Weekly e-news January 31, 2020

Hey, everyone! What an awesome day this is going to be!!

We can look forward to… hang on one sec…

“Cloudy with a chance of showers later with highs around 50…”

Oops. Weather-wise, not so amazing after all. I guess January’s like that tho… Usually cold, lots of “cloudy with a 70% chance of dreary”…

Today is January 31. January has 31 days. So does December. July and August have 31 days too. So the hottest two months and the coldest two months have the maximum number of days!

I just got an awesome idea!! What if they took one day from October, December, January, July and August (which all have 31 days) and put those days at the end of a few of the months that only have 30 days…

Like November (one more day for Christmas shopping! You’re welcome, economy!)…

They could even add two days each at the end of June and April! That way, the nicest months, weather-wise would be longer and the less awesome ones would be shorter!

That would also get rid of October 31/Halloween (which some love but not me!) and December 31/New Years Eve which has the most DUIs!

Wait!

I just realized that’s a terrible idea! Because today, dreary ol’ January 31, 2020 is the only one I’ll ever get!

Psalm 90, verse 12 is one of the most important verses in my whole life! “So teach us to number our days so we can have a heart of wisdom!”

Moses (who wrote it) said all things considered, we get 70 years to live on average… and the days till then aren’t a lot! I personally only have 1649 days till my 70th b-day! I can’t waste any!

One thing about complaining and griping about the weather…or whatever!… is that if I grump away a whole day… instead of enjoying it… and praising Jesus in it… and walking thru it with Him, finding out if there are any adventures He wants me to enjoy with Him in it…

In other words… If I waste one of my 1649 days… I can NEVER get it back!

When we get to Heaven, it is going to be sooooooooo unbelievably amazing!! We’ll be able to do things we’ve never imagined!! But there are some things we WON’T be able to do there!

Like…

having a thankful attitude even tho’ we’re having a tough time… (There won’t be any of those!)

or,

being “joyful in troubles”, as the Apostle puts in… (No troubles there!)

or,

renouncing all complaining about anything when I feel like I reeeeeaaaaallllly wanna! (Nothing to complain about up there!)

So if I’m gonna do those things well, well… today’s the day!

January 31, 2020!

What a great day this will be!

Makes you kinda wish there was a January 32!

Weekly e-news January 17, 2020

Hey, everyone! Hope you’re having a beautiful day… a day full of praise and thankfulness and joy and… a day full of…let’s see…highs of 50, lows of 37 and 0% rain! (Tho’ partly cloudy.)

Speaking of the weather… I’m glad it’s finally getting down out of the 60’s! I mean, it’s mid-January! When I was a kid, we would’ve already had a couple of really good snows! In those days….

“Ok, boomer.”

What?? Did someone say something?

Anyway, when Tina and I watch the weather on TV, it always seems like they try to predict it to scare you! “30 million are at risk as a line of thunder storms cross the midwest…” “At risk”? It’s just a thunder storm! Back in “the day”…

“Ok, boomer.”

Hey! There it is again! I coulda sworn I heard someone say “Ok, boomer”

It must have been my imagination. I might be a little sensitive because of an article I read about that particular expression. It seems that “Ok, boomer” is a phrase that is popular among younger texters, Gen Z’r’s, bloggers and TikTokers. It’s kind of a dismissive response to thoughts and opinions of “boomers” (those born between 1946 and 1964…i.e., me!) that can at times seem, to younger folks, inflexible, narrow and condescending.

“When I was in college, I didn’t get student loans because I worked my way through!” “Ok, boomer.” Because the boomer forgot to add the fact that in 1974, UT cost a total of $248 per semester (or, more precisely, $124 per quarter!)

And to tell the truth, spiritually, I think Jesus might say they have a point. As long as we stay faithful and true to the “Old, old story of Jesus and His love”… or as Jeremiah said, as long as we “stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it…” Jesus said over and over that it is important to be able to think in ways that are new, creative, and fresh! And flexible!

His ways were soooooo radical! And soooooo unconventional! And sooooooo revolutionary! Only a humbly teachable heart could welcome His thoughts and words! Those who were totally set in their ways had no space for His!

“Take My yoke and LEARN of Me…” (Matthew 11.29)

Or…“You can’t put new wine in old wineskins!”

And you can’t put new thoughts of the radical love of Jesus in inflexible, unstretchable hearts!

Sometimes it seems to me that Peter was one who really struggled to give up old attitudes to make space for Jesus’ way of seeing and doing.

One night, to demonstrate a whole new way to lead, our Savior took off His normal clothes, put on a servant’s towel, and washed their stinky feet like a slave would do. “Not mine, Lord! I would never let You serve me that way! It’s not the way I was raised!”

Another time, in a vision, God encouraged Peter to enjoy some foods he had never tried before. “Not me, Lord! Nothing like that has ever touched my lips and it ain’t about to now!”

Not long after, our Lord encouraged Peter to visit and even enter into the home of a guy seeking God. Only glitch…Cornelius wasn’t one of “his people”. He was an foreigner! And an Italian, at that! Pete had NEVER been in a home or probably even in a lengthy conversation with “those kind”!

But God loves people in ways we’ve never thought of! He cares about all those we may not care for at all! Peter hesitatingly went. And when he was warmly welcomed in, he said to Cornelius and his family… “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean…” As another translation puts it… ““You know, I’m sure that this is highly irregular. Our people just don’t do this—visit and relax with other nationalities of people…”

And you can almost hear angels snicker and say… “Ok, boomer!”

Weekly e-news December 20, 2019

Merry Day-before-the-day-before-the-day-before-the-day-before-the-night-before-Christmas, everyone!! 

It’s gonna be a beautiful Christmas! 

Tho’ there’s not going to be snow this year!  

Sorry. 

In the song about “…dreaming of a white Christmas”, Bing shares the wish at the end that “…all your Christmases be white”. 

Since 1884, we’ve only had twelve white Christmases in East Tennessee…

and that even includes 1989 when we got 0.1 inch!

And this year ain’t gonna be one of ‘em!

"High will be 63 and sunny for your Christmas Day…"

So…if that’s your song…

dream on! 

Sometimes on Christmas, hearts wake up with huge expectations and go to bed with Christmas disappointments… 

Remember not getting what you asked for?  

Remember getting a gift you didn’t ask for? 

Remember the puppy you asked for but didn’t get? 

Remember getting the water-pik dental hygene system you didn’t ask for?

Remember the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of JFK you got when you were ten? (What ten year old wouldn’t want that?!) 

Remember when Calvin sent in boxtops from his cereal Chocolate-Coated Sugar Bombs, waited six weeks for a beanie with a propeller on it and it wouldn’t fly? 

At all! 

Not even an inch off the ground! 

Remember when you prayed for snow at Christmas? 

Remember when you prayed everyone at home would get along from now on? 

Remember when a young mom was going to be the mother of the Messiah and no one would believe her? 

Or help her? 

Maybe you won’t get what you wanted at Christmas. 

Or maybe what you wanted won’t be what you hoped it would be. 

But unto us is born in the city of David, a Savior Who is Christ the Lord!! 

He knows why it’s not going to snow on Wednesday when we wanted snow…

and why His way’s best! 

He knows that sometimes things we wish for at Christmas…

or any other day…

aren’t best for us…

or even good for us…

or what we really need right now…

or ever. 

He knows that He always knows and cares and gives us what is best when we need it… 

And one day, we’ll have all we could ever dream of! 

