There are more uses for the pencil than just writing or sketching too. They make great a great analogy for our lives.

“What was your favorite childhood movie? 

Mine was Brian’s Song.  Ironically.  It was the story of Gale Sears and Brian Piccolo, two pro football players, one black and the other white.  They became best friends while competing for the same position with the Chicago Bears in the 60s.  

Brian Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer.  The rest of the movie showed how Gale stood by him and cared for him until his death. 

The most moving point in the movie came when Gale tearfully announced to the team: “My friend… Brian… has cancer.”  From that time on, the rest of the team, many Bears fans, and others around the country rallied around Brian and his wife.  It was very touching. 

I have a heavy heart today, as I make a similar announcement.  My dear friend… Brian Puckett – has cancer.  He was recently diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, and it has spread to his liver.  For those of you who know about this form of cancer, it is very bad.  He is only 38, and everyone’s puzzled about “Why.” 

We can’t answer that question, but there is something we can do.  Something important.  For him and his wife, Gretchen, and for their two children Maddie (14) and Kyle (4). 

Understandably Brian hadn’t been feeling himself for some time before his recent diagnosis and things are very tight for their family financially. 

In fact, they’re losing their house back to Suntrust on the morning of August 11th. 

So they will need to find a place to move… this coming week… while Brian is undergoing chemo treatments.  They need to come up with about $9,500, or their home of five years will be sold at the courthouse steps on that day. 

I can’t imagine how I would feel battling this deadly disease and losing my family home and facing other extreme financial difficulties as well.  Can you? 

Here’s how we can all help…

Gateway Ministries is a licensed 501c3 not-for-profit organization that helps out people in various situations like this.  My family set up this organization 12 years ago, and I am the Director.  We are pulling together funds now for a 2 to 1 match for every dollar that is contributed. 

If you will donate to help the Puckett Family, every dollar will turn into $2.  Every $25 into $50. Every $100 into $200.  Up to $10,000 total. 

In order to make this work, we have to set a strict deadline of August 9th.  If you are willing, please send a check to Gateway Ministries at the address below by that day. 

Please write “Pucketts” and include your full mailing address and email on a separate note so we can send along a tax-deductible receipt at year-end. 

Thank you for considering this.  Please pray for the Puckett family, and drop him a note of encouragement (with your check – we will pass it along) if you choose. 

Sincerely,
Paul Moore
Associate Broker, Wainwright & Co. 
(540) 400-1595

PS: 100% of your gift – plus the double match – will go straight to the Puckett Family.  This will really help them save their home and provide other living expenses during this difficult time. Thank you. 

PPS: Sometimes a large chunk of cash to save a home from foreclosure just stalls the inevitable.  Not here.  Brian’s wife is working, and we have figured out a way for their family to earn what they stay current after catching up now.  This one-time gift will literally allow them to get back on track!” 

Please send a check before August 9th to:

Gateway Ministries
PO Box 7301
Roanoke, VA  24019

In reality all of the things we pursue in this life would be next to meaningless without relationships. If you had no family to come home to, no parents to visit, no children to buy for, no mate to share your life with, all of the material blessings in the world would seem empty and lonely.

And yet keeping those relationships healthy and thriving is often not even on our priority list. Do we think that relationships stay happy and growing without time and loving investment? That is no more likely than a garden growing healthy produce without being weeded, and getting plenty of sunshine, and water!

Here are 3 simple tips for keeping the most important people in your life feeling important.

1. Spend time with them regularly. Do something fun together.

2. Be humble when you know you are wrong, and apologize often!

3. Take time to communicate. Ask questions and show them you are interested in their life (without critique).

Here are 7 tips for keeping your relationships strong and healthy:

1. Take time to build trust. Don’t keep secrets and don’t avoid difficult subjects. Communicating openly and at length if need be, will help work out the rough spots and make your relationship stronger than before.

2. Take time for intimate moments. Every relationship requires that special connection. Spend a few minutes each day looking into your loved ones eyes and sharing personal details for their ears only. Then plan a special date just for the 2 of you once a week.

