Jack Tells The Story

FINALLY~! It loaded and you can now see it here. Jack Darnell, a master storyteller in action! It was my first time using the Casio Camera to try and capture all - then rendered it with the Sony Vegas program. Hope you like it.

Story Tellers And A Video

The video refused to load. These pictures were made the same evening!

This is a case for storytelling. I've heard some folk try to tell a story and somehow, it just wouldn't come out right. I've tried to tell stories in my preaching - but only stories that relate to the subject and make a valid point. At times my story fell apart - or I would forget something significant in setting the basis for the story. Sometimes the Lord helped me in spite of myself! Storytelling is a major form of passing down history in many tribes of Africa where I've worked for the last 20 years. By telling stories th

I've heard some say that storytelling is becoming a lost art in America - but I beg to differ. Storytelling abounds in our modern video world. TV and the Internet are taking over. The attention span of our children seems shorter and shorter. On one of our TV channels, (AMC, I think) they state frequently, "Story Matters Here". I've heard a few folks criticize "storytellers" versus what they call "Bible Preachers"... and on the surface their reasoning sounds good. It goes something like this: "The Bible is meant to be preached. I don't want to hear a bunch of stories. I just want to hear the Bible. If it's not in the Bible I don't want to hear it in the pulpit. Just stick to the Word of God and don't try to tell me one of your stories." Do they forget that the Bible is a collection of stories? Do they forget that Jesus often used parables (stories) with which He explained the Word of God to common people?

One of the best preacher's I have ever known personally was F. J. (Joe) May. He could get the attention of an audience and drive home a Biblical point using stories of everyday life. He was my teacher at the Seminary when I studied Expository Preaching and we students loved hearing his personal stories. Sometimes we thought we were "getting him off the lesson" but his stories inevitably proved beneficial to our goal of learning how to preach from the Bible. I've also heard him minister in state Camp Meetings and in local church Bible Studies. There are others, too numerous to list. Billy Sunday Myers, Jake Roberts, C.B. Donahue, John D. Nichols, Gene D. Rice, are just a few. Other great preachers I've been fortunate to know and hear are men like Ray H. Hughes, Paul Henson, George Alford, Wade H. Horton, F.W. Goff, R. Leonard Carroll, and of course, My Dad, Louis A. Brannen and my Mother, Bonnie Jones Brannen and her Mother, Lula Lee Jones. I'm sure I'm leaving out somebody very special to me - but that is not because of a lack of love nor for a lack of respect. It is because of a lack of a good memory.

A few weeks ago, a man I've known for fifty years came through and visited us at our regular family Bible Study time. I had no idea how well he could tell a story, although I knew he was an author who has written several books. We also knew he had done "chalk talk" sermons and "kids crusades" back in the day. We had confidence in Jack Darnell - so we asked him to share a Bible story with our family. Our grand-daughter, Chloe, was engrossed as he told the story of the angel's visit to Manoah And His Wife (the parents of Samson). As you watch the video you will see that even the older ones present (including my Mom) were also very focused on every word from this master storyteller. I'm so glad I captured this brief video of his storytelling.

Oh well - - - I've just received an error message saying that my video would not upload. I'll try again. If you don't see it, you know I couldn't get it to load.

Immigration

It has been proposed by some that people of any nation should be allowed to freely cross the borders of the U.S.A. without presenting proper identification, i.e., passport and visa. After all - who set these boundaries? Who really owns the land? Do people not have the right to pursue peace and happiness backed by good paying jobs? It was reported to me that the Maasai (a tribe in Kenya, East Africa) believed for years that all the land belongs to God. Cattle belongs to man. Cows, sheep, and women and children were their property. As long as there was water and sustenance they stayed in one place. When the grazing lands grew thin - it was time to move on. No one stopped them as long as they could find grazing land with water. Nowadays, however, the Maasai are laying legal claims to land in the courts of Kenya. Governments have found laws necessary to civil society.