And things so wonderful, we could never imagine them! 

Having Him, we always have hope!  

Having hope, you always have enough! 

Hope is the most wonderful gift of all!

And as the Day approaches, I just want to say how thankful to God we are for you!!

What a gift!!

Weekly e-news December 13, 2019

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome, joy-filled Friday-before-the-week-before-the-Day!

I know it’s gonna be a rainy one, but on Tuesday…

I was dreaming of a white pre-Christmas!

And I woke up and it happened!

BTW, don’t you love the whistling part when Bing sings that classic?!

I made an awesome playlist compilation for the season and if you pass me on the streets and I seem to be singing…

As my Desmond says, I’m am!

I’ve got Vince Guaraldi, Nat King Cole, George Strait, Ernest Tubb, Leontyne Price, Luciano Pavarotti, Whitney Houston, Cece and Bebe Winans, Bing and Rosemary, the Isaacs and more!

I’ve got White Christmas, Blue Christmas, Silver Bells, I Heard the Bells, Silent Night and O Holy Night, Hark the Herald Angels and the ones we have heard on high!

I did leave one off, tho.

D’you know what the Vienna Boys Choir, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, the Supremes, Joan Baez, the Jackson 5, Neal Diamond, Ray Charles, Boyz II Men, Destiny’s Child, Bob Dylan and the Veggie Tales have in common?

They all recorded a version of “The Little Drummer Boy”!

“Why?” you ask.

I love that song…in theory.

Originally called, “The Carol of the Drum”, how could you NOT love a song about a poor but ingenious child who has nothing for the New-born King but his talent with two sticks?! Just the thought of it would make the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes!

It’s just that…

(I don’t mean to be critical at all)…

(especially at Christmas time)…

but it’s just the…it’s the…

IT’S THE “Pa rum pum pum pum”!!

You sing it THIRTY THREE times!!

You sing “pum” NINETY SEVEN times!!

I counted!!

One cool feature tho’ is that the lines don’t rhyme all the time. Some times they do, but some time they don’t!

“Mary nodded…

The ox and lamb kept time”

It works tho’ because every other line ends in “pum’!

And “pum’ rhymes with “pum” every time!

I DO love the “pum pum pum" of this little guy’s heart!

What do I give “to lay before the King?…so to honor Him? That’s fit to give our King?”

Maybe you’ve asked yourself this very question this Advent season.

What would my King want from me as a gift this Christmas?

What could you give to the One Who owns everything?

I think I know the answer!

He left some Christmas hints!

In Matthew, chapter 25, Jesus opens His arms and invites into His Kingdom those He calls “My sheep”.

“For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink…I needed clothes and you clothed Me…”

Confused, they will ask Him…

“Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You…needing clothes and clothe You?

And He will answer, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.”

When you care for those who need real help, you care for Him!

Giving to them=Giving to Him!

We have had sooooo many tags taken off our “Victor’s Christmas Tree” in the Triple C lobby for the 70 orphans Victor and Suni Nandigam are raising in Hyderabad, India!

And most of those tags for providing an extremely poor widow her new sari (ie., her new clothes for the year!) are also gone!

There are a few left however!

This is your chance to buy just the perfect gift for your King this Christmas!

A gift for them is a gift for Him!

And it’ll make your heart go…

“Pum pum pum!”

Weekly e-news December 6, 2019

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having the crispiest of days, with Christmas spirit filling your heart…

something warm filling your tum…

and songs of tidings of comfort and joy filling your home or car…

but at least your ears and mind! 

Christmas-y December reminded me that I had the craziest experience 'bout this time a year or so ago…

Well, actually, I DIDN’T have it! 

I wasn’t there when it didn’t happen. 

It was kind of an unexperience!  

But lots of people apparently thought I was having it! 

I was the only one who didn’t know it wasn’t happening to me! 

Everyone else thought it was. 

But it WASN’T! 

I just didn’t know that…

(Whoa.)

Lemme explain…

So, when you volunteer at the Morgan County Correctional Facility…

(or “MCCX”, as it’s affectionately called)…

you have to sign in the volunteer book before you go through the X-ray machines and get the ol’ “pat-down” 

(They wind up knowing you better than you know yourself!) 

Then you go through three steel doors in 100 yards or so before you’re in and heading down to where we have classes. The sidewalk to the “compound” is about a 1/2 mile…

(Not a full one. And it’s not green.)

Then, when you’re leaving the prison after class, you always have to check out and sign out of the volunteer book and tell Joel, the guard at the front desk, “I’m gone, Joel! Headin’ down the mountain! See you next week!”

Well, turns out that as I was leaving after my class…at about 4:40 in the afternoon or so…I just said, “See ya!” to Joel and didn’t sign out of the book. 

Just forgot. 

So then, at about 7:30 they realized that I hadn’t signed out! 

EVERY volunteer has to be out by 8:00 every night…

And that night, there was the possibility of an unaccounted-for volunteer still inside!! 

So they started looking and looking!  

For me!

When he told me about it the next week, Joel made it seem like they almost had to lock the whole place down! 

“Where is that dude!?” 

Maybe somebody started to think of all the scary possibilities of every bad thing that could have happened! I guess, eventually when they didn’t find me anywhere, they must have concluded, “I reckon he just forgot to sign out on the book when he left this afternoon…”

In the meantime, I had no idea that I almost sent the biggest prison in our state into a crisis! 

If they knew where to look, they would’ve found me on my couch with my bride, watching the ballgame!  

When I heard about it the next week, I realized that it was one of the wildest experiences I had never had! 

Because “the night I was lost in MCCX” I wasn’t even there at the time! 

I didn’t even know it wasn’t happening!

I know there is a lesson for me in this…

Because Paul tells us that our God makes all of our experiences…

and even our unexperiences!…

”work together” and weave together into a perfect plan for our good! 

This is what his letter to the Romans, chapter 8, verse 28 says! 

“…And we know that God causes all things to work together for our good!…”

The very next verse says that this “good” is that He is making us like Jesus!…

”…all things work together for our good…that we might be conformed to the image of His Son…” (Romans 8:28-29)

So, everything that happens to you…

and the things that don’t happen to you...

even if everybody but you thinks they are happening to you 

and you’re the only one who doesn’t know they’re not!...

is part of a perfect plan!

“How did this unexperience fit into God’s plan for me?”

I have no idea!

But, on the other hand, I almost never DO know how He makes everything work together for my good! 

I’m not smart enough to know!

But He is! 

And even if I don’t know how He is going to make everything fit into a perfect plan…

He does!  

Now the next tim…

Wait a sec! 

If the point of everything is making us more and more like Jesus, I can think of one verse where I was like Him the other night, without knowing it…

Mark 1:37…

“…They all went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’ “

Bam.

Weekly e-news October 25, 2019

Hey, everyone!

Happy Holidays!

“What!? Little early with all that, ain’t it?”

Well, not really. I guess, technically, we never really left the holiday season. If you snoop around enough, you find that everyday somewhere is a holiday.

Take today, f’r instance.

Did you know that…

Today, October 25 is…

National Greasy Foods Day? (Yuck!)

National Frankenstein Day? (Double yuck!) Did you know they’ve made over 60 movies about him? And I ain’t never seen one! And bet I never will!

National Sour Day? (It’s a day to celebrate pessimistic attitudes and raise a half-empty glass at your own pity party! Triple Yuck!)

