Purity of heart

Mike Lowery, pastor of Impact Community Church in Rock Hill, S.C., has it about right.

In his series of sermons titled "Invisible Minefields," he's been touching on demons that torment, tear down, depress, demoralize, destroy.

We might better understand these demonic spirits as the "Forces of Satan."

Always, inside us, despite how strong our faith, there's an ongoing struggle.

It's waged between the "Forces of Satan" and the "Goodness/Purity of God."

If we let our Godly guard down one iota, Satan will begin to claim us. His is an unseen dark power that will seek to fill us with despair, evil, defeat, difficulty, depression and delusion. Ultimately, according to Pastor Lowery, Satan wants to destroy, obliterate...

So how to defeat Satan, who, by the way, is responsible for all the sin and wrongdoing in our world? How to fight against NOT flesh and blood but against an unseen evil force, a mighty, cunning power of darkness and evil?

We can only defeat Satan with God.

We defeat Satan (who is smart and strategic and scheming, according to Lowery) only by being prepared for the fight of our lives. And we become prepared by putting on our Godly suit of armor.

This suit of armor includes the belt of truth wrapped tightly around our waist. The belt of truth represents integrity. Integrity is knowing and doing the truth.

Know and do the truth. So easy to say. So hard to practice and live by, but that's how we're all to live if we want to get to Heaven.

Incidentally, Pastor Lowery noted that integrity encompasses the moral, relational and sexual dimensions of our life.

Integrity, he also noted, does not mean perfection but it does mean consistency in the way we behave. We are ONE person. We should know and try to do the truth all the time in every situation.

And just as (in Biblical times) Roman soldiers put on a breastplate to protect their heart, we should follow their lead and put on the belt of truth with the breastplate of righteousness protecting our own heart. Eph. 6:14b

Lowery summed it up this morning this way: David says only he with clean hands and a pure heart can get close to God. God can't use us if we are dirty. Dirtiness causes infection. Only the pure heart gets close to God. Know the truth. Live by the truth. Jesus talked about truth again and again... Satan always wants to attack us in the area where we are impure. Mind pollution is far worse than ecological pollution in our world today. If we don't

have a brave heart, the belt of truth and the breastplate of protection over our heart, Satan will devour us.

Mike Lowery: "The greatest prayer warriors I have known in my life are typically people with pure hearts."

Words to live by and die by.

(Photo of Mike Lowery by Larry Timbs)

Farewell to my Mom

Writers have a tough time of it.

We're called upon (nay, expected and cajoled), from time to time, to write about the death of a family member.

Such was the case this morning after losing my Mom, the best mother in the world, yesterday.

I accompanied my brother and sister to the funeral home in Elizabethton, Tenn. We picked out a casket and a vault to protect and enclose her last resting place when she's buried. We worked out the details for her viewing and graveside service. We came to agreement on what kind of spray of flowers we wanted next to her body during the viewing and visitation.

We selected photographs for the video that'll document highlights of Mom's triumphant life.

We touched briefly on what we wanted included in Mom's obituary. All eyes turned toward me. I was assigned to do the writing. What a formidable challenge--bidding farewell to your Mom and trying to capture in words her personality and life's milestones.

I did the best I could.

This is what I came up with. It will appear in this weekend's editions of the Elizabethton Star and the Johnson City Press.


Dixie Nadine Jenkins Timbs, 87, passed away peacefully Thursday, July 4th, in Elizabethton.

Now in the arms of angels in heaven, she had led a full, exciting, interesting life.

She was the glue and the rock-solid anchor that held her family together. She was also tenderhearted, kind, soft-spoken and gentle in spirit.

Never boastful or loud, even when saddened, she kept some things to herself, preferring always to look on the positive side of any situation and always, ALWAYS holding out hope for a better day.

“This is the Day that the Lord has made! We will rejoice and be glad in it!” she often beamed.

She was a beautiful, loving, caring, strong-willed woman who cherished a good cup of hot steaming coffee in the morning, eagerly read the local daily newspaper, and who always had room at her table for another guest.

She prepared delicious Sunday lunch meals. Always her kitchen door was open for lunch and fellowship after church. Her soup beans, corn bread and fresh vegetables, cakes and cobblers satisfied many a hungry palate.

Her love and affection for her husband, children, sisters, brother, grandchildren and great grands was unconditional.

