Category: Uncategorized

Sunday

Heart to Heart with Holley:

When the Difference You Make is Hard to See

Tags:  Creativity, Uncategorized

All day long I click, type, look through the screen at the faces of people I love who live halfway across the country or even on the other side of the world.

And, sometimes, in the quiet moments I wonder if what I do really makes a difference.

“You can’t see it in person,” hisses the enemy, “You can’t touch it. How do you know it’s real?”

Then I think about how I should be doing something tangible–rocking a baby, handing out food, building a house. I feel a heart-hunger to know the results with my five senses.

I whisper this to Jesus one morning as sunlight spills in through the open window. I ask Him if I’ve gotten it all wrong–if I should be doing something else.

A verse pops into my heart like a present left on the front porch…

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

I’ve always thought of those words in the context of believing in God.

But that morning it seemed the One Who Loves Us whispered that part of faith is also about believing that our obedience makes a difference–even when we can’t see the results.

Sure of what we hope for…that our words matter in the world, that hearts out there really are encouraged, that the flicker of a screen can bring light to a life again.

Certain of what we do not see…that that the bonds we make, the needs we meet, the prayers we lift up are as real as what’s right in front of us–that the great I am is everywhere and in all we do in His name.

I think then of a conversation I had with Ann Voskamp many months ago about much the same thing. We tossed and turned thoughts around between us until at the end we nodded, smiled and said…

How can we say that the virtual doesn’t matter when the Spirit is virtual?

The Kingdom has always been about more than what we can sense. Oh, friends, it’s more about what we know in our hearts–and about following faithfully the One who whispers to us there–believing that in all things He is working together for good.

Sometimes that good is something we can see, touch, taste and smell.

And sometimes it’s built of eternal things that we won’t know until heaven.

So press on, sisters.

Keep the faith.

Do what you do, be who you are, walk in that sometimes blind, always beautiful obedience.

Yes, you really are making a difference.

– Holley Gerth

When, not if, you wonder about making a difference by what you do, just be sure you are where God wants you to be.  You will make a difference!
Anna Lee

Sunday

And so we shall all come together to that oneness in our faith

and in our knowledge of the Son of God;

we shall become mature people,

reaching to the very height of Christ’s full stature.”

~Ephesians 4:13 TEV~

Today is the 65th anniversary of the day Momma and Daddy got married.  She wanted a big party.  She celebrating in heaven while Daddy will be here with us for a traditional New Year’s meal.  Pray for Daddy today.

I’m thanking God Carol New made it home after a successful knee surgery.  Pray for her as she works to get that knee doing what she wants it to do.

FBC, Kentwood will have  Sunday School and the morning worship service, but nothing tonight.

Thought for the Day: Failed resolutions

At the beginning of a New Year, a high school principal decided to post his teachers’ New Year’s resolutions on the bulletin board. As the teachers gathered around the bulletin board, a great commotion started. One of the teachers was complaining. “Why weren’t my resolutions posted?” She was throwing such a temper tantrum that the principal hurried to his office to see if he had overlooked her resolutions. Sure enough, he had mislaid them on his desk.

As he read her resolutions he was astounded. This teacher’s first resolution was not to let little things upset her in the New Year.

It has been said that “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Perhaps we should add one more thing to that list of certainties — the breaking of New Year’s resolutions! Looking back on 2008, you may be one of the fortunate ones who accomplished exactly what you hoped to accomplish during the year. But, if you’re like most of us, you didn’t read all the way through the Bible like you intended to, you quit smoking but only for a while then picked up the habit again, or you lost a few pounds only to put them back on again when your diet failed. After experiencing this failure year after year, a person tends to say to himself, “What’s the use? Why even bother to try to make these changes?”

As an old Chinese proverb puts it, though, “Failure is not falling down. Failure is not getting back up.” Or as the Japanese put it, “Fall down seven times, get up eight.” If there are areas of your life that you’ve tried to improve and failed, let this this be the month that you try again. And if you fail this month, get up and try again next month. Learn from your mistakes and become stronger. God does not turn his back on the Christian who fails (if you question that, you need only look at the story of Peter’s denial of Christ). However, He cannot help the Christian who refuses to try any longer.

