Beech Tree News Network

Reality television is a fad that just won’t die.  I wouldn’t buy in for a long time.  Everyone was in on American Idol.  I just couldn’t or wouldn’t get into it.  After a few years, I started watching a few of these shows sporadically.  I watched a season or two of Idol, realizing how cheesy the show is.  Then I watched a few episodes of America’s Got Talent.  I even sent in an audition via YouTube.  Nothing ever came of it. 

Recently, I overheard a conversation about finalizing vacation destinations. Although I don’t enjoy lengthy away-from-home vacations, several places still tempt me. Like many people, there are places I’d like to see.

There were times on the American Frontier a rider would tell how he dived from his saddle an instant before a bullet or an arrow struck a tree limb close beside his ear.
According to the dictionary the word, intuition, is described as the ability to see or to know things without our conscious reasoning over and above our commonly known five senses.
Probably we’ve all sensed someone looking at us, only to look up and see a person immediately turn his or her head.

I learned in a play-writing class once that the most boring thing you can see on stage are two people saying wonderful things about one another.  I just want you to be fore-warned that this column may bore you, because I plan on telling you some good things about some good people I came in to contact with this week.

Not only did Friday mark the end to another busy week in the Kentucky Senate, it also was day 46 of our 60-day legislative session. We are now in the proverbial “fourth quarter” when the House and the Senate must come together to get a victory for the state of Kentucky by passing a responsible budget. After 10 weeks we are still awaiting a key “assist” from our colleagues in the House in the form of a budget bill that has yet to pass the lower chamber.

 We are pulled in many directions these days. We have responsibilities to our families, to our work, and school. We have household responsibilities with our money, our bills, etc. It seems we can be busy all day long and still accomplish nothing. Is this how we feel sometimes? Yet, when we read the Bible, we can see that God says there is a balance that will help us in life.

I was thinking about songs mentioning the month of March.  I decided, however, to go a different way.  I suppose it’s along the same lines, though.  As the month of March rolls around, you think of March flowers.  The first song about flowers that I thought of was the title track to Tom Petty’s 1994 solo album released in November of that year, Wildflowers. 
I read somewhere that he wrote this song about his divorce.  While I can’t confirm or deny this, it is a nice song.  Here’s Tom on how the song came to be:

Next weekend, we will set our clocks forward one hour, and Daylight Saving Time will begin. Some of us like having an additional hour of daylight in the evening, while some of us don’t like a time change at all.

My granddaughter, Sabria, is very fond of games, everything from board games to games she can seem to make up on the spot.  I’ve played all sorts of things with her, and I’m in awe at some of the variations she adds to games I’ve played all my life.  If you ever find yourself in a play group with my granddaughter, be forewarned if she ever says the words “Pause Game,” what follows are amendments and variations that will turn what you thought you were playing into something barely recognizable.

Last week, we noted several things that God uses as “barriers” on the road to Hell. He works through the Bible, through the cross, and through the preaching of the gospel to get people to walk the “strait and narrow” way that leads to life (Matt. 7:13-14). While these barriers are effective, these are not the only ones He uses to bring people to Him. What are other barriers God uses?