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!
A Note From Tom: February 17th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day! Because it’s awesome out there! If you can get off a little early, it’d be an amazing day for anything you’d want to do! Go for a walk by the lake, hit some golf balls, eat some peanut butter, sing your special song, fly around...
“Huh?”
Oh. Sorry. Those last three suggestions were for these birds we’ve been feeding for the last few months! They love these squares of peanut buttery bird stuff we get at Home Depot! They’re made by the fine folks at C&D Suets of Fort Dodge, Iowa and come in a bunch of flavors! The ads say, “Ingredients vary from peanuts to papaya, hot pepper to almond, berry to cherry, and raisin to insect...Start with a suet that is most appealing to you!”
We figured if we were going to pick a “flavor most appealing to us”, “peanut butter” beats “insect” almost every time!
And they go crazy for it!
It’s an extra trip to HD and it costs a little, but I’m finding out I love those feathery, fluttery friends! The more we take care of them, the more I care about them!
We get little downy woodpeckers (or the picoides pubescens) They are awesome! They have black and white striped backs but their wings are checkered! Their heads have a big white stripe with a red dot! “They know how to drink sap from holes made by Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers!”
Wow!
We have Carolina chickadees, too! You might know them as Poecile carolinensis. “...black cap, black bib, and white cheeks...” Can’t miss ‘em! They stay paired up for years (that’s sweet!) and they can remember where they hid thousands of things they wanna eat weeks later!
White-throated sparrows love peanut butter too! They’re gonna leave in mid-May. Headin’ back to Alaska. And I’m gonna miss them! They’re kinda chubby right now ‘cause they have 40% more feathers on their bodies in winter (2500, mas o menos) than in summer (‘bout 1500 each)!
The website tnwatchablewildlife.org says their song is two loud tweets followed by triplet notes. They say it sounds like “Oh sweet Canada Canada Canada” or “Old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody”. That’s a pretty random interpretation to me. I listened to it and it sounded more like “I looove tooo waaatch Teeee Veeee” or “four threeee threeee threeeee twooo threeeee.”
Anyway, I’m loving our birds! I’m not sure but I think it’s because I’m starting to care for them. It makes me care about them! We’ve never had “suet” of the grocery list ‘til now. But I need to make sure my friends are gonna be OK! Where would they be...without me?
Sometimes I’ve wondered if I’m a pest or a bother to my Lord! I always need stuff! I need Him to help me all the time! I churp and cheep at Him all day! But I’m learning from birds that He loves to care for me!
And I know He loves my song!! It’s a long cheep and five short churpy notes, It goes like this...”pleeeease help me thru my daaaay...pleeease help me thru my daaaay...” He Himself told us, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them!” He even feeds them peanut butter stuff! And He adds, “Are you not much more valuable than they?” (Matthew 6)
And I’m learning this. The more you care for someone, the more you care about them! The more we care for chickadees and sparrows, the more I care about them! He couldn’t love us any more than He already does! He can’t love you more than He does, ‘cause He already loves you infinitely! But as you chirp for your Father’s help, if He could...He would!
“Oh sweet Canada Canada Canada...”
Sorry, folks! Gotta go!
A Note From Tom: February 10th, 2012
Hey, Everyone!
Hang on a sec....uhh...
...Sorry...I need to finish something....let’s see..
“...so we pray for you everyday! We hope you have a heart full of happiness today! You are precious to Jesus and we love you!
Blessings!
Tom and Tina”
Let’s see...hit “Send”!...
There!!
Done!!
Sorry, folks! I was in the middle of writing to our Compassion International child in Uganda when I started my email! And I realized I needed to finish it before I started something else or I’d never get it done!
Our Compassion child we sponsor every month, Doreen Akello is the cutest thing in the world! (Not sure what Compassion International is? Check it! compassion.com) She’s growing strong in Jesus and tells us all about it! We sent a little extra for Christmas and she wrote to thank us and tell us she used it to buy some shoes, some meat for her family (know any kids who buy meat with extra Christmas money?) and she made a Christmas offering to her church!
When you sign up to sponsor a Compassion International child, you send a little money a month...like $38...and you make it possible for a ministry of people who love Jesus who are working in an underdeveloped country to provide food, schooling, health care, and spiritual nourishment for that child! And the kids know that someone somewhere who loves Jesus, also loves and cares about them! It gives a child a heartful of hope in a hopeless world! Not bad for a few bucks a month!
