God is good. No problem. The rain we received over the past couple of days was certainly refreshing and very much needed. I am thankful. We all are thankful. The church at Enola is doing very well. We had 130 present for worship and fellowship this past Sunday morning. There were 81 who came back for worship on Sunday evening and 74 present for Bible study on Wednesday night. May we all understand our own personal need for our presence with the church meets together and may we understand the need that our brothers and sisters in Christ have for our presence.


Not too long ago one of our members invited a neighbor to worship on Sunday morning. This Christian had been extending this invitation for quite some time and up until now his neighbor had not accepted the invitation. Well, the neighbor and his family decided to surprise the Christian neighbor who extended the invitation to them and show up for worship with the church. Well, you guessed it. The Christian who extended the invitation wasn’t there for worship. Ouch! Now, you can depend on the church to take up the slack. We all made this family feel very welcome and honored them with many smiles, handshakes, and invitations to visit again. Even though the church was very loving and welcoming, the Christian neighbor still had to face his neighbor and explain why he extended the invitation then didn’t show up himself to welcome them. Of course, none of us can know what tomorrow holds. Sometimes our very best intentions are met with life’s complications. As my grandfather used to say, “That’s all right son. You’ll live over it.”

Our sermon series “Useful and Fruitful” will continue next week. Our sermon this coming Sunday, June 17th will be from Ephesians 6:1-4, specifically verse 4. “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but BRING THEM UP IN THE TRAINING AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD.” Dad, how are we doing with God’s instructions to us for our children? Are we accepting and fulfilling our responsibility to our children? Or are we attempting to delegate our responsibility to others; our wives, our parents, our friends, the youth minister, the school teacher, the coach, and/or anyone who will accept it? We must realize that there are some things that cannot be delegated. This is one of them. God holds every dad, every father responsible for the training and the admonition (discipline, warning, reproving, rebuking) of their children. There is no time to waste. Dads, let’s start today to be and do what we need to be and do for our children.

On Sunday evening at Enola we will begin a three-lesson series on “I KNOW THAT I AM A CHRISTIAN BECAUSE…” In this series we will take a look at the three passages in the New Testament that mentions the word “Christian” and see how we can know that we are. I know that I am a Christian because I am a disciple (Acts 11:26). I know that I am a Christian because I am persuaded (Acts 26:24-29). I know that I am a Christian because sometimes I suffer for the cause of Christ (1 Peter 4:16). Come back on Sunday evening at 5:00 for this very special series of lessons. I look forward to seeing you.