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                              NEWSLETTER                                  
December 8, 2010                             Wednesday Edition
What's In This Issue
DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE
THE FLU AND YOU
COMING UP
Greetings!

 

What a great God we serve! We have His blessings all around us, some we are aware of, and a lot we're unaware of!

 

"Sing a new song to the Lord!  Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord; bless his name.  Each day proclaim the good news that he saves."  Psalm 96: 1,2.  (NLT)

 

The Staff

 
 

 

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE 

You Obey God by Trusting God 

But Joseph had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Matthew 1:25 (NIV

 

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"There are two ways you can live your life. You can live feeling like God owes you an explanation or you can live realizing God has given you great gifts."

Some people are good at the immediate. They can jump right into anything, but they are not good at 'keeping on keeping on.' And other people are good at lasting, but it takes them a long time to get there.

 

To live the exciting life of faith that God has planned for you, you need to be good at both the immediate and the lasting. And both of those require that you keep on trusting.

 

Joseph didn't understand what it meant for Jesus to have a virgin birth; he didn't understand Jesus would be God in human flesh. But he knew what God told him to do and so Joseph kept on trusting.  He was a newlywed who didn't get a honeymoon, and his new marriage was not anything like he planned, but he still kept trusting.

 

What are you going to do when life doesn't work out like you planned or wanted?

I am always encouraged by what the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8, "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don't know why things happen as they do, but we don't give up and quit" (LB).

 

I don't know why some people are diagnosed with terminal cancer. I don't know why some children rebel so strongly against their parents. I don't know why so many things happen that don't make sense. So it's encouraging to hear one of the greatest men of faith say, "I don't know why thing happen as they do, but I still choose to not give up."

 

It's good to know that we can trust God and that he knows things we don't. He has promised that one day he will set everything right. One day he will bring everyone who trusts in him together.

 

Until then there are two ways you can live your life. You can live feeling like God owes you an explanation or you can live realizing God has given you great gifts.

If you live life feeling like God owes you an explanation, you will only wind up in a constant state of bitterness because God doesn't owe you anything.

 

But even though he doesn't owe you anything, he has given you everything. He gave you his own Son. He gave you the gift of eternal life. He gave you the promise of being together with him forever. Those are great gifts.

 

 (from connect@newsletter.com  by Tom Holladay, teaching pastor at the Saddleback Church)

THE FLU AND YOU
It is the flu season and we've already seen some of our family members and friends go down with it in the last week or so.  What makes one susceptible to it while others seem to be resistant to it?  Much of it has to do with our immune system. 
 
If we are physically strong and our immune system is great, we may be able to resist the flu virus when someone afflicted with it sneezes or coughs in the room where we are without covering his or her mouth and nose. Also, if we've been exposed to the bug previously and didn't get sick from it, there is a likelihood that we've developed antibodies against the virus so we don't get sick from it as a result.
 
What can we do to guard against it?  For starters we should avoid being in crowds or confined in a room with someone who is already sick with the flu. We can keep our body resistance up by having adequate rest and sleep, eating properly and choosing foods rich in vitamin C, drinking lots of fluids (the non-alcoholic kind), and washing our hands frequently, especially when we've handled something other persons have handled too, like doorknobs, railings, shopping carts and others.
 
Does the flu vaccine cause the flu?  No, it can't cause the flu because the vaccine does not contain the live flu virus.  It contains the antigens of particular flu viruses that incites your body to develop antibodies against the flu virus when it invades your system. This year the flu vaccine contains antigens from both the regular seasonal flu virus and from the swine flu virus.  The most common predicted flu types for the season are the ones from which you are protected if you take the flu shot.
 
Some people refrain from taking the flu shot because they "become sick with the flu" once they take it.  Most of the time it is a coincidence.  By the time they take the flu shot they have already been infected with the flu virus.  Its incubation period is from a few to several days, and it takes a couple of weeks or more for your body to develop flu antibodies once you receive the flu vaccine.
 
Is it too late to take the flu shot now?  It is too late for the first wave of flu that usually comes in November and December, but it can still be effective for the second wave that usually appears in February or March.
 
 
 

Coming Up.....

      December 17, Friday, 6 p.m. - Youth Christmas Party

     December 19, Sunday, 10 a.m. - Church Christmas Program

    

Reminders

    The All-Occasion Greeting Cards are beckoning you to get them.  They can

          be used for your Christmas and New Year's greetings.You can give them

          away as gifts or stocking stuffers. Each pack contains 12 cards, with

          4 varieties in each pack. Donation: $10 per pack or $100 for a 10-pack.

                                                    Donate

 

      For a donation of $10 a piece, you can have a copy of the book "Tipping

          Points of Grace: Old Dogma Re-Examined" by Pastor John Tulio.

                                                     Donate

Whie we spend approximately a third of our lives in the workplace, earning a living, should we not have a certain degree of influence on the lives of those with whom we work, or those we serve?  It is when we dissociate our "secular" self from our
"spiritual" self that we become ineffective Christians.

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.  Give thanks to him and bless his name.  For the Lord is good.  His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.  Psalm 100: 4, 5  (NLT)
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