Hey, everyone!
Happy Thanksgiving!
“Huh?!”
Well, not that one, but you know what I mean! It’s gonna be the perfect day to be thankful! Not just because it’s not gonna be too hot with… ”Continuing mostly sunny on Friday with warm highs in the middle to upper 80s… High temperatures will warm into the upper 80s this Weekend…” but also because every day, thanks is “appropriate and indicated!”
As the Apostle tells us, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus!” (1 Thessalonians 5)
“Wait! Does that mean it’s God’s will for me to be thankful no matter what the circumstances?
Or…
Does it mean that whatever circumstances happen, go ahead and be thankful for them ‘cause they’re God’s will somehow anyway? That ain’t easy, dude!”
(I’ll get back to you on that…I’m kinda in the middle of somethin’…)
As I was saying, it’s a great day for thanksgiving! And I’m thankful for another unexpected reason! Lee’s been gone on his overseas Youth Life mission for so long but yesterday I found out that he misread his ticket and is coming back today and not tomorrow!
Dang! Pottsie and I have missed that dude!
How I love my team!
Pottsie, Lee, and I love more than anything laughing, praying, and serving Jesus together! There’s nothing better for us than to be going somewhere to do a thing for our Lord together! As Steven Curtis Chapman says in a song we often sing along to on the way, “This is life like in other! Woo oooo! This is the Great Adventure!”
But there’s another moment tho’ that we love almost as much! This one happens when we’re all three each one in a different place, each doing something for Jesus in a different way, all at the same time! Like last month when Pottsie was preaching at Callahan Towers, Lee was preaching at Triple C and I was preaching at St Andrew’s Church of Scotland in Lisbon! Lee always says, “We’re doing that thing!”
It’s just so cool to be sharing the same Message, doing the same mission on the same day in different places!
So…
Sunday, I get this text from Lee in the hills of Espana somewhere outside of Barcelona…”Dude! We’re doing that thing! You’re in one place and I'm in another and we're serving Him (no heart like His!) and we're both giving it everything we've got! Have fun today! Fight discouragement! Believe in Jesus!…etc…” And then Lee continued to tell me to be bold in my message to y’all and give it all my heart, and to encourage me in all the amazing ways he and Pottsie always do.
And yet…
Lee didn’t know…
It WASN’T happening.
We WEREN’T doing “that thing” where we’re all three in different places serving Jesus in different ways at the same time. I was at home in my pj’s, throwing up!
Lee didn’t know over on the Iberian Peninsula that I got a stomach bug and had spent two days looking down into the same porcelain view, and “sharing all that was within me”. I thought I’d be OK by Sunday but in the end on Saturday night (!) had to text Devon…”Devo! I’m sick! Can’t stop! Can you help me for tomorrow?” (I didn’t want to dump that responsibility on anyone that late into the weekend! Devon hit me right back…”I got this! Get well!” Wow!!!)
So while Lee was praising in Spain, and Pottsie was preaching in the Towers, I was (‘scuse the ‘xpression) puking in Oliver Springs!
But then I thought…
“This must be our Lord’s will for me today! To…’give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus!’…must mean that this unsettling circumstance must be what He has for me today!”
I wasn’t sure why this was His will for me…Then I listened online to the message y’all heard from Devo! Wow!! What a truckload of encouragement!!
Maybe that was just one of the many reasons in His wisdom, it was His will for me to be right where I was, doing what I was doing!
On the other hand, maybe that verse means that no matter what the circumstances, thanking Him IN everything (even if you’re honestly not necessarily thankful FOR everything!) is His will! So even “hugging the bowl”…”bringing in the heaves”…if I thank Him for His goodness, His kindness, and…Himself, I’m doing the will of God even then!
Pottsie was doing His will while preachin’ it up in the Towers, Lee was doing His will while singin’ it up in Spain, and I was trying to do His will while throwin’ it up at home!
I’m better today…and thankful!
Weekly e-News for August 7
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome, praise-filled day tomorrow! I'm actually writing this yesterday, which is today to me! But today to you is tomorrow to me today, which will make today yesterday! (I actually thought about doing this yesterday which is the day before yesterday to you but I thought it might be more confusing...)
Let's see... What happened on this date...
Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1926...Hmmm...They'd already invented the motor boat by then. Wonder what that was all about?
Bob Mathias won the decathlon in the '48 London Olympics! Pole vaulted right onto the Wheaties box!
1945..."Keith Miller scored 110 in the 4 Victory Test Cricket match at Lord's!!!" Amazing!!! ...apparently.
Lucille Ball was born on this date...
So was "American boot-legger, Dutch Schultz" in 1902...
And on this date, August 6, 1180, the Emperor of Japan, Go-Toba was born
Wait a sec...
I'm not in there...
I was born on this date in 1954!
Today ( yesterday to you) is my birthday...huh...wonder why it isn't in there...
Oh!
You have to be famous!! I forgot "that bit" (as the Brits would say!)
But in all humility, I would like to add this...
They did have a party for me in heaven!
Not on my birthday, but on my second-birthday!
My "second- birthday" doesn't mean when I turned two in 1955, but in October 1974 when I was born spiritually, or as St John says it, when I was "born again"! When we believed in Jesus, we were born into God's kingdom and family! Our life started over! Just like when you were born the first time...only loads better!
And Luke said that Jesus said that on that day, there was "rejoicing in heaven"!! " 'Let us eat and celebrate! For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate!" (Luke 15: 23-24)
It wasn't a surprise party either! The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit knew that day was coming before the world was even made!
Flying angel choirs...standing ovations from saints already there...A parrrrrty!!
I bet Go-Toba knew how to throw an emperial birthday party for himself, but it was nothing like the one they threw for you the day you were born...again!
Someone said that stars are actually holes in the sky where the party lights shine thru!
Weekly e-News for July 31
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome day…
I think.
I’m not so sure if we’re really using the word “awesome” the way people have always understood it. I looked it up and…
“Awesome” as we know it, first showed up in the Queen’s English in 1598 and really means “dread mixed with veneration”. It comes from “awe” which people starting saying around 1200 ad. “Awe” comes from the Old Norse word “agi” and the Old English word “ege”, which mean “fright and fear”. These come from an older word, “agh”, which means, “to be depressed or afraid”. So far, “awesome”’s not sounding super-awesome…
The meaning we know of ”awesome”…”Something that is exceptionally cool”… as in “Totally awesome, dude!”…wasn’t around until 1980!
So for 780 years, “awesome” meant somethin’ like “very scary, intimidating, depressing, or freaky” and only for the last 29 years has it meant, well…”awesome!”
But y’all know what I mean when, as I was saying, I “hope you’re having an awesome day!”
It’s amazing how much language changes through the years! Some words just don’t mean what they used to! The word “conversation” used to mean your “behavior”! Like in the 1611 King James Version of 1 Peter 3:1…Peter talks about the “conversation” of wives toward their husbands.
But not all husbands. He’s talking about husbands who don’t believe in Jesus. He says that if “any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives” That's the NIV. But the ol’ King Jim says they can be won over, without a word, “by the conversation of their wives”! If you didn’t know that’s how they used that word, you’d think, “How y’suppose to win ‘em over without a word by your conversation?...Sign language? Write ‘em notes?”
Lately I’ve been reading one of my favorite books of all time, “Pilgrim’s Progress”, written by John Bunyan in 1678. It’s the most amazing book ever!! The brother never went to school but wrote 88 books! This one has been translated into 200 languages! It’s even been translated from English into English…as in, from the one they used in the 1600’s to the one we use today.
But that’s a little sad. I know they’re just trying to make it so people today can understand it. But he used some of the coolest words! Words we don’t use any more…but we should!
When the star of the book finally understands how to be forgiven and freed of the burden on his back, and it falls off and into an underground cave…well, check it out for your self…
“Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back.
He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more…"
"He said with a merry heart, 'He hath given me rest by his sorrow, and life by his death.' Then he stood still a while, to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks.”
Totally awesome (in today’s meaning!)! And JB says that “Christian’ (that’s his name) felt “glad and lightsome”!
“Lightsome”! That’s a word we shouda hung on to! It would be awesome if we could get that word back! I’m not sure exactly what it means but it must be somethin’ like “nothing weighing on your heart”, “burden-free and joy-filled”, “unworried”…or it may mean “a heart free of darkness”, “a heart full of sunshine”! In either case, with his burden gone, his record clean, and his joy returned, he was a lot more “lightsome” dude then he was when he woke up that day!
You’re one of God’s very own kids! He’s listening to your heart all day! He’s working stuff out for you constantly! In ways you don’t even know! He’s got you covered no matter what! You’re forgiven! Why not be “lightsome” today…”lightsome” all day!? We could all use more “lightsomeness”! Ask around…I bet the folks in your life would love you to be more and more “lightsome”! It’d make their day and heart more “lightsome”, too!
