Just down the Street

Just down the street is a lovely old church
It's steeple, white, so prominent from my window.
I love to listen to the tolling bells so sweet,
That mark the day , it's time to tell.

Just down the street is a schoolyard, gay,
The children's voices ring out each day.
A thumping ball upon the walk, voices raised in glee,
A playground recalls great memories to me!

Just down the street and around the corner
Is a home I love to visit, with gray heart shutters,
And awning above the door ,it beckons me to come and say,
"Hi Mom and Dad! What's for dinner?"

It really is wonderful to find such joy
And mirth right in your neighborhood,
No matter if it is beauty or treat,
I can find it just down the street!

Kingdom Authority

When God chose humanity and came to earth, His plan was not only to save us, but also to be our perfect role model in how to live for Him and through Him by the power of the Holy Spirit - yes, because of Jesus’ relationship with the Father through the Holy Spirit, He is our perfect role model for living with Kingdom authority. Because of His sinless life, there was no separation from the Father, and He lived in complete dependence in the Holy Spirit working through Him. We, because of Jesus’ death on the cross have His righteousness paid to our account; therefore, there is no separation between God and us, yet there remains the issue of our dependence. Are we totally dependent on the Holy Spirit allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to move through us? As His bride we should be.
When Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, they were given a mission- to be fruitful and multiply thus filling the earth and subduing it. God knew of course, that Satan and his minions had been cast out of heaven and taken dominion of the earth so the earth needed to be subdued, as it was under the influence of darkness. God could have destroyed Satan with a single word, yet He chose to defeat darkness through His delegated authority- those who were created in His image and were His lovers by choice- His bride! When God placed Adam in the garden it was the beginning of a great romance- the beginning of the romance of our creation- created in His image, for Intimacy that His dominion might be expressed through love!
It is from this revelation that we are to learn to walk as Christ’s ambassadors thus defeating the Prince of this world. God’s plan was that darkness would fall as man exercised his godly influence over creation, yet instead man fell. With Adam’s sin, mankind’s authority to rule was forfeited.
Immediately God put His predetermined plan of redemption to work. Jesus came to reclaim all that was lost! Luke 19:10 states, Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to restore not only lost men, but man’s authority over the earth. Matthew 28:18 Jesus, with His last words on earth said, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me- Therefore go and make disciples of all nations’, baptizing them in the name of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you to the very end of the age.
In other words, he was saying I got it all back! Now go, take it, use it and reclaim mankind!
Jesus told His followers I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven- We then
are completely restored to God’s plan of ruling as people made in His image and we should be striving to enforce the victory obtained at Calvary!
We are called and it is our destiny to rule over creation- over darkness to establish the rule of Jesus on earth- preaching the gospel of the kingdom exposing and undoing the work of the enemy. Nothing is impossible for those who go forth into the world invested with Jesus power as witnesses of the kingdom. Luke 10:18 states Jesus said , I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and overcome all the power of the enemy.
With the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, His teaching, and with Jesus’ authority imparted to us, we are called to exercise that power on earth. This calls for a godly invasion against the powers of darkness as we release God’s power over creation. Just as Modecai told Esther, 'You were born for such a time as this!' This gospel was never meant to be just a doctrinal exercise, for theory alone does not exhibit the power of God. We mustn’t rob the gospel of its power!
God is not satisfied with the complacency of His bride in this generation. She has become self seeking- ingrown- like a great sponge, fully absorbed, or bloated on biblical teaching and truth, yet unwilling to put her feet into action for the Lord. She says things like, Wow, God is getting ready to move in our church, If we could only be ready, wow, I wonder what God has in store for us- Yes, God, the perfect gentleman that He is patiently waits for His bride to wake up to her calling!

Back Down a Winding Country Lane

Don’t you wish you could go back to another time- another place? For me, I always wanted to return to Granny’s house. Oh, the bricks and mortar are still standing along a country byway. Actually, more cars today travel that crooked stretch of highway than ever did before, when I with my parents crept along the winding road, singing, “Over the River and Through the Woods…” to visit dear old Granny.

Oh, I’ve taken my daughter down there just to show her where Granny lived, and Amanda always asked me to tell over and over again the stories I loved to tell. Amanda has nothing in her modern life to associate with a bygone time like going down to spend the weekend in a small country farmhouse. How I wanted to share the experience of gathering around the wood-burning stove in the parlor on a blustery Christmas Eve, when carolers really stopped in for steaming hot, mulled cider and gingerbread.


Then I’d crawl into bed with Granny; snuggling in beside her warmth under a mountain of home woven, woolen quilts. I really don’t think I’ve slept so safe and sound ever since.

Now, not everything was so great about spending the night at her house. She did have running water, but the outhouse beaconed you for your goodnight visit. I hated to make my evening trek down the creaking, wooden steps and over the uneven ground in the dark. No flashlight ever invented could shed enough light to ward off the spooky things that go bump on a hoary autumn’s eve. On very cold nights the chamber potty under the bed called my name.
But, again, oh, how I wished my sweet Amanda could associate this with me. She’ll never know- really know how it was.


I’ll never forget awakening the next morning in an empty bed to the delicious aromas wafting through the door; but, the room was so frigid when I peeked out from under the covers. I’ll never forget counting to three, jumping out of bed, and dashing for the kitchen and its toasty coziness produced by a double wood cook stove. Granny would already have a pan of homemade biscuits browning in the oven, a pot of sausage gravy stirring on top, and coffee perking on the stove. She invariably prepared enough food for an army, and everyone ate like there was no tomorrow!

