His name, let’s call him, AJ. AJ was on probation sitting in my office. If he had been in church you might have thought that he was the preacher’s son or the deacon’s son. Or you might have thought AJ would be delivering the morning sermon. AJ was clean cut,...

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. – 2 Corinthians 5:17. “It’s a boy!!” Yesterday our first grandchild was born (Madison Cael Wrather, 8 lbs., 12 and 1/2 ozs., 22 inches). I marveled again...

Think of the lame man in Acts chapter 3 who was laid at the gate Beautiful so he could beg. He was just begging for alms and he just wanted to survive. “Just give me some crumbs,” he was most likely crying out to the people that passed. He had been doing this...

In Galatians 5:22-23 we are told, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance….” The NIV translates gentleness as kindness. Kindness can be a shocking thing when you are expecting the opposite. Before I was a pastor I was a parole officer. My job was to supervise people...

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness – Isaiah 41:10. Going to a dentist’s office is usually not something...

I grew up on a cotton farm and by the age of four or five I was ready to help out with some of the farming duties. The day arrived when I was to go to the field and “chop” cotton along with my mother and sister. Now I had heard...

Our Lord teaches in Matthew 6:11 to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and in verse 13, to pray, “…deliver us from evil.” I believe it is our responsibility to pray daily for protection from the enemy. Over the years I have prayed for the protection of my family each day and as the...

Today in the USA we are celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. For over 200 years we Americans have enjoyed the privilege of freedom (Of course, some gained that freedom only later after a bloody civil war.). However, the vision of freedom seen...

In Proverbs 22:6 the Bible says, “Train up a child in the way he should go….” And in Ephesians 4:29 we are told not to let any unwholesome language come out of our mouths but only what is useful to edify or build up those who are listening. In Hebrews 10:24 we are told to, “…provoke one another...

Today a friend wrote a note of encouragement to me along with the notation Psalm 91:1-2 which says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God;...