As soon as the gold in the casket rings, the rescued soul to heaven springs.” Ever heard those words? They form one of the outrageous claims of the 16th century Roman Catholic cleric John Tetzel. Some people quote the last phrase in the claim as saying, “another soul from purgatory springs.” Tetzel was put in […]

      “The power of hope defines the psychological victim and psychological survivor. If I could find a way to package and dispense hope, I would have a pill more powerful than any antidepressant on the market. Hope is often the only thing between man and the abyss. As long as a patient, individual […]

Sometimes it seems we humans just “park our brains” or at least sound that way. A man named Jack Ray illustrated the point with a humorous piece in the March 2004 edition of the Readers Digest (p 76). He wrote: “The trouble with being a landlord? Tenants. Especially those who write letters like these: * The […]

        Does Jesus Know You Love Him?                               by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN         What would you do if you were worth $3.2 billion? When media mogul Ted Turner found out in    late September 1997 […]

 A guy said, “I once had a goldfish that could break-dance on a carpet. But only for like 20 seconds.” My apologies to goldfish and those who love them. This little article is about a Bible passage in Galatians 2:11-21 where the apostle Peter is doing a little dancing of his own. Not on a carpet, mind […]

        A grudge was apparently held by Mark Twain when he wrote about someone who died: “I did not attend the funeral, but I wrote a nice note saying I approved of it.” Twain’s words remind us it is easy to “nurse a grudge.” But nursing a grudge is never easy on […]

A very unusual tribute was paid to Abraham Lincoln by American poet and biographer Carl Sandburg. He wrote, “Not often in the story of mankind does a man arrive on earth who is both steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his heart and mind […]

 Texting is all the rave these days. But you have to be careful to send the message you really want to send, especially if your phone has autocorrect. For instance, someone observed that thanks to autocorrect, 1 in 5 children will be getting a visit from Satan this Christmas. Some other wag texted, “The guy who […]

The ire of many British people has been stoked to red-hot intensity of late, since the release of (former) Prince Harry’s book “Spare” (January 10, 2023). The title is a provocative reference to the notion that as the second child in line to the British throne, Harry was a “spare,” able to inherit the throne […]

Millions past and present refer to the Bible as “The Good Book.” America’s first vice-president and second president, John Adams, paid an even greater tribute to the Bible when he observed, “The Bible is the best Book in the world.” Many, of course, would      disagree, some of them on the flimsy basis that […]