Grandpa’s building fell. I remember the day he began to build. Grandpa Johnson was a contractor and a builder among many other things. He owned a bulldozer, a dump truck and, many tools of the trade, and he needed a better place to put them than his ever-shrinking garage. He decided to build a large, metal building on a concrete slab that would hold and protect them. 

When the concrete hardened, I was there riding my bicycle across is smooth, clean surface. When the lumber came, I was there watching as they…

Read more

“And the king commanded Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.” 2 Samuel 18:5 

“And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus…

Read more

I know that things seem pretty scary right now. It’s the uncertainty that worries us the most. We fear for our livelihoods and that we may lack the basic necessities of life. We fear that we do not know the truth. We fear the actions of others that seem so irrational in the face of danger. We fear for the safety and health of ourselves and our loved ones. We fear separation, we fear death. 

This uncertainty gives us the opportunity to refocus. It drives us to remember what and who matters and to seek…

Read more

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38, 39

It’s flat in Indiana. Really flat. I grew up in the middle of flatness in a home between corn fields and deep ditches. When I was about three, my mom got a call from the neighbor, “Is that your daughter walking down the road by…

Read more

"I cried out to You, O LORD: I said, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low; deliver me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name; the righteous shall surround me, for You shall deal bountifully with me.'” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭142:5-7

I was at my desk working on some delivery coding algorithm when my wife called, “There is a  18 month old boy who needs a home. Should we take him?” We had…

Read more

Merry Christmas from The Emmanuel Quartet! Emmanuel is a name of hope and encouragement. At this time of year, the Quartet is especially honored to call attention to that name and to the One to whom the name was given. It's been an honor to meet many of you during our concerts this year. We are scheduled for concerts all over the country in 2020 and we hope to see you there. 

In 2019, The Emmanuel Quartet became a non-profit corporation. Over the past 30 years, the quartet members have donated their time… Read more

In perhaps not one of my finer moments of booking concerts for the quartet, I arranged for a worship service concert at the Statesboro, GA SDA Church and an evening concert at the Chattanooga First SDA Church. The problem is that they’re 5½ hours apart!   When I had first looked at the distance on a map, Statesboro looked to be about 4 hours away. So I tried diligently to book an evening concert at a church that would be on our way back home. Unfortunately nothing panned out for a church in that area, so …Read more

This year has been full of firsts for the quartet and August was yet another first. The Lord had led us to the great state of Texas and we were excited since it would be the first time the quartet had ever traveled to Texas for a tour. Once, many years ago, we were coming back home from Shreveport, Louisiana and popped over the line at a Texas welcome center, sang a song for the staff there and took a group photo at the “Welcome to Texas” sign. Ever since then we’ve wanted to go back for a full tour.   …Read more

It’s been over 10 years since we’ve been to the Memphis area so all year I had been trying to book a couple of churches but there were always scheduling conflicts. Even after we got everything worked out, there was a miscommunication between me and Tim which meant I scheduled the tour on the same weekend he was to be at a major Boy Scout event! But we went ahead with the weekend since it seemed the Lord wanted us to go even though the devil was throwing so many obstacles in the way.

Friday night Ryan, Gary…

Read more

We started out at Gary’s house loading up our rental van and it was strange to get back into a minivan after riding in Gary’s Suburban for the past year or so. But since we were driving all the way to Arkansas we decided to rent a van to save the wear on Gary’s truck. When we were all packed, we headed over to Four Corners for me to meet up with my wife Charity, who was getting off work and wanted to say goodbye before we left. Then, after picking up a case of water, we headed to Tim’s house to pick him…

Read more