Under the standard brotherhood definition of "sound church" a luke warm or even dead congregation could be considered sound as long as they don't have a "fellowship" hall.

I also believe we must be careful about usurping authority. According to Rev. 2 and 3, Christ, not men or groups of men, removes lampstands. I know firsthand of brethren in one congregation who condemned all the members of another congregation to hell. I want to see the B,C and V for that. This in no way negates our individual right to make judgments. A few years back I left a congregation because I could no longer agree with what they were teaching. However, disagreement or not, there is no way I am going to sit in judgment of that congregation's condition with the Lord. Christ will determine its "soundness" and its lampstand's status, not me.

Actor Fess Parker, who played the part of Davy Crockett is the 50s Disney series passed away at age 85. In later years he was a good friend of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.

IN OTHER NEWS
Even after being out of LE for five years I still get that twinge up my back when I read of recent events like the two deputy sheriffs killed in N. FL in 2009. They were not ambushed. They were arresting a violent domestic husband that had just put his wife in the hospital with injuries he caused. When he began to resist one of the deputies tazed him. The tazer worked and the offender fell to the ground. The tazer charge lasts 5 seconds. When those seconds were up, before the tazer trigger could be pulled again, the offender drew a handgun and even though both deputies were not close together managed to hit and wound both of them. Both deputies were wearing bullet resistant vests but were hit in areas the vest does not protect. Both deputies emptied their duty side arms only stricking the offender once with a non-disabling wound. As both deputies lay wounded on the ground the offender walked up and placed a bullet in each of their heads. Later the offender was surrounded by other police and committed suicide.

It should be noted that the offender was military trained. In many cases, it does give an advantage. In my career I dealt with military trained and even combat veterans. I always treated them with respect and kept my guard up knowing there was a major difference between their training and mine.

Every time I go to Zephyrhills and approach Lake Wales, I pass a huge building that used to be a Harley Davidson dealership. The building is vacant. Has been for some time. Today in the local paper I read that the Harley Davidson dealership in Pompano Beach will close down. Being a former Harley rider I still enjoy the sight and straight pipe thunder sound of 20 Harleys on the highway. How beautiful darling Pat looked in her chain grease spattered HD t-shirt.

So a couple of HD dealerships close, so what? That is not all considering jobs were lost but there is more. As I travel around I see more vacant storefronts and even entire vacant professional buildings with FOR LEASE OR SALE signs. These signs mean jobs or money lost and do not bode well for our economy. I have heard predictions of a "double dip" recession and the next shoe to drop will be commercial property.

have you ever noticed that in many religious discussions among our brethren both sides can be long on argument and short on scripture. This post is prompted by an e-mail I received from one of the Lecturers at FC after I pointed out what might be an inconsistency in his lecture. The issue is not important. What is important is that in defending his point he used no scripture and it sounded like an opinion. My difficulty is that this is an "opinion" taught as law. As I explained in me original corrispondence to the brother I was not interested in a running argument so I thanked him for his response and let it drop.

I believe God allows us judgment. But it seems that sometimes, "my judgment is right but yours is sin" or put another way, "my opinion with no scripture is more right than your opinion with no scripture".

You decide.

Addendum: Congregational autonomy--some preach but do not practice.

Some of you will remember the star of the original Mission Impossible--where there was real acting--, Peter Graves. He has passed away. He is the younger brother of James Arness, Marshall Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke.