Just call me “Ma Clampett"!

A few months ago, my son in San Antonio called to tell me that someone in Texas was trying to find me. It was a ‘land agent’, and said son had given him my contact information, and sure enough, in a day or two I got a phone call.

Seems that many years ago a cousin had left my darling mother-in-law about 36 acres near a town in South Texas, and she had done nothing about it. Some years later, after Dad had died and they sold their drug store, she decided that she was never going to leave Fort Worth, so she sold the land. But this being Texas, she retained half of the mineral rights.

Many more years passed, and she died, and 15 years ago her only child and sole heir (my husband) died, too. So that left me.

Last year, enter a drilling and development company, who planned to drill there for natural gas. But they had to establish who owned the mineral rights before they could start. As the lawyers explained, standard rights are 1/8 of the profit, and the current owner and I would split that, which means that I would get 1/16, if and when they ever find anything. Whoopee.

They told me it wouldn’t amount to a great deal --- they called it ‘mailbox money’ --- but who minds getting extra money in their mailbox? Of which, incidentally, I have so far seen none.

My kids have had great fun with my prospect of riches (very funny!) and with comparison to the movie Clampetts, and yadida yadida yadida.   I myself have had fun thinking about what I would do with it if it DID amount to anything. Which it probably won’t.

But it’s all made me think a great deal about a future event of which I AM sure, and where I’ll receive far more than six and a quarter percent! My Father in heaven has promised me permanent residence in a city of gold, where I will meet my Savior Jesus face to face, and where there will be no more tears, no more pain -- where I will be able to walk and even run and not be weary nor faint – where I will meet again so many people I love who have gone before me, and where I will praise my God forever!

I was 87 a few days ago, so I’ll get there before most of you. Don’t be sorry when I die. Just think of where I am, and know for sure that when you reach my age, you, too, will be happy to be going home.

--Norma Stockton

The Heart of a Truth Teacher: The Indictment of Stephen

During February, March, and April this year, I began a personal study of the book of Acts with a specific focus on Stephen in chapters 6-7-8 (@31-33 AD). Stephen is mainly known for being the first Christian martyr. But his ministry, though short in span of time, is powerful and effective. He is a man dominated by faith, by grace, and by the Holy Spirit. He is a rare New Testament prophet who is so closely associated with the apostles that he even does miracles. But he's even more than that. Stephen is also an evangelist who spreads the Good News of the Gospel; and because of this, many people became obedient to the faith. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership council, envied and hated Stephen. They had murdered the Lord Jesus Christ and didn't want anyone like Stephen arguing from the Old Testament that Jesus was the Resurrected Messiah. The Sanhedrin works closely with the synagogue leaders to falsely accuse Stephen by indicting him for blasphemy.

Before they can rush him and kill him by stoning, Stephen gives a masterful sermon in Acts 7 before the whole council of The Sanhedrin. He proves that Christ is the Messiah from the history of The Old Testament, then he rebukes the religious leadership for their many sins. Stephen was a man of courage with angelic confidence. He was completely fearless. And he gave his life for the Lord. During the past few weeks, I have preached this sermon at two different churches. Here is a snapshot of Stephen's ministry, his heart, and his death & martyrdom. Listen closely for the connections that are made between Stephen and Saul of Tarsus, who would become The Apostle Paul. Augustine said "the church owes Paul to the prayer and life of Stephen." As you listen, you will discover these connections and appreciate Stephen even more.  I did, and I forever will.  

--Thor Knutstad, Pastoral Counselor 

A Short Devotional for Women in the Week After Mother's Day

Mother's Day. We all know that that one day can bring any number of experiences, and with those experiences, any number of emotions up in all of us. No matter who we are, no matter what our situation is. We don't ever really get a free pass on that day. Sometimes we wouldn't want a free pass, but sometimes, boy, we sure would. 

