Verse By Verse

When I was a little boy, not much older than the picture that I use for my profile, I attended a little non-denominational church in Carbon Canyon, California. From time to time it was run by the Baptists and then by the Nazarenes and then by other groups. I participated in that church from the time I was about five years old until my mother, my sister, and I moved away when I was sixteen. I was frequently in the Christmas and Easter plays. I rang the bell every Sunday morning to bring the believers to the chapel. I sat in Sunday School where we learned about the Old and New Testaments from teachers who seemed to be interested in the welfare of the children in Sleepy Hollow. I enjoyed myself immensely. I cannot say that I applied every teaching into my daily walk and talk, but I think that I instinctively believed that what was being taught was true.

One of the greatest experiences that I had took place during the summer time. The church sponsored Daily Vacation Bible School. I am quite certain that it lasted for at least two weeks each summer. Every day I would walk across the creek from my house to the basement of the chapel where we would all learn how to do ceramics, wood, leather, and copper work, all of which had some sort of Biblical theme associated with it. I was a terrible artisan, but I kept at it. We were all expected to memorize one scripture every day for the two weeks, so that as a result of each summer's work, I had learned ten or twelve basic scriptures that informed the Christian faith. I wasn't particularly good at memorizing anything, but I put my mind to it.Sixty years have past since those days.

For more than fifty years of that time I have been a fervent student of the scriptures, ancient and modern. For more than thirty-five years I served as a religious educator at high schools and universities throughout the United States, teaching young men and women many of the things that I had learned as a little boy in that little Baptist church. I am not a Baptist and never have been, but I have come to love the truth through the principles that I received at their hands. The postings that will appear here at this site will reflect what I have learned about those simple truths that I first accepted more than a half a century ago.