But the best part of going was to be with dear Granny herself-so unpretentious. What you saw was what you got. Never one to put on airs, all she could ever think of was how to love on you and make you more comfortable. You could never eat enough, rest enough, and have enough of anything. She was always offering you more. She never sat and wanted to be waited on, but was always up trying to wait on you. She tirelessly set about serving and loving on her family. For dinner she unfailingly offered fried chicken and roast pork. Dessert always consisted of a triple layered coconut cake, a deep dish apple pie made from the fruit she dried the previous autumn, and my favorite- applesauce cake with caramel icing. No one has ever mastered that cake like she did. Oh, how I’d love a slice right this minute!

Amanda never knew Granny. She died when she turned eighty-six, the year before Amanda was born. My daughter had wonderful grandparents, who slathered her with every good blessing and love untold just like grandparents love to do, Just as I long to do when my grand kiddies come along. But there was never anyone quite like dear, sweet Granny and going to visit her in her small country home on the very winding lane of my youth.

A Great Romance

Years before we ever even thought of making a confession to God and claiming Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He was wooing us to come to Him, to fill the desperate longing we felt in life. For each one of us was created with a God sized hole in our heart that longs to be filled with a rapturous, beautiful, wild and adventurous love. At tender ages, we are attracted by God’s creation. Everyone can look back into their early youth and remember a moment of time when they experienced a transcending emotion, or awe, and connection with some glory pronounced in nature around them. A heavenly sunset casting a crimson glow on everything one a lazy autumn afternoon, the pounding surf crashing on a deserted ocean shore, a forest glade with the sunlight falling in drops from the leaves overhead- These wondrously momentous events were not accidental happenings, but calculated wooing from the lover of our souls delighting in us and giving us glimpses of His love drawing us to Him. Each of us may have sought to recapture the emotion aroused by those times, never to be able to experience it again in quite the same way. We go searching for fulfillment in recreating that glory and if we don’t find it immediately we look for gratification in often times in the wrong places. Add to this the wiles of the enemy of our souls and how he seeks to destroy everything good within us and we become embroiled in His lies which tell us that we are unworthy to experience glory.

The trials and afflictions of our lives divert our hearts so God’s glory is so very difficult to find. However, the gnawing doesn’t go away. We become disgruntled seekers trying desperately to fill the void in our hearts- the expedient fillers, tv, reading, music, fantasies, sports, food, alcohol, - things that only seek to draw us further and further from truth of who we were created to be and what we truly need and are searching for!

That same part of our heart and soul that responds to a beautiful melody or romantic scene in a movie when the hero wins the heroine’s favor, that tremulous response you might feel at the sound of a marching band in a parade or for me at an airshow when f14’s buzz the airstrip- that feeling emanates from the heart spot that Jesus is looking to fill in us. Anything else will surely not satisfy.It is time to pray for God to give us sensitivity to Christ’s whispering. It probably will come at the most inopportune times- maybe even in the dead of night or very early in the morning when you’d much rather be sleeping, but it is at this quiet time of life when Jesus is most likely to reveal Himself to us. He has so much of Himself to reveal. Jesus wants our attention before the cares of the day steals our mind and energy. Yield to the lover of your soul- the bridegroom.

Love's Magic

Love is magic, pure and sweet
For it alone makes life complete.
Given freely, never bought
The gift mankind has always sought.
Love’s eternal through the years,
Standing strong through joys and tears,
Changing not itself at all.
But working wonders, large and small
Transcends all that’s commonplace
To matchless beauty, joy and grace.
Makes happiness its specialty
And gives itself unselfishly
Love’s a mystery, ageless, old
Impossible to see or hold.
But when there’s something hearts would say
Love, like magic, shows the way.

Our Daughter, Amanda

First posted April 7, 2018

Allow me to introduce our daughter, Amanda, whom we adopted from Seoul, Korea in 1985 at the age of fifteen weeks. From the very first moment we met her, we knew she was someone special. Even her accompanying travel host stated that we received the booby prize. He went on to say that she did not sleep a wink on the twenty hour flight, but was a wide eyed, curious, happy, engaging infant.

Amanda continues to exhibit those same wonderful qualities and so much more. To say she has always been an overachiever is an understatement. She has worked hard and achieved more in her twenty odd years than many people achieve in a lifetime. She sang with a College Children’s Choir for five years, during which time she performed at the White House and Carnegie Hall. She took piano lessons for eight years and is today an accomplished classical pianist. She started violin lessons at age four and took for fourteen years. She graced the Regional Youth Symphony as Concert Master and continues to perform with her College Orchestra. Today she is a professional violinist who has played at the Greenbrier and in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as many venues across the state.
Academically, Amanda is an excellent student, who managed all of the above activities and still managed to keep a 3.8 grade point average. She attended Governor School, needless to say her coursework was above average. However, she still found time to play softball, tennis, volleyball and soccer on her school teams. She was a dean’s list student there at University and received a fellowship to do research in her master’s program in biology.
Because she has such a marvelous drive to excel and be a productive citizen she even found time to volunteer at Memorial Hospital, and the West End Center of Downtown, for underprivileged kids, of color. Amanda’s heart is pure gold and she gives from the inner recesses. A devout Christian, Amanda pursues her life’s purpose with grace and love. Her servant’s heart spurs her on to excellence in all of her endeavors.

As a very proud mother I penned the above when Amanda was in graduate school in college. She is married now living with her husband outside of Boston.... I miss her terribly, but her dad and I couldnt be prouder of her. She never fails to astonish us with her capacity to achieve and excel in her vocationl She is a cancer research scientist in a clinical lab in Cambridge, MA.. her professional acumen and writing/ documentation skills have set her apart in her field... She and her husband host and lead Bible Studies from their home, and they' ve made such wonderful friends in the two years they've lived there. She will always be the sunshine of our lives and the apple of my parents' eyes.

Family Treasure

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