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Living on Purpose: Who wants a lifestyle of spiritual awareness?
Posted 10.05.2026
By Dr. William Holland
Have you noticed that when we are bombarded with negativity and told that the world is falling apart at the seams, it drains our joy and hope? Of course, we are concerned about our nation, the world, and the future of our family, but may we look beyond the veil of doom and gloom and realize the world is also filled with good news, whether we want to accept it or not. Like you, I scan information from newspapers, radio, television, the internet, including religious voices, and mostly what I gather are those obligated to relay how bad everything is. When someone relays a story, we should be aware they are relaying a view of what they personally believe or what they’ve been told. For example, when someone declares that no one can be trusted and that society is evolving into a mass of mindless zombies, we should realize this is a “glass half-empty” view. However, in reality, there are many kind-hearted and loving individuals are demonstrating what Jesus is saying.
Perspective is a key word to consider because we have an obligation to discern and think carefully about not only what we say, but what has been said. We were not created to be simple-minded souls who are gullible and easily deceived. Since God is all-wise and lives within His children, He wants us to manifest the highest intelligence and spiritual sensitivity as possible. First Corinthians 2:16: “For, who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him, but we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.” It’s important to realize that all human communication is presented through an individual’s personal way of thinking, whether it be positive or negative. This is why spiritual discernment is so important, so that we can filter out the personal bias from the facts. Listening to anyone speak about something (including what you are reading now) is a personal responsibility (and a challenge) when we comprehend this principle.
Since we have the opportunity to express our free will to establish our own interpretations and opinions about everything, including our religious views, we are faced with the most serious point of our conversation. To what extent has the information we have learned been demonstrated as obedience unto God? What good would it be if a person listened to Biblical sermons for 50 years, and never allowed God’s word to change them into a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ? It’s as if many churchgoers have convinced their conscience that simply believing there is a God qualifies them for eternal life.
Change is a popular word when associated with personal transformation, but usually considered a necessity for others and not for ourselves. What we have decided to believe is indeed the hill we will die on, so to speak, which reminds us that we need to make sure our thoughts are correct. There is an old saying, “What is down in the well will come up in the bucket,” as our conversations are a direct extension of our thoughts and who we are. As the glass being half-full or half-empty can describe our positive or negative attitudes, we seldom examine which type of personality we are. Much of who we are is based on the complex nature of how we process what we hear, learn and accept. Within this conscience system of cognition, it encompasses various mental activities such as reasoning, understanding, problem-solving, and decision-making.
The truth is that everything in our world is NOT doom and gloom, and all is not lost. Just because we do not know a true follower of God or see their obedience does not mean they do not exist. It simply reveals that a pessimist bases their worldviews and judgments on their own opinions and what they have experienced. Each individual can choose to make as much difference in the world as they want, good or bad. In other words, we can become as positive minded as we want to be. Some pray to be a light of truth, while it seems that others enjoy spreading fear and darkness. Some will ask, “What does personal spiritual transformation include?” Now that is a good question. We’ve already mentioned how the mind must be renewed, which, by the way, is a very important aspect of spiritual warfare, and as we will talk more in the coming weeks, it will come down to whether we really have a passion to become totally committed to what Christ died for us to be.
Dr. Holland is a minister, chaplain, and author. Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com.
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Mr. Penny Pincher
The Power of a Routine
Posted 10.05.2026
By Patrick Byrne
Admiral William H. McRaven gave a commencement speech at the University of Texas several years ago. In the speech, he shared that starting each day by making your bed can help change the world. He argued this initial completed task provides you with a sense of pride and sets a standard for further accomplishments throughout the day.
It’s easy to brush this off as “military speak,” however, having a set routine can yield both negative or positive results depending on our focus.
My father was a smoker for most of his life. Having started in his early teens, he smoked until the day he died over fifteen years ago. One of the first things he’d do in the early morning was to light up his first cigarette, which would be followed by many others until the entire pack was consumed by days end. Being young, I had no idea how addictive cigarettes could be but I knew it wasn’t a routine I wanted to carry forward into my adult life.
Rather than lighting up a cigarette, I chose to go for a run or head to the gym for an early morning workout. A negative habit and/or addiction by a parent provided a template for a path I wanted to avoid. Thankfully this was my choice and I didn’t become addicted to this or any other substance. Others aren’t so lucky. One cigarette leads to two or three and before you know it, the routine is embedded into your daily life.
Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing but it can be dangerous if we’re not careful. Choosing to have a stack of pancakes every morning rather than a healthier alternative may have health impacts down the road. Heart disease, diabetes and an unhealthy weight are just a few of the potential side effects. Establishing a different routine and sticking with it could prolong your life, happiness and ability to move freely with less pain and health problems.