She was also a gifted writer—a trait she passed on to her others in her family.

At Hampton High School as a teen-ager, she had been a star on the girls’ basketball team.

She was the middle daughter of the late Ed Jenkins who died in 1962. And throughout her life, she had her father’s upbeat disposition in her DNA. She once wrote of him: “His cheerfulness sometimes did more for the sick than their physicians could do. He was a ray of sunshine to the sick, depressed…and a beacon of light for the needy.”

She could have been writing about herself.

Mrs. Timbs, a long-time member of the Lady’s Class at Valley Forge Christian Church, was preceded in death by her husband of 69 years, decorated World War II and Korean War veteran Lawrence C. Timbs. Mr. Timbs, a native of Fish Springs, Tennessee, passed away at the age of 90 in January 2012.

Mrs. Timbs’ brother J.N. also preceded her in death. He died in 1999.

During his career in the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Timbs and his beloved wife Dixie, with a baby on the way or one or more in tow, would criss-cross the country. They resided, among other places, in Smyrna, Tenn.; Niceville, Fla.; Austin, Texas; Nagoya, Japan; Maryville, Tenn; and Colorado Springs, Colo.

When Mr. Timbs retired from the Air Force in the early 1960s, he and Dixie returned to Elizabethton, where Mr. Timbs worked as a seasonal park ranger for the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

He and Dixie next relocated to Newport News, Virginia. They lived and worked there for several years before relocating back to Dixie’s parents’ old home place in the Valley Forge community between Hampton and Elizabethton.

After living abroad and all over the United States, they thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with their Tennessee roots—becoming active in the Valley Forge Christian Church, where Dixie’s father Ed had been an elder and deacon for 40+ years. They gardened, took short camping trips in their VW van, porch sat, bird-watched, enjoyed their children and grandchildren and extended family and got involved in local politics. Dixie, as devout a Democrat as her husband was a Republican, noted with a chuckle that she relished canceling out her hubby’s vote. Both Dixie and her husband readily served for several years as Election Day workers at Valley Forge Elementary School voting place.

Dixie always celebrated the fact that in Valley Forge they had the privilege of living in the shadow of one of the most beautiful mountains in East Tennessee. “Jenkins Mountain (is) 2,000 feet of awe-inspiring scenery,” Dixie wrote in her 2007 self-published book The People of Valley Forge: A Collection of Memories. “You will not find anything more majestic or breathtaking.”

Perhaps it was living so close to towering Jenkins Mountain (named after one of Dixie’s ancestors) that inspired her to write another self-published book, her 2004 A Rugged Trip Up Jenkins Mountain And The Old Barn. In this illustrated, tersely penned little book, Dixie recalls what it was like to grow up exploring, climbing and playing on the mountain with her two sisters Nell and Ruth and with her brother J.N., whom she described as “full of laughter and happiness.”

Dixie wrote engagingly in her book about how she and her siblings got up front and close with all manner of wildlife, including a red-tailed hawk, bear cubs, honey bees, blueberries and huckleberries, wild bleeding hearts, rhododendron, mountain laurel, a great horned owl, a cotton-tailed rabbit, white-tailed deer and “a big black snake that “licked out his tongue and started slithering away” when Dixie, barefoot, stepped on it.

Many days, after playing outside to their hearts’ content

, they ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in their “girls club house” in the barn; Dixie, Baby Ruth and Nell had plastered the inside of it with pictures cut out of a magazine. The little ones also would often dip their feet into the cold clear water of the nearby Doe River.

They were the blessed children of Ed Jenkins (“a man small in stature but a giant in the eyes of those whose lives he touched”) and Maude Simerly Jenkins; the latter, a skilled quilt maker, loved to cook hot-biscuits from scratch and serve gravy and grape jelly every morning for breakfast. Maude also prepared meals for anyone in the community who had a death in the family. God couldn’t have given a child better parents, Dixie often said.

Survivors of Dixie Nadine Jenkins Timbs are her daughter Cheryl Ann Timbs and husband Crawford; son Larry Timbs Jr. and wife Patsy Robinson Timbs; son Edward Timbs and wife Carmen Timbs; sisters Nell McQueen and Baby Ruth Williams; grandsons Hugh Anderson, Josh Anderson and wife Debra Anderson; grandson Zach Anderson; grandson Crawford Timbs III; grandsons Justin Timbs and wife Amanda Timbs and Jesse Timbs; granddaughters Sharyn Calcavecchio, Dorothy Yeung and husband Patrick Yeung, Elizabeth Roberta Timbs, Jamie Timbs McQueen and husband Jason McQueen.

Also surviving are great grandchildren Antonina, Gabriella, Angelo, and Giancarlo Calcavecchio; Lucy Brooke and Cecilia Clare Yeung; Dylan, Keelan Nadine and Brennyn Avery Anderson, Mason McQueen and Jase Bryson McQueen, Khloe Timbs, and Joselyn and Lane Timbs.

Guests may sign the register and attend the viewing 1 p.m.-2 p.m., Monday, July 8 at Tetrick Funeral Home in Elizabethton.

Graveside services will be held at Happy Valley Memorial Cemetery at 2:30 p.m. Monday. David Siebenaler, minister of Valley Forge Christian Church, will officiate. Music will be by Alex Holtsclaw and Frieda Winters.

Pallbearers will be her grandsons.

Honorary pallbearers will be other members of the family. Memorial contributions may be made in lieu of flowers to: Valley Forge Christian Church, 114 VFCC Church Road, Elizabethton, Tenn. 37643.

The family wishes to express their appreciation to the staff of Life Care Center of Elizabethton for their care of our beloved mother, wife, sister, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.tetrickfuneralhome.com and signing the guest book or by fax 423-542-9499. Tetrick Funeral Home, Elizabethton, is serving the family. Office 423-542-2232, Obituary line 543-4917.

Rockin' good time at the nursing home

You'd be surprised at the good entertainment you can run across at a nursing home.

Such was the case yesterday at the Life Care Center of Elizabethton, where my Mom now resides.

A husband-wife team (the Tatums, I believe) sang and strummed, and a dining room packed with residents--some of them in wheel chairs, others on walkers, others standing--joined in the fun.

Lots of toe tapping and clapping and even some spirited dancing let the Tatums know that folks loved their music.

Turn up your sound and click here for a clip of the entertainment. Late in the clip you'll notice a lady doing the twist to an old Chubby Checker favorite.

She happens to be my Mom's sister--Ruth Williams.

Take it away, Tatums and Aunt Ruth!

Tough things to do

I’ve lived to the ripe old age of 64, and I’m “drawin” (Social Security), as my fellow geezers say.

When you live this long, you learn a few things.

You come up with a hard-to-do or hard-to-master list.

Here’s mine:

1. It’s hard to learn how to play golf with any degree of skill. (I still can’t break 100.)
2. It’s hard to lose weight, without really suffering, fasting, pushing away from the table (whatever you want to call it.)
3. It’s hard to lose a child. Lost a daughter (Elizabeth Brown) in the early 1990s; and her mother and I have never been the same since.
4. It’s hard (EMOTIONALLY PAINFUL) to lose a dog. Roadie, my best friend ever (and shown on the right side of this blog near my profile) died a few years ago. I have two dogs today, but no canine can ever replace my beloved Roadie.
5. It’s very tough to exercise on a regular basis. So many other things in life push exercise aside, but how can you lose weight if you don’t move the old muscles and bones?
6. It’s torturously hard to publish a novel. My co-writer Michael Manuel and I are still on a quest to get “Fish Springs” in print. We are hoping, hoping, hoping…
7. It’s hard to understand the Bible. I keep trying, trying, trying…
8. It’s hard to multi-task. I’m lucky if I can do only one thing effectively.
9. It’s hard to say good-bye, but sometimes we must—for our own peace of mind and for the sake of those we love.
10. It’s still hard AFTER ALL THESE YEARS for me to make sense of why I’m here.

Enough for now. What’s on your top-ten hard-to-do list? Feel free to post your comments below.

Why I like President Obama

My son-in-law asked me the other day why I like President Barack Obama. At the time, off the top of my head, the only response I could come up with was "He's not Mitt Romney. He's not rich and never has been. He's much closer to everyday people than Romney."

After giving his question some more thought, here's are some of my other reasons for favoring our 44th president:


Why I support/like Barack Obama

By Larry C. Timbs Jr.

May 26, 2013

1. He’s given genuine hope to millions of people (predominantly blacks and other minorities) who have been oppressed or enslaved or downcast in America for centuries.

