Mississippi Delta Tales
The Sunday Night Check-In
Hello friends, it’s time for the Sunday Night Check-In. I am on a retreat, so this was composed ahead of time. Welcome to our new subscribers. Always feel free to leave a howdy in the comments. Glad you are here. We have a new President of the United States, set to take office sometime the first week of January. I would write to you to tell you how to react, how to cope, how to rejoice, how to respond - but I’ve seen 1000 posts like that and I can’t take another one. So, I won’t write one! Christians pray for world leaders, as requested by Apostle Paul.
I’m sharing with you a recommendation of a new book by my friend of more than four decades, Danny Dodd. Though I have known Danny for so long, and I thought so well, I learned more about his life by reading this excellent book. It is not a long book, but it is a very worthwhile book addressing a very needed topic. Here is the review I left on Amazon and GoodReads:
Growing Up in Black and White is filled with rich observations of a childhood in the Mississippi Delta. With humor and heart, Danny Dodd recounts his awareness as a child, teenager, and young adult of the existence and effects of racism. He offers contemporary experiences that shed light on racism in the States and foreign lands. With an unashamedly Christian perspective, an appeal is made to the healing power of the Gospel for ingrained prejudice both now and moving forward. I recommend this book to those interested in the culture of the Mississippi Delta in the late 1960s. I recommend this book to those looking for answers to racial disharmony. I recommend this book to Christians of all races. I recommend this book to those who have lived in Greenville, Mississippi, and surrounding areas (but location does not keep one from gaining from the shared experiences here). I would recommend this book to those who know and love Danny Dodd because you will learn more about his life and grow to appreciate him even more. Well-written and engaging, and a delightful read.
Danny is the preaching minister for the Levy Church of Christ in North Little Rock, Arkansas. I hope you’ll order it and share it.
POLL OF THE WEEK
Last week 50% of you said you had never read a Louise Penny book. 19% have never even heard of her! I see I have more work to do. A year ago I could have said the same thing. Once I started on her series of books about Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, I couldn’t stop. I was grateful to hear from a few fans that they have read ALL of her books. I have identified my people! This week we have moved on from Halloween (though some of us may have some candy stashed away) and we are not ready for Thanksgiving yet! Preparations! But Monday is a national holiday, Veterans Day. If anyone deserves a day, it is our Veterans - many of whom have multiple struggles due to the experiences of war. In this week’s poll let me ask you about Veterans…
FORSYTHE
At Forsythe Church this morning I hope we covered Romans 14-15 (I say hope because I’m composing this ahead of time!). Notes for weekly sermons are HERE. Next week Daniel Kirkendall will preach and then the following week I will finish the series through Romans with a sermon from chapter 16. This has been an enjoyable series to prepare for and I pray beneficial to the church. Wednesday, Travis Arrant will be our guest speaker and I’ll be just back from my retreat to hear his good message entitled, “Being an Encourager in a Broken World.” It may be available on livestream, but I messed that up last week and can’t make any promises!
READING
In addition to finishing Growing Up In Black and White, I also finished Praying God’s Perfect Will: Asking Exactly What He Wants With 23 Prayers from Ephesians by Todd Eflin. Todd is the author of the Epaphras Prays substack. This is a short book (he calls it a mini book) but it doesn’t have any filler! It’s a great guide for learning to pray through a book of the Bible. I also started J. C. Ryle’s book, REPENTANCE. I’ve read 80 of my goal to read 75 books this year. In our Bible reading group we finished Daniel last week and have started 1 Thessalonians. Joel and Micah are on the schedule for this week.
Merry Christmas to a Broken Heart is continuing to meet a need, reaching out into a hurting community with encouragement and hope. One church is offering it free of charge to anyone local who registers for their night of outreach to those who are discouraged and suffering during this season (Thanks Pita Horne!). In case you missed it, I posted the introduction to the Merry Christmas book HERE.
PHOTOGRAPHY
The only new photos I have this week came from the back yard. There wasn’t an opportune time to go to the woods. I hope to have some from the retreat next week and since I’m taking a few days off after the retreat, maybe some new wildlife photos are on the way! In the mean time I’ll share a photo of an excellent lunch I had at Don Tomas last week. Also my purple bean hydrangea vine is growing like wow - this vine starts on the other side of the fence! And you can’t go wrong with coffee loving gnomes!
LISTENING
Philippa Hanna - You’re Still God
STACKS TO CHECK OUT
Stay Vigilant and Keep Praying by Todd Eflin
Kent Peterson shares some thoughts and photos of Martin Pattison's Home, Park, and Squirrels (check out that albino squirrel!)
Mike Crow ruminates on Light at The Meandering.
Get in on Adsum’s Giveaway celebrating 150 posts…there’s a deadline, so don’t put it off too long!
Kate Dreston answers the question, What Does God Want From Us?
Devon Camp whets our whistle for some Western fiction with his post Sangre de Cristo.
Mike Quits the News Media and I think that’s for the best.
On The Holy Lens we are praying through some texts in John’s Gospel this week. Join us!
OK, friends, that’s the check-in for tonight. Thanks for spending some time with me. I hope you have a spectacular week ahead. Work hard, rest well, and stay connected. The world needs you.
