2008 MAY CHURCH NEWS

May 17, 5th Minnesota Bible Lecture. All day. Register 8-9 a.m. Refreshments. Childcare. Lots of encouragement with sound preaching on "God's instructions concerning the His family."

APRIL 2008 CHURCH NEWS

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:
5th Minnesota Bible Lecture

FUNNY: A Sunday school teacher asked her children, as they were on the way to church service, “And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?” One bright little girl replied, “Because people are sleeping.”

2008 MARCH CHURCH NEWS

EVENTS
--The Maplewood church of Christ will be holding our Eighth Annual Gospel Singing on Friday, April 4 at the Maplewood Community Center.

--5TH Minnesota Bible Lecture, May 17, 2008. View web site here.

PRAYERS
C. Reynolds from Indiana is having skin cancer removed this week.
Keep the ladies who are pregnant in your prayers.

GOD GIVES HAPPINESS

From the Times Online comes news that: "The new generation of antidepressant drugs work no better than a placebo for the majority of patients with mild or even severe depression, comprehensive research of clinical trials has found."1 This news has got to make you a little sad and a little mad. If it's true, people have a right to be mad for being scammed. It's sad because a lot of people are depending on the medicine. Apparently, some people get some relief from these meds. But there are studies to show that people are helped by the placebos too. And one study on placebos, found that more expensive placebo "meds" were more effective than the less costly ones. A 10-cent pill doesn't kill pain as well as a $2.50 pill, even when they are identical placebos, according to a provocative study by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke University.2 Can you figure that one out? To say the least, there is much that is not known. In the meantime, there are a lot of lonely, sad, anxious, fearful, angry, worried, and even suicidal people who are just learning that the drugs work no better than do the placebos. And the placebos don't have side effects.

The Apostle Paul says that God promises to give you peace that surpasses comprehension and it will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Phil. 4:6ff. The word "peace" means "one, quietness, or rest" according to Strong's. Our world tries to explain every malady as a chemical imbalance, but surely God has some help for these things. Christians should not forget or doubt that real happiness is from God. The church is not in the drug business. It is in the business of pointing people to "the God of peace", the true source of happiness and peace. The world is not going to what God can give; that's the job of church and of individual Christians. God is getting little credit for the true happiness that most Christians enjoy. God knows the key to happiness and joy. Knowing God's promises and being able to cast our worries on Him is a source of true strength. We need to be encouraging people to read their Bibles, to pray, and to give thanks to Him. He cares for you. Think about good stuff. Make the choice to focus your mind on positive things like the promises of God's salvation. Hang around godly people and find someone who you can confide in. Think on what is good, right, just, holy, and decent and pray to God about these things with thanksgiving. Read Philippians 4:6-10 and meditate on those words. Come to church and get involved. Look for a chance to serve and help someone and then give God the glory for it. God is going to bless you and make you happy.



This map indicates the general location of visitors to our site in the last three weeks. There were multiple hits by most. For example 30 from the Pennsylvania visitor. The cropped map doesn't show the visitors from India, Ivory Coast, Germany and other places around the world. Some of these are looking for the church in Owatonna.

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1. "Depression drugs don't work, finds data review"






WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

Lesson 1: Our Eternal Salvation
Lesson 2: God's Warning
Lesson 3: Eternity
Lesson 4: Our Sin Problem
Lesson 5: The Nature of God
Lesson 6: Christ Has Paid Our Penalty
Lesson 7: The Grace of God
Lesson 8: Thinking Back
Lesson 9: Doing God's Will
Lesson 10: Believe in God and in Christ
Lesson 11: Repentance
Lesson 12: Confessing Christ
Lesson 13: Must We Be Baptized To Be Saved?
Lesson 14: Must We Be Baptized For the Forgiveness of Our Sins?
Lesson 15: The Cleansing Blood of Christ
Lesson 16: Becoming a Child of God
Lesson 17: Baptized Into Christ
Lesson 18: Obedience To The Gospel
Lesson 19: Baptism Is Immersion
Lesson 20: Infants Are Not Lost
Lesson 21: Man Is Not To Change What God Says
Lesson 22: The Lord's Church, Part A
Lesson 23: The Lord's Church, Part B
Lesson 24: The Lord's Church, Part C
Lesson 25: Summary

FRIENDSHIP SUNDAY, MARCH 16

2008 FEBRUARY CHURCH NEWS

EVENTS
--The Maplewood church of Christ will be holding our Eighth Annual Gospel Singing on Friday, April 4 at the Maplewood Community Center.

--5th Minnesota Bible Lecture site
Dan N will preach on the 3rd and Jim C will teach class on the 6th.
Dan M and Bill W will be at the Freed-Hardeman Lectures from the 2nd - 8th.

