When I graduated from college, I went to work for Kelly Springfield Tire Company. I was a chemist and had a good job, but I wasn’t happy. One day my pastor told me that God was calling me into the ministry. I thanked him and assured him that was not my calling. I worked there […]
When I first went into ministry, I was not married, and one of the members invited me to come by her home any night for supper. I didn’t have to call. All I had to do was show up. She made biscuits almost every day, and I learned what red-eye gravy is. After getting married, […]
In today ’s world, many are seeking rest. They look to drugs, alcohol and any way they can find rest. Country music legend Merle Haggard, who died in 2016, seemed to have looked for rest and peace in all the wrong places. He once said, “There’s a restlessness in my soul that I’ve never conquered, […]
My wife makes a snack food with puffcorn and white chocolate. It’s the kind of snack food you can’t get enough of. I read an article recently about how snack food producers hire experts to “help” people crave junk food. Snack food producers want us to like their product so much that we can’t resist […]
I recently returned from a trip to the Holy Land with the pastors and several members of St. Mark’s UMC in Midlothian, First UMC in Winchester and Buckhall UMC in Manassas. With the help of our very entertaining guide who goes by “G,” we set out on a bus to experience as many scripturally-significant sites […]
On April 9th, we will be celebrating Easter, the day on which the resurrection of Jesus is said to have taken place. The date for Easter changes from year to year. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. The spring equinox is the day when there […]
It seems that every time I turn on the TV, there is an ad for generators. These generators come on when your power goes off so you have a steady source of light. On May 19, 1790, the Connecticut Senate was in session and it was a dark day because of some wildfires in Canada. […]
When I was the pastor at Ivey Memorial UMC, we had a music group that sang at many churches. It was a joy to sing with this group. One night one member of our group gave his testimony and shared how his mother prayed for him consistently without his knowledge. He went in many directions, […]
We are now in the season of Lent. One of the wonders of Jesus’ crucifixion is that it happened on Israel’s remembrance of Passover. The stories of Moses and Jesus merged. It was on the first Passover that God used the sacrifice of a lamb and a sacred meal to show the world that He […]
We used to have a place at Lake Gaston. One of the members of my church was a “Bass Master.” He told me he had never fished on Lake Gaston when he didn’t catch a boatload of bass. We spent the night in my house and were out on the water by 5:30 a.m. We […]