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Vol. 47,
No.32 SOUTHSIDE ORACLE
October 22, 2004
The Bulletin Board
Annual Give-Away – All this week our members have been preparing for the
Give-Away that will be Saturday beginning at 9:00 a.m. until about 2:30
p.m. Hundreds of items have been donated to be given away without charge to
anyone who can use them. If you would like to help, contact Denise Eppler
or Julia Hawley for scheduling.
Combined Worship – Last Sunday we had a single morning worship instead
of the usual two services. The focus of the service was on the Lord’s
supper. Our thanks to the committee that spent much time in planning the
service. A separate children’s worship for children age 4 through the 4th
grade was held at the same time and directed by Daryl Miller. Because of
the many activities on Sunday no evening worship was conducted.
A
congregational meeting followed the morning worship and meal. Various
aspects of our work were discussed including our small group program, our
community mail-out, and the possibility of a Spanish work utilizing our
building
Elder Search – At the meeting the elders passed out questionnaires
soliciting nominations for additional elders. If you have not received one
of the forms, please pick one up and return it by the end of the month.
ATTENDANCE RECORD
Two
years ago Last year Last week Goal
Bible
classes 142
166 152 170
Morning worship
219 220 207 250
Evening worship
68 81 no service 80
Contribution $3723.37
$3550.94 $4785.99 $4500.00
There will be a ladies’ planning luncheon Sunday after the second
worship. It will begin about 12:30 p.m. and will discuss present and future
ministries.
“Come Down and
We Will Believe!”
Those soldiers who stood at the foot of the cross uttering their cry were
sensationalists. In their eyes Jesus could vindicate his claim of
Messiahship only by doing the stupendous and the colossal. They were
seeking to see, not the picture of the silent self-denial and sacrifice
obeying the will of God, but something as dramatic as loosening his hands
and feet and stepping down from the cross. And when he did not do it the
whole incident became so boring that the soldiers sat down and cast lots for
his garments. There within a stone’s throw of them, the greatest drama ever
enacted was in progress. Yet they were completely unaware of it because
they were looking for the sensational.
Today on every hand people are trying to find God in the spectacular and
dramatic. To them the test of every sermon is not, “Is it true?” but “Does
it sweep me across the whole keyboard of human emotion leaving me perched on
a mountain-top high?” The test of revelation is not, “Did it come from the
Book?” for that is ever so undramatic, but, “Did it come by vision or by
dream?” Similarly, the test of one’s spirituality is judged, not by his
devotion to God or by his service to man, but by his amazing ability to feel
overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit in an ecstatic tongue.
People who try to find God in the spectacular and dramatic are often likely
to miss God for the very reason that there is a sense in which no one is as
unsensational as God. Naaman, the leper, wanted God to cure him of his
dread disease in a dramatic, spectacular way. God told him to dip seven
times in the muddy Jordan. How undramatic! Yet he found healing. Jesus
came to Matthew who was sitting at the seat of customs and said, “Follow
me.” It was undramatic, but Matthew by obeying the command became a
faithful disciple and apostle.
So
many are missing Christ because they are expecting religion to be dramatic.
They are looking for a “sign” which Jesus said was the mark of an evil and
adulterous generation. Such need to hear the statement of Abraham to the
rich man in Hades: “If they heed not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded if one rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31). Salvation is not
sensational. Faith is not all emotion. You can sit in its very shadow as
did the soldiers and still miss the meaning.
__Harry
Gipson
Calendar of Events
October 22-23
– Family Encampment, Camp Y-Koda, Sheboygan
October 23 –
Annual fall Give-Away at Southside
October 24 –
Ladies’ planning luncheon, 12:30 p.m.
October 31 – Elder forum, 6:00 p.m.
November 6 – Southside blood drive, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00
p.m.
November 13 – Senior dinner sponsored by our youth,
12:00 noon
November 14 –
Elders/deacons meeting, 4:30 p.m.
November 14 –
Praise and Palate, 6:00 p.m.
November 16 –
Christian Workers’ Meeting, 9:15 a.m.
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