B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #6

B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #6

March 26, 2003

I Cor. 16:9 “a wide door for effective work has opened…and there are many adversaries.”

A question has arisen about manifestations of fellowship.

We hold to what we call the ‘unit concept’ of fellowship which means from Scripture that, if we are in agreement on God’s Word we fellowship with each other in all areas. But if we do not agree on God’s Word then we do not fellowship in any areas of fellowship. We consider full agreement on God’s Word and a willingness to progress in it a prerequisite for fellowship. Agreement as the basis is found in: Eph. 4:3, Phil. 1:27, I Cor. 1:10 and other passages. Separation or non-fellowship is called for if there is disagreement or false teaching in: Gal. 5:9, Mt. 7:15, Rom. 16:17-18 and other passages. We explain all this in the short and long pamphlets on ‘fellowship’. In other words we cannot preach in a church different from ours, or teach in it as well as those outside our fellowship cannot preach or teach among us. Our offerings go for work of the Lord carried out by us and we do not ask for money from those not benefitting from our serving of the Word. In prayer we can pray for anyone, but we do not ask them to lead us in prayer. We may have friends who are Hindu, Muslim or simple unbelievers. But in the religious exercise of fellowship as defined in Scripture, we join together only with those in the same faith and confession. We simply seek to follow the clear Word of God. Our religious fellowship is with those in our sister churches in: USA, India, Nigeria, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo and Ghana. We do not judge others in their faith. Rather we let Scripture test the teachings, I Jn. 4:1 May the God of patience and comfort grant you to be likeminded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom. 15:5-6 The Nigerian Goverment has granted permission for a 2nd Missionary, who would help in India and Africa. Let us pray a pastor in the U.S. accepts this call soon. Jyothi from India reports that five men will graduate from the Nidubrolu Seminary in June. Let us pray that their studies are blessed as they finish this year and prepare for their service in the ministry. We have e-mail problems at our home in Nigeria. Our computer/phone is having many problems. It will not send out long messages. That is why you often are receiving very short messages from me. It has no problem bringing in your long messages. The problem is with sending out long messages. Today I am at Uyo, the capital of our State in Nigeria, and I am having very good success sending out long email. But usually when I come here, we try to send out messages, but there are many disconnections, not being able to connect, or power outages. So it may take hours and we may still not be able to send out email. We cannot receive attachments. Please send email to me only in regular subject form–NO attachments.

TRANSLATION WORK We do not ‘pay’ for translation of printed materials. We pay for photocopying and printing. The translation work is done by out brothers in the faith as a labor of love to Him. —Paul at Nagalapuram, India reports that the 14 pamphlets have been done. We’ll investigate printing when I am there in July —Jyothi at Nidubrolu, India reports that the ‘Witnessing’ essay is done and he is slowly working on Mueller’s “My Church and Others”. This is a big job and will take a long time. —Denis in Kinshasa, Congo is slowed up on the work due to church property problems. We continue to pray over this. —Muzakuza in Lubambashi, Congo is unable so far to begin due to a lack of qualified men to do it. We will be discussing this when, God willing, I visit this Fall. —Ufot at Efa, Nigeria has done 3 of the 14 pamphlets. We thank these men for their work and others who are using their gifts for His glory and the further education of God’s people in the Word through this translation work.
In Him,
Pastor Koenig