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.