Hey, everyone!
Hope your day is going awesomely!! I know it's hot but there are ways to cool down…Here's one…If you buy an ice cream in a cup at Chik-Fila and pour a little Diet Coke (™) on it, it freezes and makes this awesome crunchy crusty thing! But it doesn't work with regular Coke, just Diet. But our Chik-fila is closed for renovations. So, that's not gonna be the answer.
Since ours is closed, no one had the chance to go to Chik-Fila on Wednesday, which was "Chik-Fila Appreciation Day" across America, a day when those who wanted to, could support Chik-fila and their president. Apparently, he really made some people upset when he spoke out in favor of traditional marriage. So friends of "Chik" (as we call it) and of traditional and, some would add, the biblical model of marriage could go there and buy a sandwich, waffle fries, or a Diet Coke Ice Cream Crunch (which they don't even know about 'cause Lee invented it).
The real reason for Chik-Fila Appreciation Day is that others are boycotting Chik-Fila. They are angry at the president's remarks and because of money CF has donated to lobbying groups who work to oppose gay rights. Some mayors have suggested that Chik-fila would not be welcome in their cities. But papers like the Boston Globe say mayors don't have the right to do that.
In the meantime, many have expressed their support of Chik-Fila and traditional, biblical marriage not only by eating there, but also by tweeting, blogging, and reblogging in the Facebook fling of words across the world.
This fight is getting hotter than a Spicy Chik sandwich! If our Chik-Fila was open this week, should those who love Jesus have eaten there just to say something (even tho' you're not supposed to talk with your mouth full?) Should we get in this food fight?
What would our Lord do? What would He have us do?
What does He want from me?
These are the questions I've been thinking about. Here's what I've been thinking...
'…If the fight is for the "traditional marriage"…
Traditional marriage may not be as traditional as folks think. By "traditional", I think people mean "the one most people believe in and live". By the traditional American marriage, I think people probably mean a marriage between one man and one woman who live in sexual and emotional fidelity to their vows until one or the other dies. "Until death do us part". You know, the traditional marriage MOST of us have.
Only problem with that is that most Americans DON'T have that marriage. Most American marriages DON'T make it to the finish line. Over half of all marriages are over before the people in them are. Among second and third marriages, way more than half the marriages are dead before the people in them are dead. Even among those who would define themselves as followers of Jesus, the numbers are about the same. So the "traditional marriage" is now non-traditional!
If internet pornography (which has entered so many hearts and homes) is a kind of digital infidelity (Jesus would say it is. Check it. Matt 5.28) then for many, many Americans, the traditional marriage of fidelity in body, heart, and mind is like Christmas tradition. It's traditional like,say… Santa. Couples like to tell their kids about him, but they know he ain't comin' down the chimney.
Some nostalgically pine for the traditional marriage of TV families they've loved through the years. But often it turns out that from the Huckstables, to the Wilders, to the Bradys, those who were playing those parts weren't pulling it off themselves at home.
And I've personally always wondered why Andy didn't marry Helen Crump! And why didn't Mickey marry Minnie? What was up with that?
If the fight is to defend the biblical model of marriage, well...
A really biblical marriage is one between one man and one woman who are faithful to each other emotionally and sexually until death.And…
It is one where the woman is a person who "submits herself to her own husband as unto the Lord Jesus Himself! …In everything!" (Eph 5.22-25) She has a "beauty of her inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight…" (1 Peter 3.4-6)
Wow! As the say in the Olympics, that's raisin' the bar!
Unfading beauty…quiet…gentle…"submitting themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord…"
Whoa!
And the guys?
Well, they love their wives just like Jesus loved us and gave Himself for us!…In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as much as their own bodies!" (Eph 5.25-28)
And that's a lot!
He loves her and gives, not just some time, but his very life for her, just like Jesus gave His life for us! No matter how much it costs or hurts him!
Listen to how people talk in a biblical marriage…
"No unwholesome word comes out of that mouth but only what builds the other up!...They've stopped getting angry, grumpy…they don't yell, call names or say hurtful stuff. All the time, they're kind and tender-hearted. They always forgive each other just as much as God has forgiven them. In fact, they imitate God in their marriage, living a life of love!"
It's right there in Ephesians 4. 29-5.1!
You kinda wonder if all those who fight for biblical marriage actually have one.
I guess for lots of folks in the fight for the biblical model of marriage, they fight for the ideal, but when they get home, they just fight!
What would it take for a couple to not only believe in biblical marriage, but to actually LIVE in one? What would it take for her to have quiet, gentle beauty and him to have sacrificial love?
It takes Jesus!
It takes the Quiet, Gentle, Beautiful One! It takes the Sacrificial One!
Jesus in the heart!
And Jesus on your heart!
The only ones who can really do this are those who love Him! And those who LOVE Him WANT to do whatever He says no matter how crazy it seems! Because of how crazy they are for Him!
And those who love Him so much that they would do whatever He asks, are those who know deep in their heart how much He loves them!
Y'know, the reason folks don't have the relationships He wanted all along for them…the reason people are unfaithful, sexually messed up, live homosexual relationships, go sexually crazy at college, keep internet secrets they don't want anyone to discover, is often because that they don't know Him. They don't know how much He loves them!
If they only knew! If they only knew how crazy He is for them! They might come to be crazy for Him! Even if their crazy friends think they were crazy!
The reason people are the way they are isn't that they don't have enough tradition in their lives. It's that they don't have enough Jesus in their lives.
People need Jesus Christ.
The only way they will find Him- and the only way they would ever hope to someday have biblical relationships because of their new-found love for Him- is if someone who loves Him would love them.
If we fight with them, they think we hate them. If they think we hate them, they don't care what we have to say about the One Who loves them. If we fight them in that same old way, they won't care what we have to say about the One Who could give them a heart to live in a whole new way. If we fight them, instead of fighting for biblical marriages, we may be fighting against the hope that some people would ever have one.
Aren't we on earth for just a little while longer to win people, instead of winning fights with them?
I guess I'm glad our Chik-Fila was closed on Wednesday. I hope this is over soon.
A Note From Tom: July 27th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome day! Maybe God has something beautiful for you today that you're not even expecting! Check out this promise! "Every good and perfect gift is from God. It comes down from the Father of the the heavenly lights!" (James 1.16)
There you go! Just those words are something beautiful for you today that you might not have been expecting!
Speaking of "unexpected"…
Did you hear about the family in Defiance Ohio where all the cousins were snooping around in the attic of their granddad's house? They found this old trunk and discovered that he had departed this world for the next, leaving behind his baseball card collection. And not just any ol' pile of baseball cards with a rubber band wrapped around 'em! Turns out the "700 nearly mint cards just might represent the greatest and rarest discovery in the sports card industry's history!" This caramel company included baseball cards "back in the day" and grampa collected all the Ty Cobbs, Honus Wagners, Christy Mathewsons, Connie Macks, Frank Chances, Johnny Evers, Cy Youngs from all the stickiness he could chew!
Estimated value? $500,000!
Wow! It was there the whole time and no one knew!
What if you have hidden surprises stored up that you don't even know about? You do! Jesus said…
"“Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13)
There are treasures in your Scriptures. They're old. But when you find one that is just the word you need for the day you're in, it's new! For you! Like the other day…
I was hiking up to Mt LeConte with Austin Morgan. In the pouring down rain! Awesome! It made me remember the last time I was soaked on that trail…
1972…working for the summer in Gatlinburg….just graduated from ORHS, waiting to go to UT in the fall…hiked up and down LeConte in a day…by myself…rainy day…dripping and tripping…because I was trying to read a book while I walked. "The Power of Positive Thinking" It was weak as water and didn't talk about Jesus much at all but it was the only book with Scripture in it I knew of.
Because I was trying to find Him. I wanted and needed God and I didn't know how to get to Him. I'd been trying to figure out how to know Him for a long time. Attending St. Mary's. Going to hear Billy Graham every night he was at Neyland Stadium in '69. I just wanted God!
I didn't find Him until 1974. Until then, the Apostle Paul says I was lost, dead, and separated from God. But I always felt that in a strange way, I was going to find Him. And He was calling me. I wasn't afraid I wouldn't make it to Him. Somehow I knew I would.
