The family of God here at Dowagiac Church of Christ wishes to extend to you a warm welcome.  If you have questions about our worship services and why we do what we do, we will be glad to give you a biblical answer.  The uniqueness of the Church of Christ is that we are trying to restore to the best of our ability those things that we see the first century Church doing.  We are also working hard at building the spirit, unity, and love that Jesus taught and prayed for.  We have no clergy, but are working together as equal co-workers trying to serve one another and the area in which we live.  Come study with us, grow with us, and serve with us as we strive to do God’s will in all things.


Remember our Sunday night studies at 6:00 tonight.  We are continuing our study on the miracles of Jesus.  Tonight we will be reviewing the miracles we have studied, and will be seeing the ultimate purpose that each miracle had.  There is a great deal of erroneous teaching and misunderstanding about miracles in our world today.  Join us for these classes and grow and expand your Bible knowledge.
      

MARRIAGE SEMINAR:  We have been to a number of programs over the years at the Portage, Mich., congregation, and they have a Marriage Enrichment Seminar with Mike James scheduled January 25-27.  This is a support for marriages, especially young marriages.  Nursery care is provided for children.  We encourage attendance at this type of program and know that our brethren at Portage will do a good job.  The schedule is on the bulletin board.  
ATTENTION MEN:  If you have some expenses for the “Ladies Appreciation Dinner” that you need reimbursement for, please see Bill Gibson right away.
FOOD DRIVE:  We are providing for a family in Dowagiac that needs food.  The deadline for that will be next Sunday morning.  Leave your donation on the bench in the lobby.

Have you ever had a bad relationship?_________________

What did it do to you?__________________________________________________________________________________

Is it possible to have a bad relationship with God? ________

What causes people to have a bad relationship with God?  ______________________________________________________

Blending With the World Destroys Relationships (Verses 11-12)
    Intermarried with Pagans--"Daughter of a strange god"
    Had nothing left to offer God
    Infidelity, promiscuity do the same thing to marriage
    Revelation 3:16--Lukewarmness sickens marriage
    No amount of giving undoes apathy
When we give, it has to be from the heart (Verses 13-14)
    A marriage based on gifts and money will not work.
    How do you express your love for your wife (husband)
    Sex alone will not do it--serving will
    Do we mouth songs or sing them?  What is "pure religion" (James 1:27)?
Complaining Frustrates Relationships (Verses 13, 17)
    Struggles will make or break a relationship
    When struggles came to Israel, what did they do?
    When struggles come to relationships, what do we do?
    Verse 16--they resorted to violence.  Divorce is violence.
        God hates it because it is a breaking of faith
        How can a nation commit adultery?  (Jeremiah 3:8)
    Verse 17--Tried to turn evil into good.  How do we do this?
Don't divorce, build the relationship
    With family--How?  Built on what?
        How badly do you want it?  (John 13:4-17)
    With God--(2 Timothy 2:15,  Philippians 2:12)
    How did the first century Christians do it?  (Acts 2:42)




One of the distinguishing things about the Church of Christ is that we partake of communion every Sunday.  Many of our denominational friends and neighbors do communion very differently.  Some denominations teach that the bread and the fruit of the vine are miraculously turned into the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ--a doctrine called transubstantiation.  In Luke 22:14-22 we see Jesus establishing the Lord's Supper.  He refers to the bread as "his body" in verse 19 and the cup as "his blood" in verse 20.  Jesus has not died yet, so obviously the reference has to be to the symbolic nature of the bread and the fruit of the vine, not a miraculous change into his literal body and blood.  

In 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 Paul resets the communion.  In verse 29 he talks about eating and drinking the communion in an unworthy manner because some of the Corinthians had turned the communion into a drunken exercise to flaunt their wealth (verses 19-21).  Paul is not talking about the person being worthy of taking the communion.  None of us are worthy of the sacrifice of God's Son upon the cross.  The fact that you have sinned should not determine whether you partake of communion or not.  What we do need to be concerned about is "not discerning the Lord's body" (verse 29).  That means not thinking about what the communion is for and what it represents.  We are not to participate in eating the Lord's Supper in a robotic manner.  We are to think about what it represents and what it does to our relationship to each other.

Verse 28 tells us to examine ourselves.  That does not mean to look at ourselves to see if we are worthy--we are not worthy.  What the word "examine" means here is to purge or empty impurities out of ourselves.  That means to think about the fact that God cleans us up, forgives our sins, re-sets our minds to live more spiritually, refocuses us on what we need to do to live more fruitfully and more spiritually, and restores us to one another.  How often do we need to do that?  Every first day of the week--at least!