God is Blessing Us Up in the Country

     We’ve been praying for rain for the past three months and it looks like “Isaac” will soon visit Arkansas after spending some time in Mississippi and Louisiana.  According to the “news” we will be getting some stormy weather on Thursday and Friday of this week.  We’ll see.  Be careful and watchful as the week progresses.

     We enjoyed a great Sunday in Enola with the church of Christ meeting on Sunday morning for Bible study and worship then again on Sunday evening at 5:00.  Our attendance continues to improve on Sunday morning (143).  Think about it.  Why do we meet together in the first place?  Well, we know that God expects His church to meet together and tells us so in Hebrews 10:19-25.  There are so many blessings and benefits to “going to church.”  We honor God when we meet with our fellow Christians.  We encourage one another.  We grow in our knowledge of the Bible.  We are strengthened in our faith.  We show our family, friends, neighbors, and even our enemies whose side we’re on when we meet with our fellow Christians for study, worship, and fellowship.  Our meetings are informative, encouraging, thought-provoking, helpful, interesting, and just plain fun.  We experience much joy and happiness.  Sometimes we do cry because life is not always joyous.  We sing.  We pray.  We read and study the Bible.  We pool our money so that the church can be the shining light in our community that we need to be.  Every Sunday we share in the Lord’s Supper together remembering Jesus and examining ourselves.  Meeting with the church helps me focus and refocus on what is most important in life.  Really, my week runs more smoothly when I meet with the church.  How about it?  Decide.  Decide to be present whenever the church meets.

     This Sunday morning (September 2^nd) we will begin a new series entitled “My Commitment – Am I Committed to the Father through the Son?”  We will take a look at ourselves and our commitment to see what it is that actually motivates our Christian walk.  Are we committed to the fad, or to the Father?

     Our Sunday evening lesson series “The Seven Wonders of God’s Love” continues this Sunday with a lesson on “The Wonder of Its Fruit.”  I am especially excited about this lesson.  When David wrote Psalm 23, he penned the words, “My cup overflows.”  It is true.  My cup overflows with the fruit of God’s wonderful love.

     We are doing just fine out in the country.  Come and see.  Brother Eddie Hawkins is one of our elders.  He is doing an outstanding job teaching our adult class on Sunday morning.  We are discussing “Attitudes.”  We have examined cooperation, patience, and respect.  And boy, do I need to work on these three attitudes.  You probably need a little help on these too. 

     On Wednesday evening at 7:00 we are studying the deep things of God.  We will conclude the lesson on the body, soul, and spirit and begin studying about our enemy, Satan.  Whew!  I’ll tell you this.  Satan is mean and he is nothing but evil, but we can know him, we can understand him, we can refuse him, and we can defeat him.  Not in ourselves, but only in Jesus Christ.

Fall is in the Air up in the Country

     I can feel it.  Can you?  Fall is in the air.  I know that we have another few weeks of warm summer weather left, but it certainly is exciting to know that cooler weather is on the horizon.  Boy, do we need rain here in the country.  There is a little bit of green in the fields and round about, but brown is our primary color presently.  We are very thankful for the rain we have been receiving here and there.  God is good and knows our needs and will provide in His time and according to His.  We pray.  We hope.  We wait patiently for the Lord’s blessings.

     We are now trying to adjust our lives to the back-to-school routine; up earlier, traffic, waiting for school buses on the way to wherever we might be going, and busier evenings with homework, fall sporting events, and trying to get enough rest for the day’s responsibilities.  We must remember who we are in the busy times.  We are Christians first.  May we always remember our place in the Lord’s church.  Jesus spoke about having proper priorities in His sermon on the mountain in Matthew 5-7.  In Chapter 6, verse 33 Jesus said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.”  When we put first things first, all the other things in life will fall in line without much difficulty.  In addition to Christ’s expectations of His people we need to remember our Christian brothers and sisters who are depending on us when the church meets.  Our elders (Larry Arnett, Eddie Hawkins, and Andrew Shock) at the Enola Church of Christ have scheduled our Bible study and worship times late enough on Sunday for each of us to get a little extra sleep and still be present for Bible study at 10:00 and worship at 11:00 every Sunday.  Our Sunday evening assembly begins at 5:00 and concludes at 6:00, which gives us plenty of time to attend then be home early enough to prepare for Monday morning.  Our service on Wednesday evening is a little bit later (7:00), I know, but we end our Bible study classes promptly at 8:00.  I always look forward to our meetings together.

     This Sunday morning we will conclude our series entitled “Avoiding Foolish Behavior – Four Things People Do To Mess Up Their Lives.”  We must not allow fleshly desires to overrule the word of God.  We must not listen and take advice from someone who is unfamiliar with the word of God.  We must not blame someone else for something we bring on ourselves.  We must not shirk our own responsibilities for the sake of keeping the peace.  Abram and Sarai in Genesis 16 made all four of these foolish decisions when they followed a plan that was not from God.  What about us?  May we make wise decisions.  Our happiness, our peace, our prosperity, our life, and our eternal destiny depends on it.

