030109-Bulletin.html

March 1, 2009

TO OUR VISITORS

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.

FAMILY NEWS

POTLUCK AND IMPORTANT MEETING TODAY. This is the first Sunday of the month, and the day of our monthly potluck. Plan to stay and enjoy good food, and good fellowship. After the meal we will have a business meeting to accomplish a number of things: (l) Discuss and approve the Fair Project. There is a fair packet with prices and a proposed layout. If you have not seen one, they are available, ask. (2) Decide how we want to handle our benevolence work. (3) Approve a few projects on the building. Meetings like this serve two purposes. They inform everyone of what is going on and why. They provide an opportunity for everyone to have input and participation in the work the Church does. Remember, this is not the Church of those who serve on Sunday morning--this is the Church of Christ--it belongs to Jesus. We are all just his workers and all of us need to be involved.
FRUIT FROM TESTAMENTS. We just learned that Lauri Miller was baptized into Christ because she was given one of the New Testaments. Lauri lives in South Bend and I am not sure how she got one of our Bibles, but Adele Durham who attends the Tuesday class we have at John Clayton's house once a month was a witness to her baptism and called us. Keep a couple of these Bibles with you and give them to people as religious questions come up or when people give you an opening. There is no follow up, no charge involved, and no obligation to anyone. It is the easiest way ever to share the gospel of Christ with people, and this is the second case we have heard of where a conversion came from them.

TODAY’S LESSON

RAPTURE THEOLOGY

INTRODUCTION--This is big business.

Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins--NY Times best seller
John Walvoord, Thomas Ice, Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Grant Jeffry, Chuck Smith, John Hagee

Major films--A Thief in the Night, Image of the Beast, Tribulation Force, The Omega Code, Left Behind: The Movie, and Megiddo.

FUNDAMENTAL THEME - Said to come from Bible

Jesus comes invisibly to remove his Church--the "rapture"--Churches empty, kids all disappear, planes crash, etc.
Seven year tribulation occurs--humanity versus the Antichrist.
After 7 years Jesus returns visibly and establishes His Kingdom.

Jerusalem becomes capital of the world.
Jewish worship is re-established

THREE PASSAGES USED TO BACK UP "RAPTURE THEOLOGY."

1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-17

Is this a silent event?
Is this an invisible event--Acts 1:9-11.

Caught up does not equal disappear.

This is all one event--2 Peter 3:10-14
Verses 3:18-5:3--Does anyone escape? Why?

MATTHEW 24:40-42, ALSO Verse 3 and verses 26-31

The "Parousia" (coming)
Verse 3 the disciples ask for clarification.
Jesus warns of deception four times (verses 4, 5, 11, 24).

Jesus knew people would mess this up.

Elect refers to people who are ready (see verses 31).
Not in secret (verses 30) visible to all tribes.
Parousia in verse 27 same as verses 3.

1 CORINTHIANS 15:51-52--Does this sound quiet?

Verse 50 states that this is not a "rapture."
What kind of a body are we to be raised with?

Resurrection--not resuscitation--death is destroyed.

SUMMARY

There is one resurrection--not different people at different times.
The cosmos is dissolved--2 Peter 3:10-14, Revelation 21:1-5.
We are urged to be prepared for this event.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE FOOD PANTRY

This afternoon we hope to have some discussion and direction given on the idea of serving the community by having food and clothing available from the Church. We have always done this when needs were brought to our attention, but the idea here is to let people know we have commodities available and more aggressively search out those who are in need.

The first step in this process was to have the South West Gleaners Food Bank come in and explain to us what they do, which we did at our last potluck. They get food and other commodities from suppliers and make it available to Churches and other charities at a greatly reduced price. We would qualify and could go to their facility and buy food about roughly one seventh of the normal cost. These are non-perishable items usually, and would have to be distributed in a few months because some of it would be somewhat dated.

There are two ways to do this. One is to set up a "store" where people could come in and "shop" (choose) what they need. There is at least one Church in Dowagiac that is already doing that. It would also require some fairly major construction to meet state codes, or a change in the upstairs facility. Another option is to let people know what we have available, or have them tell us what they need and then secure it and either take it to them or have them pick it up at the building.

We will have a congregational meeting this afternoon to talk about this and a fair booth proposal. I do want to add one comment to this discussion. There is an old adage which says "Churches tend to murder their shepherds." The idea is that congregations tend to let one or two willing workers do everything until the willing workers drop. If we are going to do something like this, we need to have new people step up and take responsibility for it. Going to get the food, delivering food or meeting people at the building to pick it up, maintaining inventory--all takes time and energy. Volunteer!! Get involved!!