DEAR TO BOAST OR NOT TO BOAST: Arrogance is letting your pride get out of control. Being proud of your school, a sibling, or a specific accomplishment is not necessarily a bad thing. Only when it takes over is when pride turns into arrogance. So if you’re going to be boasting any anything, let it be Jesus Christ!

DEAR STRUGGLING SELF: Let’s see what scripture has to say about this topic. 1 Samuel 16:7 states, “But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Remember that it is on God we need to seek approval from, not society.

From The Christian Chronicle

TULSA, OKLA. - ‘I believe we want the same thing,” Francis Chan told a packed arena at the Tulsa Fairgrounds. “I see this fire coming from this denom — do you even call it a denomination?”

“No,” came scattered shouts from among the nearly 5,000 souls assembled for the annual Tulsa Workshop.

A few moments later, Chan asked the crowd what they call themselves.

“Church!” they yelled back.

“OK, yeah!” Chan said, enthusiastically. “That’s a good word!”

Chan, a California minister, sought-after speaker and bestselling author of books including “Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God,” was a keynoter at the workshop, sponsored by the Memorial Drive Church of Christ in Tulsa. Terry Rush, senior minister for the church and the workshop’s director, told the crowd that credit for booking Chan went to Wes Woodell, who met Chan while working with the Lake Merced Church of Christ in San Francisco.

As Chan took the stage to deliver the first of his two keynotes, some audience members stood and applauded.

The attention made him uncomfortable. He cited 1 Corinthians, a letter the apostle Paul begins by urging church members to stop claiming loyalty to individual preachers and focus on unity in Christ.

Too often, churches aren’t known for unity — or for being courageous, Chan said. Instead, they are “divided and terrified” by the challenges they face.

When Christ returns, “I want to be found furious,” he said, and urged the believers to “walk fearlessly and united.”

One of those believers, Bill Detherage, said that he and his wife found Chan’s talks “challenging, yet inspirational, scriptural, and delivered with an obvious awe of God and love for the Lord.” Detherage, a member of the Broken Arrow Church of Christ in Oklahoma, said his work schedule makes it difficult to attend the lectures, but “I am glad I made the time to go.”

Though Chan doesn’t attend a Church of Christ, “he has come out very strongly on baptism,” said James Nored, a minister for the Grapevine Church of Christ in Texas, who also spoke at the workshop.

Though Churches of Christ in the U.S. are declining in membership, an increasing number of influential authors — including Chan — are discussing the importance of baptism, the Lord’s Supper and other Bible-based practices that Churches of Christ observe, Nored told attendees.

“It makes you think that maybe God is up to something,” Nored said.

Another attendee, Heather Thornton, said that the workshop challenged her to stop holding on “to the familiar at the cost of what God might be directing us to that is greater.”

“How often do we look at the supposed ‘ridiculous’ moves of faith that others make and tell them to be careful or to not be so crazy with their faith?” asked Thorton, a member of the Memorial Drive church. “In view of heaven, those ‘crazy’ lives are the ones that really make sense.”

Woodell also spoke at the workshop, alongside Lynn Stringfellow. Both work with Campus Ministry United, a nationwide effort to plant campus ministries. The Park Plaza Church of Christ in Tulsa supports the work.

“A new day has risen in the church,” Stringfellow said after the workshop. “Chan woke up a sleeping lion. He spoke to the heart of what we call the Church of Christ — and things will never be the same.”

DEAR CONSTANTLY CHANGING: God is very much aware of our attitudes. So we need to make sure and do a better job at not letting them get the best of us. Look at the big picture of things and find your middle ground to stay balanced. Focus on God when the going gets tough no matter how difficult the situation. Immerse yourself in the word of God each day and yearn to be closer to Him. For depending on our one true God is the only way we are able to be content in all circumstances.

DEAR CHANGED: Show your loved ones that you are living a better lifestyle by your actions and not just your words. Let them be able to observe proof of your changed behavior and attitude in your everyday life.

By Lynn McMillon

Despite her newfound celebrity status, Missy Robertson is decidedly down-to-earth.

