By MIKE PATRICK I want to share three stories about drummers, two historical and one of fiction. When researching my family roots years ago, I discovered that my great-great grandfather is buried in Sabanno Cemetery between Cross Plains and Cisco, located in Eastland County, Texas. His name was Virgil Miller Williams (1843-1894). His father (my 3-great grandfather) Joseph Henry Williams,
Read moreBy MIKE PATRICK One afternoon while I worked in the backyard, my wife, Nancy, went for a neighborhood walk to get in some exercise. About a quarter mile from the house, she heard a dog make a noise with a raspy bark. At first, she couldn’t tell from where the bark came. Then she realized it emanated from a storm
Read moreby Mike Patrick We generally consider fibs or little white lies rather obnoxious and inconsequential. But they become the first step down a slippery slope of dishonesty. I understand that people want to protect others from unnecessary hurt. For instance, if a woman asks her husband if he likes her new hairdo, he may say it looks good in order
Read more(Editor’s Note: Contributor Mike Patrick came across an article by Tom Mullen about 10 years ago and submitted it to the Reporter-News. It concerns how Christians are divided by elections and seems timely today, too. The article by Tom Mullen, “On Election Year Tensions,” was part of Mullen’s book, “Where 2 or 3 Are Gathered, Someone Spills His Milk.”) By
Read more(Editor’s Note: This is a follow-up column to a previous one written by Mike Patrick, “Where Is God When We Suffer?”) By MIKE PATRICK One of my favorite verses is Romans 8:26 (NIV) – “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes
Read moreBy MIKE PATRICK I received an email one night from a couple in California. They had a friend searching for a way to deal with her relative’s severe illness and lack of any improvement. Another relative blamed the sick person’s lack of healing on the family’s lack of faith. This couple had given their friend encouragement and even shared appropriate
Read moreBy MIKE PATRICK William Paul Young writes in his book “Lies We Believe About God” that when his mother read his first book, “The Shack,” she put it down in anger when she read that he portrayed God the Father, Papa, as a black woman. She told her daughter that Paul was a heretic. He then goes on to share how
Read moreBy MIKE PATRICK We tend to use categories to guide us through a complicated life full of boundless diversity. For example, most children learn the difference between a parent and a nonparent, safe and unsafe, self and other. That is good. However, those walls of security may turn into prison walls, both for the one on the inside and those
Read moreBy MIKE PATRICK As a high school student, my understanding of prophecy focused on predicting or foretelling the future. Not long after that Hal Lindsey’s book, Late, Great Planet Earth became a best seller and a movie. A few years later, as a college student, I began hearing that prophecy dealt more with forth-telling or what we might call preaching.
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Spirit Of Abilene 