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4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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4forFRIDAY December 4, 2020

I love to share good reads, learnings, listens, and reviews with friends and followers. So, thanks for joining me on my 4forFRIDAY BLOG. Each week, the 4forFRIDAY offers recommended Reads, Listens, Learnings, and Reviews, only for your enjoyment. Thanks Again!

A Great Little Joint: 101 Bagels

Bobby and I enjoyed coffee and brunch as we met at this little gem in Duluth, GA. He enjoyed what looked like a huge and amazing omelet, and I stuck with the blueberry bagel – YUM! I later got hungry and went for the kill with a blueberry muffin warm with real butter… bless my heart!

A Solid BBQ Joint in Lawrenceville: Foggy Bottom BBQ

The pulled pork and the chicken were awesome! Jenny enjoyed the sliders. The stew was good, but not great. I’d definitely return.

A Really Good Read: Preparing for Christmas

Rohr is an insanely brilliant writer, and with his unique perspective on the incarnation, he writes these short devotions with wit and wisdom. He is a Franciscan Monk, so if you are hung up on orthodoxy, avoid this one. “Advent is not about a sentimental waiting for the Baby Jesus,” Richard Rohr asserts. Advent is a time to focus our expectations and anticipation on “the adult Christ,” who challenges us to empty ourselves, to lose ourselves, to surrender. Rohr’s Scriptural reflections for Advent are the perfect preparation for the Christmas season.

A Netflix Series Worth Watching all Four Seasons: THE CROWN

Okay, so I might have lost the old man card. But as this series went on, I was captivated by how the English Monarchy could be so resilient. I think you’ll enjoy it!

A Family Health Essential: Finger Pulse Oximeter

ACCURATE AND RELIABLE – Accurately determine your SpO2 (blood oxygen saturation levels), pulse rate, and pulse strength in 10 seconds and display it conveniently on a large digital LED display.

A Quote from John Piper

“The “age-old enslavement of the fallen human heart” takes three forms: self-deification (“I will be my own god”), self-definition (“I will define my own essential identity”), and self-determination (“I will decide my own truth and my own morality, without deference to any authority outside myself”). “

My Spiritual Journals, Power Routines are now available at the Sugar Hill Church Store and Amazon. Instigating the habits of Gratitude, Scripture Reading, Journaling, and Guided Prayer is a powerful way to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF YOUR LIFE! Pick up your copies of POWER ROUTINES at Sugar Hill Church or Amazon.

The Weekday Podcast is a 5 minutes/day, 5 days/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. New episodes are available Monday – Friday on the Sugar Hill Church APP or at WeekdayPodcast.com

Go in Peace, AChuck

Advent Meditation Day 2

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A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Advent Meditation #2

A BABY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Have you ever read Bret Harte’s short story The Luck of Roaring Camp? Roaring Camp was the meanest, toughest mining town in the entire West. More murders, more thefts—it was a terrible place inhabited entirely by men and one woman who tried to serve them all. Her name was Cherokee Sal. She died while giving birth.

The men took the baby and put her in a box with some old rags under her. When they looked at her, they decided it didn’t look right. So they sent one of the men 80 miles to buy a rosewood cradle. He brought it back, and they put the rags and the baby in the rosewood cradle. The rags didn’t look right there. So they sent another of their number to Sacramento, and he came back with some beautiful silk and lace blankets. They put the baby, wrapped with those blankets, in the rosewood cradle.

It looked fine until someone happened to notice the floor was filthy. So these hardened, tough men got down on their hands and knees, and with their hardened hands, they scrubbed the floor until it was spotless. Of course, what that did was make the walls, ceiling, and curtainless windows look absolutely terrible. So they washed the walls and ceiling, and they put curtains on the windows. Things were beginning to look almost as they should, but of course, they had to give up a lot of their fighting because the baby slept a lot, and babies can’t sleep during a brawl. So the whole temperature of Roaring Camp seemed to go down.

They used to take her out and set her by the mine’s entrance in her rosewood cradle so they could see her when they came up. Then somebody noticed a dirty place, so they planted flowers and made a very nice garden there. It looked quite beautiful. They would bring her shiny little stones and things they would find in the mine, but their hands looked so dirty when they put their hands down next to hers. Pretty soon, the general store was all sold out of soap, shaving gear, cologne, and those kinds of things. Before long, the men were a totally different bunch of guys—the baby changed everything.

Micah 7:7
As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me.

Emmanuel, God with us.

