lynn.jones's blog

When we were living in Shreveport, we often went down on Friday night to visit Dan and Ruby who lived on their farm near Florien, Louisiana. As Blake grew up, he would sometimes invite a friend to go with him on our visit. This made the time go faster for him and also gave him the opportunity to acquaint his friends from the city with life on the farm.

Every year I try to encourage the hybrid Bermuda grass to grow in my lawn and to discourage everything else that tries to grow there. In order to discourage crabgrass and its rowdy friends who want to move in on my turf, I have to use various sprays on the yard. When I purchase these sprays and begin mixing them in my sprayer, I always consult the section on “application rates” that is included in the instructions. I have discovered that these “application rates” are only of limited value.

Sin poses a great danger to the church. In fact, sin can destroy the church.

My older brother Wayne is a long-time member of First Baptist Church in Hornbeck, Louisiana. He said that one time many years ago, their pastor had a creative brainstorm. Whenever a pastor has one of these, as with all storms, it poses a danger to the church. The pastor’s idea was that for their new year’s worship service they would have a new beginning. They would ask the Lord to forgive them of their sins and take them all away. With this clean slate, they would begin the new year.

I have officiated at a lot of weddings in my ministry. Saturday’s wedding, however, was unique. I officiated at the wedding of my own son, Blake, and his fiancé, Julie Thomas. Here, in part, is what I told them:

The Major League All-Star Game will be played next Tuesday in St. Louis. I watched my first all-star game in the summer of 1954. We were spending the summer in Natchitoches, Louisiana, where my mom was working on her Master’s degree at Northwestern State. She sent me down to Ackel’s Grocery at the end of the block to get some milk, and the all-star game was on the television in the store. We had no television so I was captivated by the game. By the time I got back with the milk, it was out-of-date.

Ever since the fall of man, we gardeners have had to do battle with the weeds. After Adam’s sin, God said to him, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” Before the fall, evidently no thorns or thistles grew, and their double-first cousins, the weeds, were also missing. After the fall, the weeds began proliferating and torturing us gardeners as just reward for our sin. We had it coming, but that still doesn’t make our warfare with the weeds any more pleasant.