Posts by Billy Arnold

One of the silly love songs that my wife and I laugh about occasionally when we lift listen to the oldies station is the song, ”I will follow you.” You may or may not be familiar with it but it is a 1963 song written by Ricky Nelson.  Some of the lyrics are… I will follow youFollow you wherever you may goThere isn’t an ocean too deepA mountain so high it can keep me away Away from my love! My…

Have you ever met someone famous? I love the game at parties… “Two truths and a lie.”  When I play this game I love to put famous names out there; two of them being a truth, and one being a lie. Patty and I have run across in random ways many people that were quite well known; politicians, film stars, musicians, sports stars, and even a US President (before he was the president). These would be recognizable people to you,…

Boy Oh Boy do I remember exams at school. Some of you reading this are still taking exams at school. But for others, like me, you might remember well what exam time meant, especially those dreaded ‘final exams!’  Maybe you enjoyed exams at school, but I did not. Taking a final exam was much like a trip to the dentist office for me when they drill on your teeth. You know you have to go through it, and there is…

As I have told you many times, I am a ‘Church Kid’ from the earliest of times. My father was a Baptist Pastor in Texas and that is the home and environment I grew up in. I have absolutely NO complaints about this; I was NOT scared by this; and I have positive memories from this kind of background. (I only say this because sometimes we hear those kinds of background stories in negative ways — and mine was very…

This sounds so much like a great quote to help us learn the lesson of how to have greater faith. As you all know I certainly do watch movies, and honestly I do like the Indiana Jones movie series. In the last of this trilogy Indiana is searching for the holy grail used by Jesus at His last supper. Indiana is to follow the ‘clues’ in order to work his way back into the room where the holy grail is…

When I was in college my mom gave me the starter mix for cinnamon rolls. I had three other roommates, and it became kind of fun to start with a batch of bread, and with the correct ingredients, the bread could be divided, then cooked, then eaten by the rest of us, but it wasn’t all gone. When I put back part of the bread it would just grow until we were ready to have more! I fattened up my…

I love asking this question to children. It opens up all kinds of conversations and comparisons to the size of God. As we all know, a child most often defines size that is compared to a parent.  Let me give you an illustration from my life.   I was working at one of the many children’s camps I’ve helped with over the years, and at this particular time it was a kid’s camp in Russia. So, I not only was…

Crossing the desert to seek the child Adventure stories from days of old and the trail blazers from history still fascinate me. Lewis and Clark were commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to cross the uncharted parts of North America to the Pacific Ocean. I’m fascinated with their very young native Indian young girl guide Sacajawea that helped guide and negotiate on that land crossing. Christopher Columbus was sent by the King of Spain to try to cross the unknown and…

Merry Christmas one more time! As I write this article to you, our dear LifeWay Church family, on this Thursday morning the day after Christmas, I just want to say that my heart is full and warmed by the pleasure of being part of this dear family, as well as being amazing partners with you as we strive to serve the King by carrying the Gospel message to the world. Somehow the Christmas Eve candlelight services served as an amazing…

I’ve done lots of pre-marriage counseling over the years, and I have always enjoyed it. Of course, I have done weddings for people who were all ages. Pre-marriage visits are always enjoyable and the couples are always ‘giddy’ about getting married no matter what age they are. I think the oldest couple I did a wedding for were in the 80’s… and yes, they were delightfully giddy and behaved just like high school kids all over again. It’s pretty fun…

This coming Sunday morning at 10am, we are dedicating our worship time to practice the incredible spiritual habit of GIVING THANKS. Of course, next Thursday is the wonderful American holiday of Thanksgiving. Even though the world shares a few holidays with our culture, this one is truly an American holiday that is so special, and… it is so biblical… it encompasses the beautiful spiritual habit of giving thanks to God. So what does our Sunday worship time look like? How…

When I was 15 years old my grandmother bought a plane ticket for my cousin and I from Texas to Fairbanks, Alaska. It was a dream trip for a 9th grade kid, and it was my first ever commercial airplane ride. I have an uncle who lived there then and still lives there today. To top all this off, he was at that time a bush pilot taking frequent flights all over central and north slope Alaska. Unbelievably fun flying…

I’ve heard the term ‘The Total Depravity of Man’ much of my life, especially when I have studied books and classes on theology. It sort of rolls off my tongue these days and makes us feel so theologically intelligent.  I know that most of you have heard me use that term a great deal in my preaching over the years. Last year this was a major theme when I taught through the book of Romans. The term “Depravity”  sounds so…

When I was a child growing up in Sunday School, of course we focused on Bible Stories. I loved my children’s Bible because not only were the stories pretty cool, but the illustrations and paintings that helped tell the story were memorable and wonderfully visual. My Bible would take a great story and help create an image in my mind that made aided in making it real. Interestingly enough, as a teenager when I began to make a real concerted…

If you grew up with either a little bit or a lot of a “Churchy” background, then invoking the name of Jesus at least in some way is not that abnormal. You or your family may not have believed deeply or trusted Jesus with the day to day of life, but at least if there was some kind of acknowledgement of Him at Christmas time or Easter, then you were not out of line. And absolutely when there is a…

This is our week… our Missions Focus week… that we call GIC (Global Impact Celebration). As a Pastor of LifeWay it is my privilege to help guide this congregation in the many aspects of our ministry and endeavors. I love the Christmas season and its services. I love summer camps and the connections. I love Easter and its glorious celebration. But I love this GIC week the most. Why? Because I believe it hits at the heart of why God…

Did you know that one six out of every ten apples that are eaten in the USA comes from the State of Washington? Even though the population of our state makes up only 2% of the national population, our apples make up 60% of the consumption in the USA! Apples are easily the largest crop that is produced in our state, and Wenatchee happens to be the hub of it all. But what makes it even more interesting is that…

When we go to the annual state fair (which just occurred this month) many of us like to pretend we are farmers or ranchers. As we go and visit the horse barn at the fair or go to the rodeo arena, we love to watch the riders and pretend to know the differences between horse breeds. When we take our kids to the pig barn and watch the momma pig with 13 little piglets, we pretend to know all about…

I was never really much of a baseball player, but I know that if I were I would hate the pressure of being the 3rd out when your team was up to bat. For most of you I likely don’t need to explain the basics of how a baseball game is played; how that your team is only allowed three outs in each of the 9 innings. But in the little that I personally played baseball (football was my game!)…

I have been blessed with the opportunity to see some amazing places in the world. Out of all the unique places I’ve seen and experienced in the world such as the North Slope Brooks range of Alaska, the Grand Canyon, the summit of Mt Rainier to name a few, the starkest place I’ve been to was the North African Desert in Egypt!  It was on one of our many trips to Russia that we chose to do an inexpensive detour…