Honey I Sold the Kids

by   October 10, 2022 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

Chapter 5 of Nehemiah tells the plight of those in debt so heavy that they had to sell their children. Let that thought sink in a little. Can you fathom selling your own children? I can’t imagine ever being so desperate, although I’ve met some children that would make that option attractive.


These poor folks were working as hard as they could, with no end in sight, no hope, no future. We think our economy is bad. I am certainly not making light of where you are. Our family has been through some stuff. All the Larry Burkett and Dave Ramsey courses in the world could not rescue us from financial trials when God is in them. Sometimes we have to come to the end of our own plans in order to recognize that the Lord really does know what is best for our family, including our finances.


The gist of the story in chapter 5 is that the uptown crowd continued to make more than they needed off those who were already poor. Nehemiah appealed to them to do right by their neighbors by reaching out and giving them a hand. Has anyone ever done that for you? It happens to us all the time. God reaches down and takes care of all we need day after day. Many times it is through the generosity of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And you know what it makes us want? We want to give, give, give! Suddenly there is nothing out there more important than what God wants us to invest in. No house, no toy, nothing. What joy! So the prayer for today is that each of us will be wise financially, and that even our finances will be used to the very best for His glory.


Dear God please strengthen us with true Godly wisdom, as in what can we do to honor You with our gifts. Help us to say with King David, when he was looking for a place to build an altar, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord, that which costs me nothing.” -2 Sam. 24:24


Help us take an honest look at all the stuff we have, and see it the exact same way You do. Then we can say with Jesus, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done!”

More: 1 Timothy 6:17-19

Recovery

by   October 8, 2022 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

Recovery

            The storm has passed, and for our area we are lucky because it didn’t require too much recovery. I saw that power was out for about 300,000 across the state at the height of the storm. While most of it has been restored, it can be rather frustrating if you are the one waiting for your power to come back on. I read that some people in Florida’s hardest hit areas could be without power for another week or more.

            I see piles of limbs and branches everywhere I look, but that is minor compared to what others have gone through from this storm. I have seen pictures from across the Carolinas of trees fallen, with some hitting people’s houses. Naturally, there was some flooding down at the coast. The coastal areas always have more cleanup after any kind of tropical storm. In comparison to other storms, I think the Carolinas faired pretty well.

            Have you seen some of the pictures coming out of Florida, where the hurricane caused the most damage? I saw some aerial shots that showed before and after pictures. In the after pictures there were no green plants or trees at all. Some pictures show no evidence of a house or business even being there. There are many pictures of boats piled up in heaps. There are some boats that are far from any water, sitting on the ground.

            For some people recovery will take a couple of weeks or maybe a month, but for others it could take a year or longer to get back to a “normal” life. A friend of mine lives about 100 miles from where the hurricane hit and things were back to normal within a couple of days. The area of devastation is not very wide, but if you were one of the people there your world has been turned upside down. There are many people who need more than our thoughts and prayers.

            I read a story that says the people in the storm’s path are not only struggling with the physical losses, but the mental and emotional trauma that stains people who have endured such traumatic circumstances. Some people are facing the loss of loved ones, neighbors, and friends, which only adds to the heartaches. The scars that some people have suffered are not always visible. While most will find paths back to a normal life, others will struggle to discover the path to healing and restoration.

            Recovery is something we all do differently. The trouble I find, and I am guilty of this, is that we don’t allow ourselves the time that is required to recover. We get a cold and hope to shake it in a few days and be back to full speed. Our bodies need more time to rest. I know some people who had Covid and it was just like the sniffles for a couple days, and then they were back to their normal selves. Others were in the hospital and had a long road to recovery. In either case, we need to allow our bodies time to heal and recover.

            Recovery from surgery takes time. We have amazing bodies that can recover from all kinds of trauma. I’ve had a number of friends go through open heart surgery and you can be sure it took some time to recover from that. The surgery on my arm to remove a cyst took a while to heal. Whenever we have some kind of medical procedure done we have to allow time for the body to heal and recover.

            The need for recovery is not limited to medical procedures. When we experience the loss of a loved one, we need to give ourselves time to heal and recover. Losing someone close to us, whether family or friend, requires that we give ourselves permission to grieve and the space and time to do it. This applies to losing a family pet, too. Sometimes the hurt we need to recover from is not physical but emotional or spiritual.   

