2006

Freedom

Along my journey this week I passed a church that was beautifully decorated with yellow ribbons. They were woven in and out of the shrubs along the front of the building. There were big yellow bows atop the threshold of every door. Cascades of yellow sashes hung from the branches of trees. There were ribbons everywhere. My guess is the ribbons were displayed in support of our troops overseas defending freedom for mankind. It was truly a magnificant sight. An emotional experience to say the least.

When I stop to think of our men and women in forces it blesses my heart and yet troubles my spirit. These brave souls joined together with grit and determination as they set out to attack the very sight of evil that is trying to overtake the world. They stand in the gap for us, defending our freedom.

I often think of how much stronger our country would be if we would all use this example and apply it to our everyday living. What would happen if we, as a nation, could stand in the gap for the hurting within our own borders? What about showing a little compassion to our homeless and to the rejected as our soldiers across seas are doing for those along their journey?

It's so easy to claim 100's of reasons why we can't reach out to our brother or sister in need. How many times do we pass by someone with an outstretched hand asking for bread? How many times do we just look the other way? I admit my guilt. There have been times when in my carnel mind I think "go get a job" or something selfish. When in fact, after ignoring their need, I felt ashamed and ugly for not recognizing I could have been a witness. I could have offered them the greatest gift of all, FREEDOM. Complete freedom from the chains that bind one's soul. Freedom from addiction and abuse.

Are we so self righteous in America that we have neglected to see the need of our fellow man? Let us raise up the banner of "FREEDOM." Let us sound the alarm and declare victory in Jesus name.

Just as the ribbons for soldiers, we, as Christians, need to weave our souls into the lives of the needy. We need to be a witness to them so that they too can have the gift of "FREEDOM." Sharron Kay King Songs of Sharron Ministries http://www.sharronkayking.com

The Statue of Liberty

A few months ago we did a tour to New York. As we crossed the bridge you could look down into the harbor and see The Statue Of Liberty holding her torch high. What an incredible moment! If you have never seen her she will bring a tear to your eye. She represents freedom for the American. That freedom was purchased at a high price so you and I can enjoy living in the greatest country in the world!

A few years ago there was a song written called "The Statue Of Liberty." In that song the writer makes the point that the cross is also the Christians statue of liberty. It was there that the believer's freedom was purchased by Jesus Christ.

This 4th of July ask yourself this question."Have I accepted and experienced the freedom which Christ offers to me?" If the answer is no, you can by just asking for Him for it. I guarentee you if you'll do that you'll have freedom like you have never known.

Until next month...we'll see you down the road somewhere

Kings Heralds
http://www.theheralds.org

Flag of Freedom

Happy Independence Day from THE BRADLEYS! I hope this will be a day of thanksgiving for our freedom and a time of prayer for revival in America. Several years ago, I saw on the evening news some American protesters burning our flag in the street of one of our cities. On the same newscast, they were reporting a protest by young chinese men in China’s capital city who were trying to get China to award to it’s citizens just a few of the basic freedoms we enjoy and obviously take for granted. They were being hauled off to jail and some were killed. It broke my heart and inspired the following song:

FLAG OF FREEDOM

Verse 1
Our forefathers came from across the sea
They fought and they died for our liberty
And many brave men have given their lives
For the star-spangled banner they held so high

That flag is still flying so galantly
In honor to God and mans’ dignity
And the spirit that made America great
Still proudly defends her banner today

Chorus
Let me live where old glory is waving
In a country where people are free
Oh the stars and the stripes, What a beautiful sight!
As she flies o’er the land of my dreams

Verse 2
Our flag is a symbol of freedom and peace
To those who from fear and bondage would flee
As they reach out in hope to their fellowman
Their cries can be heard from a distant land

Chorus
Let me live where old glory is waving
In the country where people are free
Oh the stars and the stripes, What a beautiful sight!
As she flies o’er the land of my dreams

Writer: Shirley Bradley
Publisher: NewSalem Publishing
Copyright 1990 All rights reserved

Crabbfest 2006

Don't miss the last Owensboro, KY Crabbfest!!

