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