Dr. Paul Sands

TRUTH IN LOVE ABOUT SEXUALITY: Dr. Paul Sands demonstrated exceptional courage, clarity and compassion today in dealing with the controversial subjects of homosexuality, gender identity and gender disorientation. He first recommended the following books WASHED AND WAITING by Wesley Hill, COSTLY OBEDIENCE by Mark Yarhouse & Olya Zaporozhets and WHEN CHILDREN COME OUT by Wesley Hill. COSTLY OBEDIENCE offers a research study of 300 Christians following Christ while struggling with same sex attraction.

Dr. Sands explained that GENDER DISORIENTATION is when someone struggles with feeling like he or she is in the body of the opposite sex. What are we to make of this? What has changed in more recent years is the mood of a culture that pins sexual identity on one’s own feelings. He compared it with people who struggle excessively with weight control and become anorexic or the rare instances of body integrity disorder involving persons who feel compelled to have limbs removed. Dr. Sands believes that such mental disorders typically require professional therapy which in no way should be considered shameful.

Pastor Sands did note that special consideration should be given to children who struggle with gender identity. He noted that many such children are affirmed and facilitated by well intentioned parents to pursue a change in gender. However, research indicates that 80-95% of children simply outgrow sexual identity problems by the time they reach adulthood.

He encouraged parents to remind their young children that God made boys and girls and to be kind toward other children who are struggling with gender identity.

Dr. Sands denounced the ideology that gender identity is a spectrum of eight to as many as fifty genders. He said “How dumb is that!” He then cited the mistake made by Eve in the Garden of Eden when succumbing to Satan’s temptation to violate the boundary set by God. The big mistake is deciding for yourself what is right and wrong. Christians must resist such pressure to conform to this ideology.

Finally, Dr. Sands emphasized that God BLESSED humanity in the beginning. He conferred power to fulfill His purposes for life. The blessing comes in surrendering to God and His way. Pastor Sands in closing cited one of his favorite passages of Scripture, Numbers 6:24-26, “ ‘ “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace” ‘ NIV

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A young man’s quote:

Colby Howell –The genius and accomplishment of great men is dulled always by their mortality. It is no great accomplishment that we can occasionally produce a single Da Vinci or Newton. Our results are less than random chance would have it. It is our greatest folly as a species that we do not produce such individuals by the thousand. For we choose our own path, and so far that has been the path of ignorance, superstition, tribalism, and selfishness.

Being in Montana, 2012

February 16, 2012 

Just being in Montana is wonderful. The mountains my sister loved, and I love too! How good it is to be in their house again, and just visit, laugh, and have fun. OMG Tommy has the greatest tv/computer setup..I’m sitting in his recliner, wireless keyboard and mouse, looking at the tv screen so Facebook is now on a 42″ screen! It is now a goal of mine to achieve this technology! LOL I wonder if we’ll have Facebook in Heaven? !!! Also, we viewed lots of pictures and video on the screen, some with Cynthia and the boys in the summer, playing in the back yard in the plastic pool. How they LOVED the water. Oh and last night, we watched a Netflix movie on the screen, Haunted Honeymoon (1986) with Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder. FUN!

Mass shootings USA

February 15, 2018 

“Let me just note once again for my colleagues: this happens nowhere else other than the United States of America. This epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting, it only happens here. Not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else.” Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Old Friends in Kaufman Cemetery, Feb. 14, 2013

Yesterday before I went to my moms, I drove on up to the cemetery a few blocks north and walked around. Usually, I go to Mama’s and Papa’s grave, and walk from there. But this time, I parked in the interior at the far north side. I had in mind to look for great-grandmother Retha and Papa Bud’s graves. I had lost them for so many years, not able to find them. I saw so many people’s graves I had known all my life. Nora McDonald, who owned the little store on Grove, where we kids used to get our candy when we had some change. I remember times with Jackie Sikes –always, Jackie Ruth to us– at the old store. We had to shop a while to buy just the right candy with our nickel or pennies. She died in 1969, but I see her in my mind, lively and full of laughter. Next to her is her husband, but I did not know him. Her son, Jerry Van is buried there too. He killed himself several years after she had died. He was a good older friend, and nice guy. On I walked and saw Linda Baldwin High, classmate, Craig Cox, Uncle Barnie and Martha, the Hollingsworths, Izora and Archie Bankston, and their daughter Patricia too. Even saw the Huckabee’s–Lula died long before Mr. Huckabee, and he remarried Eula Cox, and I remember being in their house so much. My mother told me that Lula Huckabee was like a second grandmother to her. She would spend the night at her house, and they would make ice cream sometimes. I never knew they were so close. She told me how she cried and what a great loss it was when she died. I saw a Phillip Reed, which I seemed to recall, but could not place. He was fairly young when he died. It’s strange to walk among all the people I grew up with, knew so well and loved. I stood over great-grandmother’s grave and thought, her earthly remains have been right here since 1952. I leaned over and touched the stone, and rubbed it softly with my hand. Even though I never knew her, I loved her because of the memories everyone shared of her during my youth. I had found the sites just wandering aimlessly, not really looking for them. I had searched purposely so many times, and could not find them, so I was glad to see the stones again, Retha Alma Wiser, and C. D. Wiser, carved in the gray granite, just as clear as the day they were inscribed. Both my mother and I were convinced that when you read their stones, you were facing west. Not so. Just as due east as could be. I was in such a depressed state when I drove over to Kaufman, that even a visit to the cemetery seemed to cheer me up! lol Oh the irony! Memory of all those people is a good medicine for the soul in this case. These and others I saw are so vividly alive in my memory, and it blessed me to have known them. I had pretty much given up going to the cemetery for many years. Oddly, I didn’t even go to Mama and Papa’s graves. I guess it felt good to see all the others I had not seen in many decades. Evidence of the drought was all over. Many of the stones lean over terribly. I saw the evidence in some areas where the vandals had broken off stones in several places too. Some of the flat ones are caving into the ground–the workers have put in more soil in places, and even some old graves looked new with the soil spread over them as if they were just buried. It was a good decision to go there for a long overdue visit. I may not wait so long again to do this!

