Thousands of children and women won’t have anything to eat today. Or have anywhere to sleep tonight. Or they’ll be terrified and huddled in a closet so the man mom brought home won’t explode in a fit of drunken, angry abuse.
Not a pretty sight. But it plays out all the time in too many places in America every day and every night. It is a never-ending toxic plight that is eroding our society relentlessly.
Can we cure it? Probably not. The hate and anger and rage is so deeply rooted in the souls of those that abuse that change is virtually impossible
Jesus is the only one who can transform a heart. And abusers often don’t have courage enough to reach out for HIM.
Some brave, survivors of abuse themselves, have chosen to share their experience, strength and hope with others living in the aftermath of childhood abuse or in the midst of adult domestic abuses. The long term hope is for victims of abuse to learn the life skills, tools and truths that enable them to rebuild their lives. Skills that will empower them to move beyond the behaviors and people that don’t serve them well. Techniques that commission them to live truly authentic, and unafraid, embracing the life God intended them to live.
Kerri says, “I know the depths of your pain and struggles first hand. I’m a survivor of abuse myself and my journey to recovery led me to become a Certified Professional Life and Trauma Recovery Coach.
“I’ve been where you are and have recovered and survived. Together we can walk the road to your recovery. Free of abuse forever.
Arrange a complementary consultation with Kerri today. Click on the link below.
One of the greatest football coaches Alabama has produced was Ralph “Shug” Jordan. He was the head football coach at Auburn for twenty-four years and had an enviable win/loss football record of 176-83-6. He was the National Football Coach of the Year in 1957 and several times Coach of the Year in the SEC. He’s in the Hall of Fame.
He was also head basketball coach at Auburn and Georgia. He was an American patriot and a great military leader. He led four military invasions during World War II. He was wounded at Normandy. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. I’ve heard that General Patton had a “War Eagle” sign on the front of his Jeep because he said that Shug Jordan told him to put it there!
A friend in Selma had the personal high school annual of his father who had graduated with Coach Jordan. I held that annual in my hands. I saw that next to his senior picture in the annual, Coach Jordan wrote these words, “Someday I expect to be a major college football coach.” Wow! He set his expectation level when he was a senior in high school – and he accomplished it later!
The old saying is, “What you expect is what you get.” What are your expectations for 2021? Where you will be in December 2021 will be directly related to the expectations you set in January 2021! If you expect something bad, it’s going to be a tough year. If you expect something good – get ready for some huge surprises! I dare you to expect God to turn a tough, turbulent 2020 into a terrific 2021!
2020 was tough, but it was not nearly as tough as what the apostle Paul experienced when he wrote to his friends at Philippi. He was in prison. His expectations were so high about the possibilities of what he could accomplish there. He considered prison to be the perfect place for him to do ministry. He expected the best for his people, and he led by example. He writes, “Because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians seem to have lost their fear of chains.” (Philippians 1:14)
Paul says a few verses later, “I’m going to keep on being glad, for I know that you pray for me, and as the Holy Spirit helps me, this is going to turn out for my good. For I know when I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that will cause me to be ashamed of myself…and I will always be an honor to Christ.” (Philippians 1:19 ff)
When Louis XVI and his queen were put to death by the people of France, they left behind a little boy who would have been King Louis XVII. They put the boy in prison where he was surrounded by terrible people who were vicious and vile. Their aim was to teach the boy vulgar thoughts and habits of profanity and unholy things.
But these men failed because of the expectations of that little boy. Whenever someone tried to get that boy to say a bad word, he would simply reply, “No, I will not say it. I was born to be a king!”
You were born to be in King Jesus’s family! Live 2021 in the expectation of what God is going to do through you. Make every day a day that God uses you to help Him increase His royal family and define Kingdom values for other people!
We are graduating from 2020. What are you writing by your picture for 2021?
He was also head basketball coach at Auburn and Georgia. He was an American patriot and a great military leader. He led four military invasions during World War II. He was wounded at Normandy. He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. I’ve heard that General Patton had a “War Eagle” sign on the front of his Jeep because he said that Shug Jordan told him to put it there!
