In 1956 at 24 years of age, I was moving into the parsonage of the First Baptist Church in the city where I had graduated from college three months before. As I was carrying things into the house a professor from the college walked back-and-forth with me telling me that his wife was having an affair. Ready or not and, without my intention, I had become a counselor. I do not claim that title.
Read MoreThey called it Vacation Bible School. Almost every church in town had one and almost every kid in town attended. Every parent that wanted to be considered as decent made sure their kids were there, often after a struggle of course, but they were there. Maybe it had nothing to do with appearing as good parents, maybe it was just the relief at having something to occupy the kids all morning for a blessed week in the summer.
Bible School was a week of Bible stories, mostly from the Old Testament since that was where the big war stories were.
Read MoreI was getting my shoes shined in a barber shop. The person doing the shinning loved to talk and seemed to want everyone in the room to hear his words of wisdom and philosophy. The only problem was he could not say a sentence without a GD or so. It was GD this and GD that until it was grating on our ears. His shine chair was in the front window of the shop and the Baptist preacher walked by outside and waved at those of us in the shop. My very verbal shine master began telling us how stupid that preacher was about the Bible and how right his church was. I quietly asked him about
Read MoreHis schedule was extremely tight. He only had three years to transform the world. His task was to reveal the true nature and love of God to a world that had rejected and missed every attempt at that task since man first walked on the earth. Big task. Impossible task. And only three years?
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