And you write to them! They write you back! You become an important person to a child who is learning he or she is special to God because, among other things...well...because of you!
I don’t know what I could ever do to change the oppressive poverty and despair of Uganda. But a child in Uganda has the food and medicine a growing child needs, she goes to school, and she knows Jesus loves her. And she knows that other people she’s never met love her, too.
And that’s not a little thing.
Sometimes on Sundays, I worry that maybe I said something in church that I shouldn’t have. And sometimes I wonder if I didn’t say something the way I meant to. A few weeks ago, I was worried about both. I had a heaviness in my heart because I had read that much...or maybe most...of the chocolate we consume in the U.S. is made from cocoa harvested by children in the Ivory Coast who work as slaves. They are stolen from, or sold by, their families and live a life of oppression and bondage. Some chocolate companies are trying to change this horrible situation. Some don’t seem to care. I didn’t know whether it was good to speak of it, but I couldn’t help it. I said that it is estimated that as many as 315 children work and live in slavery so we can have chocolate to eat, though they’ll never taste chocolate their whole brief, miserable life.
As I was driving away, I thought, “Should I have spoken of that? And did I say 315 kids?”
I called Tina.
“Did I say 315 kids live in slavery in the Ivory Coast?”
“Yes. 315.”
“Oh no! I wasn’t sure if I should speak of it. But 315 isn’t what I meant. It’s 315,000.”
315,000 kids.
315,000 boys and girls live in slavery in the Ivory Coast. So the world can enjoy it’s chocolate.
What can I do? How can I change a world gone bad? Maybe there are things I can do for the kids of Africa! There are certain brands of chocolate I haven’t touched since then! And I know I want to care about this!
But I thought, “What if it WERE only 315? That is STILL too many! 315 lives lived in misery and pain. What if there were only one?
I can’t change everything. Maybe I can change more than I think if I care more than I do. I know Jesus is coming and children won’t be slaves then! Isaiah says “little children will lead us!”
But I can help one child.
We do. She lives in Uganda. Her name is Doreen. We write to her and we tell her she is precious to Jesus. And we tell her she is precious to us.
Both of those things are true.
Have you written your Compassion child in a while? You can do it online now! It’s super easy! Just go to compassion.com!
They’re waiting to hear from you!
A Note From Tom: February 10th, 2012
Hey, Everyone!
Hang on a sec....uhh...
...Sorry...I need to finish something....let’s see..
“...so we pray for you everyday! We hope you have a heart full of happiness today! You are precious to Jesus and we love you!
Blessings!
Tom and Tina”
Let’s see...hit “Send”!...
There!!
Done!!
Sorry, folks! I was in the middle of writing to our Compassion International child in Uganda when I started my email! And I realized I needed to finish it before I started something else or I’d never get it done!
Our Compassion child we sponsor every month, Doreen Akello is the cutest thing in the world! (Not sure what Compassion International is? Check it! compassion.com) She’s growing strong in Jesus and tells us all about it! We sent a little extra for Christmas and she wrote to thank us and tell us she used it to buy some shoes, some meat for her family (know any kids who buy meat with extra Christmas money?) and she made a Christmas offering to her church!
When you sign up to sponsor a Compassion International child, you send a little money a month...like $38...and you make it possible for a ministry of people who love Jesus who are working in an underdeveloped country to provide food, schooling, health care, and spiritual nourishment for that child! And the kids know that someone somewhere who loves Jesus, also loves and cares about them! It gives a child a heartful of hope in a hopeless world! Not bad for a few bucks a month!
And you write to them! They write you back! You become an important person to a child who is learning he or she is special to God because, among other things...well...because of you!
I don’t know what I could ever do to change the oppressive poverty and despair of Uganda. But a child in Uganda has the food and medicine a growing child needs, she goes to school, and she knows Jesus loves her. And she knows that other people she’s never met love her, too.
And that’s not a little thing.
Sometimes on Sundays, I worry that maybe I said something in church that I shouldn’t have. And sometimes I wonder if I didn’t say something the way I meant to. A few weeks ago, I was worried about both. I had a heaviness in my heart because I had read that much...or maybe most...of the chocolate we consume in the U.S. is made from cocoa harvested by children in the Ivory Coast who work as slaves. They are stolen from, or sold by, their families and live a life of oppression and bondage. Some chocolate companies are trying to change this horrible situation. Some don’t seem to care. I didn’t know whether it was good to speak of it, but I couldn’t help it. I said that it is estimated that as many as 315 children work and live in slavery so we can have chocolate to eat, though they’ll never taste chocolate their whole brief, miserable life.
