About a year ago, I took this photograph in the interior of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s one of the many babbling and beautiful streams that flow through that natural wonderland of God’s creation there, and as with any stream that bubbles and gurgles over ancient stones, the word “laughter comes to mind. […]

It’s hard to imagine yourself as a soldier in ancient times walking onto a battlefield where swords, spears, daggers, flails, bows and arrows, and shields of your enemy abound, and yet you stand there, in light clothing, with no shoes, boots or head covering, while your foe is in full charge toward you, his eyes […]

“Gone”-A Poem about the Darkest Saturday Gone….. was his incredible smile,… that they remembered so clearly, as the children had gathered around him, with their laughter, and playing, and dirty hands, trying to climb into his lap as he blessed them. Gone…..was the authority he exercised,….over the trembling demons, that saturated the poor wretched man […]

APRIL 24, 1930 – MARCH 31, 2022 IN THE CARE OF Pendry’s Lenoir Funeral Home Alpha Lee “Dude” Carswell, age 91, of Lenoir, North Carolina, passed away on Thursday, March 31, 2022. Alpha was born April 24, 1930, in Caldwell County to the late Lee and Pansy Porch Carswell.  He is survived by his wife […]

 Missions is primarily going, doing and sending. I. Missions Means Giving – Jesus commanded us to “go into all the world.” “Go,” He said, “and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19). “Go and preach the gospel to every creature,” (Mark …

“Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 26:3 I took this picture of this blooming Bradford Pear tree on a sunny March afternoon on the edge of the field behind my house. I remember when it was but a tiny sapling, and I […]

Since the beginning of the Church of God Bible Training School (BTS) in 1918, education and Bible training have been vital ingredients in the phenomenal growth of a small group of Appalachian Mountain worshipers into one of the world’s largest Pentecostal denominations. But even though it has developed a splendid academia program, the church has […]