Like many men in their early fifties, my hair is not only thinning but there’s a growing spot on my head where hair used to be. The proverbial bald spot upon my dome has been growing little by little over the years. Although I’ve used thickening shampoos for awhile now, I had no idea if they were actually doing anything given the fact that I can’t see in the back of my head. A friend recently commented that my bald spot looked, “better” and “less noticeable.”
A daily routine that I’ve stuck to religiously over the course of six years is paying dividends, or so it seems.
Speaking of dividends, having a good routine can be very beneficial when it comes to money as well. Rather than spending any extra money you have on items you can most likely live without, having a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly routine to save and invest it instead will allow your future self more freedom of choice. Putting aside as little as $10 per week adds up to almost $500 a year, not exactly chump change.
The routines we establish today may seem insignificant at first, but over time they can become the foundation for the life we ultimately lead. Whether it’s making your bed, exercising instead of smoking, choosing a healthier meal or putting $10 into savings, small decisions repeated consistently can add up to something much bigger.
We may not always control what life puts in front of us, but we do have a choice in how we respond—and sometimes the smallest routines can make the biggest difference.
Patrick Byrne
Patrick lives in Tega Cay with his wife and two daughters. After 25 years working for a Big 4 bank where he held multiple marketing/communication roles, he retired from the corporate world to pursue his passion for writing. An opportunity to develop a local paper proved too enticing to turn down. Patrick is a graduate of Winthrop University where he majored in Communications. Patrick can be reached at patrickbyrne@tegacaysun.com and patrickbyrnecreative.com
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The Autumn Leaves Of Youth
Posted 09.30.2026
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
When it’s spring and the rocky shoals spider lilies bloom, spring’s my favorite season. When mornings of chilled air and radiant leaves arrive, fall’s my favorite season. When I think of autumn memories, first on my list are my days standing by the Augusta Highway waiting on the school bus.
When you wait on a bus, you’re a captive. Your senses stave off boredom. I best remember October’s cold mornings of frost-glazed grasses, whiffs of woodsmoke, and a phenomenon called rabbit frost, tiny pillars of earth that spew from the ground capped by frost.
Why do those early mornings waiting on a bus seem special?
Easy answer. Morning light. We were up with the sun. That early gold light drenched leaves with color, sparkled the rabbit frost, and the cold air made me feel alive and grateful for autumnal majesty. Though we had a lot of pines along our stretch of the Augusta Highway, oaks and hickories flamed among the green.
When you are a Southern kid a cold morning seems colder than it is. I could see my breath on those early fall mornings. My silver vapors vanished in a sliver of a second. My hands froze. If I had gloves I don’t recall wearing them. I read that folks long ago would bake potatoes and put them in pockets for warmth. Clever, an emergency food or snack. Today we use those chemically activated pocket warmers. Tear them open so oxygen can go to work and the heat is on. Progress ….
The occasional out-of-timing truck would rumble by spewing fumes that for some strange reason made me think of my grandfather’s smokehouse. A strange memory comes to me as I write. An elderly gent, Mr. Fletcher Reed, would drive by with his left arm sticking out stiff as a board. He’d bang his arm on the door. He always did that. Was he keeping time to music?
Until the bus arrived like clockwork I had time to take in fall, an unintended blessing. As soon as I stepped into the bus, autumn’s leaves gave way to noise and soon we were at school, thoughts of leaves and ice gone for the day.
Second on my list of the autumn leaves of youth are walks through home’s aromatic woods. When you’re among hardwoods, fallen leaves put off scents … peppery, leather-like fragrances, spice-like fragrances.
It’s noisy walking through fall. The crunch of fallen leaves makes a ruckus. I can’t imagine the Cherokee walking through fallen leaves as quiet as a whisper. That was folklore. Dry oak and maple leaves crunch beneath feet—all feet. Physics doesn’t grant exemptions, but it does paint our lives with color. While the fall foliage change is mostly biology and chemistry, the colors themselves come from physics: sunlight strikes pigments that absorb some visible wavelengths of light and reflect others. Biology decides when the pigments change. The physics of light paint the hillsides and forests.
Much has changed since my October days of waiting on that gear-clashing bus. I never saw rabbit frost again. As for those woods, they’ve been mine since 1982. I’ve yet to cut one tree. Even so, many of my oaks and hickories are literally gone with the wind. Hurricane Helene blew over the trees of youth.
The stretch of Augusta Highway in front of my old home expanded into a passing lane and the shoulder I waited on lies beneath asphalt. Like a maple leaf flashing red Old No. 20, the red-and-white school bus like no other that took me to school and football games. I never saw another bus like it but I won’t forget it, just as I will never forget my days of marveling at rabbit frost and fall leaves in that cold Georgia air.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Mr. Penny Pincher
The Return of Layaway, With a Modern Twist
Posted 09.30.2026
By Patrick Byrne
One day last week, I was surprised by the sudden chill in the morning air. Without warning, summer had given way to fall and my daughters walk to the bus stop required an oversized sweatshirt to guard against the cold. This could mean only one thing, the holidays are right around the corner.
