Fathers Day - Celebrate Champion Fathers

G.H. "Dick" Law, George Law, J.B. Johnson -Champions provide for their families

Father Fletcher Law, son Graham Law, Grandfather George Law got to celebrate a state championship together

We are approaching Father’s Day.

Mother’s Day is almost a sacred day in the church calendar.   People wax poetic for Mother’s Day.

People are quick to point out the sorry Fathers on Father’s Day.

This blog is about GOOD FATHERS.

George Law my champion

Other blogs will talk about the dreadful state of father’s.  I am sympathetic to that.  Today only about 30% of school kid’s live with both parents.  Many children we find are by necessity being raised by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts uncles or friends.  These children might not have the  ideal family situation but they have people pulling and supporting them, thank the Lord, anyway. Many times kids children with poor home lives today do not even have a good model family with a father in the neighborhood to observe.

Once at a conference about youth I heard the speaker say deridingly that a neighborhood of traditional intact families was not true; “There is no such thing as a ‘Leave It To Beaver’ family-never was. That is a myth. Nobody had that!”

My friend (Cason Farr) from my childhood from church, elementary school, and my high school football team whispered out loud “We did”.  And my friend was right.

We had great families and it was not by accident, luck, societal standing or ethnic group.

We had “Champions”.

What is a champion?  Isn't this a sports metaphor? No it’s biblical.

champions have a heart to compete

And as I said when I preached my Father’s funeral my family had one - a great champion - our father George Law.

What is a champion in biblical talk?

A champion represents, protects, provides and leads a people in the way they should go.  Yes there are good and bad champions.  

My adult son’s favorite childhood bed-time story was David and Goliath.

Goliath the giant Philistine was the champion for evil.

David the very young man (probably in his early teens)

was the champion for God’s people of Israel.

Worlds collided.  You know the story.

The giant Goliath was slain by a slingshot and beheaded by the small youth who had no chance.

No, the youth David was not helped by The Almighty because of the misguided notion that “God helps those who help themselves”.

The greater champion was David’s champion who delivered the victory for young David.

The champion David was a man “a man after the Lord’s own heart” as we read about  David and the Lord's relationship in Acts 13:22.

This boy man David was a champion because  he knew to serve the God of Israel.  Was David flawed? Sure he was.  But as the old time Methodist evangelist Sam P. Jones said “David was a great sinner, but he was a first-class repenter.”

David knew there there was a God in Israel and trusted and followed Him.

If you will read Psalm 51 David knew he had a Redeemer-Savior.

David’s champion was the Lord and a trust in a coming Messiah.

At a Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s meeting I once heard the University of Georgia football strength coach Dave Van Halanger talk about his young son’s anxiety in hearing the often repeated command "to follow Jesus".  The boy asked his father with a worried face and tears how could he follow a Jesus he could not see as that was taught in Sunday School.

Dave told him from the Good Book in 1 Corinthians 11:1(NIV)

"Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."

Dave then put it in other words to be understood by his troubled young son.

 “Son, you follow me, I’ll follow Jesus.”        

You have a champion no matter your gender, race, income or status.  We all have a champion who defeated death, hell and the grave for you.

His Name is Jesus Christ.

Lord send a revival now we plead.

Lift Jesus Up!

Fletcher

Gainesville Times Article On The Good News at Noon Revival and Facility Expansion

Here is an article from The Times about our ministry expansion and our revival that was held in June.

Gainesville Times article on Good News at Noon 

Revival and Facility Expansion 

 Good News Pastor Fletcher Law and Shelter Director Thomas Ramirez

                         

Add Here is our dining room that would be converted to a worship area.caption

 Local shelter kicks off revival with plans for expansion
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/100612/#.U5WUVZr18-s.facebook

Carly Sharec
csharec@gainesvilletimes.com
770-718-3432
June 9, 2014

The land beyond the Good News at Noon shelter is overgrown with rundown buildings, but Pastor Fletcher Law sees great potential.
“Hopefully, we’re going to get ... pretty much this whole block,” Law said, standing in a giant warehouse. He didn’t know the square footage, but it rests on 2.58 acres that now belong to the nonprofit.
“We’re hoping this will be a children’s ministry, a children’s gym,” he said about the building, located just down the road from Melrose Community apartments. “The children, they’re over here all the time. They’re over here late at night.”

This picture tells us why  and wherewe are in ministry

Good News at Noon spent around $250,000 to purchase the land and the building; they need to raise around $100,000 to settle that debt, and then just as much to complete the renovations, Law said.
Along with a children’s gym for the youth ministry, plans include a community garden and a fitness trail.
“We need everything, I think,” Law said. “We need to rebuild what we’ve got, too. It’s ancient. I bet that building might be 80 years old.”
Expansion plans have been in the works for some time, but Law hopes the shelter’s first-ever revival, taking place this week through Wednesday, will encourage community members to learn more about the shelter’s mission and the plans for the future.
“Obviously, it’s going to give us more space to work with our children,” said On-Site Director Thomas Ramirez. “(And) to work with our homeless in order to educate them so they can get a better quality of life.”
He’s watched some of the children grow up, and now sees them working in various jobs in the community.
“It makes me feel good,” he said. “This is fruit from Good News at Noon. The longer God allows me to live, I’m going to keep on doing the same thing.”
They don’t have specific fundraising efforts in place, but leaders are getting the word out through social media and other public avenues, including this week’s revival, which will feature “old-fashioned evangelist” Ray Lowe from Thomaston.
Meals will be served at 7 p.m. nightly, with music beginning at 7:30 and the service beginning around 8 p.m.
“It’s very exciting,” Lowe said. “We’re going to deal just with salvation. Of course, for a lot of people here, they’re not saved.”
Good News founder Gene Beckstein began feeding hungry people in 1987. The nonprofit has grown to provide free meals at lunch and dinner every day, as well as a men’s shelter and the youth ministry.
“We try to lift Jesus up in both word and deed,” Law said. “We share Jesus.”

Shelter Director Thomas Ramirez shows shelter plans.

Good News at Noon, 979 Davis Street, Gainesville,GA 30503
Mail to PO Box 1577

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/100612/