Three Lessons

by   May 21, 2022 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

Three Lessons

            I received the opportunity to speak at church last week. When I started to plan what I might say, I reached back into my past. The more I prayed and thought about it, the more I felt like the Lord was leading in a different direction. He wanted me to talk about things that I was currently working through in my walk of faith.

            I wasn’t interested in sharing current issues, but you can imagine who won that debate. The more I tried to pull and change the direction which I felt the Lord leading me, the more I realized that I was fighting a losing battle. I would much rather talk about things that I had already overcome, places where I found the victory in my life.

            No one has arrived spiritually; I am no exception. I struggle to live out the faith that I profess, and the truth is that I fail along the way. The journey of faith comes with many ups and downs. If I am going to speak or write about my journey, I think I would prefer to focus on the times when things are looking up.

            I have shared many testimonies with people about how God brought me through some dark times of my life. In sharing those stories and testimonies I always end with my arrival on the other end. I like to share with people about how God helped me and the lessons I learned through the dark and challenging places in life.

            How do you share with people the lessons that you haven’t learned yet? You can’t tell your listeners, “Here’s how I made it through” if you are in the middle of those lessons yourself. All you can tell people is that this is the lesson I am trying to learn, and this is what God is showing me in the midst of this lesson. I can also point to the grace that God is extending to me in the middle of the lesson.

One of the best things I can point to as a teacher is those in the Bible who have learned the lessons I am trying to learn. God gives us plenty of examples of people who have gone through the lessons that we are trying to learn so we will have faith in Him through the process. Those biblical examples show us how to apply our faith to our current circumstances.

            By now I imagine your curiosity must be stirred about what lessons I am trying to learn. The first lesson involves the simple truth that we can’t fix ourselves. We have to find where God wants to work in our lives and join Him in the process. Sometimes He picks big things and sometimes He picks little things. The key is to find where He is working and work with Him.

            The second lesson is that we have to trust God. That sounds like an elementary lesson until God brings up areas of our lives where we like to be in control. We are His children and He is in control of all areas of our lives, or at least that is how it is supposed to be. Then He points to an area and tells you that you are trusting yourself, not Him. That’s when the work begins.

            The final lesson may seem a little ironic, but God doesn’t always feel like He needs to work on us. Sometimes God just wants to be with us. While there is always work that needs to be done, as long as we are on this side of heaven, God knows that we need to rest. Growth and change in our lives takes time. Strong solid growth takes time. God wants our faith to be solid so He is in it for the long haul to see us grow and mature in our faith.

            I want to encourage you in three specific ways. First, ask God what He wants to work on in your life. Focus your efforts there. Things will go more smoothly that way. Second, give yourself a break. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, and He is invested in you for the long haul. He believes in you and sees a bright future for you. Finally, trust Him with the entire process. He knows exactly how to shape you into the image of who He has destined you to be. He knows what He is doing and He has your best interests at heart. These aren’t easy, and I can say that because these are the lessons He is trying to teach me. I am learning by His grace.   

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

Roots and Evil

by   May 20, 2022 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

For five years we have endured the bumps in our driveway caused by,what we thought, were pine tree roots growing beneath the asphalt. One bump in particular was “admired” by neighbors and us as we watched it expand and begin to open at its top. It had expanded so much that, if I was not careful when driving in, my van’s frame would rub against it. However, yesterday the old driveway was removed by a skilled man using a Bobcat, and I eagerly asked him about what I suspected was a massive knot of pine tree roots heaving the asphalt. He said, “I didn’t have a bucket’s worth of roots. I’ve seen that before,” he continued, “when some little roots cause a lot of pressure in clay dirt where water collects. It’s the mix of water and clay that pushes up caused by a small root growing. Ain’t that something. Not even a bucket’s worth.”

Since that conversation with the Bobcat operator, I’ve been thinking about all the years my wife and I had adjusted to the bumps in our driveway, and how we even began referring to them as our speed bumps. We warned visitors about them because they were so large, and when we contracted for the new driveway, we hoped that the excavation did not kill any of our beloved pine trees by removing their roots. Yesterday’s conversation with the Bobcat operator calmed that worry, but the root’s reminded me of what I had known but forgotten.

The roots are a metaphor for evil. While the ones beneath the heaved-up driveway were smaller than anticipated, they had pressured the wet clay which in turn pushed against the asphalt, causing our speed bumps. They, like evil, had done their work: Slow and steady growth, often hidden from view, but persistently working to cause upheaval and damage in our lives.

