By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

A few short years ago, my middle daughter and I were part of a group that spent several days touring parts of France.  On one particular day of our adventure into the Loire Valley, our bus brought us to the banks of the Cher River and deposited us in a parking lot on the far grounds of the Chenanceaux Castle.  We were to explore the grounds of that huge estate.

But, as we stepped off of the bus, nearly each one of us had the same reaction over the animals we were seeing just across the fence in the grassy pasture.  Several asked what the animals were.  Our incredible tour guide was amazed and laughed at us.  We were simply looking at donkeys.  But they were donkeys like no other donkeys any of us had ever seen before.  They were fuzzy!

Here we all were, about to visit the most famous chateau in France, built some 500 years ago, and every one of us stopped to see the fuzzy donkeys instead!  Those animals took our attention away from what was to have been the very point of our visit there.

In today’s world, we attend church services.  Some of us even get to visit other places of worship from time to time.  I’ve sat in silence inside some incredible cathedrals and worshiped in one-room bare-walled church buildings.  We are going to church to worship, to sing praises to the Lord, and to give of our time, tithes, and talents.  But too often, we get distracted along the way.

We catch up with neighbors.  We chat about the ballgames of the night before.  We slobber over the new babies being brought out for the first time.  We enjoy the flower arrangements on the communion table or altar.  We read the church bulletin or program and catch up on who needs to be where when.  All of those things are wonderful.  There’s not a thing wrong with any of them.  But they aren’t to be our focus.  They are the distractions to our real purpose in being there – to come before the Lord in worship.

Our tour guide in France that day was amused that we were amused by the fuzzy donkeys when we should have focused on the huge castle just down the path.  I doubt the Lord is very amused with us when we take our eyes off of Him and our focus away from worshiping Him.  

In the week ahead, and in all the things it brings to us, let’s be ever mindful of the greatness just down the path.  Stop and check out the things along the way.  Visit and catch up if you need to.  But don’t forget the real reason for our visit here — to Worship the King.  On what are you focused this week?

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

How observant are you?  Do you haphazardly drive the road or walk the areas of your life without much regard for what is happening around you?  Or, do you make it a point to pay attention to your surroundings, your world, and the people in it?  Do you proverbially take time to stop and smell the roses?

This flower obviously isn’t a rose.  It is, however, a beautiful flower with bright colors.  Against the backdrop of dried out leaves and sticks, it certainly stands out.  Because this flower was one of a very few blooming beside a walkway I was using, I noticed it.  I stopped and took this picture.  But I must confess that I wasn’t really looking at the flower itself.

Look closely and what do you see?  If you lean in to see the beauty, take a quick sniff, and enjoy the flower with no regard to what else is happening, you have a very good chance of being stung by a fat little bumblebee whose work you are interrupting.

We live in a world of God’s beauty.  We live in the greatest country on earth.  You may even believe your state and/or community is the best there is.  I have no intention of bursting your bubble.  I just want to remind us that the dangers of this world are just as prevalent as the benefits.

Satan is alive and well and looking for ways to attack us.  He sometimes hides in plain sight, perhaps in the very beauty around us, and we ignore him because we just aren’t paying attention.  Does that mean we have to walk around scared of what might bite us?  Certainly not.  But be aware.

I didn’t have to stand near those flowers very long before that bumblebee had finished his buzzing around and had gone on to another flower bed.  The danger had passed.  One of my most favorite phrases in the Bible is, “And it came to pass.”  Trouble didn’t come to stay.  It came to pass.

If in the beauty of your wonderful week a fat little bumblebee buzzes, be patient.  It came to pass.  Sometimes the best way to stay out of Satan’s plans for your week are to simply ignore him, his ugly work, and let him be.  Don’t swat at him and stir him up.  Remember that the flower upon which the bee perches is so much bigger than the bee itself.  God will prevail.

Don’t let Satan keep you from enjoying the Lord’s beauty.

