VBS @ Enola - We're Traveling to the Promised Land

Hello from up in the country, Enola, Arkansas.  We had a great beginning to our annual VBS this evening with 119 in attendance.  We have sessions for every age; babies, adults, and every age in between.  Our theme is “The Promised Land or Bust.”  We’re studying from the Old Testament this year about the flight of the people of God out of Egypt to the Land of Canaan.  Thank you to every Christian who is so generous with their time and talents to make our VBS the great success it is.  God knows and so do we, what a blessing it is to meet together for Bible study, worship, and fellowship.  We are so very blessed.

Our VBS will continue Monday evening through Wednesday evening at 7:00 each evening.  Maybe you can make the drive up in the country to visit.  We would love to see you.  And the trip would do you good.

Can you believe it?  Our teachers have only three weeks left before the new school year will begin.  Our students have a few extra days of summer break and they’ll be back to school too.  My, my, where has the summer gone?  We are growing.  And that’s a good thing.

We concluded our Sunday morning sermon series entitled “When Faith is a Struggle” today with a lesson about God’s providence.  When we suffer God doesn’t explain it.  People try to explain suffering, but God doesn’t.  When we suffer God usually doesn’t remove it.  We may pray for God to remove our suffering and sometimes He does, but not usually.  He knows that suffering produces perseverance.  Perseverance produces character.  Character produces hope.  The Holy Spirit tells every one of us this in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 5, verses 1-5.  Read this for yourself and see.  He writes about our faith in Christ that saves us.  Our salvation in Christ makes peace between us and God because our sins have been forgiven.  Because we have peace with God, we have access to His grace and stand in it every day.  Our hope for now and for forever is founded in God.  Then Paul writes about how good it is to suffer and why.  The little phrase “No Pain – No Gain” is true.  Think about this too:  “Know Pain – Know Gain.”  This is also true.  It is difficult to suffer, but let us follow God’s plan and purpose and let suffering produces patience and then let patience have its perfect work (James 1).

I want to say a word or two about the 5^th Annual Gospel Crusade we all enjoyed last week at UCA in Conway.  What a wonderful opportunity the crusade was to showcase the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in such a dynamic fashion.  Every preacher taught the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth right from the Bible.  Every person who attended left encouraged in the faith and motivated to continue the fight for what is good and right.  I know I did.  Every year the gospel crusade gets better and better.  Thank you to my fellow Christians in Faulkner County, Arkansas for letting the light of Christ shine so brightly.  Let’s keep it up.

Living in View of Heaven...

We had a marvelous Sunday a couple of days ago up in the country, Enola, Arkansas and the Enola Church of Christ.  The church building was packed with Christians and we had several guests with us.  I’m so happy to be a Christian and a member of the church that belongs to Christ.  Maybe you have been thinking about life, decisions, the past, the future, heaven, hell, eternity - you know the things that really matter.  Jesus’ invitation has stood as a guiding light for generations…Matthew 11:28-30:  “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”  After every sermon I preach, I extend the invitation of Christ.  He invites all who are burdened and tired of sin to believe in Him.  Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).  Jesus came to forgive sin and unite us to God (John 3:16-18).  All who believe in Jesus Christ must repent of their sins (Luke 13:3).  Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a desire to turn from it.  All who come to Christ in repentance must confess that He is the One and Only Son of God, the Savior of the world (Romans 10:9-10).  When a person confesses Jesus as the Christ the very next step to salvation is baptism.  Every sin is washed away in baptism (Acts 22:16).  It is very difficult for me to understand how some people, even those who claim to be preachers and religious leaders just leave baptism out of the plan of salvation.  Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness.  He left us the “Great Commission” in Matthew 28:18-20 and when you read it, note that He included baptism.  He said, “Go…teach…baptize…teach those who are taught and baptized to go and teach and baptize.”  Baptism is not the end of anything, but the beginning of everything.  Every Christian, every day, lives a saved life, adding to their faith the Christian Graces: virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love (2 Peter 1:5-10) walking in the light as Christ is in the light (1 John 1:7) bearing the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5) abstaining from the works of the flesh (Listed just before the fruits of the Spirit).  The Christian life can be hard sometimes and suffering is part of every life this side of heaven.  Jesus taught us this fact when He concluded His sermon on the mount in Matthew 7.  He said that the rain descends.  The wind blows.  The flood rises in every life.  The foundation makes all the difference between standing and falling.  I am building my life on Christ, not on the sand.  You can too.  Hear.  Believe.  Repent.  Confess Christ.  Be baptized.  Live in view of heaven.

Take a drive up in the country this coming Sunday and meet with the Christians at the Enola Church of Christ (253 Hwy 107 N in Enola).  You’ll hear a good lesson from the Bible in one of our Bible study sessions at 10:00 a.m.  We gather in the main building in the auditorium at 11:00 for worship.  I will be preaching the second sermon in our series “When Faith is a Struggle.”  Last Sunday we looked at lesson one and found that though people try to explain why we suffer, God does not.  He talks a lot about suffering, but just doesn’t’ explain it.  This Sunday we will look at lesson two and find that God does not usually remove suffering.  Think about it.  Jesus suffered.  His Father didn’t remove His suffering.  His apostles suffered.  They all gave their lives for His mission.  Paul suffered.  Have you ever read about his “thorn in the flesh?”  He prayed for God to remove his suffering.  God said no.  Paul finally died for preaching Christ.   I know this is a tough series of lessons and people don’t usually want to hear about suffering and the facts of life but as a gospel preacher, I am called to present the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Sunday evenings at Enola are so good.  We meet at 5:00 for just an hour.  We are beginning a new series that will probably take us into the fall.  We will be studying Jesus Parable of the Prodigal Son and the Forgiving Father.  I’ve entitled this series “A Sinning Son and THE Father’s Loving Grace.”  This Sunday we will consider “The Beginning of Sin.”  May God help us to read Psalm 1 and check our own lives.  Am I walking in the counsel of the ungodly?  Am I standing in the path of sinners?  Am I sitting in the seat of the scornful?  Or am I delighting and meditating on the law of the Lord night and day?  I want to prosper, so I am delighting in His law, meditating on His law, and willingly obeying His law night and day.  I need some help.  I need you.