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It grieves me. It angers me. I get a stomach ache every time I hear of another one.Sadly, it is also not new to me. The preacher who spoke the night I dedicated my life to full-time ministry later left his ministry due to infidelity. The pastor who married Linda and me was fired for having an emotional affair. The first pastor I served under as a young youth pastor committed adultery. The pastor who preceded me at this church later left the ministry because of an affair. I’ve

I made a decision almost three decades ago that has taken the difficulty out of a lot of other decisions since. I decided to marry Linda. Since that decision, most of my other decisions in and around the house are pretty well taken care of. I only need to ask myself, what would be better for our marriage?So, even though my desk may be cluttered at work, I’m neat, clean, and organized at home. Why? Because Linda doesn’t really care what my desk at work looks like, but she like

This headline got my attention, Resource Officer Used Taser to Wake Sleeping Student. I couldn’t believe a police officer assigned to protect students would actually tase one to wake him up. Then I read the whole story. The officer was called into a classroom where a teacher and several students had attempted to wake a student who had fallen asleep at his desk. The officer also attempted to arouse him and couldn't, so she took the cartridge out of her taser (disarming it) an

A man in Gallatin, Tennessee walked into a Walmart dressing room with a new pair of jeans. He took off his old worn and dirty jeans, and put on the new ones from off the rack. They fit good! So, he ripped off the tags and walked out…..all the way out of the store. Thinking he got away with it, he met up with his girlfriend in the parking lot and the two of them headed to the nearby Longhorn Steakhouse. After a good dinner, they slipped out of the restaurant without paying the

Many of us need deadlines to get things done. They serve as a target, and some people describe them as freeing, because they know they have to get it done by a certain time, and when that time is over, there is a sense of finality. It feels good to meet a deadline and once you meet it, it’s done.But not all deadlines can be planned precisely. I used to tell my kids to make sure the kitchen was clean, “before mom gets home.” Sometimes, she’d get home and they would be busily i

We all have some things to work on, me included. Some of you are in church this weekend for the first time in a long time because you know you have some things to work on. Others here can think of so many things that you need to work on, that you’ve given up trying. There are just too many.But what is that ONE thing? What’s that one thing that is holding you back? What is that one thing, that if you got the victory, a lot of other things would change as well? It’s the thing t

I was at an event seated behind a young family with an infant. I couldn’t help but notice the interaction between a dad and little boy. This baby was just old enough to begin smiling, and you could tell he was new at it. He stared at his father’s face just waiting to make eye contact and every time his father looked down, the corners of the infant’s mouth curved up. Over and over I saw that baby go from smiling to staring to smiling and staring again. When his father was look

Linda and I were grocery shopping while on vacation. There were three different moms shopping with their children that we heard throughout our time in the store. There was a lot of yelling, swearing, and threats. Now I know, grocery shopping with small children can be a challenge. But it was breaking my heart to hear these children spoken to they way they were. I thought, “No child should be talked to this way."Then on our way to our truck in the parking lot, we heard another

Walking through Concourse D at Louis Armstrong Airport, I spotted a little boy, who appeared to be 7 or 8, in a wheelchair, escorted by a smiling gentleman in his mid 60s. I wondered to myself what their story was. Why the wheelchair for the boy and why a man his age with him? And I thought, “I wouldn’t mind sitting next to them in an airplane." I waited at gate D5 until my name was called by the agent for my seat assignment: 7F. Once again, I spotted the man and the boy. As

The first attempt to dig the Panama Canal across the Isthmus of Panama was made by a French company. Thousands of men and tons of machinery tackled the remote mountains and thick jungles. After millions of dollars had been spent, however, the project was abandoned, not because of the mountains but because of the mosquitoes. Yellow fever from mosquitoes killed thousands. It was not until American doctors found ways of protecting people against mosquitoes that the project was r

The twelve disciples of Jesus are a fascinating group of guys. In my reading of the Gospels, there is one thing that stands out about these guys. While they are quite the assortment of personalities and backgrounds, full of human weaknesses like the rest of us, there appears to be one characteristic that brought them all together.      When Jesus called, they immediately responded. “Follow me,” Jesus said to each of them, and immediately they left their places, their liveliho

Linda and I have a seasonal campsite right on a river, about an hour’s drive from our home. Being right on the river, when there is a lot of rain and the river swells, our entire campsite (and half the campground) is sometimes flooded. So when flooding is predicted, we pull our camper out and store it until the water subsides. It doesn’t flood every year, but this year, It’s been flooding on and off with every heavy rain for the past month. Our camper is back in place now, bu