A Story Behind this Barnabas Letter from September 12, 1995

I am reposting a Barnabas Letter that I wrote over thirty years ago.  Recently when I was trying to track down some Bible study notes, I found a treasure.  It was a three-ring binder that was full of letters that I had written to others and that had been written to me.  A long time ago, we used to write letters to each other and frankly I do miss some of those days.  I can remember the first prominent minister that I wrote a letter to.  It was to T.F. Tenney, the long-time district superintendent of Louisiana.  I had heard him preach in 1994 at our UPCI General Conference and in that message, he had mentioned that he wrote letters to young preachers and so I wrote to him one after I got back home.  I found that letter along with several others that he had written to me that had the Louisiana district letterhead on it. Two of those letters were personal letters and five others were ones that he had written to other young men. 

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.