The other day, I was reading the Gospel of John. I was at chapter 17. The whole chapter is a prayer of Jesus to His Father just minutes before His darkest hours. And I'd read this treasure bunches of times. But I found something there that seemed unexpected, unfamiliar, and completely new! More precious than forty original, mint condition 1927 Babe Ruth cards. It was verse six. "I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me…"
Wow! You and I were given to Jesus! You and I were a gift from the Father to the Son! When you accepted Jesus, you became a gift-wrapped present! Before that moment, as Jesus said (check this!), "Yours they were…"
Wow! Before I accepted Jesus I was lost, dead, separated from God! But somehow…in some way… I already belonged to the Father as a gift He would give to Jesus on the day I believed in Him! He had a plan for this wandering, confused dude! He knew a new day was coming for me! His hand was on me already! I wasn't His yet…but somehow…in some way...I was! Before I accepted Jesus, it was a dark time for me. I couldn't see a thing. Now I know it was because the Father was gift-wrapping me up to give to His Son!
It's so cool to find something new in the old, old Book! It was there all the time but it's like you just discover it for the first time! A word for you! A truth for now! A promise for this moment!
In fact, just yesterday, I was reading the first half of Romans 4 and found something amazing I'd never seen before! It's right there where Paul says…
Hey! Wait a sec!
Why don't you check it out? See what you can find! A treasure for you! For today!
Amazing!
It's been there the whole time!
A Note From Tom: July 13th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
What an awesome day we have today! We are seeing Scriptures fulfilled! Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and verse 3 says, "If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth!" It's been happening just as it is written! In fact we have a 70% chance of Zechariah 10:1 being fulfilled right here in East Tennessee! That Scripture says, "…it is the LORD who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain…"
There may be a good chance of scattered showers so that could also be what it means in Amos 4:7 where it says, "I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none…"
Psalm number seventy two talks a lot about our weather and a lot about our Savior. It says that the love, blessing, and smile of the coming Messiah…our Jesus… is to us "like rain falling on mowed fields". If it doesn't rain for awhile…like in recent days in Anderson, Roane, and Morgan Counties...the grass we mow just turns dry and brown, yucky, even crispy and crunchy. For someone like me who loves to mow, it's just sad.
And a heart without Him just turns dry and crunchy. It's just sad.
And there's really nothing you can do about the rainlessness! You can water with the hose, but, hey!, there's nothing like rain sent from heaven! One hour of moderate rain is the same as watering seven quarts per square yard! Good luck on trying that at home!
And when we get a whole day of moderate rain, like yesterday, well, I can just almost hear my little grasses going, "ahh!…ahh!…ahhh!….ahhh!…ahhh!…ahhh!…" all over the yard!
One verse I loooovvvveee is from a talk the Apostle Paul was giving in a Turkish town. He was telling them heavenly things they had never heard, and he said that God wants us to know that He's there and that He is good and that He loves us!
And how do you know this?
Easy!
He sends rain from heaven! And He fills your heart with joy! Check this!
"Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy!” (Acts 14:17)
I looovvveeee that! How do you know God is there and that God is good?
Rain!
And joy!
Those moments when you're just flooded out of nowhere with joy! It's a moment only God could give! It's a message from Him that says, "I love you, little one!"
Y'know, the next time it gets dry and crunchy out there, we can ask God to send rain from heaven. (James 5:18)
And the next time it gets dry and crunchy IN there…in your heart…you can just ask God to send joy! Not talkin' 'bout making all your problems go away, but just sending you some joy straight from His heart to yours…(Romans 15:13)
If you need some joy and ask Him for some everyday, here's my 7 day forecast. Your chances of getting some... 100%!
That's the weather!
A Note From Tom: July 6th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome day filled with warmth in your heart… on a day that will also be filled with warmth in your…pretty much everything else!! It's so hot our dogs chased a squirrel down the road, but all three were walking! The other day, we heard the strangest little explosion. Mr. Jones' corn in his field popped on the stalks!
I know everyone has their own personal remedies for how to stay cool during July-fest but they say you need to be careful you don't swap one problem for another. Fer instance…
If Popsicles are your answer, sloooooooow down! You could give yourself a "cold-stimulous headache"! Or, as we call 'em, a brain-freeze. You know the feeling… "Sluuuurp….Yuuumm! …OWWW!" Ever wonder what causes those eye-closin', noggin-throbbing popsicle headaches?
"Maybe popsicles?"
Well, sure. But I mean, why do you get 'em? Actually, no one really knows!
The classic brain freeze headache is being seriously studied by the director of research at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center, which is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs in East Orange, N.J. They are trying to help our veterans because many of them suffer from headaches after their deployments. Headaches are difficult to study because you never know when they'll happen. The advantage of brain-freeze headaches is that they're easy to get "on-demand". Just open wide and stick in a sticky pop on a stick! "Sluuurp...Yuuumm! …OWWW!"
The theory is that blood rushes to the chilled zone causing pain. Or that the nerves of the mouth are over stimulated. But the only thing they know for sure is that brain freezes DO happen! From coast to coast, all summer long!
But if no one really knows where they come from, I know how to stop 'em! The answer is simple! First, take out the popsicle (duh!). Insert thumb, chubby side up, and press it against the roof of your mouth. Wait a sec. It really works!
Isn't that better?
Y'know, sometimes you might have a day that is just…well, a hard one. Not because anything really difficult happens. But you're just blue. Or down. Or sad. Or upset. Or irritated. Or anxious. Or…you name it. You don't really know where it comes from. There is no real reason and maybe there's a bunch of reasons. It could be physical (you're not sleeping well, you're eating the wrong stuff…) It could be stress you don't even recognize. It could be spiritual conflict with forces you don't see who like to mess with your thoughts (it happens, y'know!) There might even be other theories to explain why you're just having a cruddy day. It might be any one of them. Or a combination of them. Or none of the above.
Maybe no one really knows where it might be coming from. But the answer might be simple!
"What?! Stick your thumb in your mouth like the popsicle headache?"
Nope. Just ask God to take your gluminess (or grumpiness) away. Check this out…
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit!" (Romans 15.13)
Did you get that? Ask God to fill you with joy! And peace! By the power of the Holy Spirit!
Sometimes there's no need for reasons, theories, or explanations for a cruddiness of heart. You just need God to take the feelings away and to give you better ones! Joyful, peaceful, hopeful ones!
It's easy! It's cheap! Ask Him to just give you joy! Or peace! Or hope! Just do it!
Or, do it for some struggling one you know! Do it without them knowing! See if you could be used to just change their heart! And their day!
What a cool thing to do on a hot day!!
That's the weather!
A Note From Tom: June 15th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome week! Let me just tell you some things about the week ahead…
According to the Farmer's Almanac,this is the 167th day of 2012! Ya got 198 left 'til Happy New Years 2013!!
The moon is 28% full today.
Th' almanac says this the best day ever for putting in vine crops, washing wood floors, and castrating your goats (not an awesome day for little billy goat, tho! No wonder he's gruff!)…
On this day in 1752, Ben Franklin was shocked to discover that lightning hitting a key on a kite was more exciting than he anticipated!
Today in 1938, Johnny Vandemeer pitched a no-hitter for the Reds…his second one in a row!!
On this date in 1667, the first blood transfusion was successfully done in France, using sheep blood on a little boy! They asked him how he felt afterwards and he said, "not baaaaahhhhd!"
"Hee Haw" was first on TV on this date in 1967! Makes me want to pick n' grin!
This is the birthday of Waylon Jennings (former Hee Haw star!) and the famous Norwegian skier, Herman Smith Johannsen in 1875 (I know, me neither!)
These are just some of the things we know about this week we're livin'! We don't really know what the rest of the week has for us. We don't know what the weather will be. We don't know if anyone will have a trip to make to the ER after stepping on something…I saw a fender bender this morning on Solway (actually a little more than the fender was bent! And somebody's attitude might have been a little out of shape as well!) and they didn't know that THAT was going to happen when they pulled out of separate driveways this morning!
Lots we don't know about the week ahead!
But (besides Waylon's birthday) here are some things we DO know in this week of 2012! These are all Scriptures with the phrase, "…we know…" in them. Here's my "we know" list! Ready?
1) Nicodemus said, "Jesus we know You are…sent from God" (John 3:2)
,
2) "We know Jesus is the Savior of the world!"( John 4:42)
3) "We know that suffering produces perseverance…" (Romans 5:3)
4) "We know that Christ was raised from the dead…" (Romans 6:9)
5) "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God..." (Romans 8:28)
6) "We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus…" (2 Corinthians 4:14)
7) "We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands…" (2 Corinthians 5:1)
8) "We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is…" (1 John 3:2)
9) "We know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us!" (1 John 3:16)
10) "We know that we are children of God!" (1 John 5 19)
Wow!
There may be a ton we don't know about what's ahead this week, but if "we know" that Jesus is risen (#4)
…and whatever problems happen are good for us (#3)
…and they work out in a perfectly beautiful plan (#5)
…and it'll all be over soon anyway, and we're heading for home! (#6, #7, #8)
…and Jesus loves us no matter what! (#9)
…and we're God's kids (#10)…I know all I need to know to have a joy-filled week!
