Rev. Hood Archive

316 yards, 31.6 yards for the average pass, John 3:16 and Tim Tebow. That alone almost makes not being a Christian implausible. If one was to write the storyline of the Broncos vs Steelers game like it turned out, it would again fall within the context of sheer implausibility. But those are exactly the stats Tim Tebow put up against the number defense in the NFL last Sunday.

If I were an atheist, that would scare the hell out of me. Whatever works. “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.”(Jude 21-23)

Why are those of the radical left beginning to taut Tim Tebow as the most divisive person in sports? Why can’t they be tolerant of someone who dares defy their premise of social acceptability? Because not all hypocrites go to church. Because they don’t control the agenda when Christ is lifted up. You can’t look at the life of Tim Tebow without being aware of the One he loves and represents. The Jesus he presents isn’t the package they can trump.

Tebow writes in his book, Through My Eyes, “What it boils down to is that. . . if there’s someone who agrees that Christians don’t have to be weak, either in mind, body, or soul, then undertaking this project was the right thing to do, regardless of what the world thinks is the ‘right time’ to write a memoir.”(xi)

“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” (2:Timothy 3:12) Why? Because “He (Jesus) came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” (John 1:11) There has been a backlash against the media for its treatment of Tebow. Why? “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name.”(v12) Tebow is championing what many of us believe and to God be the glory!

Tebow is filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That’s Who the commotion is really all about. This battle is cosmic. It really is amazing that there is more going on here than just we terrestrial footballers, and they’re watching, too. It’s not about the NFL. It’s about a living Savior using a servant to bring glory to Himself in undeniable ways, regardless of a final football score.

What is John 3:16? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Believe.

“Just follow the signs!” I told myself as I pulled in with my patient to the Phoebe Sumter Regional Hospital labyrinth. I had never delivered a patient to the new facility which opened in Americus on December 16th. It is on the corner of highways 280 and 19. I was transporting a patient from Webster County. Signs eventually led me to the ER Ambulance Bay. A rather distinguished gentleman asked me if I found my way in easily enough. “I just followed the signs, sir.” He seemed pleased. I had entered from the HWY 280 side, closest to Webster County. Later I was informed that the entrance from HWY 19 was a straight shot to the ambulance entrance.

AT 8:55 am, we unloaded the patient from the ambulance. Upon our entering, all of the Emergency personnel were looking at us. Everyone was moving with marked deliberation. I asked, “Where would you like our patient?” Someone asked, “Is 10 available yet?” It was. We helped our patient transfer to the hospital bed and kept the routine. We came out and continued process. Someone volunteered: “You’re the first.” “We’re the first what?” I inquired. “You’re the first ambulance to admit a patient to the new hospital.”

I thought that was really ironic. I work in Sumter County for Vital Care EMS. The hospital is in Sumter County. I’ve made many transports to the other location before the move with Vital Care. I also work for Webster County EMS. This patient requested Phoebe Sumter Regional Hospital. Different from our routine, we came to Americus. “So Webster County’s the first.” someone observed.

The hospital staff at Phoebe Sumter is a team of consummate professionals. The environment was better, but very new. They had not yet snapped to grid like they operated in the other facility. I knew it would just be a matter of time. Some of the staff was learning where things belonged and where to find other things.

Outside I ran into the Sumter County Deputy Coroner, W. R. “Buddy” Wilbanks. He was asking where the morgue was. I didn’t know but a security guard told him. We talked for a few minutes and I asked him if he would take our picture to remember this occasion. He took it with his camera.

This whole experience made me think of a person’s first day in heaven. People are brought in all the time. Are you nervous about it? What kind of facility will that be? “I can only imagine!” “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansion; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

Pretty soon, the Coroner will find us. If you know Jesus, you’ll like the new location. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”(John 14:6)

The writer with Sumter County Deputy Coroner, W. R. “Buddy” Wilbanks.

My purpose for going to the Leesburg Christmas Parade was to see my son march in the Lee County High School Marchin’ Trojan Band. That alone was worth the trip. The candy falling at my feet was a bonus. I didn’t get most of it. Little kids would collect most of it. But occasionally, I would cop a piece of chocolate. Some of the kids come to the parade for the candy. Some of the kids came to the parade for Luke Bryan. Some of those kids were in their 30s. I heard one 30 year old girl say with authority, “He is going to shake my hand!”

Towards the end of the parade came Leesburg’s own Luke Bryan. There was not a kid, nor a 30 year old girl wearing a bigger smile than Luke Bryan. If you wanted to shake Luke Bryan’s hand, you were going to shake his hand. I watched him shake the hands of two pre-teen boys who immediately went to jumping and whooping and hollering. I couldn’t help but think that just a few years ago, that was Luke Bryan in those same streets growing up just like those boys. For a moment, they were all Leesburg boys. The thirty year old girl was still looking at her hand. Luke came to give back to the community but what I saw was that Luke got the biggest reward. This whole experience was a blessing to me. Thanks, Luke.

