The Eastern New Mexico News - Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

This last week I was reading an article in Psychology Today about giving. The name of the article was “Well Being and Giving” by Steve Taylor. This is what the writer wrote: “If anything, it...

At times I think I am so used to the phrase “mercy of God,” I don’t stop to think about the true scope, capacity and extension of that beautiful phrase. The mercy of God I still don’t...

Last week, a quote by D.L. Moody, the old preacher, popped up on daily quotes on my cell phone. Moody said: “The Lord gives his people perpetual joy when they walk in obedience to him.” Some...

During one of Billy Graham’s meetings in England many years ago, his wife Ruth Graham had joined him. On that particular day, the local dignitaries had arranged for a luncheon and many of the...

I have told this story before, but I think it warrants a rerun. I was in the grocery store one day several years ago and my heart was sad as I observed a mother and father shopping with their three ch...

It was over 35 years ago next week that I was terrified we had lost Buffy. She was only five years old at the time and I still can remember the horror and hopelessness I felt when we lost her at Six F...

One of the most beautiful portions of Scripture in the Bible is the sermon that Jesus delivered sitting on the side of a mountain near Capernaum. Thus it is called the Sermon on the Mount. That...

Years ago, people would visit for hours or write long letters to one another in order to fill in distant family members on family news. Family reunions were packed with much visiting time so all famil...

At times I am amused at the commercials on television, especially those advertising a new improved product. For instance, new washing machine soap has 30 percent more cleaning power. A new window...

My sweet mother is in heaven with her Savior, my daddy, our John Scott and my mother’s mother who died when my mother was just 6 years old. She is also with countless family members, friends and the...

King David wrote: “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119: 105) I know that is true because my parents modeled that for me during my childhood. Church was a huge part of...

Memories of my childhood days and Sunday nights in the old church at 8th and Hinkle are still vivid in my mind. It could be a daunting place at night after Sunday night services and all were gone. On...

Collateral damage is a general term for deaths, injuries, or other damage inflicted on unintended targets. Sometimes we speak of civilian causalities of a military operation and those are viewed as...

Jesus, who knows us better than we even know ourselves, warned His hearers about obstructions or sin in one’s heart. He said: “What comes from your heart is what makes you unclean. Out of your...

Anyone who has lived in eastern New Mexico and west Texas for any time knows that storms can appear in minutes from nowhere. Such was the case one January night many years ago when a snow storm of...

Easter eggs … Easter bunnies … Easter baskets … Easter bonnets … We are inundated with Easter phrases this time every year. With spring comes a sense of renewed hope and joyfulness and a consc...

What is authentic Christianity? Pastor Steven Furtick wrote: “Audacious faith is the raw material that authentic Christianity is made of. It's the stuff that triggers ordinarily level-headed people...

One of the highlights of my childhood was our family's trip to Niagara Falls. On a winding road in Missouri on our route to New York State, Daddy noticed an advertisement for a glassblower's shop. He...

One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Proverbs 3:6. The wise man wrote: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Paths indicate roads to travel which...

Sometimes Joseph is called the most Christ like character of the Old Testament. But at one time, Joseph’s young life appeared to be in shambles. How did this happen? Joseph worked as a shepherd...

Susie, my sister, was recently visiting a patient at a major medical center. As she turned the corner in the hospital hall, she came directly in contact with a young girl, her mother, and another who...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident was imprisoned for his faith and later hanged in the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Germany. But while in prison, he...

The belief in God’s protection is something that is often heard in everyday conversations. We speak of about God’s protection when we think about tragedies such as car accidents or terroristic...

Are we a happy people? Some studies indicate that less than half of all Americans consider themselves happy. A Harris Poll was taken in 2017 and only 33 percent of the Americans surveyed said they wer...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist, historian and short story writer said: “We always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” Nowhere are these words truer than when thinking about the...