CLASS ARCHIVES - past postings we want to keep around...

Posted December 14, 2010:

December 14 : A Special Personal Reflection

This past Sunday, Rachael Wiggins shared a special personal reflection with the class. It was meant for December 14.
If you weren't in class, you'll want to read this.

Many of you remember the story that I told you 10 years ago, that I got pregnant as a young teenager, “had to” get married, and that my daughter was born prematurely on Dec 14, 1970 and died the next day.

You may recall that 10 years ago I agonized over her 30th birthday, remembering that 15 years after her death her father wanted to open her grave and move her. And how unhappy I was when my friends were shopping for prom dresses when she would have been in high school, and we didn’t get to go. How my family didn’t discuss this event much, but Becca goes to her gravesite every year on her birthday. Becca says it’s harder to get into the cemetery at Ft. Benning now with all the security, but she has a plan; after 40 years, she’s a pro.

I told you 10 years ago that I have been very blessed in spite of myself, and I still feel that way. I have a good job and a nice place to live. I have a little dog who is glad to see me when I get home. I have a boyfriend that loves me. I have a wonderful family. I’m rich!

10 years ago I told you that God had a plan, that this happened for a reason. While I don’t claim to know what that reason is, I do know that I have the ability to walk into a hospital room or a funeral home and comfort another young mother. I somehow find the right words to say…….or know when to say nothing, just to be there. I’ve done it a million times.

Another good thing: God promised me that I will see her again. I wonder if she will still be a newborn baby, or will she be a grown woman? Wonder how that works.

Maybe after 40 years, not only would this daughter of mine be grown up, I think I have done some growing up, too. This year my thoughts turn to those around me, some of you in here, who have suffered loss: Mary Ella, Judy, Steve, Gary, Linda, Dale, John, Gayle, Julie, Madia, Tom, Diane, Maria, Cathy, Phyllis, Emory, Joan, Chuck……………maybe more of you……….

For you, for me, and for others; know that we have a divine guarantee that our burdens are bearable because of the birth of another child, the Christ Child.

--Rachael Wiggins, December 14, 2010.

Posted Halloween 2010:

HALLOWEEN IN HEAVEN
October 31, 2010

Did you know that there is Halloween in Heaven? According to the Bible, it will be commemorated in heaven at least as long as human history on earth continues.

Although some Christians in modern America resist Halloween as a pagan or occult-tinged festival, the original holiday is deeply rooted in Christian history. Halloween is an old English way of saying Hallow's Eve, the evening before All Hallows Day. On the ancient church calendar, All Hallows Day was set aside to remember all the holy martyrs, men and women who died because of faith in Jesus Christ.

As far back as the fourth century AD, Christians in places like Antioch had established a day especially for this purpose. Persecution was so severe in that era that just about every Christian personally knew someone who had died for their faith.

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III made November 1 the permanent, annual All Hallows Day commemoration of Christian martyrs. He consecrated special burial grounds in Rome where the bones of martyrs could be transferred from scattered gravesites anywhere in the world. Each year, newly reburied remains were recognized by the Pope on October 31, Hallows Eve. Thus skeletons came to be associated with the Halloween commemoration, but in an honored and holy sense.

The honoring of martyrs on November 1, or the evening before, carried over to Protestant churches after the Reformation and continues worldwide in many churches to this day (although, for some reason, not so much in Baptist churches). At a number of churches in Charlotte, November 1 is called either the Festival of the Holy Martyrs or All Saints Day. In these churches, the old English Halloween is called All Saints Eve, October 31.

"Begging" door to door on Hallows Eve, mentioned in one of Shakespeare's plays, was a practice in which poor people went house to house praying, and were thanked by the homeowner with a bit of food or small gift. But most of our familiar secular Halloween traditions in America are not rooted in anything nearly so long past.

Carved pumpkins were part of fall harvest festivals – with no connection to ghosts and goblins – long before becoming associated with Halloween in the late 1800s. "Trick or Treat" in the modern sense, as a neighborhood ritual with children or teenagers in costume and houses decorated with ghosts and witches and goblins, is no older than the 1900s. Like many supposedly very old Christmas traditions that really aren’t, much of what we associate with Halloween developed as a result of moviemakers and commercial promotions within the last 100 years.

