GIVE GIFTS THAT KEEP GIVING
Scripture: Is. 32:17 (NKJV) The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
1) THE GIFT OF LISTENING…
But you must REALLY listen. No interrupting, no daydreaming, no planning your response. JUST LISTENING.
2) THE GIFT OF AFFECTION…
Be generous with appropriate hugs, kisses, pats on the back and handholds. Let these small actions demonstrate the love you have for family and friends.
3) THE GIFT OF LAUGHTER…
Funny pictures. Share articles, funny stories and funny greetings. Your gift will say: “I love you to laugh with you”.
4) THE GIFT OF A WRITTEN NOTE…
It can be a simple, “Thanks for the help” note or a full sonnet. A brief, handwritten note may be remembered for a lifetime, and may even change a life.
5) THE GIFT OF A COMPLIMENT…
A simple and sincere, “You look great in red,” You did a super job” or “That was a wonderful meal” can make someone’s day.
6) THE GIFT OF A FAVOR…
Every day, go out of your way to do something kind to another person.
7) THE GIFT OF SOLITUDE…
There are times when we want nothing better than to be left alone. Be sensitive to those times and give the gift of solitude to others.
THE GIFT OF A CHEERFUL DISPOSITION…
The easiest way to feel good is to extend a kind word to someone; really it’s not that hard to say, “Hello” or “Thank You”
–Author Unknown–
MERRY CHRISTMAS
May I be the first to wish all of the blog readers a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! Well I know what some of you are thinking, Pastor David’s lost it! But wait a minute, let me explain. What seems like a very short few months ago, well actually it was the week after Christmas 2009, I was making a quick stop at our local Dollar General Market. I don’t remember what I went in to purchase but as I walked down the aisle I saw the most unusual sight. On my right were the CHRISTMAS items that had been marked way down for clearance. Across the aisle was a whole shelf stocked with assorted VALENTINE’S DAY products ready to be picked up in Dec. for the rapidly approaching Feb. 14th.
I realize that since each year I am getting older and slowing down some but I have just realized that we are about to celebrate INDEPENDENCE DAY this Sunday July 4th at CHBC. (Six months of this year is over). Therefore I feel compelled to take the time to go back and say that I hope you each had a very happy NEW YEAR 2010, and experienced great parties on both Martin Luther King and George Washington’s birthdays. In my slothfulness I failed to tell you of the sorrow I experienced during GOOD FRIDAY but then also of the overwhelming joy that came at EASTER time. I failed to wish each mother a happy MOTHER’S DAY and each father a happy FATHER’S DAY.
May 28th is Wilma’s birthday so every year I seem to focus more on her and forget to thank many of you who take the whole weekend off to help us celebrate her birthday and then you call it a MEMORIAL DAY. Now we are going to celebrate this Sunday with INDEPENDENCE DAY but honestly with all the babies that have been born at CHBC between these past holidays you would think somebody would start a petition to change LABOR DAY from Sept. 6th to sometime earlier in the year. I recently heard that Pastor David & Eden Stewart are planning a musical at CHBC sometime after their baby girl’s first appearance. I also got wind that Ron & Michelle Corum, veterans as they are with four children already, were shooting toward having a VETERAN’S DAY baby but are now looking past HALLOWEEN and plan to start a petition to make THANKSGIVING DAY a “second” MOTHER’S DAY.
With all the activities going on this summer, and after looking at the clock on the computer, may I say MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and to all a good night?
A special time.
It appears by the absence of blogs posted recently that the rest of the staff is as much in awe as I am with Pastor Chuck’s rescue abilities for wildlife around his home. While my words may still leave people waiting for other blogs to be posted I will attempt to share some of my time in the outdoors.
I had the opportunity over the weekend to hike House Mountain. I admit that I have enjoyed each time that I have been able to hike there and each trip leaves me with some great memories to keep. I may share some of those memories in the near future but for now I would like to share a side trip I took while on my way to the mountain that morning.