Marriage to Jason “Jase” Robertson made her an integral part of the Robertson clan, stars of the megahit reality show “Duck Dynasty” on the A&E Network. The series films six days per week, and Missy is often seen helping her mother-in-law, “Miss Kay,” and sister-in-law Korie expand the women’s line of the family business — Duck Commander/Buck Commander.

Like her husband and three brothers-in-law, Missy Robertson grew up in a strong Christian environment in West Monroe, La., where she has attended the White’s Ferry Road Church of Christ all her life. Her father, Larry West, took the family on many of his well-known “We Care” evangelistic crusades.

For 13 years, Missy attended Monroe-based Ouachita Christian School, where her mother, Peggy, was a teacher. All three of Missy and Jase’s children attend the school, where older son Reed plays football and baseball. Younger son Cole plays baseball, and daughter Mia is in third grade.

Active in church activities, Missy also is involved in the Ch-Yo-Ca church youth camp, where she serves as crafts director. She cites faith and family as the most important aspects of her life.

What challenges does the fame of “Duck Dynasty” present to your marriage?

We have a very strong marriage. There’s not a whole lot that has gotten to us in our 22 years. I think it’s because of the way we were raised and because of our faith.

It’s very rare that a couple like Phil and Kay would have four boys and all of them be married to their original wives for as many years as they have been.

And, of course, my parents have been married to only each other. So, when we got married, both Jase and I knew it was for life and for eternity.

Of course, when you’re getting married at 19 and 20, who can anticipate anything? Not that we haven’t had challenges, but there’s never been a question that we weren’t going to be together for the rest of our lives.

People actually target him, thinking “he’s going to be mine one day.” But they don’t know about our faith in God, and that is not an option for us. Truly, we are still highly in love with each other.

He still makes my heart skip a beat.

What do your children think about all the attention?

Our kids have done great with it. But it is definitely a day-to-day challenge because they are also on social networks. I have to monitor what the world is tweeting to them, what they’re putting on their Facebook walls and make sure that they are responding appropriately. We have many talks in our house about how to handle situations.

One thing about the Robertson family — there is nothing that is taboo to talk about. I wasn’t raised that way, but they definitely were. Everything is on the table. You have a problem, we’re going to lay it out, and we’re going talk about it. And nobody’s going to bed until it’s ironed out.

We have a lot of meetings in the late-night hours at our house because our children are our No. 1 priority. If we get famous and rich and lose our kids, it was for nothing.

Do you attend church regularly? 

Yes, we do. A large part of our lives is involved in our church family. That’s not just something we say. It’s not just a card that we punch on Sunday morning. We’re very involved in each other’s lives as brothers and sisters in Christ.

How has celebrity affected your involvement in the church?

We are still very involved. We’re not there quite as often as we would like to be.

I feel like, though, because I’ve been there my entire life — Jason’s been there most of his life — that’s home.

White’s Ferry Road is home. We feel very comfortable, and people are comfortable with us.

I’ve sung on the worship team there for over 20 years. I miss it when I’m not there because I want to sing, and I love to worship.

But we’ve kind of brought a new energy, I think, to Sunday mornings, because of the fame. People want to come and see what’s going on at our church. Why would “Duck Dynasty” people go to that church? They’re interested in that.

So, if there’s any way that we can bring people to hear the Gospel of Jesus — because at White’s Ferry Road you’re going to hear the Gospel every Sunday — and if we can bring that to any visitors, we don’t mind that at all. People are driving from all over the country to come to our church to see what’s going on.

Has all of this given new opportunities to share the Gospel in places and with people that you otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to speak to?

Definitely! Jase has been traveling and speaking for several years. Phil has been doing that a lot longer than Jase, of course. But that’s because of the fame of Duck Commander, starting with Phil on the videos years ago, and his commanding presence and his knowledge of the Bible. People wanted to hear that.

Then it grew when “Benelli Presents Duck Commander” (the predecessor to “Duck Dynasty”) came out and they saw Jase. Now Phil and Jase are overwhelmed with so many requests. So it’s just grown over the past few years.