So what if Ty Cobb stole home for the 50th time on this date in 1928?
Who cares if Paul McCartney met John Lennon at a church party on this date in 1956?
I know things that matter!!
What else do you need to know!?
Maybe just these announcements…so…
A Note From Tom: June 8th, 2012
Hey everyone!
Wow! Today is gonna be awesome, meteorologically speaking! 85 and sunny! Sunrise for today…6:19am…Sunset at 8:51 pm…So, we have officially fourteen hours, 32 minutes and twenty eight seconds of sunshine today! Sunshine for tomatoes to grow, kids to swim, and all of us to praise God! (Don't forget the sunscreen, tho!)
And it'll be awesome, spiritually speaking! *
*Romans 8:28
Y'know, usually on these Friday Triple C emails, I try to have a thought or two to encourage us for our day before we get to the announcements for the week (and I have one for today!) but we have an important reminder, so I thought I'd give you that news first…
Sunday is the second Sunday of the month and that means "Fellowship Meal!!"
"What is the 2nd Sunday Fellowship Meal?"
Well, ever since CCC started, we've been doing this thing where everyone (mostly) brings food from home and after worship, we put it all together, grab a plate, and we just eat together! Sometimes, folks can't stay for whatever reason, but if you can, it's a bunch of fun!
"How do you make sure everyone doesn't bring the same thing by accident? What if everyone brought green bean casserole and that would be all we had? Or what if everyone brought banana pudding? and we just had banana pudding to share?
Well, I know some who would consider that a sort of miracle…but just so it doesn't happen, we have a plan! There is a list. and usually, on the week before, this announcement goes out…
This Sunday, June 10
is our monthly covered dish luncheon
immediately following the Worship Service.
Please plan to stay and eat!
Bring 2 dishes to share from the following categories:
meat / veggie / salad / bread / dessert
The refrigerator is available to keep cool things cool
and the oven is ready to keep warm things warm,
so come on to Community Groups/Sunday School and put your food
in the kitchen until after Worship Service!
So, you just pick two dishes from whichever categories. When we put it all together, it's always a balanced diet! Tho' not always a WeighWatchers diet! You're on your own, as far as that goes!
"Why do we do this every month?"
That's a great question! There's a simple answer and a complex one!
Simple answer? We're hungry!
Complex answer? Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
"What chapter?"
Wow. You could just read the whole thing!
It's amazing how much food and eating together is in there! Jesus loved eating together with people! The super religious crowd was upset with Him constantly because, not only did He know folks they considered "less than acceptable", but He ATE with them! "Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law complained to his disciples, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?'” (Luke 5)
Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son to some people who were upset with Him and said, "Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1)
I remember hearing about a girl named Edith who was afraid she had been too sinful for Jesus to welcome her into His family (of course, He would welcome her!!) but she was encouraged when someone read in church this verse from the ol' King James…"This man receiveth sinners…and eateth with them!" She thought he said…well, you get it!
Our Lord did miracles so people could eat together (Luke 9).
He raised a child from the dead and first thing, got her something to eat (Luke 8)
He promised we'd always have food (Luke 12)
He told stories about food (Luke 17)
He shared His deepest secrets at the table, eating with His friends (Luke 22)
And two folks were shocked and amazed to find He was risen from the dead! Because He was at their table, eating with them! (Luke 24: 30-31)
One super interesting thing is that the Book of Acts was written by Luke as well! It's kind of "Luke vol. 2" And IT'S full of food!
Luke says the first believers in Jesus… "studied what the apostles taught. They shared life together. They broke bread and ate together. And they prayed. Everyone felt that God was near… All the believers were together. They shared everything they had.. Every day they met together in the temple courtyard and in their homes they broke bread and ate together. Their hearts were glad and honest and true. They praised God!" (Acts 2: 42-46)
The word Luke used for "shared together" is the Greek word (Luke's language) "koinonia" We often translate it, "fellowship". It means…uh…"to share together"! They shared tons of stuff! Including their food!
Eating together is a way of saying, "You're important to me! I like being with you and knowing you better! You're like a family in Jesus to me!"
And, amazingly, verse 47 of Acts 2 says, "…They praised God. They were respected by all the people. Every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved!"
People wanted in!
Because lots of hearts want to be in something that makes them feel that someone thinks they're important…
that someone likes hanging out with them and knowing them…
that someone thinks they're family!
Fellowship Meal this Sunday!
Now for my thought of the week…
uh…
I can't remember what it was…
Well, rats!
A Note From Tom: June 1st, 2012
Hey everyone!
Hope you've have an awesome week! Even tho' I know it's been tough with the passing of Doc…
What?! Doc Watson, of course!
What?! You don't know?! Doc Watson was one of our most amazing treasures of American music ever! Tho' he was blind by one year old, he was one of the greatest guitarists from sea to shining sea (if not the greatest!)… He invented using the guitar for country leads and without him we would have never heard of Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, or Vince Gill! They just do what Doc started!
Doc Watson traveled and played for years and years with his best friend and son, Merle. Merle died in an accident in 1985 when a tractor rolled over on him on the farm. Doc almost quit from pain after Merle died. Without Merle, Doc didn't think he wanted to keep going. He told folks that this happened to him…"It was the night before his funeral," Watson said. "I dreamed that I was in a desertlike place so hot that I couldn't breathe. And it was like quicksand. I was up to my waist. And I couldn't move. And that big old strong hand come back and grab my hand. 'Come on Dad, you can make it.' And he got me out of whatever kind of thing I was in, out to where it was cool. It was sunshine, but it was cool. And I waked up and thanked the Lord that he sent him. Guess I better provide for my family."
wow...
We lost Earl Scruggs a few months ago. Flatt and Scruggs are together again.
Doc has joined them.
Doc Watson and Flatt and Scruggs played that ol' simple, beautiful, corny bluegrass stuff.
There’s a reason why bluegrass music is simple…er, corny. “Corny” was first used in 1932 to describe something that appeals to “country folk…to the corn-fed”. When folks lived in the country… grew their own vittles… made their own corn bread (or they didn’t have any bread at all)… life was simpler. Either God sent you rain or you didn’t eat. Either He blessed your garden and fields or you went hungry.
It was as simple as that.
Simple is good. No matter what happens, I know God loves me. I know He knows what He’s doing. It may sound corny, but “I know He has a wonderful plan for my life.” It may be simple, but it’s simply all I need to know.
Psalm 123 says, “My heart is not proud, LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother…”
I don’t understand much but those simple things I know are enough.
One day I was listening to an old album of bluegrass Gospel songs by Doc. There's an old waltz-time song on there, called “Gathering Buds” is about how when kids die before they’re grown, it’s like God is gather flower buds before they bloom so they can flower in Heaven.
Doc was singing this ¾ time ol’ timey hymn with Alan O’Brien of the Nashville Bluegrass Band doing a high, lonesome tenor harmony…
“Jesus has taken a beautiful bud
Out of the garden of love
Borne it away to the city of God
Home of the angels above.
Gathering buds, gathering buds
Wonderful care will be giv'n
Jesus is gathering, day after day
Buds for the palace of Heaven.
Fathers and mothers, weep not or be sad
Still on the Savior rely
You shall behold them again and be glad
Beautiful flowers on high.
Gathering buds, gathering buds
Wonderful care will be giv'n
Jesus is gathering, day after day
Buds for the palace of Heaven.
“Wow!” I thought. “That is corny! I guess back in the day, people had to deal with kids dying young more than today…all those little graves in the Cades Cove cemeteries…It’s so awesome to know that in all we don’t know, at least those parents could be sure that our Lord has taken their kids home with Him…but ‘gathering buds’ seems like a really corny way to say it…”
And then…as Doc was singing this last chorus…”Wonderful care will be giv’n…” it happened.
His voice cracked.
And I cried.
No one would ever know why Merle was crushed by a tractor. The mysteries are deeper than our minds can reach. But to know that God had simply gathered him home. He wasn’t lost…just gathered. Now Doc and Merle are gathered together.
Corny…ah... simple…is good.
A Note From Tom: May 24th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope your day started as awesomely as mine! Tuesdays are so cool up here under the water tower at 100 Ogden! But if you didn't know what was happening, you might ask the question that some have asked themselves…"What IS that?!"
Here's how it goes most Tuesday mornings…
I usually roll into the parking lot about 6:10 am-ish. There is this thing I want to witness…which if you didn't know what was coming, you could ask yourself the question, "What IS that!?"
First you hear it. It's still dark. Many mornings, it's foggy. And you hear these steps. Several steps. And talking! But it's guys saying to each other, "C'man, dudes! We can do this! 13 more seconds! Almost there! By His strength…! Three…two…one...Down!"