3. Keep your sense of humor intact. Share things that make you laugh. Not only does a sense of humor keep the rough spots from being destructive, but it also increases the bond between you when you have weathered the storm.

4. Work together. Plan to get jobs done when you can work on them together. Working as a team can be just as beneficial as laughter. Getting a job done and feeling you have shared in an accomplishment is a relationship strengthener.

5. Spend some time alone and bless each other’s individuality. It is important to continue to be who you are in a relationship, while giving and bending for your mate. Don’t forget to take time for yourself and encourage each other’s individuality.

6. If you are married be sure to take time for just the 2 of you without the kids. In the busy rush of life it is easy to lose track of the need for intimacy and time alone. Those who fail to put their relationships in top priority, will find themselves without a relationship eventually.

7. Offer consistent reassurance and commitment. No relationship grows without good soil and water and fertilizer. Make certain your partner knows that you are in this for life and they can feel secure. Offer them regular communication time so that you can share life and bring reassurance of your love.

If these qualities are present and growing in your marriage, the relationship will not erode and become passionless and painful. Just remember that the key to all good relationships is to keep on talking. If you can communicate then you can work anything out.

What did it all mean? Or was there any meaning to be found in hiding eggs and buying new dresses? Is Easter about bunny rabbits and candy or is there something more lasting in the Easter message that could actually change lives?

Many question how Christmas, Easter,etc. were corrupted from a celebration of deeper things, into a commercialized, shallow, shadow of what they were meant to be.

All I know is that there is no hope, no life, and nothing to hold onto in a colored egg or a stuffed rabbit. But there IS Someone who holds out hope when we feel like we are dying; Someone we can cling to when life seems empty of meaning. That Someone was executed in your place on the day we call good Friday, spent Saturday in the world of the dead, and was raised to LIFE on Easter Sunday!

If, after all the superficial fluff of Easter is over, you are again wondering about the meaning of life, remember the Truth that began it all. God shows Himself everywhere and in everything so that we might have hope every day of the year, not just on holidays or Sundays. 

There will always be Good Fridays and dying and winter; Long Saturdays of waiting and losing hope and struggling to understand; and finally Spring and Resurrection and abundant Hope for those who have found the Living Savior!

We humans have it backward. God is trying to get us to do what He wants, because His ways are perfect and our ways quite obviously are not. God knows what to do. He does not require our help in running the universe perfectly.

How would you feel about a toddler telling his Mom and Dad what decisions they should make? It is far more insane to think that we could tell the Maker of the Universe what is best for us!

Our decisions have produced nothing but chaos and harmful consequences. What we need is Someone bigger than ourselves to trust in, not more of what we have already tried to accomplish on our own and seen the results of.

Let’s imagine that we could get God to do things our way. Would that solve the problems in our world and in our lives? The answer to that question can be seen in lives all around us. People who have pursued their own happiness in all the common avenues (money, fame, sex, etc.) are committing suicide, divorcing and grieving over children gone bad and still searching for the missing link.

The Creator has a perfect plan and man mistakenly believes he can improve on that plan. What we need is to learn from the Master and follow His directions. We need to learn His ways, not put more of our own into play. Our ways have gotten us in a mess. If God cares about us, He is hardly going to give us more fuel to take us down the road to destruction.

God knows infinitely more than we ever could and He loves us more than we even love our own selves. He desires our good and wants to do what is best for us. There is every reason in the world to trust Someone like that!!

One way we can thank God for all His goodness is to praise Him with the rest of His children for the many blessings in our lives and get to know Him better. Below you will find a variety of local church activities and Easter Programs to participate in. If you have not joined with other believers for a while, why not pick one of these and enjoy some fellowship!

Halesford Baptist Church will present “The Cry of Christ,” a fully staged and costumed drama acting out the life of Jesus. Each evening starting Thursday, March 25 through Saturday March 27th at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 28th at 3 p.m. the play will be performed. Admission is Free. Reservations arerequired. Not recommended for children under 7 due to vivid accounts of Christs death. Halesford Baptist Church is in Wirtz, Va. For more details call(877) 317-7677 or visit www.halesford.com.

