aword

The Year of Truth

YEAR 40 · 2024-01-03 · SÃO JOSÉ DOS CAMPOS (SP) BRAZIL

Last Sunday, Dec. 31st, I was asked to preach here in the congregation. I chose the topic that is my theme for this new year: Truth.

Each year I choose a theme to emphasize as much as possible in my teaching. This is not something I suggest to either the congregation or the brotherhood. After all, who am I to make declarations or impose on others. Instead, it's something personal.

In 2023, my theme was the Year of Mission. I have a document with outlines, articles and messages on this topic. Who knows, maybe I can complete the remaining parts and put them in the hands of those interested.

My lesson last Sunday had these main points:

1. Know the truth, 1Tm 2.3-4
2. Obey the truth, 1Pt 1.22
3. Live (walk in) the truth, Gl 2.14
4. Tell the truth, Ep 4.15
5. Defend the truth, Php 1.7

It was well received and one of the most commented afterwards.

I chose this theme because the pressure on the church to abandon the truth grows every day. Congregations are being influenced, even by people within our midst, to become Protestant and imitate their practices. See 1 Samuel 8:1-22. Also, emotionalism and subjectivity grow stronger. The brethren are being influenced by society, rather than changing it by “clear statements of the truth” 2Co 4.2 ISV. Doing so will show who is for the truth of the gospel and who is against it.

SUPPORT. As of Dec. 2023, the Iuka, Miss., congregation has concluded their support of our work. We thank them for the 39 years of partnership with us.

COUNTRY. Socialists and communists are now in power here, and are acting according to their nature. One newspaper here said, “Brazil is taking great strides towards an authoritarian, perhaps dictatorial, model, and economically speaking we have only one certainty: more taxes are coming.” The president’s people are also strangling media and tamping down on dissident voices.

Because of the new government policies, prices are rising sharply. For example, gasoline rose 12.5% in 2023, a good part of that because of taxes. We were waiting until the first of the year to buy a new refrigerator. Now the government is making new rules about home appliances that will drive prices up.

UPCOMING

• Jan. 18-21: Vicki and I both teach at the Northeast Christian Conference near Salvador.
• Feb. 24-25: I speak at the RENEW event of Tenn. Bible College in Cookeville.
• Mar. 29-31: Our own Festival event here during Easter weekend.

Later, I hope to do provide an overview of 2023. If I can remember it.

God bless each one as you serve the Kingdom and bring glory to the name of Christ in this new year.

EXTRAS

• Rick Kelley will be returning to write for Forthright this year. That's an exciting addition.
• We had all our windows and doors in our house replaced while in the US. The wooden ones attracted termites. The shutters were also sagging, after 20 years. It was not cheap, but necessary.
• Thanks to our son-in-law Ethan, who works at Disney, for getting us in the several parks for free. Last year was Magic Kingdom, this year was Hollywood Studios and Epcot.
• Brazil suffered two heat domes while we were in the US. Some of my books suffered heat damage. Temps here, while we were gone, went as high as 110-120ºF. My office was closed during this time, and it gets the afternoon sun. A clock also melted down.

Our last day of the year

Here in SJC, I preached this morning in the meeting of the saints, by request: “A verdade”. Many are traveling, but the number was still good.

The city sponsored a foot race early this morning, so two of the main avenues on our side of town were closed for that, and we had to take a long route around. Paulo is without a car, and we went by and picked him up. So we left around 8 a.m.

We had lunch at a Chinese buffet in the Colinas mall. Twas nice to feel the air conditioning, although the day was a tad cooler. Then a quiet rest of day.

My energy level picked up today. Maybe recovery from the long travel has arrived.

I've worked on some ideas for the new year, will continue to do that tomorrow. Time to get organized, right? The new year is rushing toward us.

I'm forming a list of books to read for 2024. I've done little reading the last few years, aside from online articles and consulting reference works. Time to change that.

The first trimester already has some major events:

• Jan. Speaking multiple times at a regional event in the northeast, the wife speaking also. Theme is the seven congregations of Asia, in Revelation 2-3.

• Feb. Speaking at an event held by a training school in the US. We'll stay for just 2-3 weeks.