With the holidays comes the stress of making large purchases either with cash that’s been saved throughout the year or by way of credit cards. It’s hard enough to pay for everyday items like gas and groceries. Finding hundreds or thousands of dollars for holiday foods and gifts may be next to impossible for many of us.
Although credit cards served as a necessary evil in order to keep our family afloat, my parents utilized layaway to pay for large purchases made at major retailers like Sears, Kmart and Wal Mart.
With layaway, the store would hold the item on your behalf until you paid for it in full. Once paid in full, you would then take possession of the item, usually having made payments with no interest or late fees. The store extended credit with very little risk to the customer.
This was an elegant solution for middle class families making large purchases, allowing you to split the cost over time. Unfortunately, layaway is no longer offered at most major retailers. Layaway been replaced with a similar concept called Buy Now Pay Later or BNPL loans. Rather than the retailer extending credit and holding the item until the loan is paid off, the credit risk is assumed by a third party and any purchased items are taken home that day.
For example, Wal Mart uses Affirm as its BNPL provider. Affirm offers two options: Pay in Four or Monthly Financing. Here’s how it works:
Pay in Four
- Pay in four installments, due every two weeks
- No fees
- No interest charge
- Available for online and in store purchases starting at $35
Monthly Payments
- Pay monthly with terms of 3 months to five years
- No fees
- Interest ranging from 0-36%
- Available for online and in store purchases up to $20,000
There are other BNPL providers out there but I chose to highlight Affirm for one very important reason, they charge no fees, ever. They don’t even charge a late fee if you happen to miss a payment due to an unexpected expense. The credit approval process is simple, you can often apply right in the checkout lane. Future payments can be drafted automatically from your bank account, ensuring you stay on track.
Paying cash is always going to be the best way to pay for anything; however, tapping into credit for large purchases is becoming a necessity. Using a BNPL as a layaway replacement may be a better option in order to avoid high interest credit card debt.
Just remember: “Buy now, pay later” can be convenient, but “buy now, regret later” is a completely different financing program.
Patrick Byrne
Patrick lives in Tega Cay with his wife and two daughters. After 25 years working for a Big 4 bank where he held multiple marketing/communication roles, he retired from the corporate world to pursue his passion for writing. An opportunity to develop a local paper proved too enticing to turn down. Patrick is a graduate of Winthrop University where he majored in Communications. Patrick can be reached at patrickbyrne@tegacaysun.com and patrickbyrnecreative.com
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Living on Purpose: The Lord is our strength and shield
Posted 09.28.2026
By Dr. William Holland
We have learned since childhood about the blessings of being protected. Remember when we were in the arms of our moms and dads? It seemed as if the world’s dangers could not reach us. Now that we are grown up, we believe we can take care of ourselves, like having a home which shelters us from the elements and provides security against whatever might want to harm us. But of all the things in this world that might give us a sense of safety and defense, there is nothing that can compare to the divine power and authority of God’s presence always watching over us. Psalm 23:4 helps us to see there is no need to be afraid: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The rod and staff symbolize God’s authority, guidance, and protection, serving as reminders of His covenant with His people and His commitment to lead them through any of life’s challenges. In John 10:11, Christ promises, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Accept and receive His great love and allow Him to give you true hope and peace.
The other night I had difficulty sleeping, and as I tossed and turned, harassing thoughts were bombarding me and trying to interfere with my peace. I began to pray and ask God to help me and was reminded that in the Bible, one of God’s attributes is that He is like a shield. If we choose to stay close to Him and trust Him, we can be safe. This brought me great comfort as I could imagine being surrounded by His presence as I envisioned the arrows of the enemy harmlessly bouncing away. The next thing I knew, it was morning. As I went downstairs and started on my first cup of coffee, I was still thinking about the shield and went into my office to look up the definition. “Shield” basically means a guard to defend and protect, to cover as a barrier, a place of shelter and security to hide behind, and a way to preserve and maintain our safety. Being aware of this promise gives us confidence even when fear is trying to defeat us. A familiar scripture of comfort is found in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Like most of you, I’m hearing a lot of talk about an economic recession, food and fuel supplies and prices, and the wars currently being fought, which are unnerving, to say the least. However, even within the chaos and anxiety, God’s people can choose to stay close to Him and be filled with His faith and joy! As we make a sincere decision to trust Him no matter what may come, we can stand strong and believe as First John 4:4 declares, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Proverbs 18:10 reminds us, The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” When we are perplexed with worry and doubt, we can run to Jesus. He is the King of Kingdom authority!