 

EVENING CONCERTS (at the Owensboro Sports Center)

Wednesday 7:00 pm The Crabb Family, Mike Bowling Group, Aaron Wilburn, Crossway, Crystal River
Thursday 7:00 pm Crabb Family, Mike Bowling Group, Salvador, Aaron Wilburn, Julian Drive
Friday 7:00 pm Crabb Family, Mike Bowling Group, Isaacs, Karen Peck & New River, Brian Free & Assurance, McRaes, Aaron Wilburn
Saturday 6:00 pm Crabb Family, Mike Bowling Group, Isaacs, Booth Brothers, Whisnants, Paid In Full, Lynda Randle, Russ Taff, Aaron Wilburn and much more!!

Afternoon Praise & Worship Extravaganzas Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 1 pm Executive Inn Showroom
• Midnight Jam
• New Artist Spectacular, and much more!!!

Love is…

Hey Everyone...Happy Summer! We have so many exciting things happening! I wanted to share a few things before I write the devotional part of this month’s article. It is all just completely GOD! We are so thrilled because of what He is doing! First and foremost we have seen 140 people trust Christ for Salvation since Jan.1, 2006! That is fuel for us...We almost don’t need to stop at a gas station...lol...(we only wish)...lol.

The week after next is a major HIGHLIGHT, Steve Hurst School of Music! We LOVE it! Cannot wait to see everyone! Teaching there is the most incredible experience! We LOVE our students! Oh, and we are singing on Tuesday night, July 11th at School (Held at Trevecca University, Nashville) with Wes Hampton of the Gaither Vocal Band! Cannot wait to hear him SING!

SoGospelNews Annual Gospel Music Fan Festival is coming right up in the end of July! We will be singing on Friday night! We are honored to be a part. Make sure you MAKE plans to come all you can from Tuesday through Saturday, July 25th-29th to River of Life in Smyrna, TN.

We are headed to Bolivia in August to experience the mission field with our ministry extension Compassion International! THAT is SOOOOO incredible. We are hoping to meet our sponsored child Ana Maria. She is in Bolivia!

Ok ...that covers some of the happenings....NOW...

THE BIG NEWS is next month is the release of our new album “Live to Love.” It will be available online in August and in stores in September. We have poured lots of love and prayers into this album. We have had so much help from so many talented people. We are so thankful. God has supplied us with grace, strength, and incredible messages in song through some of the most amazing songwriters such as: John Darin Rowsey, Chris Binion, Joel Lindsey, Rebecca Peck, and more...I co-wrote 4 of the songs (by the grace of GOD and all those writers that are better than me...ha). This is the first album with Jess and Eddie also included in the writing! Jess co-wrote a song with me and Eddie co-wrote one with Jess and I. The album has 11 new songs and 1 classic, “We Shall Behold Him.” We had to record that. So many people we love that come see us on the road asked that we would. It was like they had a conference call from state to state with each other...but they say they didn’t plan it that way...LOL! So for all of you who asked for it...We did record it and we are so honored to have gotten to. What a SONG!

The new album is all about LOVE...from beginning to end the thread woven through the lyrics is LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, and LOVE.

SO I asked myself what is LOVE...Well, we once learned this is a church seminar (and I LOVE this)...That it is actually an action word! Love is a VERB! Think about that...It is what you do much more than what you feel!

So, if we can apply this... I mean really apply it and do it as God commanded it could change the face of our Christian walk, our WORLD, and our music world too!

I will be honest here....Sometimes I feel like we look for the flaws and faults in others before we look for an opportunity to love and encourage.

So, what is LOVE? Here is God’s definition:

Love is...

...patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
(1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

WOW! That is LOVE! God LOVE! I LOVE that He made it so clear!