So…as I was saying…
Hey everyone!
Hope you’re having an aweso…uh…a lightsome day!
Weekly e-News for July 24
Hey, everyone!
Today's gonna be an awesome day! Y'know know how Saint Paul says that we're "seated in Heavenly places in Christ?" Well, from there, how could it be anything less than an amazing day?
It's kinda like when I was in Portugal a couple of weeks ago. No matter how rainy or drizzly it is on the runway, you just have to take off and cliiiimb a while, and before ya know it, you're above the all clouds and storms, in the bluest blue!
Speaking of Portugal…
And speaking of speaking in Portuguese…
Thankfully I didn't have to! (Which is awesome since I don't!)
I was at the Young Life camp for Portuguese kids… who all spoke English! Turns out they watch it on TV from Sesame Street on, so if you speak English slow enough, they get it! Which is amazing, because of all languages, English is super difficult to learn…Maybe the toughest!
There's just so many weird quirks about our mother tongue, if you stop and think about it (which we don't have to! ) Fer instance…
"Teachers teach" and "farmers farm". But "hammers don't ham" and "fingers don't fing"! (At least mine don't!)
You "recite in a play" and "play in a recital"…Hmmmm….wonder why?
You say "he, his, and him" but not "she, shis, and shim". That's tough if you didn't grow up knowing it!
"Vegetarians eat vegetables". So, what do humanitarians eat?
As a bonus, I gave the kids some lessons in "Southern", or the English of the hill(billy)s…
The second person plural is "you" plus "all" or "y'all" More than three people is the second pluperfect plural…"all y'all"
Here's "tar" and "bar" used in a Southern sentence…"I had to git a new tar for my car, but I had t' bar the money"
If you hear the word "urine", it may be the second person possessive adjective…"Is that thang hiz'n, her'n, or your'n?"
Y'know, there is a language of Heaven, as well! If you're not used to it, it can be hard to understand! Like, remember how I wrote, "Today's gonna be an awesome day! Y'know know how Saint Paul says that we're seated in Heavenly places in Christ?"
Well, how on earth could I be sitting there? I don't think I am sitting in Heaven yet! I'm sitting on my kitchen stool and I'm about to go sit on the riding mower!"
I guess you have to understand Heavenly English…
Since God lives outside of time, the future (to us) is as real to Him as the past or present. He already lives in the future! And you are already there with Him because of Jesus! You're already in Heaven in God's mind! Your future is as real to Him as this Friday, July 24! And since there's a whooooole lot more future than there is present or past (becausee Heaven never ends!), in your life, you'll be with Him in Heaven a whoooooole lot more than you will not have been! And since the future is as real to Him as what is or has been (the present and past), you're as good as there already!
So, to say you're already "seated with Him in Heavenly places" is true!
How's that for a lesson in Heaven's language?
Next week, our lesson will be on "Why does the Bible call me a 'saint' if I've messed up so much in my life?"
Or…
"How to understand the Past Perfect tense…"
Weekly e-News for July 17
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome Thursda…Wait.
Is this Thursday? I thought today was...
Friday!!
Hope you're having an awesome FRIDAY!!
I'm a little wonky this week as far as time goes…I've been back from Portugal for a few days but it's taking a while to get all feeling "back to normal". They are five hours ahead of us over there. But they stay up soooo late every night! I was up about three hours later every night than we are at my house! So five hours plus three more hours means that this week I'm eight hours behind where I was when I started! If I have enough days like that, it'll be like I never went…
Wait a minute. I think I just lost myself.
Anyhooo…
I had the most unusual first Sunday there! Somebody knew the folks at St Andrew's Church of Scotland in downtown Lisbon and they invited me to give the message there. It's the oldest Protestant church in all of Portugal. The building is old and majestic of marble and stone with vaulted ceilings and stain glass windows. But the members were a beautiful mix of all kinds of people from England and Scotland. It seemed like it should have been one of those sweetly quirky British comedies on the BBC!
I was uncertain what the Church Of Scotland was like so I wore a tie, for once. First thing, a delightfully British "chap" walked in with floppy tweed hat and a tiny dog on a leash.
"Hope you don't mind the pooch, mate. He won't make a fuss."
"Oh, no problem! Dogs don't distract me at all!" I answered. "But I do have one rule: if there's a dog in church, I'm not wearing a tie!"
And I thankfully took it off!
A couple of ladies began to tap their watches and tell me, "You really need t' get this starrrted, dear!"
I had no idea I was in charge of the whole thing and was supposed to conduct the whole service (which I was!), having never been in a Church of Scotland before!
But as they say in Scotland, ""A nod's as guid as a wink tae a blind horse!"
They wanted the service to be a celebration of the "Birthday of America" (!?) since it was the 5th of July (?) even tho' they are Scottish (!) in Portugal (!)
Go figure.
So for one of the hymn selections, we all joined in on the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", after Mrs. O'Donnell belted out an amazing first verse as a solo!
Which proves the old Scottish saying, "Whit’s fur ye’ll no go by ye!"
My favorite moment was at the conclusion of the service, when a twelve year old Portuguese "lad" sat on the piano bench by his American teacher who's been in Lisbon 20 years and played "Stars and Stripes Forever"! What a moment! We all burst into applause! And he took a bow!
Because no matter how different we are, we all need encouragement!
And there was the beautiful moment when we stood and recited the "Lord's Prayer" together.
Because no matter how different we are, we're all one family in the Kingdom of God.
And there was a young Chinese couple in the back. He wound up "photo-bombing" every photo they took of us afterwards, creeping into each picture! But during the sermon, she nodded and quietly mouthed the word, Amen!" to every thing I said in my message.
Because no matter how different we are, God is always working.
Or as we say in the Church of Scotland, "Mony a mickle maks a muckle!"
I think that means…
"Now the news!"
Weekly e-News for July 10th
Hey Everyone!
Bet you thought this was Tom writing to give you a weekly dose of encouragement before the announcements about what’s going on in the life of our church. Well, I am trying to do that encouragement thing, only it’s not Tom writing you, it’s Lee. Or rather, I am Lee.
You probably thought I was Tom because he’s the dude who always writes these little meditations every week to give us something fun, sweet, true, good and even surprisingly deep to think about at the end of the work day before we head into our weekend.
He writes to keep us encouraged…
To keep us pumped up about Jesus and our walk with Him…
To help us remember all the little things that are really big things in our faith…
To keep us putting one foot in front of the other as we walk with our Lord…
You probably also thought this was Tom because of the way I started it out. You see, as I sat down to start writing this thing, I automatically typed, “Hey Everyone!” just like Tom always does. I didn’t even mean to. The keys “H-e-y - E-v-e-r-y-o-n-e-!” just sort of typed themselves without any planning on my part whatsoever. I inadvertently did it like he does it.
Actually, that’s becoming kind of a theme in my life. Over the past 18 years or so, I have picked up a lot of stuff from our pastor. Little-by-little, that guy - his heart, his way of doing things and his style is creeping into who I am more and more. To be honest, I think that could be said of most of the folks at Triple C. In fact, I bet lots of us would stand up and say that the most mature parts of our thinking and the most solid parts of our faith are the parts we picked up from Tom. Probably, most of us Triple C-ers would say that the Tom-ish parts of our hearts are the most “Awesome” parts about us. (and we totally would say “Awesome” with four or five exclamation points!!!!!)
Tom would probably croak (whoa, I never used that word before meeting him) if he heard me talking like this, but actually, it’s a pretty appropriate response. If God puts someone sweet, sincere, servant-hearted, faithful, wise and full of love in your life, then by all means, become like him! If God puts a shepherd like that over the flock where you’re grazing, then by all means, follow him!
In 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and in chapter 11, Paul is even so bold as to talk this way about himself! He says, “I urge you to imitate me.” and “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” And he was right! Those crazy Corinthians needed to become like Paul!
Around 18 years ago, I was a punk. I was an over-confident, selfish senior in high school who was shipwrecking my heart and my life as fast as I knew how. I was distressed and destructive and as haughty as I acted, I felt so unbelievably alone. I needed someone to talk to and Tom answered the phone. He met me for lunch. Tina made us sandwiches. He looked me in the eye. He asked me about my life. I could tell he cared. It was the best day…
And now, almost twenty years later, I have a life, a marriage, a ministry and a heart that loves Jesus more than I ever imagined was possible. Because of Tom, I love John Wesley, William Wilberforce, Augustine, Spurgeon, Newton, Bunyan, Campbell Morgan, Hudson Taylor and the dang Earl of Shaftesbury! Because of him, I have a church family in all of you folks - my brothers and sisters in Christ! And together, we’re growing and changing!
