About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 8, 2013)
PAGE 5-THURSDAY, AUGUST 8,2013 Old and New Testaments condone slavery Most ancient people had slaves. Among the Hebrews, the laws of Moses provided that a slave of their own peo ple be set free after six years, and foreign slaves liberated twice every 100 years. Among the ancient Greeks, people purchased slaves from pirates. Poor men often sold their chil dren into slavery, and debt ors were sometimes sold into slavery to satisfy their debts. In Rome, slavery flourished as the armies continued their conquests. Both the Old and New Tes taments condone slavery by virtue of being silent in con demning it. Because Ham saw his father drunken and naked, Noah placed a curse on Ham’s son Canaan, saying that “Ca naan (Noah’s grandson) would become a slave to his broth ers.” The Jewish forefather, Abraham, had two sons, one (Ishmael) by his slave, Hagar, and the other (Isaac) by a free woman, his wife Sarah. As it turned out, the descendants of Ishmael, comprising mod em day Arabs and Muslims, have been at perpetual war with Isaac’s descendants, the Jews, for 4,000 years. Even though, God brought the He brew people out of Egyptian bondage, the Hebrews, once freed, bought and sold slaves among themselves. Exodus 21:21 allowed the Hebrews to beat their slaves decreeing that “the slave was their per sonal property.” In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul acknowledged slavery as a so cial institution when he stated the body of Christ comprised “Jews and Gentiles, free men and slaves.” Paul wrote the scriptural letter to the slave owner Philemon beseeching him to treat his runaway slave, Onesimus, with kindness once he returns home, saying, “Welcome him as you would welcome me.” In Ephesians 6:5, Paul urges slaves “to be obedient to your masters.” Dating back to the 16th cen tury, Africans were rounded up by slave-hunters, who sold them to slave-traders, who brought them to America against their will to work on plantations and farms. Be cause of the nature of farm ing in the North, slavery was not profitable. In the South, a different story, by 1860 there were four million Negro slaves in the United States, compris ing 15 percent of the total population of the 15 South ern slave states. These slaves worked in farming enterprises on southern farms/plantations. President Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, freed the slaves, midway the Civil War (1861-65), in 1863, but slavery was not entirely abol ished until Amendment 13 to the Constitution was rati fied in 1865. Amendments 14 (ratified 1868) and 15 (rati- fiedl870) gave former slaves citizenship and voting rights. There were other social in justices allowed to exist in biblical times which were condoned by the scriptures. I refer to the subordination of women (Ephesians 5: 22-24) and the prohibition against women speaking in church (I Corinthians 14:34-35). The later prohibition has been used by some denominations today to bar women from the minis try or the priesthood. There is Billy Powell Columnist www.billypowellbooks.com one form of slavery, however, to which we should all aspire, and that is to become “slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:11-14 declares: “Countyour- selves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, but offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righ teousness.” Rumors of being stranded in the Philippines are highly exaggerated Respect of Persons To have respect of per sons means to show favorit ism to some people over others. You may not admit it but we all have a respect of persons that we prefer to deal with. Showing favorit ism over a person can be very wrong. It has many bad factors that we are not aware of. One is, this is not what God taught us to do in His Word. Secondly, favor itism belittles people who are less fortunate or not like you. Thirdly, it is a hypo critical, selfish act when we treat a well-dressed, impressive looking person better than someone who looks poor. And trust me it is in the churches as well. Some people would rather be with the success ful people than with the people who have failed in life but have good hearts. There’s nothing wrong with being around people that are going somewhere. The wrong thing is look ing down on people that are going nowhere. Let me ask you a question; “Are you easily impressed by status, wealth or fame?” Personally, I think it is better to deal with the less fortunate; just as Jesus did. He views