Ed Jones, Pastor Fellowship at the Ranch Church recently partnered with Refuge for Women of North Texas by giving them a “housewarming gift” and committing to monthly support. Refuge for Women is a non-profit, faith based organization that provides long-term care for women who have escaped human trafficking or sexual exploitation. They offer safe housing…
Ed Jones, Pastor During one of my mission trips to Russia I visited the small village of Ustyuzhna, one of the many unremarkable towns in North-Central Russia. One afternoon the Russian pastor I was assisting asked if I would like to go into the countryside. After I reluctantly agreed, he drove me to within a…
Ed Jones Fellowship! It’s an interesting word rich in meaning. As the new pastor at Fellowship at the Ranch (FATR), I was curious how the church got its name. One of the founders of the church explained, “We wanted the name to reflect what we wanted the church to be: a fellowship of believers gathering…
Dr. Jim Wilkins Retreat is a fascinating word. Some synonyms of retreat include departure, withdrawal, haven, sanctuary, refuge, and shelter. The reality of life is that every person from time to time needs a place of retreat, and the time to retreat there. How one spends their time in retreat is sometimes never known, for…
Perhaps it seems a continuing theme with the last few articles I’ve written regarding change. Yet “change” seems the perfect topic to me as we enter once again into the earliest days of 2016. Life itself is a conundrum, shifting one direction then another through the daily challenges that mount into months and years shaping…
Dr. Jim Wilkins By the time you read this article, Christmas has been in the marketplace for a month and a half, and some of you are sick and tired of it all. That’s ok, I am too. The consumerism which Christmas has become, I’m sick and tired of it all. However, I’ll never get…
Dr. Jim Wilkins Last month my article was about “change,” where I suggested our ability to deal with change was based on our relationship with the Creator. This week in my study I came across this quote from Charles Darwin in 1809, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most…
Dr. Jim Wilkins In a couple of weeks we’ll set our clocks back again in conjunction with Daylight Savings Time. It’s never really bothered me that much because change in general doesn’t scare me or concern me. Things change. We see it all around us. All of nature is governed by seasons: winter, spring, summer,…
Pastor Jim Wilkins It’s a simple thing. When a story begins with “This is a true story,” which is followed by the narrative being told, regardless of whose telling it, the choice becomes for each of us, “Do you believe?” Simple, right? We can make the choice to believe it if there is empirical evidence…
It’s hot. Even on a good day I’m a fairly hot body temperature natured person. When I step outside into the summer Texas air, my body screams at me, “What are you thinking?” My tendency is to crank down the thermostat another notch or two, pull out an old unused room fan to go with…