Good morning on this Saturday, June 11th. When I was a young student at Purdue University, my attention was drawn to a series of posters displayed throughout the campus. The message so prominently exhibited was "Send Us A Man Who Reads." The message was that reading is important to success and students should commit themselves to much reading if they were going to be successful in life now and in the future. Since reading increases knowledge, knowledge increases power, and power increases success, it makes perfect sense to be constantly increasing our knowledge base. But the Bible insists that this message doesn't go far enough. It frequently warns that knowing without doing is inadequate. It reminds us, "Do not be a hearer of the word only, but a doer of the word" (James 1:22). Joshua counsels that we should meditate or put into practice what we have learned (Joshua 1:8), and James opines that even faith without works is dead (James 2:20, 26). He illustrates this principle by comparing faith, without corresponding works, to a dead body devoid of life. It behooves any student of the Bible to be constantly asking himself how he can put knowledge into action and best apply it to his life and circumstances. We should all be as the little boy who fell into a barrel of molasses and prayed, "Lord help me to rise to the occasion." Knowledge horded is knowledge wasted, but knowledge used and shared is a fountain of blessing.

Tomorrow's sermon is about the blessing parents conveyed to their children. The four parts to this Biblical ritual have great application to parents today. I hope you will be there.

Mel Brown

Today I'm writing my blog late on Friday night instead of Saturday morning to free up more time on my Saturday schedule. This week I read an article in the news which made me very angry. Seldom does a news article make my blood boil, but this story definitely did. It occurred in Texas where a federal judge ruled Wednesday that any form or even mention of prayer at a Texas high school graduation ceremony was strictly forbidden. The judge ordered the words "invocation" and "benediction" banned from the program and further ordered that no student or speaker would use the words "prayer," "bow your heads," "join in prayer," or even "stand" when used in reference to prayer. The ruling was in response to a suit filed by a family whose son attended the school who claimed that their atheistic son would suffer "irreparable harm" if exposed to prayer during graduation. Talk about a chilling restriction of free speech - this would certainly be one! Atheists are growing in both numbers and intolerance of any religious expression in various venues. Years ago the percentage of American atheists was 4% but today it stands at 16%, and they are becoming increasingly militant in their stand against any form of religious expression. Fortunately a federal appeals court overturned the judge's ruling and allowed prayer to be expressed in the commencement exercises this weekend. Thank God some sanity was restored regarding this issue and common sense ultimately prevailed. Christians should never sit idly by while their God-given religious freedoms are being taken away. As Moses asked the children of Israel, "Who is on the Lord's side?" (Exodus 32:26). If we don't stand up for our rights, we just may lose them one by one and that would be an ultimate tragedy since so many paid such a steep price so that we might have them (reference last week's blog regarding Memorial Day).

Tomorrow's sermon is part two on the Millennial reign of Christ. I hope to see you there.

Mel Brown