MMB 6-26-23 Summer Heat

Summer Heat

Of course it's always hot in Florida. Well, I'm from New England and I've seen it almost 30° below zero. I've also seen it snow in every month but July. So saying it's always hot in Florida is relative. Since moving here 8 years ago, my blood has thinned so a 50° day means a warm hoodie and hat. I've lost all respect for cold 🥶. In my latter years in Northern New Hampshire the rule was if my feet are cold the rest of me is cold. There are pictures of me sitting in my living room with two sweat shirts, a woolen cap and a blanket on me mid winter even though the woodstove just 6 feet away was putting out 80+° in the house. 

Summer heat whether here in Florida or in dog days of summer (3 H's - Hazy, Hot, Humid) in NH are uncomfortable. It's staggering to me that people tolerated such heat prior to central A/C.

Just this week in 90° temps and dew points at 73° when I got in our car I'd turn on the A/C immediately after starting it was so oppressive! 

Our tendency is to fight off oppressive things and embrace comfortable things. While reading through Hebrews, I was once again confronted with the reality that God's love for me may include turning up the heat. My disobedience in my flesh places me in a possible position to receive His loving discipline. I say love because 12:6 says so. I mean I replicated that when disciplining my children. It wasn't fun for them or me but necessary because I love them. God's love for me when I become wayward means He'll discipline me back to the right path. Sometimes it takes deeper discipline to bring me back, but I always come back. I am grateful that during these times of God's "heat" on me, 1 John 1:9 is true and forgiveness comes when I confess my sin.

I try and use my surroundings to remind me of God and His dealings with me. It's just turning noontime here on the ocean area of Melbourne, Florida and it's getting close to 90°. The A/C just kicked in as I have it set on 77°. Summer Heat means discomfort. The house is somewhat cool but the hot blaring sun makes one want to put the thermostat down more. Sometimes we do. Most times we leave it so as not to go over budget in our electric bill. But as I speak of Summer Heat, I think about the final verse in Hebrews 12. The discipline mentioned in v5-8 leads to words in that last verse that explain this is Kingdom stuff and Kingdom stuff just can't be shaken! "... A Kingdom that cannot be shaken ... Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awesome, for our God is a consuming fire." That dear friends is an awesome statement and proclamation of love to us from our heavenly father. Claim it today folks. Love Him, Adore Him and Live for Him ... For He loves you!

MMB -- Memorial Day '23 "Listen to this" Epilogue -Wrap-Up #10

Epilogue....Series number 10

So this ends the series of events that have happened in my life from around a month after I turned 14 years old (September 1967) to around the time I began a relationship with my best friend, Kat in 1974.

With that said, here's my disclaimer: in just about 90 days I will be turning 70 years old. Some of the details may be a bit off, but sincerely I am sharing my heart with the best recall I have. Unfortunately, most of the people I could confer with about details were folk in my parent's age group to which most are gone from us. Further, many of my peers are unreachable as we've lost contact. In fact, some of them were last seen at our wedding in 1976 and others in 1974. 

I am sure some facts may be a bit off but none purposely. I happily will accept correcting where my memory has failed. If you are reading this and we're part of the story feel free to comment, or text or email details. Thank you for helping and understanding.

Here's my contact info:

Life Journey Cell phone for texts: 603.412.2682.  Life Journey Email: lifejourneyconnection@gmail.com.

This brings a close to my series to which my memories were triggered by events earlier this year in Wilmore, Kentucky at Asbury U and the release a few months back of the movie, The Jesus Revolution.

What will trigger new memories in the weeks ahead? I will take the next week or two off before I return with a blog post, or video or study to share. Blessings to you in Jesus name!

MMB 5/22/23 Listen to this #9

We are back.

In the previous episode it was revealed that after leaving WOLBI I got a job at my hometown department store and purchased my first vehicle, a 1964 Ford Falcon Econoline van which I loved. It was only in my possession a few months before I cracked it up and replaced it with an inferior Rambler American. I thought I would never own another van but I did and here's the story.

I had almost forgotten this element in my life until Greg Laurie, a So. California pastor put out the Jesus Revolution film a few months back. What I saw happening on the previews of the film reminded me of my own life at that time. While working at Ames, I was at my church in Eastford, CT. The post high school gang there (Jack, Bruce, Steve and myself) began thinking about a ministry to that day's youth. One of the guy's father worked at the only Christian bookstore in our area. It was in Woodstock, CT. Just north of Woodstock over the Massachusetts border was Webster. Their high school, Bartlett was our fierce rival at my school, Southbridge High. Apparently a similar group of late teen post HS guys and girls had started a ministry there and bought ministry materials at the bookstore. So we all got connected. A lot of the details are sketchy but I remember we gathered in an upper room of a barn or garage in Webster to study Scripture and pray. We talked about getting the Gospel out to our generation. It was exactly what we felt called to. They gave us some of their materials and one way stickers (from Arthur Blessit's ministry). Of course their tracts and pamphlets had their name and address stamped on them. That motivated us to get some made for our own ministry. We called ourselves Fishermen for Christ. We announced our plans to folk in our church. I wanted to produce a radio program similar to Songtime that I used to listen to before school right after I got saved but our focus would be our generation so the music would have to be Jesus rock music. We recorded our first offering and gave copies to church folk who jumped on board with financing. We bought materials, rubber stamps and ink, stickers and began seeking radio stations that might air the new FFC Jesus Music radio show. We even visited our closest Christian radio station in Hartford CT which didn't even reach our area. Unfortunately the radio broadcast was way too amateur for air play so the idea never took. But our efforts to bring the Gospel to youth in our area became our priority. When finances began to pour in we started a bank account and appointed a treasurer. By default I became FFC's director. The other guys were voting members. We started with some Bible study and prayer times but we had no real place to gather like the Webster group. I was in Southbridge, Mass. The treasurer was in Woodstock, CT. A couple of members were in Eastford and another in the Willimantic, CT area. We were just too scattered but didn't see that as a deterrent. We made plans for discipling new believers. We needed Bibles to give away. The Christian bookstore was small in Woodstock and couldn't provide what we needed at a good cost. So one of the guys and I took off in the Rambler during a huge snow storm to go to my Bible Institute in NY to haggle a deal with them. Ken Taylor from Tyndale publishers just completed his "Living" series of the New Testament. Some of you may remember "Living Letters", Paul's epistles in a real up to date English language Bible. It was more of a paraphrase than a translation. The new paperback version of the "Living New Testament" had real mod looking covers. That would of been what we wanted but Word of Life Bible Institute bookstore couldn't price those as affordably as the basic green cover NT's. So we went with that. We were able to purchase a number of cases from the Fishermen's account. It was just a months after my leaving WOLBI and my praying for snow for snow camp, which already had concluded but on this day the Lord was still answering my prayers as the snow was coming down. We were on the highway heading home when we hit untreated piles of snow and began to skid out just outside the Lake George exit on the Northway. Slipping and sliding on the fresh snow even with the new snow tires and posi-traction on the Rambler, we flew off the highway and into a ditch. It was 1972 or 73 and cell phones were not available. But right near our car was a call box for emergencies! So we called for help and in a matter of minutes the tow truck arrived and winched us out. We followed him back the the garage which was located just across the street where the Open Air meetings occured two or three years earlier when I was a dishwasher at WOL Inn. We had no money only a credit card which the garage didn't take. But another local garage did and billed the card gave his competitor the cash and we were back on the Northway (I-87) traveling in better conditions as the snow had stopped.

It was at this time we met some teens in Southbridge and we began ministering to them. One young boy we began to disciple. His name was David and I believe he was the first recipient of the FFC Living NT! Our treasury grew and we needed to think about how we should grow. When we traveled we had to take multiple vehicles so my mind floated back to my days in the '64 Falcon van. A van like that could transport us all and others around. The Webster gang contacted me about a '66 Econoline extended body in their community so the treasurer and I drove there to see it. Wow! It had extra rows of seats to carry people plus more room behind the seats to carry equipment. Just what we needed. So we bought it. The nose looked exactly the the van I crashed but the extension stuck out another 3-4 feet. Ahhhh. A van! I loved it. But it was the ministry van.

Episode nine needs to conclude here for a number of reasons. First, the Treasurer was about to enter college. The road trip member who was with me when we drove off the Northway was about to get married. Others began to become involved in other interests. And the summer that I first saw my future wife was coming up. But the biggest reason was this: I don't remember. I don't know what happened to FFC Ford van. I don't know what happened to our ministry materials. I just don't remember. It also seems that the Webster gang was phasing out as well. So, episode 10 will be a wrap up of the Listen to this series.

MMB 5/8/23 ... Listen to this #8

Welcome back to my life adventure "B.M." (Before Marriage)!

Actually, as you've noticed in some of the earlier episodes, I noticed Kathy in 1973 but really hooked up with her in 1974 and we became engaged in 1975. So this summer will be 50 years of becoming connected together. Then we were married in 1976 making this past anniversary our 47th.

But onto the continuing saga. I had mentioned previously about Greg Laurie's film released this year "The Jesus Revolution". We were able to view the film a couple of weeks ago. It was a full reminder of what was happening in the late 60s and early 70s. All around the time of this adventure of mine being penned in this blog.