2. He’s a breath of fresh air in an otherwise boring, white power structure controlled political landscape.

3. Under his presidency/purview/direction, the world’s most wanted criminal (responsible for the deaths of 3,000 Americans) was captured and killed.

4. He inherited a practically impossible to manage and turn-around depressed, sinking economy, but he’s made significant steps in turning things around.

5. He himself represents the epitome of diversity in America—having had a white mother and a black father and white grandparents and white great grandparents.

6. He does not shy away from tough questions. He answers best he can. He’s totally unscripted and speaks from his heart in press conferences—unlike some top leaders or CEOs in America.

7. He reformed America’s health care system. Now someone with a pre-existing medical condition can no longer be denied health or dental insurance.

8. He has served admirably as our nation’s president during possibly the toughest, most demanding, most challenging time ever (two wars, horrible economy, tragedy after tragedy with assault weapons, bitterly partisan Congress).

9. He never boasts that he has all the answers. Always, he solicits others’ perspectives.

10. He remembers where he came from—as a community organizer and activist in his home state of Illinois. He was not born with a silver spoon (i.e. Mitt Romney); he knows the value of hard work and paying your dues.

11. He is an uplifting, inspirational, gifted speaker—the kind of leader that soldiers would follow through the worst conflagration.

12. He’s not afraid to take an unpopular stand, even if it means he’ll lose votes. (i.e. his support of gay rights).

Singing and preachin' at pig roast

Been a while since I've blogged but must take note of a neat event I attended last Saturday (April 20) in the rolling hills a few miles outside of Greeneville, Tennessee.

It was the fourth annual pig roast sponsored by U-Turn For Christ (a restorative ministry for persons trying to conquer the demons of substance abuse).

Heard some good, uplifting gospel music and fine preaching. Also enjoyed a delicious meal of pork barbecue with all the trimmings (potato salad, baked beans, fresh corn, fruit, chocolate cookies, brownies, soft drinks.)

Turn up your sound and click here for a sampling of the music.

The photos are by yours truly. They capture some of the folks/scenes I saw at the pig roast that day.

Those two suave characters in sunglasses (one in an orange shirt, the other wearing a black jacket) are my brother Edward (who works at the ranch) and myself.

New pope gives pause for thought

Well, we have a new pope. The leader of one-billion plus Catholics is from Argentina and seems to be a humble, well-intentioned servant of God.

That said, he has 24-7 access to a helicopter, lives in a palace-like dwelling in the Vatican, has his own gourmet cook (I am sure) and dresses in long-flowing (expensive, regal) garments. I'd say his papal attire could not be purchased at J.C. Penney or Sears.

All this excessive religious royalty at the same time a Catholic school is being closed in downtown New York City (the very same school that helped shape one of our U.S. Supreme Court justices--Sonia Sotomayor). It's being shut down for lack of funding from the church.

Maybe sell the helicopter and fund the school.

As an aside (while I'm on spiritual topics), one of my favorite pastors, Mike Lowery of Impact Community Church in Rock Hill, had this to say last Sunday about what God's plan is for us. God, according to Lowery, wants us to:
1. Allow Him to love us.
2. Be part of His family.
3. "Become" (fulfill His specific plan).
4. Bless others and be a blessing to others
5. Bring others into His family.

That last purpose might be the most important one, Lowery said, because God is gathering a family that will love and live with him forever. Thus, His purpose in creating us was to move us into His family. But we have free will. It's our choice to accept him or not accept him.

Anyone, Lowery asserted in his sermon at Impact, who calls on the name of lord will be saved.

And remember: Only two things will last forever: truth (the Bible) and our souls. Lowery admonishes us to invest in people and the truth. Build genuine relationships--with God and with others. Nothing else matters, he says. And always remember: Do not look to the world for peace. Look to God.

Lowery also reminded us of what Jesus did with his time and energy on this earth. None of us is as perfect as the Son of Man, but we ought to take heed of his accomplishments. (All of the following, by the way, while not having a place to lay his head at night):

Jesus:
1. Planted a church
2. Equipped servant leaders
3. Assisted the poor. Ministered to them.
4. Cared for the sick. Preacher, teacher, healer.
5. Educated the next generation. "Don't turn the little children away from me."

Food for thought and nourishment (I hope) for the soul.