Imagine receiving a gift! What an enjoyable feeling! But, not just a gift of any size!

Think big–at least a box the size of your freezer!

Maybe even a gift that a delivery truck has to deliver to your door! Now, wrap that gift up with your favorite wrapping paper.

Next add a gift tag “Heaven Sent...”

� e Gi� of Salvation

TheTheTheShining LightShining LightShining LightVOLUME 15 ISSUE 1 JAN-FEB 2014

THE SHINING LIGHTSubsidiary of The Gospel Trumpet

The Shining LightP.O. Box 1139

Greenville, OH 45331E-mail: editor@theshininglight.com

Please direct correspondence to:

Editor: Sis. Christine Thilmony

The Shining Light is operated under the authority of the general ministerial

body of the Church of God.

Well, what if I told you that heaven has a very big gift for everyone on the face of the earth if they will only accept it. No wonder heaven is such a large place, to contain and prepare such gifts for billions of people here on earth!

The good thing about it all is, this is not just imagination, but reality! There is just such a gift prepared for each one of you individual-ly! It is the gift of salvation! “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of your-selves: it is the gift of God!” Ephesians 2:8.

As we open this gigantic gift in excite-ment, to our astonishment we fi nd that this big gift contains numerous wrapped gifts inside. That’s because salvation comes with a lot! Let’s dig into salvation and bring forth some of its treasures:

Victory and Power This particular package in the gift of salvation is reserved only for the children of

God. There is no one in the whole wide world besides the children of God, that pos-sesses such power. A power that can overcome being treated unfairly, power to smile when forgotten, power when you are purposely not invited or chosen, and best of all, power over yourself! A power everyone dreams about, now at your fi ngertips! Now

you can be the commander and place the devil where he belongs.

Eternal Life Not only is the gift of salvation suffi cient for this life, but

it reaches into the next. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2 To think! We’ll

live with Him forever and ever, in a place where the wicked have ceased from trou-bling, in a company with innumerable angels!

Love A love that is able to cover, bear, and endure in trying circumstances. Love that

has no desire for revenge. A love that is able to give up its own will and yield to the wishes and desires of those around it. A love that isn’t blindly revolving around self,

but is able to yield gladly and happily to the wishes and plans of others.

Peace A peace that passes understanding. A peace that keeps calm when everything is

done to tempt you to be aggravated or frustrated. A deep tranquility when the night is dark and the waves are raging. A peace that keeps its eyes on the Lord and awaits His

timing, when common sense would tell you to take matters into your own hands.

A Clean Conscience This immeasurable gift allows us to face anyone, anytime, and anywhere. It helps

us to sleep at night and makes us happy even during our hard days. This conscience promotes health, heals your past, and brings you great joy.

THE SHINING LIGHT*** PAGE 2Continued on Page 7

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R-r-r-ring!! Your alarm clock goes off, and you fumble in a sleepy fog for the snooze button. But wait! In that moment before you snuggle in for a little extra sleep you must decide whether you can afford to punch the snooze button, or whether you will stir yourself to full consciousness and get up. You have a day ahead of you: classes to get to on time, and perhaps chores to do before that, and those ex-tra minutes of sleep will cost you some-thing.

If you choose to snooze perhaps you will fi nd yourself getting to school late, physically weak because you didn’t have time to eat breakfast or pack a proper lunch, and feeling unpre-pared for the tests of the day.

Or you may rob yourself of your usual devotional time with God and the spiritual nourishment you need to face the day.

So, before you hit that button you need to ask yourself the question: “Is it really worth trying to sneak in just a few more minutes of sleep? Will they truly be a help to me?”

Spiritually the same question needs to be asked. So many people are carelessly hitting the snooze

button. They know it’s time to wake up–there’s a day ahead of them when they have an appointment with Almighty God, but the comfort of their circum-stances and the soft pillow of self-deception (“I have plenty of time”) has lulled them into thinking they can take their ease a little while longer–only to awake with the awful realization that they “overslept” and,

coming face to face with God, are not ready to meet Him. They fi nd out too late that the answer to the above questions is “No!”

The Bible in-structs: “…know-ing the time, that NOW it is high time to awake out of sleep…” Romans 13:11.

“ B e h o l d , NOW is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2.

A song writer wrote this exhor-tation:

Careless soul, oh, heed the warning,For your life will soon be gone,

Oh, how sad to face the judgment,Unprepared to meet thy God.

