As I ponder the beginning of September, there is a great deal of work that needs to be done. School is now underway and the ritual of nightly homework is becoming routine. The fall sports teams at Zion School are about to get underway. Sunday School plans for the fall are well underway as teachers return for another year of teaching and new teachers prepared for their first endeavor in teaching children the faith. Confirmation has started again and memory work is again part of the vocabulary of thosee who are preparing for their first communion next spring. In addition to this, another set of Life With God classes are about to start so that we can welcome new members into the family of God here at Zion. The 100th Anniversary Task Force is working to mark the century of blessing we have received from God in worshipping in this house we have built for Him. The Board of Stewardship is preparing for their fall responsibilities. The Trustees are dutifully abouth the work of maintaining and upgrading our physical setting. The Ladies Aid is getting ready for the Bazaar. The LWML is getting ready for the District Convention.

I know that I may have missed out in some of the activities that you may be involved in. If i did, I am sorry. That isn't the point. The point is that there is a great deal of work that goes on in the Family of God. We are working in the effort of being faithful to what God has given us to do. We are building a house for the Lord here. There is a great deal of work to be done. That work is never done this side of heaven. We will always be about this work.

But this labor never begins with us. This labor never ends with us. Our work for the Lord starts and ends with Jesus! He is the one who has started and will complete the labor that He has set about us about. That was true 100 years ago as they were building our church building. It is true today as we continue to build enrollment in our Growing in Christ Center, our Day School, our Sunday School, and in our Youth and Adult Bible Study Classes. This labor, done by our hands, is guided by the Lord. He is the one who gives us the material. That material is the Word of God. That is the only way that anything can be built here.

Labor Day can teach us a great deal. On Labor Day, we are supposed to rest from our work. EVERY WEEK, God gives us a Labor Day. It is called the Sabbath. On that day, we stop and let God work on us! Unless God's people are stopping on a daily basis to be in the life-giving, soul-refreshing Word of God, our labor is in vain. Unless the laborers are kneeling in prayer and kneeling at the rail to receive the One who gives Himself, body and blood, in bread and wine, our labor is an empty task.

And God is building here! You can see it. You can feel it! God's wonders never cease. He is using people like you to meet and greet people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people whom God is leading to part of our house here at Zion. And we welcome them with open arms.