There is a story recorded in Matthew chapter eight about Christ being in a boat on a lake with His disciples. While He took a nap, there arose a violent storm, and His friends were terrified the boat was going to sink. They awoke Him, and He calmly spoke to the wind and waves to stop, and suddenly it was perfectly calm. Some may say, “What does this have to do with my crisis?” He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and still has the power and desire to command “Peace be still” to your storms now! Jesus is perfectly aware of what you are going through and knows exactly what to do. Psalm 33:20 reassures us, “Our soul waits for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.” Whatever is troubling you today, remember that God can do anything, and nothing is impossible for Him. Be encouraged with Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song will I praise Him.”
Dr. Holland is a minister, chaplain, and author. Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com.
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My Hex On Writers
Posted 09.23.2026
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
In Burning The Days, James Salter wrote of his fellow fighter pilots after Korea vanished from his gunsights. “Once in a while in a locker room or bar I would hear a remark that someone, a name from those days, had been killed in a flying accident, but like Conrad’s shipmates on the Narcissus, I never saw any of them again.”
In my life people scatter never to be seen again or die. Friends become unfriends. Good riddance to some relatives, and adios work colleagues. I’m a hex. Real writers come with expiration date. To the roll call of deceased writers I add Roger Pinckney the 11th.
I met Roger just once. That convinced me he was a “care-actor” as Dad used to stay. We stayed in touch and collaborated on a feature he was writing for Atlanta Magazine. He had the gift. Consider this excerpt from “Blue Root Real Estate.”
“I slept on the beach last night and saw the new moon over the dunes at sunrise, a crescent coasting above a casual slurry of pink and blue, like God got up late and slung color over his shoulder before stumbling off to make coffee. Plovers and sanderlings skittered up and down the backwash and shrimp boats were working Grenadier Shoals. Way offshore, the sea buoys flashed red and white and faithful, while the sunlight gathered and the colors faded and the moon disappeared into a great glory of morning.”
Roger relished the isolation of bridgeless Daufuskie Island.
“Easy and unlimited access has been the death of many wild places, not just islands.” He wrote of his island paradise as “beautiful, remote and sparsely settled. Quiet, lovely, no serious crime, many working artists, neighbors helping neighbors. Absolutely wonderful … Ah yes, we have a rum distillery and a winery. The fast food here has fins, fur, or feathers. The shrimp man comes regularly with seafood and produce. The water is clean enough now for our own oysters, clams, crabs, and you can always catch fish. Deer hunting is fantastic. We shoot local wood ducks and get some migrants if the winter is cold enough … “Peace and quiet, natural beauty, no traffic, nobody bothering me. I’m easy to find, hard to get to. Tourists are annoying at times but nature and historic tourism is our number one business. We say, ‘Take pictures, leave footprints and money.’”
Forget rattlers, copperheads, and gators, Roger saw developers as the danger. In 2001 Pinckney and comrades met on a shrimp boat and signed papers to become non-profit Friends of Daufuskie Inc. “To the woods,” they toasted with good champagne in Dixie cups. Friends of Daufuskie fought development.
“After about eight years, one litigant brokered a compromise. No lock harbor marina, 100s of acres into conservation easement and a brackish wetland/rice field to enhance habitat protected by a weir that would allow only kayaks, canoes etc., not powerboats. As a bonus, the controlling partner granted me a 1,000-acre deer lease for the benefit of the community. Friends of Daufuskie became the Daufuskie Hunt Club and we have been hunting it ever since.”
Roger, who knew all about hexes and haint blue, wrote, Got My Mojo Working, A Voodoo Memoir. He saw juju in action. In the 1980s, a realtor put a sales office and reception center on a slave graveyard.
“Unnamed locals went to Dr. Buzzard II and things went entirely to hell—$250,000,000 lost, boats afire, boats sunk, CEOs sickened and dead.”
People wore haint blue to Roger’s memorial on Daufuskie. We remember him as an unapologetic conservationist and colorful advocate for the wild, tidal Lowcountry.
As for my hex, forget it. Writing takes so long to get any good, by the time I get to know a real writer, the end is near. It’s that simple. RIP all.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Mr. Penny Pincher
The Wal-Mart Problem Is Bigger Than Wal-Mart
Posted 09.23.26
By Patrick Byrne
I’ll fully admit, my trips to Wal Mart are becoming far too frequent lately. The close proximity of the store along with the ability to get pretty much anything I need, when I need it, results in multiple trips per week on average. No doubt a Wal Mart executive would be giddy with excitement at reading this.
What may prove less exciting would be my observations of employee morale and behavior. What’s astounding about a store like Wal Mart, aside from the sheer size of it, are the number of employees it takes to keep the place humming. Even more astonishing, are the number of workers that appear to be doing very little if anything for the small wage they’re being paid.
Those who are working, are almost always on their phone, either busily scrolling or enjoying a conversation while throwing items into a basket for instore pickup.