I stopped at a farm pond close by, shortly after daylight, to attempt to entice a five pound Largemouth bass that I have been told, recently, lurks in those waters. (The destination of the pond I will leave untold. A man needs a secret spot to resort to from time to time. ) After an hour of unsuccessfully trying to coach the big bass to hit a Zara Spook (top water bait) I reluctantly switched to fishing for some “little” bluegill so I could at least tell Wilma that I had caught some fish. Unfortunately those little critters did not want the night crawlers I was offering to them on my hook. As I sat there in my camp chair my thoughts turned from the bluegills to that five pound Largemouth bass. I imagined what it would be like if that bucket mouth bass would try to catch me off guard and swallow my night crawler, hook, line and sinker and take off for the middle of the pound. It was a tremendous fight, in my mind anyway, that never did take place. Turning my thoughts toward House Mountain I decided that what would be best for me and my watery friends would be to empty my cup of night crawlers into the pond and go on my hike before the morning disappeared. So even though I did not rescue a little bird from the yard and put it back in its nest, like Pastor Chuck, I possibly gave some little bluegills enough protein to help them escape the old bucket mouth bass for a few more days. Who knows if they stay away from him maybe the next time I stop by the pond he will be hungry enough to swallow my Zara Spook.
…we will call, He will hear.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NKJV)
(IF…) My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV) ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
I enjoyed reading Pastor Chuck’s blog and was reminded of these verses as well. I pray they will be a blessing to you also.
Have a great weekend! See you Sunday.
THIS IS TENNESSEE
I am passing on an article that was sent to me from a TN. Disaster Relief worker from Morristown. It has length to it but I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did!
THIS IS TENNESSEE: VOLUNTEERS ADD NEW CHAPTER TO STORIED HISTORY by Brent High
On May 1st and 2nd of 2010 a historic amount of rain, as much as 17 inches, fell on middle Tennessee and the city of Nashville in less than 48 hours. Historians are using terms like “thousand year flood” to describe what took place here. The Cumberland River, Nashville’s main waterway, crested at just over 51 feet, flooding iconic structures including the Grand Ole Opry, LP Field and Bridgestone Arena where the Tennessee Titans and Nashville Predators play, Country Music Hall of Fame and the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center.
The water rose so much, so fast and in places water has never been seen that thousands had to be rescued by boat. Dozens lost their lives. Thousands of homeowners lost everything they had. Thousands more are now trying to salvage what’s left. Most had no flood insurance because before May 1st they didn’t need it where they lived. Early estimates are that the damage will top $1 billion and this storm will go down as the most devastating non-hurricane event in American history.
This is Tennessee. It’s Monday, May 3rd. The rain has stopped, finally. What happens next shouldn’t come as a surprise. Almost instinctively, after a long night of restlessness, volunteers spring into action. It’s in their blood. They’ve been trained to do so by their parents and grandparents. From Waverly to Cookeville, Winchester to Cross Plains and in the capital city of Nashville the sights and sounds are the same. Without being asked, fishermen launch their boats into the muddy soup, joining the rescue efforts. Business owners and supervisors tell their employees to take the day off and jump in and help wherever they can. Neighbors, many of whom helped empty entire houses in brigade fashion the night before, transition into cleanup mode. Sump pumps and generators whirr. Drywall, carpet and ruined floors are ripped out. Elderly ladies gather at the church to make lunches for workers. Teenagers distribute bottled water. Pickup trucks, trailers and storage units are loaded with what could be salvaged. Photos and documents are spread out in the sun to dry. Wads of $20 bills are slid into pockets of those affected. Checks are written. Hugs are given. Prayers are said. Tears are shed. This is Tennessee.
Almost 200 years ago Tennessee first earned the nickname “Volunteer State.” In 1812 More than 2,000 Tennesseans volunteered to fight for Andrew Jackson and were the main part of Jackson’s army that destroyed the British three years later in the Battle of New Orleans. A generation later the U. S. Secretary of War asked Tennessee for 2,800 soldiers to fight a war against Mexico. 30,000 volunteered. This is a state where faith comes first. We don’t ask why. We know there is a reason and look forward to it being revealed. We are guided by scriptures such as Philippians 2:3-5 which says: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus.” Family is a focus, not an afterthought. Don’t bother trying to do business with us the week of Christmas or July 4th. We’ll be with family. When our kids have a school play we will be there. We throw big birthday parties. We teach our kids right from wrong and aren’t afraid to give them a whippin’ when they need it. Here we say “Yes ma’am” and “No ma’am.” We try to leave a place better than we found it. We put our hand over our heart when the national anthem is played. We pull over on the side of the road when funeral processions pass on the other side. We are savvy business people. We are farmers. We are teachers. We drink Coke here. We like gravy with our biscuits and potatoes. We are serious about our sports. We keep score in little league and we still have all-star teams and MVP trophies. We are givers. You won’t hear us wailing about where the federal government and insurance companies were in all of this. We’ll get by just fine without them. Right now we have a lot to deal with here in our backyard. We will handle it with dignity and class. We will sacrifice for each other in ways that are unfathomable to most. We will stand together. We will stand tall. We will come out of this stronger than we were before it. One day in the not too distant future a hurricane, tornado, fire, flood or other unspeakable disaster will strike your community. As you struggle to put the pieces back together we will be there. We will volunteer. We are Tennesseans. This is Tennessee.
