An Arkies Musings

2016 is almost over.  Here is a list of the top ten most viewed posts of 2016 on An Arkies Musings.  It is always interesting to me to see what topics other people are interested in. Beginning in January 2016, I started writing a weekly column, An Arkie's Faith, for my local newspaper. My column from the September 28, 2016, issue of The Mena Star was the most viewed post of the year with over 6,000 views. The article "Return Fire" told the story of Fort Stevens; the only military fort in the United States to be fired upon by an enemy during a time of war since the War of 1812. You can read the post here. The second most viewed post of the year was written on 9/11. It was the fifteenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. My thoughts as I looked back on that day that I titled, "Why Lord," seemed to resonate with my readers. You can read the post here. My An Arkie's Faith column from the October 12, 2016, issue of The Mena S...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 28, 2016, issue of The Mena Star During the Christmas season, my wife and I made a trip out of town to do some Christmas shopping. In the early afternoon, we took a break to get something to eat. The lunch rush was over, so the quaint little restaurant was not busy. We were thankful for the peaceful atmosphere. Our waiter was rather ordinary in appearance and older than the rest of the wait staff. He was not very tall but was neatly dressed in slacks, dress shirt, and tie. He said, “my name is Tony.” As Tony waited on us, we noticed that he was very professional and wanted everything to be perfect. Any squeezed lime, empty sweetener packet, or used napkin were quickly removed from our table. When we commented on how well he was taking care of us, he was pleased. Tony spoke with an accent, which didn’t surprise us at a restaurant that serves Nuevo Latino cuisine. He asked us if we could understand his English. We smiled and ...

The book of Revelation the Bible talks about the second death. Both the first death and the second death are the result of sin, but the first is temporary and occurs by means of physical causes, such as disease or tragedy or old age. We are all too familiar with the first death. The second death does not occur on merely a physical level, but on the psychological level as well, due to the lethal power of one’s guilt. It is complete and final. Revelation 20:13-15 is very specific about what the second death is, "The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." Being cast into the lake of fire is the second death. The lake of fire, or hell, is equivalent to the second death. God will not subject the w...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 21, 2016, issue of The Mena Star As Christmas approaches, one of the things that people focus on is giving good gifts. 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 his jobs 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. The vacuum, wrapped in beautiful paper, 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 and speculating on what it could be. When Christmas morning arrived, all he could think about was that gift. When he opened it, he w...

I recently read about the legend of the candy cane. Legend is an old English word meaning "probably not true." Even so, I enjoyed reading about the legend. The legend says that in medieval times, there was a town in Europe where any public display of Christianity was forbidden. No crosses or Bibles were allowed. One old man, a candy maker by profession, was very upset by this. He loved God and couldn't stand to not share that love with others. He prayed for God to show him some way to make Christmas gifts for the children which would teach them the story of Jesus. His answer was the candy cane. The candy cane was in the shape of a shepherd’s staff to show them that Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His flock. Upside down the candy cane was a "J", the first letter of Jesus' name. It was made of hard candy to remind us that Christ is the rock of our salvation. The wide red stripes on the candy cane were to represent the blood He shed on the cross for ...

My An Arkie's Faith column from the December 14, 2016, issue of The Mena Star A few years ago my wife started doing some genealogy research. Early on in her research, she ran across the fascinating story of her great-great-grandmother, Sophie. Sophie Cathrine Wilhelmine Klauen Petersen and her children emigrated from Denmark in 1856. She traveled from Denmark to England where she sailed from Liverpool to New York City. From New York, she traveled by train to Iowa City, Iowa where she became a part of the Willie Handcart Company. 1n 1856, over nineteen hundred European immigrants signed up to make the thousand-mile journey from Iowa City to Salt Lake City pulling handcarts. They were organized into companies, with Sophie and her children becoming a part of the Willie Handcart Company. Although Sophie and her children arrived safely in Salt Lake City, over sixty members of the Willie Handcart Company died on the trail. My wife has been very interested in the details of th...

The holiday season is a busy time for us, but this weekend was even busier than usual. On Thanksgiving, my Dad brought his Shay Model A over, and the family enjoyed riding around in it. The co-ordinator of the Mena Christmas Parade saw photos of the car and contacted us wanting to know if we would drive Santa and Mrs. Claus in the parade. The parade, originally scheduled for December 3, was rained out. It was rescheduled for Friday night the 9th. My wife drove the Model A with Santa and Mrs. Claus in the rumble seat. My Dad drove his 1933 Plymouth in the parade, and my friend drove his 1965 Mustang. I walked in the parade aand gave away over two hundred books about Desmond Doss the hero of the movie, Hacksaw Ridge. Saturday morning we got up at 5:00 A.M. and headed for Louisiana. Our destination was Driskill Mountain in Bienville Parish. At an elevation of 535 feet above sea level, Driskill Mountain is the highest point in Louisiana. The mountain is private...

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...