The Crucial Impact of Some Early Teachers

Lately the seriousness of approaching my seventh decade of life has been profitable and sobering.  I think that one of the specific marks of aging is that you can look back and see with greater clarity and insight as to why you are walking the present path you are on.  I have had some excellent teachers who have contributed greatly to my life.  Some of the early teachers from middle school and high school years deserve another day of recollection to honor them.  But my thoughts have been with three of them in the range of 1985-86 when I was in RN school.  It is almost shocking when December of 2026 arrives that I graduated from RN school forty years ago.  I am in a different place now than what I anticipated on that night that I shook that hand of Dr. Nathan Hodges at that commencement ceremony.  But I can acknowledge clearly that the Lord has directed everything in my life to this point and I am in belief that He will continue to do the same until I reach the finish line. 

The three teachers that my reminiscing recalled were all biology teachers at Wallace Community College in Dothan.  Back then everything was on a quarter system, not a semester structure as it is now.   It was the winter quarter of 1985 and I was barely eighteen years old.  That time stamp allowed me to be dropped into the first of two required quarters of Anatomy and Physiology.  The teacher of A&P showed up late that January morning, I think it may have been 15-20 minutes or so before he arrived.  I had heard about him by reputation but had not seen him until that morning.  He was a tall burly guy named Gerald Bryant.  He shows up in a beaded and fringed-sleeved deer skin jacket, a red checked flannel shirt, blue Levi’s, and some of the craziest looking boots that came just below his knees.  He had his Levi’s tucked into them and he looked more equipped for a mountain hike than to teach an A&P class.  Long-haired with a massive Duck Dynasty beard thirty years before Robertson boys ever showed up.  It was a little shocking for me due to my very sheltered upbringing at home and the classes at Rehobeth High School. 

2026 Goals/Resolutions--Number 4

I look forward to every New Year’s Day on January 1.  Sometime when I was in my early 20’s my mother-in-law bought me a Day-Timer leather calendar with the annual insert.  It was the A5 size and I used it almost religiously for years until the upgraded electronic gadgets and calendars took over.  I can remember using both Day-Timer and the Franklin Covey planners simultaneously trying to keep up with time management.  During those days, you had to order them with a catalog usually by late October and early November so you would be able to have it ready by January.  I can remember when they went from the basic calendar packages to themed settings—leadership, patriotic, travelers, and so forth.  The Franklin Covey inserts were really high end and would be sent to you in a metal tin box so you could save them after the year had ended.  I have several of them packed away from years ago. 

Another thing that I started doing was around the beginning of December, I would start mapping out a list of sorts to sort of move me in a direction to accomplish some goals.  I can remember reading Stephen Covey’s books about the seven habits of highly effective people and what he later wrote about—the eighth habit.  Other time management authors like David Allen, Peter Drucker, Brian Tracy, Ken Blanchard, Spencer Johnson, and Jim Collins were books that I found myself tracking through.  Somewhere along the way I picked up the idea that however you spend your time is how you spend your life.  I know that might not be so profound, but its simplicity makes it worth digging into. 

Lessons from Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan--Part 2--Vanity Fair & It's Challenges to Us in 2026

I am writing another continuation of the previous post about the lessons we can learn from Pilgrim’s Progress in 2026.  Specifically, I want to go back to the treacherous trap called Vanity Fair.  A dangerous city that all travelers must go through on their way to the Celestial City. 

Just as a brief reference point, the whole seed of the idea for this was a sermon/Bible study that I developed after a late-night conversation with Pastor Douglas Walker.  He had moved to Calgary, Alberta to take the pastoral leadership at Truth Church.  The conversation had stirred my soul and mind with some thoughts concerning modesty.  That word is somewhat ancient for a lot of us now and I really believe that we are lesser for it both spiritually and mentally.      

Lessons from Pilgrim's Progress--Vanity Fair & Its Challenge to Us in 2026

In and around the Barnabas Blog you will find a host of references to Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan.  Part one was written in 1678 and part two was published in 1684.  Over the years I have collected various copies of it.  The nicest one is the one published by Easton Press and the oldest one is from the 1890’s that I found in a used bookstore in North Platte, Nebraska when I was with Pastor Myron Powell (DSupt/NE).  I have multiple copies of paperbacks by Oxford Press, Penguin Classics, Barnes & Noble Classics series, Baker Books, Dover, and several independent publishers that serve the homeschool community.  I am always interested to find copies in used bookstores that have marked up margins, highlights, and scribbled notes on the inside of the front/back covers.

As I have written several times, I am indebted to Pastor John Harrell who was the long-time pastor of the Bridge City UPC in Bridge City, Texas who encouraged me to read it.  I can remember the copy that I bought in a Family Christian bookstore in Dothan.  It was The Pilgrim’s Progress in Modern English published by Bridge-Logos Publishers.  It was a paperback copy that weathered multiple backpack journeys with me to and from Flowers Hospital when I was still working full-time in one of the IR cath labs.  I look at the copy now after 25 years and the highlights and marginal notes serve almost as landmarks of a spiritual journey moving on toward the Celestial City.  If you have read it, some of this may be a bit redundant to you, however, I am going to focus on some points that brings in and around the vicious town of Vanity Fair.     

Book Recommendation--Stockholm Syndrome Christianity (Why Christian Leaders are Failing--and What We Can Do About It)--John G. West

I grew up reading books.  I am not sure if it was expected that I should read books but once I learned how to read, books became things that took my mind and spirit to places I had never been before.  I read all the Hardy Boys series, many of the biographies that were prevalent in the children’s library in Dothan, a host of stories about the advancement of America toward the west, and sports stories.  Duane Decker was a fictional writer that wrote about fictional major league baseball teams and the ups and downs of the players.  Beverly Cleary’s books about Henry Huggins were another big hit for me. 

