The rains that have fallen over the last two days have been devastating to middle Tennessee, especially in the Nashville area. It seems that everywhere you looked, there was flooding. The interstate that runs from Nashville to Memphis is still closed this morning. I donÕt know if that is the result of water still on the road, or the fact that they are trying to remove all the cars and trucks that were flooded while sitting there. In the community where we live (Defeated Creek), there has been a lot of flooding, but nothing compared to other areas. It may get worse today as the waters continues to rise. Yesterday evening, about time for services, all the main roads around us were closed. We had 19 people present for evening worship, which included two visitors. We still felt like that was pretty good attendance considering the road conditions. As I look out my window this morning, the lake is as high as I have seen it in my ten years here.
When you
think about all the rain that has fallen (over 13 inches in Nashville), you
canÕt help but think about a time that is recorded in the Bible where there was
a worldwide flood. Genesis 6-9
recorded this event for us. Can
you imagine water being more than twenty feet over the tallest mountain? If we live on a hill or high elevation,
we are in pretty good shape with this flood, but in the days of the Noah, you
would be under water. In a few
days people should be able to return to their homes and check out all the
damage. The flood in NoahÕs day
lasted one year and ten days.
(Gen. 7:11; 8:13,14). From
the time it started raining until the time the earth was dry enough for Noah to
leave the ark was 375 days. Such is hard for us to imagine. The water did not start going
down for 150 days (Genesis 8:1-3). We see the devastation after two days of
hard rain: can you imagine what it was like in the days of Noah? That is five
months before the water started going down. No matter how much it rains today,
God promised ÒAnd I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all
flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any
more be a flood to destroy the earth.Ó (Genesis 9:11).
The Pressure Families Feel to Feel
Good
There is a gargantuan pressure in our society to feel
good. And IÕm not necessarily talking merely about sensuality. IÕm talking
about feeling good. But there is a
Grand Canyon between feeling good and being good.
Feeling good is
buying the kiddiesÕ love with presents you really canÕt afford. Being good is
exercising discipline over your mountain of debt because you know they donÕt
really need more stuff and you donÕt have the money. And even if you did, your
time and consistent, caring presence in their life is more important than the
next iPod¨ gizmo that can hold seven gazillion rap songs.
The worldÕs version of feeling good has ruined Tiger
Woods and multitudes of less notable husbands. But being good is what makes
women truly love and appreciate their spouses.
Feeling good might be getting your husband to dance
like a marionette. Being good is respecting him as the leader of your home and
honoring his roleÑand yours.
Feeling good is like taking a walk through the
Okefenokee SwampÑitÕs kind of fun, but you never know where the next step will
take you. (Okefenokee was the
Seminole word for Òland of shifting earth.Ó) If you live your life anchored to
the idea that feeling good comes first, soon your anchor wonÕt be anchored at
all and your family will become yet another wreck on the reef of pleasant
feelings.
Feeling good distorts how you treat others, causing
you to be so easily offended at your neighborÕs miscues. The idol of feeling
good may enslave you to othersÑfor fear you will not feel good about making
them feel bad. Feeling good can be a vicious taskmaster.
Feeling good is all about the present, the feeling right
now. Being good is about doing right
things now, no matter the present
feeling, so I can feel really good in the future. Oh, this principle is soooooo
needed in families today. Abraham was a be
gooder instead of a feel gooder. In his sandals, I would have struggled when Jehovah
commanded the sacrifice of his son. But his action was based on confidence in
what was right (obedience)Ñ even if it meant giving up something so
preciousÑand enduring a personal anguish right now.
Moses gave up feeling good in royal splendor to suffer
with GodÕs people. Why? Because he developed conviction about being good over feeling good.
And dare we speak of our Lord, Òwho, existing in the
form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the
likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the crossÓ (Phil. 2:6-8).
It was the only way to save
you and me from an eternal pit of misery and despair.
Which is more important: feeling good or being good? Neither. Both. You see, itÕs not an either-or proposition.
ItÕs a now-or-then proposition. ItÕs a how-and-why proposition. Our Lord Òendured the crossÓ for the
Òjoy that was set before him.Ó But that joy was obtained through a proper
order, a proper means. And not by some shortcut devised by the devil.
The problem is this: we have long been trained at SatanÕs knee to feel good
about all the wrong things, for all the wrong reasons. My goal is to feel Òon
top-of-the-mountainÓ good about my wife, my children, my church, my life, my
service. But I canÕt reach that summit if IÕm not willing to endure the climb. There are things in our families and others we
must endure: a bitter tongue, a thoughtless act, a broken attitude. And the
answer is not to respond in kind, but to do good, knowing it will bring forth
fruit in its due season.
Just start observing the people around you and ask
this question: Is the way they are
behaving about feeling good or being good? Then ask the same question of
yourself. It may feel good to chew out the ÒstupidÓ lady (who is having to work
two jobs to support her Òdown and outÓ husband and four kids) because she
forgot the special sauce on your jumbo taco meal. But as you boast about your
triumph (over and over), you are slowly creating a cancer for yourself with an
eternal bitter fruit.
