Award-Winning, Bestselling Christian Author
DID GOD TORTURE MARY by giving her a baby bump before she got married, dooming her to a life among the Whispering Gossips? Isn’t it bad enough that women have to go through the agony of childbirth, squeezing out a head of cantaloupe through an …
IT STRIKES ME AS SAD what Mary does after Gabriel tells her she’s going to get pregnant somehow with the help of God’s Spirit. Presumbably after the Spirit impregnates her, Mary does what unmarried pregnant girls have done all along. Get out of town. …
The word hell is an English invention to translate the idea of God’s judgment of sinners. The original Greek word in the Bible is Gehenna, the name of a valley on the south side of Jerusalem. Jews associated that valley with God’s judgment because: …
HAPPY THANKSGIVING. Here’s my take on a Thanksgiving-style Bible song. 1. Crank it up everybody on Planet Earth. Make some noise. Show the LORD how glad you are that he’s your LORD. 2. Sing it out loud and happy. Worship him that way. 3. The …
PREACHERS TURN THEIR CONGREGATION into a synagogue – temporarily – when it comes time to raise money. That’s an exaggerated way of reporting what some church historians say about the way some ministers raise money from their parishioners. Sermon …
When Joshua and the Jews needed to cross the Jordan River during springtime flood season, the river stopped flowing upstream “at a town called Adam,” (Joshua 3:16). Same thing happened in 1927. An earthquake dropped the 150-foot (45-meter) cliffs …
IT’S MY TURN to teach our Bible study class on Sunday morning. This is a session no one else wanted to teach. My Bible study group creates a one-year set of study topics. Those of us who lead the sessions sign up for the topics we want to teach. No …
If a man suspected his wife of having an affair, he could take her to a priest who would administer a test that involved drinking water mixed with “dirt from the floor of the Holy Tent,” (Numbers 5:17 NCV). That’s the worship center. What happens …
WHEN IT COMES TO RACISM, it doesn’t look like we’ve made much progress in the past 4,000 years. Racism in the Bible Yesterday I was reading the Bible story of Joseph and his brothers. His 10 older brothers sold Little Bro Joe down the river into …
IT’S NOT EASY TO BE POLITE when people come at me with harsh words. My immediate response is to retaliate with a crippling counterpunch. When we are fighting with words, I can counterpunch fairly well. I actually have to stop myself from reacting …
Before one battle, Joshua prayed, “Stop, Sun…Halt, Moon,” (Joshua 10:12 The Message). Some scholars speculate that after an all-night march, and just before a sunrise attack, Joshua wanted the sun to stop shining, not stop moving. Heat would further …
I WONDER IF I’LL HAVE A CHANCE to say a few kind words to the people I love before I die? I’m thinking about that because I’m reading in Genesis the story of Jacob in his final days. Jacob did what seemed to have been a custom in ancient times. …
