Voices of Lee at The Donelson Fellowship

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Just to let you know that the accapella group, Voices of Lee, of Lee University will be at our church in concert Sunday night June 3 at 6:00. Free Concert.

You probably recall this group competed on the NBC singing competition show, The Sing Off in 2011. They are from a Christian liberal arts university in Cleveland TN. They are amazing and won’t regret the trip to The Donelson Fellowship for their concert.

Here is a video of one of their performances on The Sing Off. The beginning of the video is the group talking about who they are, where they are from and how important their faith in Christ is to them.

Has The World Gone Crazy? Part 5

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Has The World Gone Crazy? Part 5

By: Mike Stokes

 

  “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.” Isaiah writes of this once-great angelic being who became the Devil. “For thou hath said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God … I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14: 12-14). Satan has his own idea about what is good, what is evil, how the universe should operate. Satan hates humans and is trying to destroy us. “He was a murderer from the beginning”; He is the father of lies, Jesus explained in (John 8: 44). He loves terrorism, violence and bloodshed.

 

The vicious attack on marriage and family is authored by this miserable fiend. He hates marriage and families because they are so central to God’s master-plan for humankind. This great dragon has flipped the family structure on its head because he hates authority and loves anarchy.

 

God tells children to obey their parents and honor older people, so Satan encourages them to rebel against their parents and mock the aged. Satan pushes the impression that the mind-boggling impressive material creation exists by mere happenstance, that there is no order or purpose for any of it.

That old serpent disagrees with everything God thinks, because his thinking is so twisted up with hate. The longer people refuse to submit themselves to the righteousness of God, who is the true lawgiver, who alone determines right from wrong, the more haywire this crazy world will become.

 

Thankfully, the Bible promises that Jesus will return and set this world right-side up. The Apostle Peter called this “the times of refreshing” and “the times of restitution of all things” (Acts 3: 19-21). Jesus instructed His disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So, if the current state of affairs is any indication, something much better is on the way.

A Mother’s Heart Journey

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I’m doing a lot of research this week on how to live in an Empty Nest. So I know I’ll be writing about that quite a bit in the weeks to come.

But, for now, I’m still living in yesteryear. I contemplated participating in Wordless Wednesday today. Then as my thoughts evolved I decided to just share a bit from the past. This period of life is about reminiscing and that’s just what I’ve been doing. As any mother of a high school senior can tell you we wonder daily how we got to this point of our lives so fast. I have some regrets in my parenting over the last 18 years. And I made some decisions affected my family in a negative way. And I’ve done a lot of wishing the days away. I have done this hundreds of times in 18 years. I am trying to remember to soak in every minute possible now in these last days we have together before my babies spread their wings and fly from my nest.

But an interesting thing happened when my kids started high school at East Literature Magnet High School. Because we had always been a soccer family I became the year round soccer mom. Girls played in the fall and Guys played in the spring. Most of those times I was also at practices. So, I naturally became friends with Michael and Lauren’s friends. I have counseled them and encouraged them when they needed it. I’ve also become friends with teachers/coaches. This was the part I really treasured because they were open in telling me what my kids were doing in school. I could clearly see what was happening on the tennis courts, golf courses and soccer fields. But this gave me a chance to check up on them while they were in class. “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”!

So now suddenly all of those people are GONE! Just like that! A snap of the fingers and the vanish. I know there will be new friends that the kids may want to bring home from college on the weekeneds. So, I’ll get a small bit of that back. But now it’s not fair to my kids to stay as involved or as they would say “all up in my business”.

Where am I supposed to find someone struggling with the approaching empty nest? When I found out about my Fibromyalgia I went to the internet and starting looking around and finding people like me. But from my initial searches I’m not finding much. I’m not really even sure what I’m looking for. If anyone has any leads or suggestions please let me know here via the comments section. (By the way, I am a Bible Study leader in our church Women’s Ministry. That helps some.)

Take a look at these and tell me how we got from picture one to picture two for each child. I blinked and missed so much. NO MORE BLINKING ALLOWED!!

Michael then and now.

Lauren then and now.

And them together!

And the final act in high school. This brings us right up to a fork in the road. Lauren will go one path. Michael will go the other path. And Mom and Dad will still be standing at the fork waiting for them to return.

So Much Pride

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I can’t believe that I am now writing you as a mother of two college students. I still don’t know how that happened. I hung on to denial until the second I saw the graduates start walking into the arena Saturday afternoon.

That was the moment when the first tear fell and my denial went floating into space like a helium balloon. As I sat there and looked down on all the graduates of East Literature Magnet School’s class of 2012 I felt so much pride.

I was so happy for them. There are a lot of great kids sitting in that group. I found myself thinking how much I was gonna miss my kids’ friends and even some of the teachers. I knew they were all sitting there wearing those red cap and gowns and sitting tall with pride. They all worked hard making sure all of their high school requirements were met so that they could sit there on the edge of the rest of their lives.

When the 4th row stood up I knew what was coming.

See the smile on Lauren’s face. I was so proud of her. I think they were both proud of themselves and each other. My heart was so full I couldn’t possibly had any more space for love and pride. It was full and running over. I kept thinking back over the years of school. When it was their turn to walk across the stage I wanted to pause time so they could move in slow motion.

And there she is! Look at the smile on Michael’s face. I choose to believe that smile is happiness in watching his sister receive the reward.

