Obama, David Smitherman and Bill Clinton

Remember awhile back when David was gone to a "Gospel Meeting"? Hmmm. Thanks to Gus Cargile for the idea and Glenn Madden for the photoshop.

Families

Mark Perkins, Greg Perins, Scott Perkins, Jim Perkins, Mike Perkins and Sharron Perkins Wade. When I was a kid I loved reading paperback western novels. I read a lot of novels by Zane Grey and Max Brand but my favorites were those written by Louis Lamour. Lamour had a series of westerns that chronicled the Sackett family. The Sacketts were a family of mountain folk. They scattered all over the west and fought Indians and trailed cattle herds and the like. What I liked most about them is that when one of their own was in trouble Sacketts from all over the west would come to help out. I’ve always thought about the Perkins family as being like the Sacketts. We’re all scattered but when we need to we’ll all come together; weddings, funerals, Grandma’s 90 birthday party and now for our cousin Mark Perkins who is in a different kind of fight… a fight for his life. Perkins’ are coming together for him from all over. The church should be like that too… fiercely loyal to each other, sharing laughter, sharing tears and sharing our lives together and fighting to protect our family. Oneness in families doesn’t happen overnight it is forged on the crucible of time. I still have all of my Louis Lamour paperbacks and every once in a while I get them out. They are old and brittle and tattered now but I still like reading about their adventures and the great Sackett family. I also like seeing families come together and look out after their own… like my physical family and spiritual family have done for my cousin Mark. Thanks.

Lessons from pets

Sometimes when I examine a dog at work the client says something like this, “I’m spending more money on my dog than I do on my kids!” I usually respond by saying, “yeah but this dog will never talk back to you or break your heart”.

I have watched Julie over the years with our pets. Our dogs and cats love her. They want to be in whatever room she is in. They want to sit on the couch by her. She talks to them and they listen. She can read their expressions and know what they want. It’s always very emotional for both of us when their health deteriorates so much that we have to put one of them to “sleep”. When our Sheltie “Suzy” had to be put to sleep for lung cancer, Julie asked me to bring the shot home because Suzy gets nervous up at the clinic. Julie held Suzy in her arms at home while I administered the euthanasia solution, she died very peacefully. We both cried.

What makes people love their pets so much? And is there anything we husbands can learn from that?

People love their pets because no matter how horrible of a mood we might be in… they are still happy to see us. Sometimes I go into an exam room where there is a lab puppy who is jumping up and down and wanting to lick me and just sooo happy… I tell the client… “this is how my wife acts when I get home from work every day”. Imagine if that were true .

People love their pets because their pets want to be with them. You husbands think about this… your wife needs you to be with her. It might mean you have to sacrifice some of your precious time… just to be with her. Maybe just watching some dumb movie with her. No one needs that lesson more than I do.

People love their pets because their pets think they are the greatest people in the world. It’s easy to tell your wife that you love her, but those are empty words if she can’t see it in your actions. Convince her with your actions that no one on earth is more important than she is.

I wish every one of you could have a loving pet and experience them from puppyhood to old age and failing health. They can teach you a lot about the shortness of life and how to care for each other.

Planting Seed

I’m big into gardening. Sometimes when I plant seed it doesn’t germinate. Sometimes it doesn’t germinate because I plant it too deep or too shallow or there is not enough moisture or too much moisture or the soil is not at the right temperature. Sometimes it’s just bad seed. Good seed planted according to the directions will germinate and properly cared for it will grow and flourish. It is a fact of nature. Another fact of nature is that God’s Word is good seed. When it is planted in the proper conditions it will grow and flourish. If we’re planting God’s seed and it does not grow it’s not a seed problem… it’s a planting problem. If we’re planting rice in the Sahara desert we’re probably not going to be successful growing rice. If we’re planting God’s seed in the hearts of people who care nothing about God’s Word we’re going to have similar results. Jesus knew that. That’s why he went to the discarded people of Jewish society; the prostitutes, the dishonest Tax Collectors, the unrighteous, etc. He had some seed that when planted in their hearts could change their lives and who they were… and it did. I know how to plant tomato seeds. If they don’t come up it’s a seed problem so I go buy new seed. If we’re having problems with God’s seed we better reconsider how and where we are planting it… the problem is not with the seed.

Imagine two families.

Church News. October 26, 2008 Howdy! Imagine two families. The first family has parents who never discipline their children. Oh, they may voice displeasure and even disappointment in their children’s behavior but they love their children so much that they cannot bring themselves to discipline them. The second family is exactly the opposite. The parents are constantly watching their children looking for any opportunity to discipline them. Most people can clearly see that these are two extremes of parenting and neither serve the best interests of the children. What cannot be clearly seen is while we may reject these extremes of parenting our children, many of us accept these extremes when they are applied to how God interacts with his children. Take for instance those who are so assured of their salvation that they live however they want to - confident that like the doting parents, God loves them so much that he overlooks anything and everything they do. Conversely, there are those who are so worried about committing a single sin and possibly losing their salvation and because of it they are crippled with fear. Like the two extremes of parenting, the extreme views of how God deals with his children are incorrect as well. Most of us can see that effective parents both reward and punish their children in an atmosphere of love, understanding that kids will make mistakes but they are still our children. There may be a point in families where children totally reject their parents and live evil lives. As parents we cannot accept that but we are always looking for these wayward children to realize their mistakes and return to us. We are looking and praying for the chance to forgive them. I think this middle ground best portrays how God deals with his children. Study the scriptures and watch how Jesus interacted with Peter for a fuller understanding of this.

Subject: Church News. June 22, 2008 (Chickens)

Howdy! Recently I purchased six baby chicks from the feed store. As they have grown up I’ve noticed that in spite of the fact that they never knew their parents (or for that matter any other chickens) … they instinctively know how to be chickens. They know how to eat and drink, how to take dirt baths, how to make chicken noises and how to reproduce and they seem to be in good psychological health. God equipped them to be chickens without any training from other chickens. Like chickens, God equips us with certain abilities as well. Romans 1:18–20. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities… his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made… so that men are without excuse.” God gives all of mankind the ability to know about his eternal power and divine nature by observing what he has created… the earth and all it contains. Man can conclude by looking at nature that there is a God and that he has eternal power and a divine nature. Man is different than a chicken though. A chicken can’t be anything but a chicken, but a man, even though he is given the ability to know about God, can reject who he is and turn from being a son of God to being a son of Satan (It would be better to be a chicken)… how sad. Accept God today, learn more about him by reading the Bible and be who he wants you to be.

Fishers of Men

In the first century conversions were like fishing with a stick of dynamite or with a gill net. Huge numbers obeyed the Gospel call. In large part due not only to the power of the Gospel message but also to the great miracles that were worked. Today conversions are usually one at a time, like fishing with a fishing pole. The bait that attracts the potential convert is the Gospel message coupled with the example of a Christ-like life. Sometimes a fish will hit that bait and run with it. Other times, like a flounder, they just want to hold it in their mouth for a while. Everyone’s different… some need more time. Be patient give the Gospel message and the power of a Christian life time to work.