by Jim Kerwin
on August 1, 2026
Copyright © 2007
Chapter 13 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid
BUT FEW NOW KNOW about log meeting houses in all this central west, yet they were common in the opening of the country. Wonderful meetings have been held in them. Heaven will be richer for the work wrought in these rude places of worship. Grand characters were forged there. There were sound conversions. There were vigorous gospel sermons. The stalwarts of the last generation were spiritually born there, where “the old-time religion” we now sing about was in the full bloom of its glory. What if they had no gothic architecture, chancel windows, or carpeted aisles? They had what is infinitely better, actual salvation that saved. What if they had no fine turnouts and cushioned pews? They had the fine array of the saints, which was so well pleasing to God. Ah! good old days of simplicity and faith that took hold of God!
The plat of ground on which the church stood was not large. The building was in [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on July 1, 2026
Copyright © 2007
Chapter 3 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid
When I call to remembrance
the unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois,
and thy mother Eunice…
— 2 Timothy 1:5 —
THERE ARE OTHER FACTORS than nature around us whose environments have large part in molding and shaping all young life. Parental influence is both pre- and post-natal. Doubtless there are hereditary tendencies in our nature which largely affect us; but greater, perhaps, are the early home life influences. I remember Bishop William Taylor told us, when speaking of the children born in Africa, that they were not born heathen, though born on heathen soil, and that if they were taken before they had learned the ways of their people, they were no more heathen than our children. This makes but little place for hereditary influence, and places the more weighty bulk of evidence in favor of early life and teachings.
Traveling in review the byways of my early life, I notice there is much in hereditary and early family life that has helped to make me what I am, though it was not until later years I came to any [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on June 6, 2026
Colin Sterne
an anagram/pseudonym of
H. Ernest Nichol
(1862-1926)
Hark to the sound of voices!
Hark to the tramp of feet!
Is it a mighty army
Treading the busy street?
Nearer it comes and nearer,
Singing a glad refrain;
List what they say
as they haste away
To the sound of a martial strain:
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by Jim Kerwin
on June 1, 2026
Copyright © 2007
Chapter 4 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid
There’s an old meetinghouse on the hill far away,
Where in childhood I went on the blest Sabbath day;
To its portal my heart ever turns with delight,
For its blessings are with me by day and by night.
In its grove the birds sang and the wildflowers grew,
On its green lawn the roses and violets blew;
The summer winds wafted a fragrance most rare,
As the worshipers came to our temple of prayer;
It was plain, but ’twas beautiful always to me.
COUNTRY AND HOME have their universal impress on the race. Among other well-defined environments that help largely to make us what we are is the home church and its life and influence. As the years move me away from life’s first sights, sounds, and impressions, the old church crops out more and more like the rocks on my native hills.
The old log church was a very primitive affair. It was not a quarter of a mile from the old home, up a little incline to the top of the ridge, and through a strip of old-time forest which the axe had but little marred. The burial of my grandfather was the first gathering of the people ever held at the place. There in the deep, dark woods they laid him to rest, when as yet the trees had kept their silent and solemn guard for long centuries. When I came to know the place, a nice plat of ground had all been nicely cleared off, fenced, sown in grass, and planted with some shrubbery, and was already marked with a number of [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on May 17, 2026
Jim Kerwin
(1952- )
“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:8 nasb
Spirit Wind blows where’re He pleases,
Singing His song in the gentle breezes.
To know from whence the Dove-Wind’s sent—
passing…
gone!—
Is to know where He went.
“So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
To discover more hymns, visit our growing list of Powerful Poetry.
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by Jim Kerwin
on May 6, 2026
6 May 2026
Lead on, O King Eternal! The day of march has come!
Henceforth in fields of conquest Thy tents shall be our home.
Through days of preparation Thy grace hath made us strong;
And, now, O King Eternal, we lift our battle song!
Dear Friend,
Trip Preparation
Less than five weeks to go…
My “day of march” is fast approaching for the teaching trip to Iowa in early June. The to-do list is expanding, and the heat of urgency is ratcheting up one degree per day as the five-week time ticks down.
