Youth Blog

Welcome home Mark and Kathy, welcome home!

100% YES vote!

God is good!

Be blessed,

Tammy

I was in Sam’s Club a few days ago. I went there so I could get a couple of super duper jumbo gigantic boxes of hot dogs for the meet and greet we had with Mark and Kathy. It was lunch time so I decided to stop by the cafe and get a super duper jumbo gigantic piece of pizza and a super duper jumbo gigantic white tea with citrus. As I was eating, I was people watching. I love to people watch at Sam’s! I scrutinize their purchases and try to guess what they are going to be using their super duper jumbo gigantic size stuff for.

As I sat analyzing, a husband and wife and the wife’s mother came up pushing a buggy FULL of stuff to the exit. All of a sudden I heard a HUGE crash. The man who had been pushing the cart was standing there with his hands on his head staring at a “horrible mess” (Judy, you know how to say this) on the floor. A super duper jumbo gigantic size jar of pickles lay smashed at his feet. He just stood there stunned. Paralyzed. He didn’t know what to do. I know what he was thinking because it would be the same thing I would think. Why couldn’t it be the 100 rolls of toilet paper that fell? Or the 24 tubes of toothpaste? But no, it had to be the messiest, stinkiest, most breakable thing in the cart. Where was the wife? Loudly commanding her husband to go get another jar of pickles. Where was the mother in law? She came over and sat at the tables in the cafe trying to pretend she didn’t know him. People were navigating around the mess offering the man no assistance. Then something cool happened. The woman who worked the door gently told the man to go get more pickles. Then an employee leaving the store, purse in hand, saw what happened and came and pushed a cart over the mess and stood there so the man could leave. She stood there until a manger came over and took her place. The he called on a walkie talkie for someone to come clean the mess. A maintenance man came and picked up all the glass and pickles. After he was finished another man came with a mop and bucket and cleaned the remaining mess. When it was over, 5 people had a part in getting the mess cleaned up. When the man came walking back with his super duper jumbo gigantic pickles, the cowards, I mean the family materialized once again and out the store they went. It reminded me of ministry. People come to us with all kinds of messes in their lives. They have no idea what to do. They are embarrassed by their mess. For some, their family has abandoned them. They have no idea what to do. And then someone comes to them and reassures them that the mess can be cleaned up. They are encouraged to restore what has been broken. No matter how many people it takes, someone is there through the whole process until, hopefully, the mess gets cleaned up. What I witnessed at Sam’s was team work. It wasn’t one person trying to handle the mess on their own. No one said that’s not my job. No one abandoned their task. Everyone stayed with it until the man happily exited the store. I didn’t hear anyone grumble. I didn’t hear anyone accuse. They just did what had to be done. I think it would be good for a church to follow Sam’s policy. What do you think?

Be blessed,

Tammy

When it all comes down to it, I pray the only vote that counts is God’s vote.

You and yours be blessed,

Tammy

P.S. Time is ticking very slowly these days. Like a 6 year old waiting for Christmas morning slow. Like 39 weeks pregnant slow. Like a newlywed couple waiting for the reception to be over slow. In other words…..SLOW!

The future is getting closer and closer. Can’t wait!

Praying you and yours are blessed,

Tammy

P.S. My team would have won because I would have cheered louder!

I saw the most beautiful thing on the Today show this morning. It was a story about a man who caught his first ever foul ball while watching a Phillies game. He had his three year old daughter with him and after he caught the ball his daughter reached for it and he said he was “excited to give it to her” and so he did. Well, she did what three year olds do with a ball, she threw it!! The dad, Steve Monfortos, threw up his hands in surprise but with a smile on his face. His daughter, after hearing the gasps and the look on her father’s face, quickly leaned in and gazed at her father and was probably expecting to be scolded. Here’s where it gets really cool! Her daddy wraps his arms around her and holds her close and you can see him mouth “It’s OK”.

It made me think of my Abba, my Daddy.

How many times He has excitedly given me something that was valuable and precious just to watch me throw it away. And then when I realized what I did, He just lovingly wrapped me into His loving arms and whispered “It’s OK”. Why does Father embrace me when He should be scolding me? Why does God comfort me when he should angry with me? That’s a question I can answer: because He loves me. I can answer that question even when I can’t understand why he loves me so much. He just does. And man am I thankful for that love!

How about you?

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:38-39
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 John 3:1a
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Be Blessed,

Tammy

P.S. I cried through this whole thing. Anyone who has been forgiven of the may horrors I have been forgiven of would do the same.

