Alva Review-Courier -

Far too many times I have heard people speak of people as “lost causes.” They look at a certain individual who is held securely in the clutches of sin, and they declare, “He or she, is a lost cause. There is no hope for them.” They assume that th...

Over the last month, a video has surfaced, and gone viral, of a man cutting up his AR-15 with a chop saw. His point was that he was going to destroy this weapon so that it could never kill anyone. With the weapon cut up into pieces, it was now incapa...

As I sat in the examination chair waiting on the optometrist, I found myself staring at one of those 3D images that was hanging on the wall. As I stared at it, an image began to appear inside of the strange configuration of shapes and colors. This...

I am writing this devotion on a computer with a word processor that is so advanced that my grandparents would be amazed. This processor can fix my misspelled words, warn me of grammatical errors, and I can go back and fix mistakes without making a...

Mr. Heffner, I did not follow your career. I do not know you, beyond the small amount that I have garnered from what is common knowledge, but I pity you. You created a persona that was the envy of every man. You were bigger than life. You lived in...

The following is a continuation of the eulogy I gave to Hugh Heffner back in October. Mr. Heffner, you taught the world that a woman’s value was defined by her looks. Worse yet, you made an idol out of women’s beauty, but no woman could live up to...

It would be disingenuous not to recognize the accomplishments of Hugh Hefner. He was an empire builder who touched an incalculable number of lives, so it seems fitting to write a tribute to his numerous accomplishments. Hugh, you created an empire...

Dove hunters, this is the day you have been waiting for. Today is the opening day of dove season in Oklahoma. I hope you have stocked up on shotgun shells. It has been my experience that a good dove hunt requires a substantial quantity of shells. If...

The curse of success is that it must be maintained. Once we have been successful, and built something worthwhile, enormous effort must be expended to maintain what we have built. However, once we start maintaining what we have built, forward...

If you spend any time around Millennials, you have probably heard the term YOLO. For a man who has eased passed the half century mark, YOLO sounds like gibberish. For those of you that have not yet been introduced to the term, it means You Only Live...

Our founding fathers gave us a wonderful gift: a nation that is united, yet separate. Our nation is made up of 50 individual states. Each has its own personality and government. They are unique individuals, yet they are connected by a transcendent...

Several years ago, my son and I found ourselves crisscrossing our yard, toppling trash containers, cement blocks and sundry objects scattered throughout our yard. I gingerly approached these objects, and cautiously upset them, while my son, with shov...

Our most interesting Christmas present this year was a 7-week-old Australian shepherd and Great Pyrenees puppy. We are presently trying to come up with a suitable name. I am hopelessly old fashioned (and happy to be so), but I think names should...

In the late 19th century, Charles Darwin, while visiting the Galapagos Islands, observed finches that seemed to change the size and shape of their beaks. These finches have since been dubbed “Darwin’s Finches.” The size of these bird’s beaks would c...

I have never seen moods and minds change as they did when a rural Indiana town discovered there was going to be a landfill in their area. Everyone in this community wanted a landfill, but not in their back yards. Their attitude was contingent upon th...

A couple of weeks ago, I had the extremely difficult task of taking my mother back to her home in Indiana so she could make her final arrangements, as she has is facing the end of her earthly existence. As we were preparing to leave, she had me pack...