And there goes my baby boy. I hope that they always remember that feeling they felt when they received the reward for their hard work.

We had some friends sitting on the front row so they took some pictures for us. Our digital camera had pretty good zoom but they pictures were all so fuzzy because of the distance.

Lauren took this one herself after getting back on the floor. She sent it to us from her cell phone. Don’t you love the smiles on their faces? Interestingly enough the matched the smiles on our faces up in the stands. Smiles of pride and joy!

 

 

Has The World Gone Crazy? Part 4

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Has The World Gone Crazy? Part 4

By: Mike Stokes

            If not diabolical or insanity, or both, how would one explain the assault on truth as defined in Scripture: If the Bible calls something evil, this world calls it good. If God explains something a certain way, this world is certain anything other than that is possible. Yet, it is this widely dismissed and disparaged Book that exposes and explains the cause for society’s departure from logic, sound reasoning, and common sense.

 

The train wreck this world has come to reveals the very existence of a spirit realm, a sort of parallel universe, another world where the spirit realm is reality. The Apostle Paul reveals to us the interaction between these two realities when he said: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6: 12). The Bible speaks of a benevolent God. But it also tells of a malevolent spiritual force that we must guard against. The stakes in this battle are huge.

 

As Paul worked to spread the truth of the gospel throughout hostile, Gentile cultures, he met with resistance that he explained this way: “If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded the mind of them which believe not…” (2 Corinthians 4: 3-4). The “god of this world” to which he referred was not the Creator. It was the same “god” the Apostle John described as “the great dragon … that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12: 9). The fact is, the destructive state of the world today, and the descent into even more mad and crazy reasoning, cannot be fully comprehended without the consideration of a demon realm.

 

The Devil’s warped way of thinking is on display. He is a master in cloaking his motives, dressing up his destructive ambitions, making them appear noble and upright. “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light,” Paul wrote in (2 Corinthians 11: 14). But when the lies are compared with the right-side-up revealed in Scripture, the truth becomes clear.

Has the World Gone Crazy? Part 3

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Has The World Gone Crazy? Part 3

By: Mike Stokes

            “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah lamented. “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight” (Isaiah 5: 20-21). What kind of world is Isaiah describing in these verses, if not the crazy world I have been talking about in this series of articles?

There is much more evidence for my theses, for instance: Hamas, a terrorist government that runs Gaza, next door to Israel, is a theocratic state; it silences decent; it allows no religious expression outside radical Islam; it uses terrorism to advance its foreign policy, which is to annihilate Jews. On the other hand, Israel, by contrast, is a democracy; it has an independent judiciary and an independent press; it protects religious freedom, even for the 16 percent of its citizens who are Muslim.

Which of these two do you think the majority of nations including Western elites consider political partners, and which as a villain? It is completely bizarre, how people who value political freedom and respect for human life to defend the terrorist cause? Absolutely crazy to overlook the barbaric acts of murder, that plagues radical Islam culture? And why is the world so unforgiving and unsympathetic as Jews try to defend themselves against it? These are questions that are left unanswered.

In the crazy world of downtown Manhattan, a retail store damaged by shrapnel from the 9/11 terrorist attack was leveled to the ground, in order to make room for a new 13-story mosque. “In the ruins of a building reduced to rubble in the name of Islam, a temple to Islam will arise,” said author Mark Steyn.

Theres more: Last year authorities foiled a bombing attempt in New York’s Time Square. As always happens when a Muslim commits or try to commit a terrorist act, politicians and the press disregarded facts, threw out the religious connection and searched for a cause by reporting, the would-be bomber’s struggle to pay his mortgage. New York’s mayor speculated that he was probably a right-winger, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill. It turns out the perpetrator was on orders from the Pakistani Taliban. The mayor responded to the news by praising his city’s Pakistanis and gravely stated, “We will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Muslim New Yorkers.”

Oh for political correctness, a bramble-bush of self-contradicting doctrine. I don’t think Isaiah could have possibly described the crazy world we live in with more penetrating precision.

And the Winner is…..

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I want to thank all of you for reading my blog this week as I’ve written about Fibromyalgia. It’s been a week full of helpful information. I’ve shared some and each of you have shared some. We have worked together as a team of advocates for each other. I hope that each of you wore your purple today. My kids’ graduation party was today and my daughter told everyone to wear purple to honor and support me and ultimately each of you today. I was very touched by it. And each person wore something purple. Here is the purple bunch:

Some didn’t have a purple shirt so they did something else with purple. Lauren’s soccer coach came and she wore a necklace with purple beads. My son’s girlfriend didn’t have anything purple so she painted her nails purple. I was honored!

Ok – all week long each of you have been commenting as entries for today’s giveaway for the free Fight Like A Girl Club purple tee shirt.

I did the drawing the old fashion way. I couldn’t each entry, wrote each name that number of times, cut the pieces up and folded them. Then I put them in a bowl and drew one. I know there are easier ways to do giveaways now but I just haven’t had time to sit down and figure it out this week. So I took a picture of each step and I’m hoping you will trust that I am an honest person. Here’s the process:

Joy, please feel free to email me your size and snail mail address and I will order your shirt for you as soon as I receive your information. My email address is SoccerMomtoMandL@comcast.net

Congratulations! And thank all of you for stopping by this week.