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

In the northwest corner of the state of Alabama, a passerby on U.S. Highway 72 might see the simple little green highway sign pointing in the direction of the “Coon Dog Cemetery.”  If one ventured off the highway at that point and then traveled a few miles down the road, he would still need to travel even a few more miles off the beaten path to a spot on a hill in the middle of nowhere.  There, just off to the right, nestled in the quiet solitude of the surrounding forest, marked by this particular sign, is the world’s only cemetery dedicated solely to the burials of coon hounds.

We were amazed at the very nice grave markers for some of those hunting dogs.  Some even had the names of their owners included on the marker.  Some were much simpler with only the dog’s name, and some were merely stones marking the spot of a beloved canine friend.  But every burial in that cemetery is that of a coon dog.  No other animals are allowed.  No other dogs are allowed.  Only coon dogs.

Sounds pretty strange, doesn’t it?  Sounds pretty discriminatory and pretty segregated.

I know of another place that is similar in design.  There are simple road signs pointing the way.  One must leave the wide highway in order to head in the right direction.  Then on down the path, the way grows even more narrow, perhaps even secluded at times.  It winds through the peaceful woods and then makes its way up a glorious hillside.  And right there, hidden in plain view, sits the spot that our Maker has prepared for His children.  He calls it Heaven.

Heaven is pretty discriminatory and pretty segregated, because only a child of the King will be allowed inside the gate.  Only those who belong to Jesus and know Him as Lord and Savior of their lives will be given residence there.  Only the blood-bought, born again Christian has a place there.  He designed it that way from the beginning.  Not everyone will be there.  It’s a special place for those who belong.

I must tell you that we almost didn’t see the Coon Dog Cemetery, because we had gone much further than I thought we should have.  The road had gotten much sketchier than I thought it should be.  I had just slowed to a stop in the road, about to give up, attempting a turn around, when I glanced just a little further up the road and saw something.  I told my wife I would just head up that hill and see what it was, and then we’d head out.  And there we were.  We had arrived.

Don’t give up.  The drive gets long.  The road gets narrow.  The day gets shorter.  But there, just up ahead, waiting just for you, is that glorious place.

He calls it Heaven.  I call it Home.

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross…”  Were you even able to read those words without hearing them sung in your head?  What does that old rugged cross mean to you?  What does it symbolize for you?

Even the ‘not so religious’ among us can be caught wearing a cross around their necks, on their ears or clothing, or perhaps tattooed on their bodies.  I dare say that many of those same folks have given no real thought to the cross of Jesus.  

The church that I’m blessed to pastor has recently begun a ‘cross wall’ on a decades-long empty space in the building’s upstairs hallway.  In this picture are crosses made from different materials.  A couple of them are clay or ceramic.  Several are made of various woods.  One has barbed wire.  One is iron.  One is painted on canvas.  One is crocheted and framed in a shadow box.  Each cross has been provided by a family or individual.  Several included their names or names of loved ones on the back to indicate their gift in memory of a precious soul.  

The simple light-colored wooden cross hanging near the bottom center looks like it’s polka-dotted.  Those are actually finger prints.  At this summer’s Vacation Bible School, we each selected (or mixed up) a different paint color, put our thumb or finger into that paint, and then stuck it to the cross.  Every one of those finger prints represents the individual to whom it belongs.  No two are alike.  We each took part.  We each made our mark on the cross.

I can’t help but wonder if the cross of Jesus has made its mark upon us.  When you see a cross, do you simply recognize it as a pretty decorative item, one that, for this week only, has been half-priced at the local Christian-owned hobby/decoration store?

That old rugged cross – “the emblem of suffering and shame” – on which Jesus shed His blood for us was marked with your name long before you were ever born.  He died for YOU.  He shed His blood for YOU.  His cross was meant for YOU.  As you see or wear those crosses in the days ahead, do so knowing what it means.  Know what it means to those who need to know the Lord.  And know what it means to YOU!