Then you hear clanging and clunking of…you're just not sure what.
Then some huffing, puffing, grunting, and lifting! More walking and exhorting! "Let's do this!"
"What IS that?!"
Then it all steps out of the fog! It's dudes! Several of them! All in a line! Like ducks in a row! 'Cause they're kinda waddling! And sweating! And huffing! And encouraging each other! And you still ask yourself, "What on earth IS that?!"
Then you realize that they're carrying things.
Kettle bells!
"What ARE they?!"
Well, kettle bells are weights people use to work out. Picture a bowing ball. But it has a flat bottom. And instead of three little holes, it has a handle on it you hold on to. And instead of weighing 10 pounds, they weigh 40! Or 75! Even 100!
So far, we know that…it's a row of guys walking (and waddling sorta) along Outer Drive, huffing, puffing, grunting, and encouraging each other…
And then… they turn in the parking lot of Triple C at the green n' white sign! But we still haven't really resolved the question, "What IS this!?"
It's a group of awesome brothers in Christ who meet every week day morning in the Morgan's driveway at the "cultural center of Oak Ridge", 104 Dixie Lane. They meet to work out, physically and spiritually. They lift weighs, throw tires, pound punching bags, read some Scriptures and pray for each other and for the day!
On Tuesdays…and here's the answer to the question, "What IS that!?"…they do the "Farmer's Walk", which is walking up to CCC with varying weights of kettle bells, for an appointment we've had every Tuesday for over four years. We all go in the Triple C office…both the sweaty and non…and we bow our heads and we pray! For each other…for our town…for the troubled…for the weary…for upcoming events…for special problems…and for Triple C…and for you!
A room full of guys who lift up their stuff to God for help.
And I know that there are people who STILL would ask this question: "What on earth is THAT!?"
Well, it's what people who love our Lord…
men and women…
early or later in the day…
all around the world…
who have needs and problems…
and who are often very strong, but not strong enough to handle life on their own…
and who can't solve things or change hearts without God's help…
and who love and need our Savior…
do.
…"What IS that?!"
It's men of God doing what men of God do!
That's what IT is!
This Tuesday @ CCC, for whoever wants to come, we're gonna worship and pray for ministries and for Triple C…
6:30 PM (!)
…Join Us!
(Kettle bells not required.)
A Note From Tom: May 18th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope y'all are feeling good 'n…normal! I know I am and I'm thankful for it! Last Tuesday I took off for Barcelona for this Young Life conference and they say it takes one day for every hour of time difference to start to feel normal again, jet-lag-wise. So…Spain is six hours ahead of us…
(Remember that movie, "While You Were Sleeping"? Well, last week, while you were sleeping, I, six hours ahead, was already preaching some of those days! Preaching while others sleep…Hey! I think that happens here too sometimes!)
So…by the time I was ready to fly back home, six days later, my body had finally caught up with me! So I just looked at it and said, "See next week in America!" Now…finally!…almost six days later…Ahhhh!! Normal!!!
Hope you're having a good 'n normal-feeling day too!
Y'know, this morning, I read the most encouraging scripture! I was unexpectedly encouraged! I always get up and jump right into God's Word, looking…on purpose!…for encouragement. But today, I found it where I least expected it! I'm reading thru the Gospel of John right now. I've done it a kabillion times before, so I kinda know what's coming. But today, I didn't know that after reading a disheartening, sad verse, that joy would follow! Let me set it up for you…
Our Lord had was just beginning to share His last Passover, and His parting last words, with the ones He loved so. And He foretell to them the sad thought that not all of them would stand true. One of their number would betray them…
"So be encouraged!"
Huh!? What could POSSIBLY be encouraging about that!?
Glad you asked! Here's some encouragement coming your way!
Jesus added, "But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’ “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am!" (John 13.18-19)
In other words, this betrayal was foretold! And Jesus predicted it! He knew the future! Just like He predicted and foretold to Peter that he would find a coin in a fish mouth or a dude with a water jar on his head! He knows secrets about the future and the heart no one else could possibly know! He is really Who He says! The Scriptures predicted all these events! Even the sad ones! Even Judas! And Jesus foretold them! Only the Lord could do this! He really is Lord of all!
So…when you have an unexpected problem today…and you feel like you're gonna freak…and you wonder why God seems far away…and you feel the fear and/or anger bubbling up inside…Do something else instead! Like rejoicing! Or thanking God! Or praising Jesus because…He predicted this! It's a prophesy being fulfilled! Only the Lord Jesus could have known it was coming! He really is Who He said!
"So if I have an unexpectedly problem-filled day, I'm supposed to praise Jesus because it's fulfilling something and proves Jesus is Lord? What foretelling of Scriptures are you talking about?"
Here goes…ready?
"In the world you WILL have troubles!"
John 16: 33!
Bam!!
Having troubles today? Predicted! He is Lord!
Just like it says in verse four of the same chapter…"I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them…"
Foretold!
How 'bout this one?
"Count it all joy WHEN you encounter trials of all kinds…" (James 1)
Having troubles today? You're living a fulfillment of the Holy Bible!
Here's another! What's the first sound you made this morning when you came out of that bed (or tried to on the first attempt)? Check this!
" We know that the whole creation has been groaning…Not only so, but we ourselves…groan inwardly!"
(Romans 8:22-23)
The Scriptures are coming true!
So if you have troubles, the Bible is true! And Jesus is Lord! And if you have peace if your troubles because you knew to expect them…if you can have peace and even "sleep in the storm" like Jesus did, instead of freaking out and falling apart, you're becoming more and more like Him!
And Romans 8:28 and 29 predicted that!
"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose, for…He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son…!"
It's happening!
You know Jesus even predicted that Peter would swear he didn't even know Jesus…But then, He is Lord! Of course He knew it was coming! And He told His over-confident friend! And in Peter's most discouraging moment, a most encouraging thought! "Jesus knew! He's Lord! And He loves me still!"
I love the way the Italian version puts it…
"Pietro, prima che il gallo canti, Mi negherai tre volte!" (Matt 26.75)
"Peter, before the rooster sings…"
The chicken's crowing was a song! And you knew what the title was?
"He is Lord! He is Lord!"
A Note From Tom: May 11th, 2012
Hey everyone!
Or as we say over here on the Costa Brava in Spain, "hola a todos!"
Wow! So far this has been an awesome time! I'm over here at the Western European Young Life staff conference near Barcelona...I was supposed to come here to encourage all of them but, as usual, just being around them encourages me more!! As Lee and Pottsie know, the same thing even happens to us tons of times when we go to the Anderson County Jail and encourage guys who have come to love jesus in there! So, hanging out with brothers and sisters in Christ, who are serving Him with Young Life far from home...if it's more encouraging for me than for them...well, what did I expect?!
And it's amazing how encouraging y'all are, just thinking about all of you at Triple C from across the ocean! Like last night...
We were doing this thing they call "punto rojo" or the "red dot". It's all about the red dot on the maps with the arrow that says, "you are here"...It's a time for each person to "get real" and share where they are in their walk and adventure here with Jesus. If it's tough, or if they're going through hard trials, they share these. Many began with, "I feel like I'm in a time of transition right now..." with some situation leading them to major changes or difficult adjustments. Many are having tough times and trying, tiring days.
I honestly had to tell them, "I feel like I'm in a time of transition somewhat...my life is sooooo blessed! My church is super sweet, filled with people who love and praise Jesus so much! The leaders of it are an amazing "dream team", frankly My life is so full of men and women of God, friends who simply encourage me all the time! My pastor team at church is a blessing I never imagined i could ever have! My kids and their mates are all awesome! My grand kids (those here and those on the way!) are all super awesome! I'm in love with my best friend and she feels the same about me! My life is transitioning to...awesomeness!!"
Its amazing how everyone, wherever i get to go, who knows Triple C in some way, just loves it!
And they love y'all!
It's fun to get away sometimes and reflect...how blessed we are for you!
Con tanta gratitud!
A Note From Tom: May 4th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having a day FULLLL of thanks, praise, and just…you know…a day that’s a happy one! “Cause we have a million reasons to be thankful all the time! If you just count all the stuff God has forgiven us for on a day-to-day basis, it comes out to an average of about a million reasons to be thankful per month! Plus, all day today, no matter where you go, in ways that go beyond our mind, according to the letter Paul wrote to the brothers and sisters who lived in Ephesus, you’re “seated already in heaven with Jesus”! I don’t fully understand what that means because it’s too awesome to comprehend! But I AM thankful to be sitting there!
Everything looks better from up here!