They have always had that desire and that skill. Now they’ve just been able to show the world who they really are, whose they really are and what they stand for.

How did the TV series develop? 

Phil was doing commercials for the Benelli shotgun company. They had a script, but when the cameras came on, Phil said, “A shotgun, in my opinion, must have three things — boom, boom, boom.”

That was nowhere on their script, and they said, “OK, that’s a wrap.”

That commercial was up for many awards on the Outdoor Channel. They said, “I think we might be able to do a reality show.” That was the first step.

Of course, they did the first reality-type show on the Outdoor Channel, and the first year, it just zoomed straight to the top. And we swept their awards that year. They even had to make new criteria for how many awards one show could actually win after that because we pretty much took all the categories and all the fan favorites.

We did that for three seasons, and then it caught the attention of the larger networks.

Is “Duck Dynasty” true to life? 

We are able to stay true to ourselves. There is an element in these guys from their raising by Phil and Kay — they are so self-confident. They are not arrogant. They are just very self-confident. They don’t care what anybody else thinks.

And I can say this about Jase: He does not care what anyone else thinks about the decisions that he makes.

And I think that is a huge element in the show, because so many people want to please the masses in these sitcoms and reality shows. They want the ratings — what should I say to get good ratings?

This family doesn’t think like that. Jason, I know, does not think like that. We are going to be true to ourselves first.

We didn’t know if the show was going to work. We sat around in a meeting with the Benelli company years ago and said, “Wait a minute — reality shows? They live on conflict, dysfunction and trying to get a rise out of each other, for the cameras. We are Christian people. We try to do the opposite. So, we don’t see how this is going to work.”

I’m not going to say that I am a prophet, but I just had a feeling that the audience was going to love the Robertsons — because they are not like anybody else I’ve ever been around in my life. They’re just not.

What is your goal with “Duck Dynasty?”

This has not been our goal in life — to have a TV show and to be rich and famous. I never saw that happening. I said I don’t mean to be a prophet. I felt some things, but I never saw this happening.

Now that it’s happened, we realize — and we realized when it was happening — this is something that God is doing for us and is doing through us. This is not because of us.

I feel a very weighty responsibility in this — sometimes overwhelming — where I feel like, I hope that we’re doing our father in heaven justice with this show. Because I want to make sure that, through the things God has given us, we can glorify him, we can lead people to him, we can show the sacrifice that he made with his son and how appreciative we are of that fact.

That’s the most important thing to us. And if it gets to where we’ve lost that perspective, please Lord, take this away, because we do not want this for us. We want it for him. So far, I truly feel like that we are doing some good for him. And we do hear that quite often.

What else would you like to say to your fellow Christians?

I want to say this for the Christian community — and that’s basically who’s reading The Christian Chronicle. We get a little criticism from the Christian community because they feel like we’re not saying enough on the show about Jesus, God and church. But we’re not here to preach. We want to show Jesus.

I hope the Christian community will understand that God is pushing this train, and we are not hiding that fact at all.

We’ve got to make sure that we are approachable by the world, and I think that the men — all of their lives — have done a great job in that.

Our show appeals to the world. Once we appeal to the world, we can attract them to Jesus, and that means being in the world, but not of the world, just like Jesus said. I hope folks will just be patient with us and really trust that God’s using us in this way.

DEAR HURT: Typically we share the deepest stuff with those closest to us because those are the people we go through life with. They are the ones that know all the good and the bad. Whenever we do get hurt by the ones we love most it is vital that we establish open communication with the person as well as God during that time. Usually, people tend to let their anger build up inside them and explode when it gets to be too much. Don’t let this happen! Instead, be honest and love others even when it’s not the easy thing to do.

DEAR DISAPPOINTED: For everyone falls short of the glory of God. Do not be discouraged, but instead seek him out and pray for wisdom. Go to people who you look up to in the church and in your family when making tough decisions.