            I want to encourage you to give yourself permission to recover the next time you go through something. If you find yourself in that place now know that it is okay to slow down and rest. It is okay to disengage and allow your mind and body to heal and recover. Some recovery only requires physical healing, while others include emotional healing. It takes a while to get over something. Don’t expect yourself to recover super-fast because true healing is a slow and gradual process. Invite Jesus into your healing process. He will guide you each step of the way.

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

Mill Workers

by   October 7, 2022 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

Mill Workers

                                    They emerge from the mist of cotton spun,

                                    pale cheeked, hungry eyed souls staring ahead.

                                    Spent men in mended bibs and misshaped shoes

                                    rushing from what was, not to what should be,

                                    followed by women in worn-thin dresses,

                                    too tired to rush for what waited at home.

                                    All carry the burden of too little

                                    and the responsibility of too much

                                    as they trudge from their lint-filled stations

                                    only to return in two-thirds of day

                                    to burden the owner’s load like his mule,

                                    each breath filled with fibers of work and death.

Finding Your Own Adventure

by   October 4, 2022 with No Comments

By David Freeze

Back in 2007, though it feels like yesterday, I got to spend a week in London. It had been a dream for quite a while to run the London Marathon and I finally made it happen. I flew over on an all-night flight to Berlin, then connected to London early on Saturday morning. The marathon was on Sunday, my first tour of the great city. I thought of this memorable adventure often while watching Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Monday morning.

Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the Thames River and so many more great sights of London just made for a fabulous week. I rented a room in the YMCA and walked nearly everywhere, interacting with interesting people and had yet another mountaintop experience. A few years afterwards, I taught a seminar at the South Branch of the Rowan County Library on finding your own adventure and I wanted to share some of the key points.

Adventure definition — an exciting or unusual experience, a bold and sometimes risky undertaking, often taking a chance while out of your comfort level. The most important thought related to this definition is that an adventure is something you may have thought about but haven’t done. Maybe your adventure scares you a little, or maybe you just keep putting it off. I’m fortunate to get to talk with people I meet almost daily about having adventures. But finding your own adventure doesn’t have to mean something physically hard and scary.

Why experience adventure? Because adventure is a form of play and nearly always includes some fun. Experiencing an adventure adds joy to life and will almost assuredly provide new perspectives and expand your personal freedoms. Once some boundary is opened, an adventure often breeds thoughts of more of the same. Or better yet, an even higher level of adventure. My first long-distance bike ride was an example of overcoming a boundary, then wanting an even greater achievement. I drove to West Virginia to ride along the Greenbrier River for three days in 2011. After falling off the bike before I rode out of the parking lot and then an exhausting ride in snow and rain, I fell in love with an adventure on two wheels. Totally worn out when driving home, I decided to seek a much longer and challenging cycling adventure. My next ride was 54 days across America.

More good things happen when we seek out adventure. Psychological benefits are numerous. We can supercharge learning and problem-solving plus adventure often stimulates imagination. Adventure also builds self-esteem, sense of well-being, refreshes the mind and body and increases energy. Often, I’m physically whipped at the end of long day, yet a boundless energy from somewhere within pushes me out the door the next morning.

Defining success when seeking and then planning your own personal adventure is easier than you think. Make sure your activity isn’t overwhelming, does match your interests and your available time frame, while meeting physical and financial constraints. Work through why you want to do this and who will go along. Seeking your adventure means getting more information, so getting started means doing your research, contacting experts, having an open mind and a willingness to adjust. Plan for leaving work behind while you seek adventure.

Some ideas from seminar attendees included skydiving, an African safari, visiting London, Paris, Ireland and Scotland, learning to waterski, pilot a plane, backpacking, beekeeping, hiking the John Muir trail in California. It might be as simple as visiting a new town or state, or camping outside on a rainy or chilly night. The possibilities are endless! Start researching and planning now and go find your own adventure!

The best thing to do with life is to live it!

The next race locally is the T-Man’s 5K in Mooresville on Oct. 8. Look for more information on this and other events at  www.salisburyrowanrunners.org.

Fire Up the Tractor Darling

by   October 3, 2022 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

Now that our hearts are giving, it’s okay to ask God for a blessing. It’s a beautiful cycle giving, receiving, blessing and being blessed until it’s hard to tell which is which. We bless our community with what we can to meet their needs. They are encouraged and in turn give back to the church. We are enabled by those gifts to reach more and the blessings continue. Wouldn’t you hate to miss all that? Galatians 6:2-10 sums it up by saying, “Share each other’s troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody.” [Come on Paul. Don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel.]

“Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else; for we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the Word of God should help their teachers by paying them. Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow! Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death.” [Designer shoes are looking pretty worthless right about here.]

“But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to our Christian brothers and sisters.”

WOW! Did you hear all that? Or did you revert to some sermon you heard years ago that caused you to think the Lord is waiting on you to mess up so He can take your stuff? Look at the part where we reap a “harvest of blessing at the appropriate time.” Sounds bountiful! Sounds like a big ol’ cornucopia [thank the Lord for spell check] spilling out blessings we cannot even begin to ask for! Some basic principles of sowing and reaping are:

  1. We always reap the same thing we sow
  2. We always reap later than we sow
  3. We always reap more than we sow

Easy illustration: You plant corn, you get corn. You get it later and you get more than the few kernels you dropped in the dirt. In ministry it works the same. Plant; receive; harvest; increase.

Prayer for today: Let’s ask the Lord of the harvest to bless our sowing and multiply our reaping. We can plant and we can water, but only God gives the increase. Now watch out! Fire up those John Deere and get ready for the bounty. The barns are about to explode!

More: Ephesians 6:6 1 Corinthians 3:5-9

“Remember, O my God, all that I have done for these people, and bless me for it.” –Nehemiah 5:19

A Storm

by   October 1, 2022 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

           Most of my readers know that I have a fascination with storms. I love winter snowstorms but hate ice storms. I love to see pictures of tornadoes. I have never seen one, but would like to see one if I knew I would be safe. It is amazing what storms can do. I love reading about all kinds of storms.           

I am currently watching Hurricane Ian. I have been looking at the models each time they come out, and watching the track and strength of the storm change with each passing model run. I don’t watch the major news stations to hear weather news. I will occasionally watch the local weathermen or the Weather Channel, but I will catch most of their broadcasts on the web. I have a number of websites that will feed this weather habit sufficiently. I also listen to a weather vlogger who loves to talk about storms and their impacts. There are plenty of sources of information without having to turn on the television.

            I am very concerned for the people living in Florida and take seriously the need to pray for their well-being. There will be suffering for the people in the path of this monster storm. As of this writing, Hurricane Ian is on track to come in around the Sarasota, Florida area, which is about 675 miles away. When you can look up and see clouds from a storm that is that far away it a huge, monster storm.

            I will be following the storm as it tracks to the north into our neck of the woods. There are some models that show the storm crossing Florida and then getting invigorated in the Atlantic before coming inland again through South Carolina and eventually up here into North Carolina. That is a track that I hope does not come true. That track could bring us some stronger winds with the heavy rain that we are currently expecting.

            One thing I do know is that a lot of good people are going to become very busy trying to get the electricity and other services back up for the good folks in Florida. By the time you read this column there will be all kinds of humanitarian aid flooding into affected areas. Americans have this wonderful quality that we put our differences aside to help those who have suffered a tragedy. It is something that I love about our country.

            This storm will have some long lasting impacts on the areas affected by its wrath. But given enough time, people will recover and get back on their feet. The question I am pondering is what type of storm are you facing? We all have them. There are things in all our lives that come roaring at us like hurricanes, wreaking havoc on our peaceful existence. What are we going to do? How are we going to face those trials and tribulations?

            It’s not easy. Storms are hard to endure. The first decision we need to make is to run into our Father’s arms. He saw the storm before it formed and knows the path through to the other side. Next, we need to get the folks around us who will help and support us while the storm is raging. This is not a time to do it alone; it’s the time to call in the troops. It’s also the time where we have to dig deep to the reserves of our faith to find the strength to carry on.

            Storms come at us with many names, like health issues, loss of loved ones, financial strife, loss of a job, a relationship that has fallen apart, and for the people in Florida…the loss of their homes. DON’T lose heart. Cry out to God, who cares more than you will ever know. Lean on your family and friends. Don’t lose faith in yourself because of your circumstances…you will make it to the other side. You God will carry you.

            I want to encourage you to stir your faith. If it is quiet and sunny in your spiritual life, enjoy it. If the storm clouds are moving in, lean on the Lord and your good friends. When you call out to God you can be sure that help is on the way. God is for you in spite of how the circumstances may appear at the moment. You will make it. You will see sunny skies before you know it. For the moment, hang on! You are not alone. Before you go to sleep tonight, please say a prayer for all those suffering from Hurricane Ian.

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

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