Last week we left the lovable Dr. 'Alf in the pulpit where he had changed into that growling, snarling Kodiak bear... Evening services generally consisted of from 100 to 125 members and they all looked 100 to 125 years old to me. I was always the sole person in attendance under 100 years old, or so it seemed. To this day I do not know why week after week Dr. 'Alf completely ignored those old rusty (he called them unoiled) proven beyond a reasonable doubt sinners and picked me, the only sinless soul present as the target of his durational sermons. An old learned slave-born acquaintance named Roger Epps would say to me, "N., 'at man don't preach by the clock, he preach by the calendar!". Sermon after sermon from Genesis through Revelation the message was seemingly always, no, was always clearly, clearly the same: "Come unto me, you little hellion. I'm going to scare hell out of you again tonight. Don't try to hide behind your old daddy either, you little heathen. Just because he and his family built this church you think you are something special, and don't look at me with those complaining eyes, you little rebel. I don't know why God keeps putting up with such disobedient, unsubmissive punks like you. If it were up to me, I'd chop you up in little pieces like Samuel did Agag, the king of His enemies. Repent and be baptized before its too late or you'll die before sun up. And stay away from those Satan controlled moving pictures and don't start smoking those cylinders of sin either."

My daddy always detected the fear in my eyes after service. He would hug me (incidentally, he hugged and kissed my mother and all seven of us kids when he departed for or returned from his mainline railroad conductor's job, day or night) and say, "N., be thankful Dr. 'Alf is not one of those burdensome money grubbing preachers that Paul writes about in his epistle to the Corinthians. By Paul's example, Dr. 'Alf earns his living as a full time professor at Virginia Military Institute (V.M.I.) over at Lexington where he teaches TACTICS OF DIVISION, CONTROL AND DESTRUCTION OF THE ENEMY. I think when he realizes all this division, control and destruction should be used on God's real enemies, he will quit loving us to death, which is the devil's business and start loving us to life, which is the Lord's business."

My daddy also told me, "...to be continued.

Have a good week!