Because of Tom, we care about widows and orphans in India and ex-gang members in Chicago! (Psst! Don’t forget to make cookies for us this Sunday!) Because of Tom, we love prisoners in Morgan County and Bible translators in Africa! We care about lost people in Missouri, Houston, Anderson County, France, Spain, Italy, Jerusalem and on and on! Because of that dude, our hearts are growing and our faith is seasoning. Because of him, we all cry a little more than we used to, and that’s not a bad thing.
When God gives you a gift like Tom, you do whatever it takes to become as much like him as you possibly can.
So, let’s all crank up the bluegrass, turn on a baseball game and have an AWESOME day!! It’s what he would do.
Weekly e-News for July 3rd
Hey, everyone!
This morning I was thinking about this guy I heard about who backed up into a person's car in the Kroger parking lot and mashed up the other's bumper pretty good. He got out as some folks watched to see what he'd do. He looked at the damage, got his insurance info out of the glove compartment. And he wrote this note and stuck it on the windshield…
"Dear friend,
I accidentally hit your car. I'm very sorry. By the time you read this, I'll be gone. Everyone here thinks I'm writing down my name, phone umber and insurance info. I'm not actually. Have a wonderful day."
So…since I'm writing this on Thursday and you won't get the Triple C email til Friday, by the time you read this, I'll be gone!
I'll be in Portugal!
I'm heading out to share the Amazing Message with High School kids from Portugal and other countries (I think!) at a week long Young Life camp! I get the privilege of serving our Lord with Young Life like some many Triple C'rs are doing today at Sharp Top and around the country!
What an honor to be included in the same crowd as those folks!
I need to scoot but I just want to ask you to lift us up in prayer!
Kids arrive on Sunday and camp ends on Saturday July 11! I'll have six talks about Jesus to give and I asking God to open hearts to Him!!
I have amazing news to share with them and I'll have awesome stories to share with you about what God did in answering your prayers!!
Love y'all! See you in a week and a little bit!
Weekly e-News for June 27th
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having a praise-filled day, filling "your heart's tanks with daily thanks!"
Even tho' it is a little hot!…In fact…
“It’s so hot our chickens laid fried eggs!”
"Why, it's so hot our pigs said they were sweating like human!"
“Well, if you think that's hot, our cows are giving evaporated milk!”
“ Th'other day, I saw robins using pot holders to pull worms out of the ground! Now that's hot, I'm telling' ya!"
“The weather’s perfect for grampa! He’s also 98 and hazy!”
Speaking of hot, here’s something that may be hotter than you realized…”Georging”!
“Huh?!”
Yeah…georging!
“What on earth is georging?”
Glad you asked! (Otherwise this email would be basically over…)
“Georging” is when people (“georgers”) write “wheresgeorge.com” (as in, “Where’s George?”…as in George Washington’s face on the $1 bill)) on dollar bills, and other people who receive that bill go to wheresgeorge.com, enter the serial number of the bill at the web site and you can find out every where that dollar’s been in it’s circulatory “life”.
“Who cares?”
Thanks fer askin’, again!
Apparently a lotta people do. 3.2 million have done it and as of this month, Where's George? is tracking over 252,144,922 bills totaling more than $1,355,783,300! One pizza delivery guy has registered over 130,000 $1 bills by himself! The furthest one ever went in its travels is 14,000 miles from Springfield, IL (Lincoln’s hometown!…It shoulda been a $5! "Where's Abe?") to Samoa to Oregon!
George gets around!
Y’know, after reading all that, I just started thinking the other day…you all at CCC are soooo faithful to give to God and to His work here at CCC!! It is sooo beautiful to watch how He puts it on the hearts of sooo many to be sooo faithful in giving!
Here’s what Paul told the Philippians about their giving to God’s work:
“I have received…the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering… pleasing to God.”
In other words, the way you give…mmmm! Sure smells good!
But I was thinking in a “georging” kinda way…about where the money you give, goes. Where does it travel?…
Some of the “Georges” you give to the work at CCC will be on their way to Sharp Top Cove in Georgia, at the end of the week! Young Life of Oak Ridge, Oliver Springs, and Clinton is taking 60some kids to Young Life camp! Many of the kids who are going, LOVE Jesus! But many who are going, don’t know Him yet. I know many kids will come to know Christ this week!
Some of your “georges” go to India to support amazing Victor and Indian evangelists who travel on bikes to villages where Jesus’ name has never been spoken! They face hostility and threats but share His love week by week!
Some of your money goes to Chicago so Glen, Jane, Pete and Tasha, and our very own MATT KING(!!), and Jed and Hallie can share the love of Jesus to the “least of these” (as they love to say!) and help ex-offenders, addicts, and felons come to know the “love that passes all understanding”.
Man! Some of your money goes to Missouri so Bill, after years of serving Jesus all over, can reach kids in the state where he grew up, and fulfill the words of Jesus…”"Go home and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
In fact, you are sending Georges to Spain…to Africa…to Houston…to Italy…to France…to Israel…to France…
That's what I'm talking about, George!!
Right now we have the opportunity to send Georges to China! Our very own Joe Pendley, who serves Jesus full-time at Sharp Top with Young Life, is going to China to work with a team who will do two weeks of camp/retreat outreach to 120 Chinese kids who belong to the "left behind generation", the 61 million kids raised by grandparents or other relatives in the country because the parents have left and often abandoned them to work in the cities.…
It is going to be an awesome couple of weeks and kids will be impacted forever! I'm praying that we can give all the $3000 that Joe needs to go! We need about $900 more! (If God puts it on your heart to give, you can designate to for Joe's trip in the box or give online)…
But looking at this from a 'Georging" point of view…
Jesus said that if you give for the kingdom, you have treasure in heaven! He said when you give, you actually store your treasure in Heaven! When you give…as you give…and because you give… so that others can eat, live, and know love in Jesus, your “georges” go to Heaven!
That’s travelin’, George!
All the way to Heaven!
Your georges will be waiting for you!
Try to beat THAT, all you “georgers” out there!
Even more than that, Jesus said in another place, if you give so that people can know Jesus, they become your "friends who receive you into eternal dwellings"!
There may be Chinese people waiting for you, to welcome and to thank you!
Wow! That's better than George waiting' for ya!
I thank God for y’all!
Weekly e-News for June 19th
Hey, everyone.
On this sad Friday.
From Charleston and across the country, hearts are broken.
After looking at the painful news yesterday evening and seeing grief on the faces of our brothers and sisters in Christ in that city, I asked myself, "Is there any place that is truly free of racism and hate?"
I can think of two.
One place that is free of racial prejudice and hate is the heart of someone who truly loves Jesus Christ.
When a person comes to love and thank Him for His endless mercy to all who are His, this very love for Him and thankfulness- along with the Spirit of God Himself- push out, evict, and expel all residuals of prejudice and hate from that heart!
This is why the Apostle John says that a person cannot love God and hate his brother. In fact, he says the presence of this (His!) love, and the diminishing, dismissal and disappearance of hate for anyone, is how we know we belong to God!
John says (1 John 2:9) that if a person says they know God but have hate in the heart, that person does not know God after all! Not at all!
On the other hand, "…if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (4:12)
One of my all time favorites preachers was the late African American pastor Dr. E. V. Hill of Mt Zion Baptist Church in Los Angeles. He once preached…
"I don't know what color the Savior is. I do know that He was born brown in the Middle East, fled to black Africa as a Child, and He was in Heaven for years before the Gospel ever got to white folks in Europe. So I'm not sure what color He is. But I do know one thing. if you bow at the alter with color on your mind…and get up with color on your mind…go back down and bow again! And stay bowed down until you no longer see color but His greatness and power!"
There is another place that is totally free of hate and racism.
Heaven.
Heaven is a place where no one hates anyone. There is no racism there even though there are the redeemed gathered around the throne of the Lamb "from every tongue, tribe, people and nation!" Folks will be with others from far away tribes and lands, the likes of whom they had never met on earth. And yet, all will love and all will be love! Love and praise for the Lamb and love and encouragement for each other.
I read an account of a slave, prohibited from worshipping Jesus with others, describing secret prayer meetings he had attended with other slaves in Prince George County, Virginia, until he was freed in 1847...
"Not being allowed to hold meetings on the plantation, the slaves assemble in the swamp, out of reach of the patrols. They have an understanding among themselves as to the time and place. … This is often done by the first one arriving breaking boughs from the trees and bending them in the direction of the selected spot. After arriving and greeting one another, men and women sat in groups together. Then there was preaching … by the brethren, then praying and singing all around until they generally feel quite happy...
The slave forgets all his sufferings, except to remind others of the trials during the past week, exclaiming, 'Thank God, I shall not live here always!' "
Because in Heaven there is no racism or hate.
Only love.
Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon once that he titled, "Heaven Is a World of Love".
What words!!
