Inspirational

OUT TO PASTOR: I wasn’t born old – it just happened that way

News Staff
Thu, 09/26/2019 - 00:00
Everywhere I look these days, people are obsessed with age. More products are sold today to make you look younger than anything else. Everybody desires to look younger than what they actually are. I think that is rather hypocritical. Just saying.

FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: In-laws were gracious gift-givers

News Staff
Thu, 09/19/2019 - 00:00
Good week to all. Welcome to the “front porch.” Sometimes a life story makes about the best gospel sermon you’ll hear. So it is today. Read on. My mama-in-law Jimie Dickinson was a simple woman.

OUT TO PASTOR: It was a belly-binge kind of day

News Staff
Thu, 09/19/2019 - 00:00
It’s not often that a day goes my way. Occasionally, I have a day that focuses on my desires and me. It was a Monday evening right after supper and the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I were watching TV.

FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: Don’t ask the lighthouse to move!

News Staff
Thu, 09/12/2019 - 00:00
Good week to all. Welcome to the “front porch.” There’s an old story of a warship out on the sea on a foggy night. The captain sees a light just ahead that is on a collision course with his ship. Immediately the captain radios ahead, “Sir,” he says, “we are on a collision course.

HOPE FOR TODAY: Let’s move in together

News Staff
Thu, 09/12/2019 - 00:00
Clinical Psychologist Meg Jay writes about a young lady named Jennifer in a New York Times column. She was one of Meg’s clients who lived with her boyfriend four years prior to getting married. Then, a year after the wedding, Jennifer showed up for a session on Meg’s couch.

OUT TO PASTOR: The parsonage kitchen shutdown threat

News Staff
Thu, 09/12/2019 - 00:00
A certain situation has been building in the Parsonage for the last several months. At first, I did not think it too serious but alas, we have reached a terrible impasse. Quite frankly, I’m not exactly sure what to do.

FRONT PORCH GOSPEL: ‘I’ll stick with Solomon’

News Staff
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 00:00
Good week to all. Welcome to the “front porch.” During the recent sickness and passing of my father-in-law Bill Dickinson, his preacher-son Billy sent out a text to several of the family members expressing that – through it all – the Lord has been good to us.

HOPE FOR TODAY: When only a miracle will do

News Staff
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 00:00
For nearly 10 years I served inmates in our small rural county jail as a minister, and saw over 100 of them come through our Bible studies and annual Christmas outreaches. They were there because of drugs, alcohol, theft, sexual violations and more. Men and women. Young and old.

OUT TO PASTOR: Stuck between a virus and a varmint

News Staff
Thu, 09/05/2019 - 00:00
Normally, I’m not a superstitious sort of a person. But then again there is a good case to be made that I am really not normal. I must confess, I do have a sliver of superstition running through me somewhere.

FRONT-PORCH GOSPEL: ‘Lick that calf again!’

News Staff
Thu, 08/29/2019 - 00:00
Good week to all. Welcome to the “front porch.” About a decade ago, I heard the great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar tell a memorable story that contained a powerful lesson.