Then I started reading the westerns that were written by Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey which led to Peter McCurtin and his Sundance series.  As I got older, I found Stephen Ambrose (recommended to me by Harold Hoffman) and read Undaunted Courage about Lewis and Clark and their expedition.  Then I started working through his books on World War II and that opened more books about the great war in the European theater.  Biographies by McCollough, Meachum, Chernow, and others were another avenue that I went down. 

Mixed in was another writer that I found about the time I started in RN school whose books captivated me for more than a decade—Robin Cook!  He has written more than 40 books, and I have read at least 35 of them, some of them multiple times.  Somewhere along the way I accidentally found A. J. Cronin whose writing, even to this day I find incredibly intriguing especially the two that I have read several times, The Citadel and The Keys to the Kingdom.  Another similar incidental find is The Lords of Discipline and The Great Santini by Pat Conroy, which pushed me to read all his other books—deep, melancholy, and provoking characters and twisting plots that have stayed with me for the long years since I have read any of his books.  I could go on and on about books and authors but that is not what this blog is supposed to be about—it is a book recommendation—so I shall commence with that task.

The Kitchen Table

I have spent a bit of time reading back through some of the old Barnabas Blog posts to stir up my thoughts and memories.  One of the series that created a “time warp” was those that I had written about the various characters of Pilgrim’s Progress.  Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress was initially recommended to me by Brother Harrell, the long-time pastor in Bridge City, Texas.  As I mused on that character series, I was pulled back toward a kitchen table.  In fact, I went back and looked through my preaching record in Excel to pinpoint the exact dates that I spent at a specific kitchen table.  These dates (3/2/96; 11/22/97; 6/20/98; 12/15/01; 6/1/02; 7/26/03) were the times that I spent with the Raggio’s in Birmingham, Alabama.  These specific dates were on Saturday nights prior to me preaching at Bible Tabernacle where Brother Ken Raggio was the pastor.  All these dates were when I was still working at Flowers Hospital here in Dothan.  He would invite me up to preach and I would usually make the drive on a mid-afternoon on Saturday and stay in their home.  We would go eat somewhere and then be back at their home by 7-7:30. 

Then we would gather up at the kitchen table in their home.  These were the days when study Bibles were not nearly as available as they are now.  So, for me, I had my “go to” Thompson Chain KJV which has been my primary sword of choice for a long time now.  Brother and Sister Raggio also had Thompson’s as well.  I can’t even begin to tell you how rich the experience was at that time.  Even now, time pulls me back to those powerful moments of fellowship over the Word.  You may think that the description of powerful is an exaggeration but in my mind that word doesn’t even nearly tap what all that we would get into as far as biblical content.  Another memory that I cannot shake free of is Sister Raggio’s Bible, I have only seen one other woman’s Bible to this day that has been as marked up as what hers was.  It was a Thompson as well and there was no doubt in my mind that her proficiency with the Word was incredible.  Not only did her contributions to the discussion bear that out but her Bible was unbelievable.  The golden gilted page edges were no longer there because of constant use and there were marks all through the Scripture columns in the classic Thompson text block.  But here is another matter, she also had marked up the index and the charts that were in the back of it.  Brother Raggio’s Bible was in the same condition, well-used, marked up, prayed over and preached with.  I look back at those times with great fondness with my only regret being that I was not actively journaling at that time, so the details are now lost to time.

 

My Poor Blog!

January 17, 2026

 

Twenty years ago, I started the Barnabas Blog on a whim.  At the time, blogs or weblogs were sort of coming into existence from a variety of amateur writers and a few more serious ones on the religious scene.  I can remember there were two blogs that I do not even remember how I found them, but they had a very strong influence on my thinking at the time.  One of them is still in existence and the other one has long been reduced to an inactive state.  So, once I sort of gathered my “sea legs” so to speak, I started writing about things that piqued my interest and what I thought might gather a small following of preachers and ministers. 

 

It has been ages since I have written anything besides sermon notes and Bible studies that primarily are for where I pastor in Dothan, Alabama.  On this rainy, cold Saturday night, once again I am in my study at the Pentecostals of Dothan.  It is much larger and has a whole lot more volumes in my library than it did twenty years ago.  Twenty years ago, I was literally working out of a small room that had become a cleaning closet for the old fellowship hall.  In December 2005, I had made the transition from working full-time in an Interventional Radiology Cath lab as an RN to a very part-time basis that I would continue until the fall of 2014.  So, I had gone from a high-tech medical procedure lab to a dusty, dilapidated “broom closet” and that is where the Barnabas Blog started.  The space was 12 feet by 16 feet with a noisy window unit that cranked out very cold air but also sprayed mildew all over creation as well.  In those simple surroundings, I wrote and prayed, wrote some more and prayed some more, and wrote even more and prayed even more.  Prayer is far more important than writing, however prayer will set your mind and pen on fire while you are writing.  So, I wrote!  Honestly, I had no idea how many people would come to read the Barnabas Blog in that first decade.  It never crossed my mind that it would inspire, convict, encourage, and in some cases aggravate.  So many people came up to me at various conferences and introduced themselves as readers, to the degree that it was amazing.  Once there was a time when I got hemmed in by a couple of preachers who felt like I had no business writing content like I did.  I look back at those days and ask myself what I asked just before I started this blog post: Why did you quit writing?!