"…In heaven…all shall have as much love as they desire…as much as they can bear. Such is the sweet and perfect harmony among the heavenly saints, perfect love reigning in every heart toward each other, without limit or restriction or interruption…In Heaven, ‘tis the direct reverse of what ‘tis on earth…
…and Heaven a world of love; for God is the fountain of love, as the sun is the fountain of light. And therefore the glorious presence of God in heaven, fills heaven with love, as the sun, placed in the midst of the visible heavens in a clear day, fills the world with light. …He is a full and over-flowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love…
The inhabitants of heaven shall know that they shall forever be continued in the perfect enjoyment of each other’s love...to enjoy their love in all its fulness and sweetness forever.
Truly this is an evil world, and so it is like to be. It is in vain for us to expect that it will be any other than a world of sin, a world of pride and enmity and strife, and so a restless world….these things will always be more or less found in the world so long as it stands. Who, then, would content himself with a portion in such a world? What man, acting wisely and considerately, would concern himself much about laying up in store in such a world as this, and would not rather neglect the world, and let it go to them that would take it, and apply all his heart and strength to lay up treasure in heaven, and to press on to that world of love? …
…if you would be on the way to the world of love, see that you live a life of love ...All of us hope to have part in the world of love hereafter, and therefore we should cherish the spirit of love, and live a life of holy love here on earth…"
Heaven will be a world of love for us!
As to this old world, "Thank God, I shall not live here always!'
Weekly e-News for June 12th
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome day! I really hope your day's awesomeness is just because you are loved, watched over and cared for all day and night! Hope your day is amazing no matter what happens! With all the blessings we have…
Who cares if it's rainy or sunny?
Who cares if it's hotter than you'd like outside?
Who cares if you can't park at the library today?
Who cares if your favorite team loses or wins?
Even if they were ahead yesterday by three runs in the 7th inning and lost anyway because, among other mess ups, they walked a guy with the bases loaded (!) giving away a run, and gave away another run with a stupid catcher interference, giving the guy 1st base, again with the bases loaded?
…So we lost 6 to 4…
…in the 11th inning…
….after being up 3 to nothing in the 7th!…
I mean, who cares?!
Speaking of the Braves…
Ever wonder where your favorite team got its name?
Did you know that the Atlanta Braves were first the "Boston Braves"?
Before they were the "Boston Braves", they were the "Boston Bean Eaters" (The 1934 St Louis Cardinals were called the "Gas House Gang" but that might have been more appropriate for the Bean Eaters!) Then they were the "Boston Doves" the "Boston Bees" and then the "Braves".
The Los Angeles Dodgers were originally the Brooklyn Dodgers. One New Yorker said that the only good thing about the Lincoln assassination was that he died before he had to see the Dodgers sold to LA. They put in trolley cars in Brooklyn in 1914, and folks going to Ebbets Field to see their team had to dodge them. So the team was called the "Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers". And then just the "Dodgers".
I wonder if Clayton Kershaw knows this?
If you steal a player from another league, like the Pittsburg Athletics did in 1890, folks might call you "Pirates" and it might stick!
When a city is famous for making beer (Schlitz, Pabst, and Miller) it makes sense to call your team the "Brewers"…
Did you know that the word "Christian" is only in the Bible three times?
It was a nickname, sorta. Kind of a team name. Actually, it was a "name-calling" name. Luke wrote that "believers were first called 'Christians' in Antioch" Acts11:26)
Called that by other people.
"A great number of people believed and turned to the Lord…" (11:21)
Lots of folks were turning to Jesus. To Jesus Christ. And they loved Him! And they wanted to be like Him! Maybe it was awkward for them at the beginning. Maybe they were trying too hard. Or maybe folks around them thought "turning to" and relying on anyone but yourself was weakness…
But the new believers DID turn to Him! And they wanted to be like Him! They wanted to be like Him so much that those who didn't understand His humility and His kindness and His gentleness, called those who tried to be those things, "little Christs"…
Or "Christians"!
What if we who know Him were just so….like Him… so kind…and/or so gentle and sweet…and so truly humble…or filled with peace all the time that others would say, "Man! That guy is…Jesus-y!"
What if folks just called you "Jesus-y"?
…Even when your team blows a 3-0 lead in the 7th?
Weekly e-News for June 5th
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having a beautiful day, filled with thanks, praise, love of life itself, excited about what God has prepared for this day!
If you are feeling this way, I betcha you might've had to make a decision or two upon waking up, to transport your heart across the state boundary from the State of Sleepiness, the State of Confusion, or even the Great State of Grumpiness into the State of Gladness!
'Cause some folks wake up from sleep…sleepy! Most days, your joy is the last thing to wake up!
The other day, I woke up just feeling heavy in my heart. I was just gloomy and down and I wasn't sure why. Then I remembered.
I had had the saddest dream in the middle of the night.
I was at a basketball game, cheering for my team (I have no idea who my team was. I'm not that much of a hoops fan…) Suddenly play was stopped because a player had collapsed on the sidelines. He was gasping for breath. Then he stopped breathing and died.
And the saddest thing about it was that he was a duck.
Just laying there, with his snowy feathers so still. And he had been playing so well! He was the only duck on either team. He was kind of a play-maker for his squad, dribbling up the sidelines just as easily with his left wing as with his right! And suddenly, he was gone.
I just remember waking up with such a feeling of sadness for the loss we all shared. Then I remembered…
Wait.
Even tho' it seemed like it, that wasn't real!
It didn't really happen! Ducks can't play basketball!
That morning might've been a little extreme for my norm, but often I wake up groggy, mentally and emotionally disheveled and confused, wondering why coffee is so hard to find when it's always in the same place as the night before. Sometimes I wake up a little worried about I-don't-know-what.
But if I wake up bubbly or bumbling, I just do what I always do. I sit down with a steamy cup, and open up the Scriptures and find out what is true! Not what my sleepy heart or the residuals of random crazy dreams might be telling me, but what God in His holy Word tells me!
About Himself!
About myself
And about the blessing awaiting me in the day ahead!
One of my all-time heroes was a British transplant from Hungary named George Mueller. You might heard of him! He built five orphan homes in Bristol, England in the days of Oliver Twist, and cared for 10,024 kids!
When he started in 1834 there were accommodations for 3,600 orphans in all of England and twice that many children under eight were in prison! One of the great effects of Mueller's ministry was to inspire others so that “fifty years after Mr. Mueller began his work, at least one hundred thousand orphans were cared for in England alone!"
One of the amazing thins about him is that he financed all of the food, clothes, homes, and schooling for all those thousands of kids just by trusting the promises of God! He never asked anyone for one penny (or shilling!) He would just pray and ask God for help!
What faith!
What a heart!
But I bet there were times when he didn't wake up that way! I bet he had kooky dreams and woke up groggy and confused just like we all do. But he had a morning plan!
To nudge his heart across the line to the state of faith…Check this…
“The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished . . . Before this time my practice had been at least for ten years previously as a habitual thing to give myself to prayer after having dressed in the morning. Now I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted and encouraged…I began, therefore, to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning early in the morning…searching as it were into every verse to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul.”
Wow!
First thing…"to get my soul happy in the Lord!"
Open up the Scriptures and find awesome things for your own heart!
About your Lord!
About yourself!
About your day!
And about what is true!
So you can have a heart of thanks, praise and joy!
Because no matter how real it seems, ducks don't play basketball.
They just don't.
Let’s not forget to remember.
Hey, everyone!! Hope you’re getting ready to have an awesome Memorial Day weekend!!
Here's your official Triple C Memorial Day week-end forecast!
"…Sunny and cool today! Initially we'll stay dry for Saturday and Sunday, butMonday we'll start to see enough moisture in the air to support a pop-up shower or two in the afternoon/evening. But we'll see a gorgeous weekend ahead!"
What a weekend to praise God and enjoy stuff!!
Don’t forget to check out our own Dale Pendley conducting the O R Community Band Memorial Day Concert!
In fact that’s an awesome way to not forget to do what you supposed to do on Memorial Day…
On Memorial Day, you’re not supposed to forget to remember!
If you came from Mars, you’d probably have the impression that Memorial Day was to celebrate the fact that summer’s just beginning and the earth is almost half way around the sun for the year (on Mars it takes 687 days to get around once so they’re only ¼ of the way)…
Or you’d think that Memorial Day is to remember that they’re offering special Memorial Day two-for-one furniture sales this weekend only.
But Memorial Day is to not forget to remember…
The first Memorial Day was in Waterloo, New York in May, 1866. Back then, they called it Decoration Day and it was to remember those fallen in the Civil War. More Americans died in that war than all wars our nation has fought put together.
One day I was reading about the Battle of Campbell’s Station. On a chilly, rainy, sloppy morning, November 16, 1863, divisions of Confederate soldiers and Union soldiers were racing to get to Knoxville first. The control of the railroad from Virginia to Chattanooga was the prize. Lincoln thought it was very important. The armies came face to face in Farragut. After just a few minutes, right there on the corner of Kingston Pike and Campbell Station Road, where the Fresh Market is on one corner, and Aubrey’s Restaurant and the Super Krogers are on the other, 970 soldiers lay dead with rain falling on them.
