Cast It Away

by   January 25, 2022 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

This thought is deeper than I usually venture and longer too. So if you’re not into searching out the Truth of God’s precious Holy Word, stop here. See what I did there? If you quit now you obviously don’t love Jesus. Just kidding. But I wanted to warn you ahead of time that this is a different kind of article.


So here’s the thing. I have questions about an oft quoted verse. The writer Paul says in Philippians 3:13 to forget the things behind and instead reach forward. Did the man really forget the past? Apparently not. Just before that, he lists off key experiences from his life. Within that were memories that surely brought him shame.


As I thought on this, I recalled things that used to haunt me too. Guilt and shame for things in my past tormented my life. In fact I used to live in so much fear that I finally gave in to counseling. Guess which passage we covered? Philippians 3: 13,14.


The jist of it says, “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on…”


Maybe an underlying message behind the challenge to forget and press on is that it is a process. Letting go takes time as well as conscious effort.


Two verses I use to help me with that contain the word ‘casting.’ Not like casting a fishing line or net where I would draw something back to myself; but instead casting like hurling or throwing so hard that it takes a while for that fear to float back my way. The next time is a bit easier since I recognize it as a sin that weighs me down and refuse to allow it in. Listen to this good word.


“Casting all your care upon Him for he cares for you!”

* And,

“Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” **


The Lord Himself had to set aside the shame of the cross in exchange for the joy ahead.*** We can press on too beloved. Cast aside your hurtful past. That load of guilt and pain was never meant for you to bear. Your bright future, your influence for Christ and your sound thinking depend on it!


*1 Peter 5:7 **2 Corinthians 10:5 ***Hebrews 12:1-3

We Win

by   January 24, 2022 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

When we go out into battle against our enemies, see horses and chariots, and are seemingly outnumbered, what should we do?

Horses?

Chariots?

What do they have to do with it?

Horses and chariots represented power, as the Israelites were facing overwhelming opposition.

Power is also how we fight our enemies.

But not with the power of horses and chariots.

Deuteronomy 20:3 gives us a great game plan for what NOT to do:

 *Do not faint.

 *Do not fear.

 *Do not tremble.

 *Do not be terrified.

Easy to say, right?

To faint would mean to weaken in purpose or spirit.

To fear would mean to be afraid.

To tremble would mean to shake involuntarily, as a result of anxiety.

To be terrified would mean to be in a state of intense fear or desperation.

I cannot speak for you – but I have actually been there – faint, fear, trembling, and terrified – all at once.

I was battling an enemy.

I saw – and felt – the power of the enemy.

I saw that I was outnumbered by the forces of the enemy.

It seemed to be a battle I could not win.

But then, Joshua 1:9 came along, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Going through something in our lives is often quite personal, but whether we go through it alone or with the support of others, it will work out.

How do we know?

Deuteronomy 20:4 tells us so:

For the Lord our God

Goes with us

To fight for us

Against our enemies

To save us.

The Lord our God goes with us.

We do not have to go alone.

The Lord our God fights for us against our enemies.

We do not even have to fight.

The Lord our God will save us.

We do not even have to worry about the outcome.

We win.

Getting Ready for the Storm

by   January 22, 2022 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

            If you read my columns regularly, you know that I had a busy week last week keeping an eye on the winter storm. A couple of weeks ago the storm showed up on the models giving us multiple feet of snow. What we ended up with was a mess. I am very grateful that we received sleet and not freezing rain. We are all enjoying our power because we got sleet the other day.

            Last week was really crazy because I started my new job. It was hard to focus on my new job and follow a major winter storm, too. People wanted to know what I thought was going to happen with the storm, and I was working hard to stay one step ahead of my new students.

            The trouble with the storm was I knew that if the cold air mixed with the moist Gulf storm, we could see record snowfall in our area. Until we were only a few days out, I hadn’t considered the possibility that we might get an ice storm. Then I watched the forecast take a downward turn and the possibility of an ice storm became very real.

            Preparation for an ice storm is different than for a snowstorm. There is a better chance you will keep your power through a snowstorm. The ice potential was looking bad and the possibility of power loss was high. The Boy Scout in me turned on. I began to prepare.

            I got out our camping stove and lit it to make sure it worked. I started the gas logs and made sure they were working properly. We charged up all our electronics. I cleaned up around the outside of the house. I went to the store and got food in. I didn’t overbuy because I knew we would get out this week sometime.

