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June 28, 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

Our congregation had a great day yesterday—John Clayton and Cynthia Gift were married at John’s house. The weather was hot, the wedding was beautiful. What a great way to start a marriage! They left after the reception for a honeymoon in northern Michigan.

Remember the classes that we have at our congreation. Karl Marcussen is teaching a class on Sunday mornings on prayer. Bill Gibson is teaching a class on Wednesday evenings about various prophesies in the Old Testament that point to events in the life of Jesus in the New Testament.

Jim Harasewicz will be speaking this morning, and this evening we will have an hour of singing.

Let us remember all the people we know who are in need of our prayers. Janice Love is having a procedure this Tuesday to help alleviate her retention of liquids. Others continue to have health concerns: Maelene Salmons, Debbie Salmons, Kamoka Castañeda (hip — She is back at work), Virginia Garver (Karl’s sister with split skin on her left knee). John and Cynthia are traveling, as well as their family members who came to celebrate their wedding. Let us keep all of these in our prayers this coming week.

THE COST OF CHILDREN

Many times we talk about how expensive our living can be. When a couple starts a family we can only imagine how much they will spend to raise that child from birth to maturity. Julie’s friend sent an article that has been circulating on the Internet. It gives an estimated cost of raising a child, but also lists the benefits that we get from our children and grandchildren. Besides the physical costs and benefits, we should also be concerned about the spiritual cost of their upbringing.

I have seen repeatedly the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It’s nice, really nice!

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn’t even touch college tuition.

But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That’s a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice says don’t have children if you want to be “rich.”

It is just the opposite. What do you get for your $160,140?
  1. Naming rights. First, middle, and last!
  2. Glimpses of God every day.
  3. Giggles under the covers every night.
  4. More love than your heart can hold.
  5. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.
  6. Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.
  7. A hand to hold, usually covered with jam.
  8. A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
  9. Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.
  10. For $160,140, you never have to grow up.
  11. You get to finger-paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs, and never stop believing in Santa Claus.
  12. You have an excuse to keep: reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies, and wishing on stars.
  13. You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, handprints set in clay for Mother’s Day and cards with backward letters for Father’s Day.
  14. For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.
  15. You get to be a hero just for retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof, taking the training wheels off the bike, removing a splinter, filling a wading pool, coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.
  16. You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel.
  17. You get to be immortal.
  18. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you’re lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren.
  19. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.
  20. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, so one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost.
God tells us in His Word that there is another cost to raising children. In Proverbs 22:6 the poet tells us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” When the Israilites came out of Egypt and settled in the promised land, God instructed them to “… be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.”   God’s ways are so important He wants us not only to pass them on to our children, but to our grandchildren as well (Deuteronomy 4:9). The Lord even instructs us how to do this. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds … Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 11:18-19). Jesus instructed  His disciples to “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them …” (Matthew 19:14). This was such an important teaching of Jesus that it is recorded in three Gospels. How can they come to Him unless we pay the cost and teach them of Jesus?
Julie & Karl Marcussen

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A Today’s Verse Devotional
by Phil Ware

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2, NIV).

Thoughts

This is just another way of saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself!” Jesus came to bear our burdens and carry away the stain and pain of our sin. (Read Isaiah 53 for a powerful description of God’s Suffering Servant, a passage quoted in the New Testament in reference to Jesus.) He now asks us to live redemptively, in practical ways, toward those around us. More than just praying, or asking what we can do to help, we are called to serve, minister, and assist others who are burdened.

My prayer

Holy and merciful God, please give me eyes to see, a heart willing to serve, and hands ready to help the people in my path who need a burden lifted. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20050602