This house used to belong to my great-grandfather, Papa Sibley. It’s on property that belonged to my great-great-great grandfather. My mother and her family lived there a few years when she was a little girl. There is a family cemetery you can see to the south of the house. There…
Sheltering at home because of Corona Virus – Do you feel alone? Are you afraid? How should we feel? How should we respond? Will we ever see normal again? And will it be a normal we want or like? Psalm 71 (subtitled: “Prayer of an Old Man for Deliverance) is…
Is this time of staying at home because of a global pandemic a time to rest? Is it a Sabbath? No more than any other time. Most of us haven’t really traded a time of activity for inactivity. We’ve traded it for different activities. Some are able to work from…
This morning I pulled out the hymnal during my worship time, and one of the songs I sang was “What Child Is This?”, a Christmas carol. I’ve sung it and heard it all my life, but never had really considered the second verse before. The wording is a little confusing:Why…
If you’re not familiar with west Louisiana, it is beautiful country of rolling hills, streams, rivers, and forests. In earlier times it was part of the vast pine forests that covered the deep south region of North America from the Atlantic into what is now East Texas. Much of that…
In an earlier post I mentioned my great-grandfather, Papa Sibley, and the influence he had on my Aunt Jean. She wrote of him: “My grandfather, John Coleman Sibley, whom we lovingly called Papa, died when I was only 11 years of age, but he has had the greatest spiritual impact…
Our nation is bleeding out. An old wound, which was yet in the process of healing, has been torn open over the past eight years. We need healing, and it doesn’t seem to be forthcoming. It could come sooner if we, as Christians, would focus on the Gospel and not…
He changes: RIVERS into a WILDERNESS SPRINGS OF WATER into a THIRSTY GROUND A FRUITFUL LAND into a SALT WASTE Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it. True wickedness is settling for and embracing the temporal instead of the eternal. Let me rephrase that. True wickedness is settling for and…
We found some baby oak trees in our yard. Apparently the squirrels and birds have been moving the acorns around because these little trees are nowhere near the young oak trees we already have growing. We left three where they are and put tomato cages around them so we don’t…
Jean Ellzey was born in October 1924. She was born blind. It was later discovered she also had a debilitating bone disease, severe curvature of the spine, and dwarfism. The doctors didn’t expect her to survive even a year. She passed away in 1993 at the age of 69. My…
