Category: (Christian)
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The Weathervane
I can still hear that high pitched screeching as it spun overhead. I was in my Great Aunt Mary’s old general store in Cottondale, Fla. It was a Sunday afternoon in early summer, and Granny and Grandpa and I were visiting family again, like it or not. Aunt Mary was my Grandpa Tharpe’s oldest sister.… Read more
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The Road Seldom Traveled
I know that I am not alone in my concern for the Church of Christ, its people and its purpose. It seems to me that the world is making inroads into the Body of Christ at break neck speed, as of late. I could describe what’s been going on, but there is no need. Even… Read more
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Give It Up
Some of you might not know this, but from the seventh grade all the way through my senior year in high school, I didn’t live with my parents. Make that, I didn’t sleep in the same place as they did. I slept in a mobile home right next to theirs with my brother, Mike.… Read more
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One Wild Ride
Let me tell you about one of the most exciting days of my life. It happened years ago in Manila, Philippines. It was my first mission trip; my first time overseas and the first time of many that I came close to wetting my pants in public. I can tell you this; I was… Read more
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The Life of Faith
Have you ever had one of those days when for the life of you, you just could not get things to come together? You know, times when no matter how hard you tried, things seemed amiss and confused? Haven’t you had a time or two in your life when you looked around and tried to… Read more
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The Sabbath
I will never forget one blazing hot Sunday afternoon a long time ago, when I wanted a Coca-Cola and I wanted it bad, but Granny didn’t have any. So being the first rate pain I was, I determined to get her to drive down to the store a mile or so away to get me… Read more
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What Would Granny Say
My Granny Tharpe was not what one might consider proper in the way society defines proper. She was a bit gruff and a bit tough and altogether one of the neatest people I have ever known. She was such an odd combination of tenderness and toughness, of kindness and strictness, of femininity and don’t mess… Read more
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What and Why
For coming up on thirty years, I have been hauling my carcass all over the world doing mission work of one kind or another. I just love it. I have been on medical missions, construction missions, rescue missions, disaster response missions and disaster recovery missions and have been greatly blessed each and every time I have… Read more
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Commercial Christ Child
It was sometime around the beginning of October when I began to notice it; the subtle creeping, commercial Christmas. As I recall, Mary and I had headed up to Franklin, North Carolina to enjoy a couple of days away and to marvel at the fall colors decorating the trees that lined the Blue Ridge Parkway.… Read more
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Marvel
I will never forget my first Christmas as a married man. Mary and I were living in an 8 x 36 foot trailer in Lexington at the time. I had lived in that thing with a cat named Charlie all the way through college, and it was just the right size for the cat. Nonetheless… Read more