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The last two days have been fun and informative. I had the opportunity to spend Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday at Johnson Bible College near Knoxville, Tennessee. Though I graduated from Kentucky Christian College I also claim Johnson Bible College as my alma mater having spent two years there prior to my enrollment at K.C.C. Being back on campus brought back the proverbial "flood of memories."

I drove all the way through the campus up past and around "Old Main", the combination administration building and dormitory which formed the guts of the campus for so many years…  ( Click for more )

Almost every town has one. People quicken their pace walking when they pass by. It becomes the subject of conjecture and legend. Some are consumed by needing to know its history. Still others make it the subject of mindless dares. It stands silent yet speaks volumes. It commands attention simply by its enduring presence. It is an empty house.

I can remember just such a house when I was in my pre-teen years. It sat back a lane just about a mile out of town. We called it the haunted house. It was ramshackled. To walk through the front door you walked across the roof of…  ( Click for more )

Car choices are a thing of personal taste. A car can say a lot about a person. A jazzy little roadster says, "I think I'm fun and I pamper myself." A minivan says, "Hi, I have kids and I like hauling them around places." A midsized sedan says, "Hello, I'm practical and a little on the frugal side." Some just pick a beautiful or rare car and own it just to look at it. So, what do I drive? I drive a Dodge Stratus.

For me, it was, and still is, the perfect fit. I was able to get one nicely loaded for under $20,000 with a solid performing four cylinder engine for economy.…  ( Click for more )

In all the Scottish lore which comprises the rich history of golf, there is a tidbit concerning the naming of the area on which the game was to be played. As the story goes, two gentlemen were contemplating their attempt to advance a round object toward an area of green grass.

"So, Angus," began one of the men, "how will ye advance this wee ball ta yonder beautiful green?" "Tis not so much a problem, Collin," replied Angus, "I'll just strike her in that direction. That looks like a fair way." "Aye, the fair way it is then." Thus was born the term "fairway" because it was the…  ( Click for more )

It was one of those days right after a rain when the weatherman had said that the skies would be clear for several days. I washed my car. Actually got out the car wash formula, hose, wax and chamois. Spent some serious time working over my little gem to make her shine like the sun. I was proud of the way she looked and relaxed in my home that evening smug in the thought of a job well done. Then came the morning.

My wife left for work and I settled in with my computer to get some work done. About ten o'clock I decided to head to the local hospital and check on one of our church…  ( Click for more )

Many years ago, in an ill-fated move which has left them gasping for breath, the Boston Red Sox of the American League of Major League Baseball, traded a promising young pitcher to the New York Yankees for a position player. After almost seven hundred home runs and several World Series wins, the New York Yankees were grateful that they took a chance on George Herman Ruth and made that trade.

Prior to the trade of "Babe" Ruth from Boston to New York, the Red Sox had been the toast of baseball. They had won five World Series titles from 1903 to 1918. Since the trade they have…  ( Click for more )

Recently my nephew, Scott Snyder, got to play in a national pro-am golf tournament. He won a spot to compete on behalf of his company in the Phoenix Open Pro-Am. A pro-am is an event in which four amateur golfers are teamed with a golfer from the professional ranks in a team event for the right to play over the weekend and win some really neat prizes. Scott is a reasonably proficient golfer and won the right to play in a group with PGA pro, Billy Mayfair.

Scott was thrilled that, on the holes with rather large galaries, he played fairly well under pressure. He did say that…  ( Click for more )

Ah, I love election years. Everything you never really wanted to know about anyone and were just not interested enough to find out.

The case in question right now? President Bush and his military service with the National Guard. Did he or didn't he report to Montgomery, Alabama? The man who will probably oppose him in this year's presidential election is thrice decorated John Kerry, a veteran of the Vietnam War. His service record is impressive and his dedication to his country unimpeachable. But did President Bush fulfill his service?

The proof that is being offered…  ( Click for more )

My mother used to have no problem with me watching sporting events. She always saw them as safe. She felt that watching sports would keep my mind off those things which might curry sin in my life. Then one day Dad and I were watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Cleveland Browns and the camera panned to the newly added Cowboys Cheerleaders. My mom looked at the screen with a shocked look on her face as she viewed navels and ample breasts challenging the fabric which was struggling to contain them.

Oh, that that were the least of our worries now in televised sports. Free speech…  ( Click for more )

It's late morning for me to be doing this. Usually I am up around 4:30 A.M. EST and at the computer around 4:50 preparing to submit this column. Right now it is almost 7:30 A.M. I am late doing this and I apologize. However, I do have a valid reason. My son has come home.

My oldest son, John, is in the youth ministry in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He drove down yesterday, having left after a meeting following their morning worship service. He arrived here sometime around 10:30 last night. That's a half hour after my usual bedtime for Sunday. His mother went on the bed and John…  ( Click for more )

As an Ohio State Buckeyes fan, 2002 was a year for the record book. The Buckeyes rode the strong shoulders of freshman sensation, Maurice Clarett, to a perfect season and the National Championship. Clarett was being mentioned for the Heisman Trophy as the best player in the country after just a couple of games. Funny the difference a year makes.

This past season started with a thud. Clarett was ruled ineligible for play due to accepting improper benefits from a family friend and then lying to investigators about it. Ohip State would have to petition the National Collegiate…  ( Click for more )

I spend a lot of time on the road as a preacher. It takes time to make the distance between people's homes and the occasional hospital in which they might be receiving care. As such I am often on the local interstate highway, I-75. I-75 dissects the state in its run from Detroit to the Gulf Coast of Florida. Almost every day a traveler can see cars from Canada (usually Ontario) as well as Florida and many other states in between.