     Our Sunday evening series is going very well.  We are studying about “The Seven Wonders of God’s Love.”  We have considered the source, the objective, and the dimensions of God’s love.  This week we will take a look at the superiority of the love of God.  Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 13:13; “Now abides faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”  I hope you will be present on Sunday evenings for some really great lessons from God’s word.

God's Love is Wonderful!

We had another great Sunday at Enola when the church of Christ met for study, worship, and fellowship this past Sunday, August 12th. We had 160 present. That’s great! I can tell that school is about to begin because my brothers and sisters in Christ are settling down from their summer travels. I am so very happy to be a Christian. I am especially happy to be a member of the Enola Church of Christ. If you are reading this blog, please consider visiting with the church at Enola. You will find a group of people who love God and one another. We are sincerely trying to please God by following His instructions revealed to us in His word, the Bible. We are what we are only because of our choosing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord in faith, repentance, confession, and baptism. God’s love is wonderful.

On Sunday night we are presently involved in a very special study: The Seven Wonders of God’s Love. We have looked at the source and the objective of God’s wonderful love. This Sunday evening at 5:00 p.m. we will look at the dimensions of God’s love. God’s love is unconditional, everlasting, and unchanging. His love reaches out to everyone in the world through the gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, even into the darkest places in a person’s heart and life. Paul prayed in Ephesians 3:14-21 that God would grant every Christian the ability to comprehend what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.

Our Sunday morning lesson series continues this Sunday morning (August 19th) with the third foolish decision Abram and Sarai made that complicated their lives beyond imagination: They tried to blame someone else for what they brought on themselves. Sarai formulated a plan that did not agree with God’s plan for her. She invited others to join her in her plan. Oh what a tangled web she weaved. After her plan came to fruition, she tried to blame others for what she brought on herself. When we try to blame someone else for what we bring on ourselves, we are behaving foolishly. God requires every one of us to accept responsibility for our own choices. Dedicate yourself today to avoid foolish behavior. Don’t allow your own fleshly desires to overrule the word, will, plan, and purpose of God for you. Don’t listen to and trust someone who is unfamiliar with God’s word. And don’t try to blame someone else for what you bring on yourself. Accept personal responsibility for your life. Today, some would say, “Man up!”

School begins over the next few days, depending on the school. Please be more careful on the highways to and from where you are going. There will be children all around us, school buses, teenagers in the driver’s seat, and our local and state police on duty to see that we understand the importance of being responsible citizens. Teens and young adults (And the rest of us too): PLEASE, please put the cell phone away while you are driving. Save your life and the lives of others. We can live longer and happier when we stop, look, listen, and make wise choices.

Good News from the Country

     Still, no rain!  My, my!  What a summer to remember, to forget.  It seems that all of nature in Enola is groaning for relief.  May God bless us according to His purpose and promises!

     We began a new Sunday morning series last Sunday entitled “Avoiding Foolish Behavior.”  We studied about foolish behavior on Monday night during our VBS at Enola.  We studied about being foolishly simple, foolishly stubborn, foolishly silly, foolishly scornful, and foolishly sacrificial.  I thought we could take this lesson one step further and consider Abram and Sarai in Genesis 16 and see how they made four foolish decisions that really complicated their lives for generations to come.  We must not allow fleshly desires to overrule the word of God.  We considered this foolish behavior last Sunday.  God promised Abram a son but did not tell him when that son would come.  Abram believed God.  Sarai became impatient with God fulfilling His promise and suggested that Abram take her maid as a wife and have a child with her.  Instead of remembering God’s promise and remaining prayerful, patient, and faithful, Abram and Sarai allowed their desperation to lead them to follow their fleshly desire instead of the word of God. 

     This Sunday morning we will take a look at the second foolish decision that Abram and Sarai made:  Abram took the advice of someone (Sarai, his wife) who was not familiar with the word of God.  If we are not very careful, we, too will make this same foolish decision in our lives.  Psalm 1 begins this way; “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is In the law of the Lord, and in that law he meditates day and night.”  Verse 3 tells us that whoever holds faithfully to God’s word will prosper in everything he does.  When we are in need of counsel or advice concerning life and living, let us remember to consider the advice of someone who is familiar with the word of God.  We may have friends who really want what is best for us.  They may have good intentions.  Question is:  Are they familiar with God’s word?  Will they direct us in the ways of God?  We’ll take another look at Abram and Sarai and see that they made another foolish decision that really complicated things for generations to come.

     Our Sunday night series is entitled “The Seven Wonders of God’s Love.”  God is the source of love.  He is love.  This Sunday evening we will consider the object of God’s love.  I hope you will be present for this lesson.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

     We’re having another “Men’s Breakfast” this coming Saturday, August 11^th in the Fellowship Hall at the Enola Church of Christ facilities.  If you would like to help us get everything ready, be there at 6:00 a.m.  Come to eat at 7:00 a.m.  We always have a great time of brotherly fellowship.  YOUNG MEN AND BOYS:  Get up early and come enjoy a good breakfast with your Christian brothers. 

     The church of Christ at Enola is doing well and we are so very thankful to God and to every member for the privilege of serving the Lord in the Mt. Vernon/Enola area.