As I was driving away, I thought, “Should I have spoken of that? And did I say 315 kids?”
I called Tina.
“Did I say 315 kids live in slavery in the Ivory Coast?”
“Yes. 315.”
“Oh no! I wasn’t sure if I should speak of it. But 315 isn’t what I meant. It’s 315,000.”
315,000 kids.
315,000 boys and girls live in slavery in the Ivory Coast. So the world can enjoy it’s chocolate.
What can I do? How can I change a world gone bad? Maybe there are things I can do for the kids of Africa! There are certain brands of chocolate I haven’t touched since then! And I know I want to care about this!
But I thought, “What if it WERE only 315? That is STILL too many! 315 lives lived in misery and pain. What if there were only one?
I can’t change everything. Maybe I can change more than I think if I care more than I do. I know Jesus is coming and children won’t be slaves then! Isaiah says “little children will lead us!”
But I can help one child.
We do. She lives in Uganda. Her name is Doreen. We write to her and we tell her she is precious to Jesus. And we tell her she is precious to us.
Both of those things are true.
Have you written your Compassion child in a while? You can do it online now! It’s super easy! Just go to compassion.com!
They’re waiting to hear from you!
A Note From Tom: February 4th, 2012
Hey everyone!
Wow! I got tons of stuff to do today! So, I was thinking of what to do for my Friday email...I trrryyyy to come up with something that will be a spiritual “snack”, nourishing and encouraging during your week. But today I felt like the disciples when they didn’t have anything to eat for all the people who came to hear Jesus. “Help, Lord!” All the sudden, I got a link thing from our own Bill Raezer’s post-y thing to our church bloggy thing (I still don’t have the computer vocab down), reblogging one of our emails from this summer. It’s a rerun but I was sitting in the exact same spot where the story happened, so I thought, “Thanks, Lord! On a busy day, I’m going with this...
“Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having a blessed, joy-filled day! That’s what Freddy Smith always wishes us at the end of his shift of bluegrass music from six to nine in the morning on 89.9 WDVX…He plays about three Gospel songs (“…to kindly tune up your heartstrings”) but right before, he always signs off with, “Have a blessed day!”
I’d bet it’s safe to say that pretty much everyday is more blessed (or is it “blessed-ier”?) than we realize! And our days are full of moments that matter more than we ever knew.
Once a mom packed a lunch for her little boy ‘cause he was going on an outing with some friends and would be gone for the day in the country. “As fast as he’s growing, he’ll be starving by eleven!” she thought. She probably didn’t think about it again. But a dude named Andrew somehow got the kid to give up his lunch to Jesus (maybe he promised him that Jesus would autograph his brown paper lunch bag!) and Jesus blessed the few fish and pitas, and miraculously, exponentially, multiplied them, and more than 5000 folks were invited to an unexpected picnic!
Like moms across the globe, a mom packed her boy some sandwiches. Happened to be fish sandwiches. It was thoughtful. And she probably never thought about it again. We’ve been reading about that lunch for twenty centuries!
You never know how many unforgettably meaningful “meaningless moments” are packed into to your ordinary day!
Here’s one…one morning, Lee, Pottsie, Bill Reazer and I were sitting down at Panera bread, talking about the Book of Romans and other intense stuff. Next to us, this older dude in an open-buttoned shirt (Tom Jones-style) and a big gold chain was chowing down and reading, totally ignoring us. Then, seemingly done, he got up…and left. Not only that but, he left…a big, untouched hunk of that awesome French bread they sell done there.
“Seems a shame to leave that,” Bill said. He looked at me (always hungry). “If I snag it off his plate, will you eat it?”
WITHOUT HESITATION, I answered, “You know it!”
Bill looked this way…then that way…and sloooooowwwwwly leeeaaaned over and just as he reached out to grab that bread with my name all over it….
“Wow! You get up for a second and folks are stealing your food!”
It was him!
“Oops!” said Bill.
“Oops!” said I.
