Getting to Know Jonathan & Michelle (Part 4)

(Note: This is a series of emails from Jonathan Jones for the members of the Maryville Church of Christ. If you received this email by mistake, or had rather not get it (fine, be that way) just send me a note and I will take you off the mailing list).

10 Random Facts About Us
1. We had our wedding rehearsal dinner in an old southern mansion where a Confederate, Civil War General was murdered (for having an affair!).



2. Our favorite television show to watch together is Smallville (A show about how the young Kal-El, a.k.a. Clark Kent, becomes the Superman we all know and love).




3. Since we have been married (two years), our television has never been on a sports network or sporting event of any kind. (Sorry, all you Vols fans!).



4. We are both one of 4 children. Jonathan has two brothers and one sister. Michelle, two sisters and one brother.



5. Our favorite place to eat is Cracker Barrel (We are pretty sure that fried chicken, pinto beans, and grits will be on the table in Heaven's banquet feast).



6. We both prayed for each other for years. We know God put us together. A girl from Denver, Colorado and a farm boy from Hampshire, TN. God completely did it!



7. Michelle is very conservative with money and hates to shop (she is a man's dream come true!).



8. Jonathan loves to play sports, but hates watching sports on television (he is a woman's dream come true!).



9. We sang to each other during our wedding. Well, Michelle sang...Jonathan tried to keep up.


10. Michelle sporadically checks her email. Jonathan checks his email daily, but with very rare exception does he ever open an email that is a "forward." (You can't begin to imagine how many "forward" emails preachers get--don't be surprised if you send me one and I never read it!).

Getting to Know Jonathan & Michelle (Part 3)

(Note: This is a series of emails from Jonathan Jones for the members of the Maryville Church of Christ. If you received this email by mistake, or had rather not get it (fine, be that way) just send me a note and I will take you off the mailing list).

Meet Our Dog, Marco

After possibly grossing out some of you (who are not down with the hunting/fishing thing) with our last "Getting to Know Jonathan & Michelle" email, we will try and appeal to the softer, gentler side with this one.

Soon after we got married, Michelle began to beg me for a dog (can any of you guys relate?). You have to understand, we grew up with lots of animals, and lots of dogs, on my family's farm. However, Dad had a strict rule...dogs belong outside (On an interesting side-note, dad has softened that rule since we left home. Mom now has an indoor German short hair named Sadie). Needless to say, I was opposed to having an indoor dog. But like Dad, I too caved into the love my life. But there was one stipulation, it had to be a dog that we both loved. I have always loved Spaniels. My favorite has been the Caviler King Charles Spaniel. So after several weeks of searching for breeders, I found a man who had a litter with only two pups left in Jackson, TN. This was right before our first Christmas as a married couple.

After returning from taking graduate classes at in Henderson, I walked into the back door that cold winter night with my big heavy coat on. Under the coat I was hiding our new little puppy. I entered the living room and "unveiled" Michelle's Christmas gift. We decided to name our pup "Marco" since we went to "Marco Island" in Florida for our honeymoon just a couple of months earlier.

Marco has a great personality and loves to play and sleep. When he plays he plays hard and when he sleeps, he sleeps hard. We came into the house one day talking and laughing and entered our bedroom to find Marco fast asleep on our bed (an absolute "no-no" in our house). When we finally roused him from his slumber, he knew he was in big trouble.

Getting to Know Jonathan & Michelle (Part 2)

(Note: This is a series of emails from Jonathan Jones for the members of the Maryville Church of Christ. If you received this email by mistake, or had rather not get it (fine, be that way) just send me a note and I will take you off the mailing list).

Both of my grandfathers were avid outdoorsmen. Don, my mom's dad, loved to trap. He once harvest two solid black coyotes. Guy, my father's dad, was the best hunter and fisherman that I've ever known. He has a large fish on his tombstone and the words "A fisher of fish, and a fisher of men" engraved on the marble headstone. He served as an elder in the church my entire life until his untimely death. He was raised on the banks of Cathey's Creek in the Hampshire community. He often went from house to house along that creek after his mother died and lived much like the mythical "Huckleberry Finn." He learned to live off the land. He trapped for foxes and coyotes, he hunted whitetail deer (in his later years) but was best known as an amazing fisherman. He fished with cane poles, new open-faced reels, and even with his hands gabbling for large catfish in the Duck River (also known as noodling).

Because of Grandpa, my dad Jonathan Sr., myself and both my brothers (Brett and Bart) are avid hunters. Even my sister, Jill, has killed her fair share of deer. In fact, she has harvested one of the biggest trophy bucks of any of us boys. We Joneses love the outdoors. I have been taught to have a great appreciation for being surrounded by the things God has made and to glorify Him because of His Creation (see Romans 1:20).