October 25 is George Bizet’s birthday? (You should go on youtube or spotify and listen to the tenor-baritone duet of "Au fond du temple saint" from his 1863 opera “Les pecheurs de perles” for his birthday! Unbelievable!!)

And it’s Coach Bobby Knight’s birthday! (I’ve heard when the doctor slapped his rear, Baby Bobby picked up a chair and threw it!)

And today’s Minnie Pearl’s birthday! She was born in 1912 in Centerville, Tennessee (I thought she was born at Grinder’s Switch?!)

And today is St. Crispin’s Day!

I love this holiday because it reminds me of the time on a Sunday morning at Triple C, when I ridiculously quoted the famous speech (which I had never heard of!) by Henry V from Shakespeare’s “Henry V”.

Since, I’ve NEVER read “Henry V” (and don’t know hardly a thing about the Henrys, whether there were XV or LV! Or CVX!) I could have been fined for quoting Shakespeare without a license! It’s actually a speech I found quoted in a book.

And, even tho’ I was WAAAY over my head, Shakespearily speaking, the speech IS awesome!

Hank, King of England, was trying to pump up the troops against the French on the day of the battle of Agincourt in 1415 (October 25th!). And they needed some encouragement!

They were all hungry…

a long way from home…

lots of them were suffering from chronic diarrhea (it’s what finally got Henry “in the end”)

As he got ready to give his super-important pre-battle speech, Henry #5 remembered that it was October 25, 1415…

St. Crispin’s Day!

It didn’t really mean much to the troops that it was the Day of St Crispin.

‘But it could!”, yelled the King!

Henry was dirty, sick, and weak. So was everyone! But the fight was before them! They needed courage their hearts didn’t yet feel.

Where would it come from?

Courage would come from thoughts of…

St Crispin’s Days yet-to-come!

Listen, weary warrior!

“…This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian!

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil, feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's Day.'

Old men forget…But he'll remember

What feats he did that day!


And Crispin’s Day shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers
(For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother)…


And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day!”

Wow!

Did you get it? This is a holiday that only a few notice.

October 25.

St Crispin’s Day

But you and I have battles to fight today!

…against temptations to do or say stupid things we could regret to the end of our days…

…against depressions or despair, when those we love NEED us to believe for today that God is always good and wise and loving…

…against accusations of an unseen enemy who brings absurd slanderous thoughts to our minds, even tho’ we are clean and bright in the Lamb of God…

(And “that ol’ serpent” even trying (imagine this!) to make us believe those ridiculous thoughts come from our own hearts and not from him!)

And when we fight…
against temptations…
doubts…
despair…
and the devil…

and when we win!…

next week and/or next year, we’ll be thankful we fought for spiritual victory and for our joy on this St Crispin’s Day!

AND angels and saints in heaven watch and cheer us! And years from now in Heaven, they will never forget that on this day, October 25, the year of our Lord 2019, you and I fought our battles!

And won!

Happy St. Crispin’s Day, everyone!

Weekly e-news October 18, 2019

Hey, everyone!

It’s gonna be an awesome day!

The sun is bright!

The sun is up!

It’s warm like the coffee

in my cup!

The air is clear,

The sky is blue!

What a day to praise

my Lord! For you!

Wow.

Where’d that Dr Seussiness come from?!

Oh. I remember now…

I was reading this article about how a certain scholar had written in Life Magazine in the 1950’s explaining why kids (when I was one) were behind in reading. Mostly it had to do with the Dick and Jane readers they used and how booooooring they were! 

I wish they’d asked us! I coulda told ‘em!

“See Jane run! Run, Jane! Run! Run!”

Zzzzzzzz……

The scholar wrote that “…boys and girls are confronted with books that have insipid illustrations depicting the slicked-up lives of other children... All feature abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls.... In bookstores anyone can buy brighter, livelier books featuring… children who behave naturally, i.e., sometimes misbehave…”

A publisher who read it challenged Dr Seuss to write a book that “…a first grader couldn’t put down.”

That’s what I’m talking about!

About real kids and times when stuff goes wrong!

So…

Theodore Geisel (“Dr Suess")a wrote a story about a cat in a red and white hat complete with red bowtie who comes uninvited to a house of Sally and her brother, bored out of their minds on a rainy day and who proposes to entertain them with a balancing trick involving their conscientious fish! 

“Why, we can have lots of good fun, if you wish

with a game that I call up-up-up with a fish!‘ 

'Put me down!' said the fish. 'This is no fun at all! 

Put me down!‘ said the fish. 'I do NOT wish to fall!' 

'Have no fear!' said the Cat. ‘I will not let you fall!

I will hold you up high as I stand on a ball!

With a book on one hand! 

And a cup on my hat! 

But that is not ALL I can do!…

Look at me! Look at me now!' said the Cat…”

Before long, the Cat was balancing on a ball 

with a cup and a cake on the top of his hat…

two books…

the fish on a rake…

a little toy ship! 

some milk in a dish

a little toy man…

and with his tail he held a red fan…

(The kids were freaking out by this time)

 “I can fan with the fan as I hop on the ball! 

But that is not all!

Oh, no! That is not all…

…then he fell on his head! 

He came down with a bump 

from up there on the ball. 

And Sally and I saw…

ALL the things fall!!”

That’s one of the reasons I love the Book I read every morning!

It’s about those who weren’t…and aren’t…perfect…

Couldn’t be and (because of Jesus!) don’t have to be!

And it’s about the wise Savior I can trust even if I’m going through one of those times (and we will!) when you think you’ve got it all together until the moment when…

“all things fall”

One of my favorite Scriptures was written by a prophet for a time like that.

Habakkuk was going thru days when nothing was going well but he proclaimed that, because of the God we love, his faith was as strong as ever!

No matter what!

“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 3.17-18)

Mmmmm…I love that so much!

Or to quote it in the Dr Seuss translation…

“Tho’ the fig has no bud,

No grape falls with a thud,

Tho’ the olives ain’t growin’,

In the field there’s no sowin’,

Tho’ the sheep gives no wool,

the cows’ utters aren’t full,

My God’s praises I’ll sing!

And rejoice! He’s still King!”

Weekly e-news September 6, 2019

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome day! It’s gonna be a warmish weekend, weatherly speaking!

Hope it’s not too sweaty and sticky for a church I saw that is planning to worship outside this Sunday…

I was on my way to my fellers up at Morgan County Correctional on Tuesday and I passed a little Baptist church with one of those church signs that said…

“Join us this Sunday for worship service at Frozen Head State Park”

Which made me wonder…

“Frozen Head?! Why do they call it ‘Frozen Head’?”

Lots of state parks have goofy and/or quirky names!

I was trying to guess why a state park in Camdenton, MO is called, “Ha Ha Tonka State Park” (I guessed wrong on that one! It’s a Cherokee name…)

Every wonder why they call it, “Big Bone Lick State Park” in Union, KY? (I got that one wrong, too! It’s about an old salt lick where a Mastodon skeleton was dug up!)

In Stock Port, OH you can spend the day at “Big Bottom State Park” (It has to do with lots of fertile bottom farm land…I guessed that one right!)

So…

“Frozen Head” is about a mountain that gets frosty in the fall…(And has nothing to do with the ghost stories they tell kids in Petros…)

So then I wondered…

“They’re having ‘services’ there…Why do they call what we do on Sunday a worship ‘service’?”

Of course, there’s always a load of serving going on!

Kids are growing…

coffee’s brewing…

folks are sharing Scriptures…

doors swing open…

music’s filling the air…

even the parking lot cones are waiting for you…

All because servants-at-heart is have been doing what they love to do!

