June B. Anderson

WHAT IS "JESUS PORN?????"

2011-10-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

The following is an article that I have taken from my Facebook page posted by one of my friends in show business in California. It breaks my heart. (She didn't write it.) The friend that posted it does not appear to have the kingdom of God at heart but whether or not the people at Sherwood (who produced the Christian films "Flywheel," "Facing the Giants," Fireproof," and "Courageous") can write well enough to suit "real" show-business people. Please pray for these people who just don't understand that Sherwood isn't out for an Oscar but for the salvation of souls. People have spoken loudly that what they want are more films like the Kendrick brothers and Sherwood produce. I guess it's not how you write but what you write.

http://www.bren.us/courageous-yeah-kinda

DO I REALLY LOOK LIKE THAT?

2011-07-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I have a real heart for the lost in the media, entertainment, and celebrity world. One of my connections to people who are ministering to those dear folks that God loves is Dr. Larry Poland with Mastermedia International. I receive his quarterly newsletter, The Mediator, and am never disappointed in its contents...there is always an encouraging story about Jesus Christ's presence in those realms of society. With Dr. Poland's permission, I am using an article he wrote in the Spring, 2011, issue as this blog. I'd appreciate your comments. As usual, my request is that you be nice!

Modesty: The Naked Truth

Editor's note: In this issue of The Mediator Dr. Poland sets aside his regular series on "Wisdom for the Trenches" to deal with a subject he considers critical to the witness of Christians living in a media-saturated culture. "Wisdom for the Trenches" will return in the next issue.

INTRODUCTION
     Modesty is a virtue that is all but lost in American society and that has become increasingly rare even in the Christian community. The pervasive influence of immodesty in society impacts Christian men and women through images in film, TV, videos, Internet, and in secular social settings.
     Regardless of the above, the Bible condemns immodesty. Immodesty has a number of destructive effects on the immodest person, on those who view the immodest person, and on the Christian community.
     Speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Jeremiah the prophet condemns Israel's immodesty by saying, "...you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush in shame." (Jer. 3:3 NIV). Again, he declared, "Are they not ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush." (Jer. 6:15 NIV). Peter exhorts women to modesty in the following words, "I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety...." (1 Peter 2:9 NIV).
     The Apostle Paul exhorts believers to "shine like stars" on the dark backdrop of the degenerate culture around them. Surely this includes the believer's image as well as his behavior--modesty is about both.
     A simple definition of modesty is: Making sure that my external appearance accurately reflects my internal commitment to Christ and to biblical holiness--regardless of worldly fashions.

DESTRUCTIVE EFFECTS OF IMMODESTY
     While immodesty can be a problem for both sexes, it is a greater and more common problem when expressed by women. Following are some destructive elements of immodesty among believers:
1. It blurs the distinction between those who know and love Christ and those who reject God and His law. Question: "Why wouldn't I want to appear to others like one who knows and loves Christ, rather than one from 'the world?'"
2. It blurs the distinction between those who are immoral by behavior from those who are moral by behavior. Question: "If I am not an immoral person, why would I want to dress like one?"
3. It detracts from the believer's true beauty, the countenance. Question: "If the light of Christ is in countenance, and He is the source of my attractiveness, why would I want to draw attention away from His countenance and true beauty by immodest dress?"
4. It tempts others to sin. Question: "If immodesty in dress tempts others to lust after or to covet me sexually, am I willing to be responsible for their struggle?"
5. It feeds the fleshly--not the spiritual--side of the immodest believer. Question: "If I dress or act immodestly in public, will it not stir within me inappropriate fleshly or sexually seductive passions?"
6. It sends messages about the immodest person that reveal their true heart attitude toward purity. Question: "If, as Jesus said, 'from the overflow of the heart a person speaks, 'why would I want my apparel to 'speak' that my heart is impure or immoral, if it isn't?"
7. It contributes to temptations that lead to porn addiction, fornication, adultery, pregnancy out of marriage, sexually transmitted diseases, and the impairment of sexual intimacy in the God-ordained bond of marriage. Question: "If I am not soliciting sexual advances, why would I want to dress as if I were, and, thus, risk having to deal with the potentially horrific consequences of such advances--possibly even rape?"

CONCLUSION
     In their best-selling book, Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time, Stephen Arterburn, Fred Stoeker, and Mike Yorkey describe the plague of addiction to sexual temptation and impure images (a.k.a. pornography) in the Body of Christ. Not just a man's problem anymore, "lust addiction" is a growing issue with believing women.
     Is it not time to make a renewed commitment to help each other conquer these temptations? Step one surely must be to do nothing which feeds sexual lust and moral sin in others.

“Reprinted by permission, Dr. Larry Poland, MastermediaInternational, www.mastermediaintl.org”

Live and Let Diet

2011-06-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

People often wonder, aloud sometimes, how I've stayed so thin as I've aged. Well, I guess I owe a lot to God's grace and his gift of good genes, but honestly, it has now become awfully hard to keep the weight off. When I was younger, in fact until I was 31 years old, I could eat exactly as I pleased and barely an ounce showed up on my frame. Now, well...let's just say that I can put it on reeeeeally fast now. Several months ago I bought a dress to wear to my son's wedding coming up in September, and after only a few months, I took it from the closet and tried it on again. Um...yeah. Some of my middle had to go. Sooooooo...after trial and error, I have come up with a "diet" that, for one reason or another, works for me. Interested? Okay. Here goes:

First of all, I walk an hour about five or six mornings a week. It really does help. AND it's a really good prayer time.

Breakfast: A cup of hot tea. (Sometimes green, sometimes Earl Grey, sometimes some other flavor.) 1/2 cup of fat-free milk. (Believe it or not, depending on the brand, it really DOES have taste.) Four cubes of cheese. (From that really huge bag of cheese cubes you can buy in the cheese section at Wal-Mart.)

Several glasses of ice water until lunch. Supposedly the colder the water, the more your body has to work to keep your body at a normal temperature. That means it's burning calories.

Lunch: One can of Campbell's Soup At Hand. (They have several that are low calorie, like Chicken and Stars and Chicken and Mini Noodles. Occasionally I have the Classic Tomato. Yum.) About 1/2 to 3/4 cup of fat-free cottage cheese and one of those cute little Dole fruits cups that come four to a package. I usually get the pineapple tidbits, peaches, mandarin orange segments, or pears.

MORE ice water.

Usually I get a little hungry around 2:30 or 3:00 and have a bowl of Cheerios or some other not-so-fattening cereal, again with the fat-free milk.

Supper: Whatever I fix for the hubby. I just try not to eat too much of it.

I try not to eat as many sweets and as much bread as I used to. I still eat a sweet or two now and then. They're my weakness. I also eat some bread on occasion. If I had to be really, really strict, I might get a little loopy.

This appears to be working, I have lost about 4 1/2 pounds in about 2 weeks. :)

This may not interest a single soul out there, but here it is...just in case.

Who Do You Think You Are?

2011-04-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Genealogy is one of my favorite pastimes. A vice, some would say. I’m so enamored with it that I pay the full membership cost of almost $300 a year to subscribe to ancestry.com! That works out to be about $25 a month. Compared to golfing, coin collecting, and a lot of other hobbies, I get off pretty cheap with it, don’t you think? Soooo…I bit pretty hard awhile back when ancestry.com introduced a new television show, Who Do You Think You Are? As the saying goes, they had me with, “Hello.” I’m totally addicted and can’t wait for each Friday’s episode. I know that it’s an hour-long, very well crafted ad aimed at enticing its viewers to subscribe to ancestry.com; however, since I’m already a very loyal member, I get to just sit back and enjoy it! The premise of the show is to follow along with the celebrity du jour, sometimes to exotic places like Barbados, as he or she talks with genealogists, archivists, and other experts about old records containing vital information regarding their ancestors, discovering along the way some pretty incredible stories of family life “back then.” The show has featured such famous folks as Lionel Richie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Susan Sarandon, Emmitt Smith, Rosie O’Donnell, Tim McGraw, and the list goes on. The featured celebrity isn’t always someone I admire or even like, but the story is always fascinating.

