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DUE to the COVID-19 pandemic FAMILY NEWSThis bulletin is distributed in a variety of different ways. It is distributed during our worship services at the church building; it is made available on the web at our dowagiaccoc.org website; and it is sent by e-mail/messaging in connection with our ZOOM broadcast invitations. However you receive it, we hope it will be informative and encouraging. We are not a denomination, but a local effort to encourage people to follow what the church was like in the first century. We have no man-made creed and only follow the Bible. We do not have religious titles and do not solicit donations. Come and learn more by visiting with us, e-mailing us, or calling us. YEAR END REPORT: The Does God Exist? program, which is a ministry supported by this congregation, produces a detailed report of the work that has been done and what has been accomplished by this work during the past year. If you would like to read this report for 2020, see Karl Marcussen and click this link. KEEPING UP: Between the pandemic and an unusual number of deaths and people dealing with serious illness, it is important to pay attention to the prayer list. Please read over this carefully, and spend some time every day with cards, phone calls, and prayers. Being in quarantine is a wonderful time to send notes to those who are in grief, in pain, and/or alone. Please do not assume that church is taking care of all of this. We need everyone involved, and working from home you can do a lot. ATTN ZOOM PARTICIPANTS: This past Sunday some folks found that they needed a passcode and/or a meeting ID. Karl tried something different, which did not work well. He will go back to what we had been using before. See THE BACK PAGE below for more about what ZOOM is giving us. TODAY'S LESSON
INTRODUCTION
A. “Black Lives Matter” is a reaction to bigotry.
I. BIGOTS REFUSE TO REASON AND SHARE.
1. America has a bad history of race relations.
B. Standing for something does not make you a bigot.
2. The church has had its problems as well. (John referred to our song before his lesson: “Let the Beauty of Jesus Be Seen.”) a. Marshall Keeble story, Jack Evans story b. The black congregations in South Bend c. The Amos Rice family — Ron Monroe, Lipscomb 1. Christians should lead in race relations.
C. John 14:6 — Who said that? John 4:1-27
2. Great opportunities in Dowagiac Jesus and the bigotry of his day, see John 4:9, 27
D. Webster: “Bigot” has an unknown origin, but look here for possibilites.
1. Cannot be turned — from guiding a span of horses
E. We are to be Christ-like, not inflexible.2. A man who holds blindly and intolerantly to a particular creed. A narrow minded inflexible person. F. Let us look at biblical teaching on this subject. A. Isaiah 1:18 — We are not robots. God calls us to reason. See John 4:42 — the Samaritans.
II. A BIGOT DOES NOT TOLERATE OR SEE GOOD IN
OPPOSING VIEWS. See Acts 17:19-30.
B. Luke 2:46 — What did Jesus do? C. What did Paul do? See Acts 17:2; 18:4; 18:19; 24:25. There is good in all faiths.
III. A BIGOT DOES NOT FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE.
A. Wishes harm to those who oppose him/her.
IV. BIGOTS CANNOT DISAGREE WITHOUT BEING DISAGREEABLE.
B. Matthew 5 – 7; Matthew 5:21, 27, 38, 43 A. 1 Peter 3:15 — Unique to Christians
B. Luke 23:9-12 — Have you ever been ridiculed? C. Galatians 5:22-25 — The answer to bigotry 1. John 13:35 2. 1 John 1:5-10 John referred to our concluding song: “O To Be Like Thee.” THE BACK PAGETHE CHURCH IN 2021 AND BEYONDAs I start to put my ideas into print for this article, I am reminded of an incident that happened to me when the church in South Bend learned about a program called “Bible Call” that allowed people in the community to listen to short Bible teachings by way of an electronic hook up to the phone system. This required people in the congregation coming to the building to run the equipment. There were also a dozen messages that could be accessed by people electronically any time, which meant the system operated 24/7 with non-human operators late at night. As we started implementing the system there were bugs that required fixing, and one of our brothers was incensed that this was all going on. One of the elders and I went to see him and he opened the discussion by saying “I'm an old man, and I’ve seen a lot of changes in the church and I've been opposed to every one of them.” Well, here we are in January of 2021 and there is a need for change in the church. Technology has once again given us a new tool to reach out to the community and to one another. It is called ZOOM and we are already using it. Last Sunday it struck me as I talked to Deb Pattengale in Wellborn, Florida and Jim and Brenda in Indianapolis at the same time at the start of our worship time, that our congregation can meet even when we are many miles away from each other for worship or for Bible Class. This past Tuesday we had two special prayer sessions via ZOOM. Several of our women were led by Julie Marcussen, and later several of our men were led by Karl. We prayed for our country, for the incoming president, and for a number of our members who are struggling with medical problems. In addition, this week Della Bundle has started a ladies' weekly prayer meeting on Thursday afternoon. Is it time for our Wednesday night class to be on ZOOM? I think so. Welcome to the world of 2021 and the future. “Go into all the world” has a whole new meaning. God has blessed us with a new tool, and we need to use it to get back to Bible study. — John Clayton Our sign by the street! Sign saying from Matthew 5:9 Scripture links/references are from BibleGateway.com. Unhighlighted scriptures can be looked up at their website. www.dowagiaccoc.org |