For all the reasons Jesus gives us to be thankful, we oughta be dancing down the hall at school, cart-wheelin’ out the door to work, and jumping on the desk, doing the tarantella when we get there! It oughta keep us up at night like Christmas eve used to do!
And yet, it takes amazingly little to put a kink in that dance step. The other day I had this jagged-y toenail that somehow was digging into his neighbor. I could feel it when I was walking down the street. Like every step. You know how it is…
…Step…”mmm”…step….”hmmm”…step…”yikes!”…step…”uuhhhh, I need to fix that”…step…”owww! That kinda hurts!”…step…”wonder if it’s bleeding”…step…”That’s gonna drive me NUTS!!”...step…”DON’T THINK ABOUT IT!!”...step…”HOWAMISUPPOSEDTONOT THINKABOUTIT!??”...step…
Just takes a toenail to dominate your thankfulness!
Last week, I was thinking about how little it takes to deflate my praise because I was reading some stuff by Joni Eareckson Tada., whose heart knows how to praise no matter what! Maybe you know who she is. You should. She is amazing! At seventeen, she broke her neck, diving into a too shallow Chesapeake Bay. She’s been a quadriplegic in a wheelchair since ’67. At the beginning, she didn’t know how…or, if…she could make it through each day. Her desperation prayer…”Lord, if I can’t die, help me to live!!”
Wow! Has she ever!! She learned to paint with a brush between her teeth… she’s written 35 books (which rock!)…“Joni and Friends”, her international ministry to the disabled, has served thousands in hundreds of countries…and her radio program is heard on 1000 stations! She’s been on Presidential advisory boards and U. S. State Department commissions.
If a raggedy toenail messes with my thanks, what if you couldn’t use your whole body below your head? Joni decided to praise Jesus!...No matter what!
The other day, I was reading something that she wrote about the first moments she’ll spend in Heaven, suddenly enjoying a new, WORKING, glorious body. She was reflecting on the first things she’ll do… things she hasn’t been able to do from her wheelchair all these years. “Will I dance like I haven’t in forever? Will I jump up and down and then leap into my Savior’s arms? ”, she wondered. And then she mentioned a conference she attended. The speaker asked everyone at the end of his talk, to slip out of their chairs and quietly kneel on the floor in a few moments of worship. She said that as she looked over the room, the only one sitting upright in her chair she couldn’t abandon, she wept. Not for loneliness of being the only one excluded from adoration’s posture, but for the beauty of a room full of kneeling.
“The first thing I’ll do when I have a body that is made new won’t be running, or jumping, or dancing. The first thing I’ll do when I see Him is…kneel.”
Me. too.
A Note From Tom: April 27th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
I was going to say, "Quite frankly, today is going to be a beautiful day!"
And then I started thinking, "…I wonder what that means? What do people mean when they say, 'frankly'? Why don't they say, 'billyly'…or 'quite walterly'…Why Frank?"
So I looked it up.
Let me be frank. It comes from ancient French. Franks were the free people who conquered the Gauls from the Romans. They made France from that. The Franks were the free people who had the right to say whatever they wanted. Their slaves couldn't say whatever because it would get them in trouble. Sooo…to be "frank" came to mean "to be sincere, honest genuine and open"…like the first French were.
If I were to say, frankly, "today is going to be a beautiful day"…frankly speaking, I'd have to say, "Aujourd'hui, ce sera un beau jour!" That's how the frank French would say it, frankly!
Speaking of frankness…
Y'know how sometimes people say, "I'll tell ya the truth, I…" Or sometimes you hear, "Quite honestly, I would say that…"
"…I'll tell ya the truth…?"
"…quite honestly…?"
If they tell they're being honest in THAT moment, what do they do the rest of the time? Maybe being PERFECTLY honest isn't as easy as we think. I read a blog the other day from someone who is one my favorite writers, quite frankly. Check this from leeyounger.tumblr.com…
"The Freedom of Being Honest
Let’s get real, shall we? Most folks aren’t honest about who they really are. Most people cover up their sin and put on a show for everyone in their lives. Then they protect the reputation of this make-believe version of themselves by pretending that everything is okay and that they’re doing just fine. They don’t have anyone in their life they are truly open and honest with and there’s never any issue they’re struggling with or problem they can’t solve.
Why do we do this? Huh? Why do we manufacture a version of us that is less real than the tooth fairy and then go out of our way to convince everyone we know that this is who we really are?
I think we pretend because we are scared to death of two things. Number one, we are afraid of being humiliated, and number two, we are afraid of being rejected. I think we hide our sin and cover up who we really are because we are terrified that if we were honest about ourselves, we would be disgraced, ashamed, shunned and forsaken.
Now, since most of us have done this exact thing a hundred times, we all know the biggest problem with it - which is the fact that pretending we’re awesome doesn’t actually make us awesome. In fact, it makes us worse. We become isolated because the relationships we actually have aren’t all that real, since we’re leading off with a fake person who doesn’t actually exist. No one truly knows the ‘real’ us and we become more alone all the time. This leads to having no power to change the behavior that led to our isolation, which makes us dive deeper down inside it. It’s a cycle that only gets worse.
Look at what David says in Psalm 32 - “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me.”
So what do you do if you’re stuck in that lonely cycle? Well, it’s really simple, actually. You find someone in your life that you can trust, and you open up to them. Ask them to pray for you. Admit your struggle. Tell them how powerless you are to stop it. If you will do that, I can absolutely guarantee you that those things you’re afraid of will evaporate like smoke. You won’t feel humiliated or forsaken. Instead, you’ll find out you’re not alone. You’ll learn that other people struggle just like you. You’ll be able to laugh at yourself and the spell of that cycle of sin will start to unravel and break. Friends, there is freedom and power in honesty. It takes a brave person to be real, and it takes an honest person to change. If you’re tired of being trapped by the cycle of isolation, loneliness, hypocrisy and wrong that makes you hate who you really are, then open up and I guarantee you that everything will change."
Wow! That was awesome!
Or, to say it frankly, "C'etait genial!"
A Note From Tom: April 20th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome day! It's gonna be a great day for anything fun you might have planned, like…jogging! To get ready for the Young Life 5K Run/Walk two weeks from tomorrow!
"What?! I can't run that far! I know the K in 5K stands for one thousand! I can't run 5000 anything!"
Whoa, Nellie! A 5K is 5000 meters, not miles or acres! It's only 3.1 miles! That's not bad! A server in at Ruby Tuesday's can walk between six and ten miles per shift! So three miles without having to carry burgers or wait on potentially grumpy people isn't too tough!
Still haven't decided whether to do it yet? Let me give you a few things to think about…
It's soooo good to work on being fit and healthy! Sometimes, those who love our Lord neglect this! A study at Purdue showed that 20% of those who call themselves "Conservative Christian" have more to them than they should! 27% of Baptists are overweight…I remember one person saying that in their third grade class, they were studying religions of the world, and kids were bringing items from their different religions to school for "Show and Tell". One girl said, "My family's Jewish and this is a menorah." A young Muslim boy said, "Our religion is Islam. This is a prayer rug." A little Baptist kid said, "I'm a Baptist. This is a casserole dish."
One journalist went to a wedding where they didn't believe in drinking alcohol, so instead of toasting the bride with wine, they used ice cream sundaes!
Yikes!
We happen to live in a physical body. And how you eat, sleep, and move affects how you feel, think, and "emote". Lots of times folks struggle with discouragement and even depression they don't understand. Sometimes it's an emotional thing but sometimes it's more of a physical problem. Maybe I need to change how I eat (too much junk!) or how I sleep (not enough of that!)…Elijah was so depressed, he didn't want to face another day! Answer? An angel told him to eat some healthy stuff and he got a good nap! (1 Kings 19)
Still need convincing? Here's some reasons straight out of the Bible (sorta!)…
You don't have to run the whole way! You can walk from start to finish! Walking's not anything to be ashamed of! In Isaiah 40, he says that those who "wait on the Lord will renew their strength! …They will run and not get weary! They will walk and not faint!" So…walking's just as good!
If you want to run, that's good, too! Jeremiah wrote, "Run for your lives!" (Jer. 51)…but you're not running for your life! You're running for the lives of kids! All the money that comes in that morning will go to pay for kids in Anderson Co so they can go to Young Life camp this summer and hear about Jesus! Without your help, many couldn't go! It's for their lives!
Paul says, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize!" (1 Cor 9)You can run like you were the only one to get a prize…but on May 5, EVERYONE gets a T-shirt and other cool stuff!
In Hebrews 12, it says, "Let us run with patience the race marked out for us!" Sometimes my race through life is a little difficult because I know God knows what's ahead, but I don't always (or hardly ever know!)…but this race will be clearly marked out! From the ORHS parking lot to around the Soup Kitchen, the Farmer's Market, and back!