It gave me a chill to think about. All the times I passed by there…I never imagined.
I wonder if anyone remembers them.
During the Civil War, over 350,000 soldiers accepted Jesus as their Savior! 10% of the soldiers in the war were converted to Him!
Just like Courtney Birdsey, a soldier who came to a strong faith in Jesus after He protected her through an unexpected fire-fight in Baghdad during the Irag war.
She wrote…
“Finally, in April 2004, my unit returned home to Colorado Springs. As the National Anthem played over the loudspeaker celebrating our arrival, I felt the tears I had been unable to cry for months stinging my eyes. I thought of my love for this country, my prayers for the safety of the units still in Iraq, the loss of those I had known, and of my family waiting in the stands to greet me…The visions and sounds of Iraq are never far from my thoughts…I'm not the same person, spiritually or emotionally, that I was before I left. I still suffer from images that come alive in my sleep, especially after a stressful day. But each time I see or hear of events in Iraq, I am reminded of how God faithfully protected me. I know now, no matter what the future brings, I'm never alone.”
On this Memorial Day week-end, let's not forget to remember to pray for all of our Triple C'rs serving in our military!
Today is a beautiful day here in East Tennessee. But did you know that at any given moment, there are 18,000 thunderstorms booming and blowing around the world?
We live our faith in peace and comfort. But all around the world, brothers and sisters in Christ…in Africa, Asia, Arab nations, Latin America…are in storms of faith, risking, praying and weeping, reaching out and suffering for it, all because they love our Lord so much.
On this Memorial Day week-end, let’s also not forget…
Let’s not forget them.
Let’s remember today that…
This world isn’t our home.
There are spiritual battles to fight.
There are causes bigger than our comfort.
There is still work to do.
There are prayers to pray.
There are people to reach.
Who cares if they’re selling furniture two-for-one this weekend only.. Let’s not forget to remember what matters!
Let’s not forget to remember.
The Hills are Alive
Hey, everyone!
"The hiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllssss are alive! With the sound of muuuuuusic!!!…."
Well, actually I haven't heard any yet but I expect to soon 'cause I'm right down the road from where Maria Kutschera almost became a nun before Cap'n Vonn Trapp stole her heart! And where I'm sitting right now is totally surrounded by snowy Alps! When I flew over them yesterday morning, I thought, "How on earth did those Vonn Trapp kids walk across these mountains?! It didn't seem like they were dressed warm enough for that!!"
I looked it up. Turns out they took a train. They changed that part for the movie! Whew! Good to know!
I've been worried about those frozen little toes for years!
Speaking of "a few of my favorite things"…
I'm here in Austria, encouraging a bunch of folks who work with YL Military, which is a branch of Young Life that reaches out to high school and middle school kids, living on US bases around the world who have parents in the Army, Navy, or Air Force, and who lots of times are serving our country someplace other than where their kids are living. Wow! These are special kids with loads of needs! And I'm here with the super awesome folks who are tirelessly reaching out to them, working with simple devotion to Jesus in a world of complex challenges!
It is soooo easy to encourage them!
Just to tell them that their work is amazing…
and that Hebrews 6:10 says that even if it seems at times that no one knows, understands, or cares about what they do, God will never forget it…
and that Paul promises that they will "reap a harvest if they don't quit"…
My job is so easy here! Sometimes I feel that often amazing folks who are giving all they have to serve our Lord, are so starved for encouragement, you could burp and they would think it was helpful! They're just so thankful that someone would come here to say, "You're not forgotten and you rock!"
Whenever I get to do cool stuff like this, I thank God soooooo much that I have a church family that cares about what God is doing in the world! And helps me go share with folks who need a boost and a pat on the back and an encouraging word! And when I talk about you with them…
and I tell them about a church family that is so sweet…
and giving…
and caring…
and loving…
and "out-reach-y"…
and helpful to each other…
and "praise-filled"…
Well, I've only been gone a few days and I miss you all so much just from sharing with folks about my life, about my friends, about my spiritual family… from sharing about you!
This morning the hills are alive with the sound of my thankful heart!
Raindrops on roses?
Whiskers on kittens?
Triple C is one of my favorite things!
Love y'all!
YODELL-EEEHHHH-HHHEEE-HHHOOOOOOO!!
April News (my apologies for being late)
April 24, 2015
Hey, everyone!
Hope you're having an awesome, sunny Friday! I, for one, am getting ready for the snow! Not here, of course. In the Alps near innsbruck, Austria! I'll be there on Wednesday helping out at a conference for all the folks with MCYM Young Life who work, reaching out to kids whose parents serve with the US military on our bases around the world!
What a privilege! I'm a little nervous tho…
My last trip didn’t start out so well.
Tina and I have this thing we do when I have to go on a trip by myself without her. We smooch good-bye as I’m about to go through the security check. Then, when I’m all checked out and before I put my shoes back on, I look and see her way back there among the non-departing, unsecurity-checked. And we wave one last time. Then I put my shoes on. And I look for her again. And she’s still there! So we wave like I’m being deployed for the next year. We do it every time. Except this time.
“We’re going to have to ask you to step aside,” the security lady said.
Somehow I set off the security alert. She rubbed a piece of paper on my hands. “We’ve found something on your hands that is causing our sensors to go off. Would you mind stepping into our secured room, please?”
“But I’ve got some waving to do”, I thought…but I didn’t say it. They looked like they weren't kidding.
Two dudes were waiting on me in there. One of them was telling me all the things he was going to do to me and all the checking me out that he was about to do, so that I wouldn't be too surprised about how well we were about to get to know each other. Meanwhile, the other guy was going through all my stuff and turning my bags inside out. After about ten minutes they said I was OK and I could go ahead to my gate. Before I thanked them for keeping our nation safe, I asked them what it was that they thought they might have found on my hands that set the thing off. “We can’t tell you that,” they said. “Wow!” I thought. “You now know what size my underwear is, but you still can’t tell me anything about you!”
I was rocking in those rockers they have at McGhee Tyson, talking to my daughter, Val on the phone about my little adventure, and she said, “Dad, did you handle any fertilizer this morning?”
Well, I guess I did! We had about a half a bag of cow manure we got from Home Depot. It’s called “Moo Poo”. I just decided to put it on our baby tomato plants while I was waiting to go to the airport. I washed my hands a lot after though. Val said that’s what they found. Apparently, terrorists make weapons out of fertilizer. I don’t know how you’d make anything other than a stink bomb out of Moo Poo, but I’m not a security expert.
I was trying to think of all the spiritual lessons I could learn from that episode.
Was the lesson…
“When you get into something spiritually stinky, it lingers even if you think it’s gone?”
Or maybe…
“Even if you think you’re clean, your sins will find you out!”
I don’t think it was either of those! I wasn’t doing anything wrong!
I was just taking care of my ‘maters!
Even if gardening makes someone suspect that you might be an international criminal!
The whole time they were checking me over, I had total peace. I knew I hadn’t done anything or hidden anything that they had reason to suspect me for.
In fact, the lesson stirring in my heart as I was getting myself together and saying goodbye to my security guard buddies, was…
“When voices halfway imply that I might possibly be guilty…or unacceptable…I can know in my heart that no matter what they might be thinking, in God’s mind, I’m clean!
“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God!” Paul tells us.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children”
Been feeling criticized? Feel like you’re always failing somebody’s tests that you didn’t even know you were taking? Feel like somebody’s always pointing out stinky things about that you thought were long ago washed away?
It’s not your Lord saying or thinking those things! In His heart, you are “His chosen people, holy, and dearly loved! (Col 3.12) He rejoices over you with singing! (Zeph. 3.17)
And that’s the opinion that matters!
So I say, Poo on nagging false guilt!!
(Just not the morning before you have to go thru airport security.)
April 17, 2015
Hey, everyone!
Well, I'll just go ahead and bring up the subject that is on everyone's heart…
As you know, Tuesday was the 150th anniversary of the night President Lincoln went to Ford's Theater to watch a play.
He didn't see how it ended.
No one did.
He was born on Feb 12, 1809. It must have been cold in that tiny log cabin in Sinking Spring Farm, Hodgenville, Kentucky on that February morning!
Ol’ Abe didn’t like to be called “Ol’ Abe”…or “Honest Abe” or even “Abe” for that matter! He always signed stuff, “A. Lincoln”
He was the first president to have a beard (he only had it for four years) and the only one to have a beard without a moustache.
He went to about three months of school but became a really successful self-taught lawyer and he tried cases before the Illinois Supreme Court over 400 times!
He's the only President with a U.S. patient for an invention!
In the library of Congress, there's a box that contains everything that President Lincoln had in his trouser pocket on the night he went to Ford’s Theater for the last time.
He carried $5...
...of Confederate money…
He also had some eye glasses repaired with a piece of string.