So whether your Mother's Day was sweet, or grieving, or full of anger at the world, whether it was a veritable mental and emotional tornado, or trying to just ignore all the hype on social media...whether you're a mom, or longing to be a mom, or have chosen to not be a mom, or can't be a mom, or have lost a mom, or are struggling with your role as mom, or just felt like the weight of your role as a mom all crashed onto your shoulders last Sunday and you'll never, ever be good enough as a mom, or whatever...there's one thing that unites all of us as women, one thing that we all pretty much could use, that we all really need. We all need to return to a place of peace, a place of settledness after the weekend. We need grace and rest and 'You're OK' spoken over us. 

We all need a settled place in the middle of whatever we're experiencing on the inside.

And settled places on the inside are HARD to come by, aren't they? I wouldn't characterize most of my internal world as 'settled' or peaceful most of the time. But we so need to come back to that place of rest, of "I'm OK." So I'd like to give you this post-Mother's-Day teeny tiny gift: a way into finding a place of settledness in the midst of whatever you're experiencing. 

---

Ok. Here we go. FYI, I'm transitioning now into hands-on, practical, how-to. So if you want to follow me into creating room inside of yourself for a more settled sense of peace, you can either make time now, or plan to make time later. I'd suggest setting aside about 15 minutes. 

First, I'd suggest getting into a quiet place. This is a funny little tidbit about me: I like sitting on my kitchen floor for moments such as these. Either before my kids get up in the morning or while they're at school or while they're both upstairs happily playing dollhouse for a few moments. You could be on your couch, out on your back deck, whatever. Plan to put aside any distractions for 15 minutes. Turn off the TV, turn off the sound on your phone (you'll survive), try to make this during a time of day when someone might not be yelling "Mommy, mommy, mommy" a thousand times every 45 seconds. 

Then just sit in your quiet spot for a few moments...like 90 seconds. Sit in a comfortable position. Let yourself be quiet. Close your eyes. Let yourself take like 15 deep breaths. Let your shoulders and face and eyes all relax a bit. Just be stillfor a few moments.

After you've been still, place your hands face up on your lap, and just list, in front of Jesus (your Creator, the One who knows every little thing about you-- and feels quite compassionate), a few feelings and details about what your Mother's Day weekend was like. You don't have to mention every single detail. Just tell Him a few feelings, a few details. Talk to Him. He's a friend. He's right with you. He's gentle and He's kind. His eyes are full of compassion. 

After a few details, listen to this song. As you listen, take deep breaths. You can keep your hands open if you want. If you feel peace coming to you and you want to cry, go for it, that's beautiful. (If you don't, that's wonderfully fine too!) What you're doing with this song is you're creating space inside of yourself to re-center your mind and emotions that no circumstance of Mother's Day can bring you peace, can bring you settledness. No gift, no phone call, no baby, no approval of your life choices from others...nothing can bring you peace besides your Creator:

Running in Circles

As the song ends, you can either let yourself linger a few minutes in silence...or you can move on to this next song, depending on how much you are 'soaking in' rest and peace and settledness on the inside. If you sense alot of peace in the quiet after the song, linger there for a few minutes. When you're ready, move on to this next (more energetic- haha) song.

At some point over the Mother's Day weekend (and also probably at many other times in your life), you may have felt something on the inside suggesting to you that you are 'on shaky ground' when it comes to love. Maybe your kids didn't call you, didn't celebrate you the way you wished they did. Maybe you feel like you suck as a mom (that's been alot of my Mother's Day experiences). Maybe you felt ostracized by society in your pain, or in your choices. Maybe you felt that the way that you are disqualifies you. Whatever. I can't list all the reasons. But I can guess that we all sense that there's a voice that says, "You're not quite good enough to deserve to be fully loved, just as you are, flaws and all." The voice suggests that you're always a little bit on shaky ground in the area of being loved. 

Listen to this song. Let your heart start to open, a little tiny bit, to the possibility, that even as you listen to this song, as you are doing nothing, that you are being loved. RIGHT NOW. There's a song being sung over you. That's the voice of your Creator.

my favorite song by steven curtis i don't own anything!

That's pretty much the end of our time to create space for settledness and peace. May you find that there is a deep breath inside of you that wasn't there before. May you find that there is a solid ground for all that you are, all that you're going through, whatever your experiences. 

#restGIRLhope

#parentingHOPE

#excitingGOD

--Sarah Howard

With Proof Like This, Who Needs Faith?

