I have only seen the depiction of leprosy through pictures.  The pictures were enough to convince me to pray that I will never be infected with this horrible disease.  Naaman was in quite a predicament.  He was a great man who was mighty in valour “but” he was a leper.  The fact that he was a leper certainly doesn’t disqualify him as being great “but” it certainly does bring a negative light to his life.  Leprosy was the most humiliating disease of that time.  It was nasty, ugly, awful, and many other things all describing a horrible condition.  There were laws in place to protect the “clean” people from those with leprosy.  Naaman was very blessed because God provided a way for him to be cleansed.  In verse 10 Naaman goes to see Elisha and the message is given for Naaman to go and wash himself in the Jordan seven times and his flesh would be restored.   Naaman went away angry because his “expectations” were not met concerning what he thought Elisha would do for him.  Thank goodness Naaman had some loyal servants who persuaded him to do what he was told.  Naaman went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan and his flesh was restored, he was cleansed.

Through this story I pray we will grow in our understanding that before we met God we were all like lepers.  We were infected with the disease of sin.  Our lives were ugly, nasty, awful and many other things all revealing the horrible condition of sin.  Like Naaman we were very blessed as God provided a way for us to be cleansed.  That way would come through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Acts 22:16-“And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.”  We were cleansed completely and now it is our mission to persuade everyone who is suffering from the horrible disease of sin to believe God and do what He has told them to do to be cleansed.

I am preparing the material for multiple weddings that I will be officiating this summer.  I began to think about how beautiful and precious marriage is.  Then I began to think of how the weeds come out from time to time and threaten to destroy that perfect relationship.  The weeds appear in many different forms.  Financial worries, challenges with the kids,  stressed out schedules, needs and expectations not being met, etc. etc.   A couple of truths that immediately come to my mind are that weeds are going to pop up.  We don’t know where or when but we know they will come just like in our lawns.  The other truth is that if we don’t attack the weeds they will destroy everything good around them.  The best time to attack the weeds is before they even appear.  The final thought I have is an uncomfortable one.  Why do so many spend more time and energy and effort on destroying and controlling the weeds in their lawn than they do on destroying the weeds that are threatening the Godly blessing of their marriage?

Everybody knows that marriages require maintenance.  There are counselors and seminars and classes all around us to use as tools to attack and destroy the weeds that appear in our lives.   Our challenge is not to wait until we see the weeds appear before we take action. The most affective time to attack is before they appear.  Matthew 13:7- “Other seed fell among weeds, which grew up and choked the plants”. 

There is also an area that I pray we will all grow in our understanding of when it comes to the details of the life of Jesus.  John 21:25 tells us, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.  Amen.”

How about that for a thought to ponder?  I will use what Barclay states in his commentary to put it in perspective for us.  “Whatever we know of Christ, we have only grasped a fragment of him.  Whatever the wonders we have experienced, they are as nothing to the wonders which we may yet experience.  Human categories are powerless to describe Christ and human books are inadequate to hold him.” 

Well said.  Jesus truly is amazing!

Of all the things that could be said about us at Tri-Lakes as God’s church I would pray that we would be recognized for our growing faith and love.  God has blessed us in such an incredible way concerning our growth in numbers.  I pray we grow in our understanding of how important it is to continue to grow in our faith and love.  We acknowledge that there are areas in all of our lives in which we might disagree concerning the details.  We acknowledge that everybody is different in many ways in how they think and act.  But through the amazing uniting power of Jesus Christ we acknowledge that we are the same.  Ephesians 4:4-6- “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.”  This morning’s message will focus on our walk of faith.  The journey is not always smooth,  in fact sometimes it seems almost impossible to make and we might feel discouraged enough to sit down and quit.  It is in those times that we need to remember the true meaning of faith.  It is also in those times we need to remember the true meaning of love from our brothers and sisters in the church.  It is an ever growing faith and an ever-growing love that will see us through every journey and for that we praise God.

This passage is often used to address parenting of young children.  My prayer through this article is that we will grow in our understanding of the importance of training our children for serving in God’s church. 

I look around each Sunday in our services and I am so encouraged by the presence of so many young boys and girls.  I am also encouraged by the parents who I know are training up their children in the way they should go.

We have a very important responsibility as God’s church to train our children for service.  For the boys it includes such areas as leading prayers, leading songs, and even preaching.  It is also just as important that we provide training for the girls in the areas of service they can be involved in.

I am a firm believer in the need for churches to make sure their children are being trained for service.  A good test for congregations in this area is to determine how many preachers or missionaries have been produced from their training.  I know that Tri-Lakes church of Christ is overflowing with potential in these areas as we are so richly blessed with such wonderful young people.

I have been involved with a training program for many years which is called Young Timothy’s.  It is a simple training program where I sit down with the young men of the congregation and teach them how to ………….

Through discussion with our elders and deacon of youth we have decided to implement this program for the church.  I am planning our first session on Sunday, Oct. 18^th immediately following Potluck.  If we could allow our young men to get through the food line at the first then our session could be going on while the parents are finishing eating and cleaning.  We would finish by the time the parents were ready to go home.  The first session will be about leading prayers.

There is also an immediate need for a woman or women to take the lead in presenting the same type of training for our young women of the congregation which will be known as the Tabitha program.