Now it is being claimed by some that people who work for the government are "harassing" those who do not meet the conditions prescribed by law. They are accused of being unjust and oppressive. It's like a soccer coach being told that he is oppressive because he applies the rules of the game and penalizes a player who committed foul play. Rules/laws are a must if we are to live alongside each other. Romans 13 gives some basic rules for maintaining peaceful and orderly lives. So what is the responsibility of the Church to illegal aliens? Must we support them and help them? Or are we duty bound to protect them?

While I do love every immigrant (even those who are illegal) I do not feel that we are obligated by the Holy Bible to protect them and allow them to break the immigration laws. Yes, the Bible teaches that every individual is loved by God and is a person of worth. There is no one worth more - and there is no one worth less. As the song we learned in Sunday School says, "Red and Yellow, Black and White, all are precious in His sight!" This issue is not about race. This issue is about rules. Should we, or should we not obey or be subject to the civil law of the country in which we live and work?

One of the issues here is civil obedience to the law of a country. As many of you are aware, I have been a missionary, working in a foreign field. When I went to any of the many countries I have been to as a missionary I always did my best to obey all of their laws, including immigration laws. I made my presence known. I presented my passport and visa as required. I paid all taxes required by the host government. I felt that this was a Biblical obligation according to Romans 13. While some seem to believe that they have the right to dis-obey the law in order to be missionaries, I have not (in the past) nor can I now, advocate sending a missionary into a country illegally. I'm aware that there are some of my good respectable brethren who feel it is o.k. to go "undercover" as missionaries. I have no axe to grind with them; no quarrel with them. They do not have to give an account to me. However, I prefer to obey the laws of the countries involved.

One more point - on immigration laws here in America - I have some Christian brothers who are illegal aliens here in America. I'm convinced that they have accepted Jesus Christ as their only Savior and they trust him to go to heaven when they die. There are also some Christian brothers, saved by the same Lord Jesus Christ who work for the United States border patrol. They have a job to do. Just as in the case of the coach who calls the rules of the ball game, I cannot call them oppressive when they act on the orders of their government.

Friends, Relatives and Birds

A Gorgeous day outside today - and we had an appointment to have lunch with a brother-in-law and his wife at Logans. Great food, too much food, then coffee and pleasant conversation. I love being retired because I had no need to rush back to the office. It was a wonderfully leisurely day. Dewain and Debbie live about 30 minutes away so we get this opportunity occasionally. He's retired from being Comptroller of Children's Hospital in New Orleans - right after Katrina.

This Mourning Dove and a mate have been playing in the kitchen
window for the last few days. They will come from the tree to the window, Coo-cooo-coooo, then fly back to the tree. I have seen one of them carrying straw and various items into this tree to build a nest. They are beautiful - but will not hold still for the photo I wanted to get.




I'm not sure - but I think this is a Carolina Wren. Several of them have been hopping about in the grass, picking up worms, then flying to the window of my office. I put out a few crumbled crackers to entice them up close for a picture. Worked like a charm.


Tennessee's state bird, the Mockingbird, also loved the crackers and was more aggressive in coming up close to take them. This one espied the camera right away and split-seconds later flew away. I love watching them. Maybe, just maybe, I'll go out and buy some bird-seed.


This is a side view of the same Mocking-bird. Tra la la, tra la la, tra la la, tweedle dee dee dee - oh what a thrill to wake up in the morning on Mocking-bird Hill.




This squirrel has a bobbed tail. Not sure what happened - could have been that black cat that roams the neighborhood - or a dog - or even a "snap trap"...but something definitely got it's tail. This is the third year we've seen the same squirrel feeding around our



Right after we left Logan's Roadhouse, I took my wheelhorse out to have it serviced. Sitting up all winter (yes, out in the open) the steering is "locked". Probably from rust? At any rate it was impossible to steer it, so have to have it repaired soon as the grass is starting to speak to me about needing to be kept trimmed. A friend had asked me to take his weed-eater to the repair shop when I took my mower - but I forgot all about it. Hopefully he'll forgive me.

