Have you ever wondered how words or phrases in the English language originated? I know I have, and just the other day I was thinking about the phrase, “don’t be such a worry wart.” What?

Interestingly enough “worry wart” has an interesting meaning. LOL! According to word-detective.com, wart in the old English referred to an annoying person. Thus when paired with the word “worry” it basically refers to a person who annoys those around him\her with constant loud worrying over nearly everything. A more modern phrase refers to such people as a “Debbie downer” — someone who just sucks the joy out of life and is always searching that one bit of gloomy news. Remember Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh?

The Bible has some encouraging verses for “worry warts.”

Matthew 6:31-34

³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

So if you find yourself beginning to worry about what life is throwing your way, stop and reflect on the Kingdom of God. Remember all the good things He has done for you and the promises He made in the scriptures.

Don’t drive the people around you away with  loud lamentations of things that might come. I’ve found out that those things we tend to worry about seldom actually happen. And I had to learn that the hard way.

I am a recovering “worry wart”. In the past I would worry so much about what could be that I would physically get sick. Medical research has shown that worry actually causes you to gain weight and form stomach ulcers.

It was only when I would force myself to think about the Kingdom of God, and force myself to praise Him during the storms of life that I actually found joy. I also began to lose weight and my constant migraines faded.

So my encouraging word to you today is don’t become a “worry wart,” instead focus on the Kingdom!

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting Steve Saint in south metro Atlanta as he was making his way to the renowned Airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Some of you may recognize the name. Steve Saint is the son of the 20th century martyr Nate Saint who was killed while reaching out to a remote South American tribe. The story is one of forgiveness and redemption as the widows and children of the slain missionaries traveled back to the remote tribe and picked up the work of the Lord where it had been cut short. The result was miraculous. The entire tribe became followers of Jesus.

Now over 44 years later, Steve Saint is equiping modern day missionaries with a modern day marvel — the flying car. This work horse of the mission field was designed and engineered by Saint and the folks at ITEC — Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center. It’s a car, an ATV, a Plane, and a boat all rolled into one.

In the remote unreached parts of the globe, roads are nonexistent in many places or scarce. With the short take off, and ability to float, this modern day marvel makes roads out of the natural terrain bringing much needed supplies, medical care, and most importantly the Gospel.

I could go on, but it’s best to hear about this vital tool straight from the man who invented it. Below is a link to a radio interview where you can learn more about this “flying car.”

Steve Saint Flying Car Interview

For video of the Car click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc6aNymEg7s

Happy Friday! NewLife Praise wishes you a happy, fun filled weekend.

The Chagnon household got a rough start to the weekend. My oldest daughter (age 4) likes to get up early in the morning and catch grasshoppers. Well this morning the patch of grass near the house she was catching the grasshoppers in also contained a patch of poison ivy.

Later that morning she was complaining about her feet itching and burning and we were able to wash the area and bandage it up before it spread too much. I immediately went outside to see where the poison ivy was residing and will attack it later.

It was kind of dissappointing to find the stuff mixed in with my beautiful lawn. Usually I take great pride in keeping it neat and trimmed. But over the last couple weeks I haven’t been as diligent in its upkeep as I should be. Hence the creeping in of varioius weeds including the dreaded poison ivy.

A spiritual lesson can be learned here too. Sometimes we are so good about pruning and maintaining our spiritual lives making sure that the weeds of sin are not welcome. But all it takes is just a few moments of letting your gaurd down and Bam! in come the weeds. And often time we are left wondering where in the world did they come from.

So just a word of encouragement — never let your guard down!

The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. — Matthew 13:41

I was recently reading about a study in which participants were asked to watch a video of people in white and black shirts passing a basketball. Participants were instructed to count how  many times the people in white shirts passed the basketball between each other.

While the participants focused so hard on getting a correct count, they often missed out of the ordinary events in the background and some right in the middle of the action.

The same thing happens when we are going through life and maybe difficult times. Sometimes we focus so much on the events around us and the isssue at hand on that we miss out on the extraordinary events taking place in the background and in front of our eyes. It’s only when we go back and replay the events that we realize that all the time God was doing some great things for us.

My encouragement for you today is don’t become so focused on life and hard times that we fail to see God. Instead lets resolve to take a step back and purposefully look for those things that are out of the ordinary.

See how you do on the visual test:

Visual Test

It’s been a hot summer and although we had a wet spring, lately I’ve been concerned about the lack of rain. That is until this past weekend.

I was painting my porch this past Saturday when all of a sudden I noticed that it was raining pretty hard in my neighbor’s yard and then with much gloom I watched it slowly make it’s way into our yard. So much for painting…LOL!

My 4-year-old didn’t care about the paint, she was excited about jumping in puddles. So I put the paint aside and together we ran out into the yard and played in the rain until we were soaked and we didn’t leave one puddle untouched. It was so refreshing to feel the rain and to realize that our lawn was getting a much needed drink.

The song Healing Rain by Michael W. Smith came to mind during the storm. Sometimes through life’s journey we just get so hot and weary, but when God opens the heavens and pours down his blessings, we get much needed relief from those living waters. And our eyes look up to heaven in anticipation of the source. Praise the Lord for Rain!

Michael Clarke of Locust Grove stopped by the studio for an interview on an upcoming GTC. Clarke is the founder of Atlanta Southside Runners and www.RunningforOurTroops.org 

It orginally started out of a desire to become healthy, but soon blossomed into a way to help the injured troops returning home from the War on Terror. Clarke is married to wife Heather and they have two children, Noah and Abby.

Clarke is currently in training for the NYC marathon and is hoping to raise $26,000 for injured troops thru this effort. Hear his testimony and find out how you can help coming up on a future GTC — date TBA — hosted by New Life Praise’s Pete Chagnon.

God bless America!! I am so blessed to live in such a great country where we can worship and sing praises to God without fear and even broadcast his name freely on the radio!

Many celebrate this holiday with the setting off of fireworks, including yours truly — hahaha. Just a reminder to practice safety first.

Also during this celebration of our freedoms, let us not forget those who are fighting to preserve it overseas. Pray that they will be safe and kept out of harm and that their loved ones left behind will have peace and comfort knowing that God is watching out for them. Thank a veteran this weekend.

Happy 4th of July weekend and I’ll see you on the radio!