• Mar. Our event, called the Festival, the last weekend of the month, Fri.-Sun. Need to work on organizing that. It seems to have good momentum. This year's theme is the return of Christ.

Thanks for being a part of our life this year. May next year bring friends closer, make the truth sharper, and bring Heaven nearer.

GoSpeak 2023-12-05

November recap, site comments, 40th year

YEAR 40 · 2023-12-05 · SÃO JOSÉ DOS CAMPOS (SP) BRAZIL

(Vicki and I are now in Huntsville, Ala, in the midst of our American trek. We arrived stateside Oct. 30 and will leave the US Dec. 24. Later this week we head back toward Orlando, Fla.)

During November I kept up our websites with new content. Thirty articles were posted to cristaos.org. The columnists and I posted 29 items to forthright.net.

The Brazilian website often gets comments, both on the site, via email, or on social media. Here are some examples:

“Excellent message. Direct, current and objective.” ─R. Santos.

“Excellent summary of the book of Revelation. A text that awakens the desire to read again this letter that brings hope to the faithful.” ─R. Viera.

“Congratulations on your work. … the articles are very edifying and instructive.” ─I. Arantes.

The Forthright site has been inundated with spam comments, so for now, at least, we have turned off the option to comment.

What are my Now goals for December? Check out four of them here:

https://jar.tiddlyhost.com/#Now

A number of people have shown interest in our evangelistic studies, done on 3x5 cards. I taught the first part of the first study in Finch, Ark., and have mentioned them in my messages on the “Four Principles of Work.” So that has motivated me to work on putting these studies into English. If you’d like to see what I have so far, send me a request.

I cite the studies as an example of simplicity that can be quickly replicated.

Last Sunday, Dec. 3, after the meeting with Chase Park congregation, Vicki and I had lunch with Pablo and Taciane and their two daughters. They are a Brazilian family living in Huntsville, Ala. Our son Micah and his wife Valerie have worked with them. The two-hour visit was done all in Portuguese.

https://pixelfed.social/i/web/post/637745407566868353

As of Nov. 28, our 39th anniversary of arrival in Brazil, Vicki and I are now officially in Year 40 of our life and work in Brazil. We wonder where all the years went.

Yours in Him,

Randal & Vicki Matheny

#gospeak #USA #writing

GoSpeak: 2023-11-24

I started this outline for a newsletter weeks ago. Our trip to the USA Oct. 31 caused it to fall into a black hole. I add it here with few updates, just to catch up.

Recent teaching trips

• São João da Boa Vista, in São Paulo state (3 hr drive): Restoration.
• Belo Horizonte (8 hrs away) to teach the Total Transformation course.
• Pimentas congregation in Guarulhos, on “The Church Without Limits.”
• Salvador in Bahia state, taught what I called Total Transformation II.
• São Domingos congregation in Campinas, the night before we traveled to the USA, on “The Church in the Mind of Christ.”

Recent books

• A multi-author book on training men to lead in worship.
• Total Transformation.

Upcoming books

• Reflections on the book of Job by Valdir José da Silva.
• 400-500 page book of evangelistic studies by Nilton Barretto.
• Gary Hampton, God’s Unseen Hand.
• My book on Psalm 119.

Edification Magazine

• This has been hard to keep up with this year.
• Several issues for 2023 remain to be finished.

Online work

• cristaos.org
  • We've kept up well with posting articles during our trip.
• Hymnal, “Riquezas de Cristo” (Riches of Christ).
• English: forthright.net
  • Mike Brooks retired from writing for Forthright after 20 years.
  • We've missed few days without articles during our trip.

The Festival for the Family of God

• Now an annual event during Easter weekend for families.
• Held in our city in a high quality camp setting.
• Men and women (and children) have had separate tracks.
• Themes: Death of Christ (2022); Resurrection of Christ (2023); Second Coming of Christ (2024).

Training

• Regular meetings for personal training with Paulo César and Pedro.
• Group event – two actually, for men and women – Aug. 19 with over 100 people.
• Goal: 2Tm 2.2. Teach, step back, let them fill the space.

