I was about 40 years old before I shot a gun for the first time. . I was a candidate in the FBI Citizens Academy. Former Governor Rose Mofford (a fellow candidate) and I went to the FBI shooting range and experienced shooting an old fashioned tommy gun as well as other FBI weapons. I never considered owning a gun because they always scared me. The second time I held a gun was when I had to disarm

Please allow me to share something I read recently. It may be a little long, but please take a moment to read it. It was written by a preacher in the 1950s named A.W. Tozer. "It is literally true that some churches are dead. The Holy Spirit has gone out of them and all you have left are the remains. You have the potential of church, but you do not have the church, just as you have in

I want to talk about the concept of fairness. The dictionary describes fairness as "impartial and just treatment without favoritism or partiality." I remember as a kid being very aware of fairness. Any time my sister or brother got something more than I did, I was quick to remind my folks that it "wasn't fair." That never went very well with my parents. As I got older, I expected that teachers, employers, church leaders, and prosecutors would be

English is an odd language. It includes many words from some of the Romance languages, but it is not a Romance language. English is considered a Germanic language. The sounds of our language are not as harsh as German, but they are not as beautiful, poetic, or musical as Spanish, Italian, or French. In English, some words sound ugly. For instance, the word "regurgitate." There is no way to make it sound pleasant. To me, COVID sounds just

First off, I must tell you, I never expected to be writing these reflections nine weeks into this pandemic. Somehow, in my mind, I thought it would go for a month or so and we would have a handle on it. Here we are over two months later, and we still do not have a handle. In fact, in some ways, we do not even seem to have a clue as to how to defeat this virus. It

I am my mother's kid. Like my mom, I love shopping. I particularly like shopping at Macy's. The truth is I can wake up on a day off, throw on some clothes, and walk to Macy's within five minutes. Being able to walk through the store, stop at the in-store Starbucks, and hunt for bargains, are some of the things I miss the most during this shut down. The other evening, I went out for a walk. I

Winston Churchill once said, "If you are going through hell, keep going." Great advice! If you are going through tough times, do not stop to think about how hard it is. Keep your head up and keep moving forward. If you stop and feel sorry for yourself or turn yourself into a victim, you just prolong the ordeal. Churchill was a great leader and a wise man. His words from World War II provide wisdom for us today

Patience is defined as “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting upset or angry.” As Dr. Phil would say, “How’s that working for you?” There is no doubt the coronavirus is testing all of us. Our tolerance for not being able to do what we want, when we want, is coming to the limit. We miss our family, friends, church, stores, and entertainment. These past weeks have been hard on everyone. Add in

I heard a great quote recently. The speaker said, The message of Christ is not Christianity. The message of Christ, is Christ. In other words, Jesus did not come to make us more religious, he came so we might embrace Him. On this Easter Monday, I call you to embrace Jesus. I am not calling myself or you to be a better person or a better Christian in the eyes of the world, I call you to proclaim

There is a great song on Christian radio by Matthew West called "The God Who Stays". The words of the song say: You’re the God who stays You’re the one who runs in my direction. When the whole world walks away, You’re the God who stands With wide open arms, And tell me nothing I have ever done Can separate my heart from the God who stays. Life is so interesting. When life gets tough and difficult, there

These days have been hard for me. Being alone in my condo takes me back 15 years when I was in complete isolation from family, friends, and the church I loved so deeply. It felt like a punishment back then. And, in some ways, it feels like a punishment now. It almost seems like our whole society has been given a great big time out. Our current situation makes me miss our community, our worship, and our precious

One of the songs we are going to sing this weekend on our Live Stream is “We Believe” by the Newsboys. The song begins with these words: "In this time of desperation, When all we know is doubt and fear, There is only one foundation, We believe, we believe In this broken generation When all is dark, you help us see There is only one salvation We believe, we believe." I am sure a lot of us feel those

We are in uncomfortable times. I think it is especially hard on us because we treat comfort as a god. Everything about our society speaks of being comfortable and not experiencing pain or discomfort. We do not like anything that makes us feel like we are not in control. Inconvenience is something we "avoid like the plague." And yet, here we are today, in 2020, with our modern medicine and technology, incredibly inconvenienced, very uncomfortable, and feeling fearful