“Ha!” said Pottsie
“Uh…we…uh…thought that you were…um…maybe…uh…gone…”
“Well, my son’s a manager here! I’m calling him over!”
I immediately realized that I didn’t know anything about how that whole posting bail thing worked. Just then, his son came over.
“These boys are so hungry, they’re having to steal food. Could you bring them a whole loaf of that French bread?”
“Sure, dad. No problem.”
As the son threw it down before our unbelieving eyes, the dad looked at us and said, as he was leaving, “All you have to do is ask.”
Y’know I was thinking about that story this week because Bill, now Young Life area director for Cape Girardeau, Missouri and one of the amazing missionaries we support, is giving the “talks” for the first time at a Young Life camp in Minnesota. He is boldly sharing the message of Jesus with hundreds of high schoolers from all over the nation, who have never heard it before. And when he gets to the part about all that Jesus did to make us His own…and what anyone who wants it, has to do to get the Gift…he tells the Panera story.
And he says, “All you have to do is ask.”
Your days are full of moments that mean more than you know.
A Note From Tom: January 27th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome and beautiful day! In fact, I hope your day is as amazing as the incredible weather we’ve had the last two days! And I hear we’re gonna have today! I’m predicting bright, crisp, brilliantly and breath-takingly blue skies…just like yesterday and Wednesday! And we can expect gorgeous, sunny skies for the next 24 hours!
“What?! Yesterday was sloppy rainy all dang day!”
Well, I guess. But if you were flying out of McGee-Tyson, headed anywhere, as soon as you hit about 28,000 feet above Big Orange Country, you saw above the clouds, what a glorious, sunshiny day we were really having! It’s just a matter of perspective! If you’re just a “both-feet-firmly-planted-on-the-dirt” kinda dude, you see one thing. But if you see things from an elevated perspective, everything changes! For the sunnier!
“Whatever. And what’s the deal about ‘sunny skies for the next 24 hours’? It’ll be dark by 6:45 tonight!”
Not everywhere! Not in New Zealand and China! While you’re snoozing, they’ll strollin’ or sippin’ tea and chattin’ under sunny rays! So, it’ll be sunny at 28,000 feet-plus somewhere in the world, the whole day! If you had a weather balloon, an oxygen mask, and a heavy jacket, hat, and gloves, and could follow the sun on it’s daily global circuit, you’d know what I’m telling you is true! Bright and sunny for the next twenty four!
Maybe not here, but somewhere!
It’s all about perspective!
And what about the rain that comes? We really need it! Our daffodils are starting to push out of the mulch and they’re gonna look awesome! Thanks to all those drops from heaven! “God has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven!” (Acts 14)
Thanks, Lord! We need it!
And the darkness that comes at the end of the day? What a blessing!
When you’ve had just a cruddy day and nothing is going right and you wish you could just hit reset and start over? You can! That day won’t last forever! In just a few, the sun will set (on it’s way to shine over Australia at 28,000’!), and you get to snuggle in, close your eyes, and wake up to a new morning! A new chance! A fresh day! As it says at the beginning of the Book, “And it was evening and morning…”
Sunshine and rain, light and dark…we need whatever God sends!
Maybe that’s why Philippians 2 14 says, “Do everything without complaining…”
The original Greek for “everything” means… “EVERYTHING!!”
Never complain! About anything! Ever!
“Well, hold on! I’m not perfect!”
Totally! Nobody’s perfect! He’s not asking for perfection! He’s just asking us to never complain! In fact, not being perfect is just the reason I should never complain! I mess up everyday, but my Heavenly Dad NEVER stops loving and caring for me! What do I have to complain about!?
“Well, I’m only human.”
Actually, that ISN’T true! When you know Jesus, you’re more than just human! You have powers from God, Who now lives inside you! You’re different from who you were! You’re different from what others without Him, are! You have super-powers from God!
Early yesterday, I was reading (I remember it was a bright, sunny morning…28,000 ‘ above Nova Scotia…) in 1 Corinthians 3. Those dudes were arguing and bickering. And probably complaining tons! And Paul wrote to tell them to knock it off! “When you do that, you’re acting like plain ol’ humans!” (1 Cor 3.4)
You’re not “plain ol’ humans”!
You’re more!
You have super powers! You have the power to never complain! You have the power to praise by the Holy Spirit!
Because of Jesus, you’re “Praise Boy!” Or “Praise Girl!”