Below are three snaps of the city of Cleveland's "Green-way", a very nice walking trail of over two miles - along Mouse Creek. We have been blessed and now own the lot between here and the road behind our house so we have this gorgeous view 24/7!

Litter-bugs and Bitter-bugs

LITTER-BUGS. What do you do when you meet a litter-bug? Do you enjoy seeing the landscape covered in litter? Very few things in the natural world are more repulsive to me than to see litter scattered over an otherwise beautiful landscape. Now don't mis-interpret...I could not (by any stretch of the imagination) be called a "neat-freak". But I do hate to drive down the highway and see empty cans, and bottles, and carry-out lunch boxes from KFC, Mickey D's, and a myriad of other fast food places. I never allowed myself or my family to throw things out of the vehicle onto the landscape. When my children were young and we traveled I kept a litter-bag in the car and taught them never to throw even the smallest items out of the car window. Now I love the outdoors. Hunting and trout fishing have been a part of my life from my earliest years. I didn't see that much litter as a child. Yes, there was some...but nothing like what I have seen lately. Maybe because the old timers didn't have the throw-away items we have today but I do not remember seeing so much litter when I was young. Lately I've pushed back several miles into some of our beautiful national forests, thinking, 'maybe this is virgin timber' when suddenly down the trail my eyes would fall on a rusting coke can. I can't explain what that does to me but it's a little like eating a lovely meal and finding a waitress' hair in the food. It's distasteful. Un-pleasant. I want to gag. I DON'T LIKE LITTER-BUGS!!


BITTER-BUGS. Now bitter-bugs are far more distasteful than litter-bugs. With litter-bugs, they never caused me to want to spread my litter. In fact, I have spent hours picking up other people's litter in places I had never been to before, and carrying it out of the woods to my pickup and taking it to a dumpster. No - not everytime - but a few times that has happened. Now - the BITTER-BUG is a different story. I find that when I'm in the presence of a bitter-bug I am prone to join him/her in their bitterness. I have been bitten by the bitter-bug and it caused me to spread the bitterness Once I felt that a fellow-minister who was over me in the Lord had lied to me. I was hurt. I began to tell it to others. It grew as I talked. Soon I was pouring out poison into any ear who would listen to my tale of woe. One of my fellow-ministers stopped me in mid-sentence and said, "Fred, I don't want to hear this!" It was like a slap in the face. I finished the task I was working on at the time and went to the woods to pray and repent and soon felt I had the victory. I'll never forget - soon after that I was complaining bitterly about some of the members of my church to one of my pastor friends and he stopped me and said, "Fred. I have to tell you something. You are never going to be successful in this church nor any other church until you learn to love your people!" It was a shock to me. I realized I still didn't have the victory over that critical attitude. Oh how I have thanked God many times over for that encounter and the repenting and praying it caused me to do.

I DETEST BITTER-BUGS because they put poison in your spirit. I love them, but I don't like the wailing and woes of bitterness they cause me to endure. Unlike litter on a landscape which cannot grow in and of itself, bitter thrown out on a spirit will multiply! No wonder the Scripture says in Hebrews 12:15 "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;" I do not claim mastery of the subject yet, but (God being my helper) I am resolved not to be bitten by the BITTER-BUG! Therefore I do not listen long to them. I do not ask them questions in an effort to gain more knowledge of their "juicy" causes for gossip. In fact I'm going to do what Paul recommended to the Ephesian Church in Ephesians 4:31: ?Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:"

Signs of Spring

This was Frances after returning from Church on Sunday, March 8, 2010. She was having a good day. Isn't that a radiant smile on a beautiful woman's face? All of the people at church loved and hugged on her because they had not seen her in several months. It had been a year since her heart by-pass surgery and (from her appearance this day) she was well on the way to being completely healed.


Here, if you observe very carefully, you can see one of the fishermen I saw fishing from the bank of the Hiwassee river. The dam below here (at Chattanooga) hss been opened to let water through during the winter - then the spring rains will fill it up! It will probably come up at least 10 feet.