But I looked it up, anyway…

“Wow! It comes from ‘Old French’…’servise’…from Latin before that…’servitium’…’First used in 1100 A.D.’ (That’s an old word!)…’a celebration of public worship’ from ‘an act of homage or worship’…’offered by a servant/slave of God’…’Mass, church ceremony…”

“So, that’s it!”

They call Sunday worship a “service” because…like the ancient priests in the Temple of old…you’re offering songs and praise to God as a service to Him!

That makes sense…

Except…

Psalm 50 says…

He doesn’t need it! I’m not really giving Him anything!

“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth  from the rising of the sun to where it sets…

(About all the sacrifices and service they brought Him)…

“I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine!

And the cattle on a thousand hills!

I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.

If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it!” (Psalm 50:1,9-12)

He didn’t need their sacrifices! (Tho’ He asked for them!)

He doesn’t need our singing, worship, and praise! (Tho’ He asks for them!)

I LOVE praising God!! Singing to Him!!

But He doesn’t need our encouragement!!

We need His!!

And how do we get encouragement for all we have to face every difficult week?

By praising Him, of course!

By singing to Him!

And by remembering, from all the words we sing…

that…

“I am a child of the Maker of stars…”

“He cherishes,treasures me…gave life and blood!”

“He is my Friend!”

and

“I am His Belooooooved!!”

Now I’m ready for whatever’s ahead!!

He asks for our praise, not because He needs to hear it (tho’ He loves it!) but because we need to do it!!

Praising Him…worshiping Him is the most self-serving serving we do!!

See Sunday at worship service!

If you come with a frozen head, you’ll leave with a warm heart!!

Weekly e-news July 5, 2019

Hey, everyone!

Hope y’all had an awesome fourth! Next holiday comin’ up is…lemme think…uh…Labor Day? 

So…we had a weird moment yesterday! 

Well, actually, I didn’t realize it was weird ’til today!

We got talking about one of our dogs…which (“whom”?) we haven’t talked about in…forever!

And today I realized that yesterday was the anniversary of the day that dog died…

That was a sadder Fourth than I would have thought it was going to be before it happened…

I mean, we knew it was coming. 

He was a humongous St. Bernard and was about 140 in dog years. 

Couldn’t see or hear. 

He could just smell. 

And he did!! A lot sometimes! (Before Tina shampooed all 200-somethin’ lbs of him!) 

I’m not a big “dog-guy” (and Harley was a big dog!) and I’ve never really had a desire to have a bunch of dogs. I’m a big Tina-guy, however, and she’s always loved them! 

Consequently, we hadn’t had that many dog-less years together. 

We’ve had dogs that were “rescue dogs”…

the kind you rescue from ending up on death row in the pound…

”dead dog walking”…

Harley was one of those.

A lot of times, people get big dogs and than realize that they eat half a house daily, and do other things in a big way, as well, and decide they don’t want them. We got two St. Bernards almost at once that way. 

I wasn’t sure where it was going to end and how many “saints” we’d eventually wind up with, but I was getting prepared to celebrate All Saints Day!

One of them was kinda grouchy and mean…well, not exactly mean…just mean-ish. 

But Harley was the sweetest. 

He really was the sweetest dog we every had. 

Always! 

Always kind…always wanted to touch you. 

If you walked down the street, he wanted to rub up against you when you strolled. 

(It was a good way to wind up in a ditch!)

He just wanted to be around you. 

He just wanted a pat on the head. 

He just wanted to please you. He was just sweet. 

And when he was old and walking into poles and trees and stuff, it didn’t bother him at all. 

He ate the worst smelling dog food everyday…same thing everyday…and never complained! 

About anything! 

When he was really old, he slept most of the time. He snored like Bronco Nagurski and you could hear it all over. It is quiet now out there at night.

And I was kinda surprised how much I missed him. 

He was just a dog. 

But in a way he was more and I didn’t know it. 

He was kind of a mentor. 

Like a spiritual mentor.

A mentor who left dog hair everywhere. 

Like the way he just wanted to be around us and how he was happiest with that. 

And he just wanted to please you. 

And I want to be like that with our Lord! 

Like Harley! 

Just happy to be around Him. 

Content to know He’s there. 

Only goal is to please Him and that’s all. 

And if I know my Lord is pleased with me, I just wag my tail, spiritually speaking, and I’m totally content and filled.

And what if a person could be so kind all the time, and so sweet to people that when you’re not around, it’s what they miss the most. To live so that when you’re no longer there, no one will remember a time when you barked at or bite anyone…

Mother Teresa of India said, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting”

Don’t lick people in the face, though. It’s not as cool as dogs think it is.

Weekly e-news June 7, 2019

Hey, everyone!

School’s out!

Pool’s full!

Days are hot!

But the water’s cool!

(Yikes! I didn’t mean to bust into poetry…)

Altho’ that reminds me (now that it’s camping season!) of a poem on a gravestone in the cemetery at Elkmont campground in the Smokies I saw (and stood there and memorized!)…

It was for a married couple buried side-by-side in the graveyard up by the “m”,”n” and “o” campsites in the back across the creek from the restored Appalachian Club House…

“Once in your life you find someone special,

your lives intermingle and somehow you know.

This is the start of all you have longed for.

A love you can build on, a love that will grow.”

I love that! (sniff…)

Somebody thought a while about that one!

I remember reading about one gravestone that said…

“He saw the train and tried to duck it.

He hit the gas and then the bucket.”

Another said…

“Take heed all ye who here pass by.

As you are now, so once was I.

As I am now, so you shall be.

Prepare thyself to follow me.”

Underneath someone scratched…

“To follow thee, I’m not content

Until I know which way you went!”

Billy Graham’s wife always said she wanted them to write on hers what the sign says at the last of the orange barrels when they’re doing work along the interstate. And that’s what it says!!

“Ruth Graham

June 10, 1920-June 14, 2007

End of construction. Thank you for your patience.”

So, I decided what I want on ours if Tina and I go together.

Ready?

“Tom ’n Tina

They loved each other and they loved her beans!

Just brown one pound ground beef

Add one half of a kielbasa

Seven cans of beans…red, black, kidney, you pick!

I/2 cup of ketchup

1/4 bar-b-que sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

two table spoons molasses

splash of pickle juice (that’s the secret!)

a little chili powder

half an onion

pinch of cayenne powder

Crock pot for 4-6 hours on low…

…And he saith unto me, Take it, and eat it up!” -Revelation 10:9

I like it! (sniff!)

That way, when we’re gone, and it’s the second Sunday of the month, and y’all are having fellowship meal together after worship at Triple C like we’ve always done…

…and like we’re doing THIS Sunday(!!!)…

somebody can just go out, read our gravestone and know what to make!!

We’ll be gone but our beans will go on!

Remember! Fellowship Meal this Sunday!

Tina’s beans will be there!

Hope you will too!

Weekly e-news May 17, 2019

Hey, everyone!

 Hope you’re having an awesome, praise-filled, joyous, heart-full-of-thanks day! 

And if you’re not, maybe I can help! 

Just by reminding you that you are a child of the living God, the King of kings! And that He is working out a wonderful plan for you because He loves you so much! You’re His because He wanted you before the world was ever made! And what Jesus came to do was to buy you (that’s what “redeem” means) so you could be His! He really and specifically wanted you!

 Feel better?

 You’re welcome!

