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BOTH OF MY KIDS have made babies who haven’t yet inhaled their hometown air. The first one, a boy, is due to draw breath around Christmastime. That will be my daughter’s kid. The second one, we hope to know which sex later this week, is supposed to …

“Joshua captured the whole land—the mountains, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes” (Joshua 10:40).   JOSHUA HAD 40 YEARS in the wilderness to perfect his strategy for conquering the Promised Land. Forty years before the invasion, Moses …

I CRIED IN GRATITUDE last weekend. Once for my son. Once for my daughter. I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t blubbery, though I’ve done that before. It was just a pair of watery eyeballs, dripping a bit. My daughter doesn’t know it, but the tears came …

JEWS ARE GETTING KNIFED in their homeland. It’s all over the news. But I remember reading old news from Bible times, when Jews were doing the stabbings – for much the same reason the Palestinians are doing it today. They felt disenfranchised, …

SMOKED ARMPITS is one way people in ancient times used incense to make the world smell a little better. They did pretty much what I did to some rainbow trout I caught recently. I got a cedar board, soaked it in water, then cooked fillets of trout …

THE BIBLE WON’T HELP ME in my role as the Best Man in a wedding on Saturday. I won’t let it. I refuse to do what Samson’s Best Man did. It’s illegal. My wife would divorce me. My kids would stop letting me watch their dogs. My Christian publishers …

IT’S HARD TO WARM UP TO GOD in the Old Testament, many Christians admit. He doesn’t seem like a Jesus sort of a God. Jesus forgives a woman caught committing adultery even though Bible writers say God ordered people like her stoned to a bloody pulp. …

THE WORST DAY IN JEWISH HISTORY, some Jews say, is the day Jerusalem died – July 17, 586 BC. Babylonian invaders from what is now Iraq slaughtered most of the defenders. Then they ripped Jerusalem apart, stone by stone. Israel’s Holy City became Rock …

I HAD A TWO-HOUR LUNCH ADVENTURE yesterday, with 90 “Active” minutes and four-and-a-half miles on foot. That’s according to my Fitbit wristband. Buddy the Dog had just finished taking me for a walk on his favorite Scratch and Sniff trail in the …

PUBLISHERS GIVE ME FREE COPIES of my books. It’s in my contract. I can’t say how many books I get because my agent says I shouldn’t reveal the details of his negotiated deals. Makes sense to me. I give the books away instead of selling them. For …

FOR THE FIRST TIME in my 20-year career as a freelance writer, I’ve been asked to pick the cover art of a book I wrote. I don’t think most people know it, but writers generally don’t get pulled into the discussion about the book title or the cover. …

I DID NOT STAND UP in church on Sunday, National Grandparents Day, when the pastor asked all grandparents to stand. My buddy sitting beside me nudged me, adding a go-ahead nod. He knew that my first grandchild, a little boy, is alive and kicking …