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MY DAUGHTER WHO IS 9 MONTHS PREGNANT told me I need to lose weight. She sent it in a text message this week. It happened like this. She and her husband bought me a nice wool coat for winter, in case winter comes this year. It was a fitted peacoat. …

I’VE ALREADY OPENED MY GIFTS. I did it on Sunday. I know. It’s way too early. I’ve never done this before. But my family had little choice this year. Here’s the problem. My daughter is nine months into a baby bump. It looks like more. The boy child …

CHRISTIANS CAN SOUND LIKE TERRORISTS when you get them talking about a controversial topic that they’ve already settled in some part of their head. Not all Christians. Maybe not any real Christians. But certainly some who call themselves Christians. …

CHRISTIANS ARE NOT AFRAID OF SYRIAN REFUGEES. At least most Christians, I’m guessing. I’m still waiting to see poll numbers on that. So far the polls seem to gauge only Americans in general—more than half of whom seem terrified of Syrians. They are …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …