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For Wilshire Baptist Church

Last week I took my baritone saxophone to a band instrument and music shop in Garland. The conversation went something like this:

Repairman: “She’s a beauty. What seems to be the problem?”

Me: “Nothing that I know of, but I’ve been playing it for 17 years, it’s never needed a repair, so I thought I’d bring it in for a check-up during this down time when we’re not playing.”

Repairman: “Seventeen years . . . really? It looks almost new.”

Me: “Well, we rehearse once a week and play in church just once a month so it doesn’t get a lot of use. And . . . I never march with it.”

Continue reading “Sax Appeal”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

“Look, it’s St. Floyd Church.” We were watching the local news on TV and they were reporting on several Catholic priests who risk their own safety by visiting and praying with hospitalized COVID patients whose families aren’t allowed into the wards. I don’t know the priests but I recognized the interview setting. It was St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in Richardson. For some reason I have always had trouble remembering that name and I call it St. Floyd because it is on Floyd Road. But I have to confess there’s some warped humor to that misnomer because the name Floyd puts me in mind of Floyd Lawson, the gentle, goofy barber on “The Andy Griffith Show” from the 1960s.

Continue reading “Floyd and the Lesser Saints”

For Wilshire Baptist Church

It’s a question I’ve been asked several times in recent days: Did God cause the pandemic – to punish us or to test us?

My knee-jerk answer is, “No, God doesn’t hurt God’s people.” However, I definitely believe God could test or even punish us, as we read about many times in the Bible. And I even contend God should test us sometimes just to shake us out of our complacency and corruption.

Continue reading “Tested”