Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 49. No. 46                  SOUTHSIDE ORACLE                  January 19. 2007

The Bulletin Board

            Bible Bowl - This Sunday evening at 6:00 o'clock we will have our Tween Bible Bowl in which the pre-teens will challenge everybody else to a Bible Bowl on the life of Elijah. This is open to everyone, young and old. Each team will have four people. Be sure to join us then.

            The Sick - Ann Tevik had hip replacement surgery Monday at Elmbrook Hospital .... Bob Ondrejka is recovering at home after a facial infection requiring his hospitalization last week .... Gary Byrne, a former Southside elder now living in Kansas, sustained brain injury in a recent fall. The injury required surgery, but he appears to be improved... Keep all of these in your prayers.

            Sunday Speaker - Wayne Alexander will preach at morning services Sunday.

            Membership - Greg and Tiffany Linville, who moved to our area recently, have asked to be identified as part of Southside. We welcome them into our fellowship. Contact us for their address.

ATTENDANCE RECORD

(*) first service, 139: second service, 75

            Sunday Night Live - The Northtown Church will host the youth Sunday Night Live program this Sunday from 4:30 - 7:30 p.m. This event is for all junior and senior high school students from area congregations

            On Wednesday, January 31st, all our midweek study groups will meet together at the church building instead of in their usual locations We do this every fifth Wednesday.

            Trustee Selection - Our state laws require that we choose trustees for business purposes. Current trustees who have a year to serve are Brad Stanger, Danny Giombi, and Kevin Parker. The two-year terms of two trustees expire and at a brief congregational meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 28th, we will choose two trustees to fill the expired terms of John Dickson and Tom Brockdorf. These men are eligible to serve another term. Our evening worship will follow.

Calendar of Events

January 21 - Tween Bible Bowl, 6:00 p.m.

January 21 - Teen Sunday Night Live, Northtown Church, 4:30 p.m.

January 31 - Combined Midweek study groups, 7:00 p.m.

January 26 - 29 - Spirit Fest Youth Rally, Duluth, MN

January 28 - Trustee selection, 6:00 p.m. preceding worship

January 31 - Joint worship of all study groups, church building, 7:00 p.m.

February 11 - Praise and Palate, 6:00 p.m.

February 17 - Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp dinner/auction, 6:00 p.m.

February 20 - Christian Workers' Meeting, 9:00 a.m.

February 24 - Area-wide men's breakfast, Southside, 9:00 a.m.

March 16, 17 - Southside youth rally

March 31 - Hearts and Mind Seminar, 9:30 - 3:00 p.m.

What Will It Take to Make You Happy?

            David D. Burns is a psychiatrist and therefore comes in contact with many people who are suffering from depression. Dr. Burns said that he once had as a patient a seventy-year old woman whose husband had done to her "something so bad" that she couldn't put up with it, and she wanted a divorce after fifty years of marriage. "Why was she so upset? I thought that he'd beaten her or that he was an alcoholic. But here's what she told me: `Last week my husband gave me four million dollars in cash.'

            "I was dumbfounded. I asked, `When he gave you the money, what were your thoughts?' And she said, `If he really loved me, he would have given me eight million.'"

            "She felt unloved and poor. She thought her life was not worth living... and she thought about divorce and suicide. Yes, it sounds crazy when it happens to somebody else, but when it happens to you, it seems to make sense."

            I suppose there's a tendency with all of us to reflect more on the things which we don't have than to appreciate the things which we do have. As a result we become miserable because there is always someone who is "better off' than we are. We are far richer than the great majority of the world, regardless of how "poor" we feel. But instead of this producing a spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving, we are often given to complaining. It doesn't make sense to anyone else, but it seems to make sense to us.

            A good dose of 1 Thessalonians 5:18 would be the prescription I recommend. In case you have forgotten, that passage says, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ for you." Take this verse four times a day and call me in the morning.

John Gipson

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