By Kevin Dougherty –

In conjunction with three other downtown Charleston, South Carolina churches, my home church, First Baptist, is participating in a Lenten series focusing on God’s forgiveness and grace. The series has drawn heavily on the powerful witness of the response of Emanuel A. M. E. Church and the broader Charleston community to the murder of nine worshippers at Emanuel on June 17, 2015. One of those victims was Myra Thompson, and her husband, Reverend Anthony Thompson, was the speaker at the service last Wednesday. He offered an encouraging, uplifting, and almost superhuman testimony of grace, hope, love, and most of all, healing.

Reverend Thompson originally had no interest in attending the bond hearing of his wife’s murderer, Dylan Roof, but his children wanted to go so he acquiesced. He was adamant with them though that they were not going to say a word. As the hearing proceeded, Thompson told us how he found himself checking his watch and asking God to hurry things up. Then he said God whispered in his ear and Thompson knew what he had to do. God had told him he needed to forgive Roof. He needed to make sure Roof knew he had to confess and repent of his sin and give his heart to Jesus. At the bond hearing, Thompson told Roof, “We would like you to take this opportunity to repent. Repent. Confess. Give your life to the one who matters the most, Christ, so that He can change it, can change your ways.”

Reverend Thompson’s was one of the voices of calm, forgiveness, grace, and love that set an example for the world and did much to save Charleston from catastrophe, but what Thompson talked about Wednesday was not so much that as it was the sense of healing that he immediately felt after being obedient to God. He said his heart immediately became as light as a feather and he was filled with God’s peace and love. He described how God took away all the anger and hate and gave him freedom and peace. He said he’s had that peace ever since and that it just gets better every day. He knows God is in control, that God has prepared a place for his wife, and that God now has him on a mission to tell others what we can receive from forgiveness.

Reverend Thompson began this message by telling us that before we can tap into the healing power of forgiveness, we must first understand who we are in the eyes of God. None of us are righteous. All of us are sinners. We must first accept these facts about ourselves before we can understand forgiveness. We too need to be forgiven, and if we want God to forgive us, we must forgive others.

Reverend Thompson told the story of how as a young boy he had shot and killed his grandmother’s cat with a sling shot. His sister had witnessed the deed and was using it as leverage to get Reverend Thompson to do certain things she wanted. The guilt and the dread and the power his sister now had over him built up in Thompson until he was compelled to confess to his grandmother. When he did, she told him she already knew. She had seen the whole thing from her window. She had already forgiven him. She loved him. Reverend Thompson reminded us that God is also standing at a window and sees all our sins. He still loves us and He forgives us.

Reverend Thompson told us of the release he felt from being forgiven by his grandmother. It healed him from the misery he was feeling.   Such healing he said, is made possible only by Jesus, reminding us that it is by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus’ sacrifice made it possible for all of us sinners to come together and be healed. Sin, Thompson said, is the disease. Forgiveness is the cure. The more we hold on to anger, the more miserable we will become. The more we hold on to a grudge, the more we hurt ourselves. Only forgiveness can unlock the healing. Thompson said he knew this, “because I had to do that.”

Sometime after the Emanuel murders, Reverend Thompson was speaking at a predominantly white church and a white woman about his age approached him and confessed that she had been taught racism growing up. She said that at some point she realized it was wrong, but that she couldn’t bear to change because of her social place. When she heard about the Emanuel families forgiving Roof, she was moved to step out in faith and ask God to forgive her. Reverend Thompson said he considered the woman to have done a very courageous thing. He confessed that he “used to be a racist too.” “We did it to each other, didn’t we?,” he asked. But then he reminded us that that does not have to be the way it is any more. Hate divides, but forgiveness unites. He described forgiveness as serving the same purpose as a band-aid that pulls together torn pieces of skin to allow healing. Then he listed several torn relationships that might need forgiveness—parents and children, husbands and wives, community members—and asked us “what are you going to do?”

Most of us are not asked to forgive a sin as horrific as what Reverend Thompson forgave. I was immediately convicted of how petty I’ve been in not forgiving the minor wrongs I’ve suffered. Thanks to Reverend Thompson’s example and testimony, I knew the answer when he asked “so what are you going to do?”

This brief and insufficient report does little justice to Reverend Thompson’s compelling words. It serves only as an invitation to watch the entire message at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PrEmHcnYWQ.

Healing awaits.

 

By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

It’s Monday yet again.  A brand new week is ahead.  What did you do yesterday?  Did you spend your Sunday as it should have been spent – in God’s house?  Did you take the time to go to worship or Bible study or a Sunday School class?  Did you put forth the effort to prepare for the week ahead?  And can those folks around you this morning tell that you were in church yesterday?

I could probably show you this picture and never tell you where I was when I took it, and you would still be able to tell where I’ve been.  Of course this statue on the banks of the Mississippi River is dressed in Mardi Gras attire, and it becomes pretty obvious that I had to be in New Orleans to see this.  From looking at this, you are able to tell where I’ve been.

Can the world look at you today and tell that you’ve been in God’s house in worship?  They should be able to do so.  And if you weren’t in church yesterday, what picture are you showing the world this week?

Just a thought.

By Ryan Kelly

The world is made of people that are generally seen as “normal.”  Normal is certainly a subjective term, but it generally describes people who look and act like the majority of those around them. 

Normal – like the world

As Christians, we are not to be normal but rather abnormal. Whereas the world lives in and cares about sinful activity, we as Christians should reject sin in every way. The world loves darkness, we love light…the light of Jesus. 

In my opinion, one of the most relevant and powerful versus in Scripture come from John 3:19-22, “…the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

The ways of God’s people are different than the ways of the other people of the world. We are to brighten a dark world. 

Are you brightening the world around you?