This boat is the only one I saw on the water in about three hours. It reminds me that I need to get my boat in for service before long. When I last used it, I noticed that the boat was taking on an unusual amount of water when big boats passed me while I had stopped to fish. It took me forever to figure it out...but someone had borrowed my boat last year and changed the hose connection so that when I turn on the bilge pump it pumps bilge water into my live well. And he thought he was "fixing" the boat. Arrrrrrghhhh!

There is a cave on the side of the river, directly across from the "ole' swimmin' hole that I have noticed before. I want to explore it, but have not taken the time for doing that. There are many such caves throughout Tennessee. I remember a church member of Dad's in Middle Tennessee (at Campaign) who used to get his drinking water from a cave in a 50 gallon drum. Caves are interesting places. In most caves the temperature is relatively stable - meaning "cool in the summer" and "warm in the winter".






Ye Ole' Swimmin' Hole!

I have many many many pleasant memories of going to the "Swimmin' Hole". Not this exact place, but in similar places in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida our Daddy took us swimming. This might be a good blog subject at a later date.

I drove out to the Hiwassee River yesterday, March 9, just to get out of the house. It seemed like I was about to go "stir crazy" after such weather for the past month or so. Of course I have been out - but not as much as I like to be. nor for the reasons I most enjoy. I've been to the store to buy groceries. I've been out to eat lunch with my girl-friend. I've been to church. But I like to get out and "ramble". No appointment. No deadline to meet. Just see a road and drive down it. See an interesting looking trail (whether an approved hiking trail or not) and get out and walk. The weather was 70 degrees the day before (Monday) and it had made me want to be out on the river or out in the open. It was shining enough that Frances had opened the kitchen door to let the sunshine into the house - through the storm door. I suggested to Frances during breakfast that we should take some weiners and a cold drink and go to the river where I could build a camp-fire and have lunch of hot dogs and chili on the river. She declined. So ... sometime after lunch I "took off" by myself to ramble along the rivers edge. I did find a few people out. The key to that sentence was "few". There was one boater that I saw. As I drove along the river south of Charleston I observed two guys fishing from the bank. Checked out the "ole swimmin' hole" and
saw that someone has nailed "steps" onto a tree trunk that hangs over the water. When the water comes up six more feet (and it will soon) this will be a wonderful place to play in the water. Directly across the road from that site is what I believe to be a cave. Altho I have noticed it before, I have yet to check it out. Maybe this summer I will.

Here is a sign of Spring! Look at this lovely creature! And God sent her to be my wife!

Five Years

Chloe Jean Crockett celebrated her 5th birthday last week. It caused me to reflect on many changes that have occurred in my life of that short amount of time. The day she was born I was leaving for an appointment in South Georgia. I was so glad she came about an hour before I had to leave town. Memaw (Frances) and I were in the room at the time the baby came. Looking back - I can see the hand of God from day one of this child's life. She is so sensitive and aware of God. (That's Chloe in the green outfit) Of course she has much growing and learning to do - but is well on her way to being a true servant of the living God. I've heard it said that Catholics say, "Give us a child until it is seven years of age and it will always be a Catholic." The Bible says, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Ruthie and Curtis Crockett are doing a masterful job of raising this child in church and teaching her the ways of the Lord. Thank you Ruthie and Curtis.

The day Chloe visited with us we had a birthday present ready. She brought along one of her neice's, so Memaw made sure that Caitlin Crockett had a gift too. She's a big-hearted grandmother. She has 7 biological grand-children plus 2 step grand-children; and 2 biological great-grandchildren plus 8 step great-grands. (I think I've counted them all). :D

The highlight for me was when the two girls picked up a story book and brought it to me, asking me to read to them. Of course I was delighted to read for them. They both amaze me.

That's Caitlin sitting on my right knee (in pink) and Chloe on my left knee (in green). What a wonderful feeling. Chloe is our grand-daughter. Caitlin is our great-grand-daughter.