 Seriously, don’t you just need from time to time for someone who loves you to remind you of how Jesus sees you?

 You had a hard day at work and maybe got someone upset without meaning to…

Or you remember something you shouldn’ta done but you done did…

or something you should’ve said but didn’t…

Or maybe there’s an old memory rattlin’ around in yer noggin of something that somebody said about you that you can’t seem to shake…

And we have an invisible enemy who doesn’t help at all, always trying to remind us of famous failures and flops of the past…

 It helps when someone simply tells you how the One Who matters most sees you!

 Y’all know Joni Earickson Tada, right? She became a quadriplegic at seventeen and has had a world-wide ministry to those with disabilities (and the rest of us!) for fifty years. She is th’ bomb! Insightful…encouraging…She’s what the last book of the Bible calls, an “overcomer”!

 One of the million ways God has used her is to distribute wheelchairs around the world in countries that are so poor that paraplegics and others who need them don’t normally have them. 

Once Joni and her amazing team were doing a wheelchair distribution in a tiny village in Uganda called Nyarushanje. A Ugandan woman explained that her husband, Sema, had fallen from a tree and broken his right leg and hip. He had also suffered a severe brain injury in the fall. While she told his story, he just sat there with his face pointed down, his chin sunken into his chest…silent. He was almost in a catatonic state, Joni observed…

non communicative…

”shrunken and frozen”.

He hadn’t spoken…

or been spoken to…

in years. 

His wife didn’t even try anymore. 

She cared for him but didn’t converse with him.

 “What’s the use? He isn’t talking back.”

 One the team, a guy named Dana,  shared with them that those with brain injuries really need what they seem to care least about. They need someone to talk to. Or at least, someone who will talk to them.

Dana, the Joni and Friends volunteer, lifted Sema’s face and began to speak to him. 

He told him things everyone who loves Jesus needs to hear…

…that he was a man like anyone else…

…that he was an equal and a brother…

…that God loved him and that Jesus died for him…

…that he wasn’t disabled because God was angry or punishing him, but that God valued him deeply…

 Suddenly…after a long time…

 Sema woke up! 

He began to move his hands, look around and smile at everyone! 

He even laughed! 

And he spoke! 

He broke his silence and spoke for the first time in years! 

The two guys were hugging and the tears were flowing!

 As Sema began to try out wheelchairs, he reached over once more for a hug. He pulled Dana close and whispered in his ear in perfect English…

 “You are my brother and my friend! And God loves me!”

 Wow!

 You know, Joni figured that initially, Dana spoke encouragement to silent Sema for two  minutes before the miracle happened. I was having a crummy day the other day for a little while. Then on the phone somebody spoke encouragement to me and told me God loved me and that I was precious to Him.

 Probably lasted two minutes. 

Best two minutes of the day! 

Which got decidedly better after that!

It made me want to tell him…

“You’re my friend and my brother…

 “And God loves me!”

Weekly e-news April 5, 2019

Hey, everyone!

I know you’re having a rain-filled Friday morning, but I hope you’re having a praised-filled one as well!

Y’ know, there’s nothing you can do about atmospheric conditions outside your house, school or office, but there’s nothing like praise for changing the conditions of the atmosphere inside your heart!

Nothing helps like praise goin’ up when the rain’s comin’ down!

And I’m not just talking about the power of music.

I’m not just talking about…

“Singin’ in the rain! Just singin’ in the rain! What a glorious feeling! I’m happy again!”

What I’m talking about is the power of praise to change how you see everything!

There are a lot of people who know a lot about music and singing, but who don’t know about the secret of praise. And even though they wrote the songs we hear or even sing, a lot of times, they weren’t any happier for having written them.

Here’s a sad story.

One morning in January, 1864 they found a guy bleeding badly on the bathroom floor of a NYC “flop house” where homeless people and alcoholics could spend the night for a few pennies. The dude had seriously cut himself trying to shave when he was in no shape to attempt that. No one knew who the poor soul was. They took him to Bellevue Hospital, where he died three days later. All he owned was a dirty, old raggedy coat with 38 cents in his pocket…and a scrap of paper with the words, “Dear friends and gentle hearts”.

“Hmmm…what could these words mean?...”

Turned out, they were the words to a song.

A song he himself was writing.

In fact…turned out, he had written a lot of songs.

Songs like…

“Camptown Races! Sing this song! Do-dah! Do-dah!”…

and…

“I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair”…

and…

“Beautiful Dreamer”…

and “Oh, Susanna!”

and “My Ol’ Kentucky Home”

and “Old Folks at Home”

and a whole lot more.

It is SO sad to think that even though Stephen Foster had so many pieces of music flowing from his heart, he never found how to get peace to flow INTO his heart!

Praise is so much different than just listening to or singing along to your favorite song!

Praise is singing to our awesome God what we believe and know to be true about Him! Something happens when you’re singing words of faith…singing to Him what you believe and trust about Him!

You not only fill your car or your house with these words…

You fill your own heart!

Singing “Halleluyah!” does for you what “Do-dah! Do-dah!” never could!

Exodus 15.1 says…

“You are our strength and song!”

Hebrew scholars tell us this could be translated, “You are our strengthening song!”…

as in…

“When I sing to You, I’m strong!”

Here are the words to a song by one of my favorite song writers…

“I am a child of the Maker of stars.

Oh, the One knows everything hand-made my heart.

He cherishes, treasures me,

Gave life and blood.

He is my Friend

and I am His beloved!”

If you know the tune, why not sing them?

You can’t do much about the weather outside, but you can do something about “weather” you’re happy inside!

Praise.

Don’t leave home without it.

Weekly e-News March 29, 2019

Hey, everyone!

I saw ‘em!

You've seen ‘em!

DOGWOOD BUDS!!!!!

It's happening, folks!!

So quietly…so slowly…and suddenly…

IT'S DOGWOOD TIME IN TENNESSEE!!

They're just starting to peep out, but I get the feeling that they're gonna be spectacular this spring!

(Dogwood Arts Festival open officially on Thursday!)

And amazingly we’re not the only state with beeeaaauuutiful Cornus Floridas!  

In Missouri, the dogwood’s the state tree. 
In North Carolina, it’s the state flower! 
In Virginia it’s the state flower AND state tree! 

They almost voted it the state bird! 

At Christmas, you put lights and stuff all over your house and yard to make it Christmasy. But in the spring you just sit back and…ahhh! 
AWESOME! 
And SPRINGY! 

Sometimes people shine lights and tie plastic Easter eggs on their dogwoods. 

But aren’t they beautiful…
aren’t they the best… 
just the way God made them? 

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the legend of the dogwood…

The story is that once dogwoods were thick and tall, like oaks.  The story says that the cross that they made Jesus carry through the streets of Jerusalem was made of this tree…

”When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew
To a towering size with a lovely hue.
Its branches were strong and interwoven,
And for Christ's cross its timbers were chosen…”

So, God decided that since the dogwood was used for the cross of our Lord, it would never be large and stately again, but gnarly and twisted…

“'The petals shall have bloodstains marked brown,
And in the blossom's center a thorny crown.
All who see it will think of me,
Nailed to a cross from a dogwood tree.’”

Only thing is…that legend isn’t true. 

The truth is that God made them short and gnarly and decidedly unstately. 
And as the sun shines longer in the day and the days are warmer than winter days have been, 
and spring wakes them and sap rises in them, 
they have a beauty that makes my heart want to sing…

And really, there was no need to make up stuff about the dogwood to make them any more graceful and lovely than they are already. 

