Southside Oracle Archive

Vol. 49, No. 48               SOUTHSIDE ORACLE               February 2, 2007

The Bulletin Board

Camp Auction - Every year Southside hosts a dinner/auction for the Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp. This year it will be Saturday, February 17th. New or craft items are needed for the silent auction if you have something to contribute. Be sure to sign up on the bulletin board if you plan to attend so we can know how many plan to attend. The auction annually raises several thousand dollars for the camp.

The Sick - Sue Bacus is recovering from shoulder surgery on January 18th.... Ann Tevik hopes to go home this week from rehabilitation following her recent hip surgery .... Otto Mageland's brother, Tim, has recently been diagnosed with cancer.... Ethan Ondrejka is now home from the hospital.

Sunday Speakers - Monroe Hawley will preach at the morning services Sunday and Bruce Williams will bring the lesson at the evening service.

Trustee Selection - A business meeting was held prior to worship last Sunday evening to choose two trustees to serve for the next two years. Chosen were John Dickson and Troy Jensen.

ATTENDANCE RECORD

(*) first service, 141: second service, 79

College Gift Boxes - We send gift boxes to our college students who are away from home. This month's recipients will be Tim Williams and Bethany Stanger, both students at York College. To contribute see the list of items on the table in the foyer and choose something to leave in the boxes provided. Suzanne Roberts is heading up this program.

Men! Be sure to sign up on the bulletin board if you plan to attend our annual area-wide men's breakfast at 9:00 a.m. on February 24th.

A Hearts & Minds Seminar dealing with parenting will be Saturday, March 31st from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. John Alan Turner will conduct the seminar that is open to all. For further information see the bulletin board or call the church at 282-8660.

Our thanks to Troy Jensen for his splendid lesson on worship at our evening service last Sunday. It was truly inspiring and those present went away knowing that they had been in the presence of God.

"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand." Augustine.

Calendar of Events

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 - Southside area-wide men's breakfast, 9:00 a.m.

March 16, 17 - Southside youth rally

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

Frustrating Our Purposes

We once had an oversize mailbox. For some reason it appealed to the birds as a prospective home. I often swept out the beginnings of a nest when the door was not tightly closed. I even rescued a starling that was choking between the box and its door where it had been caught while trying to squeeze in.

Once I discovered a complete nest built in a single day. I cleaned it out and thought I had shut the door tightly. But the next day I was attracted by rope dangling two feet out of the box. When I reached in to remove the inevitable nest, out came Mama as well.

You would think the birds would get the point. But those starlings had made up their minds to build in our mailbox! They must have been the most frustrated birds in the neighborhood. I was frustrating their purpose because it was not in their best interest, nor ours, for them to raise a brood in our box. They just didn't get the point!

How much like this is our relationship to God. Sometimes he defeats our purposes because he loves us. But we have made up our minds and stubbornly keep on regardless of the consequences.

I believe in persistence. God expects us to be persistent in prayer as Jesus teaches in the parable of the importunate widow who kept bugging the judge until justice was done. But sometimes God answers our requests negatively because a positive response would not be in his interest or ours. Like our starlings we just don't listen to what he is telling us and we keep going blindly ahead, perhaps thinking that God hasn't answered us at all.

Perhaps we need to stop and re-evaluate. Are we really doing God's will, or is it possible that he has other things in mind for us? When God frustrates our purposes, it is time to reconsider.            Monroe E. Hawley

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