by Garris Elkins | Oct 17, 2016 | Deliverance, Discipline, Fear, Holy Spirit, Pride, Spiritual Warfare
In high school, I took two years of journalism during my junior and senior years. Our assignment was to publish the weekly school paper. I can still remember the day our teacher told us about the 5 W’s and the H. She said each story would need to cover six elements in...
by Garris Elkins | Oct 9, 2016 | Courage, Culture, Deliverance, Discipline, Faith, Family, Fear, Kingdom of God, Leadership, Power, Prohecy, Spiritual Warfare
For a couple of years our family lived in downtown Los Angeles. Echo Park to be exact. Jan and I directed part of a missions agency that sent ministry teams around the world. Two times a day Jan would drive our two kids to and from school in Pasadena. We had to...
by Garris Elkins | Oct 5, 2016 | Discipleship, Discipline, Faithfulness, Gifts, Obedience
My uncle owned a Texaco service station in Livermore, California in the 1950’s. It was back in the days when a car pulled in for gas four uniformed men would run out to meet the incoming customer. One attendant greeted the customer. Another checked air pressure in the...
by Garris Elkins | Sep 23, 2016 | Church, Courage, Discipleship, Discipline, Faith, Leadership, Relationships, Sacrifice
Jan and I were invited to lunch by our friends, Tim and April Matteson who live in Reno, Nevada. They wanted us to meet Graham Cooke. At lunch we talked about many things. One story really stuck in my mind. When Graham is in his hometown each day he frequents a local...
by Garris Elkins | Sep 20, 2016 | Discipline, Faithfulness, Fathers, Integrity, Leadership
As a young boy, I grew up in a wonderful Baptist church in Los Gatos, California. Calvary Baptist Church was surrounded by the orchards that once filled the densely populated Silicon Valley of today. Our church had a traditional sanctuary with stained glass windows...
by Garris Elkins | Aug 22, 2016 | Courage, Discipline, Holiness, Hope, Humility, Integrity, Love, Obedience, Pride, Restoration
I grew up in small town America. Our home sat on the border between Campbell and Los Gatos, California in the Silicon Valley before the silicon and crowds arrived. My street was a dead end with only six homes along one side. Our home was surrounded by orchards. Behind...