By the way, if you’ve already had a messed up day, that started with complaining and grumping, good news! It’ll be dark soon! And you get to start over in the morning!
By the way, forecast for tomorrow?
Bright and sunny!
Somewhere!
A Note From Tom: January 20th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome week! In fact a verse from the Gospel of Luke I just read and an email I got recently both told me that you may be having a better week than you could even imagine!
What verse? Well, it’s kinda different but it says, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” (Luke 16.9)
It means, among other things, use your money to help people get in the kingdom so in heaven, you’ll have friends that are glad to meet you and happy you’re there!
I’ve been thinking about this more these days because of the New Year… time passing…another year closer to the “Return of the King”…every day closer, feeling my heart turn towards Home…
I know some don’t EVER think about being ready ‘til the two minute warning (even tho’ the Mayans apparently have some folks freaked out!)…. Reminded me of the two ladies who were talking in their lifeboat after the Titanic hit the iceberg and one of them said, "If I'd known this was going to happen, I'd have had the chocolate pecan pie!"
If you know something about what's ahead, it helps with choices you need to make.
Seriously, one of the people they pulled out of the water when the Titanic sank, was John Jacob Astor. He was frozen and so were his gold watch, his gold and diamond cuff links, his diamond ring with three stones, his $2440 in frozen bills, the £5 in gold, his ten franc pieces, and his gold pencil. If he knew what was coming, he might have made different choices!
We can’t really be sure about whether or not Jesus is coming sooner rather than later, but y’all at Triple C are helping us make wise choices in the light of what’s ahead!
As we were figuring out the budget for CCC for the next year (which we’ll share with y’all this Sunday in Community group time), we calculated that our church has been able to give away 24% of our budget last year to missionaries we support! Your giving helped you make some friends you’ve never even met…but when you get to heaven, they’ll be glad you’re there!
Oh, the email I got? I almost forgot!
It was from Paul and Karen Davis! They are sharing Jesus in a town in southeast France. They’ve been in France forever doing this and they’ve started a new thing in this town where folks have never had the opportunity to hear about the One Who “makes all things new” in a world where some things are really getting old! Before the most recent email, they were talking in the one from November about all that had happened in this last year.
Check it…
“November 29, 2011 -- This week marks our one-year anniversary in Pontcharra. …
* Last year we were the new arrivals in the neighborhood. Now we are involved in multiple community activities and feel at home!
* Last year we hardly new anyone in Pontcharra. Now we have lots of contacts and people know why we are here!
* Last year a few believers in Pontcharra were meeting together irregularly. Now we have two home groups meeting regularly for Bible study and prayer!
* Last year the believers in Pontcharra expressed their desire to have worship services in their city. Now we have monthly worship services in Pontcharra!...”
Then after Christmas, we got this…
“Our family of believers in Pontcharra got together on December 17 for a special Christmas worship service . We reviewed the scene in Bethlehem with the sad news that their was no room for Joseph & Mary in the Inn. We asked, "Is there room for Jesus in our hearts today?" We are so thankful for our spiritual family in Pontcharra!...”
If that just blew by you, take a sec to reflect…
A town where almost no one knows Jesus.
Almost everyone is without God.
Lost.
Dead in the heart.
Yuck.
Add…
Two people.
Plus one year.
Plus God working invisibly.
Result?
People worshipping Jesus! Folks reading the Holy Scriptures! Men and women and kids asking themselves, “Am I that inn keeper? Why don’t I have room for Him? Maybe I can!”
Sacre Bleu! It’s amazing!
Next monthly worship time for the folks in Pontcharra, France who love Jesus, together with those who are learning more about Him?
Tomorrow!
Seeing how it’s budget time, I just wanted to say…Thank you so much for giving to all God is doing at Triple C! God is soooo faithful! Through your generous hearts, He met all of our needs at Christ Community in 2011 and your giving was to Him was “like a sweet-smelling sacrifice…filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end. You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus!” (Philippians 4. 18-21)
And whether you know it or not…or better, whether you know them or not…around the world…in Spain, Kenya, Italy, Morocco, India, Missouri, Chicago, Anderson Co., TN, and in Pontcharra, France… you and your generosity have made new friends who’ve come into the kingdom! What could possibly be better…or wiser…than that!?
Won’t it be awesome when we get finally Home with Him and those you’ve never met call out your name?
