C J BLOUNT

Like so many other relationships in my life, I first spoke to him in a gymnasium. I was shooting basketball by myself one afternoon at my Church, in 2006. He came walking through to put something away.

As I had heard him sing on Sundays for sometime, I stopped to tell him he really enhanced the services and I received a great deal from his singing.

It grew from there.

After the services once in a while I would speak to him and encourage him. As I knew he was getting a small salary I sometimes shook his hand and had placed money in mine.

The voice I hear inside my heart pushed me toward him.
I was supposed to encourage and prompt him, maybe get involved.

I knew in my “knower” that he had more in store for him than where he was. There were bigger stages from which he would be singing.

Having written a few things throughout my life, after my mother died in 2006 I wrote a song. about her…or about what I had gained from her influence. CJ read the lyrics and i asked him to put them to music. As I sat one day and heard him put notes and sounds to my words I knew what I was to do with and for him.

After getting CJ to agree, he met my nephew, who was and is a recording and mixing engineer.
We then went to Florence/Muscle Shoals where CJ and my nephew, Chris recorded the song I had written and about four songs CJ had put together.

The purpose of the trip was not to get my song done.

There were bigger stages from which CJ would be singing.
This was knowledge which was settled in my mind.

We traveled back to Muscle Shoals again to complete the recordings and I invested the money to get the musicians and get the work done to complete the disc. In my mind, it had to be done.
I probably irritated him at times to get it finished.

It got finished.
It was good.

There was no motive but to get this young man from Georgia on his way to where I was being told he should go.

I believe that is the role we are given when we come into relationships with younger people. If we do not get invested with those we are led or drawn to….we are failing them. I was not going to fail this young man…..for I had grown to love him….and was convinced of his potential.

I was convinced about those bigger stages.

CJ is not in my age bracket nor do we look anything alike.
Yet, there has been an absolute connection between us since we met.
The “businessman”….as he referred to me after our first conversation…and the young singer.
The businessman who was grown up in his life and career and the young man who was getting started and was looking into his future with enormous possibilities.

You could see those possibilities.

His career took a hit in August of 2007. His boss left and he felt his opportunity was about to be shutdown. A couple of days later I was sitting in the Sanctuary, alone, thinking through all the thoughts and emotions of the days before, and CJ walked by.

Coincidence?

Coinsidences are not coincidences when they are too big to be coincidences.

He was down, distraught and devastated. He had been brought to Birmingham by the guy who had just left. He said that he felt his time here was limited and would end soon.

I knew there was more to come for him.

As we talked that day I encouraged him. There had been a sermon preached at some point before that and I quoted a line that was perfectly appropriate. He was saying how he felt and I spoke to him the words….and you have heard this phrase….

“It’s Friday….but Sunday’s coming”.

I repeated that to him several times in the days and weeks following.

Sunday came.

He began to take leadership in the worship services.

Several leaders in town began asking him to sing at different venues.

As we ate lunch at different times I heard about these opportunities and knew they were part of and were preparing him for those larger stages I believed he was to sing from.

Many times as he sang, I was drawn to walk down the aisle and worship not at my seat but from the altar. For the GIFT which was in CJ was more than just his voice….It was God speaking to people…to me…and drawing everyone to Him. That is what worship is….God drawing His people…and His people responding and walking closer to Him.

As he grew in that GIFT and as he grew in the opportunities being presented to him he was getting noticed. He was presented with an opportunity to lead worship at a larger church, out of state…..yet he came to realize that in spite of an attractive offer, it was not the thing for him.

Maturity rising.

When he shared that opportunity with me I knew the larger stages he was to walk on were not far off. I did not want him to go….but that’s why we learn how to walk. When its time to go…after we have learned to walk….we are most definitely to walk toward and into the opportunities being laid out before us.

I care so deeply for this young man, and now for his wife and children. My wife and I have had them in our home at different times. As they were house hunting, my motive was to get them interested in a house near us.

Selfish……?

Absolutely.