I love all kinds of music and I love God. That’s why God has led me to lead a music ministry on Saturday nights called “Cross Cultural Musique.” For those of you who do not remember Cross Cultural Musique, it helps to know our purpose. “The purpose of Cross Cultural Musique is to glorify God by engaging various music ministries of local congregations in a non-denominational atmosphere for the mutual edification of all in attendance.” We’ve had African American churches that soulfully sing. We’ve had contemporary churches that play, well, Rock music. We’ve had southern gospel and blue grass. We’ve had real Cross Cultural experiences.

We’ve moved to a new, larger location. It is at Jacob’s Ladder located at 603 Hwy 32 East, just three miles from the Courthouse. We kick off again January 7th. We already have the line-up for January. To kick it off, The Hood Family and Grafted-In, a men’s quartet from Philema Baptist Church, will be on January 7th. A premier local southern gospel group, Southern Majesty, will sing on the 14th. On the 21st, Frank Story of the Frank and Sonny Show on WWVO will be singing with his wife, Wanda. Joining them will be Rex Hackley. On January 28th, Lonesome Road, a bluegrass gospel group will close out the month for us.

It’s all free. The atmosphere is relaxed and casual. If you want to get up and move around during the songs, it’s your prerogative. Other music ministries are being lined-up. If your church music ministry wants to minister beyond the walls of your building, come join other like-minded believers. To God be the glory.

I told my paramedic partner for the day that I needed to write an article for this week. I went and got my laptop. Solitaire found its way to my screen. She taunted me: “That’s not writing an article!” That’s when I asked her what I should write. She told me. She said I should write about God’s grace, about being chosen, and about how big God is and yet how He is concerned about the small details.

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heaven! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”(Psalm 8:1-4)

Just how much does the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, really care about the details? Just how much mind does He really pay to this human experiment? Back in the Garden of Eden, God would walk daily with Adam in fellowship. Then came the fall of man when Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. ‘In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”(Genesis 2:17) To die in this sense means to be separated from God. Because of this original sin, all have inherited the sinful nature. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23) Why should God care? We made our bed; should we die in it?

“And anyone not found written in the the Book of Life was cast in the Lake of Fire.”(Rev. 20:15) Since we all inherited the sinful nature are we doomed to that fate? “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”(I Cor. 15:22) We need to go back to a sinless nature. We need to be born again(John 3:3). That’s why God became a man. He became for us the second Adam in the Person of Christ. “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.”(I Corithians 15:47)

He is a God who cares about the details. Only He could have come and redeemed us from the mess we inherited. “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: you will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”(Luke 2:11-12) There’s our great God in the Little Details.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can kill my spirit. There are some who draw their significance from others as vampires. They are psychological and spiritual parasites.

“There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose fangs are like knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men. The leech has two daughters — Give and Give!” (Proverbs 30:14-15a.)

Those who have to make less of someone to make more of themselves consequently make themselves to be nothing. They become even worse. They become negative energy.

Do you know any of these people? They are the ones who never “laugh at you” but are only “laughing with you!” “Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death, is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, ‘I was only joking!’” (Proverbs 26:18-19)

When is the last time you’ve heard that used carte blanche? “Just kidding!” Then the madman can enjoy his life essence as he devours the “poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.” The wolf attacks wounded quarry as other wolves smell the nourishment that only life-blood can sustain. The initial hit has been made. Predators sense it as sharks and piranha sense blood in the water. “You better get some of this while the getting’s good!” A skeleton of a person floats to the bottom of the sea of despair.

Then there’s the parasite who will only drink from a straw. One wouldn’t want to be conspicuous in revealing their thirst for blood, let alone admit that they have it. They may not even know yet that they are vampires. They invite others to join them in the drink by offering the innocuous toast, “Bless her little heart, but she can’t help it!” The table is set. The human is slaughtered. The feast is on.

“The words of a gossip are like tasty trifles, and they go down into the inmost body. Fervent lips with a wicked heart are like earthenware covered with silver dross. He who hates disguises it with his lips, and lays up deceit within himself; when he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven abominations in his heart.”(Proverbs 26:22-25)

There are a couple of television commercials that bait the predator. One begins with, “Short on cash?” Then there are the typical predatorial stereotypes of a midget who cannot reach high enough to get the cash and who cannot slam the hammer hard enough to get the big money. We are all invited to the feast. The big man can reach the money. We’re invited to run with the big dog and get that cash, too. The predator has been baited with his own carnivorous instinct. “A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.” (Proverbs 29:5) The hunter became the hunted. Meanwhile, in real life the midget gets paid the big bucks for the commercial, is anything but short on cash, and laughs all the way to the bank.

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him. A lying tongue hates those who are crushed by it, and a flattering mouth works ruin.” (Proverbs 26:27-28) When you see weakness in another, resist the urge to feast with the predators. “There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword, but the tongue of the wise promotes health.”(Proverbs 12:18) You just might be messin’ with Sasquatch.