It's fine for Christian parents to avoid the secular influence of Halloween by turning the day into some version of Oktoberfest, but why not also take Halloween back to its hallowed roots?

We are told in Revelation 6 that the martyrs are honored and remembered in heaven, and are given white robes. If the original purpose of Halloween was a way for the church to recognize martyrs, then Halloween is a regular thing in Heaven. Here is what John saw in his vision:

I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.

We in America think little of martyrs, on All Saints Eve or any other time, because Christians in America rarely face severe persecution, much less martyrdom. But believers are dying for their faith in other parts of the world, and that passage from Revelation makes it crystal clear that more will be killed. The World Christian Database at Gordon Conwell Seminary has estimated that, on average, more than 400 believers a day die for reasons related to their Christian faith. It must be getting crowded on All Saints Eve under that huge altar in John’s vision.

Join me by using All Saints Eve (Sunday) or Holy Martyrs Day (Monday) to pray for Christian believers in places like Saudi Arabia and Yemen where converting to Christianity is a capital crime. This Halloween, let's think about—and intentionally pray for—our Christian brothers and sisters in places like Nigeria, Iran, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Indonesia, Pakistan and many other places where believers have died this year because they serve Jesus Christ.

Posted 11/9/09:

A Very Special, Even Miraculous, Praise Report

Ruth Gobah expresses her very deep appreciation for those in our class who have prayed for her baby Edwin. She is ecstatic this morning because the doctors have just told her that Edwin can go home next week. The doctors and the nurses have stopped referring to Edwin by his name, and instead refer to him as Miracle Baby. He will still need continual monitoring and care, but they will arrange for this at home.

The Gobah family faces some very serious financial issues in all this, not to mention emotional exhaustion. So please continue to pray.

UPDATE FROM TOM 11/11/09:

Hallelujah!! Edwin is home. Ruth called this morning and said she wanted to thank everyone for their support and all their prayers. She really appreciated the fact she could depend on everyone to hold Edwin and her family up to the Lord in prayer. Keep praying for this family.

Posted 9/27/09:

A Postview instead of a Preview

Sunday 9/27 in class we looked at Psalm 135:6, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does.”

That verse is usually seen as a declaration of God's supremacy, of his complete authority. But the Hebrew word translated “pleases” also means pleasure, satisfaction, or enjoyment, and is used that way in other Bible passages. So Psalm 135:6 could suggest a whole additional line of thinking about God — that He always does what gives Him satisfaction, that His actions through all of history and eternity are the decisions and plans and actions which produce, in the long run, enjoyment and lasting pleasure. God is free (in the most ultimate sense of the word free, utterly unrestrained by anything except his own nature) to choose any course of action or make any choice, or refrain from any course of action, as He so chooses. But although He possesses an absolutely unrestricted freedom to act, He unfailingly chooses what He knows will ultimately result in satisfaction and enjoyment, His and ours.

Let’s not let last week’s study just pass into the past. Meditate awhile on God’s pleasure.

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
-Jesus, in Luke 12:32

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
-Ephesians 1:5

It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
-Philippians 2:13

Posted 5/i7/09:

In class Sunday 5/10 I gave out a take-home page to be used for encouragement. It’s an excerpt from a classic sermon on Isaiah 61, preached in London about 125 years ago. The excerpt begins: “Come, my brethren and sisters, are any of you down; are you almost beneath the enemy's foot? Here is a word for you.” If that might apply to you this week, click on this link and read.

Posted 5/17/09:

A Cause for Praise

Above is a photo of Ruth Gobah with baby Edwin, finally at home after spending the first three months of his life hospitalized. Parents William and Ruth, and big sister Gbassey, are thrilled to have Edwin home. But because of Edwin's health challenges, the doctor has ordered round-the-clock assistance from homecare pediatric nurses for at least two weeks, and 16-hour-a-day assistance for some time after that. This photo is a cause for praise and a call for prayer.

Posted 2/22/09:

click here for 15 Prayers from the letters to the Thessalonians

Posted Christmas 2008:

Click here for a special Christmas Eve message!

Posted Halloween 2008:

HALLOWEEN IN HEAVEN
October 31, 2008

Although some Christians in modern America avoid Halloween as a pagan or occult-tinged festival, the original holiday is deeply rooted in Christian history. Halloween is an old way of saying Hallow's Eve, the evening before All Hallows Day. On the ancient church calendar, All Hallows Day was a day to remember all the holy martyrs, men and women who died because of faith in Jesus Christ.

As far back as the fourth century AD, Christians in places like Antioch set aside a special day for this purpose. Persecution was so severe in that era that just about every Christian personally knew someone who had died for their faith.

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III made November 1 the permanent, annual All Hallows Day commemoration of Christian martyrs and consecrated special burial grounds in Rome where the bones of martyrs could be transferred from scattered graves. Newly reburied remains were recognized by the Pope on October 31, Hallows Eve. Thus skeletons came to be associated with the commemoration, but in an honored and holy sense.

The commemoration of martyrs on November 1 (or the evening before) carried over to Protestant churches after the Reformation and continues in many churches to this day, minus American Halloween customs. In many liturgical churches around the world, November 1 is called either the Festival of the Holy Martyrs or All Saints Day. In these churches, the old English Halloween is called All Saints Eve, on October 31.

Most of our modern secular Halloween traditions in America are not rooted in anything very ancient.

"Begging" door to door on Hallows Eve, mentioned in one of Shakespeare's plays, was a practice in which poor people went house to house praying, and were thanked with a bit of food or small gift. But "Trick or Treat" in the modern sense, as a neighborhood ritual with children or teenagers in costume and houses decorated with ghosts and witches and goblins, is no older than the 1900s. Carved pumpkins were part of harvest festivals in North America -- with no connection to ghosts and goblins -- long before becoming associated with Halloween in the late 1800s.

Like many supposedly very old Christmas traditions, much of what we associate with Halloween developed in the last 100-or-so years as a result of commercial promotions and moviemakers.

It's fine for Christians to avoid the secular influence of Halloween on children by turning the day into a version of Octoberfest, but we also ought to take Halloween back to its hallowed roots.

We think little of martyrs because Christians in America rarely face severe persecution, much less martyrdom. But believers face dying for their faith every day in other parts of the world.

Join me by using All Saints Eve (Friday) or Holy Martyrs Day (Saturday) to pray for Christian believers in Saudi Arabia, where converting to Christianity is a capital crime and where a father recently burned (literally) his own daughter alive for professing Jesus. This Halloween, let's think about - and intentionally pray for - our Christian brothers and sisters who are being killed for their faith right now in the fall of 2008 in places like Mosul, Iraq and Kabul, Afghanistan.

Remember Orissa state in India where 70,000 Christians have been driven from their homes and many killed in the last few weeks simply because they bear the name of Christ. This is very real and near. A man who is my prayer partner two or three mornings a week here in Charlotte is a naturalized American born in India. Some of this friend's own relatives back home have died in recent days for being Christian.

On our own continent, give thought to churches in Chiapas, Mexico, where three members of a Christian family were hacked to death in August by a neighbor opposed to their faith.

Would you make a point to pause from your activities this Halloween, or on Saturday, and purposefully pray for men and women -- ordinary believers who are no different from you and me -- who face persecution and martyrdom in our 2008 world? Would you pray for the Christian families in hiding or made homeless right now in Orissa, India? And would you pray for the surviving loved ones of those already martyred in India, Mexico, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and other countries in recent days?

We know that there is Halloween in Heaven, at least while human history on earth continues. Look it up in Revelation 6:9-11.

Tom

Posted 4/14/08:

What a Party!

Click here for pictures from the class Spring Party held on Saturday April 12

Posted 1/7/08:

Now where can I find that Yale research?

