The 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.


Remember our Sunday night studies at 6:00 tonight.  We are continuing our study on the miracles of Jesus.  Tonight we will be reviewing the miracles we have studied, and will be seeing the ultimate purpose that each miracle had.  There is a great deal of erroneous teaching and misunderstanding about miracles in our world today.  Join us for these classes and grow and expand your Bible knowledge.
      

Potluck today.  This is the first Sunday of the month, and our tradition is to have a potluck.  If you forgot about it or did not know about it, do not let that stop you from staying--there will be plenty of food.  Fellowship is vitally important, and after the potluck we have our planning sessions in which we plan future projects and start work on them.  The ladies meet together and the men meet together to work out details and get projects started.  Please stay and get involved !!
 Concerns.  Keep Marianne Slack in your prayers as she continues to battle health problems.  Donna Pickens has been battling a respiratory infection and is on antibiotics.  She is a little better.  The Does God Exist? lectureship in Carman Manitoba went well.  This is a small mission Church in a small mission town, but more than 100 visitors attended their Sunday morning worship service.

LIFE IS TOO SHORT

What stages in life do the following statements apply?

Time goes faster and faster as every day goes by._________

Waiting for my driver’s license takes forever.____________

There just aren’t enough hours in a day_________________

Life is too short:

To Neglect friendships	-	Proverbs 17:17
	-	Proverbs 18:24
	-	James 2:23
Don’t take a friend for granted
Make God a friend
To neglect fellowship with Christians
	-	Acts 2:46   (Daily)
	-	Hebrews 10:25
What influences your talk, your thoughts?
How do we improve in this area?
To entertain bad attitudes	-	John 12:6   -  Judas
	-	Philippians 4:2-3
How do we handle disputes?  At home?  Here?
To refuse to do good	-	Acts 20:35
Do we really believe this?
To neglect spiritual growth	-	2 Timothy 2:15
	-	1 Thessalonians 4:11
Philotimeo - to esteem as an honor
How far will you go to learn?
To fail to tell others about Jesus
	-	Matthew 16:15
	-	Romans 1:16
	-	1 Corinthians 1:17
How do we handle worldly family?

 


We are approaching the holiday season.  We have gone through the trick-or-treat phase and enter Thanksgiving.  Most of us are making some kind of plans for family during Thanksgiving, and some of us start thinking about Christmas and shopping.  The holidays can be a time of joy and family.  They can be a time of giving and sharing.  

For many, however, the holidays are a time of hardship, feelings of inadequacy, loneliness and isolation.  Issues of financial loss and hardship become more acute.  Suicides, murders and domestic violence are higher in the final two months of the year than any other time.  Greed, anger, jealousy, arrogance, and revenge also seem to surface during this time of year.

As Christians we need to emphasize the thanksgiving, the serving of others, the healing of old wounds, the giving to others of love, compassion, and understanding.  This should be something that we as Christians practice 24/7—365 days a year.  This congregation does a good job of teaching that and of dealing with needs on a regular basis.  Our society emphasizes it during the holiday season and seems to generally forget it the rest of the year.  Our lesson this morning focuses on that, but I would encourage you to spend some time planning for the holidays.  How can you heal that argument you had with a friend or family member that has left scars?  What can you do to make these special days times when there is no loneliness among those you know and love?  What can you do to make thanksgiving a time in which there is a real giving of thanks?  How can you change the family routine to really look at how blessed we are?

Read the beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-16 and notice how many of them apply to the holidays.  Notice that the blessed are gentle in spirit (vs. 3),  meek (vs. 5),  merciful (vs. 7), pure in heart (vs. 8), and peacemakers (vs. 9).  These are characteristics that, when you exemplify them, will bring joy, peace, harmony, and thankfulness to those you love.  They are also the characteristics that set Christians apart from the world.