Enjoying Autumn in the Country

     We enjoyed another beautiful “fall” Lord’s Day in Enola this past Sunday with 151 gathered together for worship, study, and fellowship.  Brother Eddie Hawkins taught a great lesson at the 10 o’clock hour on the attitude of humility.  Brother Palmer always does a great job when he leads our singing.   I had the privilege of preaching the concluding sermon from our series, “My Commitment – What am I committed to?”  I hope you have been encouraged and challenged by this series to commit yourself, not the fad, not to the food, not to the fun, and not even to the family, but to the Father through the Son.

     The Faulkner County Fair is now history.  Many of our Christian brothers and sisters were involved in the fair.  We are very proud of those who participated and those who supported the county fair. 

     GREAT NEWS!  We are planning a brand now Bible study group on Sunday mornings.  The class is designed for ages 18 to 30, collage-age to young adults.  Brother Brandon (Deacon over Youth) and Brother Patrick (Deacon on Education) called a meeting with those who fit in this particular age group this past Sunday following the morning service.  It was so good to see such a great number gathered in consideration of the new class.  We are in the preliminary stages of getting the class started, so be patient as we answer the questions that need to be answered – Who? What? When? Where? How?  If you fall into this particular age-group, please stay up-to-date and be ready to participate and help.

     The ladies are meeting every Monday night at 6:30 in the annex for a very special parenting class.  Cindi is teaching the class and from what I hear there has been outstanding attendance, good discussion, and positive results.  Of course, the material that is being taught comes right from God’s word, the Bible.  Parenting is tough.  We need all the help we can get.  Come and see.

     Have you been by the bulletin board in the lobby lately?  There are several “sign-up” sheets for your consideration.  Lately our lawn has been growing and needs to be cut weekly.  Men: please sign up to cut the grass if you can.  Babysitting is needed on Monday evenings from 6:30 to 7:30 for our ladies Bible class.  If you can babysit, please sign up.  We open our food pantry every 1^st Wednesday in the month.  We usually have several people from our community to stop by for food.  Please sign up to help in the very important ministry.  As you can see, there are opportunities to serve all around us.  Let’s do what we can to help.

     This Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. the church of Christ at Enola will have our monthly night of singing.  Make plans to come out and sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs along with your fellow Christian family.

God's Love is Wonderful

God is certainly blessing us with some beautiful weather! We are very thankful. Up in the country we are especially thankful for the green grass that is showing up in the fields and in our yards. Of course this is due to the wonderful showers of rain we have received lately. It is so good to see the cattle back out in the fields.

We enjoyed a good day this past Sunday. The church of Christ at Enola had one of those special days where we met for Bible study at 10:00 and then came together at 11:00 for worship. Immediately following the 11 o’clock hour we walked over the annex for a delicious potluck lunch. Then right after lunch we met again for a few minutes of prayer, singing, and the afternoon lesson. We then dismissed for the day. We had 141 in attendance at the worship hour. This is a very good number and we are thankful for every Christian, along with our guests who came for study, worship, and fellowship. I am thankful for my salvation in Christ, for the small part I can give to make the church of Christ at Enola strong and honorable before God and our community. May we always walk in the light as He is in the light, having fellowship with one another, knowing that Jesus will always cleanse us from our sin (1 John 1:7)!

Our Sunday morning series “My Commitment” is going very well. We are considering our commitment to God through His Son Jesus Christ. We are asking ourselves; “Am I committed to the Father through the Son, or am I committed to something else?” This coming Sunday (16th) we will ask ourselves; “Am I committed to the Father or to the FOOD?” The Christian life brings many joys and fun times into our lives. Becoming a Christian is so much fun. Seeing others commit their lives to Christ is so rewarding. However, living the Christian life is often very difficult, learning, growing, adjusting to the Christian life in a world of people who do not know God is often not much fun. We must not, cannot be committed to the fun. We must be committed to the Father. If we are committed only to the fun, and life hands us some situations that are not fun, what will be do? I look forward to sharing this lesson with you.

On Sunday evening at Enola we are looking at the Seven Wonders of the Love of God. I believe this series of lessons will help us grow to have a deeper understanding and greater appreciation for the love of God. We have looked at the Source, the Objective, The Dimensions, the Superiority, and the Fruit of the love of God. This Sunday we will consider the PROVISIONS of the Love of God. God has provided for our yesterday with salvation from sin. He has provided for our today with every spiritual blessing. He has provided for our tomorrow and forever with our home in heaven. Why every person in the world would not want to become a Christian is beyond my comprehension.

You and I are not alone in the circumstances of our life. God is with us. He loves us. He will provide for us. Take a look at Galatians 6:9-10; “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

See you on Sunday. To those who are not members of the Enola Church of Christ: please come and visit with us. We would love to see you and welcome you as our honored guest.

Come and See!

We had a great day this past Sunday at Enola! We had a good crowd again (131) with just about every Christian and guest staying after the service to visit and discuss life and living in our lobby and in the parking lot (By the way, we just paved and restriped our parking areas). If you haven’t visited with the Enola Church of Christ in a while, come out to the country for a visit.

Now, before you come out, just know that you might decide to stay longer than you thought, maybe even decide to become a member of the church of Christ at Enola. You will find our facilities to be very inviting, comfortable, and beautiful. You will notice that the Christians at Enola love God. We love one another and try to help one another as we have opportunity. Of course, we are not perfect in any sense of the word, but we are trying to be more like our Lord, Jesus Christ in life and living. We often fall short of the Lord’s expectations. We are trying to learn from our mistakes. You will find that Enola is a quiet and peaceful town, a refuge in these times of busyness, strain and stress.

Our Bible classes are literally filled with the Bible; Bible pages turning, Christians reading the Bible, Bible discussion, and just thinking about the Bible, God’s word to mankind. That’s the way it should be.
When we worship together on the Lord’s Day every Sunday we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs without the use of mechanical instruments of music. Our hearts and voices are the only instruments we use to make melody to the Lord. Simple. Pure. No complications.

We do a lot of praying. We usually pray at least six times every Sunday morning, maybe even more. We pray because we need to talk to our Father about our needs, the needs of others, and the needs of our world in addition to prayers of thanksgiving and communion. Speaking of “communion,” we eat the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week, every Sunday. We remember Jesus when He suffered and died on the cross and we examine ourselves to allow Him to cleanse us of any and every sin and shortcoming. We eat the unleavened bread first then the fruit of the vine because that is the way the Lord and His disciples did it. Paul taught the church at Corinth much about the way the church should share in the Lord’s Supper together (1 Corinthians 11).

Every Sunday we give a portion of our financial means to the Lord to be overseen by our eldership so that the church can be the shining light we need to be in our community and in the world. We are learning and growing in our commitment to stewardship.

Every Sunday I share two sermons; one at 11:30 and another at 5:15. Currently we are studying about commitment on Sunday morning and on Sunday evening we are studying about the seven wonders of God’s love. I am enjoying these lesson series very much. I hope that the church and our guests will grow from these studies from God’s word.

On Sunday morning at 10:00 one of our elders, Brother Eddie Hawkins is teaching the adults on the subject of “Attitudes” and on Wednesday evening at 7:00 I am teaching about the Deep Things of God. We are growing in every way out in the country; growing to love God with a deeper understanding, growing to love one another as Christ loves us, growing to love our family, friends, and neighbors, not just with words but with deeds and in truth, growing to love the world so that we can effectively share the gospel of Christ with whoever will listen.

Come and see. You’ll be glad that you did. Just be prepared to stay a while, maybe even stay and grow with us for a lifetime.