|
Vol. 46, No.
5 SOUTHSIDE ORACLE April
11, 2003
The Bulletin Board
Men’s Retreat – The retreat is this Friday and Saturday at Camp Matawa.
Judging by those who are planning to go, it appears that attendance will be
large.
Praise and Palate will be at 7:00 p.m. Sunday. Bring chili.
The
elders and deacons will meet at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.
Beginning this week we are sending our spring mailing into 20,000 homes in
the area we serve. We anticipate a number of visitors because of the
mailing.
The
Sick – Lisa Gustafson will be going to Cleveland April 13th
for additional throat surgery….Martha Sepulveda and Heather Lukas are
recovering from recent surgeries….Dan Lukas underwent surgery at St. Francis
Hospital Tuesday….Roy Webb, father of Sandy Ondrejka, is undergoing
radiation treatment….Julius Baas, father of Ann Tevik, is rehabilitating at
Elmbrook Hospital.
ATTENDANCE RECORD
Two years ago
Last year Last week Goal
Bible classes
149 114 144 170
Morning worship 242
186 *215 250
Evening worship 53
67 65 80
Contribution
$3738.09 $4259.16 $4177.76 $4200.00
Calendar of Events
April 11, 12
– Southside Men’s Retreat, Camp Matawa
April 12 –
Work day at Wisconsin Christian Youth Camp
April 12, 13
– W.C.Y.C. youth rally at Fallhall Glen
April 13 –
Elders and deacons meeting, 4:30 p.m.
April 13 –
Praise and Palate, 6:00 p.m.
April 15 –
Christian Workers’ Meeting, 9:00 a.m.
April 19 –
Ladies’ Day, Brentwood Church, 8:30 a.m.
April 19 –
Ladies’ Fellowship, Alexander home, 1:00 p.m.
April 27 –
Tween pizza party, after second worship
April 29 –
May 2 – National Assoc. of Christian Camps workshop, Fallhall Glen
May 9 –
Mother-Daughter Banquet, 6:30 p.m.
May 10 –
Ladies’ Day, Sheboygan Church, 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
May 23 – 26
– Southside retreat at Fallhall Glen
Love Has to be Concrete
An
exasperated mother pulled her son from a freshly poured cement sidewalk and
promptly administered a spanking. Through his tears the young boy
protested, “But Mama, I thought you loved me.” The mother said, “Johnny, I
love you in the abstract, but I do not love you in the concrete.”
O.K.
I’ll admit that it’s a poor attempt at humor, but there is a serious point.
We have to be careful about making love a panacea for everything that ails
the human race. Abstract love may give the poet something to write about,
but it’s not worth very much in human relationships.
When
Paul talks about love in the great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, he does
so in concrete terms. In verses 1 to 3 he tells his readers that love has
to go beyond tongue speaking, prophecy, faith, benevolence, and even
martyrdom. In verses 4 – 7 he talks about how love shows up in everyday
living. People show love when they are patient, when they are kind, when
they are humble, when they are sensitive and so on.
A
person may claim that his love is so deep that he would climb the highest
mountain, swim the widest ocean, and cross the hottest desert for his
beloved, but it’s not likely that his love will be tested that way. Love is
tested when you see a mother with three children who has a stalled car on a
supermarket parking lot in zero weather. Love is tested when you want to go
out for dinner to a nice restaurant that has lots of atmosphere and then
attend the symphony afterwards, but he wants to go to the Pizza Hut and
attend a Willie Nelson concert. Love is tested when your child comes home
with a “D” on his report card, hangs his head and says, “It just looks like
I can’t do anything right.”
Love
is tested in hundreds of concrete circumstances every day. I like the way
Erma Brombeck puts it, “Love is a lot of little things that add up to
caring. It doesn’t add up to three little words. Sometimes it adds up to
six. “I got your tank filled
today.”
__Norman Bales
|