Dallas Symphony Feb 12, 2011

I sat before the orchestra at the Myerson, the sound of hundreds of instruments penetrating not my ears only, but my soul. I thought of the many lives who came together for this performance–yet such beautiful harmony and perfect cooperation were their present to us.

Dreams again

February 9, 2014  

I woke myself this morning yelling “Things are going to change! Things are going to change!” In my dream, what had been happening was that I found myself staying in some part of town that was really poverty stricken.

I found myself in this bungalow where they were all built very close together, just enough for walking in between them. People walked between this fencing which was covered in big paper, lined with various signs along the way. It had just been this way for a long time. Down some rows of houses, small beds with high covered tops took up most of the walkway where extra children had to sleep outside each night!

Ok, so, in the first part of the dream, I was walking down the fenced walking space, seeing the length of this fenced area with the signs along the way. I could see that below the walk way some water was draining there. It was drainage for the sewage. At one point I took a seat with the other people who sat watching the crowd go by. I earnestly discussed the situation with the onlookers to see if they all were dissatisfied the way I was with the entire situation. They were unhappy too. I found myself joining in their discontent. I talked to individuals about changing the situation and was glad they agreed.

I may not have finished sharing the dream. I will check tomorrow’s Facebook memories to see if it’s there.

Memories of Paul T. Rosewell

Professor of Education, Baylor University. I recall Dr. Rosewell speaking in class of being a teacher in Bible class in church and quitting because of what and/or the way the teachings were conducted. I am not sure what his reasoning was, but he was an excellent professor. We did some practice teaching spots within our class and he commended me on my style of sitting on the desk to speak to the class.

I thought of him today as I considered the current practice of teaching scripture memorization in the AWANA program on Wednesdays at Calvary Hill Baptist Church. There is no teaching involved, but just rote memorization. It occurred to me while we are teaching children to memorize the implied lesson is that it is a child’s task to memorize and no need for adults to do any such exercize. It is really rather a question than a statement. Perhaps it IS the best to have them memorize this way. I really don’t know. I know that we did memorization growing up, but it was part of a rich teaching program.

Ample make this bed

Emily Dickinson

Ample make this bed

Make this bed with awe;

In it wait till judgment break

Excellent and fair.Be its mattress straight,

Be its pillow round;

Let no sunrise’ yellow noise

Interrupt this ground.

The Troubled Soul

January 25, 2012 

Someone made a comment about me referring to a friend who has died as a “troubled soul.” I have thought about it, and how it might sound. During our college days he WAS troubled in ways which I was not. We formed a real bond of friendship. I did not know that what he had would be referred to “obsessive-compulsive thought disorder.” As close as we were, I could never give him enough assurance about any topic he was concerned with, usually a spiritual one, that comforted him. It was a puzzle to me, but I was honored that he came to me with questions. In all the intervening years, life’s harsh realities hit me many times. I struggled, and I would certainly classify myself as a “troubled soul”. In many ways, if we are honest before God, we are ALL troubled. I don’t count myself as any different. To be human, and struggle to know what is divine can be VERY troubling. But our wonderful missionary friend, Sonny Holland, said something I’ll always be grateful for…that is, There is NOTHING like trouble that will send you running to God. And folks, we all NEED to realize that we are troubled souls in need of a gracious God and Savior. I will confess it to the world! I AM a troubled soul who finds comfort in the arms of the Savior. It is a constant process of going through trials, and throwing yourself before the throne of mercy.