Trust me, I’m not here to judge. People do what they need to get by and I fully understand that, but it did get me to thinking. Why are most of the employees at Wal Mart and stores like it miserable? Is it the low pay and limited benefits or something else entirely?
This is purely my opinion, but I tend to think it’s a bit more deep rooted than just money, although that certainly does have a lot do with it. Having a job with limited to no upward mobility that takes little real skill results in zero self worth or purpose.
Therein lies the “Wal Mart problem” of our society, but how do we fix it?
One solution that has been the fix for generations is going to college and earning a degree so you can secure a good paying job upon graduation. This still works; however, it’s been tainted by the high cost of college and crippling student loan debt. Rather than simply signing up for tens of thousands of loans to be paid back later, taking a smart approach in utilizing a community college for core curriculum prior to attending a 4 year university makes sense depending on the degree you choose.
Another solution that’s become more viable (and quite frankly more broadly accepted) is to learn a trade. I’m constantly walking around Wal Mart or any number of retail stores wondering to myself why someone who’s young, healthy and smart enough to use a phone isn’t utilizing an opportunity to become an electrician, HVAC repair person or plumber. The benefits and salary from these jobs far outweighs what you’d be paid at a major retail store, plus, these jobs provide a career with purpose.
On my recent Wal Mart trip, I spotted something else I thought was interesting, a self driving floor polisher. A machine that once required a human being to act as pilot was now meandering around the store all on its own. This may not have been a high paying job at one time; however, there are plenty of people who made a career out of being a janitor. A low skilled career for sure, but one that may have provided purpose in their lives.
Similar to the kiosks at fast food chains, we’re continually seeing low wage and low skilled jobs fall by the wayside. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily, after all, most of these jobs barely pay a living wage. What is challenging to consider is the amount of people who are employed in these jobs. What will become of them when they’re all gone?
The zombie employee at Wal Mart, glassy eyed and busy looking at their phone, may as well be a living dinosaur walking among us, waiting for the meteor to hit and wipe them all out.
Perhaps the real challenge isn’t finding jobs for people, but finding ways to ensure the work that remains gives them a reason to put down the phone and a reason to care about what they do.
Patrick Byrne
Patrick lives in Tega Cay with his wife and two daughters. After 25 years working for a Big 4 bank where he held multiple marketing/communication roles, he retired from the corporate world to pursue his passion for writing. An opportunity to develop a local paper proved too enticing to turn down. Patrick is a graduate of Winthrop University where he majored in Communications. Patrick can be reached at patrickbyrne@tegacaysun.com and patrickbyrnecreative.com
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Living on Purpose: Do we see our need for God’s refining fire?
Posted 09.21.2026
By Dr. William Holland
God has always been disappointed when someone is more concerned with what they want to do than what He requires of them. Since mankind fell in the garden, our carnal nature has been persuading and influencing our decisions and specializes in the skills of compromising and justifying. Self-deception is common, and only a few realize our highest responsibility is to obey Him. Many believe that God is real and accept His blessings of love and forgiveness, but do not care about being accountable. Those who are serious about knowing God will develop a spiritual awareness that can discern if He is pleased with them. Do you know He is pleased with you?
There is an unpopular verse found in Revelation 3:16 where the writer relays what Jesus thinks about the church at Laodicea. “So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.” We realize parables and analogies are common within the Bible, and we interpret this metaphor as relating to the attitudes and intentions of the heart; no one likes cold French fries or lukewarm coffee. He was saying their minds were in a state of being lackadaisical, apathetic, and lethargic. Spewing us out does not sound good. This letter to Laodicea is the harshest, but wait, it’s not just pertaining to this certain group; God is warning all Christians about the dangers of backsliding that can happen when we ignore His demands and willingly surrender to the temptations of sin.
I’ve heard a lot of sermons on these seven letters found in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, but it’s critical that we do not only comprehend this as a history lesson. Many church members might see this as someone else being more religious than spiritual without examining their own heart to discern if maybe this message is also being directed to them personally. Let us not forget that God was speaking to members of an established Christian church who were supposedly followers of Jesus and His teachings. There is no beating around the bush about His disappointment. He does not want His church or the Christian life to become a comfortable social club. This was a materialistic, selfish, and arrogant dead church, and sadly this lukewarm indifference is definitely happening today. He is calling for His people to walk holy as He is holy, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and manifesting His nature and character.
The Lord continues to be more specific, using cutting words such as “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” Their lukewarm faith had become hypocritical. The lifeless atmosphere of the services was the result of a lack of enthusiasm and passion for Christ in their minds and hearts. They were caught up in the love for the world, and it’s very possible some individuals had not been genuinely converted and were just pretending to be Christians. It’s not an exciting topic, but there is such a thing as people who practice a form of religion, but their conscience is one of self-righteous complacency. They claim to be taking up their cross and following Jesus, and being renewed by allowing their minds to be transformed, but their hearts are far from Him. Their game-playing might be deceiving everyone around them, but God can clearly see they are impostors.
