tin there could be a special leaf let listing requests for prayer and a personal devotional message from the pastor to the shut-in. That would make our shut-in feel important, wouldn’t it? I am cer tain our good pastors can think of many other helpful ideas. I’m glad the Lord let me be a shut-in today. I am going to be more con siderate o f the real shut-ins from now on. One thing about being a shut-
good holiness radio programs. What time is Dr. George’s “ Spir it-Filled Believers” program on? That is one of the very best. Let’s see. I’ll check the radio program section of the paper. Now, when did they start leaving the radio schedule out and using all of the space for the TV schedule? I guess I’ll have to have my own devotions this time. I wonder if all shut-ins have as much trouble worshipping at home as I am having. By the way, now that I am thinking on the subject, just what are we doing as a church to help these people? When I was in the pastorate we always elected a Home Department superinten dent, but I wonder what she did to help the shut-ins worship. Isn’t that peculiar? I remember the Church Board doing somewhat of a self-analysis on most of the oth er departments, but I can’t re member anyone being very con cerned about the efficiency or ef fectiveness o f the Home Depart ment. Why, that’s terrible! Our
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WWJC. DULUTH, MINN. 55800
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JULY, 1968
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