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June 12, 2011

WELCOME! WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE

We are a group of believers who simply try to follow the Bible as a guide for all we do. Everything done in our worship service is something we have a Bible basis for. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish. We will sing hymns together and we will observe the Lord's Supper or Communion together. We will also have an opportunity to give to the work of God in this area. This collection is for the members here, and if you are visiting you should not feel any pressure to give. Our lesson time will be divided into two groups. The young children will go to our classroom area in the basement where they will be taught the Bible at a level they can understand. The adults will stay in the auditorium for a lesson at an adult level. We do try to serve the community, and if you have some needs that we can help you with, mention it to one of the members. Thank you for worshipping with us.

FAMILY NEWS

LAST WEEKS MEETING. Be sure to read the back page of this bulletin (see the REPORT below). It will update you on the meeting we had last Sunday afternoon, and plans for the future for this congregation.

Larry Fox needs our prayers. In addition to all of his medical tests, the tree that had partially fallen on his neighbor's house and then another part on his house fell totally this past week on Larry's tool shed causing major damage as a great deal of material was stored there. Larry is beginning to feel like Job some, so let us encourage him and pray for him that all of this will be over soon and he can get back to cleaning all of the bluegill out of Pitcher Lake.

Janice Love was visited by eleven of us Thursday evening. We sang hymns with and for her for 30 minutes as we visited her at Tang1ewood Trace where she now lives. Janice is very sick and needs our prayers and encouragement, so keep her on your list and send her a card at 530 W. Tang1ewood Ln, Mishawaka, IN 46545.

Karl Marcussen got to Hawaii all right, and is on the carrier with Jimmy coming home. How he will fare in the confines of a navy bunk remains to be seen. Julie and Ginger are leaving to meet them when they arrive in San Diego.

TODAY'S LESSON

CHRISTIANITY AND THE PARANORMAL

INTRODUCTION:
Definition: Experiences that lie outside the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.
Occult    Demons    Hauntings     Poltergeist     Ghosts
Clairvoyance     Auro     Ectoplasm     Reincarnation
Spirit Photography     Shadow     People     Ouija     UFOs
Mediums     Psychic     ESP     Psychokinesis     Cryptids
Telepathy     Parapsychology     Near death
GOD HAS WARNED HIS PEOPLE--See handout (see GOD HAS ALWAYS WARNED HIS PEOPLE ABOUT THE PARANORMAL below)
Why    --puts your faith in the wrong things.
            --diverts your energy and resources.
Are these things real? How do we handle them?
SOLUTION 1--Look for biblical answers.
Phi1ippians 2:12--We are free moral agents.
Ephesians 6:12 and 3:9-11
1 Corinthians 10:13--Promises and common experience
Romans 8:28
1 John 3:8 and Colossians 2:15
Hebrews 4:15--Did Jesus face the item in question?
Fakes and scams--Acts 19:13-16; 1 Samuel 28:8-12
SOLUTION 2--Use the tools God has given us.
1 John 4:11; Timothy 4:1-2--Be skeptical.
How do we "try every spirit?"
History and scientific method--Witness credibility.
VonDaniken, Amityville, Betty Hill, Harold Camping, Hal Lindsey
Look at human limitations.
Color reversal, background issues, dog pictures
Look for natural causes and coincidences.
Last two numbers of the year you were born, add your age, and what do you get?
SO HOW DO YOU HANDLE THESE CLAIMS?
Know God's word.
Know why you are here, what your purpose is.
Be skeptical.
Know (or know where to find) answers to challenges.
1 Corinthians 15:33--Watch who you trust.
Ephesians 6:11-13

REPORT

Last Sunday was a very productive Sunday. We not only got to worship God together, but we had a wonderful potluck meal and a great planning meeting with a lot of decisions being made that offer some great plans for the future. I know that not everyone could stay for the meeting, and some of you read this bulletin online and that is your main connection to the work in Dowagiac, so let me go over what is planned and what decisions have been made.

SINGING: We will host an area-wide singing on Sunday, August 14, at 5:00 PM. We will have a meal for our visitors as well as a time when we can join together in praise to God. This gives us a chance to show our brothers and sisters in Christ in the area what we have done downstairs with our new classroom facilities, and to introduce our food service program. We will not only get a chance for fellowship with brothers and sisters from other places, but hopefully will find friends and relatives of theirs who live close to us that we can contact for further study. Be sure to mark this on your calendar.

FAIR BOOTH: We have decided to change the theme of our 2011 Fair Booth to a "Come Home" theme. Wednesday night we approved a banner to go over the top of the exhibit that will say "The M-51 S. Church of Christ Invites You to Come Home." That banner is being prepared commercially. Our three panels will tell them what to come home to. We are coining "Green Christianity" as one panel and defining that as original unspoiled worship and service to God, without the polluting influences of human creeds and traditions. A second panel will say to "Come Home to Faith" talking about answering questions and finding lost belief. The third panel will say "Come Home to Those Who Care" talking about service and meeting needs. These three themes are being developed, and your input is solicited. There are a huge number of people in our area who have a Church of Christ background, but have been turned off by bad attitudes and conduct of misdirected congregations and individuals in the past. We hope to reach some of these folks.

CHILDREN'S WORSHIP: We have been relying on the same three or four women to teach and lead our children in their worship and Bible study hours. These ladies are doing an incredible job, but it is unfair to expect them to do it all indefinitely. We had quite a discussion about how to get more people involved and relieve the ones who have been carrying the load. This is a wonderful ministry and is vital for our young people and for the future of the Church. If you have not volunteered to teach or to co-teach, see Patty Gibson and let us get this on a better basis.

GOD HAS ALWAYS WARNED HIS PEOPLE ABOUT THE PARANORMAL
  1. Exodus 22:18--"Do not allow a sorceress to live."
  2. Deuteronomy 18:10-11--"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or cast spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead."
  3. 2 Chronicles 33:6--"Manasseh ... sacrificed his sons in the fire ... practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil  ... ."
  4. Micah 5:12--"I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells."
  5. Nahum 3:4--"Nineveh ... all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft."
  6. 1 Samuel 15:23--"For divination is like the sin of rebellion."
  7. Galatians 5:20--"The acts of a sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality ... idolatry and witchcraft."
  8. Leviticus 19:31--"Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God."
  9. Leviticus 20:6--"I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them."
  10. Leviticus 20:27--"A man or a woman who is a medium or spiritists among you shall be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads."
  11. 2 Kings 21:6--"Manasseh ... bowed down to all the starry hosts ... built alters to the starry hosts ... sacrificed his son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord."
  12. 2 Kings 23:24--"Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists ... ."
  13. Isaiah 8:19--"When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?"
  14. Isaiah 19:3--"I will bring their plans to nothing: they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead, the mediums and the spiritists ... ."
  15. Daniel 2:10--"The astrologers answered the kind 'there is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks. No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men.'"
  16. Daniel 2:27--Daniel says there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. Carried on in 4:7; 4:9; 5:11; 1:20; 2:2.
  17. Exodus 7:11, 22--Pharaoh and magicians
  18. Exodus 8:7, 19--"The magicians said to Pharaoh 'This is the finger of God'" (plague of the gnats).
  19. Exodus 9:11--"The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them."