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 to get a copy of the "prayer sheet" from Julie and Karl Marcussen. Use the sheet and keep. track of people in need, praying for them, calling them, keeping in touch.

POTLUCK. Next Sunday is the first Sunday in March, and we have a tradition to enjoy fellowship and food together each first Sunday of the month. Plan to come and bring something with you to share--food and ideas. After the meal we hope to continue to talk about plans for the Church here and what we want to do during the coming year. We need to decide if we want to do another booth at the Cass County Fair, and if so whether we want to change the theme we have used the past two years. If you cannot bring food, do not worry about it--there is always more than enough. We do need everyone to bring their goals and ideas of what the Church should be, planning where we are going on both the long and the short term.

UPDATE ON PEOPLE. Dave Pickens is going in to the doctor for a decision about what to do with the circulation problems in his legs. Keep Dave in your prayers on this problem. Tracey Brewer and Patty Gibson are battling respiratory infections. Bill Gibson had a consultation this past week about impending dental work to be done in Ann Arbor. We need to keep Diana Davis in our prayers as she has had a foot injury and has had a hard time keeping at work. Thelma Raab is continuing to recover from illness and has been having vehicle problems, but hopes to be with us soon. Cynthia Clayton is still in Colorado working on care for her mother who has dimentia, but Cindy will join John in California this next week for a lectureship in Lincoln.

THE RICH YOUNG RULER

This past Wednesday night in our class on Philippians we had an interesting question raised by Dick Hoyt about what it means to talk about Christian maturity. The particular passage we were discussion was Philippians 3:12-15 where Paul starts to end his discussion about concentrating on Jesus Christ and not letting the world distract us as Christians. In verse 12 Paul indicates that he has not totally grown up as a Christian. In the King James Version the key word is "perfect" which in the original does not mean sinless or flawless, but complete or mature. In verse 15 Paul tells his readers that those who are mature when they have a problem in understanding will have God reveal the answer to them.

The Greek word used for "perfect" or complete is teleioo. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul talks about his "thorn in the flesh" and says that when he asked God to remove the thorn (whatever it was) that God said "My grace is sufficient for [you]: for my strength is made 'teleioo' (perfect or complete) in weakness." Paul goes on to say "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong" (verse 10).

That is really a discussion about maturity. The passage in Philippians talks about all Paul had given up to become a Christian, and that is what Christian maturity is about. It has nothing to do with how old we are. Many very old people are incredibly immature spiritually. Maturity is learning to think as God thinks, and act as Jesus acted. Romans 8:16 says "The Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." How do you approach bad language, pornographic material, dishonesty, the needs of others, money, arrogance, . . . ? Have you grown up--or more exactly, how much have you grown up? None of us has "arrived," but we should be able to look back at the last six months and see change in how we deal with these things. When you stop growing you start dying. That is not just true of the physical life in things, it is also true of our spiritual lives. We saw that in Philippians 2:19-21, Paul praised Timothy because of his maturity even though he was a young man. Let us all work on growing up in Christ--becoming complete.