This past Friday’s episode featured movie star Gwyneth Paltrow. To make her long story short, she discovered, as we first visited her Aunt Fran, that there had been a great-grandmother, Ida May, who had “never cooked a meal,” had not cleaned house, had not otherwise been a good mother, and on top of all that, had also been a hoarder. This explained why Gwyneth’s grandfather didn’t talk much about his childhood and held such disdain for his mother. After more searching of records it was discovered why Ida May had been so ill suited for living: her father had died when she was young, and her mother and older brother had died within a few weeks of each other when Ida May was 13, and Ida May herself had tragically lost a three-year-old child only a couple of weeks or so before delivering the baby she was pregnant with at the time. Many of the stories this show features end much happier than this one did, but this one was a horribly sad story, to say the least.

It reminded me of my own maternal grandmother, Mama Bessie, who married a young man, Grover, had a son who died at the age of two after choking on a peanut hull and developing gangrene from its extraction, had a daughter Alice, and lost Grover when Alice was seven months old. She married Mahlon, had miscarriages, once with twins, and had five more children, one of which was my mother, Amy Rose. Grandpa Mahlon died in 1931 when my mother was 14. Mama Bessie married a third time to a man who wasn’t as kind as he could have been to her children. Fortunately, they had none together and he died.

I said all that to say this: Gwyneth’s story ended so sadly, and with no reference to God except that she found on the other side of her family that there were a number of rabbis, one of which was involved in Kabbalah. (She also proudly revealed that she studies Kabbalah. Unless you’re already well versed in Kabbalah, I will leave you to your Googling on that one.) Mama Bessie and her family, on the other hand, may have suffered many struggles and heartbreaks, but the difference in her story and Gwyneth’s ancestors’ is that Mama Bessie loved and trusted Jesus Christ as her Savior. Her children watched her life and mimicked it in many ways. She trusted Him with her life and while she didn’t die a materially wealthy woman, she passed into eternity with her Savior a very rich woman spiritually and with a loving family who to this day tells many stories of growing up at her feet.

Oh, that Gwyneth’s family could know that love. Maybe you’ll join me in praying for that.

TRUTH

2011-03-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8:32."

Anne noticed Bill's gratuitous nod. His wife, Sarah, wore thick makeup to cover a bruise, this time on her right cheek.

"What is truth? John 18:38." The pastor repeated Pilate's question. Another nod, this time from Jane whom she had seen stagger from local restaurants three times in the last month, each time with a different drunken man. Anne grieved that a few hypocrites kept people away from church.

"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life," he quoted Jesus.

"John 14:6," Anne whispered.

This is my submission for this week's 100 Word Challenge from www.velvetverbosity.com Two hundred words wouldn't have said all I'd like to say, but the challenge is to get across what you want to say in one hundred, so here ya go. My trouble is I have waaaay too many words to say on anything you ask me about! :) I would have liked to address the never ending comments that we shouldn't be judgemental, but alas it would have taken more words because that observation isn't as biblical as people think it is. Maybe next time the word will be something I can build on. :)

"Just the Facts, Ma'am" by June B. Anderson

2011-02-21T13:25:00.000-08:00

I remember my family watching, or attempting to watch, Dragnet in the late 1950's. I say "attempting to watch" because unfailingly when the ominous theme song began to blare "Bom-bom-bom-bom. Bom-bom-bom-bom-BOM," I began to scream and the channel was immediately changed to something more appealing to a milquetoast. And it didn't help that a police badge the size of Rhode Island appeared on the screen, a tiny screen compared to today's monstrosities. Imagine what would happen if the thing appeared on today's tube...er...plasma. With today's cinema-esque sound system. Who could tell what frightened a four-year-old girl in the late 1950's?

This week's http://www.velvetverbosity.com/ 100 Words challenge is "frightened." This is my submission. And, yes, it really happened.

UNYIELDING AND UN-UNDERSTANDING

2011-02-17T14:36:00.000-08:00

Not into a lot of television. Don't know why...just not. Most of it bores me. Not than I'm not easily amused. 's just that I prefer to be amused by books, music, people. And my computer. My computer is my obsession. Well, ONE of my obsessions. You see, there's this little two-and-a-half-year-old grandson. Then there's chocolate. And peanut butter. And milkshakes. Well, food. I have to count food as an obsession.

But I just don't understand these folks who grab the remote as soon as they walk into the house. I just don't get their obsession. Call me a weirdo.

This is my submission for this week's challenge from www.velvetverbosity.com. The prompt this week is...you guessed it...OBSESSION.

IMPORTANT PHONE CALL

2011-02-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

"No, I don't think so...what do you mean, 'Why not?' I just told you...he's a charmer...you know, the type that takes you out to a nice restaurant, engages you in a conversation that makes you think he cares who you really are, then all of a sudden it's, 'You want to come back to my place?' Once, just once, I'd like to go on a date with a guy who wants to know what I like, where I've been, what my goals are..."

Pregnant pause.

"I never thought of that...be interested in his likes and dislikes? Maybe next time..."

This is my submission for the 100 Word Challenge from www.velvetverbosity.com for this week. The prompt is "ENGAGES."

OLD 1910

2011-02-03T10:52:00.000-08:00

Lara shyly entered the cheerfully decorated new barn, her hair billowing into soft pillows of yellow corn silk on her shoulders. When she first heard about the dance, she had wondered if Jim would be there. She didn't really know him but his glance toward her at the general store a month ago made her wonder if he had really noticed her. Maybe she was just dreaming. Wishing. Hoping.

Standing near the tables loaded with lemonade, cookies, cakes, pies, sandwiches, and fried chicken, her heart leaped at the voice behind her asking, "May I have the honor of this dance?"

This is my response to the 100 Word Challenge from http://www.velvetverbosity.com/ This week's challenge is to write 100 words...and ONLY 100 words...using the word "honor." I wonder if this could be the way my grandparents met.

Gertie and Bertie

2011-01-25T13:25:00.000-08:00

Gertrude screamed, both fists banging on her neighbor's front door. Recognizing her voice Bertram snatched the door open. "What's wrong, Gertrude?"

"Help me!" she wailed, turning and running toward her house. Bertram loped behind her, his royal blue robe flopping wildly and shaving cream flying off his face in the breeze.

Approaching her front door she cautiously entered, ran and jumped onto a dining room chair.

Bertram stood agape as he looked from her to the trembling creature behind the trash can.

"A harmless mouse?" he marveled.

"Harmless?!" she panted. "Nothing is harmless that can give you a heart attack!"

This is my submission to this week's 100 word challenge at www.velvetverbosity.com

Confused

2011-01-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

As a writer of Christian fiction, occasionally I am invited to speak on the subject. As part of my presentation I include my testimony, how I became a Christian. After all, if a gal is going to write Christian books, she should provide her credentials, right? Wouldn't you want to know that? I recently explained this to an inviter from a local church, and she was perplexed and asked that I just speak on myself and my writing for fear of confusing some of the people. Then I was confused. If this was a Christian-type church, what was the fear?

This is my submission to www.velvetverbosity.com Their challenge this week is to write 100 words...no more, no less...on the word "credentials." This happened to me just recently. The story is longer, this submission is not.

He Lived, Though

2011-01-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

The perpetually robust gentleman laying in the hospital bed murmured thoughtfully, "You know...I guess...I thought I was invincible." A blood clot to the lung will make the strongest of folks take a step or two back and look hard at life, though. For over forty years he had escaped serious illness, and this was quite a shock to him...and her. "Get a pen and paper," he said with trembling lips and moist eyes.

"Oh, honey..."

"Please...just do it, okay?" His wife bit her lip and scrounged in her purse for his request. "My life insurance policy is in the safe..."

Pointy Things

2011-01-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

Sharp objects bring out the squeamish in me. I'm probably alone when I say that as a child of the '50's and '60's watching a western with my family, my peepers slammed shut when some unsuspecting cowboy received an arrow to the chest! And when Elizabeth Turner plunged a knife into the undead chest of Captain Barbossa I was a goner. Heck, I wasn't too thrilled last week when the guy next to me at Outback stabbed his steak knife into a rare t-bone. And don't get me started on tetanus shots. Anyone got any smelling salts? I'm feeling green.

