• HOOK'S POINTS

I wish for each of you a joyous Christmas and New Year. May you be surrounded by those you love, bonded sentimentally by family traditions, thankful for the good things given to you, thoughtful of those who are distressed, and more appreciative of God's gift of his Son who took on our nature.

To be able to sit at your table with your family would be a treasured joy. But that is out of reach in this life. I would even like to send an artfully expressive greeting card to each of you (as some of you have sent me) but I cannot even do that. So please accept this as a sincere expression of love from Lea and me. (Your concern and prayers for her health problems are assuring.)

Special Christmas Services: Our Westside congregation in Beaverton always has programs on a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before Christmas which many outside our congregation come to enjoy. They are festive while emphasizing the real meaning of Jesus' birth. It saddens me to recall that during most of my life we have cheated ourselves and others by our refusal to honor Christ at the same time other Christian groups are doing so.

We have deplored observance of "special days" while demanding that each Sunday is a special day - a sort of holy day for assemblies to which we are limited in participating in the Communion and Collection. And that is in spite of Paul's declaration in Romans 14 that days may be observed in honor of God.

More about Election! Please allow one more word about election: "Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election" (2 Peter 1:10).

530 COPIES OF FREE IN CHRIST were sent out during October and November! Many of those were bought, but most were gifts from you who support this ministry. That is exciting and fulfilling regardless of who is receiving and reading the book, however, it is especially thrilling to me that many of them are going to the Philippines where a few men are distributing them to the preachers with much favorable reception. Lately, I have sent three M-bags full which also included an assortment of the other books I distribute.

2000 copies of the thirteenth printing of FIC are to be delivered next week. That boosts the total in print to 53,000 copies. Surely, that is God's doing, but he uses you in doing it. Our working fund is still enriched at $4,011.42. God bless you for it. The printings are not paid out of the fund. I recover one dollar from the fund for each copy sent out free.

BIRTHDAYS ARE GOD'S BLESSINGS ALSO! Last month I reached 82, and yesterday (Dec. 11) our friend, Leroy Garrett caught up with me. I assured him that God was giving him this extended time to share with this generation his great understanding and mature wisdom. He does that with such grace. In my case, however, I assume God is patiently giving me additional time in which to repent. But I have a problem: he has not told me of which sin he wants me to repent. If I repent of all of them, it would appear that I am trying to have a righteousness of my own. There would be plenty of preachers waiting by the gates of heaven to bar my entrance if I thought my own good actions availed favorably toward my entrance. :-)

WHO IS IN HEAVEN? If no resurrection has occurred, NO ONE!

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS, BLESS THEM! They fight their battles in public. With great courage some are leading the way out of limiting fundamentalism. We could learn some lessons from them as they no longer demand belief in the literal "six days of creation" in the Genesis account and they allow for progressive creationism.

A NEW MILLENNIUM! All the hysteria raised by religionists this time last year has died in embarrassment. We who are smarter than the common herd know that the new millennium begins January 1, 2001! But we are modestly silent about it! If I am spared until New Year's Day, I shall have been blessed to live in ten decades in two millenniums. Now that is something to crow about.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. That is the general rule of nature. By that rule, I would already have long since been devoured by the lions or jackals due to age. By our application of science, we extend the lives of the weak and defective whom we would not expect to survive. So we are causing our breed to grow weaker physically by allowing weakness to be passed on through our genes.

There are two other elements, however, that determine who is fittest. Physical strength is not all that counts. Intellect by which we have learned to protect and preserve ourselves is a great part of fitness. None of us has made and applied all these scientific discoveries by ourselves. We depend upon a society working together. So the social nature of mankind is perhaps our most powerful point of fitness. God expects us to be a society both physically and spiritually.

WE WIN THE ARGUMENTS! We who have thought we must be "right" on every hair-splitting point about religion certainly developed argumentative skills. We could out-argue most anybody except those more conservative than ourselves.

Dave Barry must have had us in mind when he wrote: "I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic. People know this and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me." (Reader's Digest, Dec. 2000). God bless. [] (Dec. 2000)

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