            The last thing I had to do was get the battery powered lantern loaded with batteries and check all the flashlights. Flashlights…check. One of the lanterns had a leaky battery a few months back. I had removed and cleaned it well. It worked with the leaky battery, so I figured it would work fine with fresh batteries. The batteries for the lantern were either leaking or dead. The storm was a few hours away and I had to go to the store for batteries. This was wrong!

            The Lord looks out for His children. The store had plenty of batteries. Not the ones I needed for the lantern, but plenty of others. I went to the back of the store and found a flashlight that could be used like a lantern, and plenty of batteries to fit it. We were set. Thank God we kept our power and none of this was needed.

            But you can be sure that I am going to be looking for another lantern and shopping for some new batteries before the next storm. Being prepared is so important and something that has been drilled into me since my Boy Scout days. Preparation applies to all areas of our lives, including our spiritual lives.

            The Bible tells us to be prepared in season and out of season to give an answer for the source of our hope and faith. Each of us has a story of how God reached out to us and saved us. Many of us have additional stories of how God intervened in our lives to bring healing and restoration. Many people have stories of being healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Others have stories of how God delivered them from drug and alcohol addiction. We still serve a miracle-working God and people need to hear your stories. So be prepared to tell them.

            The Bible also tells us to be prepared for His return. I have friends who believe we are within a few years of Jesus’ return. Regardless of when He returns, we need to be prepared to meet Him. The first question He will ask is “Have you accepted me as your Savior?” The next thing He will want to know is what have you done for His kingdom. Your reward in heaven is based on the work you have done for Him here on earth.

            I want to encourage you to accept Jesus as your Savior. That’s the most important decision you will ever make. I also want to encourage you to prepare your story and then share your story. Someone in your life needs to hear it. Someone needs to hear that God really cares about our individual situations, and that He will act to help and deliver us. Those stories never get old to me. Get ready, because someone needs to hear from you.

Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com

Persist my Friend

by   January 21, 2022 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

                         

On January 20, 2011, Reynolds Price died from complications of a heart attack. He was 77.

In April 1997 Price received a letter from Jim Fox who had read Price’s memoir, A Whole New Life, his story of the 1984 diagnosis of spinal cord cancer, which caused paralysis of his legs, placing him in a wheelchair. Jim Fox, a young medical student who experienced his own cancer diagnosis, read the memoir, and asked Price, “Does God exist, and does he care?” Their correspondence was brief because Fox died soon after, but Price’s answer to him was published as Letter to a Man in the Fire.

            In August of 2001 I suffered an injury that, like Price, caused paralysis of my legs. During my rehab I experienced a myriad of emotions and a deep sense of loss. I suffered, but received great care from  the hospital staff, family, and friends. But, I had so much to learn at the age of 55: Incontinence. How to manage the purple wheelchair. Dependency for many matters. The loss of long, morning runs with Jay and Caleb. Loss loomed and frightened me. However, one night I woke to a warm, calming light that appeared at my face and out of it a sweet, kind voice told me not to worry, that everything would be okay.

            In his answer to Fox, Price writes: “Starting on a warm afternoon in the summer of 1939, …I’ve experienced moments of sustained calm awareness that subsequent questioning has never discounted. Those moments, which recurred at unpredictable and widely space intervals till some thirteen years ago, still seem to me undeniable manifestations of the Creator’s benign or patiently watchful interest in particular stretches of my life, though perhaps not all of it.”

            The light and voice was not, I knew, a dream. It was real, but I kept my experience close, and only shared it with Reynolds Price in a phone call. His response was, “Why, Roger, you had a visitation.” Shortly after our conversation, I received a copy of Letters in which Price had inscribed, “Persist, my friend.”

            Price– the North Carolina novelist, poet, scholar of Milton, teacher at Duke, Rhodes Scholar, cancer victim, had used the best word, a simple verb that expressed the perfect attitude that only a good writer who was surviving a cancer, could. His choice of persist came out of his struggle with cancer,  but also out of his experiences like that of the summer day in 1939.

            Price, a student of religions, especially the Gospels, draws on literature, several religions and beliefs, and his own faith to answer Jim Fox’s question concerning God and His involvement in our lives. Yet, and perhaps of my own experience from the fall of 2001, I return over and over to Price’s words,” I’ve experienced moments of sustained calm awareness that subsequent questioning has never discounted….”

            That is, for me, a complete explanation of God’s presence in our lives. If we believe and listen we will persist.

At What Age Can Kids Run

by   January 18, 2022 with No Comments

By David Freeze

As a proud granddad, I had envisioned that the new baby would be ready for her first running watch within a week or so. I got her one! And that her first steps would be followed by a desire to run. Her mom said, “What if she doesn’t want to be a runner?” She had to be kidding!!!