Michelle grew up fishing, too. She loves to fish. Well...really she loves to relax on the shore with a fishing pole in her hand. We love to spend our recreational time in the great outdoors.

The picture above is a 10 point buck that I harvested with a bow on my family farm last week. When I hunt, I usually go to watch the wildlife. Very rarely do I decide to actually harvest an animal. But this deer is the best that I have ever harvested with a bow. After he was down, 4 more bucks walked under my stand. As I watched these majestic creatures slowly creep through the woods at dusk I thought of the words of the ancient Pslamist, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1).

Getting to Know Jonathan and Michelle (Part 1)

(Note: This is a series of emails from Jonathan Jones for the members of the Maryville Church of Christ. If you received this email by mistake, or had rather not get it (fine, be that way) just send me a note and I will take you off the mailing list).

Before Michelle and I got married, my good friend and mentor David Shannon did our premarital counseling. He gave us a great piece of advice on being married and working with the church, "Don't be the President and first-lady of the congregation." We try to live by that advice. We don't want to be the focal point of the church--we had rather fade into the church family.
Having said that, it is true that people want to feel like they know their preacher and his wife. So in the next few weeks, I hope to write you a few personal notes to help you feel like you know us before we come to Maryville full time.
Michelle and I are about to celebrate our second wedding anniversary next week. Most people assume that we must have met at college--we didn't. In fact, I was just 3 months away from being "the big 3-0" when we were married. Although Christian college is often called "the marriage factory" it did not produce for me. In hindsight, I'm glad.
Michelle grew up in Colorado while I was working on our family's farm in Middle Tennessee. She lived three years in Dallas before moving to Spring Hill, TN to be closer to her parents (who had just recently moved here because of a job transfer). Michelle visited the worship service at Spring Hill one Sunday night. At the back of the auditorium, after most people had already left, I asked her if she would like to go get something to eat with me. She said, "I've already eaten." (Boy, did I think I was shot down!). Then she said, "...but I'll go have coffee with you." It all started with a cup of coffee (which she had, I didn't...I hate coffee). I think I had a glass of sweet tea. Well, it was the best glass of tea I ever had.

The Church Needs to Learn from the World

This is an amazing presentation about how fast technology and information is advancing in our world. There are amazing posibilities out there and frightening dangers. Too often, the church is "behind the times" on using the resources available to us for good. I am convinced that someone like the Apostle Paul would use every resource available to him (short of sin) to advance the kingdom. He said, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings" (1 Cor 9:22-23). Jesus once lamented the fact that people of the world make better uses of resources than do the children of light. Listen to Jesus words in Luke 16:8: "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." Watch this video from the perspective of the work of God's kingdom. We are not using the resources that we could be to the fullest. It is time for the sons of light to take a lesson from the sons of this world. Thanks to Bradley Thompson for pointing out this video. (If you can't see the video below here the the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZEP-xruH4).

Protected from Attacker by Jesus

The video below is a powerful example of how we should not fear those who can kill the body. A man tried to rob this elderly woman in a Wal-Mart parking lot, but the faith that she shared with him saved her...and perhaps might save him as well. Watch and be challenged. (For those of you who cannot see the video below, here is the You Tube link: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj3imy-FCPI). Thanks to Doug Burleson for pointing out this video.

Hunger & Thirst for Righteousness

It seems that kids are born loving anything with sugar. I haven't met a kid yet who doesn't like candy. But most kids don't like to eat their vegetables. Parents train their children to eat things that are good for them. After being forced to eat certain vegetables by my parents, after a while I seemed to acquire a taste for them. Once I hated broccoli, but now I intentionally order it and often crave it. I feel so much better when I eat healthy, so now I often crave healthy food.

Jesus said that our lives will be blessed if we hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt. 5:6). A hunger for spiritually good things doesn't seem to come naturally to most of us. Like the kid who wants to eat candy all the time, it seems we are born into this world with a desire for worldly pleasures and comforts. We don't naturally want the things that are good for us.

The Bible instructs us to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8). Like eating vegetables, we have to discipline ourselves to regularly start eating from the "bread of life" of Christ's teachings (John 6:35, 63). You may not like what God's word challenges you to do when you first start reading and studying it. But soon you will realize that it offers a better way of living that permanently gives satisfaction (John 10:10; 4:14).

If all you ever ate was sugar, you would eventually feel miserable. When you start eating healthy, it makes you feel so much better about life. Start seeking righteousness. It might seem restrictive and difficult at first, but soon you will develop a taste for it (cf. Heb. 6:5). After a while you will begin to crave the righteous things of God because it makes you feel so much better about yourself. As the Psalmist writes, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103).