“Hey! There you are!!!”
A Note From Tom: January 13th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
How ‘about this SNOW DAY!? Well, it’s not really much of one, but it’s a start! And here’s the forecast for the weekend…
“Snow flurries early this morning, otherwise decreasing clouds becoming mostly sunny, breezy and staying cold with highs only in the middle 30s… Lows Friday night dip into the middle to upper teens… Saturday night there could be a few flurries with that system, but no problems anticipated…”
Actually, a lot of people have anticipated more problems today than they really will have…
You know, Friday the 13th and all…
The National Geographic estimated that $900,000,000 will be lost today in business because some won’t fly, travel, or go to work because of the date. They suffer from “paraskevidekatriaphobia” (fear of Friday 13th). Nobody knows where it came from, but it’s the most widely believed superstition in America!
Isn’t that crazy?
People just expecting the worst for no reason at all!!
Sometimes I think that this is a big difference that Jesus makes in the heart! Because of Him...because He reigns over all as King of kings and Lord of our hearts, we can expect good things to come to us, instead of seeing the bad in things all the time! And always expecting the worst!
Check this out from Psalm 31…
“How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you!”
Good things, stored and on the way!
Even if we have to go thru hard times, He is doing something amazing in and thru them that couldn’t happen any other way!
Just think of the good things you can expect to happen to you this week!
Let’s make a list!
1) Today, all things will work together for good for us who love God (Romans 8.28)
2) And with the snow, it’s good to remember that He has made our sins “white as snow!” (Isaiah 1.18)
3) And He’s in control of everything that happens! Even the “snow, clouds and winds do His bidding!” (Psalm 148.8)
4) On Sunday, we’ll meet together and sing praises to Him! And our hearts will be filled with love for Him for the week ahead! That’s a beautiful thing to look forward to!
5) And also we ……just like I was hoping it would! See? God has good things for us! Expect ‘em!
A Note From Tom: January 5th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
Happy First Weekly CCC E-news of 2012! (Are we gonna get to call this year “ ’12”? Or do we have to say “2012”?)
If you have any resolutions to keep…how’s it going so far? I just found out that January 1 wasn’t the official “New Years Day” until 1752. Before that it was March 1. It’s kind of a bummer because if the year started on Jan 1 and New Years wasn’t until March 1, it gave you three months to practice on your resolutions and get the flops out of your system before you had to seriously do them. If you had to lose weight, it gave you three months to go ahead and get your weight up to an even number before you had to start losing it!
Anyway, one of the keys to keeping your resolutions is to make some you can keep. Let me give you a few suggestions if it’s not too late to add a few…
Sing more in ‘12! (or in 2012!) It’s easy! It’s cheap! It’s fun! And it’s so good for you! Studies have proven that singing helps strengthen the diaphram, helps fight asthma, and even make your snoring get better! German research proves that it helps you fight diseases! They compared two groups- singers on a stage and their audience. The singers had elevated levels of antibodies to fight off disease and infection, while those who listened to the singing had elevated levels of stress hormone! (Maybe it was the high notes!) So join in with JT when “Carolina On My Mind” comes up on your playlist! Or sing along with the Ol’ Possum (“...he stopped loving heeeerrrrrr today...”) You probably know more Rodgers and Hammerstein than you think! (“You’ll never walk aloooone!”) You’ll sneeze less, and even tho’ your singing may stress your friends more, your snoring will stress your mate less!
Laugh everyday in ’12! Laughing is also very good for you! It’s good for your heart. A study at the University of Maryland found that people with heart disease are 40% less likely to laugh at funny things that other people. One report said that “ Laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. “
Good to know.
Pre-school kids laugh 400 times a day while adults only laugh 17 times!
What happened?
“A mom told her son, ‘Billy, eat your broccoli! It’ll put color in your cheeks!’
‘Who wants green cheeks?!’”
Think that funny? Well, kids do! See the point? (Maybe the point is that kids think stupid jokes are funny and you lose that somewhere along the way)
Let’s see…
Sing more.
Laugh daily.
And…
Join a Community Group and attend it every week! On Sundays, we have what we like to call “Community Groups” during the 9:30 to 10:30 hour. They are sort of like small groups that you would attend during the week, expect they are on Sundays at church (where you’re already planning to be…we’re trying to make it as easy as possible!). Community groups are a super time to be with other people who love Jesus and become better friends. It’s a time to be in the Word and also get to know other people in your church family better! It’s a time to share and encourage!!
