THE FLYING FORTRESS

Sometimes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes our way. It’s one of those “WOW!” moments, which you don’t really foresee the greatness of it until you are in the middle of it. Yesterday I had that kind of opportunity. My sweet friend Susan Green arranged for me to fly up in the B-17 “Flying Fortress”, along with Mike Minter. My excitement was soon overrun by this huge heartfelt emotion of gratitude to my Dad and the millions of other soldiers who fought for our freedom.
On the plane were three Veterans, one who had flown 35 missions during WWII on B-17’s. Mike got to sit in the gunner’s seat in the nose of the plane as we were flying over Charlotte. What an awesome feeling of connecting to 60 years ago! I stood on my tip-toes and waved my hand into the clouds through the dome of the plane. I just felt that my Mother and Dad were there waving back at me from heaven’s portals.

This was the same kind of plane in which my Dad, Lt. Col. C.L. Scott, who was chief of staff to Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, flew as a replacement in the position of tail-gunner on the fatal Bonn Mission over Belgium on August 12, 1943. Through these many years my Dad, though I never knew him, has been my hero! Somehow being in that same kind of plane connected me to him, to his mission, and to the honor of giving his life for freedom.

Then, of course, my thoughts went heavenward, and I was keenly reminded of my God, my Hero, who has been my heavenly Father since I accepted Him as my Savior in 1952. Somehow in the skies, I felt even closer to the One who paid the ultimate price for my eternal life and freedom to live an abundant life here on earth. As I waved my hand into the clouds, I thought of the last line of my Dad’s favorite poem “High Flight”…..I put out my hand and touched the Face of God!

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds...and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of...wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

-Madell Price

DEPENDING ON GOD

FROM A WOMAN'S PERSPECTIVE #2

Last week our son and daughter-in-law had an appointment with Grady’s 4th grade teacher. What a gift our grandchildren were given from a friend who has paid for two years of their education at Charlotte Christian! There are some teachers who just seem to have an extra God-given desire to help make their students the very best that they can be.

The one comment that has burned in my heart for this week was what that teacher said to them on that day: If I can help Grady identify his weaknesses this year and show him how to depend on God to help overcome those weaknesses, I will have accomplished my goal! Wow!!

Each day that I live I want the Holy Spirit, my Teacher, to help me identify my weaknesses and show me how to depend on God to help overcome them. It’s so easy just to “slide through life” and excuse ourselves instead of constantly trying to become more like Christ!

Today, September 25th, is the first anniversary of my sweet Mother’s homegoing. I have not grieved for her because I know that this has been the most awesome year of her Life, but I have missed her greatly. I have missed her encouraging words of “you can do it!....I am praying for you…trust God because He is faithful and will take care of all your cares!” Just a few months before Mother died, I prepared for her a Creative Memory Album entitled, My Mother…My Teacher. In it I was able to thank her for teaching me so many of life’s greatest lessons, not only through her words, but through her example. At the very back of the book I included the following quote from Roy Lessin:

"When we look back and wonder how we ever made it this far, we realize it is not because we have been clever, but because God has been wise…not because we have been strong, but because God has been mighty…not because we have been consistent, but because God has been faithful!"

Lord, teach us to identify our weaknesses, but then depend on You to be our Strength!

-Madell Price

"My House Shall Be Called a House of Prayer"

This past Wednesday, we concluded our six week study on prayer with a powerful video sermon presented by Pastor Jim Cymbala from the Brooklyn Tabernacle. God moved in a very special way.

For those of you missed it, or want to view the message again...

BRING THE RAIN

FROM A WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE….

On Labor Day my husband and our son Randy spent most of the day with chain saws cutting down dead trees in our backyard. Our son-in-law Daniel helped them. It was quite an operation, with two chain saws, ropes, the old tractor to help pull, and of course, the muscle power that was used. Our little granddaughter, Madi, came out to watch and at the end of the day looked at the huge pile of tree limbs and said, “Oh, no—BROKE!”

The drought sucked the life right out of those trees, some large and some small. Along with the brown lawn and struggling plant life, the scene is a commentary on what happens when there is no water. However, on the deck there are some pots of beautiful flowering plants that have been watered every day, and what a joy they bring to our barren backyard scene!

This morning as a few drops of precious rain fell from heaven, I was reminded of a verse in Jeremiah 17:7,8—Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be worried in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
“Green Leaf in Drought”!!

At our church we can begin to see the “green leaf” of God’s blessing as the water of the Word begins to bring forth fruit! There is a sense of revival, an excitement about prayer, and a renewed desire to bring others to the Lord. As we pray for the physical rain to come to our parched ground, may we also pray for the spiritual rain to come to our hearts. “Lord, Bring the Rain!”

--Madell Price

ASK AND YOU WILL RECEIVE

God has been so very good to me and to our church. For the past few weeks our focus on the Wednesday Evening “Link” has been on prayer. I have always known that God wanted me to pray…wanted me to talk with Him….wanted to do some incredible things wrought only by prayer, but in the past few weeks God has really impressed on my heart the awesome PRIVILEGE of PRAYER and the POWER available to us when we pray. I cannot get away from it. The message two weeks ago entitled “God Has Sent You An Invitation—R.S.V.P.” has encouraged my heart to keep sin confessed, to keep my hands opened unselfishly, and to not be silent, but to ask specific things from God!

And do you know what? GOD ANSWERS!! We had been praying about some financial needs for the Fall Campaign, since the summer has been a bit difficult financially. We prayed specifically that God would send in $10,000 for the Bible Study Books and the advertisement for the “Team Up” Campaign. Just after we started praying, God sent the first blessing. A young man who had been a member of King’s Way had moved to another city about 3 or 4 months ago. He came back to Charlotte and visited us at the church office recently. I greeted him. Then he went in to see Bro. David. When he left, Bro. David came into my office with a stack of tithe envelopes that the man brought to the church—each one containing his weekly tithe for 13 weeks, totally $4800! Praise the Lord! We had a shouting time of praise! That was almost half of the needed money we had prayed about. Then this last Friday, Donna went to the mail box to check the day’s mail, and God had sent in another $5200 from a family that had also moved away and had not been at our church for several months. Now what does that add up to??? $10,000—exactly what we needed and when we needed it!

I am so excited because I believe that God wants to pour out on his children who ask Him the riches of heaven! “We have not because we ask not…Ask and you shall receive!”

TEAM UP!

What an amazing weekend we just experienced! Saturday night's TAILGATE PARTY and PEP RALLY kicked off our TEAM UP campaign in style. For those 0f you who missed it, see the video below. We also began our new series "Living Under the Influence." Don't miss Part 2 this Sunday at 9:00 and 10:45.

Now for a good laugh...