Aren’t they beautiful…
aren’t they the best…
just the way God made them?

And the story of our Lord Jesus…

Creator of heaven and earth…
of rain and sunshine…
of tulips, daffodils, redbuds, grass and dogwoods…
born into a poor, poor family…
growing to be, as the Gospel of Luke tells us…
“the favorite of God and men”…
dying for love of those who despised Him…
rising to win their hearts and wills…
living to help us walk through this world and to one day bring us home…

There’s really no need to invent and add legends to this…

to this life, this love, this walk, this gift of blood, and this heart for us. 

The story of Jesus…

isn’t it beautiful…
isn’t it best…
just the way God told it?

Weekly e-News June 22, 2018

Hey, everyone!

Hope you’re having an awesome one, altho’ I know it may be crazy at work and super tough to get anything done today. I bet it’s that way every June 22!
Because it’s…

National “Take Your Dog To Work” Day!

I mean, who comes up with this stuff? 

At some point in reading this, you’ll probably have to take a break to take Barfy out to “go”!

I’m just thankful I work up at church and we don’t have to bring a dog to work today! 
Or any day! 
Because the Bible says, when it’s talking about the Kingdom of God…
“Outside are the dogs”! (Check it out! Revelation 22.15!)

Altho’ we did have a dog in our church in Milan, Italy. It belonged to Olga, who was blind. It would be calm and quiet until the last “Amen” and then it’d go nuts! How it knew that was the end, we never knew but since “Amen” is a Hebrew word, we used to say it was the only dog who spoke biblical languages!

A coupla years ago, I had to give the sermon at St. Andrews Church of Scotland in Lisbon, Portugal (who knew?)…

I dressed up a little for the occasion ‘cause I didn’t knew their church ways, and a British guy came in wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and he had a little fluffy dog on a leash…

“Hope you don’t mind the dog, Rev,” he said. “Won’t make a fuss…”

“It doesn’t bother me,” I replied. “But I have a rule. If there’s a dog in church, I’m not wearing a tie!” And I took it off!

Today is also National Chocolate Eclair Day! (I wouldn’t know where to get one to celebrate!)

And National Onion Ring Day! (Only thing that’ll make your breath worse than that dog’s breath you’ve got at work today!)

I didn’t realize that every day of the year is National Something-er-other Day…

Why, just this month…

June 1 was National Heimlich Maneuver Day! (“Give someone a hug they’ll never forget!”)…
June 8 was National Upsy Daisy Day (?!)…
June 3 was National Repeat Day…
June 3 was National Repeat Day…
June 10 was National Herbs Day…(I didn’t have thyme for that one!)

So…

I think we need National “Don’t Call Anyone A Name Day”!

Seems like to me, that even tho’ there are loads of things that we could (and should!) be upset about…

more than ever before…
thru posts or tweets…
with lips or thumbs…

Folks are speaking about each other and AT each other in ways that are increasingly unkind.

If I need to express my opinion to someone or someones…
to “friends” or “followers”…
there HAS to be a way to do it without using the words “idiot!”…or “moron!”…or “*&^%#@!”

Lately, I’ve been going thru the prophets at the end of the Old Testament…Obadiah…Amos…Micah…And there are lots and lots of severe criticisms of much that is in our papers today. Plenty of warnings and judgments. 

But no insults. No personal name-calling. No “you stupid jerks!”

One scholar at Georgetown said that the increasing incivility in our society is “infectious like a bug or virus…Not only do people reciprocate, but they tend to stoop lower rather than higher…It’s putting us in an unfortunate place…”

Ephesians 4 has a perfect word for the followers of Jesus (Not His twitter followers! His real followers!)…

“Do not let any unwholesome word come out of your mouths…And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the Day of redemption. ..”(Ephesians 4.29-30)

The word “unwholesome” means “rotten”. The Greek word is “sepros” It’s related to the word “septikos”… It’s where we get the word “septic”… As in, septic tank! Phuuuu!

Let other people do it. Let other people say that stuff. You can’t stop ‘em any way. But not Jesus followers!

Because we’re being prepared for “the Day of redemption”! 
When Jesus is King of all the world!
And when that happens…
When He rules every heart on earth…
King of all lips and thumbs…

National “Don’t Call Anyone A Name Day” will never end!

That’ll be the day!

Weekly e-News June 15, 2018

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!”

And if there’s something you think you really need, just ask!
Jesus said, “Ask! And it’ll be give to you!…Whoever asks, receives!” (Matthew 7.7)

Sometimes all you have to do is ask!

Once a mom packed a lunch of a few fish sandwiches for her little boy ‘cause he was going on an outing in the country with some friends to listen to Jesus and would be gone for most of the day. “As fast as he’s growing, he’ll be starving by eleven!” she thought.

But somehow, loads of folks hadn’t thought ahead as far as lunchtime, and after listening to Jesus’s longer-than-expected talk, thousands of bellies began to grumble in unison. But one of the friends of Jesus named Andrew somehow got the kid to give up his lunch to Jesus! The Lord blessed the lad’s few fish and pitas, and miraculously and exponentially, multiplied them, so that more than 5000 folks were invited to an unexpected picnic!

“How’d you get that kid to give up his only lunch?” his buddies wanted to know.

“Sometimes, all you have to do is ask!”

The other day, a friend in Missouri emailed me and asked me to video a personal message to surprise our own Bill Reazer to celebrate his 20th(!) year on Young Life staff…

So, Thomas made a silent video of Lee, Pottsie and me sittin at a table at Panera chatting. Slooooowly, the camera scanned to the table beside us where, all by itself, a loaf of french bread sat…

The end!

Y’see, one morning maybe eighteen years ago, Lee, Pottsie, Bill and I were sitting down at that same table, 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 down 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.”

Weekly e-News May 25, 2018

Hey, everyone!

Wow! If you’re like me, even a week after last Sunday night, you’re still…
…tappin’ those toes…
…snappin’ those fingers…
…hummin’ stuff to yourself that makes no sense at all…(“…Bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo!”)

…or puffin’ on those candy cigs…

(Actually, I had to pass on those…When I was about nine, I skipped the candy ones and went straight for the Winston Filter Kings with the flip-top pack I stole from my dad…So I thought it was best to just avoid the temptation altogether!)

Last Sunday night of “50’s rock ’n roll” was just the grooviest! 
All those cool cats dressed like greasers! 
Wearing those 50’s threads! 
Guys’ hair slicked back in a D.A.! I even think I saw one cat’s hair in a jelly roll! 
There wasn’t a square in the joint! 
And those tunes were really cookin’!
(I was just glad it didn’t get so loud that the neighbors called the heat and the fuzz showed up!)
Lots of folks were really goin’ ape and I dug it so much! 
Crazy, man, crazy! 
So glad everyone decided to not stay at the pad but go ahead and make the scene!
It was so nifty!
Like, buzzin’, cuz!

You know, one really dopey thing I said in church that morning was that our “50’s night” was going to be “just for fun” with no one trying to “sneak Jesus in on anyone…”

(And what I meant was that we weren’t going to offer an evening of fun and music with the unspoken intention of, once we’d corralled everyone into one place, slipping in a gospel sermonette to our unprepared guests…Which really isn’t very cool,man!)

It was a dopey thing to say because Jesus slipped in anyway!

I’m not quite sure how He did it, but in my heart, after an evening of pure joy and fun with those I love, all I could think and feel was…

“Lord Jesus, You are so amazing!”