WARNING: I always reread these blogs a little while after I write them. I usually find some mistakes and I also have a tendency to add and take away things. It’s good to come back with fresh eyes once in a while and play editor. After I reread this I realized that I REALLY got off track from my original thoughts. But, I am going to leave it all in this time. Maybe it is there for a purpose. Thanks for understanding! T

I baked two batches of cinnamon buns last week. Homemade, delectable, melt-in-your-mouth cinnamon buns. Felicia and I were craving them because I had not made them in a long time. You start with rolled out bread dough then you spread on a thick layer of real butter and then you sprinkle on about a half inch of cinnamon sugar. You cut them into rolls and let them rise, rise, rise and then you bake. While they bake you make a cream cheese frosting with 1 1/2 sticks of butter, cream cheese, 1 1/2 boxes of powder sugar and 3 tsp. vanilla. As soon as the buns come out of the oven you spread a thick layer of frosting on the buns and then you go back over them with more frosting. To me, the bun is just the holder for the frosting! Felicia watched me make them and as we inhaled that first hot-out-of-the-oven bun, she made a profound statement: “Mom, it’s a good thing these buns don’t come with nutritional facts on them!” Basically the things are sugar and fat! I am sure that they would not taste nearly so good if we were to know just how many grams of sugar and fat were in each one. In essence, Felicia was saying ‘I know these things are high in calories and fat and they are not a health food and we shouldn’t be eating them at 9:30pm, but let’s just continue to devour them as we revel in our supposed ignorant bliss.’ But we really were not ignorant. We knew. It’s was just better not to see it in black and white. I think it’s the same with the Bible. People know what’s in it or suppose to know what’s in it. They know that it is filled with God’s wisdom and goodness. They know it has commands of what should be done and what shouldn’t be done. They know that if they read the “nutritional facts”, put there so that we can live a healthy, victorious life, then they might feel convicted and not be able to continue craving and devouring the temptations of this world. They know in their hearts but they prefer not to see it in black and white, or perhaps I should say in red and white. People love to crave the things of this world. In 1 John 2:15-17 John talks about three things that are not good for us. He gives us some spiritual nutrition facts: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life will lead to a very unhealthy existence for us and those around us. God is saying that to crave never ending pleasures and excitements and to crave more and more stuff and to be egotistic and pompous about your accomplishments and crave self-centered attention instead of being humble and giving God glory and honor, will leave you empty and wanting and will lead to all kinds of problems. I think a lot of people like to pretend that what they are doing or not doing is OK. Even those who sit in church pews every week. To me, when you read and study (there’s a difference you know) God’s Word, it is IMPOSSIBLE to revel in ignorant bliss as you sin. If you are unconcerned with what is Truth, if you ignore the warnings and commands, if you pretend that “just this once” won’t really hurt in the long run, it does not negate the consequences that your actions will bring. My jeans are a little tight this week. I’m not going to ignore the fact that they are a little tight. I’m not going to blame the dryer. I’m not going to blame the mirror. It’s because those cinnamon buns were loaded with calories and I ingested those calories and those calories turned into weight. I know it even though I didn’t see it in writing. If you are avoiding God’s Word and those who teach it, quit it! They are there to help you, not hinder you. They are there to help you grow and thrive! They are there to make sure you have right understanding. There a lot of people who have a wrong understanding of what the Bible says simply because they have never taken the time to study it for themselves. How many people in America can quote John 3:16 or at least part of it? A lot! So to a casual observer of the Bible, what they might think is truth is that God loves me, He sent His Son to save me and if I will believe this I will go to heaven. If you will just believe that Jesus existed then you will be saved. Not true. Satan believes in the existence of Jesus and is very aware of who Jesus is. Demons are very aware of who Jesus is. They are not in heaven. To understand the kind of belief it takes you have to back up a couple verses to John 3:14-15:

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

This refers back to Numbers 21:8-9:

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

God had placed very poisonous, deadly snakes in the land because of the people’s sin. But He made a way out for the sure death that would occur if they were bitten. It was not enough for the people to simply BELIEVE that there was a bronze snake on a pole that could save them. They had to take action! They had to turn and look. They had to trust that this was the only way they could be saved. Just believing that it was there was not enough!! Jesus said in John 14:6:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Without knowing what Truth really says is a very dangerous thing and a lot of people are going to end up in hell for all of eternity because they thought they were saved because they believed that a man named Jesus once lived and died on a cross. It’s not enough. They didn’t turn. They didn’t look to Jesus as the ONLY way. I have gotten off in a tangent. Sorry. But I need to express to you how important it is to truly know what is in the Bible and not just make a good guess. I could make a good guess about how many calories are in a cinnamon bun but I wouldn’t be exactly right. I bet I would be off by a few hundred calories. It is not a good thing to be off in any way when it comes to God’s Word. Very dangerous. Very dangerous indeed.

Be blessed,

Tammy

I have been driving around a week now with a huge bug splat on my windshield. It’s right where my left eye looks out onto the road. It is really bugging me. (I know, I know, but I couldn’t resist.) My washer fluid thingy leaks and I don’t have any cleaner in there to wash it away. It’s so dried on now that I will probably have to whip out my drivers license and scape it off. As I drive down the road my eyes keep gravitating to that splat. Instead of watching the road, I keep looking at the mess in front of me.

Life is like that isn’t it?

