Village Voices - We don't write papers, we build scrapbooks

A few weeks ago I mentioned The Black Robed Regiment in this column. That initiated a bit of a response from some readers. One person wrote to me and said he had never before seen The Black Robed...

Life is hard. It always has been and it always will be. We are under attack from all angles it seems. From politics to culture to family to our own personal religious beliefs - we’re all under...

When I was a kid my brothers and I and our cousins would go camping down by our creek. There were usually about 6 of us who set up our little pup tents. We’d sit around a warm fire and talk deep...

Love is probably one of the most misused words in the English vocabulary. It can have many different meanings. Someone will say: “I love your sweater.” Or, “I love pizza.” Or, “I love to...

Thomas Jefferson talked about the Wall of Separation between Church and State. Jefferson’s intent in that Wall of Separation was to keep the State from overtaking the church or demand that we...

On March 10, 2015, a group of Belgian tourists were sent on a detour of close to 800 miles after a GPS navigation error by their bus driver. They were meant to arrive at the French alpine resort of...

Somebody told me this week: “I’m so ready to get this year over with.” I came into this year with the highest expectations. I just thought God was going to do a great and mighty work among us. T...

With all the unrest and division and disruption and hate around us, life can be somewhat unsettling. When the rioters began rioting and looting in Minneapolis and in Portland and Seattle, it was...

I just saw a burglar kicking his own door in. I asked, “What are you doing?” He said, “Working from home.” This COVID-19 thing just keeps dragging on and I think most of us are pretty sick of...

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock the last few months or been in a coma, or in military Boot Camp, you’ve probably heard the phrase “cancel culture” more than once. What exactly does...

We’ve been doing a study on Sunday mornings about how to overcome evil with good. “When the days get darker,” God says, “here is what you must do: Overcome evil with good!” How do we overcom...

Windshields and Bugs - This time of year it’s practically impossible to keep your windshield clean of splattered up dead bugs. The gas station squeegee is just not enough to keep up. So I came up...

You don’t need me to tell you that these are difficult days in our country. After years in which many had hoped for progress, anger and violence over race and other issues have reached new...

“They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees,” (Psalms 74:5). A couple of years ago my wife found me a new office desk on Craigslist. She negotiated the price and got it...

This past Sunday was my 27th anniversary as Pastor of Martintown Community Church. July 4, 1993 was the day the Congregation called my wife and I to be their leaders. Looking back … in 1993 the...

Personally, I started this year with more optimism than I’ve had in a long time. The sound of 2020 just seemed to ring in my ears. I had an expectation that God was going to do something great for...

I always thought it odd that Cap’n Crunch is made by Quaker Oats - a cereal commanded by a military officer made by an avowedly non-combatant community of oats. Since last March I’ve been reading...

My dad has a sign hanging over his desk that says: “These are the good old days.” So true. For the most part, we tend to look back on certain periods of the past in our lives with favor. These...

This morning I saw a neighbor talking to her cat. It was obvious she thought her cat understood her. I came into my house and told my dog … we laughed and laughed. I like cats but don’t love...

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried,” (G.K. Chesterton). It’s amazing to me how someone will not believe in God because they...

Live in such a way so the preacher won't have to tell lies at your funeral. When I was a student in Bible college, my wife and I were on the missionary list of Martintown Community Church. They sent u...

“What’s Up?” Whenever we open the Bible, God calls us to examine our own hearts. When we do, we will often find that the roots of the sins we see in others are often hidden in our hearts as...

“First Pray Then Speak Then Play” I told my wife how thankful I was to have someone I enjoyed being quarantined with. She said, “Must be nice.” Psalm 119:11 says: “Thy word have I hid in my...

"God Can Draw A Straight Line With A Crooked Stick" When I was a senior in high school, one of my teachers predicted that one day I would be farming 10,000 acres of land and own half the state of...

Sometimes, someone unexpected comes into your life out of nowhere, makes your heart race, and changes you forever. We call those people cops. There’s a story out there that says the following...