The old Baptist hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, was written by Robert Robinson in 1757 at the age of 22. If you Google the title of the song, you can read the history behind the composer and the song.

The song depicts a person asking for streams of mercy to never cease and for the lord to tune his heart to sing his praise. It speaks of his redeeming love. In verse four it says, O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be, let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.

The five verse song not only is a great musical masterpiece but it is a phenomenal lyrical writing. Just read the words and you will know what I mean.

The earliest memory I have of the song was one summer when I was at my granny Bell’s house (my mother’s mother) and I was probably 5 or 6 years old. She took me to Peach Orchard Baptist church for bible school. I remember it just like it was yesterday, her standing beside me singing this song and holding the hymnal so I could see the words. I remember her voice and her very presence at that moment and every time I hear the song, I think of her. Granny Bell died young at 63 of a heart condition in 1975.

The point is that this is a great song. The second point is you never know what a simple memory will mean to your children and grandchildren. We get caught up in the hurry of life and don’t realize what little moments mean. This story of my grandmother is a good example. She took the time to be with me that day when she probably had many other more important things to do but it was that moment that stays with me today. She was a dear sweet woman and loved her family with all her heart. KT

Brad Pitt, the actor, is not usually the person to use a quote from, ha, but in the movie “Fury” he made that quote and it was reported that Brad adlibbed and said this quote off script. Once they thought about the quote, they left it in the movie because it was a very true statement.

The statement was “Ideals are peaceful but history is violent.”

If you just take a walk through history you will know that this is true. If you look at the past conflicts and wars such as Vietnam, Koran war, and of course Adolf Hitler and Germany during WWII, Japan during WWII, WWI ,Civil War and all the way back to the Revolutionary war, they are started with a great and peaceful ideology that turned in a bloody war.

Ideology is usually said when the person saying it is safe, warm and secure and it is usually their ideology that they want to impose on the other party.

As I went about my life this past weekend I was reminded of what a price our fathers and grandfathers and their fathers before them paid so we could be safe and live our lives as we decide. Yesterday in Sunday school there was a question if we had ever been persecuted for our faith or not. The answer is that no one in that room has ever been persecuted. You may have had your feelings hurt over faith but nothing that would approach persecution. I am reminded of Hitler who wanted to impose his socialist ideology on all the countries around Germany including the Jewish people. That was persecution. What we have experienced is maybe a little shunning from other people, hurt feelings now and then and the occasional bruised ego.

You think of all the past wars and where they were fought and what the conditions were and the men and women waking up every day not knowing if they would be alive that night. Those soldiers watched their friends die around them and fought with all their hearts to simply stay alive and come home to their families and live in freedom.

The image of being a parent taking your son or your daughter to report for active duty is an image that has played out millions of times for fathers and mothers across America. Thank God I never had to take my daughters to report for duty. I am simply thankful for our lives

My point is the next time you have an easy weekend or a day that is maybe a little stressful, I believe we should all have a reality check on what price was paid so we can go about our lives in freedom. When you see a soldier in uniform, go up to him or her and thank them.

Accross history there has been many people who thought they were leaders and who dispensed their form of ideology. What you will always note from history is that the person wants to be in charge of the ideological setting. None of those people want to be the ones that are controlled by someone else. In every situation they wanted to be in charge.

Sometimes being thankful starts with an inventory of our lives, our families, our safety and where we live. KT

People usually don’t ruin their life all at once. It is usually decisions over a period of time. That said, you can go out this afternoon and rob a bank, and it will pretty much put your life in downward spiral all at once. Most of the time, ruining your life is a culmination of small decisions made over a long period of time.

If you haven’t read the story of Samson in the Bible, this story defines what I am saying. I heard Andy Stanley speak on this a few months ago, and it stayed with me. I won’t go into the whole story as you can read it for yourself, but Samson was a very physically powerful man who was chosen by God. His main instruction was to never tell anyone where his strength comes from (his uncut hair) because if people knew where his strength came from, they could destroy him. He had a weakness for women, and one woman in particular was Delilah. She would ask him where his strength came from and to make a long story short, he toyed with her and kidded with her over this issue and eventually told her his secret. She deceived him and told his secret to the people that were trying to kill him; he basically died a blind and broken man.

He didn’t die because he did one thing wrong. He died because he played with and toyed with the gift God had given him. He died a shameful death because he couldn’t control himself.

He played with that area of his life where he was vulnerable and little by little, it cost him his life. The New Testament speaks many times of “The” sin that so easily makes us stumble, and I believe we all have a “The” sin that we need to be very careful around and to watch very closely in our lives. To some it is eating, to others it is worry, inferiority, fear, sex, drinking, alcohol, gambling and the list could go on and on.

I remember when I was a child how we would watch a scary TV show and how afraid I would be the whole time. I remember my dad Gene would always wait until that precise moment when the bad guy would jump out, and Gene would grab me and scare the living daylights out of me. The more movies a person watches that are scary, the more they get comfortable with them. It is the same with any weakness in our lives. If we keep letting that thing in our lives slowly get to us, we could be putting ourselves at risk just like Samson.

Enough said on this subject. Anyone reading this knows what the point is. We should heed the story of Samson because he lost his life, his purpose, his calling, and opportunity to do something great with his life. KT