I have had nothing to do with his talent. I have had nothing to do with his advance. But, I knew what I WAS to do and that was to invest myself in him, and trust that it was to be productive for him.

I have given rise to no children from my body. Yet, my God has given me the privilege to invest what he has given me in a few people.

CJ is not my biological son. However, from my perspective I consider him a son, spiritually gifted to me by God. The Joy I derive from hearing him exercise the Gift given him draws me into the presence of God. Hearing him now fills me with a fullness which consists of Thankfulness, and Happiness and I cannot imagine any father being more proud of a son.

He is now singing from a very large stage.

He is singing in front of thousands in cities across this country.
He is the worship leader at what I believe is one of, if not the, fastest growing church in America. He has traveled to Australia and Africa and led them in worship. He sings at events where there are thousands in attendance…..drawing them into worship and into the presence of The One Who gave him his gift. When I hear him sing now I want to…and do sometimes …spread my arms out wide and soak in the worship and once in a while I yell….out of that fullness and joy for what I hear and what has occurred for him.

After hearing him be the featured singer last Christmas, I spoke to him afterward.

Or I tried to.

That feeling rose in my throat and welled up in my eyes as I looked at this young man of whom I am so proud and told him…..that those larger stages we had talked about earlier were now under his feet and he was excelling on them.

There are bigger ones to come.

Terry
August, 2015

AT HOME

If you had a good childhood and were raised in a close family, chances are good that your family life now is comfortable.

I love my wife and my home life with her.

Yet, I am probably not alone in thinking this….. I have deep, maybe unspeakable loving memories of my life at home when I was a boy.

My home life consisted of my father, my mother and my two brothers. My whole life up until I went to college evolved from and revolved around that unit. We moved from one city to another when I was three, 10, 11, 14 and 15. My father entered the ministry when i was 11 and we changed churches as well, those last two moves.

As we moved, we became tighter as a unit.

We did not have a lot of interference.

There were no electronic devices.

There was no texting in the 60’s or 70’s.
There were three channels on the television. Programs ceased at about 12am and the stations actually went off the air.

I look back at pictures of my father, mother and I when I was a baby and I find myself staring at the old photographs trying to remember or regain that innocence I saw in them and in me.

That’s why those feelings arise when you think back to that time or see pictures from those times. It seems that it was absolutely a more innocent time.

I can remember never worrying about anything.

And we did not have hardly anything. But I did not consider that.

My life was so full of those four people I never felt the lack of anything.

The sense I get when I am staring at the old and somewhat yellowed snapshots is…I am trying to get back in my mind to that person I see in the picture who looks like I did when I was a boy.

I cannot do it….but the connection I experience is almost mystical because I feel it so deeply yet I fail to be able to define it precisely.

I look at my father when he was 25 years old, holding me and looking at me… and I sense a connection deep within my soul….but I come short of the words.
I look at my mother lying on the floor, tickling my leg when I was about six months old…..and I see a 19 year old girl looking at her firstborn with love, hope, joy and smiling as if everything in the world was in perfect alignment.

At 62, I cannot look at these pictures very long without the feeling rising up from somewhere under my heart and up into my throat.

As my brothers and I grew up we remained close. I cannot give any definition to who I am as a Man without my parents…..yet, it might be even tougher to gain that definition without my two brothers.

I believe I would give my life for them.

For my boyhood was spent around and with them.

They are now Men with wives, children and great families themselves. They have been of tremendous positive influence on their communities.

But I remember them when we were boys. We stayed home together on particular nights and all of us would watch Mission Impossible
( the real M.I….Pre -Cruise) or Marcus Welby, where my mother would cry at almost every episode….and sports, there was always sports.

We would play whiffle ball in whatever backyard we had and imagine we were every player on several different teams. Eventually, we were able to watch, together, as my youngest brother excelled on the football field.

Those days are why we can get together now and stay together for days without any argument or angst. Those past days of innocence and seeming perfection….arranged and given to us by our father and mother have molded us into the Men we are.

I turned 62 yesterday.

