• The Gospel Plus What?
• The Extent of Fellowship
• Hook's Points
• Worship As Commanded
• Conservative, Liberal, or Whatever
• Retroactive "Grounds for Divorce"
• The Conditional "IF"
• What I Hear From You

It is a time of both excitement and pain among my people in the COC. God is working exciting good change among us. There is a healthy trend focusing more on Christ and less on doctrinal correctness. A younger generation is not interested in doctrinal disputes but they want strength and support that comes through relationship. But change is always resisted resulting in turmoil. It is a painful time for preachers who depend upon the favor of the congregation for financial support while they try to bring reform. People must be cherished above individual interpretations. Patience and prayer are essential.

If you just get the last five minutes of a sermon, you will weigh the speaker’s conclusions by your previous understanding rather than the basis he presented for his lesson. Thus, you learn nothing from him. So it is with your reading Freedom’s Ring if you have not read Free In Christ and my other books first. Many current articles are based on what I wrote in those books.

Good books always make good gifts! With the holidays coming up, it is good to remember that. A good number of you took my suggestion in last issue to read or use in class Ketcherside’s The Death of the Custodian. Now try his The Twisted Scriptures. That marvelous book turned me around on some vital points of understanding. I used that book in the most exciting class I ever taught.

To receive this publication by e-mail, simply address a message to freedomsring-subscribe@egroups.com. It is automated. To remove your name send an e-mail to freedomsring-unsubscribe@egroups.com. That does it. Send regular mail subs and changes to me.

$1,700.00 has been sent to Dr. Prasad for a second printing of FIC in Telugu so that his supply will not run out. Your donations enable that. Thank you! There is an unexpected hindrance to the distribution of the Telugu version of FIC in India. Transportation! We take transportation and mail delivery for granted. Dr. Prasad has not so much as a motor bike to reach the villages. He can hardly afford public transportation, and it does not serve many villages. Some are reached by oxcart! Someone could really "spread his wings" by the gift of a motor bike. He converted 25 on his most recent trip.

Some in India are fluent in English. For their use in training schools and libraries, in October we have sent a mail bag of 116 books, including sets of twelve each of a number of our books. Those books are your gifts to them. Thank you.

76 free copies of Free In Christ were distributed in October. Our work fund now stands at $1,807.43.

It is a sad comment on our society that public money is spent promoting the gambling craze, touting it as being beneficial to our people. While a small bet may not be evil as such, I pity the person who has no higher aim for the use of what God gives him than to feed it into a slot machine – or to squander it on any other sort of non-satisfying behavior.

Did you pay for those books you ordered from me? I am accusing no one, but I have quite a number of tagged files awaiting receipt of payment. Some date back to previous years.

The congregation in New Braunfels, Texas is celebrating its 80th anniversary. We served there ten years and lived there another eleven, more than a quarter of its history. The congregation grew an average of 4 or 5 members per year. Hardly sensational.

Unsolved mystery: Why parents will spend big money to straighten their teenagers’ teeth when the kids’ studied aim is to look like a circus side-show freak by hair style, dress, body piercings, tattoos, and clothing emblazoned with bizarre messages.

Another puzzler: Why Oregon gives doctors permission to kill patients who want to commit suicide but takes all precaution to prevent Kip Kinkel, the Springfield school killer, from committing suicide which he wants to do.

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