A Note From Tom: June 3rd, 2011

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, praise-filled Friday! TGIF! But you know, when you love Jesus, you just thank God for every day of the week! May as well say it tomorrow! “TGIS!” Then the next day, you can say, “TGIS!”…then,TGIM!...TGIT!…TGIW!...then…

I guess, when you get down to it, folks who love Jesus are supposed to pretty much praise Him no matter what! There’s a ton of Scripture for that one!

“My brothers and sisters, you will face all kinds of trouble. When you do, think of it as pure joy!” (James 1)

“Give thanks no matter what happens. God wants you to thank him because you believe in Christ Jesus!” (1 Thessalonians 5)

Even when the unexpected comes yer way!

Like Karen Butler in Portland, Oregon. Seems she went to the dentist. She had to get a tooth pulled. When she was done, she’d lost more than her tooth. She lost her American accent! She speaks with a British one instead! She started speaking like a Brit as soon as the Novacane wore off! Never been there in her life!

It’s called FAS, foreign accent syndrome, and there have only been 100 cases documented. It usually comes from a brain injury…but Karen got it at the jolly ol’ dentist!

Blimey!

A Norweigian woman was hit by schrapnel in WWII and spoke with a German accent after that. Bummer! Wasn’t a good time for that one!

A British woman got a migraine and speaks with a Chinese accent now! It’d be cool if you could actually speak Chinese after a headache! Or could play the piano!

Another lady had a stroke and now has a French accent!

Sacre bleu!

It must be weird to have everyone stop after you meet them or speak to them and ask you, “”Scuse me but...where you from?”

Getting’ back to what we were talking about at the start… when you have a tough thing happen and instead of saying the stuff you normally hear, you really, truly stop and praise God…and thank Him for His promises…and how much He cares for you, no matter what…and how you know He has a solution and the strength you need for whatever is happening….well,that’s an accent that folks aren’t used to hearing from a normal looking person like you!

Praise…it’s almost a foreign language!

In the amazing, awesome book, “Pilgrim’s Progress”, when the two traveling heroes, Christian and Faithful, arrived at the awful, Vegas-y town of Vanity Fair…(”It bears the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where 'tis kept is lighter than vanity… “) they began to be stalked, mocked, and persecuted. One of the reasons is that the people who lived in that town wondered “likewise at their speech; for few could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language of Zion; but they that kept the fair were the men of this world: so that from one end of the fair to the other, the two seemed barbarians…”

When you have a new heart and a passport from Heaven, it changes your words and the way you say them.

“Though some tongues just love the taste of gossip, those who follow Jesus have better uses for language than that. Don't talk dirty or silly. That kind of talk doesn't fit our style. Thanksgiving is our dialect!” (Ephesians 5)

What if you talked in such a way…thankful among the grumpy…praising among the gripy…singing among the grumbling…that folks stopped, looked at you, and asked, “’Scuse me but…where you from?”

A Dieu soit la glorie!