Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 48, No. 40                     SOUTHSIDE ORACLE                        December 23, 2005

The Bulletin Board

Parent to Parent 2000 is a special program designed to help parents in the rearing of their children. We have successfully offered this in the past and plan to repeat it in 2006. It is open to all parents regardless of religious faith and will meet weekly from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. at the church building in the basement under the direction of John Giemza. This is separate from the study group that regularly meets at that time at the church building. If you can use some direction in the rearing of your children, this is for you. The program will begin January 11^th and run through March 1 " on Wednesday evenings. Don't hesitate to attend because of a potential scheduling conflict with a study group that you may be a part of.

Bible Bowl - Our tweens (or pre-teens) are hosting a Bible Bowl on the Gospel of Luke on Sunday, January 8th at 6:00 p.m. Teens and adults are challenged to put together teams of four members to compete. See the complete information posted on the bulletin board or contact John Gsemza for details.

New Bible Classes- Three new Sunday morning adult Bible classes are to begin in January. They are: Revelation, Bobby Valentine, teacher; The Parables of Jesus, co-taught by different men and coordinated by Wayne Alexander, and a Ladies’ class, co-taught by different women (begins January 8th)

The Sick- Bob Ondrejka was taken to Waukesha Memorial Hospital with what was thought to be a slight stroke. After a series of tests it was determined that this was not the case and he was released late Sunday. He is doing well and Bob and Sandy plan to leave on a trip for China on December 25.

ATTENDANCE RECORD

(*) first service, 150; second service, 112

The Rochester College A Cappella Chorus will present a concert at the Northtown Church at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, January S^s'. If you attend you will be enriched by the Christian music.

A service trip to the Dominican Republic is planned for July 12-19. This is open to those of all ages, but is especially designed for our youth. More details will be forthcoming soon. If you are interested, see Daryl Miller who is planning the trip.

Violin In Tune

The National Broadcasting Company received a letter one day from an old man. He said, “I am a man who tends sheep for a living. I have no companionship and it gets lonely. I take my little radio along and I enjoy so much your programs. However, I used to enjoy playing my violin while alone out here, but it is so much out of tune I can no longer play it. I was wondering if some day you would be so kind as to stop all other entertainment and have a moment of silence in which “A” is struck so I can get my violin back in tune. This would mean so much to me and I’d be obliged for the favor.”

When the staff of NBC read the request, they got a good laugh out of it. However, the program director was moved enough to grant the request. He told the story over the air, and then had a moment of complete silence in which “A” was struck for his benefit alone. He hoped the man would receive the help he needed.

And you know, it makes sense, doesn’t it? The day to day grind tries to press us all down and to twist us out of shape. Every once in awhile we all need to “re-tune” our violin,” spiritually speaking.

This is what faithful attendance in worship services should mean to all of us. Out of the seven day grind there is one day- indeed only a few hours in that day- for God to strike “A” in our hearts and bring us back in tune with his will.

Our “not forsaking the assembly” is important, then, not simply because God commands it (though that is surely reason enough), but because you and I need it for re-tuning and aligning our lives to his will.

Any man who comes to worship- real worship- this man will surely profit by it. How long has it been since you tried it?

__ David Lusk

Do-It-Yourself Religion (1)

His name was Micah and he lived in the hill country of Ephraim in the time of the judges of Israel. His mother gave him 200 pieces of silver which he used to make a shrine to worship God. One day a young Levite from Bethlehem came his way and Micah hired him to be his personal priest (Judges 17:1-13). There is more to the story, but what I’d like you to observe is that Micah created a personal religion with all of the essential religious paraphernalia and priest to perform proper services. Micah’s do-it-yourself religion was in keeping with the times in which “every man did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 17:4).

As in ancient Israel, our contemporary society is spawning a do-it-yourself religion. As more and more people abandon organized religion, they are replacing it with their own form of spirituality designed to meet their personal wants without dependence on others. But is it possible to love our Christian lives without other people as Micah did? This we will explore next week.

__ Monroe Hawley

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