Rev. Hood Archive

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Faith and music

 

 

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.

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‘I believe’

 

 

Melancholy was the atmosphere. We entered slowly by vehicle passing those who had arrived quite some time before us. They had their places. Some were families. Some stayed alone. They had no intention of leaving. In all due respect, we didn’t come to see them. We continued to the back. No one seemed to notice.

We made the turn and then back to the right. We got out of the vehicle. There he was across the terrace. I had never before seen him with this. My mother had chosen it especially for him. She would one day share it with him. We had to meander our way through those already situated being quite careful not to invade their spaces. They didn’t seem to notice. They didn’t seem to care. Deference demanded our conciliation. We arrived to our destination. He didn’t seem to notice but we couldn’t be sure. Johnny Edgar Hood August 11, 1940 March 30, 2011.

It was my mother, sister, and I. My sister and I had not yet seen the tombstone my mother had picked out. On the back read, “Children: Pam Keith Tammy” linearly. Pam was arriving with her granddaughter, Angel. Pam came over to join us. Angel, six years old, seemed to share no melancholy biorhythms. She didn’t seem to notice the others’ not noticing although she did exhort her grandmother on the way over to not step on the graves because “You don’t want to step on their heads!”

We paid our respects. Tammy wanted to visit a couple of wreathes toward the front. They were teenagers from South Effingham High School. She teaches the nursing program there and knew the kids. A rash of tragedies struck Effingham County claiming several of their youth.

We visited other graves drifting quite away from daddy. Angel had done well in occupying herself. I looked back to daddy’s grave and there was Angel. She knew the side her Pawpaw was on. She was reclining on the ground as she figured he was, only she lay on the grass under my mother’s name facing her Pawpaw. To her, it just seemed like the perfect place to be. Angel’s watching over Pawpaw.

I walked alone for a while. I said for no one to hear but I’m quite sure that it was heard by the “unincorporated”: “I believe.” For the Scripture says, “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”(I Thessalonians 4:13-14) “While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”(Psalm 146:2)

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The nature of Thanksgiving

 

 

What is Thanksgiving? The other day I was invited to my wife’s class at Albany High School as she held the 4th annual International Thanksgiving Feast. Being language learners from such countries as El Salvador, Mexico, and China, they were asked about what they knew about Thanksgiving. Being that they were from other countries, Thanksgiving was not a tradition with which they were familiar. My wife reviewed the story of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. She told about their treacherous journey and how half of the Pilgrims died during their First winter. Thanks to the Native Americans, they were able to survive. Squanto taught them how to plant their crops, fish, hunt, etc. Thanksgiving was first celebrated in 1621 by the colonists of Plymouth Plantation and the Wampanoag Indians as they converged to celebrate what God had provided for them.

At this point, the students were asked for what they were thankful. Many mentioned family. Janice explained to them how we, like the Pilgrims and Native Americans, represent different cultures. Those days (yes, they celebrated for several days) were special as the two cultures converged, and they celebrated God’s providence. What a feast we had that day—Chinese food, Mexican food, and African sauce, and rice.

So here was the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were 3rd culture people mixing with the indigenous people of what the 3rd culture people called Plymouth Plantation. God transcended the two cultures. Together they ate and shared bread. I wonder what the seating arrangements were. In the class the other day, the Hispanics sat at one table while the Chinese sat at another. You could hear them speaking their own languages among themselves. They were not shutting themselves off from the other groups. They were just being who they were and being most at ease about it. When it came time for the conversation to be centered on Thanksgiving, English was the common ground.

There’s going to be a Thanksgiving celebration that is spiced with Cross cultural variety. It will be focused upon the One Who transcends all cultures but embraces their nuances. It is personality unleashed.

“After these things I looked and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the lamb!’”(Revelation 7:9-10)

I will be there. Those I love in Africa will be there. An bee ka Ala tanu, ka Aleluya fo! An bee ka baraka di a ma! For those of you who don’t yet know the Bambara language, it translates like this: “We all are praising God and saying hallelujah! We all are giving thanks to Him!”