In Exodus 12, the Egyptians gave money and stuff so the Israelites could go into the desert and camp for years. In the YL 5K, you give money ($25 pre-register or $30 day of) so kids can go to a YL camp for a week! And their lives will NEVER be the same!
So there are plenty of great reasons for you to join us for the YL 5K! I might have stretched some of those references a little too much, but Hey! It's always good to stretch before a race!!
Sign up today!
A Note From Tom: April 13th, 2012
Hey, everyone!!
Or better still, Good morning, everyone!
It's still dark out…It is 6:07 am. Or a.m.(with the periods after "a" and "m"!) …or AM (in capitals)…Apparently you can write it either way! Where we used to live, they didn't use am or pm (or a.m. and p.m.) time. They just used all 24 hours. If you had a meeting at 20:30, it was 8:30 pm…or if you usually get home at 18:15,…well, you can figure it out!
Ever wonder what they mean? Well, it's Latin..."am" stands for "ante meridian" and "pm" means "post meridian", or "before the meridian" and "after the meridian"…with the "meridian" or "middle" being noon!
Ever wonder where the word "noon" comes from?
Me too. Anyhoooo….
Something awesome is happening right now outside our window down here in OS!
You can beeaaarrrrly see it, but…the sun's starting to come up!!
It fills your heart to just see it! Because you know that today is going to be a beautiful day!
"Another nice and sunny day, may see a few clouds in the northern half of the viewing area. Temperatures will be even warmer, reaching into the low 70s…"
Thanks, Todd Howell!
And the first light of dawn is a promise in blue and rose colors that it's just the beginning!
You, know, if this was January and we were watching this first light of the day in Juneau, Alaska, we wouldn't be all that pumped about it…Because we'd only get this first ray of sunshine at about 3:30 pm (or 15:30!) and this would be all we get! It'd start to get dark about 3:45! (It might not be as rough as that, but that's what Ive heard!)
The dawn in Alaska wouldn't be the promise of anything more. It'd just be all you get! 'Til May…ish!
So, looking over Mahoney Road, I know the little morning light I see is a promise of a beautiful day ahead!
Just before the sun began to peep over the hills, I read some amazing words from one of my favorite people ever…
John Newton was a pastor in England for years and years in the 1700's and was one of the sweetest! One early morning, he was sitting with his Scriptures, looking out the window at the breaking of the day. He began to write.
Check this (you might have to read it a couple times! I did!)...
"The day is now breaking: how beautiful its appearance! How welcome the expectation of the approaching sun! It is this thought that makes the dawn agreeable, that it is the presage of a brighter light. Otherwise, if we expect no more day than it is this minute, we should rather complain of darkness, than rejoice in the early beauties of the morning. Thus the Life of grace is the dawn of immortality: beautiful beyond expression, if compared with the night and thick darkness which formerly covered us; yet faint, indistinct, and unsatisfying, in comparison of the glory which shall be revealed."
Wow!
Did you catch that?! The dawn is soooo beautiful because it's the promise of a bright, sunny day! If we thought this was all the light we get for the day, it'd just be frustrating. But since we know it's the beginning of…more! we're up and eager for what's coming!
Maybe you're trying to read the Scriptures yourself. "I get something out of it, but I'm frustrated! I wish I understood so much more!"
You will! That's not all the light you'll get! It's just morning in our hearts! We're just waking up! "For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known!" (1 Corinthians 13)
Maybe there's something you really don't like about yourself! You do pretty good sometimes, but find you still stumble and fall in the same mud hole! It's soooo frustrating! But, hey! You'll do better! You ARE doing better!! You used to not dislike it so much! You used to kinda jump into that mud! Now you don't like it! It's morning! The dawn is coming! There are rays of light and hope in that heart!
And it'll get brighter!
Maybe there's someone you struggle with…Y'know…they drive you nuts! And you don't like disliking them! You'd like to like them! And you're frustrated…But, Hey! You used to like disliking them! Now you dislike disliking them! And you'd like to like them! You'll love them one day! I know it! Because you can see some rays of light in your heart! it's getting brighter! The Son's comin' up!
Here's a Scripture I love! It's Proverbs 4:18…(or 16:18…wait! That's not right!)
"The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day!"
Today is April 13, 2012. It's 6:48. The sun's coming up! It's getting to be a bright, beautiful day in Oliver Springs!
And in your heart and mine!
Good morning, everyone!
A Note From Tom: April 5th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day….and an awesome week! On this awesome Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, when brothers and sisters in Christ around the world stop to remember the price that was paid so that they COULD be brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, our Risen Lord! Some times I think it’s tough for some people to know how to have an awesome week on this the holiest of weeks because they don’t know what they are supposed to feel. Easter Sunday is a day filled with PRAIIIISSSEEE! …because we remember our Lord is alive!! But what about the days before…?
“How am I supposed to feel today? Why is today even called Maundy Thursday? What does it even mean?”
“Maundy” comes the Latin phrase “mandatum novum” which means “a new commandment”. It’s to remind us of the night Jesus shared that Supper in the upper room with His guys…the night He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another…”
Love for people would be good to feel on this day…and every day.
“But what about Good Friday? Why do they call it ‘good’ if you have to remember the saddest hours of all of time? How can you have a ‘good Friday’ on the saddest day?”
Actually, the phrase, “Good Friday” comes from “God’s Friday” because it was the day God bought and paid for us so we could be “God’s on Friday”…and everyday! And that’s a reason to be glad!
But at the same time, it’s easy to feel like, “Y’know, I’m hesitant to celebrate anything on that day because it was so, so, so sad for Him. It was the day that darkness was over all the earth. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel on Good Fridays…or what I will feel when this Good Friday comes.”
One Who was not in any way confused about what He would feel on that awful, awesome day, was the One Whose suffering put out the lights of the world.
Mark 10 says, “They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him…”
Luke 9 says, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem…”
The old King James puts it like this…”he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem…”
Isaiah predicted that He would be resolved, resolute, in no way tentative or hesitant to do what He came to do. “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be confused. Therefore have I set my face like flint…”
A flint was an arrowhead. The cross was His target and He was soaring toward it!
No confusion.
No hesitation.
He came to buy you. His whole heart was it…in doing what the Father sent Him to do.
“This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life…No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will…”
At 2:00 pm on January 1, 1863 as President Lincoln was getting ready to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing three and a half million people in one bold move … a move many bitterly and unmercifully criticized him for… thousands waited “in agony…for the first flash of the electric wires”…for the news that he had done it. “Every moment of waiting chilled our hopes and strengthened our fears” that it might not happen…that the President might turn back.
They had to wait just one moment longer.
The President was so emotional…and he was so tired from shaking hands all day…that his own hand was trembling.
He stopped and put the freshly dipped pen down on the desk. “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper. If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the Proclamation, all who examine the document hereafter will say, ‘He hesitated.’”
So, he waited. Then, when his hand was calm and steady, he took up the pen, “slowly and carefully” signing his name. And “the signature proved to be unusually bold, clear, and firm, even for him.”
“A. Lincoln”
Jesus had no hesitation or confusion. He was resolute. He would do what it would take to set you free and make you His. He would sign our emancipation in His sacred blood…”bold, clear and firm”.
So, what am I supposed to feel? Maybe I’m still not sure if I should happy or sad on Friday.
But I will love Him! And I’ll praise Him.
Come and join us for a time of worship of the Risen Lord Jesus as we remember the price He unhesitatingly paid to make you His own.
A Note From Tom: March 23rd, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day, filled with praise! Speaking of days filled with things…
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about people who are heroes because on Sunday mornings, I’ve been sharing stories about heroes in Scripture who would encourage people they'd never meet to keep goin'. Maybe thinking about men and women who are heroes to people has made me more aware of awesome people. Lately my days have been filled with reading about or hearing about heroes!
Like eight year-old Emma Hicks of Clemburne, Texas who climbed out of her seatbelt and over the backseat to take the wheel of her grandmother’s speeding SUV after Granny passed out in the driver’s seat! "And her foot was on the gas pedal and then we were going!” Emma said. She missed a turn and crashed through a fence and into a shed. Gramma woke up and had missed her granddaughter’s finest moment! Too bad! But Granny almost “woke up dead”, so, we’ll call it even!
You know, one thing about people who are my heroes is that they’re not perfect people…
It’s discouraging to try to be like someone you think is miraculously perfect…because no one is! One of my heroes was a pastor in England named Charles Spurgeon. He was amazing and awesome…but he smoked! A lot!
