Honor To Whom Honor is Due

SCRIPTURE: Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. [Romans 13:7, NKJV]

QUOTE: It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Source Unknown

COMMENTARY: My father and June’s father were WWII veterans, both were in combat in Germany. Daddy was drafted at the age of 32. He left a wife and four children behind. I never remember hearing my daddy pray that he did not remember the “Servicemen”. My brother Hal was in the Air Force and he too served in Germany. June’s brother Dale was also stationed in Germany. My brother John was in the National Guard. I am the only male of my generation who did not serve. Perhaps that is why I have such great respect and admiration for those who did. I am ashamed and appalled at what we have turned this day of remembrance into: somehow I believe the men and women who gave their lives for our liberty deserve more respect than we give them. I do think we take our liberty for granted.

EXTRA: It is the Soldier not the politician that gives us the freedom to vote. It is the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press; It is the Solder, not the poet who has given us the freedom of speech; It is the Soldier, not the community organizer who has given us freedom to demonstrate; It is the Soldier– Who salutes the flag; Who serves beneath the flag; and whose coffin is draped by the flag,  that give the ungrateful idiots the right to burn the flag.

Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Marbut, WWII

Eugene Luther Bailey, WWII Germany

 

Lt. General Hal Moore, Korea and Viet Nam [Mel Gibson played him in WE WERE SOLDIERS

Hope

SCRIPTURE:This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.  For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. [Jeremiah 29:10-11, NLT]

QUOTE: Declaring a situation hopeless is like slamming the door in God’s face. ~Charles Allen

No Child of God is ever without Hope

COMMENTARY: In 586 and again is 605, Nebuchadnezzar’s army came to Jerusalem and deported Jewish citizens by the thousands. They were taken to Babylon. The Jews lost their country, their temple, their homes, and their king. In Babylon, they were on the verge of despair. Many believed the Jewish nation would be no more: that it was history. Jeremiah sends them a letter that includes a word from God. “This is what God says,” said Jeremiah–”You have a future and a hope.” Three quick lesson for those teetering on the brink of despair.

1. When all hope seems to be gone: We have hope in God. Don’t give up on God. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “It all things, it is better to hope than to despair.” God begins to show us His resources when we come to the end of ours.
2. There will be a homecoming. True, you are exiles, living among those who do not fear God but it is temporary. Jeremiah assured the Jews that the captivity would last only 70 years. The Jews were not in a permanent fix: it was for the time being. Folks, this world is not our home. We are pilgrims passing through.
3. God has the ability to bring something beautiful, something good out of a hopeless situations. The disciples felt hopelessness and despair after Jesus was crucified but it was temporary. God transformed their despair into joyful hope. A lot of good things happened to the Jews in captivity: they stopped worshipping idols, the synagogue was born, a new emphasis was placed on family and they learned that they needed God’s presence not governmental powers. They learned to live in relationship with God and fellow Jews without a land, a king or a government. Just another reminder that our Kingdom is not of this world.
   

   First Fruits–June picked the small one Thurs. & the big one yesterday, PTL

The Delights Of The Father

SCRIPTURE:  “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” [Zephaniah 3:17, NLT]

QUOTE: All God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom; first for His glory and good pleasure and then for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time. ~Chuck Swindoll

COMMENTARY: You talk about an incredible thought, study the verse above. Our Heavenly Father singing a song due to the pleasure that He gets from you and I. When the thought first hit my mind, I said, “This cannot be.” How could God ever take such delight in me? Think about it, do we not as earthly fathers rejoice over our children. I heard a father this morning bragging on his son. He had done something that made his father proud and his father was rejoicing over him. If we earthly fathers can get pleasure and delight by rejoicing over our children, how much more can our Heavenly Father get delight in watching over His children.

EXTRA: I did not realize until today that one of America’s most enduring heroes was abandoned by his parents at the age of six. His father who was a bar tender signed him over to the custody of St. Mary’s Industrial School For Boys. It was a reform school that operated like a prison with iron gates, guards, etc. The child lived at St. Mary’s for 12 years and not once did his parents ever make contact with him. His mom who also worked in the same saloon as his dad died while George was at St. Mary’s. One of the priest Father Mathis happened to love baseball and he played with the kids during recess. He realized immediately that George had a knack for baseball. Father Mathis arranged for George to get a try out in the minors where he stayed for only 5 months before going up to the majors with the Boston Red Sox. He played with the sox for five seasons leading them to a couple of titles and then they sold him to the Yankee’s for an unheard of $100,000.00. You know the rest of the story–George Herman Ruth became America’s hero. Baseball was at an all time low and the Babe made it the most popular sport in America. Yankee Stadium sold out on opening day, 74,000 screaming fans to see the great bambino. For many years Yankee Stadium was referred to as the house that Ruth built. The Babe Ruth is a success story but it is also a sad story. The Babe never had a family to love him and delight in him. He lived a reckless life in pursuit of something he never found. I don’t think he ever recovered from the scars of his horrible childhood. I imagine many of us need to stop right here and give thanks for parents that took delight in us and most of all, for a Savior who takes delight in us.

EXTRA: EXTRA: Kenny Hollday is now with his sister Elaine at Hartselle. We had 23 seniors yesterday [better] and 9 helpers which gave us a grand total of 32. The chicken and ribs were delicious.

Be Still And Know That The Eternal Is God

SCRIPTURE: Be still in the presence of the LORD and wait patiently for Him to act. [Psalms 37:7, NLT]

QUOTE: Let your faith overcome your fear and God will transform your worry into worship. ~Joe Stovall

COMMENTARY: I thought of Job yesterday. After he recieved the crushing news of his children’s death in the tornado, he lifted his eyes to heaven and said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I must return: The LORD has given and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD.” It takes a man of faith to bless the Eternal when sorrow like sea billows roll. I have deep admiration for Job. Have you been to a place in your life where you knew the right thing to do was to praise the LORD but your lips remained silent. You stand speechless like a mute. I rejoice in our  wonderful Savior. He is a merciful and sympathetic Priest. There are times when He knows our heart and He does not expect us to speak. There are times when He doesn’t want us to speak. Zephaniah 1:7–Be silent before the LORD God! We can be still in His presence and worship. Sometimes I get to a point where I don’t have the strength to muster up a song but I can always be still in the presence of my LORD Jesus Christ and know that HE IS GOD!  This video expresses what my heart is feeling. I hope that it will  move you like it did me.Be Still And Know That I am God

EXTRA: No deacon’s meeting this Sunday. LCBS at 9:00 and worship celebration at 10:15. Senior Adult Cook-Out today. Kenny Holladay continues to make progress. Stephanie and Justin had their baby this week.

Seth Going into National Guard in August

Teaching Our Children To Be Generous

SCRIPTURE: The generous prosper and are satisfied; those who refresh will themselves be refreshed. [Proverbs 11:25, NLT]

QUOTE: Nothing that you do not give away will ever be yours. ~C.S. Lewis

COMMENTARY: Someone, I think Steve Tanner, gave me a little book entitled 7 Keys to OPEN-HANDED LIVING and I picked it up yesterday morning and began reading. I think it is going to be a good book but I disagree with one of the first lines. The author says, “All of us know that it is natural for parents to want their children to learn to be grateful, generous and giving.” I do agree with everything else he says in chapter one except this opening line. I think it is natural for parents to teach their children to look out for number one. I know a lot of adults who save a lot and give a little because they were indoctrinated by their parents to do so. In my own experience, I have heard parents harp on saving but I can’t recall one encouraging their child to give sacrificially or even give at all. Here is the problem: you teach them to be selfish, to look out for number one, to love money more than people and when you get old, they will love your money more than they love you. It is what you taught them. As the old saying goes, “Your chicken’s come home to roost”. Now, we should teach our children to give. We should teach them to be generous but I don’t see that happening with many. I went over to school three weeks ago to pay on Lexi and Lara’s lunch. Lexi was in good shape and Lara was behind. I ask the LRL how this happened: she said, “Lara has been feeding a boy and sometimes a boy and a girl”. The next day on the way to school, I had a chat with Mrs. Lara, “What do you mean by paying for someone’s else lunch?” She said, “Granddaddy, they were hungry and had no money, what did you expect me to do?” After a pause, I said, “Pay for their lunch”. I see a moral in this story. Lara is much more generous with my money than she is with her money. The key to becoming generous in you’re giving is to understand that its God’s money, not yours. It’s always easier to give away someone else’s money.

