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     So much for the cooler weather in Arkansas!  Hot, hot, hot now!  Be careful out there.  Our children and grandchildren are back in school.  Some are involved in football, cheerleading, track, and other sports.  We need to make sure they have plenty of liquids before, during, and after their practices and events.  They also need proper nutrition in order to perform to their potential.  Parents first, then teachers, coaches, and assistants need to see that our children maintain a proper diet.  Just a little bit of preacherly advice to consider.  May God bless us with wisdom and patience as we make adjustments to a new routine.

     The Enola Church of Christ had a great Sunday this week (18^th) with 136 in attendance on Sunday morning.  Everyone was smiling and very happy to gather together for worship, Bible study, and fellowship with fellow Christians.  That’s good.  I always arrive early to shake hands with my Christian family, greet our guests, and get focused on my ministry to the church for Jesus Christ.  Not all preachers see the importance of the welcome when the church meets.  The old saying “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” is true.  I have found that my brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as the guests that often worship with us at Enola give more consideration to the lessons I teach and the sermons I preach when they have been greeted, their hands shaken, and welcomed by the preacher and other leaders and members of the church of Christ when they arrived.  First impressions are so very important.

     This Sunday morning we will conclude our series “Have a Good Day.”  Just how can we have a good day when we have so many troubles?  Take one day at a time, just today, not yesterday or tomorrow, just today.  Count your blessings, not your troubles.  Decide to be optimistic about life.  Think positively.  Love life and live like you do.  Our final lesson in their series teaches us to FILL OUR LIVES WITH GOOD.  Prayer is good.  The Bible is good.  Love is good.  God is good.  Really!  Life is good.  Every day is a good day when I fill the day with good.  Evil is all around us.  Bad things happen to all of us.  We all have stories to tell; stories of pain, sorrow, sickness, loneliness, doubt, and death.  In Christ Jesus we can have a good day in the midst of our stories.  Remember Psalm 23.  Right in the middle of this psalm, David writes about God’s table, prepared with every blessing of life.  David said of the Lord, our Shepherd; “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”  Think about it.  Even in the presence of pain, sorrow, sickness, loneliness, doubt, and death God prepares His table.  And we are sitting at His table.  When my Granny Burleson was alive, she always hosted the entire family for lunch on Christmas day.  What a table of food.  Now, she knew how to prepare a table.  She had one of those large old timey solid oak tables.  Every inch of that table held a dish of food.  In the meat department there was chicken (three or four different ways, fresh from the yard), roast with all the trimmings, ham, venison, turkey, even hotdogs.  Then the vegetables!  Oh my!  Purple hull peas, cream corn, okra, potatoes (again, prepared three or four different ways), pinto beans, tomatoes, onions…I could go on.  Biscuits, homemade rolls (You know those rolls that go perfect with butter and fresh honey), cornbread, muffins, and buns were on the kitchen cabinets.  We had fruit from Papa’s garden, cantaloupe, watermelon, grapes, peaches, pears, even figs and persimmons.  Then came the desserts.  We had every kind of cake and pie you can think of and some that you probable couldn’t think of.  Every inch of the table and kitchen cabinet was filled with such delicious, life-altering blessings.  Now remember, this is a human table.  What of God’s table?  I can tell you this for sure.  I am a Christian and because I am a Christian, I am sitting at God’s table every day.  Friends, come to the table.  Hear the good news.  Believe what Jesus taught in the New Testament.  Repent of the sin that causes so much trouble for you and for every one of us.  Confess that Jesus is the Son of God.  Be baptized like God directs us to in the Bible.  Pull your chair up to God’s table.

     I hope to see you up in the country this Sunday morning at the Enola Church of Christ.  We meet at 10 for Bible study and at 11 for worship.  We also meet at 5 on Sunday evening and at 7 on Wednesday evening.  You need to get some fresh air anyway.  God bless you and yours.

Are You Ready? Fall is in the air!

     Beautiful!  Cool!  Fall has been in the air lately.  I’m ready for it too.  They say the summer will have another last go or two before cooler weather finally settles in.  We’ll see.  I hope you have had a good week getting your children and grand children ready for school.  Ours are very ready to get going.  It’ll take a few days to get into that old school routine.  Prepare the night before.  Get to bed a little earlier.  Be patient.  Start the day off right with prayer and a verse or two from God’s word.  I’ll be praying for our teachers and students to adjust correctly and quickly.  Remember to leave home earlier since the traffic will be much heavier than usual with those big yellow school buses stopping to picking up our children.  Also know that our honorable law enforcement officers will be out in force to make sure that we all stay on the right side of the law.

