Devotions

A Dropped Wedding Ring I’ve spent my life sitting in the pews, and have seen so many interesting things happen. Most memorable are times when I’ve seen (or heard) items dropped in church. I’ve seen the embarrassment of ushers dropping the collection plate as the coins rolled all over the auditorium I’ve heard songbooks slap loudly as they landed on …

Unused Power I was born during a period of history when many World War I veterans were still alive. Of all those old men, the one that sticks out was a veteran named Manuel “Curt” Green. Curt Green was one of those country men who had never been anywhere, nor desired to, until World War I broke out. He traveled …

The Sixth Word to live by In the past week we’ve blogged about the six words I strive to live by. Here are the previous ones: compassion/passion, integrity, resolve, gratitude, , and relationships. My final word, and today’s subject is Legacy. Legacy is all about where you end up at. Legacy is about how you’ll be remembered. Anyone can start …

The Lone Hostage “He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood” –Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing Robert Robinson It’s only appropriate to write about Captain Richard Phillips on Good Friday. Phillips is the captain of the Maersk Alabama, an American cargo ship hijacked two days ago by armed pirates from Somalia. As the pirates attacked the ship, …

The Door is Open To be invited into an Honduran house is a great honor and is always a favorite part of any trip. The hospitality of folks in other countries is so wonderful. It seems like the door is always open to visitors . The sweet lady, Reina, holding the picture told us, “Our home is humble, but Christ …

Roy Greene’s Door This is a warning: Be careful with the doors at the Lake Charles Civic Center! I was there last week and as I entered the men’s room, I recalled Roy Greene’s story. The Lake Charles Civic Center opened thirty years ago. Amazingly, it was constructed on sand pumped out of the adjacent lake that gives the city …

76 years of marriage—no, make that 77. They were always together. In my fifty years of knowing them, I can seldom recall seeing one without the other. And that’s how Uncle Gordon and Aunt Letha will live on in my heart. With the recent death of my grandmother’s last living sibling, Letha Reynolds, a marriage bond of 76 years was …

Where is your prayer tree? Jesus, in His sermon on the mount, talked about having a place to get alone with God. In the older Bible versions, He called it a “closet.” The New International Version states it this way: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” Matthew 6:6 …

On the Beginning of a Year Being a writer, I always equate the first day of a new year to the blank page in a new journal. As I open the notebook and leaf through its empty pages, the potential for what I will write there is limitless. However, from being a journal keeper for nearly thirty-five years, I know …

Plowing a ‘100 Foot Line’ There’s a fine stand of young slash pine at Dead Man’s curve on the Longville Gravel Pit Road. I’ve watched with interest the growth of this forest. After the field was earlier ‘clear cut’ for its marketable timber, a hard-working Mexican crew then replanted it in straight rows. By the following winter, the pines began …

“Catfish Lies” When is the truth a lie? We talk about “little white lies” and half-truths. Is there such a thing? Here is one of my favorite stories. You decide for yourself if the parties involved told the truth or a lie: American catfish farmers of the South are having a hard time economically. As is true in so many …

The Pine Knot Pile: A Lesson on Earthly Treasures All of a sudden, the February wind picked up and turned out of the south. Instantly what had been a small controlled fire in my back field became a raging monster. The flames spread rapidly through the dead knee high grass – as fast I as I could, I ran ahead …

A Word Called Resolve It is one of my five favorite words.* It is the word resolve. There are several uses of the word, but I love the definition that speaks of persistence and grit. Webster’s defines it as “to act with determination, boldness. To be steadfast and faithful.” Resolve is a trait found in the lives of all great …

Ready to move out This summer DeDe, Terry, and I took part in a youth camp in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This area of majestic mountains, covered with vast stands of tall Ponderosa Pines, is one of my favorite places in America. To get to camp, we wove deeper and deeper into the Hills following a long snaking …