Work on being good, doing good. Sacrifice feeling good
now for feeling great later. Be
willing to make a hard choice today and invest in your future. Or É will you
sacrifice your future for a mess of pottage today?
--The Family Friend, Calvert
City, KY, Jared Jackson, 03/2010
A
WORD TO MOTHERS
Each mother is an historian. She writes not the
history of empires or of nations on paper, but she writes her own history on
the imperishable mind of her child. That tablet and that history will remain
indelible when time shall be no more. That history each mother will meet again,
and read with eternal joy or unutterable grief in the far coming ages of
eternity. This thought should weigh on the mind of every mother, and render her
deeply circumspect, and prayerful, and faithful in her solemn work of training
up her children for heaven and immortality. The minds of children are very
susceptible, and easy impressed. A word, a look, a frown, may engrave an
impression on the mind of a child, which no lapse of time can efface or wash
out. You walk along the sea-shore when the tide is out, and you form
characters, or write words or names in the smooth white sand, which it has
spread out so clear and beautiful at your feet, according as your fancy may
dictate, but the returning tide shall in a few hours wash out and efface for
every all that you have written. Not so the lines and characters of truth, or
error, which your conduct imprints on the mind of your child. There you write
impressions for the everlasting good or ill of your child, which neither the
floods nor the storms of earth can wash out, nor death's cold fingers erase,
nor the slow-moving ages of eternity obliterate. How careful then, should each
mother be of her treatment of her child. How prayerful, and how serious, and
how earnest to write the eternal truths of God on his mindÐthose truths which
shall be his guide and teacher when her voice shall be silent in death, and her
lips no longer move in prayer in his behalf, in commending her dear child to
her covenant God
--(Gospel Advocate, September, 1857, page 303.) ....William Lipscomb
(deceased)
MONTROSE FAMILY NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
May 09, 2010
WORSHIP----SUNDAY---9:00
AM
Co-Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Billy Halliburton
Announcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Glen Reece
Scriptures Reading..I Cor.16:.17-24 . . .Kaleb Bush
Song Leader . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Jimmy
Smith
Opening Prayer. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .Jacky Carver Jr.
LordÕs Supper-Preside: Roger
Draper
Serve: Steve Anderson, Craig Anderson
Mitchell Brooks, Brian Harville
Closing Prayer.............................. Harold
Smith
GreeterÑ Steve & Maria
Anderson
GreeterÑ Roger & Cynthia
Draper
Count Offering. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . Jacky Carver, Sr.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
Kaleb Bush
AM SermonÑ Family
PM SermonÑ Amos: The Burden Bearer
Announcements . . . . . . . .
. . . . . .. . . Glen Reece
Song Leader. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . Harold Smith
Scripture Reading..Amos
3:3-6É. . . Kaleb Bush
Opening Prayer . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . ..Mitchell Brooks
LordÕs Supper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jacky Carver Sr.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Addison Halliburton
Closing Prayer . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . Jimmy Smith
BIBLE STUDY WEDNESDAY---7:00 PM
AnnouncementÉ . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .
Glen Reece
Song Leader . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . Jimmy Smith
First Prayer. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . Jacky Carver
Sr.
Opening Prayer . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
Roger Draper
Closing Prayer . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
. . Larry Kemp
Prepare Communion for May
Teresa & Susanne
Note: If you are not able to fulfill your assignment listed
above, please notify the coordinator so that he can find a replacement.
We are asking each family to
bring items for the pantry to be used for needs in the community as they arise:
Items for week: Laundry Detergent
NURSING HOME: Lucille Smith,
Those on the sick list:
Donald Chaffin (Zion) Lou
GehrigÕs disease
Hoss WestÑMcFarland Rehab
Vaughn
Allen
John William LeonardÑspine problems
Wednesday. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Worship Sunday AM . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 75
Bible Study Sunday AM .. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Daily Bible Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 40
Worship Sunday PM . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Offering . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . .
$2450.00
Upcoming Events
Our church picnic will be June 5th at the Barn
Gospel Meeting with James Watkins will be June 20-25th.
VBS will be July 5th Ð9th.
Jackson/Smith County Youth Camp will be July 18th-
24th.
We also have a youth outing on the calendar for May.
The 5th. Sunday contribution will go toward the
compound we are building in India.
01 II CHRON
28-30
02 II CHRON
31-33
03 II CHRON
34-36
04 EZRA 1-3
05 EZRA 4-6
06 EZRA 7-10
07 NEH 1-4
08 NEH 5-7
09 NEH 8-10
10 NEH 11-13
11 ESTHER
1-3
12 ESTHER
4-6
13 ESTHER
7-10
14 JOB 1-4
15 JOB 5-7
16 JOB 8-10
17 JOB 11-13
18 JOB 14-16
19 JOB 17-19
20 JOB 20-24
21 JOB 25-27
22 JOB 28-30
23 JOB 31-33
24 JOB 34-36
25 JOB 37-39
26 JOB 40-42
27 PSALM 1-5
28 PSALM 6-8
29 PSALM
9-11
30 PSALM
12-14
31 PSALM
15-17