I had a hankerin’ for a western, so I read the Louis L’Amour book Rider of Lost Creek. Louis L’Amour wrote 120 books before he died in 1988. All of his books are still in print. The struggles of the Old West (1870’s to 1890’s) still resonate with us today for a reason. I saw a glimpse of what he was really writing about—the cowboy, the cattle drives, the free range were being replaced by a new Fenced West (1890’s to 1920’s) of ranch hands, cattle trains, and barbed wire. In the Old West, outlaws were deputized as lawmen and lawmen turned outlaw, if the opportunity seemed worth it. L’Amour wrote briefly about Watt Earp and Bat Masterson as good guys and gunslingers. I remember the old Radio and TV shows about the Old West—The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke and Wagon Train, and those of the Fenced West—Bonanza, Roy Rogers, and Hop-a-Long Cassidy. All those shows were about righting wrongs and making a new start.

The real Wyatt Earp retired from the old west, moved to Alaska to find gold, then eventually went to Hollywood where he became a motion picture consultant to Tom Mix, William S. Hart and a young actor named Marion Morrison, who became John Wayne. Wyatt Earp died in 1929.  Bat Masterson, who reportedly killed more than 26 men before he was 30, died in 1921 sitting at his typewriter in New York City as the sports columnist for the New York Telegraph. The  Old West and the Fenced West became the Wild West in the imaginations of the storytellers. The cowboys who lived through those changing times constantly reinvented themselves. They learned the power of a new start, a new beginning.

I remember once, when visiting a church in the East, our daughters were asked, “Do Indians live in teepees in Tulsa, Oklahoma?” The Wild West, Hollywood-style, lives on in our collective stories. It is a new day. Today’s cowboys have hardly driven cattle anywhere unless the cattle were in their trucks. It is a different day for life on the range. Do you need a re-start, a reinvention, and transformation of your life today? God is the One who said, “Behold, I make all things new.” It is never too late for a fresh start.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Start anew. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Dorothy and I were enjoying a leisurely breakfast this past Thursday, when we were startled by a loud, pulsing siren-like sound. We thought our home alarm system had been triggered. Not seeing or smelling smoke but alarmed that every smoke detector in the house was screeching, Dorothy called 911 and asked the fire department to send someone out to determine the cause. There was no smoke or fire anywhere that I could see. My next thought was that it might be carbon monoxide that set off the alarms. I opened the front and back doors to let in some outside air. The freeze warnings and steep temperature drop had caused us to turn on the heat on Monday night. I went to the garage, opened the attic and looked up. Still no smoke or flames. I went outside to look at the roof, front and back. All was quiet. While the firetruck was on its way, I moved the cars out of the garage and out of the way, while Dorothy waited outside as the fire department personnel had ordered. 

The first cold week of the season is a dangerous time for house fires and carbon monoxide poisonings. Heaters, fireplaces, and furnaces have been sitting unused for months, getting dustier and rustier. A tiny gas leak, a worn-out electrical cord or connector, or a failing fan motor can do a lot of damage. When the firemen arrived, they spread apart to assess the whole house. They were each wearing carbon monoxide detectors, which were indicating everything was normal. Soon they found the source of the problem: the smoke detectors had malfunctioned. I did not know that smoke detectors have an expiration date of about 10 years. Ours are 17 years old. Not only are we to replace the batteries when needed, but also the smoke detector units themselves after 10-12 years. One fireman patiently showed me about our units, how they were connected and the kind to buy. They suggested we replace them all. Fortunately, I was able to find the same model on-line. Before they left, they told me to call them when we got our new units; they would gladly install them for us at no cost.

After that alarming experience, we warmed our coffee and food as best we could and talked about it all. We are thankful for alarms that work and firefighters that are caring and patient. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Check your alarms. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1439 and the world has never been the same. Gutenberg’s big project was to print the entire Bible in his native German. It was a good place to start. The printing press revolutionized the world.

In my life long ago, I served as the full-time Serials Librarian at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. That’s serials with an “s” not with a “c.” We did not serve breakfast. Serials are periodicals, magazines, and annuals. I had a staff of eight people to supervise and over 4,000 different titles to keep catalogued and filed. It was an amazing and diverse job with the opportunity to help students, professors and Biblical scholars research the most current materials available in religious studies. I am continually grateful for the skills I learned in that position. I learned about the budgeting process and living within its constraints. I learned about managing a staff and scheduling. I learned how to read quickly and accurately, and how to research current topics through periodicals. 

Many years later, I went to the library of a local theological seminary to check out a couple of books. I had not been in an actual theological library in a long time. Over the years my personal library, the church media center and the kindness of friends has seen me through. I was researching a sermon series on Jesus and his relationship with the women who followed Him. I needed to find very specialized books and articles. But I needed help. The card catalog had been recycled long ago; now everything is found by computer. The student librarian patiently showed me how I could find and check out anything that I needed in this library from any computer in the world!

C. S. Lewis once wrote of how the power of reading opens our perspectives: We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own. Many people never go to a public library anymore, although the library is cheaper than a bookstore, and more technologically advanced than many homes. While there will always be a place for holding a good book in your hand, you may be reading your favorite author from a hand-held tablet already. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Keep reading. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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Do you remember your first job, the one with an actual paycheck? I remember opening that first pay envelope and seeing a check for about $30, big money for 1963. Yet I was disappointed to see what they had taken out of my paycheck. I was told it had to do with death and taxes. It was Railroad Retirement and union dues. I was the fill-in-where-needed summer vacation relief Yard Clerk for the Miami railyards of Seaboard Airline Railroad (CSX today). I was working there because my father was one of the Yard Masters.

The railyard is where incoming and outgoing freight cars get sorted out and sent off to their various destinations. My job was to inventory every box car, flat car, tank car, hopper, engine, and caboose on more than a dozen tracks. I listed the cars on a form sheet in exact order, by numbered track. My job also included climbing on top of box cars and over to refrigerator cars to check the level of ice they contained before they left the yards. It also meant I learned how to step up on and jump off a moving freight train to save me walking to the other side of the yard. This is harder than it sounds at 3 a.m. on a moonless night. 

The only time I was really frightened was one afternoon when, lost in thought, a voice inside a box car suddenly shouted out, “Hey, boy!” I jumped. There, right before my eyes, were three grizzled hobos. They wanted to know the time. I had never seen a real hobo in person. I had heard about them and even watched Red Skelton play one many times on TV. We call them the homeless today, but a hobo was supposed to be someone who traveled the rails in search of work and a place to build his family. People provided extras for the hobos: extra food, extra clothes, and a place to spend the night between train rides. Some hobos took advantage, but most were genuinely grateful. 

Times changed and the emotionally wounded, physically afflicted and financially insecure have found themselves with fewer trains to ride. Our Wednesday night outreach to our community provides emergency supplies—bags of groceries, extra clothes, a listening ear and promise of prayer. I invite you to join us as a volunteer in prayerfully ministering with our neighbors and those who may be passing through. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Get on board. And let’s experience the love and power of God together. 

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One of the true joys of faithful churches is found in the opportunity to plant new churches. Our church has been blessed to help organize three strong churches: Belview, Southwood (1976), and Monte Los Olivos (2000). But it all began with Belview. In 1951, as the contractors were pouring the concrete for the foundation for our current church sanctuary, an opportunity arose for us to begin a new mission. I can only imagine the conversations when the Tulsa Baptist Association approached the pastor and this congregation to start a new work when they had just launched a huge building campaign. The association was encouraging the establishment of new neighborhood churches as the boon of post-war housing additions had spread across the city. A possible site was secured on some property about a mile north of our church on Yale Avenue. New houses were being built on both sides of Yale, and a public school was in the works. The homes were canvassed, and a tent revival was held. Feeling led by God, the church voted to plant a new church.  Our pastor at the time, Rev. Pat Murphy, asked for volunteers to go and start the new church. Records indicate about 30 of our families committed to spend a year working to establish what would become the Belview Baptist Church. What a fellowship!

Our church led the organizing council in October of 1952. Some of those pioneering families became charter members of the new church, while many returned to continue the work of building the sanctuary here. Rev. Tom Branch has been their faithful pastor now for 37 years. Tom has a long and meaningful relationship with both the Tulsa Police and Fire Departments, serving for decades as one of the lead police chaplains for our county. Belview has always been known for its community outreach, providing hospitality with food and clothes, a place for families to do their holiday shopping in the Jesus Christmas Room, and as a lighthouse of wise counsel for those needing salvation and renewal. With the aging of some of their faithful volunteers in 2019, Belview gave The People’s Pantry all their remaining food and clothing supplies. In addition, they contribute monthly to our Pantry from their budget, as a meaningful way to serve this area. This Sunday, October 9, Belview Baptist Church will celebrate its 70^th Anniversary. What a joy divine!

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Lean on Jesus. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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I have been annoyed by it for years, then I was just plain frustrated for a while. It was the same problem week after week. I didn’t know what to do about it. It stopped during the pandemic. Now it has started up again. It is a mystery to me. It is a “blister maker” if I am not careful. Someone is not being responsible, and really, someone is just not being kind to me at all. Sounds like I’m starting to take it personally

Someone is throwing their cigarette stubs in my driveway. It used to be three or four times a week. None of our neighbors smoke, yet a cigarette stub lands in my driveway or front yard a couple of times a week.  My neighbors do not have this problem. We live in the middle of the block. Our street is so wide that there is a median designed to hold twelve parked cars in front of our house. And none of our neighbors host that many parties. I have drawn up a very short suspect list: the mail carrier, the newspaper carrier, or the UPS guy. One other possibility would be someone who might regularly walk around the neighborhood. Most people who are walking for exercise do not smoke while walking and the newspaper carrier never stops when throwing the paper. I am down to the mail carrier or the UPS guy. The UPS guy changes all the time, so now I am left with the mailman. Does he always light his cigarette at the same place, at the same moment so that he is always ready to throw it away at my house? Doesn’t seem likely. I’ve never seen him smoking. Ever. The mystery deepens. 

If I can’t fix it, change it, or confront the culprit, all I can do is face it, deal with it, and wait for the culprit to change. Waiting for someone else to change so my life will be better means I have to change my attitude. If I don’t, it could become the little burr that makes a blister that becomes infected and cripples my walk and makes me sick. Anger and grudges are tricky like that. The only way to stop the blister is to remove the burr. How do I remove the burr? I must stop waiting for someone else to change, but rather check the condition of my own heart when these aggravations occur.

  Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Check for burrs.  And let’s experience the love and power of God together. 

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During one of our adventures at the Tulsa State Fair a dozen years ago, we stopped by to see the magic show of Ridgeway and Johnson.  This husband-and-wife team have become world famous for their large and dangerous illusions.  While Kevin Ridgeway is the master magician and showman, his wife, Kristen Johnson, is the star of the show. He waves the sharp blades around; she gets in the box that is sliced down to a small cube then pierced through with five swords. She gets out of the box unharmed. She is hung upside down by her feet, while strapped into a straitjacket, like Harry Houdini. She wriggles out of the straitjacket and repels down to the floor.

Best known for her underwater escapes, Kristen has become The Lady Houdini. Draped with locked chains, handcuffed with her feet shackled, she lowers herself into a glass tank of water, which is also locked on top. Holding her breath in full view of the audience she proceeds to try to pick the seven locks and escape. Watching her do this takes your breath away. As a former Christian magician, I know some of the science behind the dangerous illusions, but Kristen still must hold her breath underwater for about three and a half minutes while picking the locks. That is not an illusion. Their timing must be perfect. Their trust in each other must be absolute. But most of all they need to love what they do and do what they love. She has nearly died in that tank of water on three occasions. 

They were almost killed in 2017 by a distracted (texting) driver. She had broken ribs and a punctured lung. Kevin was severely injured and in a coma for five weeks before slowly healing from his surgeries, accompanied by months of physical therapy. They then chose to resume their career. At the end of July this year, Kristen fell nearly 30 feet while descending from her straitjacket performance breaking a leg and her wrist. This week, if all goes well, surgeons will remove the three plates, 16 screws and the rod in her wrist. They persevere and feel blessed.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Keep on keeping on. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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The first of Queen Elizabeth’s funerals was held in St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland. I watched the whole service and was grateful I was not officiating. One of the historic ministers of the church was John Knox, leader of the Scottish Reformed Church (Presbyterian.) The service was a simple and traditional Christian funeral with familiar Scriptures and music, and a brief message. The second funeral was in St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The state funeral will be at Westminster Abby in London, then on to Windsor Castle and St. George’s Chapel for the Committal Service. The Queen regularly attended these churches, and faith played a significant role in her daily life. Her death also marks a new beginning.

