"And do not forget that we are drifting."
Jefferson Davis (J. D.) Tant was born in 1861 in Marietta, Georgia. His father and three uncles were all were CSA soldiers and fought for the Army of Northern Virginia. The family lost their farm during Reconstruction and moved to Texas to make a new start. J. D. felt the call to ministry as a young man. He served for awhile in the Methodist church and then became a circuit preacher for the churches of Christ. His effective ministry brought him much attention. Though he was unrefined and plain spoken, (he was actually banned from publishing articles for almost ten years because he used the word "bull" in a sermon) he was sought after to preach and lead meetings all over the southeast and into Arizona and New Mexico.

He was a contemporary of, and well known by, the men who founded David Lipscomb College. He spent a good deal of time in middle and west Tennessee and preached for several long seasons in Bellevue. I am working on some family history but I’m not sure yet if we are directly related to J. D. We do know that my grandfather’s family had deep roots in the churches of Christ and some of them came from West Tennessee. In fact, I have an uncle who is also J. D. Tant, though the initials stand for Joe Donnie and not the illustrious president of the Confederacy.

The quote used as title for this post was one that J. D. used to close many of the articles he wrote for the Gospel Advocate magazine. It also showed up in some of his sermons. He was very much a traditionalist in the churches of Christ and his theological arguments and debates over a wide variety of issues were numerous. It seems that his use of this quote was to remind people that, in the Christian life, coasting is rarely an option. For most of us there is a current in the world that will quickly move us to a new location if we are not striving against it. He and I would surely be in disagreement as he applied this to the need to live outwardly a holy life in order to be saved. Where I think J. D.’s warning does ring true, however, is in our daily understanding of the gospel. I find that if I don’t "preach the gospel" to myself afresh every day, I begin to loose contact with its reality. I begin to believe that God will not really forgive my sin this time — this hundredth time or this millionth time. His patience has to finally wear thin with me and He will give up. That’s the message my spirit receives when I don’t remind myself of the incredible truth that, because of what Jesus has done, I am loved unconditionally. Otherwise, I am drifting . . . . .

Escape from the Moment
Everywhere we look in our culture we see how much we have adapted to living in the moment. Every Christmas advertisement I have received for electronics is making the pitch for cell phones with email and text messaging capability. I have had several friends who expressed amazement that I don’t use (or even know how to use) IM. In business the "just in time" approach has become the standard for inventory control and long range planning has been compressed to mean planning for the next calendar quarter. More and more families, even families with above average incomes, are living paycheck to paycheck. Savings in America is maybe at an all time low. In short, we are a culture that lives for the moment and gives little concern for the future.


Today in Sunday School we looked at the life of Abraham. God promised to bless his descendants for a thousand generations. He believed this promise and looked to a future he would never live to see. Also in class today I mentioned a book I purchased this week. It is an outline of the Book of Church Order prepared by a PCA elder in North Carolina. The reason I mentioned it was that he dedicated to book to one of his ancestors who was a pastor and one of the founders of Concord, MA in the 1500's. The reason for the dedication was that there is some documentation (either journal or sermons) that this future-conscience pastor was faithful to pray that his descendants would respond to the Gospel and accept Christ.


Yesterday, I visited the cemetery in Clarksville where my mother’s family is buried. While I was there it struck me how unlike our generation was my great, great grandfather, Patrick Joseph Savage. He immigrated with his family from Ireland in the mid-1800's. They settled, along with a number of other Irish families, in Montgomery County. I don’t know much about him but I do know he had a view to the future. Not too long after Greenwood Cemetery opened in 1872, he bought a relatively large number of burial plots all in the same area. I have no way to know what was on his mind at the time but there are now representatives of three generations buried there and still room for more. Whether it’s a good idea to purchase burial like my ancestor I don’t know. What I do know as a believer is that I should be so future oriented I regularly pray that my family for all generations to come (until Christ returns) will remain faithful to the covenant.

Special Days

The Andy Blog: On this rainy, foggy winter day we mark the 11th anniversary of Andy’s death. The weather is a vivid picture of my heart today: chilly and heavy. I have been feeling the gravity of this day all week and I guess I wasn’t expecting it, at least not to this degree. People ask if the pain ever gets better. I know that it does for most of the year but on those special days — birthday, Christmas (which Andy loved so much) and today — it seems I get sucked back in time to that most horrible of all days. I can walk through that Sunday moment by moment remembering with great clarity almost every thought, every encounter and still feel the same emotions with the same intensity as I did that day. Dianne has a plaque hanging in the kitchen which says "We don’t remember days, we remember moments." I my particular case this is true but I am remembering almost enough of these moments to make a day.

Of all the pictures we have of Andy (and I have looked at a lot today) this one probably says as much as any about his love for life. Andy had been decorating Christmas cookies to take to kids at church and school. If the cookies look so good with icing, why not decorate himself? And of course he did. And he loved every minute of it. This was probably the week before he began celebrating eternity with his heavenly Father. Andy, we laugh with you and we still miss you very much!