THE ABYSS
Plus 40 Year Anniversary, Tavern Talks and Sweetwater
Dear Friends,
Thank you for reading The Three Taverns.
Emily and I celebrated our 40 year anniversary on Sunday, July 20.
I am shocked that we have been married that long! I still feel like a college kid, smitten by this cute and lively girl.
In our 40 years we have had many adventures, all amazing in what we learned, but some fun and some tough. From selling everything to follow the Lord; to buying and selling three houses; traveling South America, East Africa, Central America, Asia, Europe, Australia; renting and moving to a dozen houses; homeschooling, private schooling, public schooling; serving congregations; ministering on the streets of Nashville; starting a ministry and growing a marketplace ministry network; getting fired from two churches; building a multi-million dollar business; serving globally with Harvest Evangelism and Ed Silvoso; having a partner steal all business money and leaving us bereft; growing in community; learning forgiveness; pastoring a worship ministry; recording worship records; writing two books; learning how to love better; being disappointed in church but learning to walk in real church; leaving public ministry and going into a spiritual “cave” season for 12 years; raising six amazing children; seeing our tribe grow as they all marry; getting to officiate all of their weddings; becoming empty-nesters; welcoming 17 amazing grandkids; navigating career choices, life choices, health choices, fellowship choices; starting a cigar shop fellowship; being invited to pastor a congregation; it is a wonderful ride when walking it out with an amazing partner.
This just scratches the surface.
I am so grateful for our marriage and looking forward to growing old together. Part of success in marriage is continuous self-awareness, self-awakening and surrender, as this next short message reveals.
THE ABYSS
Stare into the abyss. It's necessary.
We must see the darkness of the human condition.
We must be disenchanted with natural life, earthly life, life beneath the sun, before we will reach for Spirit.
We must see that often-times those who tell us to trust them are not really trustworthy.
We must see the "saviors" who are there to help are often the criminals who started the crisis.
The “experts” and “authorities” of the world who step in with their white hats, who started the "pandemic" and profited from the "cure."
The preachers of righteousness who launder money and hire prostitutes.
The politicians who run on family values while running child sex rings.
The healers of addiction who are peddlers of addictions.
We must stare into the abyss. Only then will we discover....WE ARE THERE, TOO.
Only then are we ready to receive the Rescue Operation of the UNLIMITED. Not the carefully crafted counterfeit of religion, but the true exchange of our "filthy-rags" righteousness for His true righteousness. He stepped into this world, stared into the abyss, jumped in with us, absorbed our darkness and then nailed it to the cross, took it to the grave and rose to give us His righteousness.
We are forgiven by his death; we are saved by His Life.
Seeing into the abyss prepares us for surrender to His Life.
Don't avoid it. Embrace it.
TAVERN TALKS TUESDAY
We are blessed each week by men giving us all a glimpse into their life and things they are overcoming.
COMING UP:
July 22- Open
July 29- Open
August 5- Jeremy Weedman- My Story
We look forward to every week together.
Tavern Talks is about our stories and God’s story. It’s not about perfect people with perfect stories but authentic working out this salvation in our lives.
Each Tuesday morning at 7am you will find two to three dozen men gathered to hear each other’s stories, to encourage one another, to teach scripture and pray together.
This gathering is at The Mission Cigar & Social in Spring Hill.
CHRIST IN CULLEOKA
Unscripted.
That’s the simple approach we take to our gatherings.
We worship together, pray together, share family news, have some dialogue, open the word and let God speak to us, share communion, have Sharemeals once a month and get to know each other. We are keeping it simple and building relationships.
Come join us in our small fellowship of believers.
We are baptizing people who are deciding to make a public declaration of following Jesus. In the last two months we have seen six people baptized into Christ.
Yesterday a Columbia police officer, a member of our fellowship, took time off of his shift and baptized a Mt. Pleasant police officer whom he trained. While training him for police work, he shared the gospel with him as they rode around in the car. He started attending SWC and told me last week he was ready to be baptized into Jesus Christ. In the photo our elders are praying over him after he was immersed.
We want to grow in prayer. We want to grow in our witness. We want to see people saved from all walks of life. We want Jesus to have His way with us.
Come jump in with us and let’s walk this out together.
We meet at 11:30am on Sunday mornings. I actually love the later time because it makes for a very relaxed Sunday morning!
We rent the Glendale United Methodist church building at 1423 Culleoka Hwy, Columbia TN. If you don’t have a new covenant fellowship of believers to walk with, come join us.
Looking Up!
Tod Bell (Luke 21:28)
P.S.
Looking Up! (Luke 21:28)
Tod Bell