So how can we as Christians keep from falling into deception and spiritual coldness? We must realize there are dark forces trying to distract us from Jesus. If we choose to follow our fleshly desires and always place our relationship with Jesus on the back burner, we will remain lukewarm and backslidden. Only when we realize that we are being attacked through the entanglement of carnality, and then take the steps to remove these snare traps from our mind and conscience, can we press forward with making Christ our highest priority. Developing an awareness of God’s constant presence is the key to becoming a wise and powerful soldier for the Lord who is not wishy-washy, but will stand strong and faithful in times of persecution.
A common defense of being lukewarm is that it does not matter. This is a lie! Being backslidden is a huge deal. When we lose our love and passion to pray for others, when we stop repenting and no longer feel convicted by the Holy Spirit, we are in serious danger. Becoming spiritually numb causes us not to care about how our sins are offending God. We are forgetting the negative impact our halfhearted attempt to follow Christ has on everyone. If demonstrating God’s character and accomplishing His will is not our highest purpose, what is? Accepting Christ is not all there is to salvation; it’s just the beginning. Being saved provides a privilege to serve, worship, and know Him. Yes, our Creator is long-suffering toward the lukewarm, and forgiveness is available, but we must see our desperate need for His refining fire and cry out to Him to cleanse and transform us into what He requires us to be.
Dr. Holland is a minister, chaplain, and author. Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com.
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Places You Can’t Forget
Posted 09.16.2026
By Tom Poland
A Southern Writer
www.tompoland.net
tompol@earthlink.net
Thirteen years ago I wrote of highways with memorable names. I mentioned Whiskey Road and Easy Street in Aiken as one of the country’s more photographed road signs. In Albany, Georgia, Lonesome and Hardup Roads make an interesting intersection, and in McCormick County you’ll find Redemption Way, the road to the state prison for men. I wrote, too, of Sewer Plant Road in North Carolina, a realtor’s dread I bet.
Now I turn my attention to southern towns and places with unforgettable names. Seems a common denominator in naming places are frustration and the Post Office.
Nameless, Tennessee, is a spot in the mountains chronicled in Blue Highways, A Journey Into America by William Least Heat-Moon. The place had gone for years without a name. The U.S. Post Office told residents that if they wanted to get mail, they had to name the town proper so people could address a letter to it. Residents convened but couldn’t agree on a name. One man wanted it named after him. Some wanted a name from nature. Some wanted a patriotic name. When they ran out of names a fella tired of the talk said, “This here’s a nameless place if I ever seen one so leave it be.” And that’s how Nameless, Tennessee, came to be.
Down near Tifton, Georgia, you’ll come across Enigma. Founders had trouble deciding what to call it. Again the Post Office played a role in the name. John A. Ball was the first postmaster of the place known informally as “Gunn and Weston” for two men who built a sawmill nearby. When Ball applied for an official name, he submitted two options: “Lax” and “Enigma.” “Lax” was taken so “Enigma” won out. Said Ball, “It was a puzzle what to name it anyway.”
Harry Crews set his novel, The Gospel Singer, in Enigma. The book follows a famous traveling gospel singer who returns to his hometown of Enigma for a revival. The story involves violence, a freak-show entourage, a murder accusation, and a grim ending. Some locals were unhappy with how the town and its residents were portrayed. Crews later set another Georgia novel, A Feast of Snakes, in a fictionalized version of nearby Mystic, named for Mystic, Connecticut, the hometown of early settlers.
You’ll find Sugar Tit, South Carolina, in Spartanburg County. Sugar tit is an old Southern term for a homemade baby pacifier, a piece of cloth filled with sugar or sugarcane. The story goes that men spent so much time at the local country store their wives complained they flocked there “like babies to a sugar tit.” The name sucks you could say.
In North Carolina’s Randolph County there’s an unincorporated community named Whynot. When residents gathered to name the new post office, they suggested ideas saying, “Why not this?” and “Why not that?” After a long, fruitless meeting, a fed-up farmer said, “Let’s name it Whynot and go home.” They did.
Over in Alabama’s Elmore County there’s the community of Slapout. When customers asked for flour or sugar, the general store owner often would say he was “slap out.” The phrase became the community’s name.
One more Alabama memorable place, Scratch Ankle. Railroad workers noticed residents constantly scratched their ankles. The blame probably goes to chiggers and/or mosquitoes. They started calling the place Scratch Ankle.
Think your hometown’s name is boring? What if you lived in Embarrass, Minnesota, Ding Dong, Texas, Booger Hole, West Virginia, Intercourse, Pennsylvania, or Hell, Minnesota.