I quite often come across videos on YouTube or Facebook that offer definitive proof that the Bible is true, or that God exists, or that the earth was created 6,000 years ago, or that they’ve found the Garden of Eden or the tomb of Jesus, and so on and so on. If I watch them, it is generally with a skeptical eye, not because I disagree with their premise (though I sometimes do), but because the logic of presenting irrefutable evidence for a matter of faith is faulty logic, and I can’t stand faulty logic. Let me give you an example.

I recently watched a video called “5 Questions Atheists Can’t Answer,” with the implication being that these 5 questions somehow prove that God exists. The first question is “How did the universe come to exist?” The problem is that scientists are getting pretty close to figuring out the specifics. I’ve studied the origins of the universe (I’m kind of a science nerd) and I find it fascinating and strengthening to my faith in a wonderfully creative God. The issue here is that the scientific explanation does not prove atheism or disprove God, but the question is proposed as if it does. You can choose to reject the science if you want to, but either way, truth is truth, regardless of whether or not it fits my current belief system. But if my faith in God was based on these five questions, then once they are answered, I’m in trouble! 

These types of “proofs” are symptoms of a larger issue in modern Christian culture. We have substituted faith based on experiencing and knowing God for something based on our ability to prove any given aspect of it.  If we require concrete proof in order to have faith, then it’s not really faith at all. We call it “having faith” precisely because it cannot be proven. That is the very nature of what God requires of us. He doesn’t need us to offer irrefutable evidence that he exists, or that his word is true.

If this rubs you the wrong way, or you are really into the “proofs”, then understand that I’m not saying there is anything wrong with seeking evidence that strengthens your faith, but please don’t put all of your faith in these “proofs”. Richard Dawkins, famed author and staunch atheist, has put forth an idea called “the God of the gaps”, which basically says that religions use God to explain phenomena that humans can’t yet explain, or the “gaps” in our knowledge. As science advances, these gaps grow smaller, and eventually close, leaving no more need for God. Please don’t fall into this way of thinking. You will either end up rejecting science or rejecting God.

We have faith in our God because we know him, and he knows us. We have seen his work in our lives and in the lives of people we love. I don’t need to see the actual location of Jesus’ tomb to believe that he rose. Our faith is not illogical, but it is based primarily on evidence outside the purview of science or psychology. Science and psychology can support our faith, but they cannot define or prove it. Remember, it’s called “faith” for a reason.

--Jeff Hyson

I Love a Good Storyblog

I love a good story. Do you mind if I share a true one with you?

Sally was almost penniless. When her husband Jeb died years before, his life insurance had paid off the mortgage, but that was about it.

Now the house was deteriorating around her. The car had been junked long ago when she couldn’t keep up with the repair and insurance bills. She got by on just a few dollars each week for groceries, and when the electric bill got too high she decided to live by a Coleman stove and candlelight.

So Sally rarely left home. How could she when everything cost money? Coffee at the café was eighty-five cents. Even with her senior citizen’s discount, movies cost $3. (Wonder how long ago this story was written??) A walk to the park required shoes, and Sally’s only pair were clinging together by a few bits of thread.

So day after day, Sally stayed at home and creaked back and forth in her rocking chair. “Life was supposed to be better than this,” she thought. “It started out so great. So full of promise. But now it’s passed me by.”

And so she lived—just barely lived—for years. Destitute. Lonely. Defeated. Until one day, when an old acquaintance from across the country remembered her childhood friend and decided to look her up.

Miriam was heartbroken when she saw Sally’s living conditions. She decided to stay a few days to try to encourage her friend and help straighten up the house.

And in the course of helping her old friend, Miriam made a startling discovery.

Tucked away in the file drawer of Jeb’s old roll-top desk was a folder labeled “FOR SALLY.” Inside, Miriam found an old bank savings book. The last entry had been made twenty-two years earlier, just before Jeb had died. The bankbook indicated a balance of $87,000.

But that wasn’t all. The folder also contained a yellowed envelope, sealed and inscribed with Jeb’s handwriting:

To Sally, With Love Forever

“Do you know what this is?” Miriam asked.