No Easy Way

by   May 17, 2022 with No Comments

By Lynna Clark

Have you ever wished for Cliff Notes of the Bible? Like yesterday when I gave you all that Scripture and you started hearing, “Blah blah blah designer shoes blah blah …” Well, here ya go.

I came across a passage that sums it all up. In Matthew 22: 34-40, Jesus is being questioned by the religious experts of the day. These guys were careful to obey the details of the law down to the length of their sleeves. Trying to trick Him, they asked what He considered to be THE most important law. His reply is well known, but not well practiced. “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself.” Then He says it.

“All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” So here’s the scoop. If we get those two things right, all the other stuff falls into place. The God of details gives us an easy button. Well, at least He narrowed it down to two things. So should I take that job? Can I fulfill Christ’s royal law of love there? No? Then the money is not worth it. Should I work in the yard today? Will I in any way defeat the goal of loving God and loving people? No? Then go for it.

Just a little jump off the Nehemiah bus for today. Because if we bear down on these two things, Christ says we’re good to go. Love God. Love people. And it’s also amazing that He places loving others “equally important” as loving Himself!! Knowing that He is a jealous God and wants us to love Him with every ounce of our being, makes that statement even more astounding!

Can I be real with you? Loving Him and loving people is certainly harder some days than others. I bet you already knew that. Here’s what I prayed. You fill in the blanks where you have been.

Strengthen me Lord to love You so much that I never doubt You again. When people hurt me and You are silent, help me rest in Your Word and believe You when You tell me You love me. When we both lose our jobs, both cars break down, the house has a tax lien, and medical bills mount up, [summer of 1990] help me remember that You love me. When I blow my cool and bless out the person I feel to be responsible for our job loss; when I slam the door so hard the windows are still rattling, [also summer of 1990] help me to know that You still love me. When I lose my strong and beautiful mother because she gets an illness that is so rare that only 3 in one million in the U.S. get it [winter of 2004]; When my very first grandson dies before I hold him in my arms, [summer of 2010] help me to rest in the fact that You love me. And when we come out on the other side of heartache with a stronger understanding of Your great love, help us use that understanding to love people better. Everyone is going through something. Strengthen me, and all of us today, to lighten someone’s load just a little; Because You love me while I am most definitely unlovable.
More: Ephesians 3:14-21; Romans 8:31-39; Matthew 22:34-40

Where Have You Been?

by   May 16, 2022 with No Comments

By Ann Farabee

Where have we been?

Once upon a time, I went through a corn maze, with the emphasis on the word once. What began as a nonchalant, leisurely, confident walk through the maze with my 6th grade students, quickly turned into thick tall towering stalks of corn terrorizing me.

Being directionally challenged, I tried to keep up with my students, but they abandoned me and found their way to the exit easily. I could hear them laughing and talking outside the maze – and wondering what had happened to their teacher.

What had been fun for them – had become fearful for me.

For I was the one who got lost.

After realizing I was walking around in circles, I began to cry out, “I’m lost! Where is everybody?” My students responded in unison from outside the maze, “We’re over here!”

That was not a helpful response.

Where exactly is over here?

And how do you get to over here?

After sensing my frustration, one student called out, “I’ll come back and lead you through!”

He did.

I sure was glad.

In Jeremiah 2:6, the people were reminded of where they had been.

In Jeremiah 2:7, the people were reminded of how God led them through.

They had been in the uninhabited and unfriendly wilderness –

GOD led them through.

They had been in the barren and desolate desert –

GOD led them through.

They had been in the deep dark pit –

GOD led them through.

They had been thirsting in the land of drought –

GOD led them through.

They had been in the darkness of the shadow of death –

GOD led them through.

What else did Jeremiah have to say to the people?

*He told them to move forward with their lives.

*He told them to pray for the nation that had enslaved them.

*He told them there was no time or place to stop.

We do not have to stay in a difficult place forever –

GOD will lead us through.

We do not have to pass through the difficult place alone –

GOD will lead us through.

I do not know your circumstance –

But I do know –

GOD will lead you through.

Where have we been?

We have been with God –

And God has been with us.

We need to trust in the Lord with all our heart –

And lean not unto our own understanding.

Slow Down

by   May 14, 2022 with No Comments

By Doug Creamer

            I was putting a few things on the calendar the other day when I realized that we are almost in June. That can’t be possible. It seems like we just had Valentine’s Day and Easter. I haven’t gotten my garden in. Come on calendar…slow down!

