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It’s not exactly an island like you might have pictured in your mind. Especially since it isn’t way out in the South Pacific or some place exotic like that. So, it’s not really an island day spa. But I’m gonna take some poetic license and stick with my assertion.

Because it sure feels like an island day spa.

Yeah, you’ve got the beautiful blue and green clear ocean waters. And there’s sugary white sand. Plus there are lots of seagulls, pelicans, and other seaside birds making their presence known. And on the right days, it can all add up to a very therapeutic look and feel.

And Elgielene and I will be calling that part of the country home. Again.

She did a lot of her growing up there. It’s the area where we met all those years ago. And we have quite a few extended family members there. I won’t go into why that’s a big factor, right now. But just know we’re both looking forward to it. And we believe it will be a very beneficial move. And the move is only a few weeks away now.

Where, you ask? The Emerald Coast of Pensacola, Florida.

So, that’s why I’m in sort of an island spa mood right now. And that reminds me of a song I wrote for kids of all ages to enjoy. Here are the lyrics to….

Island Day

Over in the mango tree
Toucan looking straight at me
Starfish in the ocean waves
Dolphin, laughin’, misbehaves

Oh, oh, oh, it’s an island day
And Oh, oh, oh sail your cares away
Oh, oh, oh, cross the seven seas
Oh, oh, oh, on a clear cool Breeze

Parrot is a private eye
Big Blue whale don’t tell no lie
Swordfish out there watching you
Wonders what you’re gonna do

Chorus

If you want to roam,
A little while away from home,
Let’s catch the rising sun
Never will the fun be done…

King crab with his mighty claw
Claims that he’s from Antigua
And he says, “Hey, if you please,
Set a course-up to The Keys?”     © 2008 TF

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Human beings have probably thought about or wondered whether there is life beyond the sky and beyond the stars. I’m not an astronomer, and I don’t play one on YouTube. But I’m convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that the answer to those questions and dreams is yes…

There is DEFINITELY life beyond the sky.

In fact, infinite life is up there somewhere beyond or behind the whole universe. It’s as close to you as your next breath. Or maybe I should say your last breath. And that’s actually the best news you’re ever gonna hear. Because infinite life is found only in your Creator… no matter who you are or who you claim to be. And he offers it as a free gift to anyone who is willing to admit God DOES exist, no created being is God, and He came to earth to become a man and pay the price of admission into eternity. That price was His earthly life. It cost Him dearly and eternally.

For the most part, I realize I’m “singing to the choir,” as they say. But I share this message, in one form or another, over and over because you never know when some world-weary straggler might stumble on something I’ve said that clicked for them. Plus, there are lots of different ways to say what needs to be said.

And people need hope. And knowing there is eternal life beyond the sky is a very hope-filled message. No, it’s not a fairytale. It’s backed by archaeological evidence, manuscript evidence, the science of statistical probabilities, and fulfilled prophetic evidence.

If what I believe turns out to be a lie (and I know it won’t), then I was one of the biggest fools who ever lived. But when it turns out to be the Truth, everyone who did not trust in Jesus, will be the biggest fools who ever lived.

So, I recommend

In Your Dreams

I don’t know if you can see me in your dreams,
But I’ll be here
In case you need a helping hand to pick you up
Or calm your fear.

I don’t know if you can hear me in your dreams
But I’ll be there
To sing a tune and hold your hand or pat your back
And stroke your hair

In your dreams you fly up high
Beyond the clouds, beyond the sky
And the sun and all its beams
Will keep you smiling in your dreams.

Golden birds and rocket ships are in your dreams
To help you roam…
And it don’t matter where you wander in your dreams,
You’ll still come home.

Tell the sandman and the stardust in your dreams
You’ll see them soon.
Every night you’ll go and visit in your dreams
Inside this tune.   © 2009

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Man, it all goes by in the blink of an eye. I bet, if you’ve lived a few or more decades, you’ve heard somebody say something like that. Right? Yeah, me too. And we know why.

