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June 12, 2016

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 for which we have a Bible basis. 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 and 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

SHULTS-LEWIS has asked us to provide paper products for the children we help support in the Shults-Lewis Children's Home. That means we need to bring paper towels, toilet tissue, Kleenex, or napkins here to the building for them to pick up. They plan to pick it up the week of July 24. Bring what you can and leave it on the bench in the vestibule.

PUT IT ON YOUR CALENDAR:

  • June 21— Senior Tuesday Bible study at Claytons'. Our senior picnic has been moved to July 19.
  • July 3 — Potluck Sunday
  • July 5 — Seniors' fellowship meal at the Golden Corral in Mishawaka
  • July 10 — Dowagiac sponsored area-wide potluck and singing at the Bertrand Lodge in the Madeline Bertrand County Park. It is west of S 11th (M-51 in Niles Township) off of Adams Road. Potluck and fellowship start at 1:00 P.M. with singing and devotional to follow.
  • July 19 — Senior's annual summer picnic at Claytons'.
  • July 31 – August 6 — Cass County Fair

TODAY'S LESSON

LIFE AND DEATH

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John Clayton
INTRODUCTION
A. What do you believe about life — two possibilities.
1. This is all there is — all we have
a. Naturalism, atheism, secular humanism
2. This is the start of something better.
B. This is rooted in what you believe about yourself
1. “ ‘We are,’ as Julian Huxley has said, ‘just as much a product of blind forces as is the falling of a stone to earth or the ebb and flow of the tides.’ We have just happened, and flesh was made man by a long series of singularly beneficial accidents” (Anthony Smith, The Human Pedigree [Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1975], page 103).
2. Genesis 1:27
3. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
I. 1 Corinthians 15:35 – 41 — Everything in the creation is unique.
A. Seed — verses 37 – 38 — DNA verifies this.
B. Four groupings of animals — verse 39
C. Astronomical objects — verses 40 – 41 — Stars do die.
II. 1 Corinthians 15:42 – 44 — We are like stars — our bodies die.
A. Do you believe verse 44?
1. What allows art, music, worship, guilt, love
B. Verses 45 – 49 — We look like ancestors and also like God.
III. 1 Corinthians 15:50 – 58 — Christianity offers something better.
A. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
1. We will have a new immortal, spiritual body.
2. 1 Thessalonians 4:18
B. Verse 58 — “Know your labor in the Lord is not in vain”
IV. HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS?
A. For non-Christians, death is the ultimate tragedy.
1. Rotting and dying is a miserable hope.
2. People like Aynn Rand show that.
B. Jesus calls us to something better.
1. 2 Timothy 4:6 – 8
2. Philippians 1:21 – 23
3. Look at the Christians you have known
4. Song 717, “Victory in Jesus”


THE BACK PAGE

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

One of the most perplexing issues in religion today is how the Holy Spirit works in our lives. The first implication of the activity of the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1:1 when the word used for “God” in Hebrew is “Elohim” which is a plural word. In verse 2 the Spirit is active “moving upon the face of the waters.” The Spirit of God is always used with a verb indicating action. Examples are “Jesus was led by the Spirit” (Matthew 4:1). God said “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever (Genesis 6:3).

The question then becomes one of how the Spirit operates in our world. We need to use the whole Bible in addressing this question. The Spirit is not something that overpowers us and turns us into spiritual robots. In 1 Thessalonians 5:19 we are told not to quench the spirit — not to shut it down. First Corinthians 12 details the use of Spiritual gifts and each use is a controlled use — not something that takes us over and makes us puppets.

The passage that seems to cause the most difficulty in questions related to the Holy Spirit is Acts 2:1 – 21 where the apostles had a miraculous infusion of the Holy Spirit which allowed them, among other things, to “speak in tongues.” Many religious leaders maintain that this is not something unique to the apostles and to the situation of Acts 2, but that all Christians can do the same thing.

The question is not whether the Holy Spirit works in all Christians, but rather how it acts. Acts 2:7 – 12 tells us the effect of the tongues speaking, and that result tells us the purpose. So what is its purpose today? Beginning June 15 we will be studying this question in our Wednesday night class. Please join us for a study of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Come and find out.

— John Clayton