The new King Charles and I share the same birthday, but in different years. He has been “next-in-line” for 70 years, becoming the oldest person to ascend to the throne. We have not lived parallel lives.  I’m sometimes asked “How many people have you married?” I have learned not to give the right answer unless I really know the person asking the question. The right answer, of course, is one, but most people seem confused or slightly miffed at that answer. What they are asking is how many weddings have I officiated. That is a harder number to say.  The first wedding I ever performed was for my younger sister, Denise, in June of 1969. She and Bubba were married 36 years until his death in 2005. The hardest were the ones where I was also the father of the bride. With just a general sense of the weddings through the years, I have officiated around 250. Weddings mark a new beginning.

I have a more accurate number of the funerals. The very first funeral, where I was assisting, was in 1966 for an 18-month-old boy. He had gotten behind his 18-year-old uncle’s car. It is still one of the saddest funerals I have ever witnessed. Over the years I have saved notes and materials from most of the services. I have probably misplaced several of the services, but reviewing these notes, I have saved the stories of around 500 people who have touched and shaped my life through the years. 

Weddings and funerals are beginnings and endings. The people involved move from life before the wedding, or funeral, to the beginning of all that lies ahead. Endings and beginnings are rarely easy, no matter how many funerals may be involved.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Celebrate it all. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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When the recent cold snap suddenly dropped the temperatures into the lower 80’s, I decided that would be a good day to get some chili for lunch. I drove down old Route 66 (11^th Street) west toward downtown, looking for the new home for Ike’s Chili. I had been there once in the before times.  After passing through the massive construction zone at Lewis Avenue, I found myself entering a nearly unrecognizable stretch just past Utica. The construction there was creating new stores, restaurants, and touristy-type businesses. I was so disoriented by it all, I missed Ike’s altogether and had to go way out of the way to get back to where I was headed. After parking in back, I noticed Ike’s was preparing for a celebration.

The posters were inviting everyone to their Anniversary Party and Cruise, which seemed a little much for a place that serves bowls of chili. Ike’s is the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Tulsa. September 10^th will mark 114 years. There will be a big party on Saturday, including an invitation to “cruise” Route 66. Ike Johnson, who died in 1928, started his “chili parlor” in 1908 at 2^nd and Boston. I was most familiar with the location on Admiral towards Sheridan, where it stood from 1966-2014. The current menu has a copy of the Tulsa World article from 1936, which tells the backstory. Included is a story of the time entertainer Will Rogers got to Ike’s too late—everyone had gone home. From its beginning Ike’s customers regularly included some of the most prominent people in Tulsa—unusual for a place that basically serves chili and hot dogs. Million-dollar deals have been brokered by people sitting at the counter on bar stools trying to keep the chili off their ties. Ike would be surprised that a regular bowl of chili now costs nearly $8.00, and a coney the same. I ordered my favorite—three-way chili and a coney. More than enough for anyone. Of course, when I stepped back outside after lunch, the weather was a humid 92˚.

Ike Johnson stuck with a good thing, and so have four generations in his family.  Anyone from any station in life is welcome to sit down for a simple meal, have a good conversation with a friend or stranger, and continue their day, satisfied and full. That is worth celebrating.

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Celebrate the simple things. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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I have written before about the power of a daily devotional time. Today I wanted to share with you a quote from Billy Graham’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz. The following was originally written in her book, Just Give Me Jesus. She developed a 365-day devotional book called The Joy of My Heart, where she excerpts passages from each of her books. This one spoke to me this week.

If Adam knew God as a beloved Father,

if Eve knew Him as the original Homemaker,

if Noah knew Him as the Refuge from the storm,

if Abraham knew Him as a Friend,

if Moses knew Him as the Redeemer,

if Rahab knew Him as the gracious Savior,

if David knew Him as his Shepherd,

if Elijah knew Him as the Almighty,

if Daniel knew Him as the Lion Tamer,

if Mary Magdalene knew Him as the Bondage Breaker,

if Martha knew Him as the Promise Keeper,

if Lazarus knew Him as the Resurrection and the Life,

if Bartimaeus knew Him as the Light of the World,

if John knew Him as the glorious King upon the throne,

surely you and I can know Him too!

You will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him

if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

–Deuteronomy 4:29 NKJV

Copyright by Anne Graham Lotz

This is simple, direct, and true. Thank you, Anne Graham Lotz, for reminding me that each of us can know God in a way that transforms us.  All of us have a friend that needs to hear this message. 

Keep healthy. Pray mightily. Enjoy your life today. Share the promise of God’s grace. And let’s experience the love and power of God together.

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