The CCJ Blog

I am SO grateful that God has blessed CCJ as his instrument to touch people’s lives, that he trusts us as his servants.

I am SO grateful that attendance is growing, memberships are increasing and baptisims continue to occur, again and again.

I am SO grateful for the many and creative ways that CCJ ministers to others, as a demonstration of Christ’s love.

And, I am SO grateful to see that there will be a later service, because that means my attendance will be regular, and I’ll benefit from the teachings and the church family in a way that will allow me to give back in Christ’s service.

For real.

Here is an example of the “How to study the Bible” that I talked about in Sunday’s message.

Text:  Psalm 23:  “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…”
Reality: God is the shepherd of my life.
Application: I need to stop worrying and trust Him more.
Interaction with God:     Lord, help me to let go of the things that tie me up in knots.  Help me find rest in you.  Help me, please, to stop worrying.
Next Step: Each time I feel myself starting to worry this week, I will immediately say a prayer to God.  Worry will be the alarm clock that reminds me to pray.

I’d heard in an old podcast that Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Ky., was trying to get people to write letters to Britney Spears in an attempt to show her love like Jesus would. Well, the AP picked up on the story.

(Pastor Jon) Weece said the idea came as he watched repeated reports of Spears’ reported problems with drugs and alcohol and the loss of custody of her children.

“If she were your next-door neighbor in the same situation without the money and success, wouldn’t you care about her problems? Wouldn’t you pray for her and offer her support and encouragement?” he asked members of the church.

Pretty cool, huh?

Hey all…first of all Daniel has been very busy posting this week :).

 Second…if anyone has pictures from 99 days projects…I’d love to see them (especially the digital kind ).

Please shoot me an email or let me know on here.  Thanks.

Kurt, Jill, Shannon and I went to the Switchfoot/Relient K show in Evansville Wednesday night. The Centre is a beautiful venue though standing next to the subs have a, um, negative effect on your ears. Also in attendance were several CCJ’ers in another part of the auditorium as well as at least one other CCJ’er (Jon Krodel) who we saw. Additionally, it was nice to spend an evening with my beautiful wife without the children. I love my children, but I love my wife too and I need to get better at spending time with just her and continuing to pursue her.

ANYway … you didn’t ask for all of THAT. Here are some photos and a short video from the show. I fully realize the limitations of my Kodak EasyShare digital camera after a show like this, so ignore the quality issues.

Relient K. If you’ve never heard them, they are great and have good pop-punk-type melodies with outstanding lyrics. They are the band who have the song (”Be My Escape”) that includes the line that I love so much ‘the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.’ I really dug their show.

Switchfoot. They sing “Meant To Live” that we’ve done in Close Encounters more than once. They also have great lyrics that are deep in the faith.

Here’s Jon Foreman, the lead singer of Switchfoot. He saw Joe Howard, Antioch Christian Church’s worship leader, wearing sunglasses and made a comment to the effect of “It’s gonna be a bright show so wearing shades is a good idea.”

Here’s the rest of Switchfoot. They were loud.

The crowd sings “Meant to Live.” Of course, my camera can’t really handle the volume that was coming from the speakers so, you’ve been warned about the quality more than once.

If any of the other CCJ’ers who attended read this, leave your thoughts in the comments.

Mrs. Pearle Smith was a real jewel (no pun intended) of a woman. She was a giver who had the gift of fellowship and hospitality. She was priceless to my parents as we were kids and they were young parents with three young children. She kept us countless times and my brother, Stephen, walked for the first time in her home. She truly loved us kids who weren’t her own blood relations and cared for us as if we were hers. I told Shannon last week that she was our Miss Angie (i.e. what Angie S. is to Isabella and Gabrielle). She entered the prescence of Jesus last week and I can’t imagine her not hearing “well done, good and faithful servant.”
Here is her obituary via the Paris P-I.

