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July 10, 2011The 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.
FAMILY NEWS
FAIR IS GETTING CLOSE. We have less than a month to get everything together for our fair exhibit at the Cass Counrty Fair. That means we have to get the boards filled out with specific instructions, the handouts and give aways sorted, and the schedule finalized. The banner should be ready next week, so we are pretty well ready to go. Be sure to keep that first week of August free, and on July 31 we will need a team to set up the booth and transport materials on Sunday afternoon. Save the day for this.
SINGING ON THE 14TH. On Sunday August 14 at 5:00 PM we will host an area wide singing. The plan is to have the singing and then have a fellowship meal afterwards. We will want to plug this at the Fair booth as well as in written letters to surrounding congregations. This is once again a situation where we need everyone involved. Not only will we be setting up the canopy outside and having serving tables and refreshments available, but we will need to groom our facility so our guests feel honored to be with us. We also want to have a tour of our new facilities available during the fellowship hour. We can encourage our brethren and make contacts with members who have drifted away through an outreach like this, so do not take it lightly and realize that there are several purposes involved in this event.
Keep Larry Fox and Janice Love in your prayers as they face special challenges of a health nature.
TODAY'S
LESSON
KEEPING PERSPECTIVE
This is the first Sunday
that John Clayton has been back in town after his bout with acute
pancreatitis, while he was in the Los Angeles area. He was planning to
speak this morning and had an outline ready for the sermon, but two men
of our congregation encouraged him to wait at least one more week
before he presented a sermon to the congregation. So there is no
printed sermon this week, but it will be presented next week.
The Apostle Paul said in
Philippians 4:11, "for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content." The past 2-1/2 weeks have certainly
challenged me along those lines. When you have pain that is so severe
that after standing at an X-ray machine for several minutes you have a
pool of water from your perspiration forming on the floor around you,
it is very hard to be content. If you have never had acute
pancreatitis, I do not recommend it.
How do we put what Paul said together with a situation like this? The answer is to keep reading what Paul said. He goes on in verses 12 and 13 talking about the real world: "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." There is a difference between contentment and tolerance. At one point in my illness I realized that it was very possible that I was going to die. My pancreatic enzyme level was 16,000 (normal is 300) and my blood pressure was 227/145. As a Christian all I could do was turn it over to Christ and let go. There was nothing I could do about a nurse messing up my meds, about the fact that my blood pressure would not stay down, or that I was 2,600 miles from home.
There was no blast of light, visit by an angel, out of the body experience, bright light luring me down a tunnel, or "feeling of release." What did happen was that God sent a flower pot of beautiful yellow flowers that arrived in the middle of all my pain from my brothers and sisters in Dowagiac. I spent four days of no food or liquid while we waited to see whether my pancreas and I died or not, staring at those flowers and remembering you and being strengthened by your spirit. California Christian friends showed up in the middle of all of this and stayed nearby and took care of me until I could come home. Jimmy Marcussen showed up, having ridden his motorcycle from San Diego, and Cindy's son Paul arrived. Cindy was always there, always looking after details, always loving, and caring--as we celebrated our second anniversary like our first--separated, and under medical duress. Still we were and are content--Christ providing what is necessary.
How do we put what Paul said together with a situation like this? The answer is to keep reading what Paul said. He goes on in verses 12 and 13 talking about the real world: "I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." There is a difference between contentment and tolerance. At one point in my illness I realized that it was very possible that I was going to die. My pancreatic enzyme level was 16,000 (normal is 300) and my blood pressure was 227/145. As a Christian all I could do was turn it over to Christ and let go. There was nothing I could do about a nurse messing up my meds, about the fact that my blood pressure would not stay down, or that I was 2,600 miles from home.
There was no blast of light, visit by an angel, out of the body experience, bright light luring me down a tunnel, or "feeling of release." What did happen was that God sent a flower pot of beautiful yellow flowers that arrived in the middle of all my pain from my brothers and sisters in Dowagiac. I spent four days of no food or liquid while we waited to see whether my pancreas and I died or not, staring at those flowers and remembering you and being strengthened by your spirit. California Christian friends showed up in the middle of all of this and stayed nearby and took care of me until I could come home. Jimmy Marcussen showed up, having ridden his motorcycle from San Diego, and Cindy's son Paul arrived. Cindy was always there, always looking after details, always loving, and caring--as we celebrated our second anniversary like our first--separated, and under medical duress. Still we were and are content--Christ providing what is necessary.