Vickie Robinson writes: Lately, my daily commute consists of me passing by a lot of churches and funeral homes that were once closed in the early hours.  These locations are now open to host funeral services.  As I think about the current reality of the pandemic and now the new strain that has entered Missouri, I realize that Fear is one of Satan's most popular weapons that he uses against us. The most common lie that Satan uses to instill fear into us is that God is far away or absent from our presence. I’m forever reminded that God promises in His Word over and over again that He is always with us. And He has proven time and time both in the Bible and even in our lives today that He is still there. The presence of bad times such as these might work to persuade us of God's absence, but remember that at various times in Biblical times, God was there even in the midst of war, famine, flood, and even storms. God is with us always and promises to never leave us nor forsake us. We

  Tim Woodcock writes: With the bad weather this week, I found myself with a snow day followed by virtual learning day (meaning a teach-from-home day) and the chance to catch up on various neglected projects, including this blog. One of the pleasures of recent days has been getting into a series of online Scrabble games with Steve, a friend from high school, who now lives in largely COVID-free New Zealand. This led me to pick up a book I bought years ago called Word Freak by Stafan Fatis. It’s an incredibly readable look at the subculture of hardcore Scrabble players, some of whom can make decent money playing; however, it is not especially robust scene and players cannot go fully professional in the sense that a poker player or chess player can. Don’t worry: This blog post will connect to faith … I’ll get there eventually … One paragraph late in the book jumped out at me, describing Danny, a top-rated teenage player and an Orthodox Jew. Tournaments ordinarily happen at the wee