And he had some old beaten up newspaper clippings.
They were articles that praised him for his accomplishments.
That is a sad thought.
Abraham Lincoln was one of the most amazing and beloved Americans ever! We all know this! But in those days, many didn’t. Many made fun of him. Others really hated and ridiculed him. At times he seemed to be all alone in decisions he had to face and make. Someone said once that it’s kinda sad to imagine tired and weary Abraham Lincoln, sitting alone by a lantern late at night, with old strung-together glasses propped on his nose, reading cut-out newspaper articles over and over, trying to convince himself that…
someone cared…
that someone believed in him…
that someone would remember him…
Maybe even that someone loved him.
You’ve had those days, haven’t you?
Maybe you’re having one today!
Wishing that someone noticed the stuff you do…
wishing that someone cared…
that someone believed that you could do it…
that someone would be less free with their criticisms…
that someone believed in you.
Want something to put in your pocket that you can pull out and read when you need to?
Something better than old newspaper articles with your name tucked away inside?
Why not scribble down Colossians 3.12 on a scrap of paper and carry it around?
When you having one of those “moments”, you can pull it out and read it!
Listen to this…
“Therefore, as those chosen by God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience…”
Did you catch that?
“…Chosen by God, holy, beloved…”
When someone thinks you’re a dufuss…
When you feel criticized for breathing…
When you can’t seemed to do anything right in some people’s opinion…
God says you’re beloved! He looks down on you and loves what He sees!
God says you’re “holy”! Among other things, it means “special”.
In His heart, there’s no one like you!
And after reading amazing facts about President Lincoln, here’s an amazing fact about you…
You’ve been “chosen by God”! It’s almost impossible to understand all of that, but it means that before the world was made, He wanted you!
Be encouraged today! Because you’re…
“Chosen by God”! That’s even better than being elected the 16th President of the USA!
The ending's a whole lot better, too!
April 10 ,2015
Hey, everyone!
I just realized…I always start these Friday emails out by saying, “Hey, everyone!” Never really noticed that before! I don’t begin with a “Hi!”…or “Greetings!”…or “Top o’ th’ mornin’, govna!”…Always just, “Hey!”
I wonder where that “Hey!” comes from?
Not that there’s anything wrong with it. It’s probably a colloquial form of “Hi”…which is short for “Hello”…which comes from the greeting, “Hail!”…which comes from the Old English, “Heill”…which means “Health!”, as in “May you be in good health!”…
The French often say “Salut!”, which means “health!”, too!
In Israel, they say, “Shalom”, which means “peace”, but also “health, and well-being!”
I hate to admit it, but “Hey!” probably comes from watching Gomer Pyle on the old “Andy of Mayberry Show” when I was a kid! Remember how he’d say, “Tell Aunt Bea, Gomer says ‘Hey’!”?
It’s amazing how we pick up expressions without realizing it! The other day, I was talking with someone and answered, “Yeah, yeah…”
“Where have I heard that?” I thought. “Someone else says, ‘yeah, yeah’…who is it?” Then I realized that my first grandchild Henry used say it when he was little.
“Yeah, yeah!”
I got it from him! His mom used to say (when he was about two) that "the first time he says, 'Dang!' (like his grand dad), you’re in trouble!"
I was thinking about this the other day when I was reading Mark 10. This blind guy named Bartimaeus, was yelling like a nut for Jesus to help him. Jesus’ guys were trying to get him to “shut it”, but it didn’t work.
Then Jesus stopped. His heart is so much bigger than we know!
He asked them to call the guy.
They did.
“Tharsai!” they said.
“Huh?”
“Tharsai!"
It's a Greek word that means, “Cheer up!, take heart!”. It comes from the word, “tharsos” which means, “Courage”, and basically means, “Take courage!”
“Tharsai, dude! He’s calling you!” (Mark 10.49)
That exact expression…”tharsai!” is used eight times in the New Testament. Seven of eight times, it’s used by Jesus. He was always telling people to “have courage!...to cheer up!”
"Tharsai! (take heart!), son; your sins are forgiven."…(Matt. 9.2)
"Tharsai! (take heart!), daughter! Your faith has healed you…" (Matt 9.22)
"Tharsai! It is I. Don't be afraid…” (Mark 6.50)
“…Tharsai! I have overcome the world." (John 16.33)
Mark 10 is the only time His guys ever used this expression.
“Tharsai! (Cheer up!) He’s calling you!”
Wonder where they learned that expression? I think they learned it from Him! Well, maybe they didn’t really “learn” it…Maybe they just picked it up! From hanging around Him! Maybe He just said it so much to so many that it just slipped into their vocabulary! Kinda like “Yeah, yeah!”
With so many reasons to “cheer up”…”take heart”…”have courage”…maybe I’ve found a better way to start these weekly emails! And I didn’t get it from Gomer Pyle!
“Tharsai, everyone!”
April 3, 2015
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome week! Or better...hope you’re having a holy week! Hope you’re having an awesome holy week! Christians around the world call this week “Holy Week”...or they call it “la Semana Santa”, or le Semaine Sainte, or la Settimana Santa, or Karwoche... It all depends in what language or country you worship our Lord during these days.
Tonite at 7:00, we’ll have our Good Friday service. Then we’ll hav...
What? “Why do they call it Good Friday? “
Great question!
I don’t think anyone really knows why they call it Good Friday. Sometimes, churches have services on Maudy Thursday to remember the night our Lord Jesus ate the Passsover with His closest followers and washed their feet. “Maundy” is an Old English form of the Latin word, “mandatum” which means “commandment”. It comes from the Latin version of the words Jesus said on that holy Thursday...”A new commandment I give you that you love one another...” John 13.34 ("Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.”…I’m not good at writing Latin but I’m getting better at Googling stuff)
Some people think “Good Friday” comes from “God’s Friday”. Like “good-bye” comes from “God be with ye”.
Other people believe that we call it Good Friday because of all the good that came on that day.
“What was good about that day?”, some wonder. It was the saddest day in the history of the earth. The sun hid its face so it didn’t have to watch.
It was a day of all things sad and painful...
Jesus stumbling...
hammers ringing…
thieves swearing...
soldiers betting…
Jesus bleeding...
soldiers mocking…
women weeping...
friends hiding...
Jesus dying...
friends grieving...
stones rolling…
sun setting…
darkness reigning…
In the first moments of His nailing, our Savior asked the Father to forgive those who so horribly abused Him. Then He assured a criminal of a place in Heaven with Him that very day. Then it became dark. For three hours, there was darkness in the whole world.
And it became quiet. Our Lord suffered silently.
As an old spiritual says, “They crucified my Lord and He never said a mumblin’ word…not a word…not a word.” The cruelest, coldest hearts on the planet, employed to nail humans down and hoist them up, and do it without a qualm or shiver, watched the Son of God suffer in silence, as blood and love flowed.
And then He spoke. And one thing He said just before He breathed the last time was, “I’m thirsty.” Why would He say this? Say that to the most unconcerned, uncaring assembly of human beings of all time? Did He hope that from those emotionless, cold, dead hearts, someone would care that He was thirsty? That hands that had hammered Him would now help Him?
And yet…And yet…
“And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.” (Matthew 27.48)
Could it be that one of them, having heard words of forgiveness and of a home in heaven…royal words spoken from a cross where a King ruled through love…had opened his heart to Him? And out of that new and reborn heart that moments before had been only dark and cold…out of that unlikely place…some pity…some caring…some good had come?
In almost the next verse after this, our Lord was dead. But just before that darkest of moments, on that darkest of Fridays…on the worst Friday ever… someone with love for Jesus, did something good.
And this goodness grew.
Today it circles the earth.
Good Friday, tonite at 7:00.
Try Being a Donkey Today
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome, praise-filled day and a heart-full of hope because…it’s almost Palm Sunday! It’s almost Easter Sunday! It’s the season of hope!
It’s hope season!
I love Palm Sunday! Just the thought of soooo many people yelling…praising!...”hosanna-ing”! All because they wanted Jesus to be their King! And they wanted Him to rule over them! I wonder what it must have been like on that day!
It didn’t last very long, though.
By the end of the week, so many of them…so many of the same ones…were yelling, “We don’t want Him any more! No! We don’t want You any more!”
One of the gladdest days in the history of the world and the saddest day .of all time only had five days between them.
With Tina in California this week, I'm taking care of all the critters 'round here. And I always realize in times like these, that I like goats less than I thought I did, but our ol' dog Capt'n Marshmellow more than I thought I did. I mean, how could you not?! He's always so calm, peace-filled, content…’til one of us gets home! Then, it's “goin’ crazy-time”!
“Hey! Hey! So excited to see you! Hey! (Don’t remember your name) Hey! You’re my best friend! Will you pat my head? Huh?! Will ya!? Huh?! Huh!? Hey! I live to be with you! Me! You! Hey!”
