June 5, 2025 - There was a time when riding the train was the dominant form of travel in our nation. I remember as a boy, going with my father to the depot in Marshall to pick up “Aunt Mary” when she would ride the train from Little Rock for a visit. Well, I read a story from that era not long ago. It seems there was a little crippled boy who was carrying a basket of candy and fruit to sell, hurrying to the passenger gate of the depot as fast as his crutches would permit. As the passengers rushed through the gate, a fast moving young business executive accidentally hit the boy
May 29, 2025 - Unexpected dinner guests. Have you ever had that happen? That is what happens to Jesus and the disciples in Mark chapter 6. John the Baptist had just been killed and Jesus and the disciples were trying to get to a secluded place. They were tired from the teaching and healing being done.
May 22, 2025 - I remember once reading a story of a man who owned and operated a small, independent grocery store. He was telling a friend in the store one day that the preacher had delivered a really good sermon the previous Sunday.
May 15, 2025 - It’s Tuesday night, and I really wish you could see what all is “across the preacher’s desk”. There are 3 coffee cups (one with coffee in it) 4 Bibles (one is a chronological bible) various other books and several beginnings of sermons along with assorted scraps of paper with notes on them.
May 8, 2025 - I received word Wednesday morning that a very dear friend was hospitalized in serious condition. With that thought in mind, I would like to share this old poem by Charles Hanson Towne. I present it without comment so that we might apply it to our lives.
May 1, 2025 - Oftentimes we wonder why the church is weak, and why that in a recent nationwide poll, almost 70% of those who claim membership in church never attend services.
We could blame it on our secular-progressive society and we often do. We could blame it on the godless politics of our nation, organizations like the ACLU and Freedom From Religion Foundation, and they too are often our “whipping boy”. We could even blame it on churches, hypocritical members and uncaring preachers and there are numerous Christians who are doing that also.
April 24, 2025 - Jesus didn’t quit assembling with the disciples because Judas was a hypocrite, or because Peter was always “buttin’ in.” Nor did he quit because James and John “flew off the handle” occasionally.
April 17, 2025 - Can you by an eye of faith visualize what it would have been like to be one of the first people to visit the empty tomb of the risen Lord on the first day of the week? I have tried to imagine how Mary Magdalene and the others must have felt early on that Sunday morning.
April 10, 2025 - I can remember as a boy, watching the potter at work at the wheel at the old Marshall Pottery. I would stand mesmerized by the skill with which he would throw a lump of clay on the wheel and mold it into a work of art. They made many beautiful pieces of pottery in those days.
April 4, 2025 - Just for a moment, ponder the message of the following passages of scripture. Matthew 12:36-37, “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.