Principles of work

• Prayer: “Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more workers in his vineyard” Mt 9.38.
• Modeling and Delegation: “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” 2Tm 2.2 CSB.
  • Paul → Timothy → faithful men → others
• Simplicity: “This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated” Eccl 7.29 GNB.
  • Do only what can be reproduced by others – taking into account, of course, that each one has his own gifts from God.

#gospeak #principles #teaching

QUEM NÃO ESTÁ CONOSCO

Autor: Randal Matheny Email: wr@simples.fastmail.fm

Nota: O seguinte artigo foi escrito para o boletim informativo: “Amo Jesus”, que circula entre as congregação de Guarulhos SP. O tema do mês foi livre. Escrevi após uma leitura do primeiro capítulo de Romanos. Postei aqui para o proveito de outros que talvez não tenham oportunidade de lê-lo no informativo.

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A carta do apóstolo Paulo aos Romanos é tida como o documento mais importante da Bíblia pelos protestantes (dos quais fazem parte os evangélicos). Martinho Lutero leu a carta e dela tirou uma conclusão sobre a natureza do evangelho. Em Romanos Lutero, num mal entendido tremendo, leu sobre a salvação pela fé. Pensou que a fé fosse apenas interna, mental. Na sua tradução do Novo Testamento para a língua alemã, Lutero inseriu uma palavra — acrescentou algo à Bíblia: a palavra “somente”, em Romanos 3.28. O texto diz: “Concluímos, pois, que o homem é justificado pela fé, sem obras da lei” (Tradução brasileira). Lutero traduziu: “justificado pela fé somente”.

Com este entendimento falho, Lutero chamou a carta de Tiago de uma “epístola de palha”, quer dizer, algo inútil e desprezível. Isso porque Tiago escreveu que “é pelas obras que o homem é justificado e não somente pela fé” 2.24. E ainda: “a fé, se não tiver obras, é morta em si mesma” 2.17.

Alguém entre nós chamou os protestantes de nossos primos, afirmando que não são exatamente irmãos, mas há uma proximidade muito grande. Essa linguagem é anti-bíblica e tendenciosa. Alguns acham uma gracinha repetir a colocação. Contudo, não temos quase nada em comum com os protestantes. Não temos comunhão com eles. Eles precisam ouvir e obedecer à verdade do evangelho.

Veja algumas das diferenças entre os protestantes e o verdadeiro seguimento de Jesus:

• Eles pregam a salvação pela fé somente. (É marca de identidade protestante.) Jesus prega a necessidade da obediência para a salvação, Mc 16.16; At 2.38; 22.16; Hb 5.9; 1Pe 3.21.

• Eles pensam que é permitido fazer o que a Bíblia não proíbe, apesar de insistirem somente na Bíblia e exigirem aceitação de seus credos e declarações doutrinárias. Jesus ensina que não devemos ir além do que está escrito, Lc 10.26; 20.17; 1Co 4.6; Hb 7.14; Ap 22.18-19.

• Eles justificam a existência da divisão religiosa nas suas denominações e se gloriam nelas. Jesus ordena que sejamos unidos como ele e o Pai são unidos, Jo 17.20-23; 1Co 1-4; Ef 4.1-6.

• Eles têm o sistema de clérigo e leigo, fazendo do pastor o líder. Jesus disse que somos todos irmãos, todos membros do Corpo de Cristo, servindo uns aos outros na humildade e na simplicidade, para a edificação de todos, sob a direção de um só Senhor, Mt 23.8; Jo 13.1-17; Rm 12.3-10; 1Co 12-14; 1Co 8.6; Ef 4.4.

O próprio livro de Romanos declara a necessidade da “obediência da fé” Rm 1.5; 16.26. A imersão na água nos separa do pecado e garante a nossa ressurreição, Rm 6.1-5. A obediência leva à justiça e à libertação do pecado, Rm 6.16-18.

Os protestantes e evangélicos não são irmãos e muito menos primos. São alvo do nosso trabalho de ensinar fielmente o Caminho de Cristo, levando-os a entrar em Cristo, para desfrutarmos, todos, da única esperança que oferece nosso Senhor e Salvador.