Turkey Tracks

Merry Christmas

My family and I would like to wish you God's best this holiday season.  We also pray that your hearts would be continually open to the moving of Christ upon your lives.  Life is too short to figure everything out; so do your best to follow Jesus in a way that is authentic, full of love, and guided by faith.  Be merciful towards those who think different than you do; but be steadfast in the love that calls people towards righteousness in Christ.  Guide your heart into holiness and invite the Holy Spirit to change you for His will. 

We love you,

Eric, Angie, Matthew, and Mason

Sermon Series 2009

 

Please connect with us as we look at the profound reality that we were "made in the image of God".  What does that mean?  What value does that bring to our lives?  New Year's is always a time of resolutions and lists, this year make plans to see what God might be doing inside of you that will change everything.  We meet for large group on Sundays at 10:30.   

Vision-Casting 2009

On January 7th, our church family will be meeting for what we call "First Wednesday".  That is a night set aside for all age groups to come together for a mid-week worship gathering.  This upcoming night wil be different in that we will use our "newcomer's" membership material to re-cast the "whys" and "hows" of HFC.  I think everyone who considers HFC to be the church of their choice should attend!  Or, if you are trying to figure us out, come and listen.  Afterwards, our finance team will present their ideas concerning the 2009 budget. 

Rethinking Christmas

  My wife says that the older I get the more skeptical I am over all kinds of things.  She does not enjoy that part of me.  I would agree with her on that observation, however, God has given me sense enough to know that I must guard my heart from becoming "hardened" by skeptisicm or cynicism.  Christmas time is no exception.

As I was studying, I came across the website for "Advent Conspiricy".  This is a group of folks who are lifting up the idea that Christians should do Christmas differently than the way the world does Christmas.  I read a lot of their background material and have studied the evolution of the Christmas celebration as compared to the biblical stories.  The gap between what God was thinking about the birth of Jesus and what we often celebrate as Christmas is staggering.  So what do I do?  I don't want to go all "Jehovah's Witness" on Christmas.

I spent some time this morning asking God to keep me focused on Christ as our world celebrates Christmas.  I want to stop looking at things with squinted eyes and my smile tucked into the side of my cheek.  I want to belive Elvis, Bing, Randy Owens, Jimmy Stewart, the Choirs, etc.  But I often scare people with a Jack Nicolson administration of "You want to know the truth?  You can't handle the truth!" mentality.  I do not enjoy the misgivings of Christmas.  I love people, but my insides turn wrongside out when I see so much effort put in the wrong direction. 

Scrooge discovered that Christmas is all about discovering the compassion that resides within one's own heart and is released by one's benevolence towards others.  I disagree.  Christmas is about following Jesus.  He will lead us to the best expressions of love for the season. 

So here it is; my take on Christmas.  What God did by sending His son to us is in no way diminished by the frailties of humans beings inability to stay focused on the things that matter to God.  We all tend to stray from the center of God's way of thinking.  Nevertheless, followers of Christ can fight to keep the message of "God with us" relevant in the melieu of cultural christmas phenomenons. First personally, then with expanding circles.  Okay, I feel better.  Fa, la, la, la, la...la, la, la la.  Just chill out...God knows what He is doing.

(I still have a problem when I see the Wise men at the manger scene (Matt 2:1).   What's wrong with me?) 

Jimmy

  Most of you who know me also know Jimmy Wagnon.  He is one of my best friends and he and I have shared many days together as brothers in Christ, and hunting buddies. 

We received word that Jimmy's lung cancer has apparantly returned with no recourse for treatment.  My heart is heavy and I would ask you all to hold him in prayer before our Father.  May Christ be made known as God continues to write Jimmy's story on this earth.

Since this news, I have found myself being overprotective of Jimmy towards those who have criticized and hurt him over the years because of his political views.  As far as I can tell, Jimmy never sat around and constructed his own political opinions for the sake of being political.  When he spoke of politics, he speaks of Christian morals as prescribed in the Bible rather that speaking from his own ideas. So, don't be surprised if I punch-out a liberal over the next few weeks just because I feel like it.  I'll be watching the paper closely for prospective punchees.

Buy the Man Some Cologne!

  My sons and I were sitting at a red light when I noticed the man beside us was acting strange.  I am an expert on acting strange so I watched as he pulled out what looked like a small whiskey bottle.  His window was rolled down and Matthew was in the passenger's seat only a couple of feet away from this man who appeared to be in his early 50's.

To our amusement, instead of drinking this brown substance, he began dabbing himself with it as to "perfume" himself.  Odd at fist quickly turned into obsession as he smeared, poured, sprinkled, and finally swabbed his own nose with his moistened fingers. 

By this time I wanted him to see us watching him.  It was so weird, he had to know that he wasn't invisible in his own truck.  We were laughing but he was too busy preening and pouring to notice.  I gave a short honk from my truck to get his attention.  He thought someone was telling him to "go" at the redlight and speed ahead as the light changed.  We tried to catch up with him as we stared at his Jesus "fish' sticker on his tailgait.  We saw him turn into Jack's in E. Gadsden.

We debated about going in and seeing what this perfumed man was up to.  Maybe he was a chicken catcher that smelled bad.  Maybe he was meeting someone he wanted to impress.  Maybe he was normal and just had a moment of obsessive scent disorder.  We don't know.

We were going to leave him a note that read, "You smell delicious." but we went on to Hobby Lobby.  People are weird.  Note:  You are not invisible when you are in your car.