Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

urrection."TheCovenanter JuniorMrs. Philip MartinTHE BOBCAT WEST CLUBIn our last few chats we have beentalkingabout the blessings which Godgives in this life to those who answerHis callthose who are effectually called.Now our question is this. Do God's blessings stop when we die? Shirley, whatwould .be your answer to this questionwhen you think of John 3:16? No, God'sblessings to us do not stop when we diebecause "everlasting" means "never ending."Then,what blessings come to us afterwe die? When Jesus went up into heaven, some angels told those who saw Himgo up that He would come back againsomeday. When Jesus comes back, thisold earth will be burned up and therewill be a new heaven and a new earth.You can find this in II Peter 3:10-13.We don't know when this time will be.But what blessings does God give toHis children from the time they die untilJesus comes again? It is this particulartime that we are talkingabout this afternoon. Let us put the question this way:What benefits or blessings do believersreceive from Christ at death?What is death? Perhaps, when we saythat a person has died, we think that hisheart just stopped beating and his bloodstops goingthrough his body. But thisisn't what the Bible means by death.Death, according to God's Word, meansa separation. The Bible speaks of thefirst death and the second death. In thesecond death the wicked are foreverseparated from God. But the righteousas well as the wicked experience the firstdeath. For our explanation of this firstdeath, let us turn to Ecclesiastes 12:7 andread it together. While we all look atthis verse will Donald please read forus Genesis 2:7. Thank you, Donald.What do you suppose God is meaning by"dust"in Ecclesiastes 12:7, Mary Alice?Yes, God is evidently referring to ourbodies and the "spirit" means our "soul."And this is exactly what happens to believers at death. Our souls are separatedfrom our bodies. God takes our souls toHimself. Now, if these souls of ours goto heaven, it means that there is not aspeck of sin left in our souls. If therewas even one little dot of sin on our soulswe could never be in heaven. Won't it bewonderful to be as clean as that! Whata blessing that will be! And this body,this house in which "you" are now livingwill be put in the earth,September 1, 1954but in our nextchat we find that something wonderfulhappens when Jesus comes again. For ourproof-text, we have chosen Ecclesiastes12:7.And now, I'm sure that our little oldfriend, "W. S. C",can answer our question far better than I have. You listencarefullysomethingand see if he doesn't tell usabout our souls and thenabout our bodies. "W. S. C", "Whatbenefits do believers receive from Christat death?" "The SOULS of believers are,at their death, made perfect in holiness,and do immediatelytheir BODIES, beingpass into glory; andstill united toChrist, do rest in their graves till the resNATIONAL JUNIOR PROJECTNEWSI have some "Thank-you's" for you today. At our Grinnell Convention thevarious missionaries said "Thank-you"for each of your projects, but not all ofyou heard. Today's "Thank-you's" comefrom Mrs. D. C. Ward from our IndianMission, and from Dr. J. G. Vos, ourrepresentative for the Reformation Translation Fellowship.Dear Mrs. Martin,Many, many thanks for the most generous gift of the Juniors toward the purchase of a later model station wagon foruse in the work at the Indian Mission.We do feel sincere appreciation of theloving thought of the Juniors in following up so wonderfully your suggestion tothem of a project for use in the IndianMission. We are putting into a specialfund the gifts that are designated forthis project and a little later we hope tomake good use of this special fund.We do use our station wagon a greatdeal,always on Sabbath and two orthree times each week. Some of our Indian people have cars but others do notand they would not be able to reach ourservices and weekly meetings unless theyhad some help. We will be able to getalong for a bit longer but the time isnot too far away when a change will haveto be made. Our warmest love and gratitude for this big helpMost Sincerely, MaryDear Covenanter Juniors,C. WardThank you very much for the moneyyou gave to buy a filing cabinet for theReformation Translation Fellowship.This filing cabinet was needed very muchand will be a great help in our work. Itwill hold letters and records from Japan,China, Hong Kong, England and othercountries. Postage stamps, checks andmoney that has not yet been put in thebank can be safely locked in the cabinet.Any Junior society that would like tohave a sample Christian booklet in theChinese language can have one by writingto me. Address: Rev. J. G. Vos, 415 31stStreet, Beaver Falls, Pa.With best wishes to all the Juniors,Sincerely yours, J. G. VosLet us say a great big "Thankyou"toMrs. Ward and to Dr. Vos for these letters which help us to understand a littleused for.better what our money is beingGRINNELL GLEANINGSI'm sure that those of you who couldn'tattend Grinnell are anxious to know howthe contests came out. We'll just begintoday with the Catechism Contests. Everyone who entered a Contest got a recognition for his efforts. Some did veryfair work, others did good work and stillothers did excellent work. Group 1wasexcellent, Group 2 was good, and Group3 showed much effort.Beginners'Group 1Catechism Contest:Mel Adams, Esther Elliott,and John WillcoxGroup 2 Bruce Cummings, JoceleKeys, and Bruce MartinGroup 3 Dean HutchesonCatechism Contest:PrimaryGroup 1 Bill CummingsGroup 2 Paul Martin, and Bob HaysJunior Catechism Contest:Group 1 Louise Edgar, Karen Caskey, David Robert Cummings.I wish every Junior could have heardthe contests. It was my privilege to conduct the Junior Catechism Contest. Thisconsisted of the first 38 questions withtheir proof-texts. It would have been aninspiration to the older people of thechurch. There was hardly an error, and tomake it harder for the children there wereconstant interruptions beyond our control. Everyone did fine.news will come later.Other contestWe must tramp upon our feelings whenS. /. Wilsonprinciple is at stake.A day of worry is more exhaustingthan a week of work.If you start a thing, finish it.Henry Ford143