AChuck

Advent Meditations Day One

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Thanks for joining me for DAY ONE of my Advent Meditations.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,”
says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was,
and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”
Revelation 1:8

\Discover Peace Today, AChuck

4forFRIDAY with Chuck Allen

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4forFRIDAY November 27, 2020

I love to share good reads, learnings, listens, and reviews with friends and followers. So, thanks for joining me on my 4forFRIDAY BLOG. Each week, the 4forFRIDAY offers recommended Reads, Listens, Learnings, and Reviews, only for your enjoyment. Thanks Again!

A Christmas Event with a Twist: BLUE CHRISTMAS

Christmas can be difficult for so many people. Just the thought of not having a loved one with you through the holidays or trying to work your way out of grief and anxiety is challenging. That’s what “Blue Christmas” is a perfect, comfortable evening for you to join me at Sugar Hill Church in our Chapel at 7:00 pm. Music, Communion, Prayer, and Encouragement. November 29, 2020.

A Really Fun and Great Restaurant: Blue Top

I mentioned this restaurant a couple of years ago, but here is a reminder about Blue Top in Chamblee’s revived little downtown. The food truck turned indoor/outdoor restaurant with fire pits, and the kid-friendly area is so good. I went with the comfort food sloppy-joe with queso and house-made chips. I think you’ll love its casual feel and comfort food.

A Furiously Paced Novel from Brad Thor: Use of Force

Another Scott Harvath series novel from Thor that I enjoyed for mindless, fun reading. As a storm rages across the Mediterranean Sea, a terrifying distress call is made to the Italian Coast Guard. Days later, a body washes ashore. Identified as a high-value terrorism suspect (who had disappeared three years prior), his name sends panic through the Central Intelligence Agency. Where was he headed? What was he planning? And could he be connected to the “spectacular attack” they have feared all summer? In a race against time, the CIA taps an unorthodox source to get answers: Navy SEAL turned covert counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath. Hired on a black contract, Harvath will provide the deniability the United States needs, while he breaks every rule along the way.

Awesome BBQ and Even Better Brunswick Stew: DAS Barbecue

The pork (Boston Butt) is fantastic, but I fell in love with the old school ground Brunswick stew. I felt like I had been transported back to the old Gil’s BBQ in Holly Hill, Fl as a kid! Man, that stuff was so good!

A Fun Family Card Game we Love: Hand and Foot

We play this game a lot at home but had eight players at Thanksgiving, and it is so fun. If you’re like me and know nothing about card games, this is for you!

A Quote from T.S. Eliot

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

My Spiritual Journals, Power Routines are now available at the Sugar Hill Church Store and Amazon. Instigating the habits of Gratitude, Scripture Reading, Journaling, and Guided Prayer is a powerful way to CHANGE THE TRAJECTORY OF YOUR LIFE! Pick up your copies of POWER ROUTINES at Sugar Hill Church or Amazon.

The Weekday Podcast is a 5 minutes/day, 5 days/week Cup of Encouragement, straight from the Scriptures. New episodes are available Monday – Friday on the Sugar Hill Church APP or at WeekdayPodcast.com

Go in Peace, AChuck

Thanksgiving Meditation – Day Three

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WeekdayMeditation.com with Chuck Allen

Welcome to Day Three of the Thanksgiving, Weekday Meditations. There should be something deeply spiritual about Thanks | Giving. Will you take 7 minutes and ponder what you are grateful for with me?

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
― Seneca

“It is no surprise that Jesus begins all his parables this way; with a seed, lilies, a camel, wheat, a pearl, a candle. He obviously wanted us to look closely at this world, not some other one. It is here and now, all around us in the most ordinary things, that we find the Kingdom (which he reminded us, “is here”), and that we are in the divine presence.”
–Terry Hershey

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build
to overcome evil and welcome good.”
― Maya Angelou

Happy Thanksgiving Eve,
AChuck

A Thanksgiving Meditation

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Day One of a Thanksgiving Meditation with Chuck Allen

Each day this Thanksgiving week, I’ll be providing a brief video or audio meditation. Each meditation is about five-minutes and will hopefully encourage you through this first holiday week of 2020. In a year filled with strife, fatigue, anxiety, and fear, I thought a bit of encouragement might be an encouragement.

I’ve provided two options for the same meditation—one in short video form and audio-only. Have a blessed day and choose peace as we celebrate this uniquely American holiday.

AUDIO ONLY FILE

Good Morning God!
You are ushering in another day,
untouched and freshly new.
So here I am to ask you, God,
if You’ll renew me too.

Forgive the many errors that I made yesterday
and let me try again dear God
to walk closer in Your way.

But Lord, I am well aware,
I can’t make it on my own.
So take my hand and hold it tight,
for I cannot walk alone.

Go in Peace,
AChuck

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