My life currently is full. My wife is the object of my affection and we share the love of Christ, the peace of our home, the blessings of her children, and the love of my brothers and their families. Good fortune has brought me many friends and a full career and great days ahead.

All of these give my life color and validity and are Gifts from God.

Yet, those four other people I see when I look at the old pictures of my family have given me the definition of who I have been able to become, and the foundations of the life I now live. My remembrance of them is made deeper and richer as I understand I had no hand in selecting them…
for The Hand which has written the story of my life, formed and gave those four people to me…. and I am always and everyday grateful.

Terry
August, 2015

Pay It Forward.

Most times as we pay bills we are paying in arrears.
We buy an item, charge an item, write a check for an item.

If cash is exchanged the transaction is completed.

The times we pay later…
it’s in arrears.

It’s the normal way of personal commerce

When we give dollars away to those in need,
when we invest in the places God directs and to whom God directs… we are “laying up treasure” in Heaven.

Paying It Forward.

Spiritual Commerce.

It tends to bend away from the normal and customary concept of consumer spending.

It is a payment we may not see a “return” on.
These are payments which may not make sense to anyone but you and Your Creator.
And….it could be a payment which makes sense ONLY to your Creator.

He may lead you to give even when the gift or the one receiving the gift …. makes no sense to you.
It does not necessarily need to make sense.

It’s not your money anyway.

Read 1Chronicles 29:10-13.

Your Creator gives you the ability to work.
He might have given you the desire to do a particular thing at which you succeed.

He led you to particular opportunities in which to prosper and grow experience.

So….
Your talent, like His Money ….is Gods Gift.

I fully believe your desire, talents, opportunities and even the realized results are brought to you by the One Who knew you before you ever breathed air.

Therefore…. where did the financial gain come from???

Your Creator and the One Who paid your Largest Debt…..
gave and gives you all necessity, excess… luxury and essentials.
And, the desire to give some of it away.

Our culture has encouraged the populace for decades to accumulate, set aside… and save for your later years.

Our human nature drives us to set aside and accumulate funds for when we may not earn a wage.

And, as a friend reminded me tonight..,
we are encouraged to save even more now because of the weakness of the social security and pension systems.
Fear can lead you to tighten your fingers around what you think is yours.

Pay It forward.

Deposits into the lives and places where The Spirit leads us to …..is investing into His Kingdom.

Have you ever looked upon someone and knew God was unmistakably leading you to give money or time to them?.

Your reaction???

Give His Money to whom He directs.

Give His Gift of Time to the people He leads you to,

Be looking out for people to whom God will lead you.
The earth will not move nor will the sea part…but you WILL KNOW who these people are.

If you are confused…
test the leading with Scripture. If it passes the scriptural examination…let the money or time or effort follow that leading.

Really, to quote a well known slogan….”Just do It.”

Listen to the leading.
Follow through and obey It.

Pay it Forward.

Terry
August 2015

Condemnation

SOLA SCRIPTURA…is a Christian doctrine which states that The Bible is the supreme authority in all matters of practice and belief. Paraphrased, it means… “by Scripture alone”. Therefore, if we hold that as Truth, we are bound to what It says.

Last night, in the Republican debate, a candidate stated he would show unconditional love for a friend who was a homosexual. He stated he had attended this friends “wedding”.
The gentleman continued to say that he could love this person without condoning their lifestyle choices.

I agree completely.

I would refrain from going to the “wedding”.
That would be condoning or taking part in the blessing of disobedience. I can show the instructed love of Jesus to a homosexual friend without blessing or condoning the disobedience.

A very close friend of mine had been separated for a year and was divorcing his wife, with whom I was also friends.
He invited my wife and I to meet a woman he was “dating” and planning to marry, after the divorce was final.
My wife said she could not go because he was yet to be divorced. Her words convicted me.
I was and still am close friends with him…..but did not attend the invited dinner..