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God’s Grace

 

 

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.

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Feasting with the Predators

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.

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Still Marching

The 2nd Annual Lee County High School Marchin’ Trojan Alumni & Friends Band. I picked up my trumpet last year for the 1st Annual LCHS Marchin’ Trojan Alumni & Friends Band. I wasn’t an alumnus but I’m glad they considered me a friend. I was trying to play music I didn’t know from notes I’d never practiced. “Embrasure” was just a word I used to hear in high school which meant keeping your mouth in shape to play the instrument. If you don’t use it, you lose it. I graduated high school in 1980 but my embrasure didn’t. I knew what was supposed to be coming out of my trumpet but the long-estranged embrasure was no longer my along side. There were some clarinets ahead of me who thought I might make a good freshman, the next year.

Time rolled around for the next Alumni and Friends. I love my trumpet but I also played bass drum in high school. There’s not but one note to hit. There was a bass drum not being used and my trumpet virtuosity wasn’t really in demand, so I went with the bass drum. I got a crash course from the other bass drummers and the whole drum section on some cadences. “That’s all you gotta do!” High School peer pressure is enormous! I did OK on most of the cadences. As for some of the others, let’s just say I missed Band Camp.

During the pre-game ceremonies, the Alumni and Friends Band played the National Anthem on the football field. Then they all sat in the stands in the band section while the football team took a 36-0 lead over Crawford County. The band left to set up for the halftime show a few minutes before the 2nd quarter ended. That’s when the cheerleaders normally do their tumbles. Nonverbal poetry! They are perennially among the best in the state. Football games are like a well orchestrated three ring circus: the band, football team, and cheerleaders. Salute to the Naval JR ROTC as well. The common denominator is our kids.

Speaking of our kids, that’s why we parents march with our kids once a year. We want support them by being “along side” them. “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you of the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of Me; and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning.”(John 1:26-27) The “Comforter,” or “Paraclete” in Greek, means “to come along side.” My wife and graduated daughter marched along side Solomon, my son. Other parents marched along side their band member. As God would have it, my bass drum was placed right in front of my son who plays sousaphone. I was along side him for three quarters in the stands. Even as I type this, he is practicing his tuba in my office so he can be along side me as he does. He’s a good freshman this year!

My heroes in the band are the parent concession stand workers. Without them, we could not afford to do the things we do. They work extremely hard and don’t get to watch their kids march during the home halftime show. When you see them rushing to get your food and then the next person’s, know they are thinking of their kids. “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor (along side), Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”(Isaiah 9:6)

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Delighting in ‘Unscaring’ Children

“Then they brought the little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.’ And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.” (Luke 10:13-16)

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Largely undisturbed

Largely undisturbed. It wasn’t a nightmare, it was just a painful vision of the ghost town my daddy’s cabinet shop has become. I was in Macon visiting relatives when I had the dream. It was the kind of dream where consciousness rivals the waking. The eyes open and you find yourself in another place. Logic convinces you there was nothing tangible about your latest soul journey but the poignancy of emotion, however, argues for an undeniable and profound experience. That’s real enough.

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Trish Hotz: More than Doc Hollywood’s wife

“C’mon guys! Touch your patients!” Patricia Hotz has been touching patients in the Greater Albany Area since 1979 when she began the Emergency Medical Service program at Darton College. Her list of credentials includes Program Director of Emergency Medical Services, Associate Professor of Emergency Medical Services; R.N.; R.R.T.; NREMT-P; B.S.N.; University of North Carolina M.M.Sc., M.N., Emory University.

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Following Paul’s lead

Sitting in the EMS station in Plains, Ga., I looked over at the paramedic with whom I was working and asked: “Do you mind if I read you a paragraph?” He was reading some novel that he dutifully suspended in the spirit of mutual respect. I was reading my Bible. He braced himself. “Go ahead.”

“After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked for by occupation they were tentmakers.”(Acts 18:1-3) Paul would get up on the Sabbath and go preach. “And he reasoned in the synagogue ever Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.”(v 4)

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