May the Lord bless you as you care for your soul NOW! —Sis. Verna Bontrager

todayIs the Day of Salvation

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“...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15

AFRICA

Praise the Lord, children,I am very thankful that I had the privilege to go to the meeting in Africa in

December. It was a wonderful experience to go and see what it is like. When I was there I had to think about you children. � e children in Africa don't have many of the blessings that you and I have. � ey are poorer then we are, but I found that they were still very happy and content. � ey were satis� ed to play soccer with a cap from a bottle. I joined them playing a few times.

I was also very blessed to see that they have a desire for Spiritual things. One day a while before it was time to start service, I joined some boys that were sitting in the room where we had service and sang with them. � e songs that they sing are in Swahili. I believe that most of the saints can speak English, but they know Swahili better. We sang songs like "O Happy Day," "On Christ the Solid Rock," and others. In service when they sing, they put their whole heart into the songs. I was blessed to see and hear the children singing very loudly in service.

While I was there I wished so much that I knew Swahili so that I could converse with them better. I would like to encourage you children to learn what you can now while you are young, so when you are older that you can reach more souls. Luke 10:2 says, “...the harvest truly is great, but the labour-ers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” May the Lord bless you. —Bro. Jacob Bergen

THE SHINING LIGHT*** PAGE 5

“...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15

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The White Horse Rider’s Conquest at Gadara

Bro. Ben Hartlieb

Part II: Triumph of the White Horse Rider

Jesus came to His own, but His own knew Him not.

The world saw in Him a fanatic, a sorcerer,

a rabble-rouser. But there were some, even in those days who

knew who He was in truth...

That day when a small fi shing boat landed by the caves in the country of the Gadarenes, there came running out a fi lthy, naked savage who, without needing introduction, cowered in fear at the feet of the Almighty King of the Universe. Here was something to make that most frightening demoniac afraid. Here was a Power not to be reckoned with.

“Come out of that man, thou un-clean Spirit!”

“What have I to do with thee, Je-sus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not!”

We saw no comeliness in Him. But this legion of spirits saw His true divin-ity. They saw the White Horse Rider come to put down their dominion for good. A Being who, with only a word could banish them to the abyss. They

wanted to run from that Face. One day heaven and earth will fl y away from that Face. One day, you will have to stand alone, exposed and look into that face. And then where will you hide from that mighty, terrible one, sinner? What excuse will you give Him?

You laugh at Christ now, you mock the saints and make light of God's peo-ple. Will you laugh in that Face on that day? When God has swept away your refuge of lies, every mountain and hill on which you called to cover you has been blown away in His righteous an-ger, every demon and all your cohorts have been cast into the lake of fi re and there you stand, alone at the judge-ment bar, naked and exposed before Him with whom you have to do and to whom you now must give an account of the deeds you did in the body.

Jehovah sits enthroned as King of

the Universe. The Unimaginable. He lives in unapproachable light. Incom-prehensibly high and lifted up. The All-mighty. The fear of Isaac. And you, as a worm cower before Him. A rebel caught and convicted by the highest court of Heaven. No appeal is possible. All chance of pardon has been scoffed and fl itted away, your only mediator is now the chief and unimpeachable wit-ness against you.

Christ is undefeatable. He will tread down His enemies and stain his robes with their blood. He offers you amnesty now before it’s too late. Lay down your arms and make uncondi-tional surrender. He offers you now more than pardon. He pities you, as He pitied that lonely soul that day at the tombs.

And He asked him, “What is thy name?” And he answered, saying, “My

THE SHINING LIGHT*** PAGE 7

name is Legion: for we are many.” And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the coun-try. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

And all the devils besought him, saying, “Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.”

And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thou-sand;) and were choked in the sea.

The swineherds ran into the village and published the news. The entire vil-lage, to a man, dropped their trades and congregated to see what it was that was done. There they found the “terror of Gadara,” as calm as Lake Genneseret in summer, clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of the Teacher of Love.

“What manner of man is this; who is the tamer of demons? Who shall abide the day of His coming?” The vil-lagers begged Jesus to depart. They had had enough of spirits and powers and gods. They were afraid of the demoniac before, and what could be done now that a greater than he had come?!