APPEARANCES

2010-01-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

The topic of how to dress for church comes up now and again, and I felt like addressing it in a blog today, so here goes.

I am one of those who feels like God loves us and accepts our worship no matter what we look like or how we're dressed as long as our worship is sincere and from the heart. With God, everything is all about the heart anyway. If you want to show up for church in jeans and a red plaid flannel shirt, go for it. Male or female. However, there is another way of looking at church dress that is also not wrong. You may want to think about this. Even pray about it.

I know that times have changed, customs have changed, hearts have changed...so how you answer the following questions is just going to have to come from your own stance in life. Here are the questions:

How do you dress to attend:

1. A wedding?
2. A funeral?
3. A 50th wedding anniversary celebration? Especially if it's your grandparents' or other close relatives'?
4. A professional or college ballgame?
5. A NASCAR race?
6. A tractor pull?

For my more affluent friends...yea, maybe even the snobs who may read this: (Not all affluent people are snobs, by the way.)

How would you dress to attend:

1. The opera?
2. A Broadway play?
3. A movie premier?
4. A presidential inauguration?

(As I said, times and customs have changed, so some of you would dress the same for a wedding as you would for a tractor pull; the same for the opera as you would for a NASCAR race, should someone who attends operas actually attend a NASCAR race.)

If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, (and He is, according to The Bible) then let's see what the Bible says about dressing for church. I would think what Jesus said then would apply now, since He is unchanging. In the Old Testament of The Bible, the priests (our modern-day preachers?) were to wear some pretty specific clothing to perform their duties. Really specific. Down to colors and styles. Exodus 28 is one of the places you can read about that. Men and women both wore robe-like or tunic-like clothing with small differences in stylng for the two genders.

In the New Testament, I don't see it addressed a whole lot. However, James 2:1-4 talks about two men who come to church, one in finery and one in filthy clothes, so it appears that both styles of dress were acceptable. The passage is instructing people not to favor the more finely dressed man over the one in filthy clothes. Even saying that if you do, you've become a judge with evil thoughts! Yikes!

Now it's time to think. Who is someone that you respect a lot? Really...think of someone. Depending on who's reading this it could be one of many types of people...an old friend, a seldom-seen-but-admired relative, your favorite performer (writer/actor/singer/dancer, etc.,) the president, the king/queen of some foreign country, whomever. How would you dress to meet that person, whether for the first time or after many years? Personally, I would want to look pretty spiffy. After all, it would be a bit of a celebration for me.

Doesn't the King of Kings deserve more respect than anyone on this earth that we could possibly meet? Shouldn't we respect Him enough to show up in His presence looking like we respect Him? I know, I know...I've already said that with God it's always about the heart and not appearances...but, really, if we respect and love Him as much as we say we do, shouldn't it be obvious not only to Him but to everyone else? If we have the ability, shouldn't we put on not just the garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3) but a garment of respect for our Savior? Just a thought. I know you have your own.

PLEASE DON'T DROWN ME WITH QUOTES

2009-11-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

Not sure why this is something I'm noticing lately, but it appears that Christians, especially pastors/preachers, over the past few years have obtained a fascination with quoting a plethora (I just love that word) of men/women/books/etc., outside the Bible...not that there isn't a place for that and not that a lot of sincere Christians don't have something to say that may be from the Lord. (Like me!) What I mean is that there seems to be a bent toward that practice...like suddenly the Bible isn't enough...or that it can't speak what God wants to say well enough...like something needs to be added in order to get its message across. This isn't limited to just quotations from other Christians (and, actually, some of the people quoted in Christian venues aren't/weren't Christians at all) but also contains prayers of other people. May or may not be anything wrong with that either, but I guess I'd rather hear from the Lord myself what He wants me to pray. I don't want other people putting words in my mouth. I feel like it's a distraction from what God may be wanting to say to me and I can't hear Him because I'm reading/praying what He said to someone else. Jesus Christ Himself gave us the basis for our prayers in The Lord's Prayer, not that I quote it every day or even most days, but I think we can all learn a lesson from how He taught His disciples to pray. After all, we're supposed to be His disciples, too.

I guess one reason this practice bothers me is that if folks are quoting so many other people, that means they are reading huge amounts of material outside the Bible. Lest you think I'm anti-reading-anything-but-the-Bible, let me remind you that I have written two Christian books myself and have two more tumbling around in my head. Also, on my website there are book reviews of some of the books I've read. In fact, I LOVE to read. I read the Bible every day, but I also like to read other books, articles, newspapers, magazines, etc. But if someone is going to read material in order to post to a networking website or develop a sermon, or whatever, I prefer to hear what the Bible has to say. Concentration and poring over pages and pages and chapters and chapters of what someone else said, inspired by God or not, seems to me to be a distraction from the Bible...which is so full that if we studied it as much as we should daily we wouldn't have time for a whole lot of other reading. Pointing the finger at myself here, too.

I know a lot of people are into that sort of thing, but it's time pretty much wasted on me. If you're posting it to a website that I frequent, I skip over it and move on, or if you've sent it to me in an e-mail, I hit "delete" and move on, or if you're preaching it in a sermon that I'm listening to, I zone out. A quote here and there, okay, I can get through that, but I'm talking about the constant barrage of who-said-what-that's-supposed-to-impress-me.

I know everyone isn't going to agree with me on this. That's obvious. But there are others who do.

Thanks for reading...and have a very, very "Happy Thanksgiving!" Remember the One to Whom we are to be thankful...God, our Father and the Father of Jesus Christ our Savior, Whose Holy Spirit empowers us.

MISUNDERSTANDINGS

2009-05-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Our pastor's sermon today was entitled "The Misunderstanding Test," and addressed, as you might guess, the fact that, at some point in our lives, we will all be tested by misunderstandings. I can attest to that. A terrible misunderstanding occurred in my life that left me shattered for a very long time.

Several years ago my family and I were involved with a large group of people that met often, had a leadership group with a chairman-type person, and we all became friends. Somehow the chairman figure got the notion that some of us would be interested in disposing of him. No, no, not in the Elliott Ness kind of way but in the pinkslipping kind of way. (It would become evident later that he suffered from deep insecurities.) There actually were a few people who weren't keen on his leadership abilities, or lack thereof, and several of them had quietly talked with him in private about it. He insisted that compromising by making some sort of adjustment in his leadership wasn't the answer. Still at no time that I'm aware of did anyone ask for his departure from the group. People continued to be unhappy and it became obvious that he had begun building his army, his group that would insulate him and "protect him" from the rest of us.

The large group was at times broken down into subgroups with leadership, of which my husband and I were a part. At times the subgroup leadership would meet with the chairman and overall leadership for discussion of any problems, concerns, or updates. At one of these meetings the chairman announced that one subgroup had disintegrated to the point that only two people from that subgroup were left and submitted that the reason was because the leader of that subgroup (now departed...no, no, not in the dearly-departed kind of way but in the I'm-outta-hear kind of way) had talked badly about the chairman during that subgroup's meetings. My husband and I had been a part of that group. My husband surmised later that we were the only two people left from that subgroup. We were the two that the chairman was talking about. I was shocked because I never remembered hearing anyone speak unkindly about the chairman in those subgroup meetings. I think the chairman thought that my husband and I were speaking some of those unkind words within the subgroup and turning them against him. We weren't.

I do admit that those of us who were unhappy with his leadership were given to discussion about the effect he was having on the group as a whole, but rallying numbers for "our side" wasn't what it was about. Of course, I'm sure he and his following would never believe that. In fact, when he finally did leave, my husband and I wanted to talk with him and his wife to make sure there was nothing between us, but he wouldn't agree to it.

There was one particular couple in the group that he and others had a hard time abiding. This couple had been involved in forming the large group years before he had come on the scene. It was proven later that he had never really come on board with the group to be a part of what we were about but to make it what he wanted it to be. What makes me say that? Several ladies and his wife were talking one day and she became beligerent and said had he known about one of the by-laws of the group, chances are he never would have become a part of it. My response now...at the time my response was saucer-eyes and drop-jaw...would be, "You mean you came into the group not knowing what we were about?" The only sense I could make of that was that he wanted it to be about his concerns, with no vision for continuing what the original plan was for the group.