Shortly after high school graduation (1971) and my 5 months into 1972 at WOLBI, I became a working man at my first 40 hr week job. A pre-Walmart New England retail department store opened their first chain in my home town of Southbridge, MA. A number of their early stores were housed in former mill manufacturing outlets. AMES (a Hartford, CT company) was one of the first to begin taking advantage of the new shopping strip mall concept. A new complex was opening in nearby Sturbridge where a grocery store, bookstore, coffee shop etc. was being built. On the opposite end of the grocery store within the strip of stores was AMES's new offering, that would take them out of the mill warehouse. To open the new store, Ames was hiring a crew of stock boys to get the store moved from the mill to the mall. I was the 25th boy to be hired for this venture. I spent more time at the new complex than the mill as I was setting up the future store. Being one of the last persons to be hired for this duty much of the set up was near completion. And as Grand Opening was about to take place the company began the dreadful duty of laying off the no longer needed stock boys. Grand Opening came, a guy who became a friend and I were used on that day to promote a fun atmosphere for the customers coming into the store. So they dressed us up as Fred and Barney from the Flintstones. The costumes were the type with the big heads and short arms and legs like the characters you see at Thanksgiving Macy's Parade. Enough of that. 

So the layoffs began. One would figure that the last to be hired would be the first to be laid off. And I was that last one. But one by one, the stock boys were let go but I was still there. Out of the 25 hired there were only two left. Number 1 and 25! Number one was a guy named Angel. With a name like that, how can you lay him off? I forget if he was the one who played Barney but we became friends, the two who evaded the lay offs!

So, I bought a vehicle for cheap. A 1964 Ford Econoline Van. It had a very small 6 cyl engine and a three speed column shift transmission. I got it for cheap for two reasons. One, my Dad was friends with the Rambler dealer owner and two, the van had a huge dent near the gas filler in the driver side back. Even so it was my first vehicle and I loved it. I quickly made friends with all my Ames employees because I was known as the 25th stock boy hired who never got laid off! The store manager took a liking to me as well. He would have me drive his family home during the Grand Opening a few towns away and also had me drive to another Ames store about two hours away to pick up supplies his store was short on. 

One woman who worked the register (I think) was named Alice. She thought I was a cute teenager and would often talk with me. Oh, by the way, Alice was in her 70s! As I was driving in that van down Main Street in town, I say Alice and I shouted out and beeped at her to say hi. I was looking at her and not the road and as I turned back my vision to the street a car was stopped dead in front of me. I slammed on my brakes but was too close to avoid hitting the guy's bumper. The van was a flat nose, with nothing but linkage a floorboard in the front. And even though I was traveling less than the speed limited while waving at Alice, the impact did a lot of damage to the van I loved. The linkage for steering and shifting were wrecked and the floorboard was pushed all the way up so the clutch had no movement downward. The floorboard came all the way up to the clutch.

So, I became known as the kid who totaled his car oogling at a 70 year old woman! How do you live that down?

So, it was back to Syl's Auto Sales with Dad to replace my totaled van. I was really hoping for another one. I loved that one so much. To my disappointment all he had in my price range was a '64 Rambler American. It was a cute car but not a van. So the humiliation of the events of the accident continued with the purchase of this ... ahhh, cccaaarr. Ugh.

So this was Mike Tremblay by day. But the Mike Tremblay after work is what I want to focus on next time, in offering number 9. But as a preview: A new mission was beginning by a few guys including myself at our church in Eastford, CT. We called ourselves "Fishermen for Christ". Wait until you hear the similarities of what we were doing on the East Coast to what was occurring on the West Coast! Stay tuned, that's next!

Renewal...

The story I began a few months back and left during Easter I am planning to return to very soon on the Monday Morning Blog.

But as I have been meditating recently on my life I see I need a renewal to the Great Commission and Great Command of the Lord Jesus in my life.

Around 2005, I saw something that I really never heeded as I read the Scriptures. In fact, it became my life mission. Simply put it was in these words that I began a new thing: Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples. For more than 10 years I made that my Life Journey. But I've noticed recently I have slowly slipped from that replacing it with feelings of resentment and downright hate. I would look down at others. I would see them as ignorant and stupid. I wasn't humbled but haughty at others. I would talk harshly and make faces at their ignorance. My heart became hard. I was no longer Loving God and certainly not loving others. This past weekend I was challenged to this failure in my life. Now it is ever present before me. And in dealing with others I am becoming more compassionate. Oh how easy it would be to slip into my old recent ways, but God's Spirit is nudging me to walk in His righteousness. I am more conscious of other's needs than their lack of understanding or ignorance. I have more strides to make in this renewed heart of commitment to Jesus' Great Commission and Command. Old habits are hard to break. But I am breaking them with the Spirit's help.

My prayer is that Christ Followers including and especially myself, find His grace and mercy and peace to show others His Love!

