I wish it had been an April Fool’s joke, but this month marks the first time in nearly two centuries there will not be an issue of the Western Recorder. The newspaper was a weekly affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC). I began writing for it regularly after my wife and I moved to…
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While the IRS postponing the tax return deadline a month will make millions breathe easier today, I’m more concerned with the time change. Yes, it’s been a month since we moved our clocks forward on that Sunday morning I always dread. But the week after is so bad the effects still linger. It happens every…
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If everything goes according to plan, next week I will get my second dose of the Moderna vaccine. When the government started rolling out vaccinations in late 2020, my main concern was getting inoculated by the first week of May. Unfortunately, that target date recently became irrelevant with the cancellation of our trip to an…
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With the world as fractured as it is politically and so many other ways, the preparations for Easter on Apr. 4 may seem like an exercise in futility. At least, when it comes to sharing stories of hope. However, in the midst of great upheaval always come stories of God’s grace. They are the kind…
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Nearly a year after widespread lockdowns halted in-person services, good news in the church world has been in short supply. Some congregations still aren’t meeting amid pandemic fears, and morale is low in many places. That’s why I found a recent story about an unusual cross-denominational gift to be so encouraging. “AG Camp Receives Unexpected…
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In his “State of the State” message last month, Gov. Jim Justice talked about seeing God working to turn around the state’s economy. And, recently shined a national spotlight on West Virginia for being the nation’s leader in getting residents vaccinated. Not only did Justice credit the power of prayer, he mentioned “coincidences” being circumstances…
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When allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct by noted author, speaker and apologist Ravi Zacharias surfaced after his death last May, I didn’t think much of them. I considered such claims the character assassination of a man unable to defend himself. Besides it’s never easy dealing with flawed heroes. To show what esteem the evangelist…
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Though I didn’t need any reinforcement of the fact that getting married in the middle of winter was a bad idea, last week’s “Snowapocalypse” emphasized it. While Sen. Ted Cruz was getting lambasted for heading to Cancun as many average Texans grappled with gargantuan, storm-related electric bills, we were in survival mode too. That’s because…
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For many, the “Prodigal Son”—the biblical one, not the Fox network TV show—is a familiar story: the youngest son of a Jewish landowner demands his share of his father’s inheritance, squanders it, and returns home. With hat in hand, he begs to simply be hired as a servant. The story took on new meaning personally…
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It’s a brief amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but one so significant our local newspaper includes it on its daily editorial page: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably…
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