God created humans beautifully and intricately, but sometimes parts of the human anatomy can cause more harm than good. Appendixes might need to be removed, and at times wisdom teeth, if they are causing problems which could lead to more serious health risks.

Like most people her age, Kritz was experiencing problems with her wisdom teeth and had an operation to have them surgically removed over spring break. The effect of the painkillers administered by the dentist brought out an emotional side in the girl. Just as so many have done after “David After Dentist” went viral, her reactions post-operation were captured on film.

“They just wanted to be a part of my body,” Kritz said in the video, with tears streaming down her face in the backseat of her car and clutching her newly removed teeth. “But I rejected them.”

Kritz’s tears over her “dead” wisdom teeth cause her family to be torn between hilarity and compassion as they attempt to comfort their devastated daughter.

“I just remember wanting to stop crying the whole time but I couldn’t,” Kritz said on Facebook after receiving so many reactions to her video.

To date, the video has garnered over 800,000 views on YouTube. Kritz was featured on Good Morning America, Oklahoma’s News Channel 4 and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

“You are such a brave young lady for raising awareness to the plight of wisdom teeth everywhere,” username TodaysCitizen commented on YouTube.

Kritz is feeling much better since the operation, and is finding her new fame almost as humorous as her video.

“OC’s President John deSteiguer emailed me about the video,” Kritz tweeted. “Now I am truly famous.”

To see the original video, click here.

To see Abbie on Jimmy Kimmel, click here.

From The Christian Chronicle

Jane Johnson was reading her Bible one evening when she came to God’s blessing after Jesus’ baptism: “This is my Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

She stopped.

“Why aren’t the words of God printed in color?” she asked her husband.

Scott Johnson, the preacher for the East Faulkner Church of Christ in El Dorado, Ark., didn’t know, so he searched online.

He learned that the redletter edition of the Bible, which highlights the words of Christ, was copyrighted and published in 1901. But he found little mention of special treatment for the words of God in Scripture.

That night, the minister said he had an experience akin to God placing the plan for the temple in David’s mind in 1 Samuel.

“I don’t want to call it a vision, but … in my mind was placed this plan,” he said, to color God’s words in blue and the mentions of the Holy Spirit in gold, in Bibles that people could use to better understand the Trinity. “You can’t color the words of the Holy Spirit in gold, or the entire Bible would be gold.”

Scott Johnson got to work. He copyrighted his idea of the BRG (Blue, Red and Gold) Bible. He secured a Microsoft Word version of the King James Bible — the only version in the public domain. Then he began the study-intensive process of adding blue and gold to the redletter edition. He also added red underlining to messianic prophecies and blue underlining to the words of angels.

“All dialogue of a divine creature is in some type of color,” Johnson said.

It took two years. Recently, WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson, released an e-version of the BRG Bible through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

The project was not easy — and often made the Johnsons wonder if they were the right people for the job, Jane Johnson said. “We asked God, ‘Why did you give this to us?’” Jane said. “We’re just these little bitty people on a little bitty farm at a little bitty church.”

The Johnsons live on a 33-acre farm in Bernice, La., about 30 miles south of El Dorado. Despite the challenging nature of the project, Scott and Jane said they’re convinced the coloring of the words will help readers see and understand the Trinity better.

The colors “make it easy to spot elements such as messianic prophecies and the spoken words of God, Jesus Christ and angels,” said Pete Nikolai, director of publishing services at Thomas Nelson. In this way, it “helps busy Bible readers quickly find what they are looking for.”

Sales of the e-Bible will determine whether or not Thomas Nelson prints it.

Scott Johnson’s hours in Bible study and in front of the computer for this project are in some ways his education in divinity: the East Faulkner church is his first paid preaching work. His career was mostly spent as an entrepreneur.

The couple operated a bed and breakfast and a pancake house. Later, they marketed a sweet potato pancake mix, created by Jane.

Scott sums up the unexpected trajectory of his career this way: “I like to say we’ve gone from selling physical bread to providing spiritual bread.”
To see samples of the BRG Bible, go to BRGBible.com or contact Scott Johnson at brgbible@gmail.com.