Sometimes I’ve wondered, “Father, why can’t I be more like that with you? Content. Filled with peace. And just so happy to be with You! Make me like Capt'n!”
Wow. Just re-read that…Can't believe I really said it.
Y’know, I think that being discontent with how it is, and wanting everything to be instantly better, instead of having that doggone peace and contentment, is what turned the hearts of the people of Jerusalem from yelling, “Hosanna!” to yelling, “Give us Barabbas instead of Him!”
I think it was that heart that says, “We want results! We want to see things change around here…NOW! If You don’t do what we expect and make stuff better…and quick!...we won’t like You any more!”
That’s why I’ve got another four-legged role model this Palm Sunday week… the donkey!
Remember him?
“They went and found a donkey colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway…They untied it… When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!” (Mark 11)
Poor li’l dude! Tied up…stuck…roped to a door! Until Jesus wanted him! They untied him! He was free! Even with Jesus sitting on him! Being sat on had never happened to him before and usually they’re not too happy about it! But he didn’t care! It was because of Jesus that he was untied and free! “He can ride on me anywhere! I’ll carry Him all day!”
In Job, God said, "Who let the donkey go free? Who untied his ropes? I gave him the wasteland as his home, the salt flats as his habitat. He laughs at the commotion in the town…” (39.5-7)
That donkey doesn’t care where he lives! Even if home’s in the salt flats! He’s content no matter what! He laughs all day! Even if everyone else is running around stressed out in the town, he’s just happy! He’s just happy God let him be free!”
Because of the King, you’re free! You’re not tied up or tied down, no matter where He has you! Even if you feel “sat on”! Kick up your heels! Or your hooves!
Try to be like a donkey today! It’s harder than you think!
March Madness
Hey, everyone!
Can you believe it's here?! The daffodils are blooming! The sunshine warms the earth! ("…Warmer temperatures will finally return Saturday with highs back up into the middle 60s…")This can only mean one thing!
March Madness!
You know it! The NCAA basketball tourney when we go from the Sixty Four Best to the Sixteen Even Better Than That ("Sweet!"), to the Four Almost the Most Best ("Finally!"), to the Best of the Best!
You know how folks fill out the bracket (it's kind of a flow chart of the schedule of all the games) to predict, game by game, who will beat the other and move on to play other winners 'til we make it to the championship game?
Bet it was looking pretty good yesterday morning!
But who thought UAB could do that?!
I know we might feel confident that our guesses are pretty good but I read the other day that the chances of a person who knows something about the teams, making all the picks that wind up with a "perfect bracket" (when it's all said and done, you picked all the winners) is one in 772 billion! You have a better chance of lining up everyone in the world in a line, picking one person randomly out of that crowd, and have it be, by chance, one of the eight living people who have walked on the moon! Or, you have a better chance of drawing a royal flush in 5-card poker twice in a row! (I'm not sure what that is but the chances are one in 422,162,067,600)
If anyone thinks they could really come up with a perfect bracket with all the winners, that really is "March madness"!
One thing that I was wondering about…
Ever wondered why they rank the teams in "seeds"?
They don't place the teams in groupings, ranks, or preliminary heats, but "seeds" The least awesome teams ("16th seed"…"14th seed"…") play the best teams first ("Number 1 seed"…"number 3 seed")…Why do they call them "seeds"? Sound like they're doing spring planting…
That's it! That's why they call it "seeding"! Turns out the best teams play the worst teams in the different regions at the beginning so that the better teams meet each other later. If the teams were seeds planted in the bracket, it would hopefully bloom 'n blossom into more exciting games later in the month as the winners emerge!
Like "seeds"!
Get it?
It made me think…
Lately, I've been reading the Letter to the Galations and one thing Paul says about our Lord Jesus is that He is the "Seed of Abraham"…Check this…
"The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say 'and to seeds,' meaning many people, but 'and to your seed,' meaning one person, who is Christ…" (3:16)
Later he says, " …we were in slavery under the spiritual forces of the world. But at just the right time, God sent his Son, born of a woman…" (4:4)
Hmmmm…..
It's almost like Jesus was sent from Heaven to earth, God becoming a human baby, and growing and living, dying and rising, "planted" at just the perfect moment in history so that in the end, He wins the victory over all!
I remember hearing 'bout someone who was reading the Book of Revelation and a friend asked, "Wow! That's so complicated with all the visions and prophesies!! Do you know what it all means?"
"Sure! Jesus wins!"
As Corrie Ten Boom always reminded us, "Jesus is Victor!"
I'm not sure how this tournament is going to come out, but no matter what you're facing today, if you puts His Name down as the winner every time, no matter what you're going thru, your chances at a perfect bracket are 100%
That's it for weather and sports!
Patrick
Hey, everyone!
Happy St Patty’s Day Week!!
When is it?…Tuesday?….
Man! It’s really a big deal!
Everyone'll be wearing “the green” and there'll be apparently lots of pinching going on over the world, along with rivers of parades and oceans of green beer! The fountains on the north and the south lawns of the White House will spout green water that day only! Lots of people really get pumped for this holiday! Sometimes you wonder if many even know why!
Kinda like the cartoon I saw of two pastors in the stands at a football game, in the middle of a bunch of screamin’, goin’-crazy fans. One says to the other, “Who you for?” and the other says, “Nobody! I don’t even know who’s playing! I just like to be some place where people are excited about something!” (‘pparently, that pastor has never been to Triple C!)
Did y’ know…
The traditional color for St Patrick was blue? Green didn’t become a thing until the Irish picked it to show that they were fighting for independence from the British…and they wanted their own color! George Washington let his soldiers celebrate St Patrick’s on March 17, 1780 because they were fighting against the Brits, too! That’s how it became such a big deal in Boston and NY!
Anyway…with all the clovers and leprechan-look-alikes, y’wonder if many really even know why Patrick was such an awesome Irish dude…
Turns out, he wasn’t!
Awesome, yes…Irish, no!
He was actually a Brit himself! His mom and dad loved Jesus and he grew up saying he did…sorta. But when he was kidnapped by Irish slave traders 1609 years ago and shipped to Ireland, the land of druid priests and warrior chiefs of pagan clans, he was forced to shepherd pigs on the Irish hillsides. That’s when he really called out to the God his parents knew. (Sound like another prodigal son you’ve heard of?)
"I would pray constantly during the daylight hours…The love of God and the fear of Him surrounded me more and more. And faith grew...In one day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly less."
One day, he heard a voice that told him to run to the coast! “Your ship is waiting to take you home!”
He took off and after 200 miles, reached the sea. A ship taking a load of Irish wolfhounds (y’know…the dogs!) to France had room for one more smelly, shaggy passenger. Before long he was home!
But one night he had a dream.
A guy Patrick called Victorious appeared to him in this dream with letters from Ireland. One was signed, “the Voice of the Irish”
“, 'We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.' I was deeply moved in heart and I could read no further, so I awoke."
So, filled with God’s call and courage to return to the land of his enslavement, he set sail for Ireland!
The Pat was back!
He knew that Ireland wasn’t a kingdom of anyone, but an island of tribes and their chiefs. If you get the chief in charge to believe in Christ, that rest would be easy! The first one to accept Jesus was Milcu…his former master!
Not everyone was thrilled that he was sharing the message of Jesus all over the Emerald Isle
"Daily I expect murder, fraud or captivity," Patrick wrote, "but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God almighty who rules everywhere."
And he was unstoppable, sharing Jesus with people in the north, east and west of Ireland! Only Munster in the south was still unconverted to Jesus when he died. Some say he almost completely stopped the Irish slave trade by himself and he baptized 100,000 folks!
What a difference! All because one heart was unafraid to follow his Savior and share the Good News of Him in a tough place!
Makes you almost wanna pinch YOURSELF!
"Do over"
Hey, everyone!
Hope y’all’re pumped and ready for this amazing and important Sunday coming up! Not only is this the second Sunday of the month when we all bring delicious stuff from home and eat together after church (if I was in the “Sound of Music”, C3 fellowship meal would be one of my favorite things! Whiskers on kittens don't really do anything for me, personally…) but also this Sunday is...
“Change-Your-Clock-And-Spring-Forward! Sunday”!
That’s right!
This Sunday at precisely 2:00 am, we jump ahead into the future by one hour!
Many people just set the clock ahead before going to bed on Saturday night. You already lose an hour of sleep, so it would make it worse to have to wake up and do it at the exact time of the change-over. But wouldn’t it be cool just once in your life to have the full experience and wake up at five minutes to two, get up, do a count-down together, and turn your clocks forward at precisely 2:00 am on the minute!, and then go back to bed!
Just once!
It's like the only chance we have to time-travel and we all just sleep thru it!
There must be a very important reason for changing the clocks, even though in Algeria, Singapore, South Korea, Swaziland, Venezuela, Burundi, the states of Arizona (except for residents of the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii, along with Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas Islands, and loads of other places, they just leave the clocks alone all year and snooze on. (Did you know China has only one time zone?)
