Hey gang!
I haven’t been blogging recently because I’m on vacation with my family in Tennessee.
We’re having a family reunion in a private cabin in the Smokey Mountains.
I’ll start blogging again when I get home at the end of the week.
Blessings!
On Vacation
January 5, 2009 by ArronLabor of Love
December 24, 2008 by ArronWell, we just finished our 3rd–and last–Christmas Eve service of the evening.
Wow! What a beautiful night with some lovely people.
I spoke after my wife sang the song, Labor of Love, by our friend Andrew Peterson.
Here’s a YouTube version of Andrew’s song:
After Rhonda sang this song tonight, I followed with the following comments. I share them with you with a prayer that we’ll all let our love for God motivate us to do great things for him tomorrow, next week, next year, and the rest of our lives.
Lyrics to Labor Of Love by Andrew Peterson :
It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s town
And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother’s hand to hold
It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David’s town
In the middle of the night
So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move
It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love
Love is a great motivator–by Arron Chambers
Love is a great motivator.
Think about how hard you worked and how many stores you visited over the past few months, weeks, or days (for most of the men in this room) searching for the perfect gift—the one that would most effectively communicate your love for the recipient.
Love motivated my parents. They worked so hard to make Christmas special. I remember waking up on Christmas morning and looking through the darkness at the gifts. Each assembled—and non-assembled–gift represented a labor of love.
Love motivated your parents, too.
Love motivated you.
Love is a great motivator.
Love motivated Mary through 9 months of the gossip and the accusations directed at a virgin carrying a baby divinely conceived. Love motivated Mary through a painful delivery (without the benefit of an epidural) in the discomfort of a stable.
Love motivated Joseph to stand next to his betrothed during her difficult pregnancy. Love motivated Joseph on the long trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem with a very pregnant wife. Love motivated Joseph to stick by his wife every step of the way.
Love motivated God to send Jesus to this earth as a baby. The birth of Christ was an amazing expression of God’s love. In John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world.
For God so loved Colorado.
For God so loved Greeley.
For God so loved you.
Yes, God sent Jesus to this earth to live a sinless life and to die for our sins, so that you and I could have the chance to live forever with him in eternity.
It was an amazing thing he did for us.
It was a labor of love, but he did it because he loves us and . . . as you know . . . love is a great motivator.
I pray that tonight—as we think about how much God loves us—that we’ll also think about how much we love God.
Because . . . as you know . . . love is a great motivator.
We have a winner!
December 24, 2008 by ArronThe first annual My Lord and My Blog Christmas Survey is now officially over. This year we were looking for the Best Christmas Movie ever made.
Thankfully, It’s a Wonderful Life was selected by you as the best Christmas movie of all time.
I said “thankfully” because the 2nd place movie was, Die Hard.
Die Hard?!?
I put that on there as a joke and it almost won! If Die Hard would have won, I think I might have had to shut my blog down.
Well, there you go.
I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
You mean more to me than I could ever express.
Photo captures image of an ‘angel’ in Charlotte hospital
December 23, 2008 by ArronI believe in angels.
That should not shock any Bible-believing reader of this blog.
Angels have played important roles throughout the Bible, especially before, during, and after the birth of Christ. (Luke 1:26-38; 2:8-20).
With that in mind, a story that I read today captured my attention. It’s from a story originally published in the Charlotte Observer, but republished in The State.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
When Chelsea Banton was born five weeks prematurely, doctors predicted she had 36 hours to live.
Proving them wrong was the first miracle for Chelsea, now an Independence High School freshman.
“She spent the first four months in a neonatal intensive care unit,” recalls her mother, Colleen Banton of Mint Hill.
Before Chelsea was 2, she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia, the first of several dangerous run-ins with the illness that have made her a familiar face in Presbyterian’s pediatric intensive care unit.
Among other health problems in her medical history: hydrocephalus, requiring a shunt in her skull and, later, several shunt revisions; life-threatening viruses; and, this past July, fluid retention that required more than a week’s hospitalization and three liters of liquid to be drawn from her body.
Prayer has helped sustain the whole family.
“We had been praying every day, my oldest daughter and I and Chelsea,” Colleen Banton said. “…Praying for a miracle.”
That miracle, Colleen believes, came Nov. 5 – seven weeks after Chelsea was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia.
What originally seemed like a bad cold nearly killed her.
“She was on life-support from the moment she got there,” her mother said.
That was Sept. 21. Over the next six weeks in the hospital, Chelsea faced one threat after another: pneumonia in her left lung, then her right lung, then sepsis, blood clots, staph infections, E. coli, a collapsed lung and feeding problems.
In late October, doctors met with the family to discuss “a plan of action,” Colleen said. One of the decisions she had to make was whether she would take Chelsea off the ventilator. Earlier, doctors had removed Chelsea from the ventilator several times, but had replaced it when the struggle to breathe became too difficult for the teen.