Pearle W. Smith
A graveside service for former Henry Countian Pearle Winston Smith of Waterford, Mich., is planned at 11 a.m. Thursday at Maplewood Cemetery.
Visitation will be after 10 a.m. Thursday at McEvoy Funeral Home.
Another service was held Tuesday at R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Home in Livonia, Mich.
Smith, 95, died Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007, in Redford, Mich.
She was born June 14, 1912, in McKenzie.
She was married on Jan. 8, 1934, to Raymond J. Smith, who died Oct. 10, 1981.
Smith moved to Michigan in the mid-1930s. She moved to Henry County in 1972 and lived here until 1990, when she returned to Michigan.
A retired teacher, she taught in the Dearborn, Mich., public school system. She was a former officer of Alpha Delta Kappa, a professional teacher’s sorority. She held bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wayne State University in Detroit.
A family member said she was a Bible scholar. While living in Henry County, she was a member of Fairview Baptist Church.
She leaves one son: Jerry (Sharon) Smith of Livonia; one daughter: Sylvia Kyle of Waterford; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by a son-in-law: Robert Kyle.

“JUST AS I AM”
Words By Charlotte Elliott

Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind-
Sight, riches, healing of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee to find-
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!

This song is slated for this Sunday and is deeply embedded in my memories of growing up at Fairview Baptist Church in Paris, TN. I joke about growing up Southern Baptist a lot but I really do appreciate the foundation it formed in my life, including the deep love for many of the hymns that we sing.

Isn’t this cool? We dug this out of our garden this weekend.

From the Brigham Young University group, Vocal Point. Great stuff.

Via the Thinklings.

Join us for an album release party (a.k.a. Close Encounter) this Sunday evening at 6 p.m.

Five songs. Five bucks. Can’t beat that deal.

The discs will be available at church on Sunday morning as well. Because I am an obsessive-compulsive kind of guy, I will need $5 before I give you a CD. Otherwise, I will obsess about who I have to collect from. (Thanks for understanding and dealing with a freak like me)

If you do not attend CCJ and are reading this and would like a CD, e-mail me.

From this blog:

There are some legitimate reasons to leave a church once you join as a member . . . But they are few in number. And most reasons people leave amount to nothing more than ecclesial adultery. When you promise fidelity to both Jesus and a congregation of his disciples and then break that promise over matters as simple as boredom with worship or frustration with a committee, you are running out on the bride of Christ. It’s cheating on your church, folks . . .

There is, of course, an underlying reason why people instinctively think that seeking out a church that meets all their felt needs is a God-given right. And it has to do with consumerism and the aforementioned market economy. Most Americans simply cannot conceive of the idea of not being able to choose their church the way they do their cell phone plan or where they’ll get tonight’s take-out. But think about what that mindset does to the Bride of Christ: it turns her into a cheap prostitute, who peddles her wares on street corners in the hopes that you’ll condescend to choose her over all her similarly cheap competitors.

If you want to do something truly radical for Jesus (and ‘radical’ is a relative term in our historically weak era), commit to his bride the way you did to your own bride or groom on your wedding day. Stay with her through thick and thin. Help your fellow brothers and sisters there to grow in discipleship. And whenever you get mad at some perceived slight in your church, realize that you are committed to that community in such a way that you are called to reconciliation rather than self-chosen alienation.

What do you think? This is a hard topic to be sure but one that needs to be discussed. (So, you see, the blog’s topics are not all candy and roses)

As The Herald’s feature on CCJ in 2000 (when the church first started) said, “Like (Rick) Warren, Pastor Land said he doesn’t want to build his church by stealing members from others. He wants to find the lost.”

“There is a group of people in this area that have not been addressed and aren’t being reached.” (Darrel quoted later in the same article).

“Harry Potter” author, J.K. Rowling opens up about the series’ Christian imagery here.