     This Sunday (Tomorrow – August 18^th – Sorry about my blog being so late this week) we will continue with the next to last sermon in our series “Have a Good Day.”  How can I have a good day when I have so many issues, so many worries, so many troubles, too much pain, sorrow, and loneliness?  Take one day at a time.  Count your blessings, not your troubles.  Decide to live every day optimistically.  This Sunday we will focus on loving life and living like we do.  We live be the grace of God.  He saves us.  He schools us.  He separates us for a good day.  Focus on God.  Believe Him.  Do what is right all the time.  Wait for your blessing.  We can do this.

     Our Sunday evening sermon is a continuation of last week’s lesson.  We are looking at the five steps every person much take for salvation by grace through faith.  Simple and right from the Bible.  I look forward to sharing this lesson and our Sunday morning lesson with the church and our guests.

     LADIES:  The Ladies Bible Class is now in session, meeting every Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. in the Annex at the Enola Church of Christ, 253 Highway 107 North in Enola, Arkansas.  This is a great time of fellowship, study, and discussion.

     Tomorrow is Sunday, the Lord’s Day.  At the Enola Church of Christ we will be meeting at 10:00 a.m. for Bible study.  Eddie Hawkins will be teaching in the auditorium completing a study of the Bible book of Colossians.  Our young adults have their own Bible study session in the Annex every Sunday morning.  We have classes for babies, children, and teenagers.  At 11:00 everyone comes together in the auditorium for worship.  Every Sunday we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us by sharing in the Lord’s Supper together.  We take the opportunity to give of our financial blessings when the offering plate is passed.  We sing and pray.  We study the Bible.  We enjoy meeting together and feel so very blessed through our membership in the church of Christ at Enola.  It could be that you are searching for a group of Christians who love God and earnestly desire to follow His word in every way in life and living.  This is our desire and plea.  Come and see.

Watermelons are finally affordable!

     This week we have enjoyed the beautiful weather with cooler temperatures and several showers of rain.  We’re thankful to the Lord God for His rich blessings toward us.  Just today I noticed that the cattle in several pastures were lying down; a sure sign of plenty.  Could it be that David remembered all those days and nights out in the fields watching over his father’s sheep when he wrote Psalm 23?  He wrote about the Good Shepherd; “He makes me to lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters.  He restores my soul.”  In my mind I can almost see David, as a young man noticing the sheep or cattle lying down in green pastures, full, satisfied, content, and at peace.  Oh, if we would trust Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, if we would follow Him, if we would hear Him and obey Him.  What a difference this would make in life today and into eternity. 

     Our sermon tomorrow, Sunday, August 4^th will be lesson two in our series “Have a Good Day.”  Last Sunday we looked at the first ingredient:  Live One Day at a Time.  The second ingredient in the recipe for a good day is “Count Your Blessings.”  Too many people, Christians too, are too busy counting their issues, ailments, limitations, problems, and worries instead of their blessings.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I realize that we live in a real world, a world of the negative things listed above.  We must focus on our blessings, not our issues.  We hit what we aim for.  We aim at what we focus on.  What are we focusing on?  Problems?  Or Blessings?  Right in the middle of our problem, we can, if we will remember to count our blessings.  Right in the middle of dealing with our issues, we can, if we will remember to count our blessings.  The past is history.  Tomorrow may never be.  Today is where we are right now.  Are we truly living life the way we need to be living it right now, today, this very moment?  I hope you are.  When you find that you are counting the wrong things, stop and count your blessings.

     On Sunday evening we are looking at some things that can make our break our mission to show and share the gospel of Christ with those we know and love.  Last Sunday we looked at five words that can make our break our mission: Sanctify, Ready, Hope, Meekness, and Fear.  This Sunday evening we will look at five feelings that can make or break our mission for Christ.  

     School will be back in session in just a few days.  Be a little more attentive when you are out and about.  Traffic is heavier with all those college students back for the fall semester at our local colleges, especially around Conway.  It won’t be long before we’ll be seeing school buses picking up and dropping off our children and grandchildren.  Leave a little bit earlier for work and when you are running errands.  Please, please put your cell phone away while you are driving.  You can tell when someone is talking on their cell phones or texting while driving.  They are usually driving too slow then too fast then back to too slow.  They weave and wobble left and right.  How do I know this?  Well, I was behind a driver on Highway 64 today doing this.  When he looked up from his phone into his rearview mirror and saw the big DODGE symbol on the front of my truck, he refocused, put his phone down, sped up, and drove away from me.  Parents:  Sit your teenage or collage age drivers down and speak with them about life and death, texting, cell phones, and driving an automobile. 

     May God bless you and your family is my prayer every day.  Hope to see you tomorrow at the Enola Church of Christ facilities, up in the country, just north of Enola on highway 107.