But a family meeting Oct. 31 was a turning point.
“At that point, the family… agreed that when she did come off the ventilator again, (they) weren’t putting it back in,” Colleen said. “Whatever happened, would happen.”
On Saturday, Nov. 1, “they took her off the ventilator and she did good,” her mother said. “She was breathing on her own.”
The next day, “her stats went down,” and doctors put her in an oxygen mask.
But over the next few days, Colleen noticed her daughter “wasn’t getting better. Things were kind of lingering.”
And Chelsea, who had been having anxiety attacks and crying throughout her hospital stay, was having more of them.
“I said, ‘She’s been through enough,’” Colleen remembers. “I said, ‘Can we just take her mask off? She’s been through enough.’
“I wanted to do what the Lord wanted me to do. And I really felt like I’ve had her for 14 years, and if it’s time for her to go to heaven, then I know she’ll be healed.”
The mask didn’t come off immediately, though. They waited until family members had a chance to come to see Chelsea – perhaps for the last time.
On the afternoon of Nov. 5, as family and friends prayed about the decision, a nurse practitioner called Colleen’s attention to a monitor showing the door to the pediatric intensive care unit.
“On the monitor, there was this bright light,” Colleen recalls. “And I looked at it and I said, ‘Oh my goodness! It looks like an angel!”
Colleen pointed her digital camera at the monitor to take a photo of the image, but the “first picture wouldn’t take.”
She tried again and succeeded. The image gave her a peace that stayed with her when hospital staff removed Chelsea’s oxygen mask.
And then, “when they took the mask off of her, her stats went as high as they’ve ever been.
“Her color was good, and the doctors and nurses were amazed,” Colleen said. “The nurse practitioner who saw the image in the monitor said, ‘I’ve worked here 15 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it.’”
Chelsea was removed from intensive care on Nov. 14 and went home three days later.
Here’s the picture that Colleen took:
What do you think?
Florida Woman Says Former Church Plans to Make Her Sins Public
December 19, 2008 by ArronHave you heard about the church that is going to tell its members about a woman’s sins?
Have you heard about the woman who was so upset that a church was going to tell its members about her sins that she told the entire world about her sins instead?
Here’s the full story: FOXNews.com - Florida Woman Says Former Church Plans to Make Her Sins Public
Does anyone else see the irony in this?
In trying to expose the church, she seems to have only exposed herself.
Interesting tactic.
T. Scott Christmas (great name for this time of year, huh?), pastor of the church, told the Florida Times-Union that the “process of loving accountability” is made very clear to members, and the church is doing “nothing more than following the practices of what biblical churches have done through history.”
The church’s method for dealing with sin of this nature is a three-step process: private admonishment, admonishment in the presence of witnesses and finally public admonishment.
Rebecca Hancock told FOXNews.com that Grace Community Church, a non-denominational church in Jacksonville, Fla., was against her relationship with boyfriend Frank Young because the two were sexually active but not married.
Now, I’ve read the article and I don’t think this situation was handled properly by her “mentor” and some of the women in the church.
Hancock confessed her sin to a woman she considered a mentor.
Hancock learned that her private sessions with her mentor hadn’t been so private after all, when in October her mentor pulled her aside in church and asked her come into another room.
“In the room, there were several women that I never told my business to. And they proceeded to tell me about my business and what I was doing and what a sinner I was — just persecuting me.” Hancock said. “One of the ladies was even saying ‘I was at your house when you didn’t come home all night.’”
A stakeout? Sounds like at least one of the women at Grace Community Church is watching too much Law and Order.
That being said, I have the suspicion that there is more to the story. As a church leader who has been involved with church discipline, I know that these type of situations can be very complicated and that the “victim”–not the Elders–is typically the only one who gets to share his/her side of the story. My experience has been that godly elders, typically use more discretion than the one who has committed an indiscretion and that godly elders are reticent to defend themselves. I’m going to give the benefit of the doubt to the elders who are dealing directly with this situation. I bet you that there is a lot more to the story than we’re hearing.
Elders are almost always made more vulnerable by the discretion with which they choose to handle delicate situations like this. I’ve known elders in similar situations who could have quelled all criticism and stopped all gossip by simply revealing some of the facts they knew, but who–because they were men of character who knew that they had to put the care of the flock, not their own reputations, above all else–kept their mouths shut and endured unfair criticism without uttering a word in their own defense. Yes, I’m going to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. It seems that they are trying to handle this situation biblically.
Still, it’s very sad that this situation has been made so public. It’s puts the church, the elders, and Rebecca Hancock in the position to be ridiculed by people of the world, which is unfortunate for all involved.
The article mentions that Hancock sent a formal letter of resignation after receiving the elders’ ultimatum in hopes of solving the dispute. She said she fears for her 20-year-old son and 18-year-old daughter if the church carries out its threat.