Instead of “bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo!”, I was thinking, “Jesus, I love You so much!”

And I’m not quite sure where THAT came from!

Except that…

Wherever there is pure love and pure joy, it’s because the Maker of love and joy…Who is the God of love and joy…is there! 

The reason we feel love and joy is because the loving, joyful Maker of all, made a world where love and joy could be! 

Because they live in His heart! 

They live in the world that He made because they live in the Maker of the world! 

The Maker of love and joy is the God of love and joy!

One time, St. Paul told a crowd of folks who knew nothing of God, that our God had not left us without evidence that He is there…or better, here!

Check out this awesome verse!!

“Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven…he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” (Acts 14.17)

Did you get that?!

He’s giving you rain from Heaven to prove He exists!

He made you to need water to live and He sends it to you from the sky! See? He there!

He made you to need food to eat…and He gives it to you! Get it?

When you chomp into a juicy burger with a HOME-GROWN tomato’s juice is running to your elbows…

or when you scoop up and shovel in that HOME-MADE peach ice cream…mmmmmm!!!…

you can almost feel Him say, “I thought of that just for you! I am here!”

And when you get a whiff of pure joy…
just a  moment of “This is soooo fun!”…

you can almost hear the Maker of joy say…

“I am!”

Jesus’ first miracle was making enough wine at a wedding so that the music and dancing could go on and on! And He didn’t want anyone to know He was the One Who made it! 

“Huh?! Why not?”

No need! Because in the end…
in the heart…
everyone knows (whether they admit it or no)… 
there wouldn’t be music…
or dancing…
or love…
or a sweet marriage…
or joy…
without Him!

When you have an unexpected moment when you feel so happy that you want to burst…
just be still…
and listen…
You just might hear Him say…
“I’m right here!”

And then you can say with confidence…

“…Well, Bop bopa-a-lu a whop bam boo!”

Weekly e-News May 11, 2018

Hey, everyone.

I found out last night that I’ve had a sadder week than I thought I’d had.

So did you.

I lost a friend and didn’t know it.

Until last night when someone told me.

Curtis use to walk (slowly!) everywhere he went. I’d often see him walking along the turnpike, hair slicked back, thick glasses on, with his buttoned up vest, and often carrying something that turned out to be a fiddle. 

And he was good at it! 

He used to play it at the flea market and outside Jefferson Drug store and at pick-up bluegrass sessions when he could find one. 

So, one day it was kind of rainy and I saw him walking (slowly!) along and I stopped and asked him if he needed a ride. He had a sweet and gentle country voice because he had a very sweet and gentle country heart. I always felt he wasn’t quite looking at me when he talked. I could tell he struggled to see. I didn’t know he was born…on Christmas day, 1942…almost completely blind. 

We found out we both loved bluegrass music and Jesus and we were immediately friends. He was hoping to come the Triple C and play someday for us. When I’d see him walking and I had space in the front seat of my truck (that is, when it wasn’t crammed full with all the books, backpacks and piles of junk I need through the day), or if I wasn’t late to something (as I usually am!) I’d stop and ask Curtis if he needed a ride home. He lived with his brother down on Hwy 61 by Mike’s small engine shop in Marlow. We’d talk and laugh, share Scriptures and plan on when we were going to try to get folks together who liked to “pick” (as bluegrass musicians say). We exchanged numbers (he held his flip phone super close to his right eye after taking his glasses off, to punch my number in) and I had his number in mine. 

He’d call me from time to time to tell me that folks were playing somewhere and “…d’ya think you could come and pick the banjo, Tom?” 

I never was able to. Always had something more important I needed to be at. 

That’s what I thought at the time.

Wednesday morning Curtis was hit by a truck crossing 61 by Old Bately Rd. 

Our world is a little dimmer for not having him in it.

He never had anything really. 
Except the beauty, humility and “aroma of Christ”.

No home of his own. 
Except the Father’s house, his Heavenly home. 

No titles or degrees. 
Except “saint in Christ Jesus”

“St Curtis of Marlow!”

I wish I had taken…found…made…the time to pick with Curtis.

But one day…
in Heaven…
I will!

Turns out…amazingly…in less than a week, Curtis was going to receive the honor of a lifetime! He was going to be one of the featured guest musicians…along with many of Nashville’s best acoustic music stars…at a concert called “Crossing the Cumberlands” at the Nashville’s Tennessee Performing Arts Center, put on by “Friends of the Cumberland Trail”.

On their promotional ads, it said of Curtis…

““His only profession has been singing on street corners, at flea markets, churches, diners…But he carries the compelling, holy, last-of-its-kind repertoire and style of a grand tradition.”

Wow!

Finally, people would have known who he really was!

But today…
in Heaven…
they do!

Weekly e-News April 27, 2018

Hey everyone!

Hope you're having an awesome day! 

Or maybe I should say, "I hope no one's having a non-awesome day!”

Or maybe, "Hope nobody's not having a non-awesome day!" 

I'm a little confused on how to say it because the other day I was going down the ol’ turnpike near Melton Lake Drive and I wound up behind a Sara Lee truck. On the back it said…

 "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee!"

I thought, "Is that right?" 

"Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee…" hmmm...

Shouldn't it be, "Nobody doesn't NOT like it"?
Why does that sound righter to me? (Or is it "more right"?)

It’s saying, “Someone doesn't like Sara Lee. That person is Nobody".  
There is someone who doesn't like it but that person doesn't exist.

Huh?

How's this?…"There is nobody who does not like it"

Wouldn't it be simpler to say, "Everybody likes Sara Lee!" 

It's kind of like this lady who came up to us in the old Atlanta Bread coffee shop in Turkey Creek one morning around 7:15…

"Excuse me but I'm from Massachusetts and I'm here for a conference. Last night I asked a person from here in Tennessee if he would give me a ride to the meetings this morning. He answered, 'I wouldn't care to.' Does that mean he's coming, or not coming?" 

We assured her that it means he was on his way!

I remember once one of our awesome friends spilled some ketchup on his shirt and he felt that this was something that happened with regularity almost every time he ate out. A little blob of something on his shirt. "That does never NOT happen! I should just wear a T-shirt with a target on the front that says, 'Never Not!' "

Reminds me of some verses in the Letter to the Hebrews. It's in chapter thirteen…Verses five and six…

"…Be content with what you have, because God has said,'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid…' "

Actually that verse has a lot of "double negatives" in it. In correct English, you shouldn't really use them. For example, you shouldn't say, "I ain't never seen nothing like that before!" 

You should either say, "I have NEVER seen…" Or, "I ain't EVER seen…"
But to use two negatives together, as in, "I ain't never seen…" strictly speaking, ain't correct.

You know, the person who wrote Hebrews was writing to folks who were having really difficult times because they had come to follow and love Jesus. To know Him makes your life and days so much better in a million ways! But following Him also makes life and times tougher for millions of our brothers and sisters in Jesus around the world! Surrounded by families and societies that don't understand or appreciate His love and His beauty, they often find themselves alone or hurting because of their new and amazingly "stubborn" faith in Him.

A person who is new to the walk with Jesus and confused by problems that not only don't vanish but in some ways even multiply since they have trusted in Him, might ask themselves…
”Has God left me! 
What did I do? 
Why is He so…
far away?…
Hello?…
Are You still there?"