            My pastor seeks the Lord each year for a word for our church to focus on. My favorite to date was: Even Greater. That year we were to expect even greater things than we had seen the Lord do in our lives. The scripture comes from John 14:12 – 14. Jesus tells His disciples that if they will believe in Him that they will do even greater things than He did.

            In January my pastor gave us our new word for this year: Slowdown. I had just accepted a new job teaching Adult Basic Education. Some people might think that I have been teaching for 36 years, what is the big deal? Anytime you have some new curriculum you have to learn, it’s a big deal. We teach in eight-week cycles, so that means I had to create eight weeks of lesson plans for two courses. For the first eight weeks of this year, I felt overloaded. How could I slow down?

            I finished the first eight-week cycle with joy. I knew I would still need to refine my instructional method and materials, but at least I had a base from which to work. I thought, now I can slow down. My supervisor mentioned to me that there was an online course I could take that would earn me a nice raise. It was a ten-week class that didn’t look overwhelming. I had the first cycle under my belt and the raise was enticing. Sign me up!

            I am about to finish the course. I can’t remember a time in my life when I have been busier. Wait a minute…I am supposed to be retired! The idea of slowing down is the very definition of retirement, right? My calendar is packed through the end of May, when am I supposed to slow down?

            Will I be able to slow down in June? We do have a few days off at the end of June and the beginning of July. But I am sure the garden will need weeding and we would like to see our family. I also promised that I would work on some painting projects that I have put off. I have also been working on another book and need to devote some time and energy to that. There goes summer.

            How do you slow down? I like staying active. I enjoy engaging with life. It’s hard for me to slow down. It seems there is always a list of things to do, people I want to see, places I need to go, along with all the regular weekly activities. With so many things going on, what is the Lord saying when He tells me to slow down?

            I haven’t started to plant my vegetable garden. I tilled half the garden back in March but hadn’t done a thing in the garden since then. I decided I wanted to see if I could get started on my garden before we get rain over the weekend. I ran to a of couple garden centers after work on Monday so I was ready to get going when I got home on Tuesday.

            It was peaceful. There was a wonderful breeze. The birds were singing. I was planting seeds and some tomato transplants. I love the feel of the soil. I heard a dog bark somewhere and a child playing. I felt His presence in a sweet and wonderful way. Joy filled my heart.  

            I believe slowing down is something different for each one of us. For some it is reading a book on the porch, going for a walk or a run, riding a bike, cooking or baking something, going fishing or hunting, painting, playing an instrument, going for a hike, or walking on the beach. I believe slowing down means disengaging with all the craziness of everyday life and spending quiet time doing the very thing we love best…with Him. He wants to join us and enjoy being with us.

            I want to encourage you to figure out how you can slow down and be with Him. It doesn’t require a vacation, it does require us to remove distractions and focus on Him. He isn’t expecting anything from us, just allowing His presence to surround and envelop us. He wants to enjoy us as we enjoy Him. Let His peace, love, and joy surround you. You will be glad you slowed down.

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

Qoheleth Knew

by   May 13, 2022 with No Comments

By Roger Barbee

 Near my stationary bike is a bird box which is fastened to one of the 42 pines trees in our front yard. In years past the nesting box has been occupied by titmice, but this year a brown-headed nuthatch pair claimed it. The small birds are busy with their brood, and I marvel as I watch the parents come and go with morsels in their beaks. As I ride for my morning workout, I watch them and listen as they call to each other.

Yet the front yard with its many tall pine trees is not all life. After last weekend’s storm, I have found five robin hatchlings under various trees that had been blown out of their nests high in the pines. This is a yearly result of spring storms, but even after my fifth season of finding small bodies on the ground, it still saddens me. However, during such times I find that the words of Qoheleth ease the sorrow: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”

Riding and watching the nuthatches feed their hatchings, I see a robin fly into a tree under which I found one small robin body. Curiously I watch it and  try to locate its nest high in the pine tree, but I lose sight of it in the green needles. But wait, there is more life on the ground under the same tree.

A red-bellied woodpecker attacks the ground. It pecks furiously and tuffs of dirt arch into the air to land nearby. The searcher stands in one place and pecks, then hops to another spot and pecks again and again. It assaults the ground, puffs of dirt fly about, and I resolve to later inspect that postage stamp of yard under a pine tree. But as suddenly as it appeared the woodpecker leaves to search for some morsel in other earth or dead wood.

Robins. Woodpeckers. Brown-headed nuthatches. So much living wrapped in the sweet, spring fragrance of the Ligustrum across our road. From its topmost branches a mockingbird proves Atticus Finch correct, and during my morning workout I am privileged to observe so much life in the pine forest we call our front yard.

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