Twenty years ago, Alton Turner Blackwood brutally murdered four families. There was only one survivor, a 14 year-old boy who surprised Blackwood from behind and killed him. Before he died, Blackwood vowed to return one day when the child had a family of his own and kill them all.
It's amazing how many people I hear talking about what they consider to be the most terrible of sins. They usually focus on sexual things when they do so. However, I would like to suggest today that one of the truly most terrible sins is something that you actually find running rampant among many of the people who talk the most loudly against sin.
“I wonder what kind of presents will be under the tree this Christmas!” As a little boy, this was a question that energized me during this season as the big day approached. There were many things I enjoyed about Christmas, including the story of the Baby whose birthday was to be remembered on that day, but I have to admit the thing that excited me most about the holiday when I was a child was the prospect of receiving presents.
The Declaration of Independence states that we have all been endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, “that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The right to pursue happiness is one that Americans have passionately claimed, and as a result we have a society that puts a great deal of emphasis on entertainment, personal fulfillment and any number of other avenues that are meant to carry us toward this illusive goal.
I had a funny dream last night in which the pastor of Redeemer's Church in Reedley and I were making a movie together. It featured some guy with a backpack that had mushrooms and a hamburger in it. Were this dream to be analyzed by a psychologist, I have no idea what he would learn about me.
When I was a kid, I remember watching a cartoon called Yogi’s Ark Lark. In this series, Yogi Bear traveled around in an ark with a group of other cartoon characters looking for “the perfect place.” The theme song talked about how they were on their way to a perfect place where the skies were blue, the fields were green, the water sparkled and the air was clean.
I went to church in an airplane one day. I was traveling on Faucett Airways, an airline that thereafter went out of business — probably due to too many accidents to be a coincidence.
I co-wrote a song called, “It Never Hurts to Smile.” The idea behind it was that we've always got something to smile about and a reason to be happy if we have Jesus in our lives. I've since grown up enough to realize that this isn't necessarily true.
While in Scotland, I visited a church in Northern Ireland. The music was great, the preaching fantastic and the church was awful! … What makes a good church?
