March in Tennessee

Can you believe March in TENNESSEE? This picture is of the blooms on one of our trees beside our home in Antioch. Today was another record setting weather day with a high in the mid 80"s. Many people come to Tennessee in the fall to head to the mountains to see the changing of the colors in October. But, if you want to see color and things come alive, come to TENNESSEE in the spring.

Luke 12:26-28 "26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!"

Wonderful Tribute

The Mother of a dear friend and former co-worker and employee past away this past week. Mrs. Maxine Mathis was a wonderful Godly woman of strong faith and will. I had not seen Mrs. Maxine in quite some years after leaving that area of the country. She was a woman of strong values and morals and held to Matthew 22:36-40

"36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Mrs. Maxine loved God and she loved her neighbors! This is a tribute that her Niece Tracie wrote for the funeral service and it is a glimpse into the heart of Mrs. Maxine.

March 22, 2007

Last night as I lay in bed trying to sleep my thoughts kept going back several years to the time when my Aunt Maxine’s knees wore completely out and she could no longer walk. It sounds kinda strange me thinking of her knees lying there but it was her knees I thought of.
I believe her knees started wearing out when she had to chase after her two children: Jimmie Sue & Johnny Max as they were growing up. I also remember her chasing after me which was no easy task. I thought of a time when she wore her knees out taking care of numerous foster children after she and Uncle Jim lovingly opened their home to needy children. She wore her knees out working at Vacation Bible School every year even after Stephen, Jammie and Katie were born.
I remember wearing her knees out walking many, many miles knocking on doors while on church campaigns. Those knees really got a work out trying to bring others to the Lord. She also gave those knees a severe work out at Western Ky Youth Camp every summer. Keeping her cabin 2 girls in line while at the same time earning the title of Shaving Cream Queen!
Aunt Maxine wore her knees out driving the old Blue Goose church bus, picking up kids from one end of the county to the other. Her knees really took a beating each year at Christmas when she so lovingly played Santa to any needy child that wanted a little love and kindness. She wore her knees out when she worked tirelessly with the Prison Ministry trying to reach out to any lost soul. She wore her knees out bringing others the good news.
In her later years she wore her knees out taking care of Granny . She stayed by her side even when her knees were almost gone. Staying by her side until God was ready for Granny.
My Aunt Maxine never complained. No one knew that her knees had worn out until she just couldn’t walk any more.

But now she is on her knees before the throne of God with knees that are no longer worn out. Her knees are brand new!
I have been so very blessed to have had My Aunt Maxine in my life. We have all been blessed I just pray that some day my knees will wear out for the Lord too!

We have all been blessed for knowing Maxine Mathis.

Nathan Stubblefield

NATHAN STUBBLEFIELD
Nathan Stubblefield, born in 1860, was an eccentric melon farmer from Murray, KY. He was a voracious reader and styled himself as a self-taught scientist and inventor. As early as 1885, he had invented several different wireless telephone devices. And wireless telephony is, of course, for all intents and purposes, radio. This was years before Marconi got official credit for inventing radio.
(Even without Stubblefield, Marconi still wouldn't be the true inventor of radio - Nikola Tesla invented it before Marconi. Marconi, in fact, used Tesla's own patents as research materials. Tesla, in turn, was among the curious onlookers in attendance at Stubblefield's 1902 wireless demonstration in Philadelphia.)
In 1892 Stubblefield performed the world's first wireless broadcast in Murray, broadcasting speech and music. Later he gave a very successful demonstration on the Potomac in Washington, D.C., yet still success eluded him without proper marketing.
Stubblefield was very secretive and mysterious about his inventions, and only became more and more so as years progressed. He entered into a business partnership with a company that promised to market his wireless telephone but instead let it languish, suppressed his patent, and paid him only $800 and a trunk full of worthless stock certificates.
Stubblefield died a crazed hermit in his shack in the wilderness. He destroyed all his prototypes, fearful of his inventions being stolen again by big-city slickers. He was buried in Stubblefield Cemetery in Murray, KY.
In the years since, many important voices have given Stubblefield the credit he is due, but the history books still have yet to include him. To this day there are debunkers who try to side-step Stubblefield's pioneering work by claiming that his inventions only utilized induction transmission, not radio transmission. This is not true, and even if it were, the term "radio" had a vaguer definition in those days, effectively referring to any form of wireless transmission, regardless of the means. Any idiot with common sense, then or now, can tell you that if it broadcasts wirelessly, it is radio. The word radio was originally a contrived term meant to supplant the slightly more mystical term "ether" that had been in vogue.

Beautiful Tennessee Places

Tennessee has some beautiful places. I tell my wife that some of the prettiest places are on golf courses. It just happened to be that we were in Paris, Tennessee visiting and I went with my Uncle Sam, yes my real Uncle Sam and we played golf at Paris Landing State Park Golf Course over the weekend. The leaves were changing, the colors of spring were starting to come open and the grass was turning from the winter brown to the light green of spring. It just happened that I was on the cart path beside the 15th fairway and over in the trees and scrub grass were four (4) turkeys wandering and grazing. The turkeys noticed us, but made no rush to run off and hide. We were probably just another cart of so many they had already seen before we came along. Most of the State Park golf courses in Tennessee that I have visited will offer something similar in the way of wildlife entering the courses and letting us see them walking free and not afraid of people. We are fortunate to live in an area blessed by such places and sites.