EXTRA: Joe Eaton Celebrate 85 birthday at McCulloms Catfish.

Joe Eaton 85

Hufford M. Fitzgerald Feeling Better

Jonathan Seth Fagan…Going into the Guard in August

Pleasure

SCRIPTURE: “You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” [Psalm 16:11, NKJV]

QUOTE: Pleasure is not Satan’s invention. ~C.S. Lewis

COMMENTARY: The world is deceived when it comes to pleasure. They believe that all pleasure is rooted in sin and that it is Satan’s creation. God created pleasure and Satan cannot uncreate it; he can only pervert it, which is what he does. Satan’s goal for man is not joy and certainly not “fullness of joy”: Satan’s goal is to have you miserable for eternity. If you are a child of God, his goal is to rob you of the abundant life and make you miserable here on earth. Heaven is a place of infinite pleasure. You cannot imagine the pleasure awaiting you. Without me being too graphic, whatever your greatest pleasure is here on earth, heaven in going to trump it big time. Hell will be a place of misery, not pleasure. It frightens me when people joke about hell. Hell is no joke. It will not be one big a party or a paradise: it is a pit of darkness and despair. You have to be whacked in the head to want to go to hell.

EXTRA: Yesterday was big for us–Seth, our oldest grandson graduated high school. We are extremely proud of Seth. He shows great respect to his grandmother and I. He had his graduation party at home with family and friends. We are not sure what he is going to do; he is considering several things but whatever he chooses, he has our prayers and support. The unbelievable thing is how fast this has happened; it just doesn’t seem possible. It seems like yesterday that he was a little six year old begging for a shot-gun and now he is a grown man wanting a motorcycle. The problem this time is that he is not going to need Granddaddy’s help to get one.

Seth With Parents

Seth and Grandparents

EXTRA: EXTRA: You can now access SCREWTAPE LETTERS SIMPLIFIED VERSION from the Home Page of Church Web Site or from this page. They are not in order and I have not figured out a way to get them in order but you can go to the archives and begin on day one. Somehow I forgot Letter 29 but I am working on it today. If you find any mistakes, report them to me. I had to do my own editing and that is not good. I wouldn’t try to read them all at once. I do think that you will find them very interesting. C.S. Lewis was a brilliant man. You must check out the TOP TEN by Dennis Prager. You are going to love this guy. He is a conservative Jew from New York City. He is a brilliant man and I wish he was our president. [I will link it to this page today hopefully]

Top Ten Reasons Liberals Make America Worse

Love Cannot Fail

SCRIPTURE: Love never fails. [I Corinthians 13:8, NASB]

QUOTE: People who love one another can be silent together. ~Eberhard Arnold

COMMENTARY: I never realized until last night how many ways this word piptō [fails] can be translated. Moffatt translates it–Love never disappears.  The NRSV reads– Love never ends. The NLT reads–Love will last forever. The word piptō means to fall, to fall down, to fall out, to fall into condemnation, to fall in rank, to fall into ruin, to fall in virtue, to descend, to perish or to disappear. Anyway you cut, agapē does not fail. It cannot fail. It never fails. Joe David and I went to see Kenny Holladay yesterday and we came back through Falkville to check on Hugh. He was sitting in his wheel chair and looking very alert. He talked to us a little and then we walked him down the hall. He got tired and I went back for his wheel chair. Joe David ask him if he wanted to go see Mavis and he did so we pushed him to Mavis’ room. The picture tells the rest of the story. As soon as their eyes met, they lit up like a Christmas trees. It was a moving moment. When I told Mavis we were leaving, she said “I love you Hugh”. Hugh said nothing so I bent down and told him what to say, “I love you Mavis” but he didn’t take my cue. Gently she said again, “I love you Hugh” and he said promptly, “OK”. This is the Hugh we know and love.