It’s fascinating. Among the imagery in the last book (this story has spoilers. If you want to stay “pure” on the Potter front, don’t read this):

But if she was worried about tipping her hand narratively in the earlier books, she clearly wasn’t by the time Harry visits his parents’ graves in Chapter 16 of “Deathly Hallows,” titled “Godric’s Hollow.” On his parents’ tombstone he reads the quote “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death,” while on another tombstone (that of Dumbledore’s mother and sister) he reads, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

While Rowling said that “Hogwarts is a multifaith school,” these quotes, of course, are distinctly Christian. The second is a direct quote of Jesus from Matthew 6:19, the first from 1 Corinthians 15:26. As Hermione tells Harry shortly after he sees the graves, his parents’ message means “living beyond death. Living after death.” It is one of the central foundations of resurrection theology.

I want to personally thank everyone who supported the auction in any way from workers, auctioneers, contributors to prayer partners. We gave it our best and we had a great time. And God gets all the glory!  I’m sure we’ll hear more from Mark later (when he gets his voice back, he-he). The most exciting part for me was getting to donate money to build the Haiti orphanage and get my ’house inside doors’ painted by the gracious Jeremy Werner, not to mention getting tutoring from Daniel on how to post my pictures on the blog and answers to other various computer questions, as time allows. And the all talented servant Stan, probably gets to help Ken clean our garage. Thanks “Servants Team”! In all my years of believing in God, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learn and trust is God has a purpose and plan in every part of my life.  That’s why I can not be disappointment in our turn out last night. God is in control……God forbid I feel I’m “Glenda Almighty”. Sure, I wish we’d had more people at the auction but I’m happy to realize, I’m not discouraged or down. I did my best and the rest was in God’s control not mine. We couldn’t have ask for better auctioneers than Mark and his relief,  (when he got tired because I had way to much stuff for one guy to auction) Terry.

My heart and prayers go out to the “Hope for Haiti” Fishing Tournament” team. They have to know how much fish and hush puppies and potatoes to buy and cook for next Saturday’s Fish Dinner at CCJ @ 4:00 p.m.   This life is truly “a walk of faith”. Our job is to do our best and let God do the rest.

Forgive me if I’m too excited about what God’s doing in Haiti and want to see every project succeed. Ken & I have been in a church that operated the “Haiti Christian Orphanage” in Port-a-Prince, Haiti. We went with the church group at Christmas several times and helped with the kids’ Christmas Party. There’s no feeling more awesome than being a part of that type of ministry. I know the Lord was good to lead us to a church with the same passion!

I’m posting a picture of us having way to much fun…….if it’s small, you’ll know why I bid on Daniel’s services. If it’s the right size, Daniel fixed it AGAIN.

May God continue to bless us as we serve Him.

“It’s funny because it’s true.”

From satire site, Lark News:

Needy, affirmation-hungry women everywhere fully willing to look past Paula White’s divorce
TAMPA — Thousands of esteem-deficient women gave pastor Paula White a standing ovation during her first public appearance after announcing she was leaving her husband, Randy, for no apparent reason.
“I don’t see nothin’ in the Bible about divorce, no sir,” said one woman who pledged to steadfastly stand by her pastor “come hell or high water.”
A woman wearing a “Without Walls Seed Sower” t-shirt, said she has given $14,000 of her nursing salary to the church this year and “wish I could give more.”
“I’m sure she’ll come up with a reason [for the divorce] someday, and I’m sure it’ll be good,” she says. “I buy it already.”
Many expressed gratitude that TBN is keeping White on the air because, as one woman put it, “Nobody else delivers the exhilarating, stare-you-down, Holy Spirit pump-up that we crave.”
TBN released a statement earlier in the week saying: “Believing as we do in Paula White’s complete integrity, exemplified by her enduring popularity with millions of our viewers, we are re-thinking Matthew 19. Thank you.”
Asked if she had any moral qualms with White’s divorce, one woman said, “I forgave Amy Grant. Are you saying I shouldn’t forgive Paula?”

Jace Eli Land
Born: 7:50 PM tonight
7 lbs. 2 oz.
21 inches long

Pics available here.