Award-Winning, Bestselling Christian Author
CHRISTIANS GET ACCUSED of cherry-picking the Bible. Have you ever picked cherries? You pick the ones that are ripe and juicy. You leave the ones that are rotten and wormy. Bible cherries Christians love to chew on “I am the way, the truth, and the …
It sounds a little like God doing CPR: “God… Breathed the breath of life into man’s nostrils” (Genesis 2:7 ). In a vision, the prophet Ezekiel did something similar. He stood in a valley littered with skeletons, when God told him: “Breathe into these …
THE ROOM WENT SILENT when I asked the question. I think some were stunned. Then angry. I was in a Bible study. The group was talking about how Christians step up to help people in need. We had plenty of examples in the group because we’re kind …
ALL I NEEDED was an oil change for my Toyota Sienna, which has over 200,000 miles on it (322,000 km). I suspected I might need more, once the auto shop got my better-than-an-SUV vehicle up on the rack. Charles from the repair shop called back and …
Adam wasn’t the only human created from the ground, according to another ancient Middle Eastern story: Epic of Gilgamesh. In this story from what is now Iraq in the 1700s BC the earth goddess Aruru made a man named Enkidu from clay. Wild animals …
IF I HAD LIVED this year 3000 years ago, maybe I would have written a psalm to express the joylessness that I sense among many Christians during this bizarre and wrenching election cycle. The psalm might have gone something like this. With a …
IT’S THE KIND OF CANAANITE CITY Joshua would have loved to have destroyed: Nahariya by the sea, in northern Israel. Who knows, maybe he did take it out. The ruins of this fort-like city in what is now northern Israel date back to his time, some 3,400 …
When the Bible says “God formed the man from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7 NLT), that’s a play on words and a clue about the future of humans. In Hebrew, “man” is pronounced adam. “Ground” is the similar-sounding adamah. We came from the …
IT WASN’T A NORMAL HUG. I had tears in my eyes at the time. My wife had just finished telling me why she got home from work late. She’s a nurse who works 12-hour night shifts at a hospital. On her way home from work Tuesday morning, she stopped off …
I’M STRUGGLING OVER how to put the Bible word “blessed” into today’s English, for folks who don’t read the Bible. I’ve been paraphrasing parts of the Bible lately. Genesis and the Gospel of Luke will go live as soon as the website coder puts the …
Out of respect for God, Jews avoid saying or writing his name. When they write it, they will often drop a vowel and spell God’s name “G-d.” When they say it, they will call him Adonai (ADD oh ni), which means “my Lord.” A Visual Walk Through Genesis, …
I HAVE AN ODD SCHEDULE these days, as I write my easy-reading Bible background books. It has to do with grandkids and dogs. Take Tuesday, for example. It was a three-dog night. But I was happy the dogs survived until night. We have one dog, Buddy, a …