He did finally leave the group on his own, blaming that couple that he couldn't abide, which angered a long-time group member and member of the overall leadership. This man began an attack on the couple-at-blame which blew the group apart, leaving two sides, many people leaving the group, and broken relationships among people who had known each other long, long before the chairman had come on the scene.

There never was an apology from that man and his people who broke up the group, and, unfortunately, I don't foresee one in the future. Nominal gestures have been made over the years...a meal paid for here, a hug in public there...but no real effort to mend broken...no, shattered...fences. And hearts. Like mine.

Many years and tears later my heart has healed for the most part but not without a scar and, unfortunately, not without a (small) callous. My heart is not into things like it was then; however, new things have taken their place. I have written two books that probably never would have come about, and people like them. And I have two more tumbling around in my head. I am humbled. And it feels good. I feel loved again. That wasn't at all my reason for writing the books, but that's one of the blessings God has given me through it.

There were many days when I grieved for my friendships that are probably forever, at least on this earth, gone. There were days when I had to get out of my own home because I couldn't bear being alone with my grief. There were days when I would busy myself to fill my mind with something other than the pain. And there were the nights when I cried myself to sleep.

I'll never be a part of a group like that again. That is over. Decision made. But I learned something valuable, something I already knew in my heart but had never had to live until now: God really is the only One you can trust. Man is just man, but God is pure love and faithfulness. When friends and family turn on you, God never will. Through it all, He was my constant. I never once blamed Him for what happened. I never once wanted to turn my back on Him. And He has proven to me that my faithfulness to Him makes Him want to not only remain faithful to me but to prove it in tangible and intangible ways. My life is rich. The scar remains, but my life is rich. www.junebanderson.com

Southern Life

2008-10-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

SOUTHERN LIFE

I know there have been many writings about life in the South. The land of my nativity. Maybe not one like this one, though. Rank this one with the kindly perturbed and mildly defensive.

Would you go to China...or the South Sea Islands...or Egypt...or Paris...or...(well, you get the point) and insist that they serve bagels and lox...or bean burritos...or grits? Would you go to Mexico and pout when they wouldn’t serve you poi? I, for one, would not show up in Boston and demand they make room on their menus alongside clam chowder and baked beans for real Southern Brunswick stew and pork barbecue.

And I certainly wouldn’t move to The Bronx and even SUGGEST that they tone down their accent. Heck, it’s one good reason to visit New York! Each part of this wonderful country of ours sports a way of speech that is unlike any other..the South included. (I’ve had my share of requests to “say something” when traveling out of my region just so that the Southernly challenged can hear my twang...and believe me, it’s a doozy! And I wouldn’t trade it for all the voice coaching in Hollywood!)

Which brings me to another mild beef...why does Hollywood seem to, in large part, place people in obviously Southern-bent roles who aren’t even remotely Southern, and then ask them to speak as if they were? I know quite a few Southern actors who would jump at those parts if only given the chance! And speak quite naturally. No training. No coaching. Then on the other hand you have folks that are definitely Southern who are, fortunately, placed in those parts and even in parts that don’t necessarily call for a Southerner. Strange.

I think that TV and movies have affected the children and teens of the South so much that many of them think they have to change their accent in order to be respected. Pshaw! I want to approach some of them and say, “Sugah, I know your parents and your grandparents, and you don’t talk like them! You get your Southern britches back on and speak like you was raised!”

Now you may think, “Surely she doesn’t talk like that!” Well, of course I do! It’s just plain fun! That’s not to say that I don’t know proper English. It was one of my best classes in school and one that I made some of my best grades in. ‘Cept my freshman year of high school, but let’s not go there. Bad year. It fouled up a lot of my life. Moving on...

Okay, so let’s wrap this up. What I’d really like to say is this: If you want to move down here and live with us, come on, honey! The more the merrier! Test my Southern hospitality! But don’t come here asking that I take up your ways! Incorporate your foods into my menu! Start talking your way! Adapt! I’d have to if I moved to your area! Would you start serving sweet tea just for me? Would you change your accent just to accommodate me? Would you who may not have a hospitable bone in your body all of a sudden become the quintessential host/hostess just for me? Bet not. And I wouldn’t ask you to.

Oh, and should you find yourself thinking that I’m on a high horse let me just tell you this:

I have visited New York City, and I love it. The people, the crowds, the food, the subway (yes, the subway, except after a Yankees game! Yikes! Never again!)

I have visited San Francisco, and I love it. Fisherman’s Wharf, the food, the sourdough bread, the trolleys on the hilly streets, Chinatown.

I have visited Los Angeles, and I love it. The Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the footprints and handprints, the food, the weather, the landscape, the sights.

I have visited Las Vegas, and I love it. The beautiful brightly colored lights, the (cheap) food, the fountains, the shows, the desert.

I have visited Arizona, and I love it. The desert, Hoover Dam, the Colorado River, the Grand Canyon.

And I’ve been to lots more of this country, and there’s very little I didn’t love about it; but it’s always good to come back to The Deep South. The land I love. The land I want to keep pure. Well, it’s a little late for that, but I hope you’ll help me preserve what’s left of my corner of the country. It’s the only one like it. Thanks for listening. Y’all have a nice day, ya heah?

Zaxby's Fries

2008-10-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

I know this has absolutely no importance at all in the grand scheme of things, but sometimes you just have to do a little something fun, ya know? And this time the fun thing to do is talk about fries. Whether you call them Freedom Fries or French Fries doesn't matter. For the sake of the "fun" theme, let's just call them "fries." Heck, most folks do anyway.

Kudos to Zaxby's (that is a weird use of three weird letters of the alphabet right there, I don't care who ya are) for serving good old-fashioned crinkle cuts! They are without a doubt my absolute favorite. I have no idea why...they just are. And I will admit that I like them better a little limp and greasy, not crunchy. Again, I have no idea why. I CAN tell you, though, why some other varieties are NOT my favorite.

Take the shoestring variety...please. They certainly live up to their name minus the limpness of a shoestring. I suppose they are more like a shoestring that was dunked in starch and left to dry. Stiff. Hard. Cold in seconds. More like long, skinny potato chips. If I want potato chips, I won't ask for fries...I'll ask for potato chips. The English have properly named these. I.E.--Fish and chips

Then there's cottage fries...and it depends on whose cottage (or restaurant) is serving them. Sometimes they're long and thick, sometimes round and thick...or thin. I don't trust a menu that says "cottage fries" for that very reason...you can't really know what to expect them to look like. I have had some success in the past with cottage fries, but who really wants to take the chance, ya know?

Of course, one can't write a review on fries if one doesn't mention steak fries. You can usually trust them to be long, a bit thick, and not overdone. I can go with these if you're not going to offer me crinkle cuts.

Since my palate is a bit sensitive to highly seasoned foods (don't offer to take me to Taco Bell or anywhere else Latin flavored) or even unhighly seasoned foods...just mildly seasoned foods...I am very skeptical when the menu mentions "seasoned fries." Seasoned? With what? Basil? Dill? Rosemary? No. It usually means CAYENNE PEPPER or some other tiny red sprinkled thing, paprika notwithstanding. My tongue cringes at the mention of anyone's chili except mine. My nose runs when I eat chili that so much as PASSED BY the spice rack on the way to my table.

If you have a new contraption...maybe from Ron Popeil...that slices, dices, and juliennes, I will be nice and try the fries that you have made from a real spud in your real kitchen with your real hands with your real new contraption and your real grease...even though it's not a crinkle cut. You get points because it was a real potato and you really cooked it. Now if your new contraption has a blade that makes crinkle cuts, we are true friends!

If I have offended you by dissing your favorite fry or have committed a faux pas by failing to mention another fry variety, well, I'm sorry. You will just have to forgive me and move on. As I said earlier, this was just for fun. Gimme a break.

It would be fun (again the theme today is "fun") if you let me know of some places other than Zaxby's that serve crinkle cuts. Okay...the floor is yours!