One woman wrote him and said she had heard he smoked. “I can’t believe it’s true…” He wrote back this note, “Dear Mrs. So-and-so, I cultivate my flowers and burn my weeds. Yours truly, C. H. Spurgeon”
Another woman was upset that he was smoking at the table during a dinner and asked if he could find any verse in the Scriptures to support his tobacco habits. “Sure! Psalm 84 says we pass through the Valley of Baca!”
“My Heroes”, by Tom Job
It’s not someone I could never be.
It’s someone who’s a lot like me.
But who trusts the One no eye can see.
Lord, make me be a lot more like he…or she!”
Sometimes, in making heroes of others, things are “remembered”, told, and passed along that didn’t really happen.
This doesn’t help.
A book about the shootings that happened more than ten years ago at Columbine High School, explains that Cassie Bernall, who died on that day, and who became famous for saying “Yes!”, when asked if she believed in God, one second before she left our world, actually wasn’t the one who answered that question. Cassie was never given the chance. Even though her life story was entitled, “She Said, ‘Yes’!”, it was actually a survivor of that awful day, Valeen Schnur. Valeen, who was asked by the one who shot her if she believed in God, after he had done it.
She said, “Yes.”
But even though Cassie Bernall might never have said the words she is known for, she is still a hero to me. The day after she went home to be with the Lord, only two years after she had trusted in Him to be her own, her brother, Chris, found a piece of paper on the seventeen year old’s desk in her room. She had written these words…
“Now I have given up on everything else-
I have found it to be the only way
To really know Christ and to experience
the mighty power that brought
Him back to life again,
To find what it really means
To suffer and to die with Him.
So, whatever it takes, I will be the one who lives
In the fresh newness of life
Of those who are alive from the dead.”
Lord, make me be a lot more like…she.
A Note From Tom: March 16th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Wow! What an awesome day!! Hope your day is starting out filled with praise!! I'm sitting up here on the outside pews at Triple C, listening to hundreds of birds chirping and praising Him!! At least, I think that's what all the chirping means! I know that ornithologists (birds experts! I had to look it up, folks…) say that bird chirps have different meanings…Their chirps can be territorial ("Hey! That's my branch! Those are my worms! You get the heck out of this yard!! Go chirp yourself!")…or their chirps can have significance in the whole feathery world of mating (as in, "Hey, honey. You're quite a chick…Why don't you come over and check out my nest?…") But I just believe that what they're really chirping is love for Jesus! As the Apostle says, "…their Lord and ours!" (1 Cor 1.2)
Y'know, for some, praise just isn't that habit that automatically comes gushing out of the heart and bursting out in your words. And new habits take work!
The other day, Tina and I were driving on Cedar Bluff Road with a backseat full of grand kids. There was a car beside us at the red light. In the passenger seat was an elderly granny…about eighty-some…smoking a cigarette. For some reason, it seemed to me that there was something…I dunno…weird about it. "Is that a cigarette? In your eighties and still smoking? Wait, Is it a pen?" (Normally, I'm not this nosey about what's going on in the car next-door…)
Then she took a drag…uh…puff…whatever you call it. Then I realized it was a plastic cigarette-y thing. Tina said it's a new invention for a person who's trying to quit. It makes you feel like you're smoking but you're not. It's steam coming out. You're not smoking, you're steaming. It gives you clouds of something to blow, some -but increasingly less- nicotine, a little of the "feel", but none of the emphysema, until you can finally quit!
"Wow! I thought, "What a brave person! After probably seventy years, she's trying to finally give it up!" ('Course, I'm assuming she was eighty-some. Might have been in her forties, but looked eighty from being smoked out all those years)
My five-year-old grandson Henry added from his car seat, "It's really hard to quit sucking your thumb. I bet it's hard to quit sucking cigarettes, too!"
Word!
I hope the fake cig works! I did wonder about the wisdom of the faux smoke plan, though. It seems to me that in the Scriptures, when you are trying to quit one thing, it IS important to do something else instead. BUT most of the time, it's not something that's like what you're quitting. Most of the time, the other thing you start doing instead of the thing you don't wanna do, is NOT at all like what you WERE doing! It's more like the opposite!
Like instead of smoking, don't "pretend smoke"! Run a mile! Sing! Swim those laps! It's the opposite! And better!
…Or take where Paul says, "Don't be anxious! Pray with thanks, instead!" (Phil 4.8-9) Instead of worrying, give thanks! It's not like worry at all! Complaining would be more like worrying! Giving thanks is the opposite of worry! It's the perfect substitute!
Instead of hating your enemies, "pray for them!" (Matt 5.44) To quit one thing, do the opposite of it!
"If you used to steal stuff, don't do that anymore! Work with your hands instead!" (Eph 4. ) It's the perfect substitute 'cause it's the opposite! Later he says, "Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving!" There it is again! Thanks substitutes for worry AND telling dirty jokes!
If you're trying to quit something bad, don't trade it for something like it, but, as they say on Monty Python, "for something completely different!"
I got thinking about this the other day when I read something our Lord yelled (in a storm!) to His guys…Matthew 14, verse 27…"Guys! Take courage! It is I! Don’t be afraid!”
Did you catch it? "Don't be afraid! Do something else instead!"
"Do what instead!?"
"Take courage!"
"What does that mean?"
"Glad you asked!"
Experts tell us that the word Matthew wrote, in the language he originally wrote it in, for "take courage" means, "to be emboldened from within" – that is, bolstered within, supporting unflinching courage – literally, to radiate warm confidence (exude "social boldness") because you are warm-hearted…"
Instead of being afraid, be bold!!
Don't just try to stop being afraid! Sing! If you're afraid of a conversation you need to have, GO HAVE IT! With all your heart! If you're worried about not having enough money, trust God and give some away! If you're anxious about what people think of you, trust God and say, "Good morning! How are you?" to the next person you see!
Better yet, give 'em a big hug!
Well…maybe not!...But you get the idea!
To quit one thing, do the opposite!
Don't smoke! Run around the block!
Don't keep yelling at your kids! Laugh with them!
Don't talk about someone! Call 'em and encourage them! Write 'em a note! Tell 'em God loves them!
Don't hold a grudge against someone! Forgive everyone you can possibly think of!
Don't worry about one thing! Thank God for 37 things!!
Don't be afraid! Praise! Sing! In your car! In your house! In your office! At the mall! Maybe someone will think you're nutty! Who cares!?
Don't chirp bossy things! Chirp His praises!
It may sound the same to some…but it ain't!
A Note From Tom: March 8th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Yikes! I usually like to send you some encouragement along with these weekly Triple C announcements. Unfortunately, today I feel I have to begin with a health alert and, yes, I’ll go ahead and call it a health warning. Your health could be at a slightly elevated risk this week. I’m not sure you know, so I’m telling you: this is the week we turn our clocks AHEAD one hour for daylight saving time!
Wow! The beginning of DST seems like those Christmas decorations at Walmart you see in September! Isn’t it coming earlier and earlier every year?
Actually, it isn’t. Last year we jumped ahead on March 13 and the year before that it was on the 14th. But in 2009, daylight saving time (officially, it’s not “daylight savings time”) was on March 8! I was thinking it happened in April every year...Wrong! Guess I was just confused.
And changing the clock back and forth in spring and fall CAN be confusing! Take f’r instance...
Let’s saying there’s an expecting mom. And let’s say her labor starts on the day in November before they turn the clocks back one hour at the end of daylight saving time. But, this mom doesn’t really care if it’s “spring forward, fall back”...because her mind is focused on something more important! And let’s say she’s expecting twins. And let’s say it’s almost time. As her first baby arrives (congratulations!) the new mom and dad look at the clock and it’s 1.38 am. They name him Jack. “Welcome to our world, Jack!” Then, it’s time for his little sister to arrive! Jill is born at 2:07 am! “Welcome, Jill! Your big brother’s waiting for you!” Except...
The clocks turned back at 2:00! So, technically Jill was born at 1:07! She’s not the little sister! She’s the big sister! By 31 minutes! Even tho’ Jack was born first and “Jill came tumbling after”!
So why does this CCC weekly email come with a health alert? Well, a chronobiological researcher has discovered that the change in the clocks is a mild shock to the system (duh!). “The circadian clock does not respond well to the time change," said Till Roenneberg of Ludwig Maximilans University in Munich, Germany. In fact, researchers in Sweden found that there is an increase in heart attacks immediately after the time change. "More than 1.5 billion men and women are exposed to the transitions involved in daylight saving time," wrote Imre Janszky and Rickard Ljung. "These transitions can disrupt chronobiologic rhythms and influence the duration and quality of sleep, and the negative effects to health last for several days after the time change..."
Wow!