people as equal. If we say Christ is Lord of our lives, then we must live as He requires, showing no favoritism and loving all people regard less of their status quo. Be Blessed! . , them- Go yo into all «wj* ’ W ach ‘ Cr “‘ Ur ' TUorsftip ^Opportunities It was my birthday and I decided to celebrate it as low- key as possible. I am at that stage in life where I really do not need presents from any body reminding me of how old I really am. I know every present represents an obliga tory return on the gesture and at my age, I do not have the energy to return anything. All I really need is just a friendly ’’Happy Birthday.” I have developed a special rule along that line. For every ’’Happy Birthday” I receive, I am allowed one slice of birthday cake. So far I am on my 19th birthday cake and anticipating more. The rule about saying ’’Happy Birthday” is that as long as there is a six-month period either way, it is still in play. I am looking forward to a lot more ’’Happy Birthday” greetings. After all, what do you get a person who has had as many birthdays as I have had that would be original and sur prising? Believe me, I have enough ties. Of course, cash is always in good taste. Throughout the years I have been known to pull a few surprises on the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage’s birthday but nobody has been able to reciprocate. That is, until recently. It was the day of my birth day when suddenly I began receiving emails and phone calls and they all had one theme. Not one of them was wishing me happy birthday but all were concerned about an email they allegedly re ceived from me. According to this email, I was in Manila, Philippines on some mission trip. Actually that was not quite unusual because several years ago I did go on such a trip and most of my friends knew it. Now, according to this friendly email being sent to my friends, I was back in the Philippines on another mis sion trip. According to this anony mous friend, I was stranded in the Philippines. I had been robbed, my passport had been confiscated, and I needed money to get out of the Phil ippines. No wonder I have been feeling tired lately! Of all the birthday presents a person might receive this one really beats the birth day cake. I would not have thought of this in 1 million years. My email account had been hacked into and all of my email contacts were sent what seemed to be an emergency email. Most of my friends were relieved to find out that I was not stranded in the Philip pines. My Korean publisher actu ally was willing to put up money to rescue me from my situation. Two other people were trying to find out how to get money to bail me out. The thing that worries me along this line is of all of my friends only three were will ing to bail me out financially. I must make a mental note of this and never get stranded in the Philippines. My birthday hacking be came a little more than I at first thought. At first it was a little joke, ha ha ha, I am really not in the Philippines. A joke can only go so far. I thought it was the end of the joke, but boy, was I in for a wonderful birthday surprise. My entire email account had been compromised and a new email address was inserted Out to Pastor Rev. James L. Snyder jamessnyder2@att.net or whatafellowship.com so all of the response would go to another person. I finally found out how he changed my account, changed it back and changed my password. All of my emails for the past month, including important ones from my publisher and agent, were lost in the mys terious world of the Internet. Somewhere in that mystifying world, my emails are floating around not knowing whither to cometh or goeth. Delving deeper into my birthday hacking present I discovered that although my email contacts were missing, where I once had over 600 email contacts, I now had ex actly none. How do you deal with ’’none”? I now do not know who my friends really are. Their addresses are gone. How do I contact them? I am beginning to think this birthday hacking present is not all it is hacked up to be. Now, my post birthday activity will be salvaging all of those email contacts. I sup pose it is good every once in a while to start over again. I guess there is something good about getting a fresh start in life. I have often thought of it myself but never in this context. RUMORS CONTINUED , Page 8 Prayer Line, Tuesdays and Thursdays, Christ Abundant Life Ministries, S. Dugger Ave., Roberta. Call 478- 836-3912. Word of God Tabernacle invites you to join them for