When this “cross wall” project was first mentioned at our church, I thought someone was saying the words “cross walk.”  A cross walk is something that carries us from one side to the other.  And doesn’t that describe the cross to a “T” ?!

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

The economy is strange.  Gasoline prices are increasing yet again.  Groceries are entirely too expensive.  It makes no sense.

A car can easily cost more than a simple house ought to.  It makes no sense.

There are “help wanted” signs up all over town.  Businesses are shutting their doors forever.  No one wants to get off the couch and go to work.  It makes no sense.

Diseases are rampant.  Ulcers, high blood pressure, and anxiety are through the roof.  It makes no sense.

People all around us – people we know and love – are trying to do life without a relationship with Jesus.  It makes no sense!

My picture for you this week is in that category as well.  Just down the hill from our church building, on the road where my wife grew up, there in the edge of the woods was this shopping buggy.  The nearest store with any similar cart is a good twenty miles away.  No stores at all within at least six miles.  Not anyone’s back yard.  Just in the edge of the woods.  Who dropped it off there?  And why there?  It makes no sense!

Life is difficult some days.  And yet God’s love, mercy, and grace are abundant.  Friends and family may abandon you, but God never leaves or forsakes His children.  It makes no sense.

He sent His Son to die a most cruel death on an old rugged cross so we wouldn’t have to go to hell.  He loves us when we are unlovable.  He knows your name even when no one else seems to care.  His patience with us is unmatched.  His love is higher than the highest, greater than the greatest, and most of all, His salvation is offered to us who could never earn it.  It makes no sense.

The greatest thing about that is this.  It doesn’t have to make sense.  All we need to do is trust the One Who knows what He is doing!  It all makes perfect sense to Him.  One day, soon and very soon, we will understand it in the sweet by and by.  I pray that makes sense to you.

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

This church building once housed a worshiping congregation.  In ages past, it no-doubt hosted preachers, singings, and dinner on the grounds.  Then, years ago, it was locked up tight and the church, at least in name, ceased to exist.  Later, the beautiful stained glass windows were each painstakingly removed and put into storage.  Slowly the wooded areas around that old church building crept closer and closer.  Trees grew taller and more prolific.  Shrubs and weeds took over any space left between the trees.  And before long, only the locals remembered just where the building remained.

Then, a few years ago, a logging company clear cut all of those trees and that once-forgotten church again appeared in plain view.  Travelers of the nearby state highway began to exclaim over it, having never known it was that close.  Many locals had forgotten it was there, and many others said they’d never seen it before, until that steeple suddenly appeared where treetops had been.  I shared a picture of this church building with you at that time.  I, too, had heard of it but had never seen it until then.

Fast forward a few more years now.  The trees are growing back.  The weeds and shrubbery and other undergrowth have quickly reappeared.  The old church building I stepped into and looked around a few years ago doesn’t look safe enough for me to try that again.  I took this picture just a few days ago.  The trees are tall enough now that the old steeple has once again disappeared from easy view of the nearby highway.  I was right in front of it on the little dirt road before I realized how close I’d gotten.  That little old church is very close to being completely forgotten once more.  Soon enough, it will disappear into the woods again, too late for visiting by anyone.

Sadly, there are many people around us in the same shape as that old building.  Yes, some are old, they have battle scars, they’ve faded a bit, and they’re probably even leaning or missing a few parts by now.  But they continue to stand tall by the hardest.  There are others around us who’ve gone unnoticed for so long that they struggle themselves to remember the beauty of their past surroundings and happenings in life.  And then there are those, too, who are remembered, yet no one ever ventures by to even check and see if they’re still around.

One day, for each and every person, there will come a day that this old body of ours has returned to the earth from which it was formed.  But until then, we are commanded to “love our neighbor.”  That certainly includes those who’ve long been forgotten by society as a whole or even by their once-close friends and family members.  They struggle to stand tall, but they feel as abandoned as this old church building.