Yes, there is preparation for the actual teaching. (That’s been going on for a few months already.) To the ongoing prayer for this, regular days of fasting have been added. (Heart preparation is the most important factor.) A large “folder” of notes has to be streamlined, trimmed, and distilled into five focused teaching sessions.
But then there’s updating [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on May 5, 2026
Ernest Shurtleff
(1862-1917)
Lead on, O King eternal,
The day of march has come;
Henceforth in fields of conquest
Thy tents shall be our home.
Through days of preparation
Thy grace has made us strong;
And now, O King eternal,
We lift our battle song!
Lead on, O King eternal,
Till [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on May 5, 2026
Attributed to
Robert Keene
(18th Century)
but attributed by some to
George Keith
(1638?-1716)
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days shall demand, shall thy strength ever be!
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on May 1, 2026
Charles Wesley
(1707-1788)
Come, Lord, and help me to rejoice,
In hope that I shall hear Thy voice,
Shall one day see my God;
Shall cease from all my sin and strife,
Handle and taste the Word of Life,
And feel the sprinkled blood.
I shall not always make my moan,
Nor worship Thee a God unknown,
But I shall live to [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on April 16, 2026
Copyright © 2007
Chapter 2 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid
In his hand are the deep places of the earth:
the strength of the hills is his also.
— Psalm 95:4 —
IT IS HARDLY FAIR to refer all the meaning there is in these words of inspiration to the mineral treasures hid in the hills, or their wealth of timber or pasture, or in their springs, or rugged fastnesses, nature’s strong fortifications. “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain,” said Jesus. Always in the heights of the hills has there been a suggestiveness in the minds of the races, that as heaven was “on high,” so the heights were nearer to God. It is true also that remarkable events, some of them the most momentous that humanity knows, occurred on these same heights. The second cradling of the race was on Mt. Ararat. The Law for God’s whole world was a mountaintop revelation. Mount Moriah was the scene of Abraham’s greatest trial, and the heaven-appointed place [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on April 1, 2026
Palm Sunday, March 2026
An Easter Verb
(See image credit below.)
Dear Friend,
I’m writing these words on Palm Sunday 2026. And I’m putting off the conclusion of our series on Little Faith and God’s Faith because a word has been impressed on my heart. It’s a Greek word that sneaked up on me during my morning Greek research this past week; but now it’s also an abiding Easter verb for me because of its special association with the Resurrection.
Here’s the background: Oikos (οἶκος) is a very common New Testament noun. It means a house or dwelling or just about any place a person might live; and by simple extension, it also means household, that is, all the people who live in the oikos. There’s a closet full of oikos-related words in the New Testament, some of which come down to us in English, like our word economy (oikonomía / οἰκονομία — management of a household).
A related verb—oikéō / οἰκέω—means to dwell [in a home]. It’s used of a married couple dwelling with each other (1 Corinthians 7:12-13), and of [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on April 1, 2026
John Bowring
(1792-1872)
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
When the woes of life o’ertake me,
Hopes deceive, and fears annoy,
Never shall [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on March 30, 2026
Copyright © 2007
Chapter 1 of the book
Boyhood Memories & Lessons
by
Isaiah Reid
I remember, I remember,
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn.I remember, I remember,
The roses—red and white;
The violets and the lilycup,
Those flowers made of light!I remember, I remember,
Where I used to swing,
And thought the air would rush as fresh
To swallows on the wing.
The above words of the poet Hood tell with simplicity and ever freshness just a few things which draw after them memories every heart weaves into its own life story. The following from our own Bryant no less touch the deep memories of life’s first years.
I stand upon my native hill again,
Broad, round, and green, that, in the southern sky
With garniture of waving grass and grain,
Orchards and beechen forests, basking lie;
While deep the sunless glens are scooped between,
Where brawl o’er shallow beds the streams unseen.
One cannot well escape [continue reading…]
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by Jim Kerwin
on March 1, 2026
Thoro Harris
(1874-1955)
Who can cheer the heart like Jesus,
By His presence all divine?
True and tender, pure and precious—
O how blest to call Him mine!
Chorus:
All that thrills my soul is Jesus!
He is more than life to me.
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessèd Lord I see.
Love of Christ so freely given,
Grace of God [continue reading…]
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