My Church Notes

Blast Shield from Heaven

A mother’s love is a blast shield, protecting her brood from all attackers. Take the barnyard story of the hen. A fire raged through the countryside, overrunning a farm, the barnyard, and all the ...

Shedding the Sinner’s Skin

Snakes are special creatures. From the earliest pages in the Bible, they are denigrated as vile creatures from the underworld, the very embodiment of Lucifer, the wickedest of those cast from ...

Coins have two sides. One often has the face of a man, there to brag about the importance of the individual. The other tells a story, at times giving a historical brief about a country or state. We ...

Turning Loose of What We Love

Moving across the country can be a traumatic affair. What do we keep? What do we let go? The pressure is compounded if we’ve lived in one place a very long time and accumulated a treasure trove of ...

Looking Down to Look Up

Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on the planet. It towers so far into the sky that the air begins to thin long before climbers can reach its pinnacle. If anyone wants to become closer to God, it ...

Our WINTRY God

Winter might seem cold and bleak to some, but in reality, the strength found in this frigid season can give us inspiration. The wind that sweeps across the land can still every human action, force ...

Investing for Our Retirement

For most of us, money is hard to come by. We work long hours, and when we get paid, it seems it is never enough. There is an extra pair of shoes for Suzie. Donnie’s baseball fees are due again. ...

Open the Envelope, Please

On a British auto show, three hosts are often given challenges with their cars. They are not told the challenges ahead of time. Rather, they are handed sealed envelopes, and while on screen, they ...

On the Winners’ Side

Several years ago Sony bet on a video playback system called Betamax. However, JVC rolled the dice on a format known as the Video Home System. Both were in production for a number of years. ...

Rolling in the Dough

To be flush with cash means to have more than it takes to meet everyday needs. Much more. It means we’ve got an income that is able to generate vast quantities of wealth, and to do it on a regular ...

Judge Judy

Judge Judy has become an icon on television. Sharp witted and highly knowledgeable, Judge Judith Sheindlin is a master at cutting to the core of disputants’ complaints, flaying them to the bone ...

Finding the Lost Jesus

In the summer of 2013, a manhunt was initiated to look for the missing child of a woman killed in San Diego, California. A statewide abduction alert was issued. Frantic efforts ensued to locate the ...

Our FLEECE God

Fabrics have certain properties, just as minerals are brittle or flammable, or plastics can be transparent or opaque. Some fabrics are designed to wick moisture from the skin, while others are ...