September is gone and so is summer! October is here and autumn is now upon us. The air is cooler, fresher, cleaner, and crisper. The summertime vegetation is beginning to die or go dormant until spring comes again. A lot of the foliage is growing spectacular in color as it says “goodbye” until the spring. There are reds, oranges, yellows, assorted shades of green, and all colors in between. It really is an amazing display of God’s handiwork!
October is also a time of year for festivals, pumpkins, fodder shocks, apple cider, wiener roasts, toasted marshmallows, S’mores, and a host of other special things that go along with the harvest season. Speaking of the “harvest” season, October is “Missions Month” at Main Street. It is the time of the year when we highlight the mission efforts we as a church support – those faithful servants who are busy working for our Lord Jesus Christ all over the world from the U.S. to Africa to India and to other places near and far. Our focus will culminate on “Missions Sunday”, October 30th as Linwood Smith, an Evangelist involved in a new church work in Monroe, GA, will be here to preach from God’s Word and challenge us to take part in “Faith Promise” and to participate in evangelizing our world for Christ!!!
There is another very special event taking place in October of 2016! We will be blessed to participate in a four-week challenge from God’s Word called “Take God At His Word: Experience the Power of Giving”! In order to maximize the effectiveness of this event, books will be passed out for each family or individual member of age on September 25th. You will be expected to read one chapter and discuss that chapter as a family or with a Christian friend before October 2nd. We will follow this pattern each week until the end of the four weeks on October 23rd. I promise I will do my best to enhance this event by bringing the very best messages that I can with God’s help. I further promise that if you will do your part by reading and discussing each week before you hear the message, God will bless you far beyond what you might think or imagine!
There is yet another big event which takes place in October—Halloween!!! It is no secret how I feel about this particular worldly display of foolishness. I have been inclined to speak against the whole notion of it and totally ignore it. But this year, I want to encourage us to glean from what Jesus commanded us in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go [literally, “Going” or “As you are going”] therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age.” The command of Jesus here is to “make disciples of all the nations.” My plea for all of us is “as [we] are going” about our affairs of life during this time the world calls Halloween that we take full advantage of this opportunity to speak up for the Lord and “disciple” or “teach” about Jesus Christ to those who blindly participate in worldly events like Halloween!!!
After all, the mission work of the church both here in the U.S. and abroad in foreign lands is the responsibility of each and every Christian. How we fulfill that responsibility may differ but we all must do our part. Let me close with the words of the Apostle Paul inspired of the Holy Spirit: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15: 58). Let’s all get involved, let us take advantage of every opportunity (even one such as Halloween), and let’s all do our part to “make disciples of all the nations” to the glory of God in Christ and to their salvation!!!
In His Loving Service, Vernon