Reunion Secretaries

2008-06-06T11:57:00.001-07:00

This is my first time to ever be responsible for sending out the reminders for my mother's people's reunion. I didn't want to take the responsiblity, but I've never done it and I figured it was my turn, so I accepted it...and dreaded it. I wrote a quick, cute, corny little poem, enlisted my husband's help in running it off on postcards, went to the post office to purchase 60 postcard stamps, self-adhesive (or "already been licked," as the postal worker said,) placed them in the obligatory upper righthand corner (27 cents to mail a post card? Well, it's cheaper than gas, I guess) and have them all ready to mail. Then I saw the secretary's book in the briefcase full of "stuff" that has been handed down over several years. (Don't know whose idea that was, but thanks! Very organized.)

The book has information from the very first reunion in July, 1963. My mother was the first secretary. That would make sense...it may have even been her idea to have the reunion in the first place. The first page says:

Record of Collections and Expenses
7/21/63 (with my mother's name beside it)
Collected $3.52
Book, stamps, etc., 1964 2.75
Bal. July 1964 .77

I read down and over the pages and notice (my mother had it again in 1976) the names of those whose names will never appear there again, like my mother's, and the names of those who are unable to come because they are too old and live too far away at least to come every year, and the name of one with Alzheimer's, and the names of those whom I don't even know.

Then...what? What's my name doing there in 1983????? Well, I THOUGHT I'd never been the secretary before! But, lo and behold, there's my name...in MY handwriting...having been the reunion secretary in 1983! I bet my mother had a huge hand in helping me with that because I had a baby by then and lived 120 miles away.

Anyway, I was just waxing nostalgic and wanted to share this with anyone out there who might care. Have a good day.

Quick Post

2008-05-05T13:00:00.001-07:00

Our daughter and her husband are expecting our first grandchild on September 14 and they just found out it's a boy!!!!!!!!!!

Errors

2008-05-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

Okay...pet peeve time. I hope this is not incredibly insensitive of me, and I don’t know why it bothers me, but spelling, grammar, and punctuation flubs irritate the stew out of me! I’m reading along and all of a sudden I’ll read a sentence that goes something like this: “We took our jacket’s to the beach just in case the weather is chilly.” What’s wrong with this sentence? Well, the plural of jacket is “jackets.” If you want to write about a button on a jacket (showing that the button belongs to the jacket) you use “jacket’s.” “We took our jackets to the beach, and my jacket’s buttons all fell off.” These kinds of errors seem to be cropping up more and more.. I’m not sure why that is, and I certainly don’t mean to lead you to believe that I am perfect at all this stuff. (In fact, you may find some errors in this very blog!) I’m just saying that it bothers me.

Kidz, pleeze get thiss stuff strate wile you’re (not your)still in skool so that you won’t (not want) drive fokes like me krazy!

Whose Words Are More Important to You?

2008-04-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

I dislike it when I get perturbed in church. One of the reasons is that I dislike it when folks grumble in church. You know the ones I mean: “It’s hot!” “It’s cold!” “The carpet is dirty/ugly/torn.” “Why do we have to study this topic in Sunday School?” “That preacher is so long winded!” So when I’M one of the perturbed grumblers, I double dislike it!

However, I must say I was a grumbler at church yesterday. Hopefully, though, it was righteous grumbling! As I looked at the church bulletin, I noticed that the nicely printed front with an open Bible and a cross and some yellow flowers was accompanied by a large-print quote: “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.” Martin Luther

Then I noticed waaaaay down in the bottom right-hand corner in tiny little print (my husband had to hold it up close to read it) another quote: “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.” Luke 24:45

These are stock bulletins that are sent to us, and we just add our announcements, etc., to them, so when our wonderful, Godly pastor's wife printed them up, I'm sure she never even saw it.

But...what’s wrong with this picture? It’s not what was said but the fact that God’s words were relegated to the far reaches of the bottom corner in tiny print and Martin Luther’s were given the “best seat in the house” and in huge print. This says to me that some people...in the church...think man’s words are more important than God’s.

Does this speak to you as loudly as it does to me about the condition of the church now?

Dogwoods and Antiques

2008-03-29T13:43:00.001-07:00

I have just returned from a lazy drive to and from a little town about 15 minutes or so from my house, said trip having been made to the Dogwood Antiques Show/Sale in that little hamlet (names and places changed to protect the innocent, namely me since I didn’t request permission to write this little blogette.)

Every year the garden club in that fair town puts on this happy little event to raise money, for what I’m not sure, but I’m guessing it’s for a good cause. Antiques dealers from here and there, around the South mostly, set up tables for buyers of the four-dollars-at-the-door tickets to browse and make purchases, if they so desire. I mostly just like to look, but if you’re so inclined, you can pick up some very old and some not-so-very-old furniture, dishes, books, jewelry (lots of jewelry,) kitchen utensils, dolls, pictures, figurines and whatknots, and (my favorite) depression glass. (No, I didn’t buy any.)

The dogwoods along my drive, drenched in their beautiful white, cross-shaped flowers, seemed to be saying, “See? We didn’t let you down!” As if the ladies of the club would have been dismayed if their little blossoms hadn’t appeared to help lead the way to the Civic Center. After all, it WAS the Dogwood Antiques Show/Sale. The population of the little town was 455 at the 2000 census, so for them to even have a civic center is quite astonishing. It appears to have once housed their school, maybe in more hustling, bustling times when maybe there were more hustling, bustling children.

This was my second year to visit their to-do, and once again I enjoyed every minute of it, from registering for the door prize to be given away at 2:30 p.m. (no, I did NOT win,) to the tea room which served lunch for extremely fair prices. Barbecue plates for $5.00 (you ain’t been to the South if you ain’t had pork barbecue!) and pimiento cheese or chicken salad sandwiches for $1.50. The desserts appeared to have been home made by the ladies themselves: coconut layer cake, chocolate layer cake, pies, and caramel layer cake, my choice for this trip. Delicious. At one point a hard-working gentleman helper walked into the tea room and one of the ladies behind the counter asked what time he closes. He told her he closed at 1:00. It was 10 minutes till two, so she assumed her forthcoming request would be moot. He wanted to know her request anyway. It appeared that she needed some primer (he must own a paint or hardware store) and he said he’d get it for her. She told him just to leave it on his step and she’d pick it up. I love small-town America.

I downed my pimiento-cheese-on-wheat sandwich, chips, and one bite of the dill pickle (dill’s not my favorite) and about half of my soft drink, savored every bite of the cake (I was good...I didn’t get the thickly coated caramelized end piece that I wanted) and it was back to the antiques tables where I took another stroll through to admire all the items of antiquity and the few new/newer items and decided to make my purchase and go home. Oddly enough, my purchase was something brand new, three linen bread cloths to line my baskets at Thanksgiving and Christmas, my old ones having been stained and greasy from my yeast-roll bakings at that time of year.

Okay, so this turned out not to be a blogette after all but a full-blown blog. Those of you who know me knew it wouldn’t be a blogette, didn’t you?

So what makes someone like me, who doesn’t blog often, want to write about something so plain and unintellectual? The fact that God is good...all the time, whether you can see it today or not...and loves us enough to not only send His only Son to provide for our sin atonement but also allows us simple pleasures. Lazy dogwood-scattered drives, caramel cake, pretty colored glass, and reminders that, even though wars rage around us and gas prices are swallowing us alive, small-town America can still be good.

Time after Time

2008-03-09T18:19:00.001-07:00

My husband, my son, and I went on a post-Christmas shopping trip this past year and had a really good time. Among the items my husband purchased were a pair of matching clocks for our bedside tables. Digital. Up-to-date. Streamline. Nice.

Yesterday it was really windy here. And cold. We even had some snow, which really excited us since we live in the Deep South and don’t see the frozen white stuff often. At some point during the day our electricity flickered off for a few seconds, I guess because the wind was blowing so hard it affected the power lines. Anyway, the power was off just long enough to make almost every clock in the house blink an annoying reminder to reset them all. Ah, but not our new streamline bedside clocks. They were on the ball and, as John Cameron Swayze, the Timex man, used to say, “they take a licking and keep on ticking.” So we went around and reset the various blinking electronics.