Our New Album Title is “Live to Love...” I WANT TO! Let’s live to show His LOVE everyday! With that said,
let me leave you with this...it is VERY TRUE!...YOU ARE LOVED!

Have a blessed day!

Donna Beauvais
http://www.hopescall.com

P.S. Pre-releases for the new CD begin in a couple weeks...We will let you know!

Anyone Who Belongs

Hello once again from all of us in Embrace. Hope this month finds everyone well. June has been an active month for Embrace. Besides several singing opportunities, we've been involved in VBS, church and family trips, and getting the kids through softball and baseball season. It's great fun if you don't weaken!

God has used so much of what is going on in our personal lives this month to remind us of some very important spiritual truths. In the frantic activity of daily life, we tend to forget that He is sovereign even in the details of our existence. God has reached down in the sweetest way to rejuvenate me personally these past weeks. Naturally we expect God to show up and manifest His power in the crises of life but it's when He reaches down into the mundane difficulties of daily living and gives us the encouragement and strength we need to go on that we see His real heart-that of a loving, concerned and involved Father. Anyone who belongs to Him can be assured of His help.

Another truth that God has driven home these past weeks is this: "Anyone who belongs to Christ Jesus and wants to live right will have trouble from others" (2 Timothy 3:12). This was one of my children's memory verses for June and it was not coincidental that we all needed the reminder. Several of the members of Embrace and our families have experienced this truth first hand this month. It can be difficult for even adults, much less our children to accept this fact of life but fact it remains. We will suffer for our stand in Christ. The world cannot understand the choices we make and the God we serve. John wrote in his gospel that Jesus himself said the world hated him because he exposed their sin. Jesus also told his followers that the world hated and persecuted him and would hate them too (John 15:18-21).

Although it can be hard to persevere when the heat is on from those around us, God is faithful. He has provided and always will provide the strength that we need in these situations where our faithfulness to Christ and his teachings bring hardship. Paul put it best when he wrote those powerful, god-breathed words of Philippians 3:10, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…". When we die to our own comfort and desires as our Lord did, we are wonderfully transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into people who bear Christ's image. His mark is upon us and the world doesn't like it but, "Be of good cheer," says the Lord, "for I have overcome the world."(John 16:33)

So we who belong to Christ have assurance-first that he will be with us in all things and that he will meet our needs, and second, that we will be persecuted by the world, but again-be of good cheer; our loving Father, our Savior, the Guardian of our souls has overcome the world.

Bless you all!!

Nora Truhett
Embrace
http://www.embraceministry

July Reflections

It all started with the brick barbecue pit dad built in the backyard. Then came the big heavy picnic table he constructed and painted bright white. Then, of course, the picnic table called out for mom’s red and white checked tablecloth. And then…it was a party. The flies arrived first, of course…buzzing around rudely as if to ask, “Is it ready yet?” The ants were only slightly more polite. There were hotdogs and hamburgers to roast over the open fire. The smoke hung thick in the air and stung our eyes….a small price to pay for the flavor. The scent of barbecue wafted through the neighborhood and enticed the passersby to stop momentarily and take it in before they strolled on. (Of course, had I known then that the grill had begun life as the grate to our old floor furnace, I might not have been so keen on it. My folks recycled before it was fashionable.)

There were brightly colored aluminum glasses filled with iced tea, sweet and cold. There were tiny gherkins and sliced tomatoes. Mom usually opened a can or two of pork n’ beans, and although ordinary, they somehow became fine dining fare when served on red and white table linens. There was a tall yellow cardboard box of Kas Potato Chips, (a brand I haven’t thought of in years), a treat we were afforded only occasionally. But this was the 4th of July…a day worthy of potato chips. We ate and talked and laughed.