Brent High, 36, is a lifelong Tennessean from Nashville. He serves as Assistant Director of Athletics for External Affairs at Lipscomb University and can be reached by email at brent@brenthigh.com. His website is www.brenthigh.com
In the past weeks Pastor Mark has been challenging us to LOVE LOUD. As I read this article I was reminded again that we should not just LOVE LOUD inside our building at CHBC but to East Knoxville, to the state of Tennessee, and to the world. DRC
JEOPARDY
The Answer: Ann Marie Jarvis
The Question: Who originated the U.S. Mother’s Day Holiday?
Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (September 30, 1832, — May 9, 1905,) was a social activist and organizer during and after the American Civil War. She and her daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis (1864–1948), is recognized as the founder of the Mother’s Day holiday in the United States. Jarvis worked throughout western Virginia (now West Virginia) to promote worker health and safety. During the American Civil War she organized women to tend to the needs of the wounded of both sides of the war conflict. After the war she became active in the promotion of a “Mothers’ Work Day” that, unlike the modern version of the holiday, specially emphasized the causes of pacifism and social activism. She organized meetings of the mothers of soldiers of both sides of the late war. Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis died in Philadelphia in 1905. In 1907, Jarvis’ daughter, Anna Marie Jarvis, passed out 500 white carnations at her mother’s church, St. Andrew’s Church in Grafton, West Virginia—one for each mother in the congregation. The following year, she held a memorial to her mother in Grafton, West Virginia on May 10, 1908, and then embarked upon a campaign to make Mother’s Day a recognized holiday, a goal which was achieved when President Woodrow Wilson declared it so in 1914. (Info above from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Although it’s been said many times, many ways: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all mothers at CHBC from the oldest to the youngest.
YOU‘RE INVITED!
If you haven’t been to a Wed. night service, at CHBC, in a while let me be the first to give you an invitation. Just before Easter we began identifying those of us who attend the Wed. evening service as “the GATHERING”. We still enjoy our time in worship lead by Pastor David Stewart. We still have time of prayer and a message from God’s word. We will be using singers of the church for some special songs from time to time. But the greatest thing that I have sensed in recent weeks is the excitement and enthusiasm from many who share with me that Wed. nights are a big up lift to them in the middle of a sometime difficult week. We are presently going through a series of messages from the book of I Thessalonians. (Check out the CHBC Website homepage for more info.) I have transitioned from speaking from the platform to the main floor. The people have been moving from three sections into the middle section and they are GATHERING in closer almost eliminating “the parting of the Red Seats”. If you don’t know what that means ask someone that has been coming recently and then make plans to come and help us.
Last Wed. we looked at how the Apostle Paul encouraged the Thessalonians with his letter. This Wed. the 21st we will look at how Paul dealt with false allegations. Hope to see you there.
Let me remind you that the Serving Knoxville As One outreach will take place on Sat. the 24th. Hopefully you have signed up for a project on that day. We will be having the Medic Blood Mobile on our church parking lot on Wed. evening the 21st from 2 till 7 p.m. When you come by and donate that day tell the Medic people instead of a T-Shirt you want to make a donation to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Your blood donation will be worth 9 meals to the needy through their program.
Standing at the Cross
Luke 23:48, 49 “And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned, But all His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.”
Luke recorded in his account of the Crucifixion of Jesus that many of those that were there during that time left after showing remorse (beating their breasts) for what they had just witnessed.v.48. As I was reading the scripture this morning I was reminded of another passage found in Luke 18:13 “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” Luke describes the remorse of a sinner who called out for mercy.