Eventually bedtime came around and we remembered to set our clocks ahead one hour, since Daylight Saving Time would begin in the middle of our snoozing. (Note: It’s Daylight SAVING Time, not Daylight SAVINGS Time. Sorry, but I’m ticky about that kind of stuff.) I hardly ever set an alarm, but I decided I would set the alarm on my cell phone, which I keep by the bed, so when I woke up, looked at my new clock and it was 7:50 a.m. and my cell phone alarm should have gone off at 7:30, I was a little perturbed. I got up and was getting ready for church this morning when I realized that my watch and my cell phone said 7:30 and my new bedside clock said 8:30. I was confused. My husband was up by then and I questioned him as to his opinion on the situation. We then proceeded to check every timepiece we could and also a couple of TV stations. Everything read 7:30 except our bedside clocks, which couldn’t possibly be wrong because we both remembered setting them one hour ahead as we crawled into bed…at the same time. We were in the room together when we were setting our clocks. We can vouch for each other.

Now we were both confused. I consulted the internet, doing a quick search for “atomic clock” and checking the first two hits. Yes, it was this weekend that we were supposed to set our clocks ahead. We have always taken great joy in always remembering the cute little verse we were taught years ago to remember how to set our clocks for the time changes: Fall back, spring up. Clever, huh?

Finally, we realized what had happened…our new clocks were programmed to set the time all by their onesies, just like our computer and just like our cell phones. Sooooo…not only did we set our clocks ahead one hour as we retired last night, but at 2:00 a.m. today our new, intelligent clocks also set themselves ahead one hour.

My husband was not amused as he had not slept well on Friday night and had looked forward to getting a good night’s sleep last night, albeit minus an hour. No, he was not amused at all. He’s ticky about that kind of stuff.

Part II, Signs of the End of the Age

2008-03-06T07:11:00.000-08:00

I promised you a continuation of yesterday’s blog. Here it is. Thanks for showing back up!

One of the ways that people are being misled in the end times is by what they see in their own...and other...churches, unfortunately. For awhile now, it has disturbed me that we are spending time in church just playing church, using it as a social club, and with the last days coming nearer, I...and a lot of other people worldwide...see this as dangerous. Sad, actually. Jesus Christ says that we are supposed to be talking with people about Him, telling people how He can forgive their sins and save them...it’s something we should have been doing all along, but with His return closer than ever...and seeming to be upon us, if the Bible scholars are to be believed (and I think they are) we should be all about being sure the people we love have received Him as their Savior and will be with us in Heaven when we’re raptured. (Yes, that’s in the Bible, too...just because the word “rapture” doesn’t appear in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s not gonna happen. There are a lot of things that are not in the Bible, but they’re real.)

And before you start calling me “holier than thou,” there’s something you need to know. I’m 53 years old and have only been a Christian since I was about 30. That’s about 30 years that I sinned...and sin is anything that displeases God...and believe me, I displeased God a LOT in those 30 years, so lest you think I’m coming from some high and mighty place, forget it. I’m coming from a place where I know how both sides live, and I wouldn’t return to who I used to be for all the money in Donald Trump’s, Ted Turner’s, and Bill Gates’ bank accounts combined! My life now is too good to ever want to go back to who that other person was! ‘Nuff said. Onward.

I guess the main thing I’ve noticed in churches, not just one or two either, is that the primary focus isn’t on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, dead, buried, and risen from the dead for our salvation. They’re afraid of stepping on people’s toes. It seems churches want to focus on man-made things and liturgies and programs and plans and buildings and what color the carpet is and what the newest book is...when the only Book that’s really necessary is The Holy Bible; but it appears that it’s not enough for some folks, preachers included. I believe this grieves God because He’s told us, in the Bible, all we need to know to live the life He’s called us to if we just read it. I read it through every year and have done so for about ten years, and I can tell you there is stuff in there that you never knew was there! It’s an amazing Book!

If you’re a Christian and have tried to read it and are having trouble, maybe it’s because of the wording. I will admit that the King James Version is hard for me, so I use the New American Standard, which, according to one of the introductory pages, is the translation that is nearest to the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic texts. But there are others to choose from, just be careful. And be sure you’re reading a TRANSLATION and not a paraphrase...especially don’t read “The Message” paraphrase. The author has actually ADDED TO and TAKEN AWAY FROM the Bible in writing that one. For instance, compare 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. Go to www.biblegateway.com and compare any version with “The Message” and see for yourself. There are many other passages that have been twisted for whatever reason. Stay away from that one! Some people have said that they don’t use it as a study Bible but just for reading. Why would you do that? What is the purpose? Why would you need a different version to study than you do to read?

I guess I said all that to say this: We should get back to what’s most important...the basics of the Bible and not the baseness of the world.

Signs of the End of the Age

2008-03-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

SIGNS OF THE END OF THE AGE

Because I love people...all kinds of people...all religions, all races, etc., etc., I’m writing this to everyone because I don’t want to see anyone fooled, misled, attacked...or left behind. I have been contemplating the Bible passage Matthew 24 where Jesus is questioned by His disciples about the end times. He spells it out to them:

1. Many will come in My Name claiming to be Christ and will mislead many.
2. There will be wars and rumors of wars.
3. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
4. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

I’ve seen every one of these things happen.

However, He says these things are merely the beginning of what He calls “birth pangs,” meaning that the end is only beginning to manifest itself. Then He says that:

1. Christians will be delivered to tribulation, killed, and hated by all nations because of His Name.
2. Many will fall away from Him and betray one another and hate one another.
3. Many false prophets will arise and mislead many.
4. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.
5. The Gospel will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
6. If anyone says to you, “Here is the Christ,” or “There He is,” don’t believe them because false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.
7. Just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

I’ve seen signs of 1-6 in this list, too. Heck, some of it has even happened to me (no, I haven’t claimed to be Jesus Christ!) and because of these things, I feel that God has put a burden on me to send out a warning to all who call themselves Christians: Read Matthew 24 and think on these things. Do you see any of it happening? Are you participating in any of these things? What is a false prophet? (It may not be what you think.) Do some research...even if it’s just a little. Are you sitting under teaching that’s not of the Lord Jesus Christ? Think back on what you’ve heard in church recently...even as long ago as 3-4 years...or more...or less. This leads to my next blog....tomorrow.

Old and New

2007-12-30T18:00:00.000-08:00

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Ever have a date in your life that was significant for more than one reason? No, I don't mean a DATE date. I mean a calendar type of date. In the 1970's, I went to tech school with a girl whose birthday was November 22, and she said that 22 was a special number to her, rattling off a list of reasons why that I can't seem to remember.

December 29 has become memorable to me:

In 1987, it was the day we moved our family from Dublin to Americus. That was 20 years ago, and I still can't believe it. This is the longest I've ever lived in one town. Americus is sort of a hard town to merge into, especially in the winter time and especially during the Christmas and New Year's seasons. Our children were 5 years old and 17 months old at the time. Our daughter barely remembers Dublin, although she grieved and cried for the longest time over leaving her best friend, Lisa, there. I think she finally got over it. Our son, however, remembers nothing about that dear town. I loved it there. It was where I became a Christian, so it's always gonna be my spiritual home until I get to my Real One.

On December 29, 2003, my husband's 85-year-old mother succumbed to cancer. She'd had it only a short time, obviously, since she only found out she had it in September of that year. Hers was a quick and quite painless death. I had prayed two things for her when I found out she had it: "Lord, please don't let her suffer, and please just let her go to sleep." That is exactly how it happened. She had three months to get her arrangements made (she asked that I sing "He Touched Me" at her funeral, which I did, completely dry-eyed, much to my tender-hearted sister's amazement. What can I say? God is good) and to accept visits from friends and relatives. She was placed, by the doctor, into a nice nearby nursing facility and was quite pleasant throughout the whole three months...eating well, making new (albeit short-term) friends, laughing. Thankfully, she had needed only a few Tylenols for an occasional pain. Over a period of several days, we think beginning on Christmas Eve, she just sort of lost sight of reality and drifted off to sleep. On December 29, I showed up for a visit and found the nurses discussing her condition...her blood pressure was extremely low, and I couldn't make her open her eyes. In a few hours she was gone. Not suffering. Just going to sleep. Fortunately, all of that happened about eight months before the leaders of our then-church suggested that maybe we would be happier elsewhere.