I know springing forward and falling back time-wise, must be important...but I’m not really sure why. I've always heard farmers like it, but they are the ones who have always grumped the most about it. They are the only ones in history to have lobbied against it in Congress. They say it messes up the cows' milk…Sends ol' Bessie into utter confusion!
Y know, it isn’t really called “daylight savings time”. It’s “daylight saving time”. And it doesn’t really save any daylight. You get the same amount.
It's really all about what you do with the hours of daylight and dark that you get.
Remember what Gandalf said to Frodo, when he complained about having to deal with the ring thing?
Frodo-"I wish the ring had never come to me. It wish all this had never happened…"
Gandalf-"That is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Sometimes, I bet almost all of us wish we really could "fall back" in time and live a moment again…You know, have a "do-over". A word I could say or not say…A choice I would unchoose, if I could…
Others might rather "spring forward"…
If I could jump into the future, nestle down into a seat and watch from there the things that happened and know the reasons…and see why it had to be…and all God has done for good in the moments that were so painful. There are plenty of broken hearts today that long to know why and what good will come from the painful present. ..
But no matter how much we turn our clocks and watches, we don't-and can't- "fall-back" or ""spring forward" in time. All we can do…and the best we can do…is to trust and love and worship Him Who knows what He is doing, why He is doing it, and what good will come from all that makes up this day, both pleasant and painful.
That's why we remind you to set your clocks ahead Saturday night. Otherwise, you might miss the only thing that makes any sense.
Praise and worship this Sunday at 10:45 am.
Same time as every week.
Only an hour earlier.
"Esther 4:16 principle"
Hey, everyone!
Hope you’re having an awesome, joy-filled day! You know, the other day I was…
“Hey! What if I’m not!? What if I’m NOT having an awesome, joy-filled day? What if I’m having a yucky day? What am I supposed to do about it?”
Oh.
Well, there are some things you could do if you’re having a yucky day, depending on the reason for the yuckiness.
If you’re having a yucky day because of the weather…
Well, there ain’t a whole lot you could do about the wet, cold, "how-many-times-is-it-gonna-snow-in-a-row?"-iness except to remember...
…that tons of folks have had (literally!) TONS more snow than we have...
…and that whatever the weather, “God says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth…’ " (Job 37) and “lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds do his bidding...” (Psalm 148)…
So, we pretty much have the weather God chooses for us!
…and that no matter what the weather, in your heart, it can always be spring! Because...
“the righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon... They will always stay fresh and green” (Pslam 92)
Or maybe you're having a yucky day because of the things you see on the news. If it’s because of the sufferings of so many people who have a difficult life that just keeps getting more difficult...
There is something you can do! You can lift them to the throne of God! We could pray for brothers and sisters in Christ who are there, trying to be faithful, brave, and true to their Master in a tough situation.
In Revelation 8, there is this amazing scene where an angel takes this golden incense ball full of fire from the altar of God and “...hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake!” In the golden ball, this angel had collected and included “the prayers of the saints” (Rev 8.3). In the middle of hate and animosity and shootings and beatings and explosions in the troubled places of the world, the prayers of the people of God become a bomb of love, goodness, and strength in God for those who are struggling to walk with Him!
If you pray, you can have an important role around the world!
Amazing!
On the other hand, if you’re having a yucky day because…
Let's say there is someone in your life who is driving you nuts. Maybe it’s because they have something going on that isn’t right and that God doesn’t want. You know it, but they don’t.
Or maybe it’s because they just have some annoying ways that kind of make you kooky. You know how all of us can be irritating at times.
To have a brighter day, maybe you need to talk to that someone about that something in their life that isn’t good. Especially if it’s something you know ain’t God’s will for them! We all need someone with the courage to confront us from time to time!
Or maybe you just need to ignore and put up with their little irritating ways, knowing that we’re all annoying to others from time to time!
“So how do I know if I should talk to them or just put up with them? How do I know if it’s something to confront or something to forget?”
Why not try the “Esther 4.16 principle”?
She had to get the courage to face a scary king about a situation and decided that, before she made a move to confront, she’d pray about it for three days. Somebody breaking your heart? Or driving you nuts? You can’t tell whether it’s wrong or just annoying? Just pray about it for three days. Ask God to tell you whether you should speak up or shut up!
“Yeah, but...let’s say...someone cuts in front of me in traffic.. I'd have to to decide whether or not I should tell him/her off and possibly point out through my gesticulations their short-comings. If I wait for three days before deciding, my opportunity would be gone!”
Yes, it would.
Have a joy-filled day!
Simple as that
Hey, everyone!
Wow! What a week! It's really been quite a fall!
"Fall?! Dude! Winter's hopefully winding up! Especially after this week! Whaddaya mean, fall?"
Oh. I meant the one I took on Wednesday.
That was quite a fall.
I was out jogging in the winter wonderland, taking in all the wonders of falling snow on ice and meditating on the wonder of slumbering flowers under white frozen fields, just waiting for their moment to bloom in nature's wonderful arrangements, when suddenly something less than wonderful happened…
Opps!
Bam!!
Or as the song says…
"A slip!
A slide!
On my backside!
I think I mighta
bruised my pride!"
My first thought as I lay in the street, looking up at the wonder of snowflakes, each one wonderfully unique, landing on my face, was…
"I wonder if anyone saw that!"
Anyway, after about the ten minutes it took me to stand up, I thought, "Sumthin' ain't right. My right arm isn't supposed to just hang down like that…"
So I figured I better go to the ER and find out what happens when you break your shoulder off. Pottsie did ambulance duty and as we made our way out of the 'Springs, I thought, "Wow, Lord! How complicated did my life just get? Will this mean surgery? Or surgeries? Physical therapy? Arm transplant? WILL I EVER PLAY THE BANJO AGAIN?!"
When I registered, the lady asked, "What happened?"
"I slipped and fell while jogging," I said.
"That was stupid!"
"Falling? You can't help it if you slip on ice!"
"No. Not that part. The jogging on snow and ice was stupid."
"I see your point."
Thankfully, my bro' in Christ, Dave Drum was working back there! After he read the X-rays he said, "Nothing broken! Just a sprain! Let's throw it in this sling and in a couple of days, should be good as new!"
Wow! That was simple!
I thought I had a really complicated problem that would need a complicated solution but it would all be easy and simple!
What a wintery wonderful feeling!
Y'know, that wasn't the first time I had a simple answer to an intimidating problem this week!
I thought I was having major power steering issues in my car. There was this growling noise. Called another bro' in Christ, Julio…
"Do this. Stop. Turn the wheel as far left as it can go. Then as far right. Repeat. I think there are bubbles in the line…"
Left…right…left…right…FIXED!
Seven seconds and no bill!
"…And I said to myself, 'What a wonderful world!' "
While we're all stuck in this winter wonderland…
I wonder how many times we miss that wonder?
An easy fix when we thought the solution would be so complicated?
Here's a problem that has an easy answer…
Sometimes, folks live for weeks, months, or years with regrets and remorse for dumb choices or hurtful decisions made "way back there".
"How can I ever get past this? How can I ever lift my head again? How can I ever feel clean again?"
John wrote, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
"Confess" means, "Just call that mess and wrong what God calls it. No making Him promises. No need to plead or beg. Just admit it!"
Bam! Clean and new!
That was easy!
How 'bout when you're filled with anxiety and worry about a thing you can't fix and you don't know what to do about it…
Answer? Listen…
"Be anxious for nothing (the Greek for "nothing" is the word, "NOTHING!") but in everything by prayer and asking, including thanksgiving, tell God what you want. And the peace of God that passes all understanding WILL guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus!" (Philippians 4:6)
Did you hear that simple solution?
Tell God what you want Him to do about whatever makes you anxious, worried or nervous, thanking Him that He's awesome and full of love and power, and you WILL have peace!
It's a promise!
Simple as that!
Easy!
Here's another simple solution to potentially complicated problems…
If you're confused and don't know what to do, all you have to do is ask God yo tell you!
Check this…
"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you!" (James 1:5)
Wisdom for James didn't mean understanding the philosophically intrinsically inscrutability of life's mysterious mysteries. It's a ton more practical. "James" was about the first thing in the New Testament written, when most everyone was Jewish in Jesus' movement. And for Jewish people, wisdom was a lot more Proverb-y, plain ol' everyday "What-do-I-do-now?" stuff. Advice and direction for the situations of life.
Don't know what to do?
That's easy!
Ask God to tell you and He promises He will!
If you do it, you'll save yourself tons of troubles!
"God, it's snowy and icy out there. Since I'm almost a senior citizen and falls ain't as easy on a feller like me as they used to be, do you think I should go jogging in this?"
"No, my son. That would be stupid."
That's it for the weather!