I am sure you would agree there are times when each of us needs to call out to God with a heart full of remorse that it was because of our sins that Jesus had to die on the Cross. After standing for a time at the cross may we then focus on the Resurrection of Jesus which gives us hope of something far greater when in His presence we will lift our hands in Praise to Him instead of beating our chests in despair?
Hebrews 9:24-28 “24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”
If you haven’t read the complete story of the crucifixion recently, today’s a perfect day to revisit it. Here are the four Gospel accounts of the story:
• Matthew 26:14-27:66
• Mark 14:12-15:47
• Luke 22-23
• John 18-19
It’s Just a Matter of Time
As I get older it appears to me that time is getting faster. Oh, I know that it is not but I can’t help feeling this way. I recall just a few months ago, Dec. 2009 the week before Christmas and the Celebration of our LORD’s birth. I made a stop at a local store near our home to pick up some things and was amazed at what I saw. When I started down an aisle, in the middle of the store, on the right side was Christmas decorations that had already been reduced in price while on the left side of the aisle was Valentines’ Day candies and flowers. It seems to me that we have just started focusing on Easter (the Death and the Resurrection of Jesus) and before we know it everyone will have their minds centered on vacations for the summer months.
In Matthew 26:2, Jesus told His disciples’ in essence that “It’s Just a Matter of Time”. He reminded them about it being two days until the Passover feast but He was also telling them of His pending crucifixion. It’s just a matter of time until we gather at CHBC, on Palm Sunday, to remember and celebrate the Triumphal entry of Jesus as He entered into Jerusalem with the shouts of the people. It’s just a matter of time until we meet on Good Friday to hear of the painful sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross. It’s just a matter of time until we join on Easter Sunday to rejoice in the scriptural accounts of Jesus resurrection.
During this Easter season there will be a lot of things that matters to a lot of different people. Things like the right kind of clothes, the best places to eat or the kinds of games for the children to play. Take time to show others what matters most to you at this important time of the year.
THE DAY I BECAME A CENTERFOLD
WAIT A MINUTE, before you roll off your desk chair in an outburst of laughter because of that statement, let me explain. Yesterday afternoon after spending a great portion of my day with Brother Kent Altom, a ministry intern at CHBC, making visits to Shannondale nursing home down west, the Emergency Room @ Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge, and the Cardio Step Down unit @ Ft. Sander’s Hospital we returned to the church. Shortly after our arrival I talked with a man who wanted us to help him with a bus ticket to Maine. After offering him a piece of cake and something to drink, we determined that we could not help him with his request, because of the inconsistencies of his story. I (along with Tim Cross) relocated him to another part of town. Shortly after getting back to the church I went up to Trinity Hills to continue my afternoon and to get things ready for the weekly Thursday night Chapel service.
Upon my arrival to the Chapel the associate director, Gwyn Earl, came from her office to tell me that the Senior Standard paper had arrived. The paper is a monthly publication owned by Trinity Care and is used to help advertise in the related communities of their facilities. (You can find them in locations at CHBC) She then proceeded to walk over to the receptionist counter, with the paper opened to the center page, and made this announcement to two of the ladies on staff. “Chaplain David has made the centerfold!” With that statement all four of us began laughing as we quickly realized what we first thought was definitely not what she meant. She was trying to tell the ladies in the center of the paper is an article I wrote about one of the residents, Ted Huckaby, a retired Minister. It is an expanded version of the blog I did Jan. 29th, “God’s Man in Ministry”. Along with the article is a picture of me and Ted sitting at a dining hall table with the framed “napkin message” that the article is about. That brief few moments of laughter was placed in my day at a very appropriate time.
Dealing with the different aspects of our day sometimes becomes very stressful. Listening to the difficulties and the pain of those we minister to each day, the regular visits to hospitals, nursing homes, and funeral homes at times can get overwhelming. God has taught us in his word, “A merry heart does good, like a medicine” Prov. 17:22. As Solomon declared in Ecclesiastes there is a time to weep but there is also a time to laugh. Let me encourage you to take some time out of your busy day to experience humor around you. If you let it, a laugh could help you through a difficult time of your day. DRC