We focus on the big splat in front of us instead of looking at what’s important. We focus on bills we can’t pay because we bought on credit instead of focusing on ways to adjust our spending to match our income. We focus on our aches and pains and declining health instead of watching our diet and exercising. We focus on the arguments and strife in our relationships instead of how much we love the ones we are in these relationships with. We focus on that negative aspect of our job instead of being thankful we are earning a paycheck. The list could go on and on but you get the picture.

We have messes in our lives that we refuse to do anything about. It might be drugs or alcohol that are ruining your life. It could be improper relationships. It could be pride or selfishness.

What splat are you focusing on that takes your attention away from what is ahead? What mess is in front of your eyes that you won’t remove so that you can see properly? Think about it and then don’t waste any more time wishing it was gone. Do something about it!

Proverbs 4:25-27
25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. 26 Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. 27 Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.

Be blessed,

Tammy

P.S. Going to scrape the goo off right now!

Could I get away with using this excuse on a Monday morning when the weekend was just too short?!

Proverbs 26:13-14 (New Living Translation)
13 The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!
Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”
14 As a door swings back and forth on its hinges,
so the lazy person turns over in bed.

This reminds me of one of my favorite Jerry Clower jokes.

Newgene Ledbetter comes running into his house screaming “There’s a lion outside! There’s a lion!” His daddy looks outside and all he sees is a collie dog that someone has shaved except for a ring of fur around it’s neck and tail. His daddy tells him he is tired of his lying and for him to go and talk with God and ask for His forgiveness and to please help Newgene not lie anymore. Newgene comes back later and his daddy asks him if he talked to God and he says he did. His daddy asks him if he is going to stop his lying and he said he would. Then Newgene tells his daddy that God talked back to him and his daddy is furious cause now Newgene is lying about God. Newgene persists in saying that God really did talk to him. His daddy says, “OK, if God talked to you, what did he say?” Newgene replied, “God said that the first time he saw that dog, He thought it was a lion too!”

Be blessed,

Tammy

Is this something we are going to need to be concerned about? Our balcony IS kinda high….

Acts 20:7-12
7On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

Be blessed,

Tammy

I recently saw the funniest video! I tried to post it here but couldn’t get it to cooperate so if you want to watch it you will have to go to www.youtube.com and in the search engine type this: wife swap bacon boy. For those unfamiliar with the show, Wife Swap takes two women and pays them to go to each others homes for two weeks. The first week the woman has to do everything the way the host family does it and then the second week she gets to make changes to the way she would do them at her home. Of course they try to get exact opposites to swap homes. It can be hilarious! So on this video the “new” mom is cleaning out the junk food in the kitchen to replace it with healthy choices. The little boy is NOT happy about this. As she is going through the fridge she throws out the bacon. The boy says, “I want my bacon! Bacon is good for me! This is very mean!” He stomps out of the room. When he comes back he tells her that he has been very nice to her but now he is “coming to the edge!” He does not like this interference in his life. He begins packing his bags and he comes out and tells her he is leaving and and that she is never going to see his face again. At one point he says “she acts like she’s the queen and we’re the sorry people!” You really have watch the video to get the full effect of his tirade. As soon as I saw it I immediately thought, “I have thrown this exact same temper tantrum with God.” I’ve talked about this before in previous blogs. Hopefully for all our sakes I can get beyond this and we can all move on! I can think back to a couple instances where this same scenario has taken place between God and me. The first one was over football. Tammy BC (before Christ) LOVED her football! My life literally revolved around it. Saturday’s and Sunday’s meant football. Everything else had to take second place. My attitude coincided with who won and who lost that week. Activities had to be worked around the game. Mainly the Florida Gators but also those games whose outcomes could directly effect my beloved Gators! But about a year and a half into my journey with Jesus, He began revealing to me that football was an idol to me. He showed me how it was not healthy for me. He wanted me to throw it out! Are you kidding me God?! I want my football! Football’s good for me! This is very mean! I may have even thought, “You think you’re the King and I am the sorry people?” But God was right. Football was an idol to me. I removed it from my life. A few years ago I began watching a few games again with Jack and also as my girls started getting into the sport. I can control myself now. It is no longer an addiction. Any football I watch has to revolve around God, family, and ministry. And then another time it was smutty romance novels. Yeah, I had an addiction to those as well. Someone once called them “porn for women”. They were right. Again I tried to rationalize why “cheese in a can” or “sex in a book” was not unhealthy for me. But it was and God knew it. Another junk food was certain types of music I needed to stay away from because they caused me to dwell on my life BC. There are going to be times in your life when God brings in the plastic tubs to begin removing the things in your life that are unhealthy for you. You can fight and argue with Him if you want. You can pack your bags and leave and tell Him He is never going to see your face again. But maybe if you listen, you will find out that He is just wanting to replace what is not beneficial for you with something that is going to grow you into a healthy, thriving member of the family of God.

Be blessed,

Tammy