Because, man, it all really does go by in the blink of an eye

When I was a little boy, living with my grandparents in Norman, Oklahoma, I used to wonder why old people talked about time the way they did. But then a bunch of time passed, and I became one of those old people. And I don’t wonder that kind of stuff no mo.

I don’t know how much time I have left in this earthly life. But one thing I do know. I have way less time left than I’ve already lived. Unless, of course, God decides He wants to miraculously caused me to live another hundred years. And I can’t imagine, for the life of me (pun definitely intended), why He would need or want to do that.

The reason I bring this up is because I saw a few social media posts where young people talked about being bored. That’s hard to wrap my mind around. Because there’s so much to do, and so little time to get it all done. In fact, it’s not realistic to think or believe you ever will get it ALL done.

And that could discourage, dishearten, or dismay, the faint hearted who don’t currently have a hopeful future. A future that goes on forever in the heavenly paradise that God promises to those who love Him.

Most people who read or listen to what I say have that hope.

Not because of anything special I’ve done. But because they decided to go where the overwhelming evidence led them. And that was to the truth that there is a God, none of us are Him, and He did an amazing thing to make sure anyone who wants it can have eternal life.

But if you’re not one of those people who already believe and trust that’s true, I hope you do before too many more blinks of your eyes. Because when you do, it can be like this for you…

In the blink of an eye
It will all pass you by,
But the future is bright for the free;
The ones who will trust
That this house made of dust
Is a shadow of life that will be
When your soul travels on
And, forever, is gone
To the good Lord’s divine jubilee. © 2025

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It was around this time of year, the summer of 1979 to be more precise, when I bought a little blue Hilux pickup from a Toyota dealership in Houston Texas. I remember the test drive. It was a hot, humid day, very normal for Houston, and I actually ran out of gas from the test drive.

So, I had to sit in a very hot Hilux pickup till the dealership brought more gas.

And that was after a walk to a convenience store to find a payphone. Because, yeah, that’s what you had to do back in those ancient days. Virtually no one drove around with a cell phone or mobile phone. And so-called smart phones were even invented yet, of course.

Anyway…

I had already done test drives in just about every other make, and model a small pickups their were back then. And I had narrowed my choice down to be either a black Datsun pick up or the blue Toyota. I liked that the Toyota had more headroom so it didn’t feel so small. And I liked how spunky it was.

So, I had kind of a World According to Garp moment. And I figured, hey, I’ll take the running out of gas as a sign that this should be my choice. After all, how likely would it be to do that again anytime soon. Especially since running out of gas gave me a clear indication of how the meters on the dash worked.

Win win.

OK, I shared all that with you to give you a little peek into the origin of my time as a small pickup owner.

Fast forward 46 years, and that little Hilux pickup is still in my garage.

But…

The recent turn of events in my personal health (or lack of health) have put my decades long relationship with Ol’ Blue in jeopardy. For one thing, the pick up has a standard transmission, and that requires working three pedals, and that third pedal requires the use of my left leg and foot. And they are not what they want were, let’s just say that.

Plus, Elgielene and I or looking at some changes to compensate, hopefully, for my less than optimum motor control. And those changes might have to include selling Ol’ Blue. If you’ve never kept a vehicle for 46 years, or you’ve never literally explored America, over the years, in a trustworthy car, you won’t understand my dilemma. And when I say trustworthy, I mean like my pickup, which to this day still runs like a top.

Yeah, to say that parting with Ol’ Blue would make me sad is a significant understatement.

But I might have to face the facts that I’ve always known. Nothing in this life lasts forever. Life throws you curveballs. And time moves on. And there’s nothing you can do about that.

You don’t know all my circumstances. So I can’t really get a definitive solution to my dilemma from you. But if you have any ideas about how a couple of old buddies can stay together and maybe cruise few more miles together, drop me an email and let me know. It’s silly, I know. But it’s like this…

Tony And His Little Blue Truck

Tony kept his tools in a little blue truck.
It ran like a top, and it helped him make a buck.
He drove through the country of the brave and free
And saw lots of places most people don’t see.