There is One who is more to be feared than any man or monster. More frightful than the devil himself, more dangerous than wild beasts and hordes of demons. How terrifi ed would you be if there was a chance that a devil would come into your home tonight and tear you with his claws and gnash you with his terrible fangs? How would you stay up and watch if you lived in that village and there was a chance that that violent demoniac might come and dash your brothers and sisters to the ground and carry away your parents? You would say, “What if he comes tonight!” I'll tell you who you should fear. Fear not him who can kill the body and after than can do nothing. Fear him who having killed the body will cast soul and body into hell. I tell you, fear Him. What if He were to come tonight? What if Christ came tonight? Would it go well with

you?Jesus, glad to have done good to

one soul at least and counting the en-tire trip not a loss, began to reenter his boat with his disciples. How the newly delivered soul begged to go with them! Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.”

And what a report that made. Not only in that village, but in the whole of Decapolis was it published.

The meekest Christian need not fear the most violent devil of hell. We can have boldness that we cannot be defeated and will not be ashamed. If God is for us, who can be against us.

He invites you now to mount up with Him on a white steed and go forth conquering and to conquer. With Him as our captain, we cannot lose. All the armies of hell, all the infernal arms and machinations cannot damage such a band with the great King as their general.

But if you side against God, you take the devil's part. And you will re-ceive the devil's lot.

The Family of GodA family that is always striving

together with you for the furtherance of the gospel. They are there for you when you need someone to pray with, beside you when you are sick, patient when you are struggling, and a help when you need someone to lean on;

strengthening, encouraging, warning, exhorting, and lending a hand just

when you need to feel someone near. This family is a gift you couldn’t buy with all the money in the world, but it

is freely yours when you are saved.

We could fi ll a volume full of all the things that salvation brings with it. Can you come up with at least ten more packages that we can fi nd in sal-vation? Whatever situation you might fi nd yourself in, whatever your circum-stances may be, you can always rely on salvation to have just what you need at the right time. Salvation will never fail you or disappoint you.

—Sis. Ellie Froese

Continued from Page 2

A family that is always striving

Dearchild,

GlorybetoGod!IamsohappythatyouareapartofRestoration .I´msothrilledtoseehowGodishelpingyouinyourdevotiontoHim.IcannotfindwordstotellyouhowexcitedIamtoseeyoudoingwellinyoursoul .Itisone

ofmygreatestdelightstoseeyouencouragedandservingourLord.

Firstofall ,IwanttotellyouthatIloveyouverymuch ,andthatyouholdaspecialplaceinmyheartthatnooneelsedoes.I´vebeenprayingforyoualot,especiallylatelythatGodwouldblessandkeepyou.I´vebeenpray-ingandweepingforyouthatGodwillmakeofyouwhatyououghttobe.

WhenIlookatyou,Iseenotaweak,smallchildbutagreatmanorwomanwhomGodwillbeabletouse .ManytimesIhavewishedIcouldtalktoyou,butIcouldnot,andthat´stheburdenofmyheartinwritingyouthisletter.

Godwantstouseyou.GodwantstomanifestHimselfthroughyou.Hewantstowork,butHeiswaitingforyou.IknowHeisusingyoualready,butHe

wantstouseyouinawaythatyoucan´timagine.IcannotwaittoseewhatHewilldothroughyoubecauseHehasaplanforyou.

Perhapsonedayyouwillbeanevangelisttravelingaroundtheworldpreachingthegospel ;oramissionarytotheIndiansinafarawaycountry;orapreacherinthecongregationwhereyouwereborn;orapastorinanew

congregationwhereanotherministersowedtheseed;oraSundayschoolteach-er;oradeacon;orasinger;oranapostle .Onethingissure,thereisaworkawaitingyouthatneitherBrotherRay,BrotherPat,norIcando,onlyyou.

Sobefaithful ,mydearchild.Restorationisdependingonyou!

Thedevilwillcometodiscourageyou,topressyoudown ,toaccuseyou,tomakeyoufeelyouarenotworthanything,totellyouthatyouhavenogiftsandnotalents.Hewillcometotellyouthattheonlythingyoucandoismakemistakesandfailures.Mychild,Iknowhewillthrowmanythingsatyoube-

causehehasdoneittome,butstandfaithful .

Iloveyouverymuch .I´mprayingthatGodwillblessandstrengthenyou.IwishIcouldfindwordstotellyouwhatIfeeltowardsyou,andhowmuchwedependonyou.Mychild,pray.Donotbeselfish .GiveyourlifetoHim.LooktoGodinprayer,prayforyoursiblingswhoarenotsaved,prayforthework

aroundtheworld,andthatGodwillfityoutoworkforHiminevengreaterwayssoon .

MayourLordJesusChristblessyouandkeepyou.

Withmuchloveandprayers,Sis.MelissaPerez