Check on your neighbors.  We may not see anything but peeling paint and missing windows.  But inside that shell still ring glorious hymns and the Word of God — two things that should never be forgotten.  Time passes too quickly.  Don’t put it off.  Search while they may be found.  The next time you look, it may be too late.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

My wife and I recently visited “Ivy Green,” the birth place of Helen Keller in Tuscumbia, Alabama.  As members of our local Lions Club, we feel a unique connection to Helen Keller’s partnership with the Lions and her challenge of the organization to be “Knights of the Blind.”  We enjoyed walking around the grounds, touring her home and the little cottage where she and her teacher Anne Sullivan spent so much of their time, seeing the memorials, and peering into the kitchen and ice house.

But what stands out for most people is the small spot near the back corner of the house where this water pump stands.  If you’ve ever used a water pump, then you see no difference in this one.  That’s all it is.  That’s all it does.  Homes of the time with no running water utilized the water pump for all their needs.

This water pump, though, happens to be the very spot where young Helen Keller, through the constant dedication and hard work of her teacher, made her first real breakthrough, realizing that the water she felt on her hands was also the word being spelled into those hands.  The live performance of “The Miracle Worker,” which we experienced on this same trip, brought that particular moment to an amazing point at the ending of the play — the moment when Helen finally “got it!”

Do you, as a Christian, remember your “place?”  As one who was formerly blind, but can now see the grace of God, do you remember the moment of your breakthrough?  There was that specific moment in time when you finally “got it,” and you realized what the Great Teacher had been trying to get you to understand all along.  There was that place, which may now seem near and dear to your heart, where you experienced Him for the very first time.

Let me invite you to revisit that place, that time, that experience.  You don’t have to make a road trip or take a vacation to do it.  Just let your heart go there.  Remember what it felt like when His Word finally made a real impact on your life.  Remember what it sounded like when, as a blood-bought Christian, you heard “Amazing Grace” sung with such enthusiasm it brought tears to your eyes.  Remember what it looked like to see the glory of God as your world changed.  Remember those who helped bring you to that moment in your life.

The miracle worker indeed.  Anne Sullivan held such a grand title in Helen’s life.  My prayer is that you will experience the loving kindness and the enduring patience of your own Miracle Worker.  Are you paying attention to the working of His hands in yours?  Remember!  It’s a trip worth taking!

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Does everything in your life make sense?  By that, I mean to ask this – Do you understand why things happen the way they do, why people act the way they do, and why we experience life the way it happens?  Some days life doesn’t make sense.  Sometimes it makes no sense, at least in our minds, that we have to endure the difficulties that this life brings.  We just don’t understand.

Take a look at this picture.  In the Alabama Music Hall of Fame museum, in a corner display near the end of the self-guided tour, behind glass, stands this little fellow.  It is a taxidermied ‘possum.  This furry little ‘possum is dressed.  He is wearing cowboy paraphernalia.  There is a gun in his holster.  He is holding a lasso rope.  He is wearing a cowboy hat.  And, he is “smoking” a cigar.  Absolutely nothing at all about this thing makes sense!  There is no reason behind it and no explanation given.  It just is.

For some of you, a ‘possum standing in an upright position, rather than lying dead in the road, is something you’ve never even seen before.  Add all this other nonsense to it, and you get just that.  “Non”-sense.  It has no sense.  It makes no sense.

Life can be the same some days.  Some days you’re the windshield, some days you’re the bug.  We experience things in our lives that, at least to us, make no sense at all.  But we must remember that it all makes perfect sense to God.  He can use anything we experience to make us a stronger person.  He can add to our witness in this world by the nonsense that we must endure.

And, yes, some of those things won’t ever make sense to us until He calls us home.  But then, that makes no sense either, does it?  We don’t deserve His mercy.  We cannot earn His grace.  As Christians, we are nothing but sinners saved by His grace.  He loved us when we were unlovable, and He died, giving His life’s blood for us.  —  He loved us and died for us.  That could only make sense to God Himself.