the following weekly services: Sunday Prayer at 9:00 a.m., Sunday School at 10:00 a.m., Sunday Service at 11:00 a.m.; Monday Prayer at 9:00 a.m.; Wednesday Prayer at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday Bible Study at 7:00 p.m.; Friday Prayer at 9:00 a.m. Everyone is invited. Pastor Frank Martin, Sr. Lizella Baptist Church Special Needs Ministry will have a monthly event the 2 nd Friday of every month, 7-9 p.m. They also have a Parent/ Family/Caregiver Support Group for those who love someone with special needs. It is always the 1 st Tuesday of the month, 6-8 p.m. They have guest speakers and then a time of sharing. The Zion Hill Baptist Church invites everyone to their regular services on 2nd Sundays at 11 a.m., 4th Sundays at 10 a.m. and 5th Sundays at 8 a.m. They have Bible Study every Wednesday at 7 p.m. St. James Baptist Church will hold Homecoming the second Sunday in August, August 11th beginning at 11:30 a.m. Revival will be held Monday through Thursday, August 12- 15 at 7:30 p.m. Guest speaker will be Rev. Dickey of Greater Jordan Temple AME of Sparta, Georgia. Community Prayer Group forming. Will meet Wednesdays at 9:15 a.m., at 58 S. Dugger Ave., Georgia Post office to pray for needs in the community. If interested in joining or for more information call 478-836-3195. The Cerese Independent Church will be having their annual revival August 19- 22 (Monday - Thursday) at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Rev. Dexter Jordan from the Stone Creek Baptist Church will be the guest speaker for the week. The Zion Hill Baptist Church will have its annual homecoming and revival services on Sunday, August 11,2013,11:00 a.m. along with their regular morning services. Minister Colby McKenzie will bring the message. Revival services will begin Monday, August 12 thru Wednesday, August 14 at 7 p.m. nightly. The Rev. B.R. Fulton of the Damascus Baptist Church will be the revivalist. Everyone is invited to come out and share in this joyous celebration. Pastor Jeff Abner. Orange Grove Baptist: Homecoming, Sunday August 18, 2:30 pm. Guest: Rev. Greg Tyler, Macedonia Baptist Church, Griffin. Revival, Monday August 19 through August 23. 7:30 pm nightly. Guest: various speakers. Back To School Youth Rally/ Gospel Festival in August The Crawford County BOE, and the Crawford Area Community Churches’ Youth Departments would like to invite you, your community, and your Youth Department to our Back To School Youth Rally/ Gospel Musical Celebration on August 17th, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The Celebration will mark the formation of new members of hte Crawford County Area Youth Mass Community Gospel Choir, as well as a focus on academic improvement, spiritual growth, and gospel choir vocal and musical techniques. The Rally will climax with a Finale/Concert featuring the Community Choir on Sunday, August 18, 2013 at 5 p.m. at the Crawford County Middle School Gym. If you would like to be a part of the Mass Choir, ages 10-30 yrs. are asked to volunteer and participate. The schedule of this spirit filled workshop is Saturday morning August 17th at 9 a.m. with a concert on Sunday, August 18, at 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. For more information contact Dr. Donnie C. Nicholson at 478- 654-6106 or donnie.nicholson@ hcbe.net. Walton Road Community Church will be hosting a spaghetti benefit dinner for Pastor Sonny Stovall, Saturday, August 24, 2013 at the Crawford County Middle School lunchroom. Serving hours are 5-8 p.m. For more information, you may contact Jim Howard at 478-235-0037 or Penny Myers at 478-972-2143. Joy Tabernacle will have a Back To School Bash at 3 p.m. on August 11,2013, on August 18, 2013 at 3 p.m. they will have a Fellowship Service with Pastor Clowers as the guest speaker, and on August 25,2013 they will have Family and Friends Day at 2:30 p.m. with Pastor Edward Searcy as the guest speaker. New Grace from Roberta will be in concert August 25,2013, 6 p.m. at Open Bible Tabernacle Baptist Church,6490 Sandy Point Road in Lizella. Deadline for Church Happenings: Friday 5 p.m. McLeighton Funeral Service vkwobituarksatWww.mcleightonfuneralseryice.com 375 S. Dugger Avenue Roberta, Georgia 478-836-3336 David & Donna McLeighton - owners ’Our Family Serving Your Family’ Granite • Marble • Bronze • Coping • Monument Cleaning • Sandblasting ”Serving all Middle Georgia cemeteries 33 Kade E. Rooks P. O. Box 1711, Fort Valley, GA 31030 *478-825-2424 or 478-951-1571 *Fax: 478-825-3794