While traveling North on I-75 the other day I was approaching a vehicle that was stalled on the shoulder. It was parked fairly close to the right…  ( Click for more )

Raising children is an exasperating endeavor to say the least. Regardless of Dr. Benjamin Spock's volumes of work, or that of myriad others, there is truly no definitive work on raising children. That is why a pregnant mother-to-be is referred to as "expecting". Andy Griffith, the comedian, once remarked that the first child lurks, indicating that the baby may be ready to sneak up suddenly and be born or just kind of hang around for awhile.

But when the baby comes is when the real challenge starts. What do you do with this little wrinkled package of flesh and still forming…  ( Click for more )

I can remember years ago going to my friend's house and seeing their heating stove sitting in the front room of their house. Clearly seen on the front of the stove were the words, "Warm Morning". Over the years I have come to appreciate those stoves as being dependable and true to their name. My wife and I even had one at one of the homes we have rented over the years. We had a lot of warm mornings from our Warm Morning.

You can imagine the shock we had then this past Saturday morning when we awoke to temperatures outside that were below zero with an indoor temperature of 57…  ( Click for more )

Something happened this past weekend that was barely a blip on most people's radar. I don't remember hearing mentioned on any of television's news magazines or reports. Perhaps I just missed them. The event was the death of Philip Crosby. He was 69 at his death. Died of natural causes unlike his three brothers. Philip Crosby was the last remaining son of Bing Crosby and his first wife, singer/actress Dixie Lee.

Philip was one of a set of twins. His brother, Dennis, preceded him in death in 1991. Dennis, like his brother Lindsay in 1989, committed suicide. Their older brother,…  ( Click for more )

Throughout my fifty-three years plus of life on this planet I have held a lot of jobs. When I was just a little guy about twelve I was mowing lawns in my neighborhood and, at times, was quite prosperous doing it. I can remember one week in 1963 when I actually banked $40. That may not sound like much today but there were a lot of families at that time in which the main bread winner was making about $80 a week and doing well.

My parents had ingrained in me the concept of overkill in doing someone's lawn. I trimmed as well as mowed. That was before the string trimmer…  ( Click for more )

I am a football junkie. That's American football for those of you who are purists and know soccer by its worldwide appellation. I have followed football, more precisely, professional football, since I was barely seven years old. That means that when the 2004 season begins I will begin my forty-eighth season watching the sport. Sundays have been my hallowed days during that time period both for my love of worshiping my heavenly Father and my joy of watching large armored humans run into each other.

The oddest thing has happened during the end of the 2003 season. I have yet…  ( Click for more )

The recent flap over deposed Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has raised some eyebrows concerning the plans of President Bush when he first took office. According to documentation provided by O'Neill, Bush had plans to attack Iraq and remove and capture Saddam Hussein early in the administration. O'Neill's comments, documents and such are the focal point of a new book written by Ron Suskind, The Price Of Loyalty. Other Bush informants are cited in the book concerning their observations and knowledge of the President.

Such things are not new. Practically every administration…  ( Click for more )

An unknown author once wrote, "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." With the press of an eight to nine hour daily job and the work I do for the good folk of the Minorsville Christian Church I have been unsuccessful in getting into a habit for this column that keeps me going on it. Frustration is an unkind and miserable bedfellow. I am frustrated to the point that I have to make a choice. After all, "choice, not chance, determines one's destiny." Some other anonymous author is responsible for that little quote. (wouldn't it be amazing to find…  ( Click for more )

I have been trying to put this whole grandparent thing in perspective. Right now my wife and I are moving into our late fifties. Our grandchildren are soon to be two years old. I am struggling to remember how my parents enjoyed (or was that endured) the visits of our children. My dad was born in 1921 and my mom in 1923. So when my parents were the same ages my wife and I are now would have been someplace around 1978. Dad would have been fifty-seven and mom fifty-five. That's pretty close to what my wife and I are now.

Our children would have been five (John), two (Sean)…  ( Click for more )

The past several days have seen ample rainfall to the point of flooding here in parts of the Bluegrass. My yard has that wonderful green hue to it but it also is getting a bit long and does need some manicuring. The rain has affected other things as well. At McDonald's it has dampened the spirits of some of the workers as they see no real reason to be excited about getting off work in the early to mid afternoon. When people are disappointed they tend to get a little testy at times. That little bit of edge can spill over into service. Conquering that feeling is a matter of attitude. …  ( Click for more )

Things happen in life that sometimes leave us frustrated and even afraid. Other things bring us a certain measure of anticipation and even excitement. Some have the capacity to do all of the above mentioned things. Back in 1999 I never thought that, following my forty-ninth birthday I would be flipping burgers at McDonald's. Sure enough, there I was working the "backline" as it's called as the grill man. At times it was hectic and at times it was pretty sedate. But it was work. And I was getting paid and making a living to go along with my "weekend" ministry with the Berea…  ( Click for more )

According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, College Edition, a "moron" is a "person having an I. Q. of 50-69 and judged incapable of developing beyond a mental age of 8-12," or, "any stupid person or a person lacking in good judgment." I had not met too many people who possessed both of those attributes until the other day. The odd thing is, I didn't spend all that much time with the person. We met on an elevator headed to the same floor of the building. What happened from there is the stuff of legends.

My wife had a doctor's appointment last…  ( Click for more )

When we first moved to the Georgetown area over two and a half years ago I found a ready golf partner in Donald Clark. Since that time Don and I have played quite a bit of golf together and I have watched him grow as a golfer. Golf has a lot to do with getting through certain barriers. The first is just being able to hit the ball solidly. The second is being able to hit it straight, or at least in the general direction you want it to go whether it fades or draws to get there. The third is getting rid of three putt greens. Most golfers just want to play regularly in the 90s and breaking…  ( Click for more )