Words from Colorado

       It happened in the mid 1970’s at an Assembly of God Church on Bijou Street in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Our family had been invited to a revival. Somehow my dad was even in attendance, though it was a few years later that He committed his life to the Lord. The small red brick Church did not have more than 15 pews and I was sitting on a back one! I was about 15 maybe 16 and while the older evangelist was passionate and fiery I was bored and not really paying attention to his message.  Suddenly he fixed his eyes on me, and in front of that small gathering said: “Young Man come up here”. I reluctantly left the relative security of my back pew walked up, and waited for him to dress me down for appearing so disinterested.  I was shocked when he did nothing of the sort instead he lifted up his hands and announced to the congregation: “The Lord just told me that this boy will become a great preacher one day, if a wreck doesn’t kill ...

    It started in 1959, and lasted until 1972. Sunday nights Americans watched laughed cried and wondered if everything would turn out OK. It is now one of the most widely watched syndicated Television Shows in the world. Though the original cast have left the earth, they still have an impact. Of course I am talking about my favorite T.V. western of all time! You may be thinking “Gun smoke” …nope, don’t get me wrong I liked it, and would even ask my parents if I could stay up on Monday nights to watch it, but not gun smoke. The Wild Wild West? Sorry, I loved that show to and use to wish I was as cool as James West, and could escape from life’s predicaments…within 1 hour! Artemis Gordon, and James West…smooth, and slick but not first place in my heart! Give up? OK, my favorite western… “Bonanza”! Ben Cartwright raising those three sons on a thousand square miles, of the Ponderosa! I have Bonanza memorabilia in my office, that includes a replica ten ...

      Fifty miles east of Pueblo, Colorado you will come to a town called Rocky Ford. Rocky Ford was named by the famed frontier scout Kit Carson, who found a passable crossing (Rocky) across the Arkansas River. Rocky Ford is the melon capital of the world, and the location of my first church the Washington Avenue Baptist Church from 1988-1991.  When Laura and Brian and I arrived in August of 1988 we were filled with joy and optimism for this very first assignment from the Lord. The Church had struggled for some time. No one had been baptized in three years. Mission giving the year before we arrived totaled $2.00 dollars! The congregation had dwindled to around 15 in Worship on a good day. Bible study attendance on Sunday mornings was in the single digits…and three of them were us! When I surveyed my first Church I discovered 11 broken windows, and there were bees in the steeple!  Nevertheless, I was filled with faith! I truly believed that God could take an...

Johnny Hart           For many years, The Los Angeles Times has refused to run certain "B.C." comic strips containing witty Christian messages during holiday seasons. In March 1996, when the Times refused to run Johnny Hart's Palm Sunday strip, a national uproar ensued, reaching even the Washington, D.C., talk show circuit. The strip had Wiley—a brooding, poet-wannabe in B.C.'s cast of characters—sitting against a tree, tablet in hand, writing a poem (Below) entitled: "The Suffering Prince" Picture yourself tied to a tree, condemned of the sins of eternity. Then picture a spear, parting the air, seeking your heart to cut your despair.   Suddenly—a knight, in armor of white, stands in the gap betwixt you and its flight, And shedding his ‘armor of God’ for you— bears the lance that runs him through. His heart has been pierced that yours may beat, and the blood of his corpse washes your feet.   Picture yourself in raiment white...