The little blue truck kept rolling for years.
There must have been magic in each of its gears.
It did more work than any ten trucks should.
Maybe there were angels underneath its hood.

Tony kept the truck when he bought other cars…
In spite of its age and in spite of its scars.
He just wouldn’t part with his rusty old friend.
They still had to go up around the next bend.

Some people say they’ve seen those two drive by
With the headlights off in a moonlit sky.
If it’s true what they say, this might bring you luck…
Wave and smile at Tony and his little blue truck. © 2013

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We’re finishing up the first half of July 2025. And this is the weekly edition of the The Power of God’s Love Podcast. This week I talk about the when where and why of it. Here’s the down low you need to know:

Play

Get The Rhyme and Reason PodcastDelivered to Your Device Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | Pandora | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More

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He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. And that happened mostly because of just one song. So, that must’ve been quite a song. Right? You got it. So good that you’ve probably sung it at least once in your life, probably way more. Can you guess which song it is? I’ll give you a hint. The words were inspired by something the writer saw one early morning. And back in 2022 I wrote some other words to go with the tune of that song. And my words were inspired by what I call morning star designs I saw in a photo a friend of mine took.

You can see a little bit of that picture in the glasses that go with this blog post. I love how the pinks, yellows, and oranges blend into the lavenders, magentas, and blues. And it all happens in an actual sunrise.

But maybe you wonder why I mention morning star designs?

And, then again, maybe you don’t. Either way, I’m gonna tell you. I use it as a reference to a reference you find in a verse close to the very end of the Bible. In fact, there are only five other verses after it so, in Revelation 22:16 you see Jesus, calling Himself, the Morning Star.

To be even more accurate, he calls Himself “the Bright and Morning Star.”

And maybe remember what Babe Ruth said. “It ain’t braggin’, if it’s true.”

And I’m here to tell you, it’s true.

By the way, Lord willing, I’ll be here to tell you that again tomorrow. And the day after and the day after and so on till my days here on this floating blue ball in space are finished. That final day, for me, will be my personal Independence Day. Because that’s when I’ll be set free from the shackles of the depreciating constraints of my broken body.

I don’t expect there will be any fireworks. But it will be glorious. And speaking of glorious, cheers to a happy, healthy, and safe, American Independence Day. And check out the colors, I mentioned earlier, stars in this…

Morning Star Spangled Creation

Oh say, can you see…
From the coconut tree,
The pastels and the blues…
Changing shape, changing hues?

And, serenely, the skies
Reach your soul through your eyes,
And the ripples reflect
The Divine Intellect.

So, the sun still shines on
Whether it’s dusk or dawn,
A glimpse of the love
From the Heavens above.
Oh say, can you behold this
Indifferently and not be awed
By complexity, design…
The creation of God?  © 2022

Did you guess the name of the Songwriters Hall of Fame lyricist? Francis Scott Key. He wrote that little ditty you might’ve heard in a ball game: the Star-Spangled Banner. And you can actually sing the words I wrote to that same tune. How cool is that?

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If you care about your health, and you certainly should, you probably know how important digestive enzymes are. But did you know that as you get older, your body doesn’t do such a good job of making enough of them?

But we live in a time when you can get digestive enzymes in a bottle.

How cool is that? I’ll tell you how cool that is. VERY cool. I’ll tell you this too. Elgielene and I keep a bottle of chewable, papaya based digestive enzymes in our kitchen cabinet. The ones we get are by a company known as NOW. You don’t have to get the ones we get in order to enjoy better digestion. Plenty of other brands work, too. We just found some we like, and we tend to stick with that brand because we know they work. They’re convenient and they taste good.