The people of Redwood United Methodist Church invite you to experience the power of the Resurrection through their special Holy Week and Easter services the week of March 28 thru April 4.  Go to www.redwoodumc.org for further details.

The Chancel Choir of Bethlehem United Methodist Church will perform the cantata “One Had To Rise,” by Mike Harland and Richard Kingsmore. Sunday, March 28. 11 a.m. service. Bethlehem United Methodist Church, 13586 Old S. Moneta Road. 540-297-7957.

Come for our MEN’S and WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY- Join the men at one of two locations on Tuesdays. 6 a.m. at Radford Baptist Church in Moneta. Or at 6:30 a.m. at the GO Agency on BTW Highway in Moneta. Join the ladies on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. at Radford Baptist Church in Moneta. If you have questions or need directions call 540-297-5214 or visit www.radfordbaptist.com.

Join in a time of prayer at Bethlehem United Methodist Church. Those who wish to ask for prayer and pray for others meet on Fridays at 11:15 a.m. on Old Moneta Road. Call 540-297-7957 for more information.

Fellowship with other believers at a nondenominational service and potluck afterward on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Hosted by Scottie’s Fertilizer and Lime Spreading Service in Penhook, Va. You can call 540-576-3413 for more details.

Are you trying to stay sober or need support in your recovery program? Celebrate Recovery in Rocky Mount, Va. is a Christ-centered 12-step recovery program. Join them Fridays at 6 p.m. at the Gogginsville United Methodist Church in Rocky Mount. If you need directions or more info. call 540-483-3626.

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore.  In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls.  It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.   They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him.  As he strolled along the beach, he would occasionally throw one of the clay balls out into the ocean as far as he could.  

He was lost in thought and forgot about the bag of clay balls, until he tripped and one of the clay balls fell out of the bag and cracked open on a rock ..  Inside was a beautiful, precious stone! 

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls.  Each contained a similar treasure.  He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.   

Then it struck him.  He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves.  Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!  

It’s like that with people.  We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel.  It doesn’t look like much from the outside.  It isn’t always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.  

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy.  But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.  

There is a treasure in each and every one of us.  If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to chip off and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth. 

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

We need to learn to thank God as much for a closed door as we do for a door to that opens to what we want. The reason God closes doors is because He knows there is nothing good for us on the other side.

God sometimes directs our paths through the closing and opening of doors. Once a door closes, it forces you to change your course. Another door closes, it forces you to change your course again. We receive God’s very best when we peacefully accept what we cannot change and let Him lead.We tend to judge with human eyes and resent any kind of roadblock in our plans. But God can see trouble down the road and set up a roadblock or detour accordingly. Through our lack of wisdom, we try to tear down and push aside the detour signs. Then the minute we get into trouble, we start crying, “Lord, how could You have done this to me?”

We must learn to accept that a closed door can be a blessing. If you get terminated from your job, praise God for the new opportunities that will manifest themselves. There may be a better job ahead, time to spend on another project or just  the freedom to make a needed trip. The possibilities are endless with God.

Too often we get bogged down in doubt and discouragement when we judge by outward appearance only. But we can be thankful for the many times our Father has closed doors to us to protect us from evil.

Trust Him, for in His perfect timing, He will lead you to the open door that will be more deeply satisfying than anything you could have imagined for yourself.

On September 9th, Smith Mountain Lake Community Bible Study began a 30 week study of Genesis which is a fascinating view of who our God is. Members are learning about the invisible qualities of the Creator through the stories of His people, such as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and many more. 

The study is open to men, women and children of all backgrounds and levels of Bible knowledge. In 2010 it will be held every Wednesday from  9:30 – 11:30am. beginning January 6th and ending Wed. March 31st. You can join in at any point.

If you would like to come the study will take place at Halesford Babtist Church (2485 Lost Mountain Road, Wirtz, VA) and you can visit their website for more information www.smithmountainlakecbs.org or call  540-721-9338.