And Community Groups are good for your health! They could even save your life! Harvard researchers studied 7000 people over nine years and found that people with terrible health habits like unhealthy eating and smoking but with good friends live a lot longer than people with good habits and no/few friends. “If you belong to no support groups and then join one, you cut your risk of dying over the next year IN HALF!”
The Journal of the American Medical Association found that people with strong emotional connections were four times less likely to get colds, were less susceptible to virus and had significantly less mucous than isolated subjects, proving that “…unfriendly people are literally snottier than friendly people.”
If you don’t come to a community group, why not start in 12”? Other people need you! Your friendship and your encouragement! And it will be good for your health! And you’ll get fewer colds!
If you decide to not come to one, I’ll go ahead and say it. Gesundheit!!
A Note From Tom: December 29th, 2012
Hey, everyone!
We’ve almost made it to the end of 2011!
It takes all of us 365 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and 9.54 seconds to do the loop! One lap ‘round the sun was almost 600 million miles! No wonder you’re feeling a little tired ‘bout now!
Almost everybody is agreed…2011 was a tough one! Economically, meteorologically, UTVolFootball-ly, inalmosteveryotherway-ly, 2011 isn’t getting great reviews. 2½ stars by some. One dude on the radio interviewed this other guy and asked, “If a Martian landed from Mars (where else?) and wanted to know how the situation here on earth was going in ‘11, how would you answer?” The other guy said, “I’d ask him, ‘Can that spaceship take you back up to Mars…’cause you might want to climb back up in there!”
But yesterday, I read the most beautifully hopeful verse…almost tripped over it without noticing it…in the Gospel of Mark. Here it is…”After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God” (Mark 1. 14)
One version puts it like this…”Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God…”
The ol’ King James puts it…”Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God…”
Notice the diff? The King’s guys put some extra words in there (“…of the kingdom of…”) to make it make more sense.
But less is more!
The King James says Jesus was telling everyone about the good news of “the kingdom of God”…which is awesome news! God reigns! And the kingdom is coming!
But what Mark wrote was that Jesus told everyone about “the good news about God”!!
“I have Good news! Here it is!...God!!
God is good! God is awesome! And no matter what happens, He reigns! And He loooooovvvveeeeesssss yyyyoooouuuuu! And in love and in 2012, He rules over all that will happen to me and to thee!
In nice and bad, happy and sad, God is good…all the time…no matter what!
That’s Good News!
Here’s something else I almost missed yesterday…
I was chattin’ it up with an older gentleman, and he said, “Well, have a Happy New Year!”
Did you get that!?
He didn’t say, “Happy New Year!”…as in, “I wish for you a Happy New Year!”
He said, “HAVE a Happy New Year!”
In 2012, you can have a happy one or a less-than-happy-one. So…HAVE a happy one! Make your decision! Decide to have a happy one! Have one! The choice is up to you!”
If God is good and loves me and is working out an awesome plan, in and thru all that happens to me in the coming year (that’s the good news about God!), than it just makes sense that I should, could, and can be happy all day…every day!
Here’s how two of my favorites put it…
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3)
How ‘bout making THAT your verse for 2012?
And then there’s this...
“Habakkuk teaches us that joy is not dependent on circumstances but can be embraced at all times. Happiness doesn’t happen; it involves an act of the will…Happiness is a choice.
….While suffering in inevitable, misery is optional. Pain can’t be avoided, but joy can. If you don’t believe in the power of choice, you won’t experience it…
It would be cruel to expect anyone to be always happy apart from God. But in the Lord-why not? Who wouldn’t be overjoyed with a God who ‘has given us everything we need for life and godliness’ (2 Peter 1)?
In the words of a Christmas carol, ‘Why on earth should men be so sad, since our Redeemer has made us glad?” (Mike Mason)
So, I’m not just gonna wish y’all a “Happy New Year!”
I guess I’m encouraging you and me to decide…
…no matter what happens, good or bad, nice or sad…
…because no matter what the news or the new year brings, the Good News that trumps all other news is…well,…God! He’s always good! All the time!...
…and because the choice to have joy in Jesus, no matter what, is yours and mine!…
…I’m gonna encourage you…as far as Happy New Years are concerned…
…TO HAVE ONE!!