Friends for Life

I have a friend on death row in the state of Florida. We met in 1968 in Charlotte N.C. at a military induction center. We had both enlisted in the Marine Corps. Tom and I went through boot camp and Vietnam together. After we got out we stayed in touch, we became life long friends.

One night I was watching the 11 pm. news. The reporter was telling about a man who was arrested for three counts of murder. When I heard Tom’s name it floored me. We have all listened to news reports about tragedys without it affecting us.

When I heard this one I was shocked. They had arrained Tom from N.C. to Florida to stand trial.While he was in jail we were able to communicate by phone. He was convicted of three counts of murder and given the death sentence. Tom was placed on death row in 1981. It took me until 1984 to get on his visitor list because I wasn’t a relative. He has been on death row for 31 years.

Since his incarceration, both of his parents have died and all of relatives have forsaken him. My wife and I are his only contacts on the outside. He was pretty much railroaded through his trial and conviction.  Basically, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. For 31 years he has maintained his innocence and has been in the appellet system trying to get a new trial. I believe in the power of prayer and the faithfullness of God. My wife and I have been there for Tom and have shown him God’s unconditional love.

As I was meditating on what to write about, the Lord reminded me of his faithfullness. I just want to give God praise and thanksgiving. We take his faithfullness for granted at times. No matter where we are in life his faithfullness abounds. He uses people, things, and circumstances to work his goodness toward us. We need to be greatful every day for his blessings, not just one day each year.

I would ask that you remember Tom in your prayers and never take your freedom for granted.

~Ricky Robinson

Image Credit © MEN’S HANDS
© Olga Vasilkova | Dreamstime.com

Thank You for Being a Friend!

Everybody wants a friend. Everybody wants to belong somewhere…anywhere. I grew up on Air Force bases around the world. I was a quiet person and it took quite a while for me to make friends. I was very selective in who I chose. I wanted a friend who would always be there. I wanted someone that I could talk to about my deepest dreams, no matter how silly they were. I wanted someone I could entrust my deepest fears who would help me get through them. I used to envy the girls where I would go to school that had a best friend since kindergarten. I wanted that and badly! Military life was not bad but the changing stations and starting to a new school was hard on a quiet, shy little girl.

As I was driving home the other day from Atlanta, I got to thinking about friends…about my friends. I was thinking about the things that I share with them. Not one of my closest friends knows everything about me. It seems that I share some things with one friend, other things with another, and so on and so forth. If they were ever to combine forces and compile what they know then they would have almost a complete picture. I love them all dearly but I have not brought myself to trust one single person with everything about me.

Have you ever had the spiritual V-8 head smack? Well I experienced that while sitting in the wonderful Atlanta traffic (trying hard not to nut up and step out in the flesh at some of the drivers!). I could almost visualize God’s hand smacking me in the head!

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you] as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set  you apart, consecrating you; ]and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1: 5 (AMP) Even though God is speaking to Jeremiah in this verse, don’t you think it applies to you? He may not have called you to be a prophet. However, He knew you before He formed you in your mother’s womb. I think it does apply to me. He is no respecter of persons. He has given us a purpose in life. We are part of His Kingdom. He has approved of us and has appointed us to preach the gospel, His Word to set forth His Kingdom here on Earth.

The revelation that I received was that He WAS my best friend throughout my whole life, and He is STILL my best friend! He knows EVERYTHING about me. He also knows EVERYTHING about you! He wants and desires that BEST FRIEND Relationship. He will listen to you and give you the advice that you need. He will not lead you astray. It is okay to have your really, good friends. Just don’t forget to spend that time with your best friend.

~Ronda Sullivan

Sticks and Stones

Okay, we’ve all heard it before: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” That is a lie right out of the pits of hell! You can pick up a stick or a stone and throw it back at someone, but words pierce the hearts and emotions in a way that almost kill us. True, they might not physically kill us, but they can kill our self-esteem and our self-worth. With a single word, you can give someone all the confidence in the world and, again with a single word, you can knock someone all the way to the bottom.

Words are very powerful and form images in our minds about who we are. That’s why the devil will use words people say to beat kids down from an early age, making them feel inferior or unworthy. Because of those words, we try to protect ourselves from getting hurt and start building walls around our emotions and around our hearts. By the time we are teens, our hearts are so hardened that it’s like we have an armor plating around them so no one can get through.

When our hearts are hard, we end up saying and doing things to hurt other people the same way we are hurt. We make excuses like, “What comes up, comes out. I really can’t help it.” We can help it, especially if we’re born again and have the nature of God on the inside of us. God tells us all through His word how to act, how to speak towards others and how to treat other people. We are supposed to live and walk in His love. We can do that when we have a foundation in the word, knowing who we are in Him.

Just like a single, hurtful word work towards destroying us, one single from God can and will change our lives. With one single word, God can cause that armor plating to peel back and those walls around our hearts to come down. His word is powerful, and it is more than enough!

It doesn’t matter what others have said to your or about you. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve been hurt. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, and He came to heal you. When you allow God to do His work in your life, you will find that you want to help others instead of hurt them.

Don’t let those sticks and stones keep you from your destiny!

~art and text by guest contributor James Parrish

Thanks for Dropping By!

Thank you for visiting the Celebration Online! We welcome you, whether you are from around the corner or around the world! We want to particularly welcome our new readers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, India, Brazil, Panama, Sweden, Ontario and right next door in Irmo, South Carolina!

When you visit our site, read through the articles, leave comments, recommend the site to your friends with whatever social networking tool you use, and DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE!! There is a place for you to subscribe by RSS feed or by Email on the right column of this page.

Your visits to “The C” Online are helping get out the Good News of the Gospel!! That’s right! Just by stopping by, you make it easier for people all over the world to find our site! So, keep visiting and tell your friends!!!

The Many Faces of the Modern Church, pt 2

Recognize either of these?? ~The C

The Coffee Club: Aren’t we a little like a spiritual version of the popular television show, “Friends”? We come together on the weekends to catch up on all the latest gossip, get advice, and pat each other on the back. Our focus in on seeing and being seen – on social relationships that give us our identity. We get a little shot of spiritual caffeine to hype us up for the week to come, and we leave feeling good about spending time in church. There’s nothing wrong with going to church with friends as long as friends are not the reason we go to church!

The maintenance man: Many churches are content to maintain the status quo.  We get lulled into the “maintenance mode” from time to time, becoming content to have the same 30, 100, or 400 church members.  We become satisfied and don’t look for ways to continue to grow and keep gaining influence in our communities. If our churches aren’t growing, we’re losing ground. Look at the Church in the Book of Acts and how it grew and multiplied. How can Christian churches afford to maintain the status quo when other religions are increasing at an alarming rate?

These questions need to be answered if we’re going to effect any serious change in the way we present “church” to the world. What are your thoughts??