THE IDLE AMERICANCommentary by Dr. Don Newbury In our mind’s eye, most of us old-timers recall taking on life in slow motion when contrasted with today’s starts, stops and swerves now endured by the masses by day and by night. If identified with a fable, we were the turtles, and jet-setters of today are the hares. Or so it seems. In bygone
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Jesus loved Judas even though he betrayed Him – and us: same reason. Glenn Dromgoole is a former editor of the Abilene Reporter-News and the author of numerous books. He and his wife, Carol, own Texas Star Trading Company
Read moreBy Marianne Wood About a year ago, on my way home from Philadelphia bearing a freshly broken wrist encased in a huge splint, I sat down at a bar in the wrong terminal. The menu had attracted me, not the hope of wine or spirits, but the truth I found in this experience is worth telling: God sees us. He
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By Jim Nichols One of the most avoided human experiences is the feeling of vulnerability. We may make a mistake, but we can often recover from that. We may put our foot in our mouth, but an explanation or apology might smooth it over. We may even become angry, but we have learned that apologies work wonders there. When we
Read moreBy Danny Minton An official of a Mission Board, who knew that it takes more than desire to make a missionary, was appointed to examine a candidate. He told the young man to come to his house at six in the morning. The young man went to be examined at six in the morning, and the examiner kept him sitting in the room
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By Nancy Patrick Many things can fall—snow in avalanches, rocks on a mountain, water over a sudden drop in a river bed, and even people. People can actually fall both physically and morally. We all know the story of the fall of humanity reported in Genesis. This type of moral fall can result in loss of reputation, relationship, financial stability,
Read moreBy Carlo Sosa-Ortiz I remember taking a preaching class during my time in seminary, and all of us were fretting over our manuscripts. We were a classroom of aspiring preachers, and some of us had more experience than others when it came to proclaiming the Word. Needless to say, many of us wanted to leave some sort of mark on
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By Penny Biddy I didn’t know what Lent was until I was a teenager. My childhood church observed a few traditional celebrations (basically Christmas and Easter), but on the whole I grew up in a pretty “low-church” environment. Neither our roots in the traditional Disciples of Christ nor our experiences with the charismatic movement in the ’80s gave us any
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By Jim Nichols The wind can be frustrating. It often has an unpredictability as to its velocity and direction. One moment it seems calm and pleasant and the next it increases to what are dangerous angles and speeds. Airplane pilots pay high attention to the wind and its variabilities. The wind on a lake merits similar awareness; the variations in
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Spirit Of Abilene 