D.S. al Coda: Go to the Sign of the Cross, Then proceed to the End

  Today I made a little trip down to Orangeburg to visit one of our Lexington Baptist Church VIPs who has been living at The Oaks Methodist Home for several years.  I went to deliver to her a poinsettia as is our practice for all our VIPs every December.  This year we have 42, and it is my joy and priviledge to go with one of our LBC Deacons and visit and pray with two VIPs every week.  So today I visited Damiana Snelgrove and she is 91 years old.  She is originally from Puerto Rico.  Tonight I was doing some research for my Sunday School lesson on the "Oak at Shechem" where Jacob buried all the idols of the Children of Israel in Genesis 35:4.  It just so happened that my PC "accidentally" picked up on "The Oak" search and opened up a document that is stored on my PC.  It is a devotional that my dad delivered at The Oaks on January 19, 2012. My dad who was a pastor in Orangeburg (and prior to that at FBC West Columbia which is now River District Church tha

Someone close to me invited an open argument to support “a case for making a law about the health decisions involving a woman's body that is not Biblically based.” The assumption being that Christians are only pro-life because of a few misinterpreted Bible verses.  In Jeremiah 1:5 the prophet wrote that the word of YHWH came to him and said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” And Psalm 139:13 the psalmist says of YHWH, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  The assertion against using these Bible verses is that just because God said he knew Jeremiah before he was actually born does not necessarily mean that God knows everyone before they are born.  And just because a psalmist wrote that he believed he was knit together in his mother’s womb does not validate that he really was or that anyone else ever has been. As for why the courts should be involved in this matter, it is because “My Body, My Choice” has a major conflict

  I remember sitting in a class at Furman University in the mid-’70s when a professor asked the question, “What is your worldview?” I honestly didn’t know what he was talking about but began to realize that I did not have a worldview--only a very small, self-centered, short-term, and local view of life. (i.e. Headline: "Godzilla Destroys Japan--Economy Devastated!" Me: "I hope Yamato over in Harbison doesn't close down.")  It is estimated that 3,000 years ago the world population was only about 50,000,000. Today there are about 8,000,000,000.  Yet, people in the Bible days could still have a worldview bigger than most of us today. There are 196,900,000 square miles on this planet, but one's worldview is not measured in square miles or numbers of people or nations on the earth.  The whole world seemed huge to people whose only mode of transportation was 4-legged. Today our entire planet can be circumnavigated in a day or two. Two people can carry on a norma

When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas, "What must I do to become saved?" (recorded in Acts 16:30), he was not asking how to go to heaven or avoid hell.  All he knew was that the prisoners who had been placed in his jail with the strict orders for him  " to guard them carefully" had been set free.  Yes, there had been an earthquake, but how did that unlock the chains and release them from the stocks?  Acts 17:27 tells us that the jailer drew his sword to kill himself because he knew that he would be held responsible for the escape and would likely face a humiliating execution. Paul saw what the jailer was about to do and cried out (verse 28), "Don't harm yourself!  We are all here!" The Jailer called for lights and rushed in and fell at the feet of Paul and Silas and pled, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"  Was he just asking how his life could be spared because he was in big trouble?  I believe there was something far more that pr

  In order to function successfully in life, one has to be able to handle, control, and implement trust.  Perhaps you have seen a video of someone trying to help a rescue animal that was either feral or had been abused or neglected. The goal of the rescuer was to gain the trust of the animal which can be a slow process over days and weeks.  But if trust is never established, the animal will simply miss out on the benefits of security, love, and affection.  It will just be skittish and fearful.   The benefits of meaningful relationships in life also require levels of trust.   Your ability to manage and control how much you trust other people is a key component to success in every aspect of life. There is always a risk factor involved when you begin to trust other people.   Why? Because every person, including you, can sometimes not meet up to an expected level of trust that has been invested.   We all come to the table with a track record of our trust investments.    We may be a

Have you ever seen a pregnant woman holding a "My Body My Choice" sign?  I searched for one to no avail. Today is Mother's Day in America!  What better day to write and pray about the sanctity of human life inside a mother-to-be? Countless pro-life articles have been written to try and combat the pro-abortion policies of the liberal left.  The technological advances over the past 50 years have no doubt played a part in the shift of belief about when life begins.  Improvements in ultrasound and facts surrounding the development of a baby in the womb have steadily supported the inhuman violence inflicted upon the unborn as being the killing of a human soul.   The "my body my choice my rights" argument has lost its punch as it has become more evident that the rights of one of the two (or more) bodies involved in this issue are being ignored. I would like to add yet another Biblical stance as to why the baby in the womb should be protected as a soul having life.  We