Update

Life Journey Blogspot

http://journeyflorida.blogspot.com

JESUS LOVE

MMB – 9/9/2019 … JESUS LOVE

On August 25th I had the privilege of giving the Bible Talk (Sermon, Message, Bible Teaching) at Maple Grove Baptist Church in Lakeport, Florida. I shared some spectacular insights of how Jesus Loves using the examples of (1) The Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10:17-21 and (2) Apostle Peter in John 21:15-17. Both of these examples show the staggering Love of Jesus in a way that fulfills John 3:16, “For God so LOVED the world that He GAVE His only Begotten Son …”. John 3 along with John 21 and Mark 10 use the Greek New Testament word for “love” … AGAPE. You see, AGAPE is unique. In most cases love is received or shared with an expectancy of return. But AGAPE (as John 3:16 suggests) GIVES without strings attached. Whether or not any kind of affection or heartfelt feeling is returned AGAPE GIVES! This is what Jesus did with the Rich Young Ruler (no name revealed in Mark 10) and Peter in John 21. Without going into all the details of the talk I gave, allow me to point out the highlights.

• The Rich Young Ruler – Mark 10:17-21   This wealthy Jewish young man came to Jesus seeking the secret of gaining eternal life. Jesus responds by quoting the “easy-for-the-guy-to-accomplish” Commandments. Jesus purposely did this. He got the guy’s attention. The young man knew he had a long history of living out these commandments. But when he thought he was secure, Jesus hits him with a deep and uncomfortable challenge. But before Christ does, Scripture makes clear why He did it. It was not to rail on him or harm him … it was an act of AGAPE. Verse 21 says, NOW WATCH THIS … “Then Jesus looking at him LOVED him” (AGAPE is the word used here of Jesus’ love). It’s with this heart of love the Savior, who provides eternal life, then reveals the truth to the man. He actually fails the 10 Commandments when Jesus says “One thing you lack … sell whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven … take up your cross and follow me”. In reality the young man lacked in the 1st Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3 NKJV). But the next verse (Mark 10:22) reveal treasures – his riches – were his god. Even though the man’s riches were his god, which Jesus knew all along, Christ still AGAPE him! Do you see that? We wouldn’t bother going further if we knew rejection was coming. We’d find a new prospect. But that’s NOT what AGAPE does. AGAPE GIVES! For a moment, close your eyes and see Jesus, beaten, bloody and bruised hanging on the cross breathing His last breath, and see AGAPE … GIVING Love. That’s JESUS LOVE!

• Peter – John 21:15-17  The second example is Jesus’ post resurrection encounter with Peter. Recall the last words Jesus spoke to Peter before His crucifixion. He told him he would deny Christ three times before the morning rooster would crow. John 21 is often seen as Jesus reinstating the sinning Peter. I even taught that for years. I mean Peter denied Jesus three times and in John 21 Christ asks Peter three times “Do you love me”? Yes, Jesus did ask Peter three times do you love me … but AGAPE gave Peter reinstating after the very first time He asked. Catch Jesus’ words to Peter, “Feed my sheep”! BOOM! Reinstated! But the whole encounter reveals the similar ‘JESUS LOVE’ seen with the Rich Young Ruler. Only a real understanding of Greek terms do we see the real conversation of Jesus with Peter. There are three Greek words for the one English word “love”. Two of the Greek terms show up in the encounter and conversation in John 21. Jesus asks first of Peter “Do you love me?”. Peter answers back “Lord, you know I love you”. But the one word ‘love’ in English is actually two Greek words in the New Testament. Jesus uses AGAPE (God Giving Love) while Peter uses PHILEO (an Affectionate or “brotherly” kind of love). Again, AGAPE stays right with Peter even though he answers wrongly. Well, not wrongly, honestly. You see, the pre-denying Peter would boldly say back I AGAPE YOU, but that would not be honest. He just denied the One asking this question. So Peter has been humbled to the point of honesty (even if it’s against his nature!). Peter is no longer one who spouts off at the mouth without regard to what he says. He is now honest and open to Jesus’ AGAPE. Now, Christ’s first two questions of Peter’s heart of love both use the Greek word AGAPE. And both responses of Peter use the Greek PHILEO, essentially saying ‘I have an affection for you’. As I said, Peter’s honest answer allowed Jesus to LOVINGLY (AGAPE) immediately reinstate Peter to “feed sheep”. Interestingly, Jesus’ third question takes a shift. It is actually out of a heart of AGAPE Jesus thirdly uses the Greek word PHILEO to Peter, “Do you even have an affection for me?” and with the heart of honesty Peter says ‘I do have an affection for you’. But recall, Peter’s heart melts as tears flow that Jesus’ AGAPE heart would stoop down to his level in the final question.

Our whole purpose in such a Bible Teaching is to give God glory and to stir our hearts to follow Christ more deeply. So we Praise God in the privilege to proclaim His truth.