And that leads me to butterflies. Not because they taste good. Because there’s a connection between butterflies and enzymes. There’s even an enzyme known by its nickname, the butterfly enzyme. It’s also known as cocoonase. Clever, right?

Anyway…

There’s a butterfly, known as the heliconius, that lives a long life. Well, long for a butterfly anyway. It can live as long as six months and most butterflies only live a few weeks. The people who observe and study this stuff, say the heliconius butterfly “has learned to harvest cocoonase from flowers, and not just nectar. And the cocoonase is about 20% protein.”

And that gives Mr. Helio (that’s the nickname I’ll give him) an advantage over the butterflies who only harvest nectar. See kids? Don’t be trying to live just on all those sugar waters out there. If you wanna live longer and be stronger, you gotta get plenty of good ol’ protein.

Even a flittery, fluttery butterfly knows that.

NOW that brings us back to digestive enzymes (see what I did there?).

Side note: by the way, butterflies are actually crawling caterpillars who use enzymes to turn themselves into a bag of fluid and then turn themselves back into a beautiful flying insect. And if you can hear or read that information and still not believe in God, I’m not sure if there’s any hope for you.

By the way, if you click on any of my product links, you’ll end up on a page where you can get your own tasty enzymes. Yes, I will make a little commission if you do. But it won’t add anything to the cost, and your support, even that way, helps me do what I do here.

And one of the things I do here, better than the average bear, is connect important and valuable information to entertaining rhymes like this one, right here:

Butterflies Are For Kids

Those butterflies they flutter by
And never make a sound.
Some soar up high into the sky…
Some just above the ground.
They land on flowers in the yard
And gently stretch their wings.
And then they fold them up again
And tend to other things.
Some little kids with little nets
Run barefoot through the yard.
They try to catch some butterflies,
But find out that it’s hard..
‘Cause butterflies fly up and down
And back and forth so well.
For kids who want to capture one
It’s like a magic spell.
They laugh and squeal in sheer delight
They nearly flip their lids.
And that’s why I’m quite sure that God
Made butterflies for kids.  © 2022

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I just scanned two or three dozen social media posts that all sounded almost identical. And they all said something similar to this: On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as America’s flag. So, as of Flag Day 2025, it’s been a symbol of freedom, patriotism, and strength for 248 years.

Wow, Flag Day 2025 marks nearly 2 1/2 centuries of the famous red, white, and blue.

I especially like this quote I found that’s attributed to George Washington. He said:

“We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her & the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty.”

American Patriots are using words like liberty, freedom, strength, values, and unity. As for me, I don’t see much of any of those anymore. And in some cases, I see a whole lot more of the opposites. America is definitely not a collection of united states. Lots of our freedoms have disappeared or have been literally taken from us. A quick scan through TV programming or online movie channels will show you how badly our values have tanked. And surely you can’t disagree that the strength of our fat population doesn’t even remotely compare with Americans from previous decades.

I’d still rather be here in America than any other place on earth. Because there are still plenty of Americans who understand what true freedom and liberty are and how much it costs to maintain them. But my ultimate allegiance isn’t something I’ll be celebrating just on Flag Day 2025. No, I celebrate that allegiance every day. To my Creator. After all, without Him there would be no America, no stars and stripes, and definitely no freedom.

Talk Delight

Talk is not as cheap as it used to be.
It can cost so much when the world can see.
And I still gotta say what is right.
It might even bring kings delight.
Think before you speak is still good advice.
Keep in mind the ultimate sacrifice
Many others made for your right.
And speak up for one King’s delight.

© 2020

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I just saw multiple lists of company websites that were down and not functioning properly. Go down the line of this following list to see how much danger your life is in right this minute. Hurry. Do it now. I’ll wait.

  • Twitch
  • Discord
  • Google Cloud
  • Etsy
  • Google Drive
  • Mailchimp
  • Amazon Web Services
  • OpenAI
  • Cloudflare
  • Anthropic
  • DoorDash
  • Supabase
  • Cursor
  • Google AI

OK, did you go all the way down the line?