In class Sunday 1/6, Tom referred to genetic-statistical research done at Yale University that concluded that every person alive today descended from a single ancestor or single line of ancestors who lived as recently as between 5000 and 7000 years ago, with the probability favoring the more recent side of that range. In other words, the ancestral family tree of every human alive today merges together to a single person or family (called the "bottleneck ancestor" or "identical ancestor") who lived somewhere between 5000 and 3000 BC, with a good chance it was more toward 3000 BC. "It means" say the researchers, "that when Muslims, Jews or Christians claim to be children of Abraham, they are probably right...."

Many who attended the God Chasers class Sunday morning have asked how to explore this further. The research was initially published in the science journal NATURE, September 2004. A brief abstract is accessible online by clicking on this link: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v431/n7008/abs/nature02842.html

Reports on the research can be found in many places, including:

MSNBC:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13621729/

Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,201908,00.html

Science Daily (short summary with limited details):
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/09/040930122428.htm

How we could have such variation of racial characteristics if we all had a common ancestor 5000 years ago:
http://blog.case.edu/singham/2006/10/10/why_we_look_different_despite_having_identical_ancestors

From 5/31/07:

Want an Inside Look at the Billy Graham Library - and the dedication?

Charles Yates came to the dedication of the Billy Graham Library (Thursday 5/31) and took a large portfolio of pictures. Some are of the event, some inside the exhibits.

Many in class Sunday asked to see them, and there just wasn't time for everyone to get a look. So he has posted the portfolio on his web site.

To see the pictures, click here to get to http://www.nceit.com , then click on "BGEA Library" in lower left of page

Posted 4/6/07:

Cathie Bowers takes you on a tour of Billy Graham's Home

From April 2007:

Time for a little bragging...

Click here to see a clip announcing the VIP arrival of Tom and Cathie's Grandaughter

From December 2006:

The God Chasers' Christmas Party has come and gone...

From November 2006:

Well deserved recognition for one of our own

Gloria Medlock pins the Major's rank on the collar of hubby Major Harold Medlock in a promotion
ceremony held at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department on Monday, November 20.

From January 2006:

Time for Celebration

In the African tradition, Iris Sankary has designated me her "Big Brother" to make an important announcement on her behalf. It gives me great joy to announce that Iris married Edwin Johnson in a private ceremony a few days before Christmas.

Edwin and Iris have been going together for some time, waiting for circumstances to seem right. Her daughters Dawn & Laurie convinced her that it was time. Edwin, who has been a visitor in our class many times, works for a company that sends him on extended out-of-town assignments, and he is presently commuting to Maryland. He will be with Iris in class weekend-after-next.

Iris sold her house and has bought a new house with Edwin, off Back Creek Church Road out Highway 49 north.

Iris is an original in this class, there are very few people who have been active members longer. Our class has considered her a friend and sister and loved her through some incredible ups and downs, including times of happiness and times of loss, along with the pain of great unfairness. We have watched her raise two daughters of whom any mother would be proud. I do not know if I can get used to calling her Mrs. Johnson, but I do know that I am filled with gladness over her marriage.

- Tom Bowers

Julie Hall shares her testimony. It's an amazing story...

Click here for a special blessing

From February 19, 2005:

Saturday night with the Sweet Adelines

Thanks to Allan Anderson for this great collage of the fun and festivities in the Fellowship Hall on
Saturday night, February 19. If you missed it, you missed a blessing!

From December 26,2004:

Dear God Chasers:

Cathie and I want to thank you for the Christmas gift. We feel both a little reluctant and deeply grateful in receiving it. Reluctant because we know others have big needs while we receive blessing, but grateful for the love you have expressed so tangibly.

And we were surprised. I found out afterward that the process of getting this gift together has been going on in class for some time, almost in front us, but we suspected nothing (and I like to think I know what’s going in our class!). Your gift is kindness to Cathie and me, but it also honors God because it is Gods’ nature to be extravagantly generous.

