There was once an old Scottish woman who went from home to home across the countryside selling thread, buttons, and shoestrings. When she came to an unmarked crossroad, she would toss a stick into the air and go in the direction the stick pointed when it landed.
One day, however, she was seen tossing the stick up several times. “Why do you toss the stick more than once?” someone asked. Continue reading
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Before we left on our anniversary trip, many cities and towns were engaged in removing various Confederate statues and flags in wake of the senseless and shameful events that occurred in Charlottesville, VA.
I joked to Norma Jean that the “Six Flags Over Texas” would have to change its name to “Five Flags.” Upon returning, I’ve learned that while they haven’t changed the name, the theme park has decided to remove all the flags and replace them with six American flags. Continue reading
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From April 2012 through December 2015, we published a weekly column, “It’s Friday. But Sunday’s Coming.” Since we have so many new readers from those earlier days, we wanted to introduce the column to you. There are 166 posts filed in the category section under this heading. They can be used for Lord’s Supper talks, bulletin articles or reblogged by WordPress users. Each of them points us to cross and remind us Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
Melvin Newland, the preacher for the Ridge Chapel Church in Kansas, OK, tells an incredible story of a lady who attended a Sunday service.
The lady, a former member 25 years earlier, was visiting a friend in the Ridge and decided to attend services that morning. However, following the worship she approached Melvin and angrily informed him she was not happy with the service.
“Why?” asked Newland.
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“I’m going to die,” Roberta Ursrey thought to herself. “My family is going to die this way.”
Ursrey, who had just moved to Florida a month ago, was at Panama City Beach Saturday night, with her husband, mother, nephew and two sons, Noah, 11, and Stephen, 8. The boys had gotten separated while chasing waves on a boogie board. Continue reading
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I recently read about a little plant that grows in the Australian bush country called the “sundew.” It has a slender stem and tiny, round leaves fringed with hairs that glisten with bright drops of liquid as delicate as fine dew. Continue reading
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Bob Woods tells the story of a couple who took their son, 11, and daughter, 7, to Carlsbad Caverns. As always, when the tour reached the deepest point in the cavern, the guide turned off all the lights to dramatize how completely dark and silent it is below the earth’s surface. Continue reading
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The British evangelist, Rodney “Gipsy” Smith, tells a story about a man who attended one his evangelistic services one night, was convicted of his sin and accepted Christ.
The next morning he went to the home of a friend and said to him, “Do you recognize that old watch?”
“Why, yes,” answered his friend. “Those are my initials; that is my watch. I lost it eight years ago. How did you get it, and how long have you had it?” Continue reading
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It was two years ago this month that Katherine Chappell, an American tourist, was attacked and killed by a lion as she toured Lion Park in South Africa’s Gauteng province.
It was a sad and tragic story of a woman who was described as “brilliant, kind, adventurous and high-spirited.” “She was very much-loved and shared her love for life with those she met,” her family said.
What makes this young woman’s death even more heartbreaking is the manner in which the attack occurred. Witnesses described what happened. Continue reading
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“Is the death penalty dying in Dallas?” was the heading of a front page article yesterday in the Dallas Morning News.
“Public sentiment on the ultimate sentence has shifted over time,” observed Staff writer, Tasha Tsiapheras. She cited several examples.
“A college student killed three people at a drug house in a premeditated robbery.” Continue reading
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If you’re on facebook, you have “friends.” But that doesn’t mean you have a friendship with everyone on your list.
“I don’t need to go onto facebook and pretend to have friends I’ve never even met,” observed actress Stephanie Powers. “To my mind, that kind of destroys the meaning of the word ‘friend.’ I take exception to that. Because I value and respect friendship.”
Friendship is about relationship and rapport. Friendship has to do with community. Commonality. Closeness. Companionship. And comradeship. Continue reading
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