There was a 50’s style backyard swing set where two metal seats hung by heavy chains and the sketchy remains of orangey-red paint brightened the dull steel. There was a two-person apparatus that mom always called a see-saw that I rode with my little sister, Sheryl. I could swing all day long and never grow tired. I would swing high and then low. I would stop and just sit and daydream making circles in the dirt with my toes. I would swing sideways and make figure-eights. Then I would lay back almost flat in the swing, close my eyes and concentrate on the whoosh of air against my bare feet. I would let my hair drag the dirt…at least for a while…until I was snapped back to reality by a hearty, “Janice Lorraine, stop that.” There was a heavy metal sliding board that could be rather treacherous after it sat in the hot sun, but it was worth the risk of a blister. My brother, Bill, showed me how to polish the slide with waxed paper to add a little “excitement” to my descent.

After playing for a while and letting lunch settle, there was watermelon and what my dad called ice cream “sodies”. Orange, grape, or strawberry cream soda floated scoops of vanilla ice cream in those same aluminum glasses that Mom fitted with little knit “sweaters” to keep our hands from freezing. It was what Heaven was made of as far as I was concerned, and I always removed the last bit of it by the “scrape and slurp” method.

As evening began to fall, the anticipation grew for that night’s finale – the fireworks display. Dad would tend to the coals in the barbecue pit while mom packed away what was left of the food and carried it into the house. It was time for the celestial shift change. The sun clocked out. The moon clocked in. The mosquitoes who slept through the afternoon’s festivities were now awake and had a voracious appetite.

We headed around to the front of the house to take our places on the front steps, while the neighbors found their best vantage point. The kids next door walked around with sparklers – something Mom deemed just too dangerous for an eight year old. My brother, Bill, six years my senior, was allowed to escape the confines of the picket fence to sit ever so carefully on the trunk of Dad’s old green ’54 Olds to await the “spectacular”. As soon as it was totally dark, the northwest sky was ablaze with cascading stars of red and blue, and huge bright yellow and pink chrysanthemum bursts. I clapped my hands over my ears in anticipation of the whistle, the boom, and the trailing crackle. There were spinning pinwheels and more cascading stars. Some would shoot high into the night sky, while some seemed to barely clear the trees. Some would be just a white flash, a boom, and a puff of smoke. I was certainly no pyrotechnics expert, but I knew a dud when I saw one.

After the final crescendo, we would head into the house with our ears still ringing, still chattering about how “neat” it all was. It had been a good day.

It never ceases to amaze me all the memories that our minds store away, catalog, and then retrieve with just a little coaxing. I hadn’t thought about those times for years. Then suddenly, there it was. And if I close my eyes and run the action reel, I’m right there – eight years old and not a care in the world.

With the upcoming 4th of July holiday, I began to think about those times and for the first time ever began to wonder about the fireworks, the ones that were duds. What made some of them soar upward and burst so beautifully, perfectly timed and spaced, and others barely launch at all. What made some a dud?

It seems to me that when the crates of fireworks are trucked down to the river and unpacked on the barge, even though they are packaged and categorized differently, they all have one thing in common – potential. Some are intended to be those big bright chrysanthemums or starry cascades or maybe even pinwheels. But I’m convinced that none are intended to be duds.

What happens? Well, I’m told that one or more things can happen to create a “dud”. First of all, there could be a problem with the chemical balance.
Something’s just all wrong in the mix. Too much this – not enough that. Secondly, the fuse or wick could be defective, broken, or improperly placed, or there could be a void between the fuse and the explosive charge because the fuse is just too short. Third, the fireworks could have gotten wet or taken on moisture while in storage or in shipment.

I wonder if we as Christians have the same type of problems that prevent us from being all that God intended us to be. Maybe there’s something wrong with our formula…too much television – not enough prayer, too many trips to the mall – not enough Bible reading. Or maybe our spiritual fuse just doesn’t go deep enough or there’s a void of apathy that either prevents the spark of revival or allows us to burn out too quickly. Maybe we’ve taken on the “moisture” of this world – allowed things to seep in that neutralize our effectiveness.

The Lord said that we would be endued with “power”, and I believe He intended for us to strive to live up to our potential. I don’t want to be a “dud”. Do you?

Happy 4th of July!