As we follow Jesus, the source of our light, we will illuminate the word in ways never seen before. 

So, be brighter and let your light illuminate the minds and hearts of everyone around you!
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By Brad Campbell – 

Just a thought to help start your week. 

I’ve shown you a few pictures from my trip to France.  This one is a busy street in Paris.  And, yes, many of the streets really are this narrow.  This particular street did not allow vehicular traffic, but we shared many very small streets with the cars zipping past us.  One could get a sense of the crowds and possibly a little claustrophobic. 

The Scriptures plainly teach us that the way to eternal life in Heaven is a narrow way, while wide is the path that leads to eternal destruction.  Narrow is the way.  And we are to share it with others!

The narrow way is to be enjoyed along the way.  Perhaps we missed many things on the wider Parisian streets by taking these narrow passages, but we got to see and experience so much more by doing this!

Don’t be concerned about what you might miss along the wide way.  Be concerned about those who have not yet joined you on the narrow way!  They are the ones who are missing out on the journey.  Share it with them!

Just a thought.

By Ryan Kelly

I reflected today in my Bible Fellowship lesson that we cannot be like a salt tablet set aside and not flavoring food, but we must be mixed in to the culture in order for us to change it. We are to be counter cultural, not changing but changing others. We are to be influencers and to make others “want to be like us” because we are like Jesus.

And, we must do this continuously. Jesus tells us in Mark 8:34 says, “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me continuously.”

The NIV version of this passage adds the word “continuously” and I think this is important. Our daily walk is not occasional or just on Sundays. It is every moment of every day. It is on weekends and holidays, on vacation or when completely alone.
We must follow Jesus with all that we are at all times. Your daily walk should influence others. Be a trend setter…influence the word around you for Christ!

By Ryan Kelly

I had the joy of spending a fun and relaxing weekend with my family.  Although most weeks are like this for us, this one was particularly fun for me.  I was able to really take in the blessing that my children and wife are to me, and I was able to spend special moments with them.

One thing that we are working to do is make more activities “family activities.”  For instance, when my daughter had gymnastics practice this week, we all went as a family to watch her.  When my son wants to go to the park, we all go to the park.  It’s the little moments together that keep a family together.

Life is going to try and tear families apart.  When families are separated, they cannot benefit the Kingdom nearly as well as a family united.  Although this separation can start small and innocently, it can result in detrimental conclusions.

Jesus states in Mark 3:25 that, “a house divided cannot stand.”  Although this message has multiple application points, I believe that the notion of a united family is among the most important.

Families must remain strong.  Families must remain together.

In this age it’s a given that life is going to pull your family in 100 different directions.  My encouragement is to reject that temptation and find ways to stay together.  Even if it means sacrificing extracurricular activities or important meetings, you’ll never regret spending more time together as a family.

 

By Brad Campbell

Just a thought to help start your week.

A little fuzzy due to the tree limb between me and the deer, but pretty obvious that I was being watched!  Deer have extremely sensitive hearing and sight, and it’s very difficult to get a still photo of one that senses your presence.  But I like to try, and this one was simply walking around in our yard.

Do you ever get the feeling you are being watched?  Children pay attention to the adults. The outside world pays attention to the church and God’s people.  My Dad’s mother used to thoroughly enjoy sitting on a bench in the mall and watching people.  (She talked about them out loud, too, but that’s another story!) 

To be watched can be an unsettling thing.  But it can also be a wonderfully comforting thing to realize that someone or SomeONE is watching you!  God watches you always.  His eye is always on you.  Nothing escapes His notice.   

This week, you will never be out of His sight.  And the simple reason is because you are dear to Him.  Enjoy God’s creation.  Love the deer, but remain ever aware of the love of One Who considers you much more dear to His heart.

Just a thought.

By Brad Campbell

Just a thought to help start your week.

If you can read all the small print, you will see that this sign says “Jazz Funeral, where people are dying to come in”.  This place of business, located in the heart of New Orleans, puts a unique spin on the traditional funeral.  While you may not have thought much about your own funeral arrangements, some folks plan theirs in advance.

One particular funeral I officiated recently was one of those that had been planned long before, but it, too, had a unique spin.  There was no body, because it was donated for research.  We told funny stories, we shared happy memories, we sang favorite hymns, and we had a potluck lunch for everybody, because that is what this person planned and wanted!  And it was a glorious celebration of life!

You may not think of “jazzing” up your funeral, but why not?  As a Christian, that time should be a celebration of our life here and a rejoicing of the future set in eternity with our Heavenly Father!

Whether you are planning your funeral or not, you need to be preparing for that moment in time when you will leave this world.  Are you truly prepared to meet your Maker?  Have you given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?  Have you confessed your sins?  Forgiveness awaits!  And for the Christian, no jazzed up fun time here can even compare to the celebration that will take place when we meet our Master face to face.

Preparing for the Celebration, this is just a thought.

By Brad Campbell

Just a thought to help start your week.

This picture comes from a small “museum” of sorts in Vicksburg, MS.  Just as the label reads, the objects here are “Chunky Stones”.  Native American Indians would throw sticks to mark a spot and guess where the rolling stone would stop.  My little hometown of Chunky, MS, was given that name because of this particular game the area Indians would play.

You may feel as if you’ve been “chunked” out into the world in another brand new week, not knowing where you will roll or when you might stop.  Others guess or tempt or cause you to stumble and stop along the way, but the more you roll ahead, the further you can go and the more you can accomplish.

Don’t let the world around you dictate your stopping point!  Roll on.  Some of us are a little more “chunky” than others, but it just gives us more to roll.  Chunky – it’s a good place to be, it’s a good thing to be, and it’s the game of life.  You will never know how far you could have gone if you stop rolling.

Just a thought.

By Ryan Kelly

“They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm.” Luke 8:24