Sally searched her memory. She remembered the last days of her beloved husband, the tender words that had passed between them as they realized that the end was near.

Then the memory hit her. In the grief and heartache of the days and months following Jeb’s death, she had forgotten one of the things he had said: “When I’m gone….a file for you…in my desk. Important.”

Now, as Miriam watched, Sally opened the envelope carefully. Inside was a single folded page and a key. Sally began to read:

My Dearest Love—

My time with you draws short, but I want you to know that I have provided everything you will need once I am gone. Check the bankbook in this file. Then take this key to the bank with you. In loving remembrance of me, please enjoy life to the full!

With love forever,

Jeb

Sally and Miriam discovered that the key was to a safety deposit box at the bank. As they lifted the metal lid, their eyes widened as they discovered several bundles of cash totaling $32,000, a pile of stock certificates, and three folders of rare coins.

That afternoon, a stockbroker informed them that the stock certificates were worth $550,000 on the current market. A rare coin dealer appraised the coin collection at $47,000. The bank calculated twenty-two years’ interest on the savings account which brought its total from $87,000 to more than $254,000. All told, Sally was worth more than $883,000. She had been living in misery and despair when more money than she would ever need had been available to her all along.

(from The Secret by Bill Bright)

Sally’s story makes me cry. Even though it has a happily-ever-after kind of ending, it sadly reminds me of the way too many Christians are struggling through their lives—poor, alone, weak, and needy.

“Although God has promised us all the strength and help we will ever need, many of us try to ‘go it alone' because we are unaware of the boundless resources God has provided in the person of the Holy Spirit,” writes Bill Bright. “As a result, we live like Sally—unfulfilled, fruitless and spiritually malnourished—while the key to joy and abundance is within our grasp…I am personally convinced that if today’s Christians better understood the Bible’s basic teaching about the Holy Spirit and then invited Him to release His power in their lives each day, they would experience unprecedented joy and personal fulfillment. More than that, our verbal and nonverbal witness for Jesus Christ would sweep the world!”

I think he’s on to something. We need to know more of the Holy Spirit.

For me, this sermon series on spiritual gifts has really helped. It has been a timely reminder of God’s perfect plan to “sweep” Vineland. Timely, I believe, because we just built a beautiful new church that He longs to see filled with precious people rescued from Satan’s kingdom of darkness and despair, people who will need to be taught, encouraged, loved, served, and supported. Timely because we now have been challenged and instructed on how this can be accomplished.

It’s our job.

But is it even possible?

Again, we need to know more of the Holy Spirit. He lives in each believer. He comforts, guides, teaches, encourages, and helps. His purpose is to glorify God and He does so by empowering and enabling God’s children to live for that purpose as well. His mission is to give them, not stocks or rare coins, but the guidance and strength necessary to accomplish God’s agenda of rescuing a people for Himself. People in Vineland.

So He graciously distributes to each Christ-follower a spiritual gift or two to use within the context of the church body. These gifts are to be discovered, developed, and disseminated or deployed for the benefit and the building up of others in their faith; they are not given for personal gain or self-promotion. Working together toward a common goal, each one faithfully exercising his or her unique and important role in the function and operation of the church—what an incredible plan! What a high calling! How Living Faith (and Vineland!) needs those gifted evangelists, hosts, comforters, encouragers, helpers, teachers, givers—everyone the Spirit has chosen for a myriad of gifts—to be busy for the Kingdom work He has purposed in advance for us to do.  The pews will be packed.

And all of His resources are already available to us. And if we don’t appropriate them, we will only live like poor Sally, struggling through a meager existence, unable to see beyond ourselves, purposeless and unfulfilled, when vast riches are at our command. But when we give the Holy Spirit control of our lives, the spiritual lock box springs open. The Lord God Almighty gives us everything we need to honor Him, to use our spiritual gifts to help others, and to experience life to the full, for out of his glorious, unlimited resources, He will give us the mighty inner strengthening of His Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 3:16)

Did you like Sally’s story?

Just don’t let it be yours. Destitute. Defeated. You have the key to an abundant, joy-filled life.

Release the amazing power of the Holy Spirit through your spiritual gifts.

We all need you.

--Eileen Hill