  Last week 12 Sr. Adults from Lexington Baptist Church went on a field trip. We loaded up the church bus and journeyed non-stop all the way to the Lexington County Museum (about 1 mile!). I vaguely remember Julie and I going there for a short tour of the museum not long after we moved to Lexington in 1988.  I had not been back to the museum since then, and that's why I thought it might be a good trip for our seniors. I was sure some of them had either never been there or had not been in years. We were not disappointed! We enjoyed a 2-hour tour with John Myers who did an outstanding job of sharing his knowledge of Lexington history and the artifacts in the museum.  But he also gave us a good glimpse of what life in the 17-1800's was like for our Lexington predecessors. The museum actually covers 7 acres in the heart of Lexington and maintains 33 structures depicting the middle-class life of early German and Swiss settlers in Lexington.  The Germans brought with them their Luthe

  I saw this article online and it naturally caught my attention.  It was written by Moises Mendez II who, according to his own profile is "a recent graduate from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is a freelance journalist based in New York City writing about everything from music to LGBTQ issues." What is your reaction to this statement? "Sunday morning after church is the worst type of customer... you won't change my mind."  My first thought was, "Well, that's one guy's opinion and he has a right to it, but he would have to already have a bias against Christians to make such a blanket conclusion about all people who go to church on Sundays."  Mr. Mendez is not the one pictured here, but he included in his article this video by a Tik-Tok-er named Saint_Hypnos as "exhibit A" for his post: If the video won't play, go to  Servers Say 'Sunday Morning After Church' Are the Worst Customers (dailydot.co

On the fourteenth day of the first month is the LORD’s Passover (Numbers 28:16 & Leviticus 23:5).  When does this annual memorial celebration happen each year? I s it, A, B, or C? A) Every January 14 - Gregorian Calendar B) Nissan 14 (14 days after the sighting of the New Moon after the Spring Equinox which in 2022 is April 22) - Hillel Calendar kept by the majority of Jewish people and many Messianic Believers. C) Month 1, Day 14 (14 days after the Spring Equinox if it happens on a Wednesday which in 2022 is April 5) - Zadokite Calendar kept by the Essenes and Zadokites, believed by many to be the oldest of the calendars and kept by the people of God as far back as Noah. If you said "C" the Zadokite Calendar, I would be in agreement with you. If you have never heard of this calendar, Google your own research on this topic.  The Zadokite Essene c alendar, the calendar attested in I Enoch and the Book of Jubilees, consisted of a solar calendar of 364 days divided into seve

  Last week Lexington Baptist Church held our 4th Camp Meeting out in Leesville at the Spradlin's Pond- House facility.  We had about 75 Sr. Adults armed with copies of the 1956 Baptist Hymnal.  We ate supper and then sang hymn medleys and hymn requests for over an hour.  We sang the hymns that most of us grew up singing so many times, year after year, that the lyrics are still embedded in our minds.  Having hymn books, those who read music can sing the alto, tenor, and bass parts.   We could go acapella and experience the beautiful blend of different voices singing in harmony yet being unified by the rhythm and the text.     At these Camp Meetings, someone might request a song that has not been sung in church anywhere since the 1970s! It is rather interesting to point out that whenever people talk about singing the old songs, they are really only referring to songs that were written in the late 1700s like Amazing Grace and the 1900s like Victory in Jesus written in 1939.   When

After a three-year hiatus from writing this Blog, I have picked up D.S. al Coda once again.  I left off this blog site as I wrote a weekly column for the Lexington Chronicle since January of 2019.  I felt somewhat restricted from being able to write solely about the most important things in life to me--our Heavenly Father and the salvation we can have through Jesus Christ, His Son. I enjoyed the experience of writing for the paper and felt I should do so as my father, Rev. Bert Williams wrote articles for years for the Orangeburg T & D.  And I recently compiled and published a book called, "A Year of Sr. Living--52 articles form the Lexington Chronicle 2019-2021".  I would love for you to have a copy of this book.  It is on sale for $10 at this website: www.RestoringHisTruth.com . Postage is free and I will be happy to mail you a copy or simply sell it to you at Lexington Baptist Church. I enjoy writing.  I had a professor who said 3 words that I never forgot: “Be a write