On December 29, 2006, at a new church we celebrated with our new pastor and his wife and family the birth of their first grandchild, Toby. A few days ago, on December 29,2007, Toby turned one year old.

Somtimes with unhappy endings come happy beginnings.

A Little Bird Told Me

2007-11-25T06:28:00.000-08:00

This time of year my mind becomes cluttered, not that it's not already, but as Christmas approaches my head becomes so full of "stuff" that I sometimes have a hard time going to sleep, or staying asleep, at night. Couple that with the fact that I'm at the age when it's hard to sleep sometimes anyway, and you have the makings of one of those nights when a person has to either just lay there and fight or get up and find something constructive to occupy one's mind until it thinks it's ready to rest. Last night was classic.

To make a fairly short story even shorter, I fought for awhile then decided to get up and DO some of the things that I was just laying there THINKING about doing...like tying those new Christmas ornaments on our dining room chandelier...and making those red bows to put on the deck. I'm not a particularly good bow maker, so I was mildly excited that they turned out halfway decent. Only halfway. Good thing they're going to be outside...out of close-range vision...amongst the birds and squirrels and greenery.

I finally decided that I'd give sleep another chance. By now it's around 2:15, 2:30. I think the last time I checked the time (you HAVE to do that when you're fighting to get to sleep, don't you?) it was around 3:15, so I figure I was asleep by 3:30.

God is so good...He knows I need to get up by 7:00-ish on Sundays in order to get to worship team practice on time, which I'm usually late for anyway, so what did He do this morning.? Around 7:05 I'm jolted awake by a sound outside the bedroom window...seems one of our precious (loud) little birds had been commanded by God to give me a wake-up call. (He knew I had refused to set my clock.) It was as if the little darling were saying, "God-says-"Get-up!' God-says-'Get-up!'" Yes, Lord. Thank You.

Please Help our Tornado-Ravaged Hospital

2007-10-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

The "Judy" that sent me this is a close friend of mine whose husband is a surgeon here. He has performed procedures on my husband and me. Please read this and act, if you feel so inclined. Here is the link mentioned: www.winanmri.com Thanks. June

Dear Friends and Family.......As most of you remember.....our town suffered through an FE3 tornado on March 1st which devastated 800 homes and 1/3 of our business district. Our hospital was totally destroyed as were most of the Dr.'s offices in town. Below you will find a 'tangible' way to help our community win a new million-dollar MRI machine from the manufacturer, Siemens. Follow the instructions below and it will take about 4 minutes of your time. If you would be so kind, would you pass this on to your contact list?? We would greatly appreciate it! Judy

Judy...Subject: Help Sumter Regional Hospital Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:17:21 -0400> Subject: Help Sumter Regional Hospital So many of you have asked of ways that you can help Sumter Regional Hospital and Americus, Ga. This is an easy way to help our community and would be such a Godsend for our hospital. Seimans is having a contest to give away a one million dollar MRI machine to a hospital in America. The hospital must come up with a video to present their need and it is a vote of popular opinion. There are many videos already submitted. Many are silly, a few are business-like, but none are as touching as the story of the tornado that ripped apart our town on March 1st. You can submit one vote in a 24 hour period from each email account. Please visit www.winanmri.com and place your vote for the video entitled "Blown Away" by Sumter Regional Hospital every day until the end of the year.

Thanks so much.

Dreaming Again

2007-10-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

Three years ago, one of the most painful situations that I have ever experienced occurred in my life. I won't go into it now. Maybe another time. The important thing I want to express here now is that I have come full circle...run the gamut, as it were, of emotions concerning the situation.

In the beginning I was so ripped apart that I pretty much promised myself that I would never dream again. I was just going to live my life one day at a time and not think about the future. I am a Christian...born again, Holy Spirit filled...and I knew that only one thing mattered about the future: that I live my life in such a way that I would please God and spend eternity with Him in His beautiful Heaven. The Apostle Paul was given the privilege of making a short visit there once and allowed to come back and tell us that there were things about it that there were actually no words for...there was no way to describe to us what he saw, it was so wonderful. That's what I'm looking forward to, and that's what I had my eyes on at the time...and that's pretty much ALL I had my eyes on. Thinking about anything here on earth in the way of hopes for the future or dreams of the future was out. I would just live my life one day at a time and go to Heaven at the end of it all.

Since then God has healed my heart and my life and brought me full circle. I actually dream again. "I dream of travels to make, roads to take, and wonderful, beautiful movies to make. I dream of conquering sin, poems to pen, and precious and drifting souls to win."

On September 30, October 1, and October 2, 2007, our church had a thing we called "Seeking Revival." We called it that because you can't just say, "We're going to have revival," because you really don't know whether you're going to experience revival or not. Many times we had "revivals" that were "planned" when I was a child. I never saw anything different come of it, maybe it did and I missed it, but I don't think so. You can hope for revival, as we recently did, and you can pray for revival, as we did; but unless the people desire it, unless the Holy Spirit is welcome, I just don't see that it's gonna happen.

Well, it did for us. And on the last night the visiting preacher said that there was someone in the congregation that was hurting, someone that he had sat in his pew and wept for just before he got up to preach. He asked that person to come down so that he could pray for him or her. He knew who the person was, and he said that the person knew, too. I just knew it was me, but I waited just in case it wasn't. No one moved. I didn't want to miss my blessing, so I stood up to walk down the aisle...so did two other people!

When we got to the preacher, he prayed first for the man, then he turned to me and said that what the canker worm had eaten would be restored. I knew what he meant. Then he prayed for me and spoke in tongues. I fell out on the floor! While I was laying there he began to talk with the other woman (the one he'd had in mind in the first place)...and practically everything he said to her was for me! I was renewed right there...on that floor. When I stood up and took my seat, the animosity I had felt toward those who had sinned against me had been replaced with pity for them.

Later my good friend turned to me and told me that she had the interpretation for the tongue that had been spoken to me. It was: "I will give you what you desire my child. Delight yourself in me. Trust also in me, and I will give you the desires of your heart. Peace, be still. Rest in me."

Now, I don't care whether you believe in that sort of thing or not (actually, I do because it's such a blessing and I want you to be blessed...but that's up to you,) but whether you do or not doesn't negate the fact that it happened to me, and you can't take that away from me. The peace that has been afforded me since that night is unbelievable. I still pray for those people and the people who are still under their influence. They are pitiful.

I have been delivered and I can dream again. Praise God!

May He bless you and yours.

Life Chain

2007-10-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 7, 2007

This won’t be news to anyone local, but my town is one of diversity. This was proven again to me today as I spent an hour this afternoon standing with many, many others on the sidewalks in front of one of our banks holding signs saying: "Abortion Hurts Women," "Life...the First Inalienable Right," and "Adoption...the Love Option." Cars, a motorcycle, SUV’s, trucks, and vans carrying African Americans, Asians, Caucasians, and Hispanics passed by as The Life Chain stood silently, patiently delivering its message. We were acknowledged with thumbs up, smiles and waves, and horn honking.

The message is one that I don’t take lightly. It is a strong belief I’ve carried for years, one that I believed when, years ago, a friend in a faraway town became pregnant and feared her husband would insist on an abortion. They had planned to never have children, you see. My husband and I had wanted more children, and I asked her to give me time to talk with my husband about adopting hers; but they kept the baby and, of course, they adore him. He’s a wonderful young man now.

It’s a belief I consider every time I think of the abortion of another friend in another faraway town during the promiscuous teen years of her life. She never married, never had children, and grieves still for the baby she killed.

It’s a belief I consider every time I think of Ethel Waters who, for many years, sang hymns with the Billy Graham Crusades. Ethel was a product of rape. Of a 12-year-old girl. Ethel’s was one of the most beautiful singing voices you could ever hope to hear.

