Letters from Roscoe (Page 4)

The Changes in Me Something I do a lot is when I am walking and meeting people headed in the opposite direction, is I will say “Howdy!” I was doing this as we were walking the trail up to Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska.  I “Howdy’ed” every person we met along the trail and finally Cindy asked me “Why do you do that?  You’re not a cowboy.” I do it to get them to answer, to interact with me. Sometimes, my…

Tithes I had never given tithes before. All of my life, I had been reluctant to tithe.  Mostly out of fear that we would need the money to pay some bill, or buy food till payday. When the offering plate would come around I would drop a five or a ten dollar bill in. But now, it’s different.  When we began going to Church at Highland Park that was my normal offering.  But as time went by, and my belief…

Welcome to Christian Grammar School! To explain the title of this post is to admit that I am just now learning things that many of you have known for years.  But I am writing to you about it because there may be other knuckleheads like me that also can’t see the forest for the trees.  So if there’s a chance that someone will get a little closer to God because of something I took the time to write, then I…

What goes around . . . Whenever I go to the grocery store or someplace with grocery carts, as I am walking in I look for anyone finishing up with their cart.  If I see someone, I will offer to take it for them.  I’m just trying to be a ‘good’ person. I’ve been doing this for some time now.  Sometimes I will see someone struggling with getting their purchase into their vehicle.  I offer to help and it is…

The Contumacious Child   As a Christian in Training it was bound to happen sooner or later. It did.  Let me tell you about it.  When you were young did you ever do something that your parents told you not to do?  And then did you do it while they were watching you?  Almost daring you to cross the line? And then you did it. That willfulness in a five dollar and twenty-five cent word is called ‘contumacious’.  It means…

I’ve been Raised!   The old adage goes ‘It takes a Village to raise a Child’  . . .  but it can also be said that ‘It takes a Church to raise a Christian.’ Believe me I know. Recently, at altar call, I watched a man literally run down the aisle to the altar.  A tear broke free and ran down my cheek as I watched him reach the altar and fall down to pray. I am a Christian. I…

Sarah A few weeks ago my youngest sister’s grandmother passed away after a brief illness. She was ninety-five years old. For personal reasons I had always kept my relationship with her and the rest of her family at arm’s length, I just never allowed myself to become ‘close’ to her or her family. Because of that I missed really coming to know a very good person, actually several good people. And it is entirely my loss. While we were traveling…

Burnt out . . . ?  Really? Do you ever just get tired and just say ‘I don’t feel like praying today.’  ‘I’m tired, I’m just gonna get caught up on Facebook instead.’  Lately, I’ve felt that burnt out feeling.  I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do.  I have no reason for it, and I should certainly be ashamed of it. I am ashamed of it. Did you ever notice that some of the kindest, happiest, humblest,…

But it’s such a BIG world! I read a quote recently that really intrigued me.  Especially if you place it alongside what our Pastor said the other day, I’ll paraphrase because my memory is kind of like my wallet.  Full of holes.  He said, “We should be like Christ in everything that we do, and we should be like that all the time.” And the quote that I read was this: “The man who lives in a small community lives…

The Two Sides of the Coin   Lately I have been thinking on the idea that the path to building your faith in God is like the two sides of a coin. One side is labeled ‘Pride’ the other is labeled ‘Humility’.  You cannot be prideful and be Humble at the same time.  Matthew 23:12 KJV, Jesus said, “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.” In order to seek Christ I…

Where IS your Umbrella? Sometimes when I’m writing, I feel that I am writing something and the Lord isn’t in agreement with it.  I know that because I struggle with the words.  I type and type then I go back and delete and delete.  Eventually, I get it through my thick head that the Lord doesn’t want to say this at this particular time. So I ‘park’ it.  I just save the file with the notion that it will be…

I saw Jesus Last Night When I saw him, it was while I was attending Vacation Bible School for the second time in my life.  He was wearing work clothes.  He was sweaty and a little dirty from his day’s labor at his regular job.  He moved rapidly from one task to the next working to help support the VBS program. I could tell it was Jesus because of the smile on his face.  He said that this was the…