A friend in Selma had the personal high school annual of his father who had graduated with Coach Jordan. I held that annual in my hands. I saw that next to his senior picture in the annual, Coach Jordan wrote these words, “Someday I expect to be a major college football coach.” Wow! He set his expectation level when he was a senior in high school – and he accomplished it later!
The old saying is, “What you expect is what you get.” What are your expectations for 2021? Where you will be in December 2021 will be directly related to the expectations you set in January 2021! If you expect something bad, it’s going to be a tough year. If you expect something good – get ready for some huge surprises! I dare you to expect God to turn a tough, turbulent 2020 into a terrific 2021!
2020 was tough, but it was not nearly as tough as what the apostle Paul experienced when he wrote to his friends at Philippi. He was in prison. His expectations were so high about the possibilities of what he could accomplish there. He considered prison to be the perfect place for him to do ministry. He expected the best for his people, and he led by example. He writes, “Because of my imprisonment, many of the Christians seem to have lost their fear of chains.” (Philippians 1:14)
Paul says a few verses later, “I’m going to keep on being glad, for I know that you pray for me, and as the Holy Spirit helps me, this is going to turn out for my good. For I know when I live in eager expectation and hope that I will never do anything that will cause me to be ashamed of myself…and I will always be an honor to Christ.” (Philippians 1:19 ff)
When Louis XVI and his queen were put to death by the people of France, they left behind a little boy who would have been King Louis XVII. They put the boy in prison where he was surrounded by terrible people who were vicious and vile. Their aim was to teach the boy vulgar thoughts and habits of profanity and unholy things.
But these men failed because of the expectations of that little boy. Whenever someone tried to get that boy to say a bad word, he would simply reply, “No, I will not say it. I was born to be a king!”
You were born to be in King Jesus’s family! Live 2021 in the expectation of what God is going to do through you. Make every day a day that God uses you to help Him increase His royal family and define Kingdom values for other people!
We are graduating from 2020. What are you writing by your picture for 2021?
Someone has put together the following scenario. What if you had an account at a bank that would credit your account each morning with $86,400? It would not carry over a balance to the next day because it deletes whatever part of the balance you didn’t use that day. I expect we all would try to draw out every cent before the sun set.
There is such a bank – it is called TIME. Each morning it gives you 86,400 seconds. Each night it writes off everything that you did not invest for a good purpose. It never carries a balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you.You can’t borrow from yesterday’s account. You can’t put aside a little of that time for tomorrow’s account. You have to live on today’s deposits. That makes it awfully important to invest wisely how we spend every second.
We invest in a lot of scientific research on keeping time accurately. It was just released in April 2015, that we have a new atomic clock that is so accurate that it will not gain or lose one second in the next 15 billion years! Now that is accurate! No worry about correct time. The important thing is how well do we use our time, even if we might today be keeping it inaccurately.
I am not good with technology. Every six months we have to change our clocks involving Daylight Savings Time. I never can remember how to change the clock in my car. My brother George has the same challenge. He told me not to worry about it because he said, “John Ed, at least, your clock in your car will be accurate six months out of the year.”How we use each second is oftentimes the difference in doing something significant, or missing out.
Sometimes it is the difference in finishing first or second. Alabama is famous in the NASCAR world for the running of the Talladega 500. That is big in our state. Do you realize how close those races are? They drive those cars for 500 miles, and the difference in first and second place is less than one second.
In 2011, the margin of victory for Jimmie Johnson at Talladega was .002 seconds. Now a second is very short. This is not a tenth of a second, nor a hundredth of a second, but one thousandth of a second. That is a close margin. In 2010, Kevin Harvick finished first by a margin of .011. That is less than a tenth of a second. In 2002, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. won in .060.
Time is valuable. You have as much time today as anybody else. Don’t waste it or use it unwisely today. Time is a real treasure you have. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why it is called “the Present.”
