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Bulletin cover

August 2, 2020
CORONA VIRUS ISSUE 11

FAMILY NEWS OF
THE M-51 CHURCH OF CHRIST

This is the church bulletin for the congregation of the Church of Christ that meets in Dowagiac, Michigan, on M 51 just south of the city. Ordinarily we meet on Sunday morning for Bible study and worship and also on Sunday evening and Wednesday night for a Bible study. Since the pandemic forced us into not having meetings at our building we have been meeting via Zoom on our smartphones, tablets, and computers. When weather permits we are also meeting under some trees behind our building. If we meet under the trees we still have our Zoom meetings, and the plan is that once we are allowed back in our building we will have our Zoom meetings, for those who are not able to meet in person. Everyone is welcome to participate in this worship service at 11:00 on Sunday morning. If you want to participate with Zoom, contact Karl Marcussen at 574-514-1400 to get the information to join us.

DUE to the COVID-19 pandemic
and government mandates we
will not have Bible classes until further notice.

FAMILY NEWS

GOSPEL MINUTES: We received a notice from David Thurman who is the editor of Gospel Minutes, the weekly four-page periodical we have in the lobby all the time. The COVID-19 shutdown has caused their subscriptions to drop drastically and they are considering terminating publication, or they at least need donations to keep going. We do not seem to use a lot of these during any given week. What do you think? Do we donate to help them stay afloat or terminate our subscription? There are copies on the table in the fellowship area. Let us know your opinion. If we are not going to use them well we should save the money.

SHULTS-LEWIS COMMODITY DRIVE: Shults-Lewis has moved our date to October for them to pick up the commodities to use in their work with children. Our commodity is paper towels and canned fruit. Please leave them in the lobby., when you have a chance to drop them off.

POWER FOR TODAY: The quarterly booklet Power for Today for July, August, and September has arrived, if you did not get one let me know and I will get a copy to you: John Clayton 269-687-9426.


TODAY’S LESSON

WHAT DO YOU THINK
ABOUT JESUS CHRIST?

 Sound on icon

John Clayton

Matthew 16:13
INTRODUCTION — ANSWERS
A. You are John the Baptist — Matthew 14:2; Luke 9:7-9.
Today many think Jesus was a mystic, a ghost.
B. You are Elijah — based on Malachi 4:5.
Today many want a warrior — political leader.
C. One of the prophets — a warrior against the enemy.
First of the Jews, then of America.
I. TO THE APOSTLES
A. LAST WEEK — Do we render to Caesar or to God?
1. We still want a warrior” — SONG: “What a Savior” ARGGGH!
2. Who are the “they” that searched through?
B. Look at Matthew 16:16-17 — Flesh and blood did not reveal.
C. John 1:1 — Word = Logos = Name of God.
1. One part of God, just as you have many parts.
2. Word became flesh, dwelt among us.
3. This is from God, not from man.
D. Matthew 16:17 — “Flesh and blood did not reveal … .”
1 Corinthians 12:3
II. JEWS AND MUCH OF THE WORLD ARE BLINDED.
A. 2 Corinthians 3:14-15
B. Matthew 11:25-30 — How is that true?
III. JESUS AND HIS CHURCH
A. Matthew 16:18 — Christ builds the church.
1. Not Peter (petros) but Petra — bedrock.
2. SONG: “The Church's One Foundation”
B. Christ preserves the church — John 10:28-29.
C. Do we understand why we are the Church of Christ?
IV. DECIDE. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT JESUS?
A. Just a myth?
B. A good or great man? One of many.
C. A great prophet? A great teacher?
D. The Word, the Son of God, the Creator? SONG: “The Way of the Cross”
V. TO GET HOME YOU MUST LEAVE THE PHYSICAL.
A. Romans 6:4-23 — Die, be buried, be resurrected.
B. SONG: “It Is Well with My Soul” — “… the faith shall be sight … .”
C. Is it well with your soul?



THE BACK PAGE

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT JESUS?

One of my favorite lectureship stories happened when I had given a challenging lesson on understanding what God is (not who God is). An elderly man came storming up when I closed and literally yelled at me about how bad my lesson had been. He particularly objected to the fact that I had hollered “think, think, think” several times in the lesson. He ended his tirade by yelling “I want you to know Clayton, that I don't come to church to think!” There was a dead silence for a moment and then one of our older ladies said quietly, “That's always been your problem Clarence, you don't think!”

A huge percentage of our problems would be solved if we would just learn to think. The four gospels use the word “think” 25 times. Jesus did not call us to be mindless robots regurgitating scripture. When Paul preached to the wise men and women of Athens in Acts 17:18-34 he chided them for their ignorance (verse 30) and spoke of ignorant worship (verse 23).

Today's lesson is designed to challenge you to think. We tend to brush over the obvious errors in our understandings of God's Word, and what we view Jesus to be is important when we look at his promises. For example how can Jesus tell us to ask and it will be given to us (Luke 11:9-10)?

Our struggle with this is that we have been given the idea in our art work, movies, books, and commentaries that Jesus was just a physical being. We have been indoctrinated to believe Christ was sent to earth as a human that God worked through. We struggle with John 1:1-14 and its declaration that “all things were made by him; and without him was not anything made” (verse 3). We have made our own God and have made him too small. Verse 14 of John tells us that “the Word [logos meaning the name of God] became flesh and dwelt among us.” Remember that Jesus is not a man who became God, but God who became man.

— John Clayton

Our sign by the street!

The fruit of the Spirit does not include sour grapes!

Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website.

www.dowagiaccoc.org
08/05/2020