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FAMILY NEWSWe have a lot going on. Please mark these events on your calendar and plan to be a part of them. LADIES: You have a special invitation from the ladies at the Niles congregation to meet with them at 11:00 AM on Thursday, September 14, for brunch at the Ho Ping Restaurant at Bell Plaza in Niles. We encourage you to go and be a part of their outreach to you. THIS SATURDAY: September 16 at 10:00 AM, Ladies Bible Class. Ladies, do not miss this. It is a great time for our ladies to get together, and sharing the study of God's Word brings us all closer together. This Sunday: September 17 we have a guest speaker John Cooper. John and his wife Holly will be with us next Sunday morning and he will speak at our worship service and teach our adult class. John has been the minister for congregations in Burlington, VT, Trumbull CT, and Grand Junction, CO, where he has been since 1993. He has been working with missionaries overseas since 1992 with 17 trips to Russia, two trips to Dubai and India, and work in Honduras and France. He has been involved with the work in Guam since 2010 and in Italy since 2015. John also is a police chaplain for the Grand Junction Police Department. John conducts marriage seminars and has had a major involvement with the Does God Exist? ministry that this congregation sponsors, doing lectureships here and overseas. He is a graduate of Harding College, and has a M.A.R. degree from Harding Graduate School in Philosophy and Christian Apologetics. HIGHWAY CLEAN UP DELAYED: Richard Hoyt has a family situation that will make him unavailable on the September 23, so the highway clean up has been delayed to September 30th. Please make that change on your schedule, and do plan to be with us. TODAY'S LESSON
INTRODUCTION
A. Credit to Gerry Bundle
I. UNDER THE OLD LAW MUCH WAS PROVIDED
B. A shared system for encoding, storing, retrieving 1. Example — family, Rolodex, computer, cell phone
C. Do we use what God has given us?2. Losing transactive sources is traumatic. 3. “It is not good for man to be alone.” A. God commanded transactive devices — Deuteronomy 6:4 – 9, 12.
II. THE CONGREGATION IS A TRANSACTIVE DEVICE.
B. Exodus 13:14; Deuteronomy 6:20; Joshua 4:6 C. Feasts — Exodus 23:15 – 16 1. Feast of Unleavened Bread — Out of Egypt 2. Feast of Weeks — Thanksgiving 3. Feast of Tabernacles — Harvest 4. Feast of Purim (Esther 9) — Deliverance A. Acts 2:41 – 47 — Notice the support all enjoyed
III. WE DEFEAT GOD'S PLAN WHEN WE:
B. What is communion all about? Not just verticle C. James 5:14 – 16 — congregational conduct 1. “Sick” (astheneo) means feeble or weak
D. We rejoice or suffer together — 1 Corinthians 12: 26 — Unity comes in sharing gifts2. “Merry” (euthumea) means to be of good courage E. Why do we have Bibles? — 2 Timothy 3:14 – 17 — We have to use transactive ....memory devices. A. Equate worship with entertainment.
B. Buy into the megachurch mentality. C. Try to be a religious hermit — Hebrews 10:23. D. Choose the wrong transactive devices — 1 Corinthians 15:33 — God's Spirit helps ....us remember. THE BACK PAGEBLAMING GODThe devastation that has come to the Gulf Coast and which seems to be on its way to Florida causes many people to want to know why God allows things like hurricanes to take place. Atheists have claimed that if there was a God such things would not happen, and many of us may wonder why catastrophies like the hurricane are a part of the Earth's make up. People want to blame someone or something for their problems, and God is always an easy target for such questions. The fact is that hurricanes bring blessings to many people that they are perhaps not even aware of. These huge storms bring massive amounts of water into areas that without the hurricanes could not even support human life. The negative aspects of hurricanes are caused or at least stimulated by things man has done. The stripping of the barrier islands of mangroves and other vegetation that helped modify the storm surge in the past is a major cause of the damage hurricanes do. Unwise construction and building in unwise locations is also an issue. The idea that God causes these tragedies is false, but the question remains as to why God does not stop human suffering. In John 9:1 – 3 Jesus is confronted with a tragedy of human experience. As the father of a blind child I can understand the situation. The disciples come to Christ with the blind man and ask Jesus why the man was born blind. Their explanation is that someone sinned. In verse 3 Jesus responds by saying, “Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Jesus does not say that God caused the problem, but he does say that God was going to work good things through what had happened. As we read on we see how the situation brought good things to many. God has not caused the devastation of the storms, but God is working through Christians to bring relief and solutions to many people who have been hurt. Romans 8:28 will be played out again and again. My daughter is involved in relief work as a volunteer. If you want to contribute to that work, see me. — John Clayton Our sign by the street!
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