COUGH REMEDY
excerpt "....To investigate, they compared buckwheat honey, a honey-flavored dextromethorphan preparation, and no treatment in 105 children who had sought treatment for nighttime coughs due to colds. Parents were surveyed on the day of the doctor's visit and on the next day, after those in the treatment groups had given their kids honey or dextromethorphan at bedtime. Among the three groups, children given honey had the greatest reduction in cough frequency and severity, and the most improved sleep, as did their parents." See full article here.


"COFFEE"
A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective careers, got
together for a visit with their old university professor. The conversation
soon turned to complaints about the endless stress of work and life in
general...

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into the kitchen and soon
returned with a large pot of coffee and an eclectic assortment of
cups: porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal - some plain, some expensive, some
quite exquisite. Quietly he told them to help themselves to some
fresh coffee.

When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the old
professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address the
small gathering... ''You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups
were taken up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones.
While it is only natural for you to want only the best for yourselves, that
is actually the source of much of your stress-related problems! "

He continued...''Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the
coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we drink.
What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you instinctively
went for the best cups... Then you began eyeing each other's cups....''

''Now consider this: Life is coffee. Jobs, money, and position in society
are merely cups. They are just tools to shape and contain Life, and the type
of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the Life we
live. Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee
that God has provided us. God brews the coffee, but he does not supply the cups.
Enjoy your coffee!''

The happiest people don't have the best of everything - they just make the
best of everything they have... So please remember: Live simply.
Love generously. Care Deeply. Speak Kindly. Leave the Rest to God. And
remember - the richest person is not the one who has the most, but
the one who needs the least.

CHILDREN POINT OF VIEW
1. IN THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE, GUINESSIS. GOD GOT TIRED OF CREATING THE WORLD SO HE TOOK THE SABBATH OFF.
2. ADAM AND EVE WERE CREATED FROM AN APPLE TREE. NOAH'S WIFE WAS JOAN OF ARK NOAH BUILT AND ARK AND THE ANIMALS CAME ON IN PEARS.
3. LOTS WIFE WAS A PILLAR OF SALT DURING THE DAY, BUT A BALL OF FIRE DURING THE NIGHT.
4. CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE. THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY.
5. SAMPSON WAS A STRONGMAN WHO LET HIMSELF BE LED ASTRAY BY A JEZEBEL LIKE DELILAH.
6. SAMSON SLAYED THE PHILISTINES WITH THE AXE OF THE APOSTLES.
7. MOSES LED THE JEWS TO THE RED SEA ! WHERE THEY MADE UNLEAVENED BREAD WHICH IS BREAD WITHOUT ANY INGREDIENTS.
8. THE EGYPTIANS WERE ALL DROWNED IN THE DESSERT. AFTERWARDS, MOSES WENT UP TO MOUNT CYANIDE TO GET THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
9. THE FIRST COMMANDMENTS WAS WHEN EVE TOLD ADAM TO EAT THE APPLE.
10. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT IS THOU SHALT NOT ADMIT ADULTERY.
11. MOSES DIED BEFORE HE EVER REACHED CANADA THEN JOSHUA LED THE HEBREWS IN THE BATTLE OF GERITOL.
12. THE GREATEST MIRICLE IN THE BIBLE IS WHEN JOSHUA TOLD HIS SON TO STAND STILL AND HE OBEYED HIM.
13. DAVID WAS A HEBREW KING WHO WAS SKILLED AT PLAYING THE LIAR. HE FOUGHT THE FINKELSTEINS, A RACE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN BIBLICAL TIMES.
14. SOLOMON, ONE OF DAVIDS SONS, HAD 300 WIVES AND 700 PORCUPINES.
15. WHEN MARY HEARD SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF JESUS, SHE SANG THE MAGNA CARTA.
16. WHEN THE THREE WISE GUYS FROM THE EAST SIDE ARRIVED, THEY FOUND JESUS IN THE MANAGER.
17. JESUS WAS BORN BECAUSE MARY HAD AN IMMACULATE CONTRAPTION.
18. ST. JOHN THE BLACKSMITH DUMPED WATER ON HIS HEAD.
19. JESUS ENUNCIATED THE GOLDEN RULE, WHICH SAYS TO DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONE TO YOU. HE ALSO EXPLAINED A MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY SWEAT ALONE.
20. IT WAS A MIRICLE WHEN JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND MANAGED TO GET THE TOMBSTONE OFF THE ENTRANCE.
21. THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED THE LORD WERE CALLED THE 12 DECIBELS.
22. THE EPISTELS WERE THE WIVES OF THE APOSTLES.
23. ONE OF THE OPPOSSUMS WAS ST. MATTHEW WHO WAS ALSO A TAXIMAN.
24. ST. PAUL CAVORTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HE PREACHED HOLY ACRIMONY WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR MARRAIGE.