We are nothing but a dressed up ‘possum in this non-sensical world.  But one day soon, He will gather His children around His feet where nothing but the everlasting love of God makes sense.  Sounds a little crazy, doesn’t it?  Until then, endure the nonsense of this world.  Don’t worry about understanding it all.  Just trust the One Who does!

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Let me describe this creature to you.  It has six legs.  Each of those legs has claws.  This creature has four wings.  It has three eyes with simple lenses, but it also has two more very large eyes, each of which contain some 30,000 (thirty thousand!) lenses.  Flying with its four wings, this creature has the ability to catch its prey in mid-air, using those claws.  Then it uses its jaws to rip off the head of its catch, and then devours it — all without ever landing on the ground.

The creature I’ve described sounds like it belongs in one of those old 1940’s black-and-white “horror” movies that are almost too funny to watch nowadays.  It sounds like something that might even be in some science fiction movie hitting the theaters later this year.  It sounds horrific.  It sounds like a dragon!  Or a fly?!  Is it either, or is it both?

The dragonfly is, of course, one of God’s amazing creations.  According to scientists, the dragonfly has been around as long as this earth has existed.  It sounds terrifying, but it looks so innocent and unalarming.  

The things the devil throws into our paths daily can seem equally innocent and unalarming.  But look closer.  The Bible reminds us that Satan is roaming about, seeking whom he may devour!  He wants to chew us up alive.  The devil buzzes through our lives, catching us unaware sometimes.  He uses his claws to rip us apart and try to do away with us.  He watches our every move.  And yet, the devil has only the strength that God allows him to have.

God’s eyes are stronger!  God’s arms are stronger!  God’s grasp on me is stronger!  Satan just wants to get his hands on me.  God protects and loves me and keeps me in the palm of His great hand!

Dragon or fly?  Does it matter?  It’s a dragonfly.  It’s name says it all.  Satan would have us think that his name is strong, too.  Oh, but the Name of God Almighty is greater than any other name!  God’s eyes are on my every move this week!  I’m so thankful that even with the evil of this world watching me, God’s watch care over me is all I need!  His eyes are all that matter.  His grasp is what I long for.  Don’t become the prey of the devil this week.  Pray him away.  God is watching, and He is waiting for your call.

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

Each warm evening at our house recently we have been the honored guests of a large and loud private concert.  I’ve seen and heard my fair share of musicians and performers through the years, but this particular lineup is unlike any other group I’ve ever witnessed.

There are no specific musical instruments such as guitars or drums or even a keyboard.  There are no violins or cellos or cymbals.  And for those of you who know where I live, I’m not even talking about the sometimes window-rattling car stereo ‘music’ that wafts over our direction from the city park.  I’m talking about the critters, as Elly May Clampett would call them.

There are frogs like this one that attached itself to our back door.  There are crickets and many other such vocalizing creatures as well.  They all seem to sound off at the same time and are often louder than the television which is just a few feet inside that same door.  It is indeed a lovely sound.

And in that lovely sound, I wonder what is being said.  Are they speaking to each other, are they simply discussing the events of their day, or are they setting an example for each of us?  Are they singing the praises of their Creator?  Are they somehow, in their own way, giving glory to God?

It doesn’t matter that it sounds like noise to us.  It doesn’t matter that it seems like it drones on for hours and drowns out every other sound nearby.  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is that those frogs and crickets and their friends are fulfilling their God-designed roles in the overall scheme of things.  

Many days I fear we gripe and complain and fuss and waste the time we could be praising our Creator.  We make nothing but noise – a clanging cymbal.  But those bugs and critters are making anything but noise!  They are singing their voices out to the best of their ability.  They are making a joyful noise and singing a righteous racket.  A beautiful example that all of God’s ‘critters’ should follow!

Just a thought.