Category Archives: Discipleship

Often while watching TV I will mute the commercials.

One reason is that the sound increases during commercials, which my wife, Norma Jean. finds irritating. She says I have the TV too loud anyway. Huh?

Also some commercials are repeated so many times that we grow weary of hearing them. Others we just find silly or trite. Anyway the mute button gives us a 3-4 minute respite.

Yesterday, however, a commercial appeared that I hadn’t seen before. It was by Bank OZK, headquartered in Little Rock, with several branches in the Tampa Bay area, plus on line banking. Continue reading →

Have you ever felt like everyone was against you?

Your spouse was discontented. Distant.  And disengaged.   Your kids seemed sullen and angry.  Your boss was demanding.  Impossible to please.  A friend betrayed you.  Others turned on you.  No one listened.  Or understood.  Or seemed to care.  People who lauded and praised you a few days ago now turn on you with a spiteful venom.  Continue reading →

It was on this date in 1868 that W. E. B. Du Bois was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

As a teenager Du Bois became aware of the “vast veil” separating him from his white classmates. As a result, “he devoted most of his life to studying the position of Black Americas from a sociological point of view.”

Du Bois was a sociologist, historian, civil rights activist and author, who helped found the NAACP in 1909. While he had impressive academic credentials, including a doctorate from Harvard University, he was unable to get a job at a major university. Continue reading →

There’s an old fable about a chicken and a pig walking past an orphanage. The chicken said to the pig, ““We ought to do something nice for these children.”

“Yes”, said the pig. ““I agree. What did you have in mind?”

The chicken answered, “Why don’t we fix them a ham and egg breakfast?” Continue reading →

“What’s scandalous these days?” Asked conservative columnist Cal Thomas in a recent article.

Although he was addressing some the shenanigans going in politics, his opening paragraph speaks to a spiritual challenge that has scriptural application today.

“In our relativistic age in which everyone has his or her own ‘truth’ and none is to be preferred over another so long as the individual feels good about it, why should anything be considered scandalous?” Continue reading →

For the past several days the news media has played and replayed the senseless, horrific, inhumane beating of a black man in Memphis by five black ex-cops, who have since been charged with second degree murder.

In addition to that sickening story we’ve heard about…

…the murder trial of a prominent South Carolina man accused of killing his wife and son.

…a California mass shooting.

…another California mass shooting. Continue reading →