An Arkies Musings

2015 is almost over.  Here is a list of the top ten most viewed posts of 2015 on An Arkies Musings.  It is always interesting to me to see what topics other people are interested in. The most viewed post from 2015 was Caddo Lake .  We spent a weekend in February in Uncertain, Texas on the shores of Caddo Lake.  It was so eerily beautiful and relaxing.  We rented a lovely house on the lake shore called Hoot n Holler.  Caddo Lake is on the border of northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana.  It includes one of the best examples in the southern United States of a mature bald cypress forest, and is one of the largest cypress forests in the world.  The moss-draped cypress groves are beautiful.   You can read the post here. The second most viewed post was Rebecca Loebe .  In April my wife and I saw Rebecca Loebe in concert at Eureka House Concerts in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  We first saw Rebecca Loebe in concert at The Bl...

While he was at a family reunion, my Dad was given a story written by my cousin, Toni Ehrhardt. The story takes place during the Great Depression and centers around two little girls. Here is a photo of those two little girls.                                   IRENE AND HENRIETTA Mother's Christmas Program by Toni Ehrhardt My mother,Irene Dannels Woolery was born in 1925 on a small farm near Altoona, Kansas. Times weren't easy at the Dannel's Place nor most other places for that matter. I remember my mother telling me that most of the time, the family had a nice Christmas dinner of baked chicken, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, hot rolls and pumpkin pie. Possibly, they had gingerbread, fudge and mady taff. I'm just guessing they had milk, water or home-made cider to drink. For Christmas, the kids, (my mom and her sisters and brothers), usually got a nickel, an orange, and ...

This is a repost of my most viewed blog post with over 10,000 views.  I hope you enjoy it. CHRISTMAS GIFTS As Christmas approaches one of the things that most people focus on is gift giving.  We spend a lot of money and time finding the right gifts for people that are important in our life.  Sometimes we fail in our gift giving. One Christmas when my son was a young boy, we nearly ruined his Christmas with one particular gift.  One of the jobs that he was given around the house was sweeping the kitchen floor.  That Christmas we bought a stick vacuum cleaner and thought it would be funny to give to him as a gift.  When it was wrapped, the vacuum was the largest gift under the tree.  When my son saw that the largest gift had his name on it he was very excited.  His imagination went wild.  What could that present be?  His whole Christmas revolved around the largest gift under the tree.  When Christmas morning arrived, al...

I must admit that I have never liked Xmas as an abbreviation for Christmas.  It just seems a bit flippant and unnecessary. In today's culture where many Christians perceive a war against Christmas, they see the use of Xmas as an attempt to secularize the season by taking Christ out of Christmas. I must admit that I agreed with those sentiments until I actually looked into the history of the use of Xmas.  Originally, Xmas was an abbreviation where the X represents the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek, ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ. However, because of the modern interpretations of the letter X, many people are unaware of this and assume that this abbreviation is meant to drop Christ from Christmas. According to R. C. Sproul in his book, Now That's a Good Question, the idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the fish historically...

Most people don't like to take tests.  It makes them nervous. Some occupations require passing a test before you can be licensed to work, such as Nursing, Law, Civil Service jobs and many others.  This can create a lot of anxiety in people.  Waiting to find out if you passed is very stressful. When I was in high school I had a teacher who told us that if we had an A in the class we wouldn’t have to take the final exam.  I didn’t like to take finals, so I worked hard at making an A.  The Monday of finals week the teacher posted the grades.  I looked and I had an A-.  I was relieved; I wouldn’t have to take the final exam.  Then the teacher told me that I would have to take the final exam because only those who had an A were exempt and I had an A-.  I argued that an A- was still an A but it didn’t do me any good.  I had to take the final exam. Many Christians go through life like they are in school, always wondering how they are do...

Confess, ask, believe, receive:  These are four steps to the assurance that you have been saved. 1. CONFESS - The Bible tells us in I John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". If I flip the light switch, the light will shine.  If I turn the key, the car will start. If I confess my sins, God will forgive my sins.  It all depends on me. I have to confess. Remember that God has promised to forgive.  Isaiah 43:25 tells us that, " I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins".  And Micah 7:19 says, "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea". Don't try to do God's work for Him. This is where our doubt of our salvation comes in, because we're basing our salvation on our works. We need to base our salvation on Jesus Christ and His works, His righteousness. That's where we get assuran...

I've always wanted to be a shepherd.  No I haven’t really wanted to live alone with a herd of sheep; I have always coveted the experience of the shepherds on that first Christmas night. God could have chosen to reveal this most important announcement to anyone on earth.  But instead of assigning the angels to visit some of the most important people on earth, God sent the angels to speak to humble shepherds, who most people didn't consider important. The shepherds would have been watching over their flocks while the sheep and lambs rested or grazed on grass from the hillsides. While the shepherds were prepared to deal with any danger that threatened their animals, they were shocked and scared by witnessing the angels' appearance. That’s why the angels told them, “don’t be afraid”. The angels reassured the terrified shepherds that they had good news for them. Since the shepherds raised the lambs that were sacrificed to atone for people's sins each spring on Pa...