Tag Archive for Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob’s Ladder

January 27, 2011 Church, Editorials Comments Off
Jacob Bembry, Editor

 

Jacob Bembry, Editor

Target Practice

When you are in a position like I am, you become a target. Maybe you are in the same position I am. Maybe you are a Christian.

Since we live in the buckle of the Bible Belt, it seems that Christians would be in a secure position. Not so. We find that there are snipers out there and they’ve got their sights zeroed in on us. Any time they find an opportunity they are ready to fire.

As a Christian in this area, I find this to be a fairly recent thing that is happening to us. We find the snipers taking potshots at us, encouraged by the trends that they find on television, in the movies, on the network news and in other forms of the media. Soon, Christians, even in the United States and even in Madison County, could become martyrs as atheists, agnostics, the ACLU and others gain momentum and become more vehemently opposed to hearing the Word of Jesus Christ.

Should we back down from sharing the Gospel? The answer to that question would be a resounding “no.” We should be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves when sharing the message with the world. We should know what we believe and not just what we do not believe in. Read the Bible, prayerfully, and let God show you how you should share His Word with others.

We Christians are all targets. If they attack us, after we have shared the love of Jesus with love from our hearts and with humility, we should simply smile, because we know that we have a crown of life awaiting us in Heaven if we endure to the end.

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Jacob’s Ladder

January 20, 2011 Editorials Comments Off
Jacob Bembry, Editor

 

Jacob Bembry, Editor

 

75 Years

            My father was born Jan. 21, 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression to a family that didn’t have much money even during the good times. His father, Gene Bembry, was quite a bid older than his mother, Iduma Conine Bembry. Daddy was the second child born into the family.

            Daddy’s older brother, Sam, moved away. As soon as he got old enough, he joined the Navy and later settled in San Jose, Calif. His widow, Ada, and their three children, Jeff, Kathy and Diane still live in the Golden State today. As a matter of fact, Daddy talked to Jeff on the phone the other day.

            After Daddy, there was Frank, who was killed in a car wreck on an icy road in Bozeman, Mont. on his 30th birthday in 1968; Lewis, who died in Atlanta, Ga., in the 1990s; Sarah, who works as a nurse for the VA in Huntsville, Ala.; Horace, who worked for JB Davis and then the City of Jasper, who died in 2009; Carlton, who also died in 2009; and Nina, who lives in Lee. My father loves all of his brothers and sisters and he still misses the ones who have gone on before him. He, Sarah and Nina are the only surviving children of Gene and Iduma Bembry.

            I believe that Daddy loved my mama more than he ever loved anyone else. I didn’t really see this until the times that Mama was sick in 1994 and in 1998. Daddy visited her bedside every day until her death on Jan. 16,1999.

            Daddy also has a deep and abiding love for me, my brother and my sisters. We irritate him a lot of the time, but I think he knows that his love for us is returned to him.

            My father has never had much money but he has given all his children love. I thank God for him and wish him a very happy 75th birthday.

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Jacob’s Ladder

January 11, 2011 Editorials Comments Off

By Jacob Bembry

Called To Coach

            The first book I read from cover to cover in 2011 has been the book Called to Coach by Bobby Bowden. The book gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse at college football during Bowden’s 40-plus years of coaching.

            The book is more than a book about college football and even more than a book about Bowden. The book is about a calling from God that Bowden felt that he had to fulfill. He was called to be a coach.

            The book details how Bowden shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with his players and coaches. In one chapter, Bowden writes about Pablo Lopez, an offensive lineman for the Seminoles, being murdered one fall Saturday evening when Florida State did not have a football game. He spoke at Lopez’s funeral about the faith that Pablo had found in Jesus Christ. He told his team and coaches that he knew where Pablo was and if they wanted to know how to get to Heaven also, his office door was always open. One of the people who took up his invitation was Mark Richt, an assistant coach, who is know the Georgia Bulldogs head coach. Richt invited Jesus into his heart.

            One heartbreaking chapter in the book is about the deaths of his son-in-law, John Madden, and his grandson, Bowden Madden. John and Bowden had been headed home from Tallahassee on a rainy Interstate 10, when they were killed in a traffic crash. Billy Smith, a retired highway patrolman who escorted Bobby Bowden at football games and another trooper came to Bowden’s house to break the news to his daughter, Robyn, who had remained in Tallahassee with the family following a 19th birthday celebration for another son.

            The book details devotionals that Bowden and team chaplain Clint Purvis shared with the FSU team over the years. It talks about how some of the players were able to change their lives during their time at FSU and even about how some of them failed to turn their lives around.

            I would recommend the book to anyone, whether they are a diehard Seminole fan like me, or even a Florida Gator fan. I’m planning on reading Tim Tebow’s book when it comes out because I admire his stand as a Christian. Bowden has the same stand, so I urge everyone to buy the book, borrow the book (I would loan you mine, but I only have a copy on my Kindle) or check the book out from the library. The book is truly inspiring.

             I hope and pray that one day, my calling as a writer, will inspire people to give their lives to Jesus Christ.

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