Trains, well more so, their tracks have always fascinated me. How an engine weighing tons and sometimes pulling tons and tons of cars behind it can travel on two parallel strips of very smooth steel is fascinating. The train travels on a “gauge” – a 4-foot, eight-and-a-half inch width – which is the standard in […]
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Observations from an Old Preacher
After 40 odd years (well not all of them were odd) of ministry I have learned (or learning still): I. Reading the Bible and reading the Bible can be two very different things. Since the Bible is unlike any other book in human existence it therefore cannot be read like any other book. However, it […]
The Pastor's Dilemma – Weighing Between Grace & No Grace
I recall, from my youth, using a platform trip scale, similar to modern weight scales found in doctor’s offices, where you slide a weight along a rail until the trip lever raises in between its two limits of upper and lower metal bars showing that the correct weight measurement has been reached and then by […]
The Vortex of Voices
Elder J.L. Groce 5/04/12 “There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.” 1 Cor. 14:10 Picture, if you will, the placid face of a pool of water and observe the splash of a tossed small pebble and its resulting concentric radiating rings that […]
The Preacher & What Determines His Ministry
In reality every preacher has several facets that ultimately determines the make up of his ministry….several of these determiners are: I. HIS THOUGHTS To me the thinking process of man is an extremely complex subject. “Thoughts” are seldom without history—in other words, they are built from the collected data of one’s experiences, emotions, and general […]
The Cuckoo Syndrome
There is a bird, the cuckoo, who is a common in England and many other parts of the world. The first sign of spring is that bird’s call. The cuckoo never builds her own nest. When she feels an egg event coming on, she finds another nest with eggs and no parent bird. The cuckoo […]
Ben, Look Again…. Could it be…. A Setting Sun?
I am made to wonder, after reading several books on the founding fathers and their original feelings and thoughts concerning the Constitution, if those men would be both amazed and indignant about how their child has been transformed into some kind of weird and grotesque creature bearing little resemblance to the innocent and bright-eyed babe […]
Life Changes, Not Land Captured
Vietnam was a war like no other war that American forces had ever been engaged in previously. Unlike World War I or World War II where geographical gains (or loses) were determinate of winning (or losing) battles, Vietnam, in contrast, was a war where geographic control had little to do with the overall outcome of […]
Standards Are a Root, Not a Leaf
“Standards” are a prescribed order of action or conduct. In the biblical sense “holiness standards” are God’s prescribed order of conduct for His people. Standards prescribe what one wears externally, but its essence flows from what one wears internally as the “new man.” If one sees the word “standards” as being only outward guidelines of […]
The Fight Over The Origin Of Holiness Standards Or The Spiritual Monkey Trial
It was officially known as Scopes v. State, but history remembers it as The Scopes Monkey Trial. For two weeks in the summer of 1925, in a crowded courtroom in little Dayton, Tennessee, religion squared off against science, and two sides struggled for the right to influence the minds of America’s youth. In reality the […]