I hope everyone is doing well on this beautiful fall morning. The temperature is just right to enjoy the outdoors.
Red Bank Church services began with greetings from Brother Jerry and hymns led by Brother Gary in absence of our song leader, Jake Hampton, who reportedly was suffering from a severe toothache. It’s rough to have a toothache on the weekend because there is never a dentist available. I’m sure that come Monday morning Jake was at some dentist’s door waiting to get in as soon as possible. A few years ago I was in great pain from an infected tooth. I left a phone message to my dentist informing him to make room for me on his schedule because I intended be his first patient that next morning. I was there as I promised and he didn’t argue with me about waiting until I had an appointment. I was in no mood for discussing that fact. I hope everything went well for you Jake.
Our sympathy and prayers are for you. Get well soon.
Church announcements for October included a Wild Game supper to be held for all the men in the Douglas Wright Ozark Association on the second of October at Cedar Gap Baptist Church. The Glade Top Trail Fall Festival will be held on October 17. And, the Fifth Sunday Singing will be held at the Red Bank Church on October 31. More details will be forth coming about that event.
Les and Eloise Hallmark and Jerry and Tattie Maggard formed a quartet for presenting special music during the worship hour. Jerry accompanied the group on the guitar.
It was good to see that Fern Huffman was able to be at church Sunday.
For the morning sermon, Brother Les spoke from Luke 24:13-27. This Scripture relates the story about Jesus meeting up with two men as they were walking on the road that led to a village called Emmaus, which was about seven and one-half miles from Jerusalem. When he asked them why they seemed so sad, they related to him how that Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet that was mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, had been condemned to death and was crucified. These men were so deep in thought that they did not recognize that the man that walked with them was the risen Jesus himself. Luke 24:25-26, “Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” After Jesus reminded them of what the scriptures said concerning him, beginning with the time of Moses and all the prophets, he then brake bread and blessed it at a meal he had with them later that evening. Now their eyes were opened to who their guest actually was. Luke 24:32, “And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Likewise, when many finally do hear the story of what Jesus did for them on that old rugged cross, their hearts will began to burn and desire to hear more. But, there are multitudes that still have not heard and do not know the love of Jesus and how he paid the price for their sins.
My daughter told me of a man she sat next to on the plane as she returned home from a Florida, mission trip. She said that he was a well-dressed business man. As their conversation advanced, he asked her why she was traveling on the plane. She told him all about her mission trip to the Florida beach area to witness to the Haitian immigrants there. She asked him if he had accepted Jesus as his Savior. He told her that he had heard of Jesus, but knew nothing about him. I’m sure that he knew more about him by the time he got off that plane. I pray he remembered the young lady that witnessed to him that day and that he desired to hear more. As Brother Les said, “We follow Him because He has touched our lives. Our delight in Him will turn our minds from sin. God truly rewards those who seek him.”
Visiting in the home of Gary and Alice Lirley, Saturday and Sunday, was Maxine Lirley. Lately, Maxine has been painting a picture of a typical farm scene to enter in the Senior Olympics to be held the thirtieth of October. The theme of the Olympics is “Farm Life in the Ozarks.” It’s always an exciting time for the residents at the Heart of the Ozark Healthcare Center that participate in the Olympics. They are provided a wide variety of competitions to enter. I understand that they will all be dressed in a way that depicts farm life. Sounds like fun. I can’t wait to hear all about it.
I’ll leave you with something I read on a poster the other day.
”Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil—it has no point.”
