THE SEQUOIA TREES of California, known as Redwoods, are spectacular – towering as much as 300 feet above the ground…

Strangely, these towering trees have unusually shallow root systems that spread out just under the surface of the ground to catch as much of the surface moisture they can. And this is their vulnerability. Storms with heavy winds would almost always bring these giants crashing to the ground but this rarely happens because they grow in clusters and their intertwining roots provide support for one another against the storms.

When we are together, either as a family or a church, we provide this same support. Pain and suffering come to all of us.  But, just like those giant Sequoia trees, we can be supported in those difficult times by the touch of one another’s lives. The knowledge we have someone; that we are not alone; that there is someone who is willing to touch us, hold us – keeps us from being destroyed.

The apostle Paul said we are “many members, yet one body” (1 Cor. 12:20), and he goes on in that context to tell us every member is vital to the whole (1 Cor. 12:22-27). As the body of Christ we are built up by one another. “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:16). To stand alone will bring destruction – we need one another. Tell your brethren this week how much you need them and appreciate them. And be the support for your brethren they need.  Tom Moore, Hamilton, Texas

“That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.”  1 Corinthians 12.25

Mike Benson

THIS VERY DAY, among some 300 million Americans…

• The number of people identified as “nonreligious” or having “no religion” will grow by 10,337.
• The number of Mormons will grow by 1,787.
• The number of Jews will grow by 1,063.
• The number of Muslims will grow by 414.
• The number of Buddhists will grow by 406.
• The number of Hindus will grow by 288.
• The number of Wicca followers will grow by 115.

But how many, this very same day, will decide to follow Jesus?  From Missing in America, p. 9

How will these people learn about Jesus?  Who will teach them His Word?

“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'”  Luke 9.23

–Mike Benson

…WHAT IF YOUR job were to find a gun…?

Or a tumor? Both baggage screeners at airports and radiologists at hospitals spend the bulk of their time looking for things they rarely see. In the case of radiologists, routine mammograms reveal tumors only 0.3 percent of the time. In other words, 99.7 percent of the time, they won’t find what they’re looking for. Guns are even rarer. In 2004, according to the Transportation Security Administration, 650 million passengers traveled in the United States by air. But screeners found only 598 firearms. That’s roughly one gun for every million passengers — literally, one-in-a-million odds.

Both occupations, not surprisingly, have considerable error rates. Several studies suggest the “miss” rate for radiologists hovers in the 30 percent range. Depending on the type of cancer involved, though, the error rate can be much higher. In one especially frightning study, doctors at the Mayo Clinic went back and checked the previous “normal” chest X-rays of patients who subsequently developed lung cancer. What they found was horrifying: up to 90 percent of the tumors were visible in the previous X-rays. Not only that, the researchers noted, the cancers were visible “for months or even years.” The radiologists had simply missed them.

As for the nation’s fifty-thousand airport screeners, the federal government won’t reveal how often they make mistakes. But a test in 2002 indicated that they missed about one in four guns. During a similar test two years later at Newark’s airport, the failure rate was nearly identical: 25 percent. More recently, 60 percent of bomb materials and explosives hidden in carry-on items by undercover agents from the TSA were missed in 2006 by screeners at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. At Los Angeles International Airport, the results were even worse: screeners missed 75 percent of bomb materials.

And keep in mind, these are trained professionals dealing with life-or-death issues. Joseph T. Hallinan, “We Look but Don’t Always See,” Why We Make Mistakes, 23-24

THOUGHT: What happens when radiologists don’t find tumors and airport screeners don’t find weapons? People die. But what happens when Christians aren’t watching for, or don’t locate, false doctrines that are secretly smuggled into the local body of Christ? Give it some thought.

“And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage).” Galatians 2:4; cf. Matthew 7:15-20

Mike Benson