Category: Story

Aging, ancestors, Bible, Blues, Grief, Music, Sickness and Health, spirituality, Story, Suffering

Deathbed Blues

Gary Furr

Sermon 5 was originally the conclusion of “Feeling the Blues,” presented on Sunday, November 22, 2009, at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The title of this message is “The Deathbed Blues.” It’s based on the biblical story of King David and found in the book of 2nd Samuel, chapter 23, verses 1 through 7. And so we come to the end of this series of sermons on the blues and the church, the blues and the Christian life, the blues and the gospel. Two things that we might have been forgiven for thinking had very little to do … Continue reading Deathbed Blues

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When Nobody Knows Your Name

Gary Furr

Well, I was walking around as a suburban kid in Dayton, Ohio in the early 70s singing this song, if you can imagine. Motherless children have a hard time when their mother is gone. Motherless children have it so hard when their mother is gone. Motherless children have a very hard time. All that weeping, all that crying. Motherless children have it so hard when their mother is gone. Oh, people say that a sister will do when the mother is gone. People say that a sister will do when the mother is gone. Oh, people say that a sister … Continue reading When Nobody Knows Your Name

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“Religion and the First Amendment” May 3 appearance

Gary Furr

For friends in Ft. Payne, Collinsville, and nearby, I will be speaking in Collinsville, Alabama on Sunday, May 3 at 2:30 pm at the invitation of the Collinsville Historical Association. Collinsville, nestled between Sand Mountain to the west and Lookout Mountain to the northeast, is a small town with a long and interesting history. I will be speaking on “Religion, the First Amendment, and the Shape We’re In,” as part of the Decoration Day Observance at the historic Collinsville Cemetery. All are welcome. It will be outdoors, but the weather is predicted to be favorable. Continue reading “Religion and the First Amendment” May 3 appearance

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War and Peace

Gary Furr

President Dwight Eisenhower said, “I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.” Our veterans among us who have lived through wars can alone remind us that until we speak louder and fight harder for peace and life than the profiteers of death and destruction beat thehypnotic drums of war, we will resign ourselves to its extravagant costs in blood and treasure. We must debate and contest those who so easily commence it and watch it from safe rooms on televisions and satellites as their … Continue reading War and Peace

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Truth Decay

Gary Furr

From the, “The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same Department.” Central Alabama’s water board announced they are going to stop fluoridating the water. Reporters discovered they haven’t actually been doing it for years. See? All that worry about communist infiltrators, when our own apparent ineptitude took care of it. Reminded me of the movie scene in 1964. General Jack D. Ripper: Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation – fluoridation of water? Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Jack, yes, I have heard of that, Jack. Yes. General Jack D. Ripper: Well, do you know what it … Continue reading Truth Decay