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hearts, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded….Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” (James 4:7-8,10)

If you have made a resolution to develop a habit that will bring you closer to God or a resolution to get rid of a habit that is pulling you away from God, may God bless you with the strength to accomplish your goal. And, if you should stumble on your journey, may He pick you up and dust you off so that you can continue on the long journey of becoming like Christ.

Have a great day!

Alan Smith

Have a great Lord’s Day and a great 2012!

Anna Lee

Christmas

Happy birthday, Jesus!

SEASON’S GREETINGS

I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of talk about the fact that some retailers seem to be getting away from saying “Merry Christmas!” and instead are substituting phrases like “Season’s Greetings!” or “Happy Holidays!” in their decorations and their advertisements.  Someone has even written this politically correct Christmas greeting:

“Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion as well as those who choose not to practice a religion at all.”

Many Christians are outraged at this shift and view this as one more attempt to remove all references to Christ from our culture.  In response, a group has been organized called the “Committee to Save Merry Christmas”.  Here are some of their thoughts:

“This deliberate and intentional substitution of ‘Merry Christmas” with un-celebratory phrases are thoughtless, condescending and hurtful.  Should you — the purchasing public — who honors the American tradition and culture of Christmas, continue to purchase Christmas gifts from these stores when they deliberately and intentionally refuse to acknowledge Christmas? Our committee believes you should not!  We, instead, encourage you to shop where the values and meaning of Christmas are cherished.”

I have some concerns.  On the one hand, I am concerned about attempts (sometimes blatant attempts) to remove all references to God or Christianity from our society.  But, on the other hand, I have to remember that God did not give Sears (or any other store) the responsibility of telling people about Christ.  He did not give our American government that responsibility.  He gave it to those of us who are Christians.

I think it’s ironic that a lot of Christians are upset that Target doesn’t greet them with “Merry Christmas!” when they walk through the door, but they will make no attempt to talk about Christ in their own lives.  We prefer to say “It’s a beautiful day!” instead of “What a beautiful day God has given us!”  We prefer to say, “I’ve been lucky or fortunate” instead of saying “God has blessed me.”  We would never dream of saying “Christ is the only way of salvation.” for fear of being labeled a fanatic.  But then we’ll get upset at a store which has a banner proclaiming “Happy Holidays” and refuse to do business with them.

Folks, let put the responsibility where it belongs.  God has given those of us who are Christians the task of sharing Christ with a world that doesn’t know him.  God “has given us the ministry of reconciliation…and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.” (2 Cor. 5:18-19).  If we’re going to get upset, let’s start getting upset about the fact that WE’VE not been doing that like we should!

Have a great day (oh, and have a merry Christmas)!

Alan Smith
Helen Street Church of Christ
Fayetteville, North Carolina

Susan Rimes is continuing to recover from her last surgery.  Continue to pray for Susan and her family.

Mr. Kenneth Felker’s wife, Grace Helen, fell Wednesday right after we saw her.  She received a number of bumps and bruises.  Pray she will recover well and cease falling.

Mr. Cete and “Miss” Ruby Dillon are better, but not well yet.  Continue to pray for them.

Missions March at FBC, Kentwood at the 10:00 A.M. service!

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®

Every penny given to Lottie Moon is used to support Southern Baptist missionaries as they share the Gospel overseas. The offering represents 57 percent of the International Mission Board’s total income.

Find dollar examples of how your gifts are used, including stories, photos and videos at Lottie Moon @ Work.

What is the average cost to support an individual missionary?

• $46,700 a year
• $3,890 a month
• $900 a week
• $128 a day
• $5.30 an hour
• $.09 a minute

Reported April 2011. Support includes housing, salary, children’s education, medical expenses, retirement and more.