Turning the clock forward and losing that sleep this week is gonna tougher on us than we thought! Altho’ for some of us, if we could really turn the clock waaaaay ahead, it would probably help us sleep!
Sometimes, it’s tough to sleep because you have a problem weighing on you and you don’t know how it’s going to turn out. “Will we be OK? Why is this happening to us?” You go to bed thinking about it and voila’! You turn over and realize it’s 3:17 am and you’re wide awake! But Romans 8:28 says that God is working everything into a beautiful plan! And somehow, some way, that problem that’s got you up is a piece and a part of His plan for you! And He’s going to make good come from it! What if you could turn the clock so far ahead into the future that you could actually see how He is going to make it all come together for good?
Ahhh! Snooze-inducing peace at last!
Miraculously turning the clock that far forward wouldn’t make you lose sleep! It’d make you GO to sleep! It’d help you get more sleep!
Or maybe you can’t sleep because you’re so disappointed in yourself. You feel hopeless. Maybe even a little desperate. “I failed again in the same stupid way! Why did I say/do/think/drink that? Again! Will I ever be different?”
And it’s 2:43. And you’re awake.
What if you could turn the clock ahead now? But not one hour. What if you could turn it ahead so far that you could see yourself the way you’ll be one day after our Lord comes back for us? What if you could see yourself the way you’ll one day be for forever and ever? What if you could see the future You? What if you could get one teeny weeny tiny glimpse of the You you’ll be one day?...The new You! The renewed You! The coming-soon You! The Daniel 12:3 “...shining like the brightness of the heavens...like the stars for ever and ever” You!
And maybe some of the problems that wake you up at night are a piece of what God is using in that Romans 8:28ing kinda way to get you closer to the You you’re sure to be!
Turn the clocks way ahead in your heart by faith and think about THAT when you hit the pillow!
ZZZZZZZZZZ...zzzzzzzzzz........zzzzzzzz......zzzzzzzz...
A Note From Tom: March 2nd, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day! Even tho’ some might be a little more…uh…sad...and/or a little more grumpyish… than normal because of the Lenten season! Lent is the time when so many give up things for the 40 days before Easter. I know it’s tough to have to do without stuff that you like (love!) more than you realized. Like those commercials for the patch that helps you stop smoking… “Side effects may include increased irritability…”
Y’think?!
Between Feb 19 and 25, someone took a Twitter survey of 300,000 tweets that were tweeted (or is it “that were twit”?) asking folks what they were giving up for Lent. Many of the choices were pretty traditional…meat (in tenth place)…chocolate (number two)…sex (eighth out of the top one hundred)…ice cream (thirty third)…
Some of the things that people quit for Lent were choices saints of old couldn’t have chosen, like…facebook (#6)…social networking (#23)…twitter (#1!).
Then there was…”biting my nails”… “Nutella”… “sarcasm”… “”procastination” (better now than later!)…
One I liked was number twenty…“giving things up”! As in, “I’m giving up giving up things!”
I guess I liked that one because I’m not a huge Lenten person. I think it is an awesome exercise for those who really benefit from it! But it’s not really a season I understand well. Sometimes, when I read about it, the basic idea is that you are preparing your heart for Easter by trying to relive the days and weeks before our Lord’s death for us. By depriving yourself of something you love, you enhance the sadness and heaviness of heart that accompanied those who lived those days. Churches and crosses within and without are draped in black. Almost as if nature itself is mourning Him. As one article put it “Christians have ritually reenacted for millennia in the observance of Lent and, especially, of Holy Week. The fasting of Lent makes space for the feasting of Easter; wallowing in the horror of death makes space for glorying in the hope of the Resurrection.”
Then, when it’s finally Easter morning, we are filled with joy with the renewed realization that He is alive!! Only thing is…
To me, it almost feels like I’m trying to pretend. Like “Let’s pretend” when we were kids. It feels to me sometimes that at Lent I’m trying to pretend that my Lord is about to die. I’m trying to pretend that we are in the days leading to His death. Then, we’ll celebrate that He’s risen and alive on Easter Sunday. But for now, during Lent I’m pretending He isn’t risen yet.
But that’s a game I already play too much.
Sometimes I forget to remember that my Savior is alive! He lives!! If I could only realize all the time that He is Risen Lord of all, and King of kings! He rules over everything that happens! Because Jesus rose from the tomb and reigns on His throne…
…because “the Lion of the tribe of Judah has overcome (Revelation 5.5)
…and because from His throne, “He works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Ephesians 1.11)
…because from there, my Risen Lord is “working all things together for good for us” (Romans 8.28)
8)…because He lives for us, “alive from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep” (Hebrews 13.20)…
…because of these things…
…I never have to worry about anything again! Because He lives!! And reigns!!
I need to NEVER forget that again!
In fact, because our Lord Jesus is alive and risen for us, and because He lives inside of all of us who love and trust Him, giving us power to be different than we’ve ever been, there are lots of things we should give up for Lent! Things like…
…“negativity” (number 96)
… “complaining” (in eigthty fifth place)
…and “being mean” (coming in at ninety third)
There are plenty of things I should give up for Lent! Not because Jesus hasn’t yet risen from the dead.
But because He has!
A Note From Tom: February 24th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Just wondering if you’re seein’ what I’m seein’?
Daffodils!
I knew by faith that they would be peeping through and…I was right! Hey, everyone! it’s almost spring!!
Guess winds like we’ve been having over the last coupla days come with nearly-spring! And here’s the rest of your local forecast…” There's a chance for a some snow flurries (what!?) early Saturday morning. Otherwise, skies will clear out with sunshine returning along with dry weather conditions. Highs will be cold in the upper 40s Saturday, then back into the middle 50s on Sunday with lots of sunshine!
If the wind keeps blowing really hard, there’s a big tall cedar tree leaning out across the road near us that might just decide it’s time to end it all.
One year a while back, on a Saturday morning in March, at 2:13 am, a huge branch…’bout twice as thick as a telephone pole…broke off a tree in our yard and SLAMMED! to the earth! Barely missed the house but totally took out the dog fence (smashed it flat!) and we had to capture a furry escapee...
I knew it was 2:13 ‘cause when it started to crack, break, and fall, it was such a weird sound that we just woke up! I looked over at the clock right as it turned from 2:12…then WHAM!! 2:13!!
That tree didn’t even care that it woke up people and freed dogs! Because…
...trees don’t have feelings!
I was just thinking about this, because this morning I was reading a kinda “different” story in Mark 8 about a blind guy that Jesus healed. But it took two “doses” of His healing power! At the first touch, the dude said he could see but people looked like “trees walking around”. They were people, f’r sure, but they seemed to have bark ‘n branches! Jesus gave him another touch and he saw everything perfectly.
Hard to know exactly why Jesus used the two-step approach. It couldn’t be because Jesus “missed” the first time! He could do whatever perfectly with just a word!
It might be because there were folks who were beginning to “see” and understand Him for the first time…but maybe some saw Him “like a tree walking around”. Maybe they thought He was like other people they had known. Unmoved and unfeeling.
Like trees.
But then you get to know Him better and you find He’s like no one you’ve ever known!
John wrote, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3.1) The phrase “how great” translates a Greek word that comes from two words together- the word for “from where” and the word “country”…The love of God! What country does it come from? It’s like nothing we’ve ever known around here! As we used to say, back in the day, it’s “out of this world!”
But if Jesus WERE like a tree, He would be like the apple tree of love in the Song of Songs! A young woman in love said about the one she loves…
“an apple tree among the trees of the forest is my lover among the young men.. I delight to sit in his shade, and his fruit is sweet to my taste. He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.” (Song of Songs 2. 3-4) His fruit is good and sweet and she doesn’t have to climb to get it! She just sits in his shade and there it is!
Just like Jesus!
I don’t have to do anything to get Him to love me! He just does! I just sit with Him and His sweet goodness falls on me!
One of my favorite pastors of all human history, a Brit named Charles Spurgeon preached one time about “Jesus, the apple tree” in his London church...
“Now, at this time I want you to think of Jesus…as an apple tree; and when this is done, I ask you to sit down under His shadow. It is not much to do. Any child, when it is hot, can sit down in the shade.
… any simpleton can eat apples when they are ripe upon the tree. Come and take Christ, then… come to the common woods and to the common apple tree where poor saints are shaded and fed. … May the Lord Himself bring forth His own sweet fruit to you! Amen.”
In fact, now that I think about it, there’s a beeeaaautiful old New England hymn that says Jesus Christ IS that apple tree!
Listen to these words…
The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.
His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.
For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.
I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.
This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree
Soooo cool.
Daffodils…apple trees…Happy “Almost Spring!”, everyone!