About The Georgia post. (Knoxville, Crawford County, Ga.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (May 16, 2013)
PAGE 4 - THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 Opinions expressed by writers on this page are their own and not necessarily those of The Georgia Post CODE OF ETHICS: Seek Truth & Report It - Minimize Harm - Act Independently - Be Accountable. Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe. - Thomas Jefferson Regarding Pentecost A curious thing happened as I began my reading of scripture regarding Pentecost Simday (May 19). The parallels between the celebrations of Judaism and Christianity seemed to liter ally jump out at me. I’m not promising to make the connec tions as stark for you readers as it became to me—but I feel compelled to try. My pastor in Miami made it a point to remind us regularly that the Jewish people are our elder brothers in faith and that what we consider the “Old Testa ment,” is in reality the Hebrew Text. “There is no such thing as ’old’ anything in connection with G-d because his covenants stand and He is eternal,” Father Jim told us time and time again, nothing can be old when it is everlasting. Passover was a physical deliv erance of the Hebrews from the final Egyptian plague and ended their enslavement in Egypt. In like manner, Easter, Christ’s sacrificially dying for our sins and His resurrection, making us co-heirs with Him as children of G-d was thus a deliverance from sin for Christians. Pentecost is a Jewish festival that occurs 7 full weeks or 49 days after Passover. It has ag ricultural and spiritual signifi cance. Agriculturally, Pentecost is known by another name, the Festival of Weeks; a time of harvest. It is spiritually called Shavou’ot and is a celebration of the gift of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and the Ten Commandments to the Hebrews at the foot of Moimt Sinai. The saving event that is Christ’s death and resurrection is completed for this age with the gift of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost Sunday is celebrated 7 Simdays (weeks) after the resurrection. Jesus assured his disciples that as he left them to prepare a place for them and sit at the right hand of His Father, He would not leave us, but promised to send a us a Helper. See what I mean, Passover and Easter, Torah and Holy Spirit. Or would that be Passover and Torah and Easter and Holy Spirit? With the gift of the Holy Spirit we are no longer shackled to law, but would instead have the spirit and voice of our Lord written in our hearts. I think of the Holy Spirit as the gift that just keeps giving because of the spiritual gifts which are bestowed at the time of receiving the Holy Spirit. The spiritual gifts are outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:14: wisdom, Of This & That Trenesia Y. Stubbs Columnist email:trenesia@pstel.net knowledge, discerning various spirits, speaking in tongues, in terpretations of tongues, proph ecy, faith, working of miracles, and healing. Other gifts are discussed in different scripture passages. Like everything from our Lord, the gifts we are given are not for our benefit, but rather, are for the benefit of His people. Your gift is not for you. My mother, Bettye Joyce, told us that all the time. Whatever the Lord gives you, He expects you to give to others. If you have knowledge that is unshared, what good is it? The disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit while gathered together in a house. The soimd of driving wind and tongues as of fire came to rest on each of them. I wanted to tell this story—the coming of the Holy Spirit—but realize that you will probably enjoy it more if you read it yourself: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11. Nothing and nobody does story-telling like the good book. I love knowing that G-d is not only a G-d of love, but that He loves diversity. Each of the people in the crowd of devout Jews gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world, heard the disciples in their own language. The Lord had given the dis ciples an ability to convey His love and gift without a pesky language barrier. It was kind of a reverse Tower of Babel; when He confoimded the mutual language. I may not have explained why I got excited about the parallels between Judaism and Christi anity, but I hope you have an opportunity to investigate these celebrations for yourself. May the Holy Spirit descend on you, your household and our nation and give us what we need to follow Him. Hi Donna! Hope you’re enjoy ing heaven. We miss you down here. Bye Ray! You done good, son. You always made me laugh and feel loved. Thank you. uotable Quote ~ Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself. - Harvey Fierstein Lots To Do This Weekend Whew! We are on a roller coaster of activity, along with several other people. So much going on, it is almost impossible for two people to keep up. But that is the nature of newspaper and what keeps us on our toes and makes our life exciting. I recently got a phone call from Mrs. Collins stating my column on time should have been on the front page. A sweet lady at the post office also stopped me to say how much she enjoyed that same column. I appreciate the kind words. Sometimes we do get to feeling taken for granted, but it passes quickly as there is just not enough time to wallow in any pity around here. Once upon a time they did publish columns on the front page but that was long before my time. We are publishing previous columns from a year ago on our blog though. JugFest activities begin today and continue until the Jugfest ends on Saturday. They are having a 5k and fun run for the first time thanks to Larry Carpenter. The Medical Center of Peach County is having a 12.5K from the old hospital in Fort Valley to the new one in Byron. At one time, believe it or not, I was a run ner. I enjoyed the Labor Day races in Macon and always tried to beat my time. Running is addictive if you ever get yourself in the groove of doing it on a regular basis. There is such a great feeling in getting that second wind when you think you are all used up. I quit running because I de veloped shin splints and just could not work through them. Need to try again though as my runs were also a time when I communed with our Creator. We had many a talk during those days. I am not sure I can get back to running though, as my knees give me a lot of trouble these days. On one hand I am in better shape and feel better than I have in a long time. On another level — lifting weights, exercising more, etc. I have a long way to go. Last year I conned David into playing tennis with me on Saturday mornings but we got out of that habit for some reason or another. Need to get back to that every Saturday. Though I have lost weight, 32 pounds to be exact, I am wanting to lose that much more and lose at least one more dress size. That will mean, much to my husband’s dismay, more new clothes!! Just had to buy a smaller size a few months ago. If I had just kept my skinny clothes, I would not have to buy any, but finally broke down last year and gave them away after holding on to them for way too many years. Was taking up too much closet space. There is going to be plenty to do this week so you can find something to do. The weather right now is indi cating it will be beautiful, but maybe a little warm. Of course, with the weather that can change at any time. You will see us out and about at these events so be sure and say hello. That’s one good thing about the events, you get to see people you might not see on a regular basis and you meet new ones as well. The JugFest will have vendors and lots to see and do. If you have never been, you need to give it a try. The committee has worked very hard and I can attest to the We Are Not To Pass Judgement “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judg ment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Matthew 7:2 The world today is becom ing a place where judgment is passed before we even start to get to know the individual being judged. The judgment comes so quickly a person does not even have the time to blink much less explain their situation, which in my opinion should not even be necessary. People should not have to explain themselves to any body. They should not have to dive into their personal history just to calm the con victions of another person. Their private life and busi ness is their own until they decide to share it. I have been working on my own judgment of others over the last eight years. My outlook on life as a whole was pretty cynical before my husband came along. Every one I met was untrustworthy and life, in general, was the pits. I did not judge people based on their looks or even on their actions. I just did not open myself up to their stories or their lives. My husband believes in the good in people. He says there is good in everyone, you just have to find it. He is very trusting and sometimes it gets him into trouble. I be lieve God put us together to even out those two extremes in our lives. He has taught me to look for the goodness in people and I have taught him to be a little more wary of those who just don’t have goodness in them. I’m glad he has brought me around to wanting to learn the stories of people. I find great joy in listening to the stories of people who perform good deeds, who are a great part of their com munity, or who just live an interesting life. Though I learn their stories, good or bad, I don’t judge them. I don’t turn their life into some sort of circus freak show in my mind. Everyone has their own reasons behind how they look and what they do in their lives. People with tattoos are not all thugs and miscreants (I know because I have them and have never been arrested my entire life). Not all “men of God” standing in the pul pit every Sunday are good people. There have been loads of cases of “religious leaders” exploiting people for sexual favors or money. Those are just two extremes of people judged on first looks and not lasting impres sions. We are quick to judge someone by the way they look or by their race. It is as if the nation has become close-minded to the fact that we were all created equal to each other in God’s eyes. We all use our free will in different ways. Some for good reasons and some for not so good reasons, but the reason it is called “free will” is because He intended for us to use it “freely.” The greatest judgment we will ever face is the one that Pay at a Time Victoria ’’Vicky” Simmons vsimmonsS4@gmail.com 'act that it takes a lot to put on an event of this magni tude. The committee deserves a big round of applause and pat on the back. We begin to panic at the office when our email goes down and while it has been giving us trouble for several weeks now, it was down all day Monday and part of Tuesday. We can hardly func tion without email because we depend on our readers and advertisers to email things to us. That is why I post my personal email under my name so hopefully, if the one at work quits, then you can send it to me. We get large files of pic tures and ads sometimes and therefore, our allotted amount of space had to be increased to accommodate that volume. Hopefully, the problem is now permanently resolved for us. We apologize if you tried to email us something and it would not go through. It really was out of our hands. Believe me you are no more frustrated about it than we have been lately and espe cially Monday which is when we get the majority of emails. Thanks to Beverly Dawson at PSTEL for working with us to get the issue resolved. Wishing you and yours a very blessed week. Enjoy the festivities and have some fun. We intend to do the same! From Moo To You Abigail ”Abby” Adams abbyadams@pstel.net will happen after our souls have departed our bodies, but many of us have forgot ten this and take it upon our selves to sometimes “make a mountain out of a mole hill.” A piece of personal informa tion gets out about a person and like the game of “tele phone” played in school, by the time it has made it around the circle the infor mation is so misconstrued it could possibly be about a completely different person all together. Will you use your free will to spend your time wasted on passing judgment on other people or will you use it making yourself better in not only the eyes of society, but also the eyes of God? In the end His judgment is the only one that will matter. published every week by Crawford Publishing, Our Staff Floyd Buford - President Victoria ’Vicky” Simmons - GM/Publisher vsimmons54@gmaiLcom or byronbuzz@pstel.net Abigail Adams - News Reporter/Editor’s Assistant Kelli Johnson- Marketing Executive Robbie Robertson - Distribution Carey Lee - Sports Photography Trenesia Y. Stubbs, Charles Cook, Nancy Gibbs, Billy Powell, Angie Carr, Jeff Cook, Wade Yoder, Dan Gatlyn, James Earnhardt Robert Tharpe, Rev. James Snyder, Spencer Price - Contributing Columnists Our Policies Deadlines are Noon on Friday prior to issue. 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