Parts of the Body
Would you do me a favor? Pick up your right foot and move it in a clockwise circle (that’s to the right for those who only know digital time). Now, as you are moving your right foot in a clockwise circle, draw a “6” in the air. Your foot changed directions, didn’t it? Try it again, this time really concentrate on your foot NOT changing directions. It still changed directions, didn’t it? Do you know why? It has to do…
Welcome August!
Can you believe that it is already August? It feels like the year started only yesterday, and tomorrow it will be 2024! We do, however, have to go through the remaining five months of 2023. Those five months are going to be super exciting for us here at Bell. What is going to make the next five months so exciting? I’m glad you asked! The short answer is YOU! The longer answer is what YOU (and the rest of the…
Targeted Marketing
Several months ago, before we moved to Amarillo, I was asked to do some research on purchasing a forklift. Truth for Today World Mission School in Searcy, AR., where I was working, was close to completing their new warehouse and needed a way to stack pallets of books on top of each other. They ended up buying a pallet lifter (a forklift that has to be pushed around manually). I tell you this because I had logged into my personal…
Space Available
As you drive around town, and even outside of town, if you look closely at many of the strip malls that you come across, you are likely to see a big sign that reads, “Space Available” and then a phone number or website to contact the property manager about the property. Space is available in many of the office buildings around town as well. The building owners know that they need to let people know of the availability of space…
Souvenirs
When we go on vacation, one of the things we like to do is bring home souvenirs as mementos of the places where we have been. They might bring home a t-shirt, or a coffee mug, or a rock . . . something to remember where we went. Perhaps we also pick up souvenirs of things we have accomplished. That rock has a story behind it: you picked it up at the peak of a mountain you climbed. That plaque…
Talents
In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the familiar “Parable of the Talents.” In a nutshell, a man is planning a trip and, before he leaves, he entrusts some property to his servants. He gives one servant five talents, one two talents, and a third received one talent. Some footnotes say: “a talent was worth more than a thousand dollars.” This, technically, is correct. However, scholars say that a talent was the largest unit of weight, equaling about seventy-five pounds. Others say…
Slow leak
A few weeks ago, the tire pressure light came on in our van. The weather had recently turned cold, so I went to a local establishment and had them check the pressure and add some air so the light would be “happy.” They did and the light went off . . . until about two weeks later. The light came on again. I did the same thing, figuring it was just the weather, and the light went off again .…
Jump!
A family was awakened by their smoke detector in the middle of the night to discover that their house was on fire. The father ran into the upstairs bedroom of his children and carried his 18-month-old baby in his arms while dragging his four-year-old by the hand. They were halfway down the stairs when the little boy remembered that he had left his teddy bear in the bedroom, so he broke free from his father’s hand and ran back to…
A Bucket of Money
One fine evening a man walked into a fast-food chicken place and bought a nine-piece bucket of chicken. He took his chicken to the park for a romantic picnic under the moonlight with his woman. Upon reaching into the bucket, however, he received a surprise. Instead of chicken he discovered what was apparently the restaurant’s night deposit, nine thousand dollars. The young man brought the bucket back to the store and asked for his chicken in exchange for the money.…
Your Dad
A hero he is to the son of his youth to a daughter he’s handsome and tall. This man we call “dad” who has given so much brings warmth to the heart of us all. His hands are calloused by a lifetime of toil, his face is tanned by the sun. The lines were put there by struggles he lost and his smile by those that he won. His heart is a storehouse of treasures untold of wisdom,…
Who, Me?
There was once a college student who was struggling in many area of his life. He spent a great deal of his time feeling angry and frustrated. When he could stand it no longer, he went to the dim and seldom used chapel on campus. He paced up and down the aisles, slapping the back of the empty pews. He yelled, he cried, and he raged at God. “God you created the world. What could you possibly have been thinking?…
The Milkman’s Gift
When Cheryl Prewitt was four years old, she hung around her father’s small grocery store. Almost daily, the milkman would come into the store and greet her with the words, “How’s my little Miss America?” At first she giggled, but eventually she became comfortable with it… and even liked it a little. Soon the milkman’s greeting became a childhood fantasy… then a teenage dream. Finally, it became a goal… and in 1980, she stood on a stage and was crowned……