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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.