 

Sunday Addition

Mary Lee Potts Brown
(January 11, 1926 – December 18, 2011)

Mary Lee Potts Brown, 85, died Sunday, December 18, 2011. She was born in Tangipahoa Parish on January 11, 1926 and was a longtime resident of Kentwood. She is survived by four daughters, Charlotte Rhodus, Suzanne Wall, Cynthia Weems, and Priscilla Raborn; a son, Bill Brown; eleven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren; a sister, Ira Mae “Potsy” Potts Vinet. She was preceded in death by her husband, Clifford James Brown; a son, Jesse James Brown; parents, Albert and Lillie Schilling Potts; a grandson, Christopher Slater Brown; three brothers, Edward Potts, Clifton Potts, and James Potts. She is a member of East Fork Baptist Church. Visitation at East Fork Baptist Church, Kentwood, on Tuesday, December 20, 2011 from 9 a.m. until religious services at 1 p.m. Interment at East Fork Cemetery, Kentwood. In Lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Shriners Hospital for Children in Shreveport. McKneely Funeral Home, Kentwood, in charge of arrangements. For an online guestbook, go to http://www.mckneelys.com.

Wednesday Evening

Jesse Allen Sanders
(Died December 14, 2011)

Mr. Jesse Allen Sanders passed away at North Oaks Medical Center on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. He was a native and resident of Amite, La. where he worked as a car salesman for many years and also a detective for the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Department. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time. Arrangements have been trusted to McKneely and Vaughn Funeral Home in Amite. Please check website for further details on Thursday. http://www.mckneelyvaughnfh.com

Tuesday Addition

Carol New has completed one week at rehab and have five more to go.  She has already seen progress.  We’ll have a “new” Carol New in a few weeks!

 

Thought for the Day: So many valuable possessions

 

This comes from the file of “stupid criminals”:

Waylon Prendergast, 37, of Tampa, Florida, committed a spur-of-the-moment robbery while on his way home from a late-night drinking session. A very inebriated Mr. Prendergast forced his way into the house through an open upstairs window, filling a suitcase with cash and valuables before setting the living room on fire to cover his tracks. He then escaped through the back door and made his way home, chuckling all the way. Only as he turned the corner into his own street, however, and discovered three fire engines outside his house, did he realize that in his drunkenness he had, in fact, burgled and ignited his own property. His comment: “I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions.”

While we may not do anything quite that stupid (at least nothing that makes the national newspapers), there are times when Christians need to stop and reflect, coming to same conclusion Mr. Prendergast did: “I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions.”

From family and friends to material comforts (like electricity and running water), from our basic needs (like food) to luxuries other generations never dreamed of (like the computer you’re sitting at right now), from the freedoms we enjoy to the jobs we hold, there is much that we have been blessed with that we take for granted.

Even beyond the physical blessings, there is so much that God has given us through Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote,

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3)

Truly, I had no idea I had so many valuable possessions. “God, forgive me for taking so much of it for granted.”

Have a great day!

Alan Smith
White House Church of Christ
White House, Tennessee

Thanksgiving

Oh give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples.  

1 Chronicles 16:8 –

                    THE PROBLEM WITH THANKSGIVING

You know the story of that very first Thanksgiving Day in the English colonies, right? You know, the one where Captain John Woodlief and those 38 colonists who had just had arrived in the Virginia colonies from Berkeley, England and set aside a day of giving thanks to God at the Berekley Hundred (later renamed Berkley Plantation) on December 4, 1619 where Woodlief proclaimed–

“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Oh, you haven’t heard that story? That because those Johnny-come-lately Pilgrims from Massachusetts arrived at Plymouth Rock with a publicist, so that now everyone just “knows’ that the first Thanksgiving was in Massachusetts with the Pilgrims after the whole colony almost froze to death following that first bitter winter in 1622. But the very FIRST Thanksgiving Day was in Virginia. OK, so actually the first Thanksgiving in the New World was one led by Spanish explorer Juan de Onate held one near El Paso, Texas in 1598, but that one doesn’t count because it was in Texas! They probably had chili and burritos and guacamole or something (actually, that sounds pretty good).

At any rate, the idea of a Thanksgiving Day was not held as a “perpetual” celebration in either Massachusetts or Virginia.  Thanksgiving Day was never more than a local and sporadic event until until Abraham Lincoln made it an annual national holiday observance in 1863. Which means that “first” thanksgiving in Massachusetts took place after a bitter winter almost destroyed a whole colony and the first national Thanksgiving Day was observed DURING the tragedy of the Civil War that almost destroyed our nation. We still observe Thanksgiving Day, but it has little to do with struggle and more to do with eating ourselves silly and then complaining about how stuffed we feel!

But that’s not the real problem with Thanksgiving. The real problem is that we set aside this one day to reflect on and give thanks for our blessings (in which we overindulge) and then ONE DAY later…  we rush out for  “Black Friday,” the biggest shopping day of the year.  We forget all about Thanksgiving Day in our rush to run out and get more stuff. The idea of Thanksgiving was born from struggle and the awareness of God’s goodness despite our difficulty and hardship. Now we seem to believe that we deserve all the good things we have, and we can’t even have of day of reflection on Thanksgiving without turning it into an excuse to shop until we drop getting more, more, more. Will Rogers drew this contrast between Thanksgiving Day then and now:

“In the days of our founders, people were willing to give thanks for mighty little, for mighty little was all that they expected. But now neither government nor nature can give enough but what we think is too little. In the fall of the year, if the founders could gather in a few pumpkins, some potatoes, and some corn for the winter, they were in a thanking mood. But if we can’t gather in a new car, a new radio…and some government relief, why we feel that the world is against us.”

It’s ironic that the more and more we have for which to be thankful, the harder and harder it is seems to get to be truly thankful. As the late Andy Rooney would say, “Why is that?”

–Charles Tucker, Jr.

Have a great day! ( and a great Thanksgiving!)

Alan Smith
Helen Street Church of Christ
Fayetteville, North Carolina

Count your blessings all day long today!

Blesses, very blessed!

Anna Lee

Midday Tuesday

Today is one year since Jon-Michael Williams had his accident in front of Walmart in Amite.  It has been a hard year with many adjustments for Jon-Mike and his mother, Brenda.  Continue to pray for them as they face his problems each and every day.

If you didn’t get your shoebox packed and to one of the local churches in time, here is an option for you.

http://www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk 

Midday Monday

Pray for Rufus, Malone, and other members of the Williams family.  Their brother, Terry from Monroe, passed away.

...
In Loving Memory
Clifford Terry Williams
2/18/1931 – 11/12/2011		 ...

Funeral services for Clifford Terry Williams, 80, of Monroe, will be held at 11:00 AM Tuesday, November 15, 2011, at North Monroe Baptist Church with Dr. Bill Dye, Rev. Warren Eckhardt, and Rev. David Worthington officiating. Interment will follow at Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home, Sterlington Road, Monroe.

Mr. Williams went to be with the Lord on Saturday, November 12, 2011, after a brief illness. He was born on February 18, 1931 in Kentwood, LA. Cliff served his country in the U. S. Army during the Korean War, 1952 – 1954. He received a B. S. Degree with honors in 3 years in Agriculture at Southeastern Louisiana University and a Masters Degree from LSU in Wildlife Management graduating in 1957.

Cliff was a District Supervisor for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for 32 years. He received the Paul Martin Sportsman Award and was an outdoorsman who enjoyed hunting and fishing.

Mr. Williams was preceded in death by his parents, Ethel and Marion Williams; and his brothers, Thomas and Marion.

Survivors include his loving wife of 57 years, Betty Rhodus Williams; three children, Donna Benes and husband Bob of Coppell, TX, Terri Gullatt and husband Patrick of Haughton, LA, and Doug Williams and wife Kasia of Lafayette, LA; six grandchildren, Ellen and Emily Benes, Natalie Brixey and husband Nathan, Taylor Gullatt, and Zachry and Connor Williams; brothers, Howard Williams of Ferriday, LA, Rufus Williams and wife Margie of Kentwood, LA, and Malone Williams and wife Becky of Kentwood, LA; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be Monday from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM at Mulhearn Funeral Home, Sterlington Road, Monroe.

The family wishes to extend their thanks to the MICU nursing staff and doctors at St. Francis Medical Center as well as the Encouragers Sunday School Class at North Monroe Baptist Church.

Online Registry/Condolences: http://www.mulhearnfuneralhome.com