By about 18 months, she began to run short distances. Then very soon, her mom and I had her racing in the driveway. Little 20-30-yard sprints that began with, “Get ready, Go!” There have been a few falls, but the girl has never lost a race. She’s just about two years and three months now, and runs everywhere, in the house and outside.

The baby’s name is Monroe, but much more well known by her nickname, “the Booper.” I’ve begun to explore what the experts say about kids running and when they can safely start. One of my favorite photos ever was published in the Post a few weeks ago, showing me leading kids from age six and up in a mile run around the Granite Quarry Elementary School gym. A dozen years or so ago, all the afterschool sites partnered with the YMCA on a kids’ running program. It went on for about four years and I learned a lot while leading that program. Younger kids want to be active and its easy for them. At most of the schools, a nine-year-old could likely be the best runner in the program. Older kids, 12 and up, often struggled. It is my belief that young kids are meant to run and society changes that for most of them as they age.

Whattoexpect.com says that somewhere between 18 and 24 months old, a toddler will begin to pick up the pace from walking to running — though you can expect a few spills along the way. By the time they turn three, running should come easily. Playing games like hide and seek and Simon Says, or just chasing your toddler helps them gain confidence.

Women’s Running says, “If you watch kids on a playground, zipping across the baseball field, or just trying to catch the bus, you will notice they run with an easy, natural stride. After all, as soon as we learn to walk, we start to run. And when we do it in our youth, we usually do it for one reason: for fun. Keeping it that way is one of the biggest opportunities, but also can be one of the biggest challenges.”

Most of the Rowan’s elementary schools participate in the Daily Mile, a program that gets them out of the classroom and on the track for a mile every day. Kids get lots of the same benefits that adults do out of running, Benefits from running early include improved sleep, increased self-esteem, improved concentration and confidence, decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels.

The resounding medical advice says if the child is excited and interested and there are no major injuries, running at almost any age is acceptable.

Erica Gminski, youth programs director for the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) agrees that as long as running is presented as fun and not overly structured for very young children, it should be fine at any age.

Dr. Mark Halstead, a pediatric sports medicine specialist at Washington University in St. Louis. “A child’s individual rate of development and desire to run matters more than his or her actual age.”

“Some kids aren’t interested in ball sports or team sports to begin with, so presenting running as an activity that they can participate in may be attractive,” says Gminski.

I had the kids carry an egg while they ran, and laughter and fun were astounding. When I had them race me as a team, they were laughing and screaming for a win. Just make it fun, and any age will enjoy it.

Winter Flight, the area’s biggest race, is just three weeks away. Check it and other events at www.salisburyrowanrunners.org .

In A Word

by   January 17, 2022 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

This is the year! 2022 is when you will FINALLY read the Bible cover to cover. Even the maps! But not the Concordance. That would just be weird. As it turns out, it’s a LOT of reading. You’re five days into the new year and already you find yourself three days behind. But you’ll catch up! Honest you will!
May I humbly make an observation? If not, stop reading here.


This is your exit. This is where you will jump off the guilt train. When reading Scripture becomes a chore, then you might need a different plan. Can I make a confession? I’m not sure if chemo caused it or just plain getting old. But currently I am dealing with a large amount of brain fog. For whatever reason, I have a really hard time hearing the words coming off the pages. I seem to have the attention span of a puppy in a yard full of squirrels. Focus is just not happening.


So! Here’s what I’m trying and it seems to be working. I hold my Bible to my chest and get as still as I can. Since it’s all I can do not to look out the windows at the birds on the feeder and the neighbor’s cat and the plethora of squirrels jumping from limb to limb and my bottle tree as it catches the light…


Wait. Where was I.


Oh! I was clutching a real Bible with honest to goodness paper pages which have notations of trials past and answered prayers. I was hugging it to my chest with my eyes closed and I was waiting. Silently asking God for the Words. This week the word Philippians came to mind. One “L” and two “P’s.” Philippians.


So I opened there.


After the intro I read one small paragraph and didn’t hear a thing. So I read it again. Then again. It began to be clearer. So I read it again and asked God for help. More meat was found on that bone. So I stopped and wrote the blog Certain of the Good Work. It wasn’t astounding but it was definitely a word from the Word.


Here’s the thought for today. Let’s not go through the motions in our relationship with God. Let’s not start the day by giving Him His marching orders or by instructing Him on how to handle the things on our mind. Let’s rest in Him. Let’s listen. Let’s pay attention as best we can. Let’s go so far as to ask God for this from Philippians 1:10a.


I want to understand what really matters.


Bless the Lord!

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