Now, can you see why you should be afraid? Why you should be very very afraid? Hmmm?

Or maybe you can see why I’m being very very sarcastic?

Yeah, I’ve got a few years on me. So, I can remember when absolutely none of those names even existed. And the world was not a scarier place. In fact, I believe there are a lot of people who are with me on this who would agree the world was actually a LOT more enjoyable.

Can I get an amen?

Anyway…

Apparently, a lot of the Internet, including down the line of some of the biggest names, was down (or is down). And a lot of people are at a loss for what to do.

I personally don’t have anything to do with any of those companies, currently, so I’m unaffected. And that means I can operate my recording studio, do the audio editing I need to do, and upload files to stay current with my clients and their audiobook projects.

But I can empathize with people who use those services. Because I’ve been affected by similar circumstances. And I know how disruptive it can be to not have access to your regular goods and services. And I bet you can remember how disruptive it can be to just not be able to get paper goods. Right?

So here’s my recommendation to anyone affected by downed services.

Do your best to make sure you have alternatives. Of course nobody can plan for anything and everything. Because, despite what some would have you believe (like everything happens for a reason, or it’s all part of God’s plan), things do happen by chance. And no one can be fully prepared for chance.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Will the sun rise in the morning?
Will the temperature be hot?
And will skies be blue and sunny?
Well, maybe…maybe not.

Will the songbirds all be singing?
Will the breezes blow a lot?
And will leaves lift up their laughter?
Well, maybe…maybe not.

Will some words of wisdom visit?
Will the books all have a plot?
And will we read some happy stories?
Well, maybe…maybe not.

Will the world go on forever?
Will the getting all be got?
And will we all be nice to others?
Well, maybe…maybe not.

© 2022

I know this much for sure, though. I hope to see you down the line and up in heaven forever.

In the meantime, subscribe to my Tony’s Daily Devotional . Because the flashes of light I share on my website come directly to your inbox. That way. you can spend your valuable time reading instead of searching. And, to show my sincere appreciation for your time and attention, I’ll send you download links to books and music, right away. Kids from 3 to 103 can enjoy these fun goodies.

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Molotov cocktails. And my original music. What do they have in common? Boulder, Colorado.

Maybe you already read about that terrorist in Boulder Colorado today.

He actually tossed Molotov cocktails into a crowd and burned people. And if we had an actual justice system in America, he would be put to death early tomorrow morning. But don’t hold your breath for that.

So, let’s not focus on the dark side of this Boulder, Colorado connection. Because I believe you’ll find it much more enjoyable to watch a video of one of my songs.

It’s a song called “Feed Me”. And it was actually played on KBCO, a radio station in Boulder, Colorado. This was way back in 1989 when I lived in Lakewood, Colorado, a suburb of the Denver Metro area. KBCO featured it in a segment they called “Home Grown”. Little did they know what they were playing.  😉 Anyway…hope you get a kick out of it…

The lyrics go by pretty fast in the video. So here they are just in case you wanna follow along:

Feed Me

I don’t wanna leave this moment.
I don’t wanna get to the future.
And I don’t wanna find out I was wrong.
I just wanna be successful.
And I don’t wanna be a failure.
I want more of what can keep me strong.
If I leave it up to you, will you show me what to do.
If I give my total trust, will you wash away the dust, and

Feed me…keep me alive.
Yeah, feed me…give me the drive…feed me.
Feed me…open my eyes
Feed me…conquer the lies…feed me.

I don’t wanna be alone now.
And I don’t wanna live in a dark cloud.
I need to know the light is just ahead.
I don’t wanna be an old man,
But I don’t wanna be a young man.
I just wanna be me till I’m fed.
If I leave it up to you, will you show me what to do.
If I give my total trust, will you wash away the dust, and

Chorus…long instrumental…repeat chorus to end

© 1989 Tony Funderburk

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