A wise man once said, "If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything." So today some of us stood for those who can’t stand for themselves. How long that will be our right is yet to be seen, but for the moment, that is our right; and there are many brave men and women on foreign soils standing shoulder to shoulder to make sure we have that right for as long as possible.

An Attempt at Movie Reviewing (Spoilers Abound)

2007-10-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

I just rented and watched "Chocolat" for the umpteenth time. I also just finished drinking a cup of hot chocolate. Wonder why. "Chocolat" is not a new movie, copyright year being 2000 on the VHS tape I rented. (The video store didn’t have it on DVD. Wonder why.)

This movie touches so many emotions...happiness, sadness, pity, anger...AND I am supremely tempted by all the chocolate. Throughout the movie chocolate abounds. Thankfully they haven’t invented smellivision yet or I would be undone! It doesn’t help that Johnny Depp shows up midway through the plot line either. Intelligent moviemakers know if they’re going to make a movie about temptation, their leading man’s just gotta be Johnny Depp.

The story takes place in a straightlaced French village in 1959. Vianne, a stranger, drifts into town and opens a chocolate shop at the beginning of Lent, drawing the contempt of the mayor, who strives desperately to keep everyone under his thumb and to make sure everyone attends Mass and strictly keeps all his rules, which are not necessarily God’s. The mayor seems to think that obeying religious rules is the most important thing in life. With him it’s the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. Heck, going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a carport makes you a Ferrari.

Vianne and her little girl, however, are not churchgoers, but they do try to make friends, only to discover that the mayor has warned the village to leave them alone as he feels they are a bad influence. Stop right there. Wouldn’t the Christian thing have been to try to befriend Vianne and her daughter and win them to Jesus Christ instead of shunning them? Wouldn’t the wrong thing be to turn the entire village against them?

If we could become Christians (or be won to Jesus Christ or get into Heaven or whatever you want to call it) through being good and doing good works, then in this movie the non-churchgoing Vianne would have made it hands down, her few indiscretions notwithstanding. She befriended an old lady whose daughter had forbidden her little boy to see his grandmother and brought them together secretly (okay, that would have made me mad had I been his mother, but Vianne’s heart was right,) she saw a bad marriage and sheltered the battered woman, she helped heal another bad marriage, she saw an older man’s feelings for a widow still mourning her husband after 15 years and Cupidized them, and she accepted the dregs of society just as they were (reminds me of an old hymn.) All using the temptation of chocolate. (Hey, it’s a movie! Gimme a break.)

With God, it’s always a heart thing. And Vianne’s heart was for helping. I don’t know that she ever accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior, thereby becoming a Christian, and thereby going to Heaven, but her example far and away surpassed that of the pious mayor, who gossiped and judged and lived in denial of the truth, on several matters, and demanded perfection. Even God knows we’re not perfect. The Bible may say, "Be perfect as I am perfect," but He knows that’s unattainable on this earth; it’s just something to strive for till we get to Heaven, where all is perfect.

Hollywood’s perennial tolerance agenda was thinly veiled in this piece, and there were times when I wanted to just throw something at the TV, but Hollywood is made up of humans, and there is never going to be a perfect movie. I haven’t seen one yet, nor do I suspect I ever will. However, I am pleased every time I watch "Chocolat" and don’t see the lewdness and hear the repeated foul language that seem to be spewing from almost every movie hitting the screens these days. Refreshing.

Is "Chocolat" the best movie ever made? No. Is it the best-acted movie ever made? No. Is it the most thrilling movie ever made? No. In fact, there are few thrills. But it will make you think, which says something for it as far as I’m concerned. Usually movies are very superficial to me. I take them at face value, most of the time. I watch them for the entertainment value, not to write an English Lit. book report on alliteration and allegory and foreshadowing. As a Christian, this one made me think, and I almost always look at things from the Christian perspective. This one's a thinker.

Deceived on Purpose

2007-08-27T19:34:00.001-07:00

In 2004, my family experienced one of the most painful circumstances a Christian can encounter: the murder of our church. Although it is quite interesting, it is a long story...too much to tell here, too much to read here. I will just say that if you read "Deceived on Purpose," by Warren Smith, you will see at least why it happened: leadership in a church can stray from its duties and become slack in upholding its office. This will give Satan a foothold...and he WILL push his way into a church and set up shop. This gives way to every wind of doctrine to invite itself to come in, and in our case, these winds blew hard. You may not be able to find "Deceived on Purpose" in any bookstore, but give it a try. If you don't find it, it is readily available at several of the usual online stores. It is a paperback, approximately 200 pages and very easy to read. The author had spent considerable time in the New Age movement (which is now also called the New Spirituality) and subsequently became a Christian. When the firestorm of The Purpose Driven Life occurred, he picked up a copy and began reading only to discover that he was being re-introduced to some of his New Age teachings. "Deceived on Purpose" is the result, and I, for one, appreciate Mr. Smith immensely.

Hello, World!

2007-07-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

July 14, 2007

Add me to the list of bazillions of bloggers in the world! Then look out...I'll probably say something you don't agree with, but at least I'm saying something! The folks who know me best know that it's not a stretch for me to say something...it seems that's what I do best! Or at least that's what I do most.

By way of introduction, my name is June Anderson and I am a Christian...a born-again Christian, not an I-must-be-a-Christian-because-I'm-not-anything-else Christian. That wouldn't be a Christian at all. Okay, so maybe you don't know what a Christian is. Well, here ya go:

To become a Christian you first realize that we are all sinners. (I KNOW it's not a popular word...and I KNOW you're not comfortable with that, but bear with me.)

First you realize that we're all sinners and that separates us from God, then you realize that in order to become right with God again, we must accept His provision for reconciling us to Himself...the fact that He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins. So you confess to God that you are a sinner and ask His forgiveness for your sins. Then ask Jesus to come into your life and give you a "clean slate"...in other words, take all your sins away and make you clean again.

Now you can do all that and just be trying to fool God, but He knows if you're sincere or not. He will honor what you've said if you're true about it. Otherwise, it's just jibberish that He recognizes immediately. All this can be backed up with scripture from the Bible. Now, if you don't believe in God (the real God...not the made-up ones by folks who don't like the real One) and you don't believe in The Holy Bible, then you have to ask yourself one question: Am I willing to bet my life on the belief that God and the Bible don't exist? That's not my call or God's...that's yours. He gives you the freedom to decide for yourself. Here's the clincher: Whatever you believe, you can't change the truth; so if you choose not to believe in God, Jesus Christ, or His Holy Spirit, that's your decision...but you can't change the truth, and the truth is that God, Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit are real. The three-in-one God. I can't explain Him, but I know He's real. (I can't explain air either, but I know it's real.) I'll never be the same again (thankfully!) since I chose to become a Christian about 23 years ago.

So here are the scriptures that bear out all of the above:

Romans 3:23--for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Acts 26:18--...to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me (Jesus)
Romans 6:23--For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:8--But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:8-9--For it is by grace you have been saved, though faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.
John 1:12-13--Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, not of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
1 John 5:12-13--He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
John 3:16-18--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 did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God's one and only Son.

Now if you're ready to make this decision and are at a loss for words, here is a prayer that you can pray to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior from your sins and start a new life:

Heavenly Father, I know I’m a sinner. I confess my sins to You and ask You to forgive me. Thank You for your forgiveness. I know that the only way I can be saved from my sins and come to Heaven to be with You one day is to accept Jesus into my life because He died for me for this reason. Right now I accept Him. Jesus, please come into my heart and my life and make me Your child. Thank You that You love me enough to do this. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

If you have decided to do this, it will be the most important decision of your life...more important than getting married, having children, going to school, buying a house, taking a trip around the world...well, you fill in the blank...it'll be the most important, life-changing thing you ever have done or will do...ever.

Now if there is good (God), then there must be evil (Satan.) Another thing you can believe or not, but it's true. My husband likens the old scientific principle to God and Satan: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. God is good, Satan is evil.

Satan does not like God or His kids, so he wants to cause us trouble. Not to worry...when Satan tries to give you a hard time, submit to God and tell Satan, in the Name of Jesus, to leave you alone! The Bible says that he has to. James 4:7

Gotta run...stay tuned!