It is always super confusing when life gets tough even though you have Him. There are tons of questions that have no answer that would make sense to us. No one knows why such tough things happen, really. I think it's probably more complicated than we could understand. But there is one thing we can be sure of! The whole entire time…
He loves you more than you could know…
more than you love yourself! 
And He is doing things that are amazing and couldn't have happened in any other way! 
And He has never… 
will never…
NEVER EVER leave you for one moment! 

In fact, just so there's no doubt about it, in the Greek language (which is the language they wrote those New Testament letters and stories in) Hebrews 13:5 literally says…

"Indeed, He Himself has said, 'No not will I leave you, not even, no not will I forsake you!' "

Wow! "Not even, no not!" That's not a double negative! 

It's a triple!

I guess it would be easier to just say, "I will always be will you!"
And He did say! 
Right before He went up into the sky and clouds and out of sight as they wondered, "What?! Is He leaving us?" He said, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of time!" (Matthew 28:20)

But there will be difficult moments when it's super important to know that…
not only is He with me…
but…
He has NOT…
will NOT…
will NOT ever…
won’t NEVER NOT leave us! 

NOT NEVER!

Among those who love Jesus, nobody doesn't like knowing that!

Weekly e-News April 20, 2018

Hey, everyone!

What a beautiful day ahead! The only way to make it better is to just add praise and a bucket full of thankfulness!

I almost ruined an awesome day recently tho’…

“How could you ruin a day as beautiful as this?!”

So, the Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon was on a Sunday a few weeks ago…

You have to go to the Knoxville Convention Center on Saturday and pick up all the stuff they give you…Your number and four safety pins, your T-shirt with “Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon 2018” on it, a ticket to a Smokies game(!), granola bars (for some reason)…

And there was this stuff called “Utterly Smooth” and it came in this little poach-y thing.

I learned a secret to running those long-ish races a few years ago. After eleven miles or so, if you stuff a half’a banana or a cookie in your face every three miles, it really helps keep your energy level up so you don’t “hit the wall”, which means “run outta gas”. Lots of times, instead of a banana, they have this stuff called “Goo” in various flavors. It’s somewhere between runny fudge and pudding you left out of the fridge overnight. Chocolate’s the best, and it comes in a little poach-y thing like ketchup at McD’s. You just rip the corner off, shove in your mouth, and squeeze!

So, with a thankful heart, I slipped that “Utterly Smooth” in the pocket of my shorts for the right moment along the course…And forgot about it.

Since they had tables with bananas, jelly beans, and goos, I didn’t need my secret
‘pick-me-up” and didn’t think about it till Tina and I were walking (slooooowly!) to the car when it was all over…

I thought about my “Utterly Smooth”, reached for it, and thought about slamming it, when Tina said…

“Wait!!”

“What?!”

“You don’t EAT that!”

“You don’t!?”

“NO! It’s ‘Utterly Smooth body lotion’ !!”

“Whoa!”, I thought! “I don’t know what ‘body lotion’ is, but it doesn’t sound tasty!”

Then we both thought together…

“What if I’da pulled it out without knowing it at…say…mile seventeen, and scushed it into my mouth? And swallowed it?!”

We both thought of the image of a tired, sweaty me, leaning over losing my cookies…and bananas…and body lotion…by the side of the road. And not making it to Neyland and the finish line…

Thank you, Lord that I forgot about it! And that Tina knew what “Utterly Smooth” is for (I still don’t completely understand what you do with it!), and that she stopped me at just the right moment!

These are the lessons I learned…

1) If you’re going to make “Utterly Smooth” such that it could wind up in a runner’s bag of junk they give out before a race, don’t put it in those poach-y things that ketchup…AND GOO!…comes in. And don’t use brown, chocolate color letters on the package…

2) The words, “Utterly Smooth” are big enough, but the words “Body Lotion” shouldn’t be in tiny, little letters. Those words should be WAY bigger! People running races aren’t wearing their glasses…

3) Jesus said “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of  your mouth that defiles you…” (Matthew 15). What He meant was that there isn’t anything that you could eat that would make you “defiled”…ie., morally worse. Some people believe that eating certain types of food can contaminate your heart. 

Jesus says, “Not so!”

But He told us that what matters is what comes out of that mouth! What comes out of my mouth…and not what goes in it…can make me a worse person. 

F’r example…

Complaining! Complaining is an implicit confession of faith. Or “unfaith”. I’m saying…without saying it…“God doesn’t know what He’s doing! And/or He doesn’t care about me!” You can’t believe that without being the worse for it!

Or if subtle bragging about myself and my #blessed life comes out of my mouth (or thumbs on instagram!)…or self-righteous and opinionated criticism of someone pops out of my face (or on a FB rant!)…

…Peter says “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble…” And my prideful words send me over to the opposing side! I can’t say that mess without being the worse for it!

The stuff I say can hurt not only other people, but also…and mostly…me! 

It’s the stuff that comes out of that mouth…

and not the stuff that goes in it…

that make a person worse for it!

But, I bet if you eat body lotion, something bad WOULD happen.

Weekly e-News March 2nd, 2018

Hey, everyone!

Hope today is an awesome one! 

Yesterday was!

There was a nice thing I was kinda hoping (and praying!) would happen sometime ago…
And then it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen…
I even forgot about it…
And then…out of the blue… it did! 

Nicer than I was hoping it would be! 

It isn’t always that way, I know. 

I’ve had loads of times when I’ve asked God for things and He has had to say, “No, son”. 

If I ever pushed and squirmed and schemed to make it happen anyway, I usually would find out why it wasn’t a good idea.

I’m kinda like the kid who was saying his prayers with his mom and dad before bed…”And God, bless mommy and daddy…”

Then he yelled as loud as he could, ‘“AND GOD I REALLY REALLY WANT A BMX BIKE FOR CHRISTMAS!!”

“Honey, you don’t have to yell. God isn’t deaf.”
“Yeah, but Grampa almost is and he’s all the way downstairs!”

But sometimes…

Sometimes…

After you’ve waited for something from God…

and waited…

And maybe even kind of forget about it…

Sometimes…

He does something that is more than you asked…or even hoped for!

I can’t stop thinking about old memories living up there between my ears about Billy…

I loved Billy Graham so much! 

And Ruth was such an amazing person! Honest, gifted, super compassionate, funny…

They asked her what she wanted on her tombstone when she was gone. 
“I want what it says on the sign at the end of road work they’re doing on the interstate after you’ve been sitting in long delays in your car”

“What’s that?” they asked.…

Billy’s body will be laid by hers today. By the tombstone that says…
“End of construction. Thank you for your patience!”

Ruth grew up in China where her dad was a missionary surgeon. Once time in 1980, as she and her sisters and brother were returning to China to visit their childhood home, they stopped at the US State Department to see if there was finally an answer to a request they’d made for a Chinese Christian woman to get her son and daughter out of China so they could join her in California. Every effort proved unsuccessful.

But the mom told her she could wait on God. 

She told about a penny-less little kid in China who stopped and stared at cherries on a sidewalk fruit stand. 
The kind grocer looked down. 
“Want some?” 
The boy nodded. 
“Stick out your hands.”
He wouldn’t.
“C’mon! Stick out your hands!”
Wouldn’t again.
Frustrated, the grocer scooped up two handfuls and poured them out into the boy’s shirt that the kid held out by the hem.
“Why wouldn’t you put your hands out?” an old lady asked the boy.
“His hands were bigger than mine.”

“Unto Him Who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all we could ask or even think…”

(The kids made it to the Golden State!)