You young families … Having trouble coming up with a name for the baby? Get the Post Office involved. Carrier, Track, or Stamp sound ok? Maybe Zip will win the day. It could work for a boy or girl and it’d be memorable, a first-class name.
Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything at at tompol@earthlink.net
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Dr. Tom’s Cyber Bits & Tips
Your Driver’s License Was Scanned at a Car Rental Counter or Dispensary. Now It May Be for Sale on the Dark Web.
Posted 09.16.2026
By Dr. Thomas Hyslip
Brian Krebs, one of the most respected cybersecurity journalists in the world and the founder of KrebsOnSecurity, was alerted on August 31, 2026 to a new identity theft service that had just launched on a Russian cybercrime forum called Exploit. The service, calling itself Nexus, was advertising access to digital scans of identity documents on more than 170 million people across North America.
The reason Krebs’s source flagged it to him specifically: the Nexus operator had used Krebs’s own Virginia driver’s license as a free sample to advertise the service.
What Krebs found when he started digging is one of the most significant data breaches in American history, and it affects an identity verification company that most Americans have never heard of, even though tens of millions of them have handed their driver’s license directly to its scanning machines.
What Is IDScan.net and Why Does It Have Your License?
IDScan.net is a New Orleans-based company that provides identity verification technology to more than 20,000 locations worldwide, processing more than 21 million identity verifications every month. Its clients include some of the largest and most recognizable brands in America, including Hertz rental car, Target, FedEx, Motorola Solutions, and the financial services company Jack Henry. The company also serves more than 1,000 marijuana dispensaries across 19 states, including Planet13, a major multi-state dispensary chain.
When you hand your driver’s license to a rental car agent, a dispensary clerk, or a hotel front desk worker, and they slide it into a small scanner or hold it up to a reader, there is a reasonable chance that machine is running IDScan.net’s VeriScan software. In seconds, the software reads the barcode on the back of your license, captures an image of both the front and back using standard, infrared, and ultraviolet light, and verifies that the document is authentic.
What most people do not know is that IDScan.net appears to have been retaining those scanned images in a cloud-based database long after the verification was complete, without most customers knowing their license image was being stored at all.
On September 4, 2026, IDScan.net posted a brief notice on its website confirming that an unauthorized third party may have accessed and copied certain customer information stored within their accounts on the IDScan.net cloud, including full names and driver’s license or other government-issued identification numbers. The company said it is cooperating with federal law enforcement and offering free credit monitoring to affected individuals.
The Scale of What Was Stolen
The numbers involved in this breach are staggering. According to reporting by Brian Krebs at KrebsOnSecurity, which was first to break this story, the Nexus identity theft service claimed to have more than 153 million driver’s licenses for people in the United States and Canada, more than 10 million identification cards, more than three million travel documents, and at least 579,000 medical cards.
To verify the scale, Krebs asked more than a dozen friends and family members to let him search for their licenses in the Nexus database. Nine of them were found. Every single one confirmed they had interacted with a business using IDScan.net’s technology on or very close to the date stamped on their image file.
The records on sale in Nexus included not just a standard image of each license but six separate image files: a standard scan, an infrared scan, and an ultraviolet scan of both the front and the back of each license. Those infrared and ultraviolet images are the same forensic-quality scans that security experts use to detect fake IDs, meaning that whoever purchased this data had, in the hands of one commenter on Krebs’s story, “the exact proof that a document is real,” which also becomes the exact proof needed to impersonate someone with high confidence.
The Nexus service vanished from the dark web shortly after Krebs published his story, replaced by a message stating the service was no longer available. The FBI’s New Orleans field office opened a formal investigation the same day the story was published.
Significantly, the records in Nexus continued growing even after the breach became public. The number of driver’s license records listed increased by nearly 400,000 in the span of just 24 hours after the service launched, suggesting that data was actively being harvested and uploaded on a rolling basis. The operators claimed they had been continuously exfiltrating new data for over a year into their private database.
Undoubtably, the licenses available on Nexus will soon be available for sale Darkweb forums. A quick search on TOR found numerous sites selling driver licenses, and the licenses available on Nexus will be used to create fake driver licenses and sold.
Did You Know Your License Was Being Stored?
This is the question at the center of the controversy, and the answer for most people is almost certainly no.
When you hand your license to a rental car agent, you expect it to be checked and handed back. You do not expect a detailed forensic scan of it, captured in three different light spectrums, to be retained indefinitely in a cloud database operated by a company you have never heard of, in a file that could potentially be accessed by criminals for years afterward.
IDScan.net’s own website advertises its cloud-based storage of scanned ID data as a feature, useful for record-keeping, compliance, and analytics. But the company’s published privacy disclosures at the time of the breach were not prominently disclosed to the consumers whose licenses were being scanned at car rental counters and dispensary entrances across the country.