§§§

Our Christmas gift is hardly the whole story. You have been quick to respond when the class wanted to encourage those among us who have needs at this time of year. It’s been done quietly, as it should be, but I personally know of nine or ten or eleven couples or individuals in our class who have received gifts or help in the last week or two. Some of this has happened through your contributions to the class fund (as in the first church in Jerusalem, Acts 4:35, those who had resources “made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person's need”). Some has been done directly, those with resources giving directly or anonymously to someone in our class with a temporary need.

What I have been seeing is quite amazing. Come to think of it, it is not that at all, for we are the hands of Christ. I am aware of two different emergency situations where next month’s housing rent has been paid in full by others. I am aware of a large gift given by an almost-stranger that saved a class member’s daughter from desperation. I am aware of many smaller gifts, even spontaneous gifts, meant simply to demonstrate Christ’s love.

This all makes God smile. It is “like a sweet-smelling sacrifice, filling the air with fragrance, pleasing God no end” (from Phil 4:18 in The Message).

One class member told me of opening an anonymous envelope while riding home after church last Sunday, then becoming completely overwhelmed with what fell out. All she could think of were Jesus’ words about how the Father gives gifts “. . .pressed down, shaken together and spilling over into the lap.”

Tom Bowers

From November 2004:

God's Miracles Are All Around Us

Gbassy and Nadia - click here for more pictures
including one of FIVE GENERATIONS of ladies...

From October 19, 2004:

A message from Earl and Carolyn Church, October 19:

Forty-Seven years ago EZ & I were joined in holy matrimony at St.
Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. Today we look exactly the
same as we looked back then (for those of you who have not seen us lately).

It has been a wild and fun ride and we wonder where the years have
gone! Our goal is the favorite country song My Next Thirty Years.
It talks about the things we will do that we haven't got done yet!

Hugs,

Mom/Mamaw/Sis/Xena/Carolyn...& Dad/Papaw/Earl/EZ

From July 18, 2004:

Do you remember the first day YOU walked in the class?

Here is an important job many of us can handle on Sunday mornings. Visitors who do not arrive accompanied by a class member, always feel more welcome if someone casually sits with them in class, then offers to walk with them to the sanctuary for worship.  Almost anyone in our class would be willing to do this, but we are not always sure who is a visitor.

Here’s our plan.  Mention to Tom Charping, Cathie Bowers, or Frances Hill that you are available.  They will compile an informal list of whoever is willing. Then on any Sunday when a visitor arrives, if you are in the room, Tom or Cathie or Frances will discreetly alert you, or even introduce you if practical.   

This plan is simple, natural, and will help a great deal.

From July 18, 2004:

Worship Care Made Easy

For several years our class has had the responsibility of providing two substitute volunteers on the fourth Sunday of each month, who may or may not be needed to stay with (play with) young children during morning worship.  The volunteers go down to the area at 10:20, stay if needed, or go on to the worship service if not needed.

Our class members volunteered easily for quite some time, but thus far in 2004 we have not been as attentive to this need.   So I am asking for 12 people who will each agree to be available one time, once only, between now and next January 1^st.

You can handle that level of commitment?!

We will put the names in a hat, and randomly assign each person one date, in advance for the next six months.  If you can’t be available on your date, you can swap with someone else for their date.  Couples who sign up may choose to have their names drawn together.

Not all 12 volunteers will actually have to do anything – if you go down at 10:20 on your date and aren’t needed, you are done for the year.

No training necessary.  Please e-mail, call, or speak to Cathie or Tom.  Please make this one-time commitment, help us get this need taken care of painlessly.

From Friday, June 11, 2004:

Have you ever wondered whether to speak your faith? Could you do it with the world watching?

Click here to read remarks by President Bush and Michael Reagan in memory of Ronald Reagan -

Their words are Faith In Action...

Time To Celebrate! Sunday, May 23, 2004

First we honored our teacher, Tom Bowers, on his birthday with a small token of appreciation from the class...

...then we joined the congregation in welcoming Dr. Page back to the pulpit. He preached sitting down, but the message was still powerful!

Below is a response from Tom with his thoughts on the day...