Healing Comes

Over many years, I have worked with children and teens as a Social Worker. Most of these young people have seen counselors, sometimes for long stretches of time. For some, counseling is beneficial, for others not so much.

I have wondered why the difference and have begun to notice traits in those who find it helpful and in those who don’t.

The successful are transparent about who they are and how they feel. They participate. They don’t just say what the counselor wants to hear. They listen and are willing to try new things. Essentially, they do the homework.

Unsuccessful clients expect a quick fix or might attend their sessions inconsistently for various reasons. They refuse responsibility for their behaviors and attitudes that contribute to their problems and often blame others.

These attitudes, negative or positive, also apply in our personal walk with Christ. He is the Wonderful Counselor after all. Will He be successful in bringing about lasting change in our hearts? Crawford Loritts said, “Jesus meets us in our transparency.” Being transparent requires humility and courage. To find healing in our lives, we must be willing to face and confess our sin and failures. We all have blind spots that deceive us into believing we don’t need to make any changes, but Jesus is positioned to heal us when we uncover bitterness and unforgiveness and ingratitude and maybe even unkindness in our hearts. He can change us into something much sweeter and more lovely when those things come to light and we seek His forgiveness – when we acknowledge that we have sinned. Meditating on His Word helps keep His commandments before us. We do things His way, not our own, and try new things instead of clinging to our old patterns.  It’s a lifelong process with no quick fixes and requires consistency in keeping our appointments with Him.

In Psalm 139 David said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Yes, that can be a little scary, a little unsettling. But I want His healing. Don’t you?

joyce hague

The Gospel Truth

 

Two books I’m currently reading, a date on the calendar, my son’s school project, and the Bible lesson I taught on Sunday evening from Acts have all come together with one powerful truth: Salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone. We all know this; we have accepted this truth and rest in it, yet it is good still to be reminded of the beauty of it and not take for granted that we have been taught this powerful gospel message.

In Bullies and Saints, author John Dickson begins his book on the good and the bad in church history by writing about the Crusades in the Middle Ages. In 637, Jerusalem was taken by Muslim armies. Over 400 years later, in 1095, Pope Urban called for a crusade to fight the Muslims and reclaim Jerusalem. He stated the following, “Whoever for devotion alone, not to gain honour or money, goes to Jerusalem to liberate the Church of God can substitute this journey for all penance” (5). In other words, whoever would go fight this battle would be saved and have their sins forgiven. More crusades followed, and in preparation for the fifth crusade in 1213, Pope Innocent “promised ‘full forgiveness of sins’ for all who, with a contrite heart, participated in the venture” (14). Can you imagine living during that time? You’re longing for salvation, to be accepted by a holy God, and you are told that if you fight a battle hundreds of miles from home, you will be saved from your sins. No wonder men (and even children!) lined up to fight.

I’m also reading a biography of Empress Maria Theresa who ruled over Austria, Hungary, and the Bohemian lands in the mid-1700s. She was a devout Catholic and was very concerned about the eternal salvation of her husband and children (one of whom was Marie Antoinette).  Maria Theresa found consolation in the fact that when her twelve-year-old daughter lay dying from smallpox, this daughter “did penance for three quarters of an hour, with a scrupulousness, regret, and devotion that brought her confessor to tears” (675, Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time). In contrast, when Maria Theresa’s husband died of a heart attack, there was no time for him to speak to a confessor and take the Eucharist before he died. She was thus very concerned about his eternal soul, finding comfort in the fact that he had been at Mass that morning. However, she still established a group of ladies in the city in which her husband died who would pray for his soul in perpetuity (698).

Thankfully, amidst these false teachings about salvation, God had preserved a remnant who would teach the true gospel. In the 1500s (after the Crusades and before Maria Theresa), there was a large revival – a movement across Europe back to the truth of the gospel news: Salvation is by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone. We call this time the Reformation. October 31, 1517 is often seen as the day when it really got started – when Martin Luther nailed a set of statements, known as the 95 Theses, on a church door in Wittenberg. These statements argued against the false teachings of the Catholic Church, stating that salvation came from God and not through other means. My son Stephen is currently working on a project in which he has to research the contributions of nine of the reformers. Because of them and others (including women!), the gospel message gained ground throughout the lands of Europe and eventually came to America with the Pilgrims.

On Sunday night, my Bible study group looked at Acts 9 – the story of the conversion of Paul. Paul’s salvation did not include fighting in a battle declared salvific by a pope or confessing regularly to a priest and being sure to take the Eucharist before his death. No, an encounter with Christ was enough to cause him to place his faith in Him. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans what it takes to be saved: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Praise God!

--Amy O’Rear

Good Fruit, Bad Fruit

 

We’ve all heard the adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” It’s a clever, rhyming way to encourage the regular consumption of fruits and veggies for our health. My fiancé, Andrew, takes this seriously. He absolutely LOVES apples and buys multiple bags during his grocery trips to make sure he doesn’t run out. For his recent birthday, Andrew’s parents got him a bag of apples from a local orchard. They were pretty apples, and Andrew was excited to try them. But he was incredibly disappointed when they turned out to be bad. They weren’t bitter or visibly rotten, but the texture was wrong, and the flavor was bland. 

 

Andrew enjoys apples, loves his parents, and dislikes wasting food. But none of that stopped those apples from ending up in the trash. They weren’t worth eating because they didn’t measure up to what an apple is supposed to be. 

 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains the importance of fruit in recognizing the quality of a tree:

 

“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16-20 NASB). 

The quality of the fruit is indicative of the quality of the tree. Bad fruit like Andrew’s apples indicates a bad tree, while good fruit indicates a good tree. So too does the fruit indicate the quality of a belief system. This can be a little more obvious when the beliefs are significantly different from what the Bible teaches. These kinds of beliefs are rotten apples, easily spotted if one examines the fruit. But there are some bad fruits that are harder to spot.

The church I grew up in before Grace held some pretty legalistic beliefs. There was a heavy emphasis on rules and doing things the only right way. While there was an outward denial of the prosperity gospel, it was certainly implied that doing all the right things in the right way would result in a “blessed” and prosperous life. The fruit of those teachings in my life has been a tendency to rely on good works to be accepted. It has taken years of unraveling to begin to understand the gospel as a truly free gift independent of my own efforts. I still struggle to give myself grace when things don’t turn out perfect, and I continually have to remind myself not to judge others based on small differences.

This is the kind of belief that takes the truth and twists it just a little bit. It may look nice and shiny on the outside, but it doesn’t measure up. It’s a bad tree that results in bad fruit. I don’t believe that the people at that church had bad intentions, and I still care for them. But that should not prevent me from examining and removing the bad beliefs from my life.

What are the good and bad fruits you see in your life? If you see bad fruit, I encourage you to examine where it came from. Is there a belief or teaching you need to unravel and replace with a tree that bears good fruit?

 

--Concetta Swann

Chain of Obedience

I am thankful for the messages our church has been able to hear the past couple of weeks as we think about the work God HAS done and IS DOING across the globe. If you missed either of these messages on October 12 or 19, I would encourage you to go back and listen on our church Youtube page!

          Last Sunday was one of our special Joint Service Sundays where our church gathers English and Spanish families together and we have a translated message, sing in two languages and share pews with our brothers and sisters of differing heart languages.

          Pastor Darwin Blandon spoke in Spanish with a translator and shared his personal testimony. He shared about how a graduate of Tennessee Temple heard the call of the Lord, studied Spanish in Costa Rica and then traveled to Nicaragua to where Pastor Darwin was born. Long story short this man set up tents and shared the gospel. Through this, the Blandon family came to know the Lord, and from the age of 3, Pastor Darwin was a part of a Christian home.

          As things became more and more hostile and dangerous in his home country, Darwin’s parents sent him with this missionary to try and escape the wars and go to America. Through an amazing story of how God moved, Darwin was sent through.

          God led him to begin a Spanish ministry in Chattanooga with just 3 starting members. He was faithful to the Lord and remained in that ministry for decades as he continues today and has impacted hundreds and had a growing church.

          His point was in looking back at the trail of faithfulness in that Temple missionary. He was obedient to the Lord, went to the country of Nicaragua and step by step, families and individuals were impacted. Now hundreds are hearing the gospel and growing in faith in the Spanish community here in our home city.

          He also shared a train of missionaries, Sunday school teachers, coaches and individuals who started back hundreds of years ago. Some stories were not flashy or   very notable and involved reaching out to a single young man in a shoe store and spending time building a specific relationship. That train followed down person to person, generation to generation and landed in the life of Billy Graham. A man who impacted MILLIONS of people for the gospel and glory of Christ.

          Those individuals hundreds of years ago had no idea. Nor did they get to witness. But God used their faithfulness to Him step by step, year by year and look at what the Lord has done.

          I look at our own Grace Kids and wonder, “which ones will be the next fiery blaze for the Lord to their own generation?” “Who of these will step in obedience to the Lord and follow His command to spread the gospel to those around them?”

          You and I may never know. Are we okay with that? Do we trust God with that? Can we step back and let our name become smaller while God’s becomes greater? And what a call! How important is the faithfulness of our Sunday school teachers, our coaches, our teachers, our mentors, our choir leaders, our friends! What God can do with the faithfulness of His people is humbling.

          So we marvel at what God has done, the stories He has marked in a chain of events that no one knew from moment to moment until we get to look from the outside and proclaim God’s power and glory. And we hope for the future, that God will continue to use His church and His children to bring honor to His name and generations of followers to Himself.

 

--Sandy Gromacki 

No "B" Team!

Didn't you love Sunday morning's message? In addition to the wonderful testimony of our speaker, Pastor Blandon, we heard the amazing chain of events that led to the salvation of Billy Graham. And that statement about apple seeds! If you missed it, you must ask someone. 