We are told in Scripture that Jesus did not hesitate to eat with tax collectors. He did not refuse to
give time, attention and blessing to the Samaritan woman at the well. He did not condemn the woman brought to Him, having been supposedly caught in adultery. He released her from the punishment aimed at her, then told her to go and “sin no more”. He did not condone their disobedience.
He did show them His Love.

Condemnation should only be rendered by a proper Judge.

We are not proper Judges.

In the heaviest doctrine in the New Testament, Paul dates that there is “no condemnation” to those in Christ. Jesus withheld from condemning most sinners.
Hanging on the Cross, your Savior looked at one hanging for the right reasons, next to Him,
did not rehearse any sin the man had committed and told him he would be in Heaven shortly. That was proper Judgment from One who had earned His Robe.

Scripture also tells us that Jesus spoke the words which instruct us today to “Love Thy neighbor as thyself”.
This new commandment, was said by Jesus, to be HIS commandment to His followers.

Therefore, we ought not to condemn those around us. Nor ourselves.

Be careful with what comes out of your mouth.

Judgement and condemnation flow easily out of a proud and disobedient heart. What does Scripture say?

Any words rendered along those lines might come back to roost in your own life. Leveling judgment upon your self is a disobedient act, as well.

We are to love ourselves, God made us.
We are to love those like and unlike us. God created them and granted them life, as well. You can love those who are living in disobedience….
because you have been and might be living in some degree of disobedience, yourself.

We put degrees on disobedience, on sin.

Sin is sin is sin is Sin.

Putting degrees on sinful behavior is judging behavior
Homosexuality is no worse a sin in Gods eyes than the sin you committed last week.

Read that again.

Name an atrocious sinner….Hitler, Jeffrey Dalmer….
Paul said he himself was chief among sinners.
So am I.

I. cannot. judge. anyone.

The Love of Christ compels us to love as He did.
If He did it…we can do it, as well.
He said we could, in John 14.

Feeling guilt after a disobedient act is not God condemning you. The Spirit will convict us of disobedience.
That conviction can, and maybe should, bring guilt.
It’s not condemnation.

That guilt should lead us to confession and repentance…..
and restoration.

Some believers think that the conviction which leads to guilt is condemnation. Romans 8 tells us this is not the case.

Conviction keeps, or should, keep us from “living in a sin”. Conviction and the subsequent guilt should stop us shortly after stumbling. And therefore, keep us from slouching further into dwelling in a disobedience.

It’s not condemnation.

Conviction is a rescue by The Holy Spirit.

If we hold the SOLA SCRIPTURA position….
which Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us we should …
then we must hold to the Truth that we are not to condemn or judge ourselves or anyone.

If we excuse our own behavior using Paul’s definition in Romans 7….
“The things I do want to do I don’t, the things I don’t want to do , I do…. It is no longer I, but the sin living within me”….
then we are bound to define the sins of others the same way.

Without condoning, accept.
Without judging, love.
Without condemning, allow the Love and Mind of Christ to rule your behavior toward yourself and those in your realm.
Act as He did.

When we act in love toward another….we edify, elevate and encourage them.
When we judge and condemn another….we sentence them and ourselves.

Leave it up to The One Who earned His Position paying for our disobedience.

Terry
August, 2015

There is an Auschwitz in Your Town

Before and during World War II, the German Army led by the SS operated many concentration camps in Poland and their other occupied countries. By some accounts there were over 1,200 camps.

Many people in the towns nearby these camps were ignorant or were intentionally unaware of the events transpiring at these death camps. A story goes that when General Patton came to one city he made the local civilians walk through the camp to see and acknowledge the atrocities.

There is a well known photo taken by Margaret Bourke-White, of a German woman walking by a stack of murdered Jewish bodies, holding her hand over her eyes….as if to hide her eyes from the horrific sight.

Is that us in modern America?

You know, there is an Auschwitz in in your town.

Since 1973, when Harry Blackmun somehow deciphered a privacy clause in our Constitution and used it as basis for his advocacy of eliminating unborn children…. there have been, according to respected statistics, about 58 million babies aborted in the U.S.