Some phrases we use are “killing time” – “spending time” – “passing time.” I think the best phrase could be “investing time.” Ephesians 5:15 says, “Be careful how you live, not as unwise people but as wise making the most of time.”
What time is it? It’s time to be wise with our time!
John Ed’s blog posts appear each week in For His Glory. Contact: JAM Executive Suite 4,4131 Carmichael Road, Montgomery, AL 36106 Phone: 334-270-2149 Email:info@johnedmathison.org
Many interesting life lessons were learned from this past basketball season. Many coaches and teams can testify that you can get overconfident and be upset. Many learned that there is no such thing a sure win in the “big dance.” Coach Ron Hunter from Georgia State learned that you can get injured on the bench if you celebrate too much!
On February 18, 2015, I wrote about Coach Dean Smith and things he taught as a coach. On October 29, 2014, I wrote about a new hero of mine, Lauren Hill. She scored the first basket of the college basketball season. She is on hospice, but still alive and doing God’s will. Both of these blogs are archived on my website.
Here are two more powerful lessons I learned from this past year:
When Austin Hatch was 11-years-old he survived a plane crash that killed his mother and two siblings. Would you believe that eight years later another plane crashed and killed his father and stepmother and left Hatch in a coma?
Austin wanted to play college basketball. As a 20-year-old he finally realized his dream when he walked on at the University of Michigan. He scored his first points when he sank a couple of free throws. He said, “My past won’t define my future. What happened to me is kind of unique, but that’s what happened. That’s not who I am.”
Our past should not define our future. If our past is tragic and bad and disappointing, God’s gives us a new chance and a new hope for the future. If our past was extremely successful, we can’t rest on the laurels of the past but have to move on to what God is calling us to do today. Our past should never define our future. The Apostle Paul said, “Forgetting the things that lie behind, and reaching for the things that are before, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Coach Kevin Willard is the coach at Seton Hall. He did not have a really good season as he was 16-14 and 6-12 in the Big East when he played Georgetown. He desperately needed a win. There was some talk that his job was in jeopardy.
Georgetown had a player by the name of Tyler Adams. Tyler came to Georgetown on a scholarship, but developed a heart ailment and couldn’t play. Georgetown’s final game was with Seton Hall and the NCAA granted a waiver for Tyler Adams to play.
At the opening tip Seton Hall fell back and allowed Adams to dunk his first goal in college basketball. He then was taken out of the game and left with an emotional exit. Georgetown did not know that Seton Hall would purposely let Adams score the first goal.
It was a class act on the part of Coach Willard! Seton Hall went on to lose the game by only 4 points. He received some criticism for allowing Georgetown to get 2 easy points. He said that it was more important for Tyler Adams to have a memory of his only game in college basketball than it was for him to get a win. That is class! The Bible says that we should esteem others better than ourselves.
In life winners are not those who score the most points, but those who score the most with their lives. If you want to advance through the brackets of life, learn and practice these lessons taught by Austin Hatch, Kevin Willard, Dean Smith, and Lauren Hill.
The “big dance” takes on a new meaning. David relates how in Psalm 30:11God “turned our morning into dancing.” The wisdom of Solomon is expressed in Ecclesiastes 3:4 when he tells us that it is a time to dance. Austin, Kevin, Dean, and Lauren are pretty good dance teachers!
John Ed’s blog posts appear each week in For His Glory. Contact: JAM Executive Suite 4,4131 Carmichael Road, Montgomery, AL 36106 Phone: 334-270-2149 Email:info@johnedmathison.org
"...Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." 1 Kings 19: 11-12
Sharing the Gospel message of hope, strength, love, and peace through Jesus Christ to those who are hurting in their soul or spirit. This is the mission of Healthy Mind Ministry
"...Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper." 1 Kings 19: 11-12
Sharing the Gospel message of hope, strength, love, and peace through Jesus Christ to those who are hurting in their soul or spirit. This is the mission of Healthy Mind Ministry
For His Glory 