“I don’t really care what they do to me. But I am concerned about my children sitting in church with their mother being crucified by the church that they trust,” she said. “I am very concerned about how it would affect them.”
Which leaves me with 3 questions for Rebecca:
1) Then, why didn’t you think about your children before you started having sex with a man to whom you weren’t married?
2) If you’re so concerned with how it would affect your children, then why did you tell the whole world?
3) Was getting revenge on Grace Community Church worth the price your kids–and you–are now having to pay?
Maybe, this story reveals more about the woman a church has decided to discipline that it reveals about a church a woman was trying to criticize.
What’s the best Christmas movie of all time?
December 16, 2008 by ArronMy wife and I watched–what has to be–the worst Christmas movie of all time.
It was on Lifetime and it was called, On the 2nd Day of Christmas (1997)
It was horrible! But, it made me start thinking about the best Christmas movies of all time.
Let’s have some fun. Take my survey and let’s establish, The 2009 My Lord and My Blog Favorite Christmas Movie of All Time.
I’ll announce the results on Christmas Eve.
(You can vote as many times as you’d like.)
Scrooge and the power of transformation
December 16, 2008 by ArronMy favorite Christmas movie is the 1970 movie, Scrooge. Scrooge is a musical retelling of Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas tale, which stars Albert Finney as Ebenezer Scrooge.
One of our family traditions is that we watch this movie (disclaimer: not with the little kids until recently. It has some scary scenes.) before Christmas.
It’s a great movie, with great music, and an even better message.
I’ll assume that most of you are familiar with Dicken’s story, so I won’t detail it here, except to say that Scrooge was a very bad man.
In one of my favorite scenes in Scrooge, Ebenezer is shown–by the ghost of Christmas future–a glimpse into the future. Ebenezer doesn’t know it, but it’s his funeral. Many people in the town owed him money, so–when he died–a celebration breaks out and they start singing a song called, “Thank you, very much.” He joins in–with no idea that they are actually thanking him for dying!
Check it out:
I think this movie is my favorite Christmas movie, because it’s such a powerful story of change. I love the transformation that we see in Ebenezer Scrooge and the impact that transformation had on his community.
His transformation changed a town.
Watching the movie this past weekend, I got a little emotional as I thought about what could happen in this world if every Christian allowed himself/herself to be truly changed by Christ.
This world would be changed.
Communities would be changed.
Lives would be changed.
And, I’m pretty sure some people would thank us . . . very much.
Blog is Back Up
December 16, 2008 by ArronMy blog has been down for the past day, but we’re back on line now. Thanks for your patience.
Arron
Poll Results: A Toast to Tim Tebow
December 11, 2008 by ArronI think I have the best blog readers in the blogosphere.
The two polls I posted yesterday generated a lot of great comments and interaction. More than 300 people viewed my blog on Christians and drinking yesterday afternoon. Wow!
Some of you left comments. I love hearing from you. It’s why I do this. I want us to be connected.
So, here you go . . . here are the poll results as of this moment:
71% of you think that Tim Tebow is going to win the Heisman this weekend
and
73% of you think that “It’s o.k. for Christians to drink alcohol as long as they don’t get drunk.”
18% of you think that “It’s not o.k. for Christians to drink alcohol under any circumstances.”
Both results are interesting and not too surprising.
The drinking survey will be up for a couple more weeks. I’d love to hear from more of you, so we have a better sampling.
Thanks for taking my surveys. Stay tuned for more survey fun!
Pictures of Pedro
December 11, 2008 by ArronLast week, from Guatemala, I told you the following story:
Yesterday, I was on a team running a medical clinic in a local village. We saw about 40 patients in sweltering conditions.
Dr. Chris Kennedy–a family physician from Greeley–saw a little boy towards the end of the day. The little boy looked sad, tired, and listless. He moved very slowly and we couldn’t get him to smile. His mother said that he never played with his friends.
Dr. Kennedy quickly diagnosed the boy with a severe case of asthma. The Dr. figured that Pedro (the boy) was only using about 1/3 of one lung to breathe. He had learned to control his movements and emotions to save his air. It was a very serious situation. The boys’ life was in danger.
Dr. Kennedy called back to the hospital and asked them to bring a nebulizer and some meds “stat.”
The team from Journey Christian Church (my church :)) had arranged for 2 nebulizers to be donated. A nebulizer is a breathing machine that offers breathing treatments.
After the machine arrived, Dr. Kennedy taught the boy’s mother how to use the machine (she has power in her home) and let the boy have one treatment.
The transformation was amazing!!!!!
Within 20 minutes of his treatment the boy was smiling and starting to play a little bit.
We all couldn’t stop praising God for giving Dr. Kennedy a chance to change–and save–this little boy’s life.
Now, here are the pictures of sweet little Pedro.
Here he is before his first treatment. Notice the sadness in his eyes.
Here he is receiving his treatment from Dr. Kennedy.
Here he is 20 minutes after his treatment. He’s smiling! Praise God!
