(Eph 5:14 NIV)  for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

It is good to be ministering with the Monterey Church of Christ. Please click on this web site to learn more about the church: http://www.montereychurchofchrist.org/

This past Sunday morning we talked about greed from Ephesians 5:3-14.  Sunday night we talked about hell from the parable of the dragnet from Matthew 13:47-50

 We are thankful for the following things:

The hospice in Vidalia had their meeting on Tuesday.  After the meeting they had a worshop on anger and depression.  It was very good.

On Wednesday the boys had their zoo class in Alexandria.  Alex has agreed to do a project on frogs.  Andy has agreed to do a project on monkeys.  Zach and Zane got to ride on the zoo's train.

On Saturday the church had a Fall Festival for the children.  We had over 25 children.  Thanks to all those who helped, especially Annette and Becky who organized the event. 

Some prayer requests:

Crystal and the boys are homeschooling.  Keep praying that their education will go well.  Also, pray for the Monterey School:  http://mhs.cpsbla.us/

Some upcoming events to keep in prayer:

1.  November 17 is a home basketball game here in Monterey.  It's Alex and Andy's turn.

2.  November 21 in the morning is a work day on the Junior Worship area.  Someone has donated new carpet and we are going to get it ready on Saturday.

3.  November 27 is Thanksgiving.  My Mom and Lou with be us and my sister Ann and her husband Richard. 

4.  December 3 through 5 is the Monterey Basketball Tournament.  This year they have 8 teams competing. 

5.  The evening of December 5 we are going to a Christmast Party with Hospice Help in Vidalia.  It should be a lot of fun.

6.  I will be attending two memorial services with hospice.  One on December 1 in Vidalia and one on December 8 in Alexandria.  If anyone would like to come, please tell me.  These services bring some hope and healing to those who are hurting around the holidays.

We thank all of you who pray for us.  What a blessing!  (2 Cor 1:10-11 NIV)  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,  as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Be joyful always,

Davon Huss

In an unfamiliar chapter of the Old Testament you will find this strange verse.  It relates to the experience of the early Hebrews as they fought their way into Palestine.  (Judg 1:19 NIV)  The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots.

The Hebrew invaders readily captured part of the territory they wanted.  The inhabitants of the hill country were poorly armed, and it was an easy matter to seize their fields.  but conquering the inhabitants of the plain, gaining possession of the more fertile land there, was another story.  The men of the plain had chariots of iron, and those chariots stood defiantly in the road.  Nothing the invaders could do would break that line.  So finally the Hebrews had to retire to the hills, content themselves with the less desirable territory there.  They had met a permanent frustration:  iron chariots blocked their road. 

Sooner or later all of us meet permanent frustrations.  Life lets us have some things but stubbornly denies us others. 

What now should we do when we find an iron chariot in our road?  We should do three things.

1)  We should ask ourselves whether the frustration which seems permanent is really permanent.  Time and again iron chariots which seem invincible have been pushed off the road.  They have been pushed off by the combinations of courage, ingenuity and sheer persistence.  You say your limitations are invincible?  I wonder if they really are.

2)  Suppose the frstrations are permanent.  Suppose, in spite of everything you do, the iron chariots refuse to budge.  Then what?  Then remind yourself that within your small and disappointing world two significant opportunities lie waiting.  One is the chance to develop your own abilities, and by doing so gain the sense of achievement.  The other is the chance to make life happier for someone else, and by doing so gain the joy of usefulness. 

3)  No matter how many iron chariots we meet, no matter how cruelly they hedge us in, we can still be inwardly happy.  Why can we be inwardly happy?  Because we possess, and always will possess, the power to choose our own thoughts.  (Phil 4:8 NIV)  Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

The Bible says that children are a blessing.  May the following things help us to pray and be thankful for our children.

"If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into Heaven?" I asked the children in my Sunday School class.
 
"NO!" the children all answered.
 
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"
 
Again, the answer was, "NO!"
 
"Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my wife, would that get me into Heaven?" I asked them again.
 
Again, they all answered, "NO!"
 
"Well, I continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"
 
A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA be dead!" 
 

A PARENT'S PRAYER
 
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my sanity to keep.
 
For if some peace I do not find,
I'm pretty sure I'll lose my mind.
 
I pray I find a little quiet,
Far from the daily family riot.
 
May I lie back and not have to think
About what they're stuffing down the sink,
 
Or who they're with, or where they're at
And what they're doing to the cat.
 
I pray for time all to myself
(did something just fall off a shelf?)
 
To cuddle in my nice, soft bed
(Oh no, another goldfish dead!)
 
Some silent moments for goodness sake
(Did I just hear a window break?)
 
And that I need not cook or clean
(oh well, I've got the right to dream)
 
Yes now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray my wits about me keep,
 
But as I look around I know,
I must have lost them long ago

This quote from When Life Gets Hard by James Gordon Gilkey caused me to think this morning.  Someone once asked King George V to write an inscription on the fly leaf of a Bible, and these were the strange words he penned:

"The secret of finding happiness is not to do what you like to do, but to learn to like what you have to do."

(Phil 4:12 NIV)  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.(Phil 4:13 NIV)  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

I think it is nestalgia and longing to go back to my 80's childhood but recently I have been listening to U2's The Joshua Tree album.  (By the way, that is the only album I have of theirs.  Might be a good Christmas present to get me some of the others.  Just a thought!)  U2 is a secular band with a Christian twist.  Sometimes I hear Bono quoting verses from the Bible and then I hear him cussing up a storm.  I didn't know this but U2 is currently on a concert tour of the US.  Here is part of a blog entry by Todd Hiestand who recently attended one of their concerts(http://www.toddhiestand.com):

I was asked recently what my favorite moment of the night was. That’s an easy answer. I have always loved their song “I Sill Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” its simply a classic. But its not the musical genius that gets me in this song, its the lyrics.

I remember when I was in college I had some friends who didn’t like this song. They used it to try and prove that Bono couldn’t be a Christian. Their point was simple: if he really had Jesus in his life, he would have found what he was looking for. Now, I get that and I understand what they were trying to say. Knowing Jesus makes my life worth living. But I think this response to this song shows a hole in many people’s theological framework, most specifically their understanding of hope.

Now, I might be wrong on my interpretation of this song, but that is the great thing about music, its often multilayered in meaning. But, I interpret these lyrics, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” as a cry for the New Heavens and New Earth.

The song begins with the idea that the songwriter has gone through great lengths to strive after God and moves on to the idea that he’s even tried finding ultimate meaning in the “lower” parts of this world (I hear the voice of the writer of Ecclesiastics in these lyrics).

The point is, he’s still looking for something that he has not yet attained… He even believes that, “You broke the bonds, And you loosened the chains, Carried the cross, And all my shame….” And yet he is still running and longing after something.

How is this possible? How can someone still be longing for something more even if they understand the significance of the cross?

Well, I have a pretty good sense of the significance of the cross. Of the resurrection.

And frankly, I long for something.

I long for the New Heavens and New Earth.

For all things to be made new.

For their to be no more wars.

No more famine.

No more crying.

No more pain.

I long for a New World.

The Apostle Paul longed for it too in Romans 8:19-24,

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

So, in that moment in the concert, I was able to sing and cry out with 60,000 people a song of longing and a song of hope. There were chills. There were deep emotions. There was even some holding back of tears.

The more I understand this full redemption of our broken world as the ultimate understanding of hope, the more I long for songs like this one. Songs that sing of our longing for the Kingdom to come in all its fullness.

We sing a similar song as Israel.  They sang of their longing for the Messiah. We should be singing of our longing for the Messiah to come again and make all things new and heal this broken and fractured world.