Janice Crow

4th of July Memories

July is a month of freedom! Kids are out of school, families take vacations, and we celebrate our country's independence. For me, growing up, July meant church youth camp, having fun at our town's 4th of July fair, with the fireworks, and watermelons. Also visiting cousins, shelling butter-beans and peas from my grandma's garden, and swimming. The south Mississippi heat drove us indoors after a while, but my sisters and cousins and I ruled the outdoors, running and playing. By our house, stood two, huge, oak trees. My dad hung rope swings and we stayed under the oaks, taking turns pushing each other. The higher the better! Our little road was dirt gravel until I was about 15 years old, so we would walk (probably barefoot) to granny's for pop-cicles and ice-cream sandwiches everyday during the summer. We would roam the woods and play in the stream behind our house, till dark. Growing up, we thought we had a pretty boring life. But remembering back, I now appreciate the simplicity of the country, the closeness of my family, and the fun I didn't know I was having! I know that when I become a parent, my child's environment will more than likely be different than mine was, but I will have lots of stories to share!

Happy Independence Day!

Annie McRae
http://www.annieandkellymcrae.com

Life Is Good

In last month’s article, I mentioned that my husband, Tim, was put on oxygen. That seemed kind of random, so I thought I would elaborate a little on his story. Tim was diagnosed with a genetic lung disease called Alpha 1 – Antitrypsin deficiency the summer of 2000 right after he surrendered to the ministry call. Tim and I found ourselves sitting in a doctor’s office in Biloxi, Mississippi – for a second opinion – being told that he would not live a long life. This disease was usually discovered in people in their mid thirties, and many at that age were already in wheelchairs and on oxygen. Before the shock wore off, we hoped for things like Tim seeing our children grown, or at least graduated from high school. It wasn’t fair. We had lived some tough years in the Air Force and were looking forward to things being better in our future with only two years until retirement. We had already been singing with a church group for almost ten years and had just formed The Quicks with our two daughters, even though they were only 13 and 10 years old. We had hopes and dreams. It just wasn’t fair.

Six years later, June 2006, Tim just spent another Father’s Day with our two little cherubs! Our oldest daughter, Rachel, recently got engaged and Tim will walk her down the aisle next year. She will also graduate from Middle Tennessee State University in 2007 with a degree in Elementary Education. Rebecca is preparing for her senior year of high school, planning for college to major in music business. Tim began taking classes with Troy State in 1986 and will finally graduate this August. (He doesn’t believe in rushing into anything…) Tim still has the lung disease and was even recently put on oxygen at night. The evening after home health brought that oxygen tank into our home; Tim came over to me – very concerned – and asked if I was still going to sleep in our room since the tank made so much noise. I quickly replied, “I sure am. That machine makes less noise than your snoring.”

Life is good – not because our circumstances changed, but because our attitude did! God has been right here with us – growing us in our relationship with Him and with each other. We are always looking ahead – planning for our future and enjoying the present! Do we get discouraged? You better believe it! But we don’t STAY there! John Hagee once said, “If you have more memories than dreams, you are a dead man looking for a grave.” So get a reality check – life is tough. BUT - We have been told that Jesus came to give us an abundant life – John 10:10. Problems will come… and go.

till next time…
Sally

You can call your favorite Gospel radio station and request the latest “Quick” Music! Be listening for our new single, “It’s a Sure Thing” on Rick Hendrix Vol. 40 Cut 5.

To order our latest project, “What Are You Waiting For” with songs like our new single “It’s a Sure Thing” and our first charting single, “He Can Move the Water,” simply call 615-459-5119 or email us at for more information.

To find out more about The Quicks, visit us on the web at http://www.thequicksonline.com.
The Quicks are also now at My Space! You can visit us at http://www.myspace.com/thequicksonline !

To contact The Quicks, Phone: 615-459-5119 / 615-403-0047
Write: The Quicks / P.O. Box 581 / Smyrna, TN 37167
E-mail: