Teague Bible Church

November 2024
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My aunt Lottie passed away last week at the age of 107. My mother is now the only survivor of ten kids. Mom is 95.
Aunt Lottie was a strong Christian, full of joy. Reading the obituary brought me back to times we used to make the 400 mile trip to Arkansas to visit her and the rest of the family.

On her 101st birthday she rode on the back of a chopper motorcycle through her small town of Star City , Arkansas. As she rode she would flash her own, made-up, gang signs to the people.

On her 102nd birthday she got to ride in a helicopter. At 103 a pool party. Yea, she went in the pool. She wanted to ride a bull at 104, but was out-muscled in the decision by supposedly wiser heads. She was still living at home, on her own, at 105.

We went down for the big party on her 100th birthday. My mom and her started to wrestle each other and fell over the coffee table and onto the floor. We all panicked, feeling that they would now be broken beyond repair! We heard wheezing coming from both of them. Surely they were struggling for air! No, turns out they were laughing. All good; they got up.

In that moment, just for a second, you could feel time standing still. We saw a flash -from- the-past gleam across their faces as two young sisters played together. We saw how they really felt inside; then it was back to the dominance of the physical body attempting to cover up two indomitable spirits. What a sight. What an unforgettable sight!

They told me that after a birthday party a few years back, they ended the birthday song with, “And many more.” She stopped them and responded, ” Oh no, please, not many more.” She would occasionally ask,” Why has God allowed me to live so long?”

Under that question lay an attitude we all share. Did I do that much good in all those years? Will it come to much? We cannot always see the forest for the trees, during our lifetime. If we keep giving, just to please the Lord, and engage the people in our sphere of influence, then we can rest in the fact that His will is being accomplished in our life; short or long.

Normally, you will not see every result of the wonderful impact you have on others, in your own lifetime. We want to see the result now; either for our own glory; or to comfort the insecurity we all feel living on this fallen planet.
No such thing is needed. Faithfulness is needed.

What we need is just to trust God that our life will be fruitful for His glory. One of the most wasteful and stupid ideas ever fostered upon the American public is the idea we call “retirement.”

We supposed to dread work and dream of retirement, not realizing that such an attitude for life and work will kill any possibility of joy in retirement. All facts are on my side in this evaluation. “Press on toward the upward call of God.”

My aunt went back to work, as a hairdresser, at a nursing home when she was 103. She did not buy into the retirement idea. She knew that if God called her, then no part of her time here was to be a wasting.

Psalms 90: 16-17 ” Let Your work appear to your servants and Your majesty to their children. Let the favor of the Lord be upon us; and confirm the work of our hands, yes, confirm the work of our hands.”

JWP

Jim Petty in Post on September 10 2018 » 0 comments

Who Is With You?

I like detective shows, film noir, and mystery movies. One of my favorite scenes, that is oft repeated, is when the good guys get in a vulnerable position with the bad guys. They speak so bravely, but have no guns or any visible means out of a situation that will surely result in the good guy getting, “Capped,” “Rubbed out,” ( E.G. Robertson), “Snuffed, “Deep Sixed.”

I mean how did the good guy get the nerve to boldly go in there and talk to the bad guys? As always, several officers are overhearing the conversation in the next room, and are ready to burst in just at the right moment to arrest the bad guys. With humans that could go wrong ,but rarely does, even in reality or film noir; but with God it is always a sure thing!

Romans 8:31-39 is the text for tomorrow. Never has a passage laid so much emphasis on the fact that God is never separated from us. Who is with you, in venerable situations makes all the difference! Paul said he, “Was convinced” that nothing can, “Separate us from the love of Christ.”

Do you really believe that? Before you answer, think of just last week. Did you really believe God would come through for you during those conversations? Was He the invisible support waiting in the next room, so to speak? If so, were are you intimidated?

Paul lived under the rule of half-crazy, fully- demonic Nero. Romans was written from Corinth about 55 A.D. Nero ruled, (rather terrorized) Rome from 54 A.D. till 68 A.D. An oppressive and difficult life for the Christians of that day.
Believing that you cannot be separated from the love of God made all the difference for them. They believed it then, against all emotion. They assumed it was true; and it proved out true; or you would not know this precious book of Romans, given to us directly by God.

“I cannot be separated from the love of Christ.” Yet I get together with the boys at work and it feels like God is not with me there. I am talking to my relatives, reliving the good old days, and it seems that it is a different world. I get to school and an attitude persist that makes it seem like God is far away. The spirit of this evil age seems like a brick wall, but in reality can be broken by faith. What kind of faith? The faith of a man or woman who knows the truth and acts on it.

God is always waiting in the next room, ready to rush in, and draw down on any danger. You don’t have to feel any emotion for this to be true in every area of life. Question is, will you believe it today and act on it? The next scenario will come; it feels like God can do nothing in that situation; act and speak as if He is going to use you for good in that situation, because He is! As many times as you allow it, He is going to be there and act.

“If God is for us, who is against us?”

JWP

Jim Petty in Post on September 01 2018 » 0 comments

“Captain, The Main Stabilizer Is Broken!”
If you are a Star Trek fan you have heard this many times. A serious condition. All the power the ship has cannot overcome the lack of navigation caused by one of these things breaking. I noticed that they never say, ” Ah,, forget the stabilizer! We don’t need no stinking stabilizer!” Even science fiction cannot ignore this condition.

So are you “stable” in your walk with the Lord? How often are you upset each week about something? How often are you upset about something each week , that in review, was an embarrassingly small thing? Well, all hands on deck, your stabilizer may be broke!

Psalms 1 says a stable person is one who knows who the Lord is, and knows who he is, in the relationship with the Lord. He cannot wait until he can spend time with the Lord who saved Him. It says that he is, ” Like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.”

In our world of sound-bite information, you will not find many stable people anymore. We need them desperately; few are willing to do what it takes to become such people. It all seems “to slow” to many.

In my yard is a giant Cottonwood tree. It is about 80 feet tall and about 3 feet in diameter. Somehow, unlike the other one, and a recently deceased one, it thrives! All three trees started at the same time, they tell me. Somehow, this one wise tree, tapped into a steady source of water, where the others ones did not. The one other remaining poor tree seems to do well sometimes, but other times looks to almost die. It has an “unstable” underground attachment to its life source that I cannot see, yet I can see that it is in trouble.

The good tree can lose a limb and the leaves on that limb will wither in a day! I find that amazing. Is it that important for the tree to have moment -by moment connections with is water/ nutrient source? Yes it is. As slow as it might grow, yes it is.

I find it amazing ,also, that some believers think they can double- down on the study of God’s Word one day, and skip living in God’s Word for a long time and be just fine. Never gonna happen. It is hard to be stable, but it must be done.

You have to choose. Three minutes in the Word of God and then 3 hours of watching T.V. is hardly the formula for success. The benefits of having stability, by staying in the Word sounds pretty good to me. And if you really want to know the “why” behind the happenings of your life, then the Word of God is the place to go.

Psalms 19: 7-10
” The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgements of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”

Psalms 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

JWP

Jim Petty in Post on August 22 2018 » 0 comments