That message, with its emphasis on each of us seeking to learn and do God's will to spread the Gospel, fits perfectly with this post from Lynda Shenefield from about four years ago. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Truly, God makes no mistakes. May we each be ready for the work he has for us to do. --SP

A bit over 30 years ago, (almost 35 now! SP) Michael Loftis, then a member of our church, and his two brothers were invited to visit some of the “closed” countries in Eastern Europe to provide music for meetings at churches. There was always a risk, for both the locals and out-of-country visitors, of drawing the notice or wrath of local government officials.  The trio sang and played instruments, which was a great “draw” for the services, and was very well received.

At some point on the trip, they were made aware that another group had initially been engaged for the task but had backed out, resulting in the Loftis brothers’ invitation to come instead. They jokingly began to call themselves “The B Team.” When their host asked the meaning of the term and understood it, he burst into enthusiastic objection. “No, no! YOU are the ones the Lord has brought to us! YOU are supposed to be here. There is no B Team!”

There is no B Team. That statement has profoundly affected me for all these years. So many times we begin a course of action or make a decision feeling certain God is the One Who has brought it about. Yet at some point we begin to think that someone else could do better or we are not capable and we should not be in this business. We don’t seem to be able to see the whole picture or understand the reasons for things. We feel like second best, or third or fourth. But if God has directed us here, we are not second best. We are the ones the Lord has appointed for this time, this place, this business. Trust Him. There is no B Team.

--Lynda Shenefield

. . . All the Time!

 Looking through my Bible study notebook recently, I came across a passage dated March 2011: I want to remember that God is good, and his love is true even when I face unhappiness. God is good not only when everything is lovely and warm but also when the situation is ugly and cold.

When I am sitting warm and cozy in my clean white bed, plenty of food in my stomach and surrounded by loving family, it’s easy to sense God’s care. I think of Carol Pappas, battling cancer, and of people I don’t know dealing with the aftermath of an airport bomb. God is no less good to them. Can they see it? Can I?

It’s been more than fourteen years since I wrote those words. I can’t recall the airport bombing incident, but I sure do remember Carol Pappas. I know many of you do, too. For new members to Grace, Carol was Andy’s precious, charming British wife. She had such a sweet spirit, and everyone loved her. She left us later that year, but I feel sure she is somewhere praising God today. Now we know other dear people who are facing illness. That fact of life does not go away. And there are other tragedies of life—shootings, floods, wars. So many things to cause fear and doubt. Is it still true that God is good? Does he still love us now, in 2025, with the current troubles? Of course he is. Yes, he does.

I still have Sunday morning’s song running through my head: “Great is our God; Sing with me, how great is our God!” We looked together at Psalm 96:4—“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.” A few days ago, I read in a devotional book the wonderful promise that we are “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this [we] greatly rejoice even though now for a little while [we] have been distressed through various trials” (I Peter 1:5-6).

Indeed, God is good and trustworthy. My notebook passage from fourteen years ago ends with the following:

I’m not asking for trouble or looking for grief, but when it comes—as it surely will—I pray I will remember God’s love and mercy and keep trusting him.

This is my prayer for all of us. Let us rejoice in the good times, and also rejoice in the difficult times, for God is still good.

--Sherry Poff

Two Funerals

 

                                             Photo credit: Istock/Marek Stefunko

Last Sunday I watched most of Charlie Kirk’s funeral which was several hours long. It was an unusual event, but Charlie was an unusual man. It seemed to be part political rally, part revival service. Several contemporary Christian artists honored the Lord in music. Speaker after speaker addressed the audience, and several explained the gospel. One even invited people to stand if they wanted to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Charlie’s wife, Erika, voiced forgiveness towards her husband’s murderer. Thousands of people attended in person with thousands more attending virtually. I have never seen anything like it.

Then, the next day, on Monday, I attended the funeral of a godly woman, Linda Ludington, who used to be my supervisor at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes when I was very young. Linda taught me so many things about social work! She was a joy! She was funny and smart – like genius smart. She knew just what to say to people when difficult topics had to be discussed. She spoke up when it was needed but also listened well. She had dementia when she died and had been ill for quite a while. I suppose maybe she was “out of circulation” because only about 25 people attended her funeral. I found her funeral to be a beautiful tribute as well as inspiring. Linda’s niece invited us to join her in singing several praise songs to honor Linda’s Savior as she strummed her guitar. While competing with noisy geese from a nearby duck pond, her witty nephew presented the gospel and honored Linda for the faithful, godly life she had lived.

Reflecting on and comparing these two funerals, I considered how one was extremely large while the other quite small. One person’s circle of influence was much larger than the other’s. One was very public, while the other private. But both funerals glorified God. People praised His Name. People at both funerals spoke clearly of Christ’s sacrifice for our sin. Both deceased honored God with their lives.

We little people have hope. We don’t have to be famous or wealthy or powerful. The smallest among us can honor God with our lives. Everyone has a circle of influence. It might be small, but if that’s what God has called you to, shine brightly in that role. Be a light – you don’t have to be a blinding spotlight. The light of a match can still illuminate a room.

 

“This little light of mine…”

 

joyce hague

 

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/hixson-tn/linda-ludington-12521419