Security researcher Zach Edwards, whose own license appeared in the Nexus database with a timestamp corresponding to a visit to a Las Vegas dispensary, told Krebs that systems putting sensitive data into more and more third-party vendors create risks without nearly the oversight needed to ensure those systems are safe. A commenter on Krebs’s story made the same point more bluntly: to verify age by driver’s license, the data could and very much should have been thrown away after processing. Keeping it in a database was an unnecessary risk.
What ISO 27001 Says About This
IDScan.net displays an ISO 27001 certification badge prominently on its website, alongside its SOC 2 compliance badge. ISO 27001 is the internationally recognized standard for information security management, and its presence on a company’s website is meant to signal that independent auditors have verified the company meets a rigorous set of security controls.
So what exactly does ISO 27001 say about encrypting stored data like the driver’s license images that were apparently sitting in IDScan.net’s cloud?
Under ISO 27001:2022 Control 8.24, organizations are required to establish a formal policy governing the use of cryptography, including defining which data must be encrypted based on risk assessment, and applying encryption consistently to data at rest, meaning data stored in databases, servers, cloud storage, and backups. Industry experts note that approximately 95% of lead auditors conducting ISO 27001 reviews expect active cryptographic safeguards on sensitive personally identifiable information. For data at rest, the standard calls for AES-256 bit encryption on all servers, cloud storage volumes, and databases.
The standard does not prescribe specific algorithms by name, but it requires that encryption decisions be risk-based and documented. For a database holding forensic-quality scans of 153 million government-issued identity documents, any reasonable ISO 27001 risk assessment should have concluded that the data warranted the strongest available encryption controls at rest.
What remains unknown is whether IDScan.net’s stored license images were encrypted at rest, and if so, whether those encryption controls were properly implemented and maintained. The company has not disclosed technical details of the breach. Those answers will likely emerge through the FBI investigation, state attorney general actions, and the class action litigation that legal observers say is virtually certain to follow.
What Recourse Do Victims Have
This is a legitimate and understandably urgent question for anyone who rented a car, visited a marijuana dispensary, stayed at a hotel, or conducted business with any other IDScan.net client in the past several years.
Your license image was likely scanned and stored without your explicit knowledge or consent. It may now be in criminal hands. What can you actually do about it?
On the legal side, class action lawsuits are already being discussed by attorneys following the breach. Data breach class actions have become increasingly common following large incidents, and a breach of this scale affecting government-issued identity documents is exactly the kind of case that typically attracts significant plaintiff-side legal interest. Several states, including California under the California Consumer Privacy Act, Illinois under the Biometric Information Privacy Act, and Virginia under the Consumer Data Protection Act, have laws that give residents specific rights regarding how their personal data and biometric information is collected, retained, and protected. Whether and how those laws apply to IDScan.net’s retention of license scans is a question that lawyers are actively examining.
On the regulatory side, state attorneys general in states with strong data protection laws have the authority to investigate companies that retain consumer data without adequate disclosure or security controls. Given the number of states affected and the scale of the breach, multi-state regulatory action is a realistic possibility.
On the practical side, IDScan.net is offering free credit monitoring and identity protection services to affected individuals. The company’s notification page lists a dedicated phone line at 1-833-516-2980, available Monday through Friday between 8 AM and 8 PM Eastern. You can also contact the company in writing at 8814 Veterans Memorial Blvd, Suite 3-124, Metairie, Louisiana 70003.
Freeze Your Credit. Now.
This is the single most important action step following any breach involving government-issued identity documents, and it is especially critical here given the forensic quality of the license images now in criminal circulation.
A credit freeze, also called a security freeze, prevents new credit accounts from being opened in your name. It does not affect your existing accounts or your credit score. It is free. And unlike credit monitoring, which tells you after the fact that someone opened an account in your name, a freeze prevents it from happening in the first place.
To freeze your credit, you must contact all three major credit bureaus separately. Equifax can be reached at 1-888-298-0045 or equifax.com. Experian can be reached at 1-888-397-3742 or experian.com. TransUnion can be reached at 1-800-680-7289 or transunion.com. Each bureau will issue you a PIN or online account that allows you to temporarily lift the freeze if you need to apply for new credit, then refreeze it immediately afterward.
If you have children, consider freezing their credit as well. Children’s credit files are a particularly appealing target for identity thieves because the fraud often goes undetected for years until the child applies for their first credit card or student loan.
More information on placing a credit freeze is available in this previous article
The IDScan.net breach is a watershed moment in the debate over how much data identity verification companies should be allowed to collect and retain from ordinary Americans who have no meaningful choice about whether their licenses are scanned. The next time you hand your license across a counter, it is worth knowing that the transaction may be creating a permanent digital record of one of your most sensitive personal documents, stored by a company you never chose to do business with, protected by security controls you have no way to audit.
Stay safe out there, and I will see you next week!
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