Break Up The Hard Ground

SCRIPTURE: Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap steadfast love; break up the fallow ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you. [Hosea 10:12, NRSV]

QUOTE: Let the heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God. ~Robert Pierce

COMMENTARY: Ground can get hard, so hard that it repels the seed and the rain. Sometimes the farmer has to break the crusty surface of the ground to make it receptive to the seed and the rain. Over time our hearts can also get hard and our souls get crusty. The word God cannot penetrate the hardness and we become insensitive to our sins and the suffering of others. We suffer from what they call, “A Hard Heart”. Israel had a heart problem. They had a deceitful heart. They were sowing bad seeds and were in line to reap a bad harvest. Hosea said, “Its time to break the hard ground and sow some good seeds of righteousness that will produce a harvest of love.” We reap what we sow.

EXTRA: A+ to Keri Callahan for organizing the Baccalaureate. Outstanding class: they had a 74%  turn out last night. That may be a record. Certainly the most in recent history. Bethany Smetherman and Steve Hardy also get an A+ as does Holly Reeves and her crew. They tell me that Braden Cox deserves recognition; he opened every drink. As for me, I’m glad it’s Monday. I got home about 8:45 last night and I left yesterday morning at 7:15. I want to thank the LORD and thank all those who helped.

Seth and Twins At Baccalaureate

Narrow The Search

SCRIPTURE: But may all who search for You be filled with joy and gladness in You. [Psalm 40:16, NLT]

QUOTE: God is self-sufficient. He does not need anything beyond Himself, we do. We are not designed to run on our own power. ~Dallas Willard

COMMENTARY: In the early part of David’s adult life, he spent a lot of time in caves. He was not exploring them, he was hiding from Saul who pursued him madly. It is not a nice place or way to live but during these troublesome times David wrote many of his psalms. David understood that Saul was searching for the wrong thing. Had he searched for the LORD with the same passion that he searched for David, he would have been super blessed. What are you pursuing? What search has you occupied night and day? Perhaps it is time to narrow your search. “Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways and banish every thought of doing wrong. Let them turn to the LORD that He may have mercy on them and turn to our God,  for He will abundantly pardon.” [Isaiah 55:6-7]

EXTRA: Huge day today…jam packed. I’ll be pulling out in the next 30 minutes and will not be back until 8:30 or 9:00 tonight. I covet your prayers. Pray for my good buddy Kenny Holladay as he recovers from a very tough surgery. I hope to go down tomorrow. Pray for our services today. All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down. Remember, we host Baccalaureate tonight. Holly will have a sign up sheet in the foyer. We need home made ice cream and brownies.

Man of Sorrows

SCRIPTURE: He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. [Isaiah 53:3, NKJV]

QUOTE: The truest of all men was the Man of sorrows. ~Herman Melville

COMMENTARY: The greater a man’s sensitivity to the anguish and suffering that sin brings upon men, the greater that man’s sorrow. Jesus is truely the MAN OF SORROW. He bore our griefs; He carried our sorrows; He was wounded because of  our rebellion and bruised for our iniquities. Sometimes it takes a life time for us to see sin from God’s point of view.

EXTRA: Two long surgeries in one month. Mrs. Clara’s lasted 9 hours and Kenny Holladay’s was 7. They actually did two surgeries in one. The doctor was very confident about getting all the cancer but Kenny has less esophagus. They had to raise his stomach and reattack the esophagus which they removed completely and then put back in. He will not be able to eat or swallow for 6 weeks. During that time he will live on a feeding tube. We need to pray for Kenny. He is a good man who has been through a lot and he never complains. He is getting a lot of support from family and I am thankful but we can all give him prayer support.

EXTRA/EXTRA: If you want to help Holly with the reception Sunday night, give her a call. It you had rather wait and let us know in the morning that will be OK also. We need home made Ice Cream and Brownies. We are not going to muzzle the oxen, if you help us we want you to stay and enjoy the food and fellowship. Some of the Seniors think that we will have a higher than normal turn out. We have been running a pretty consistent 60%. We are prepared for all 78.

TRIPLE EXTRA: Kenny’s brother James meditating. His sister Barbara loves the DIGEST and so does sister Elaine. They inspired me to do this. By the way, all Holladay’s are avid BAMA fans.