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ONE EMAIL changed my week. It came this past Tuesday. By today, my son and I were supposed to be on the West Coast, prepping to meet with my editor and the publishing team: president, sales folks, designers. But the email reported that my editor – …

I WONDERED what a Psalm of the Bible would sound like while being read to the accompaniment of a banjo. I think like that. On Sunday, I’ll be teaching a Bible study session about the Psalms. Instead of giving the folks a lot of background about …

MOSES HAD A PET ROCK, some Bible readers could easily conclude. Blame Paul. He said that when Moses led the Exodus Jews through the desert badlands for 40 years, the people didn’t have to worry about water: “They drank from the spiritual rock that …

MY PRIUS STUNK LIKE FISH on our four-hour drive home on Sunday. It wasn’t because of the 20 dead fish in the cooler. They were frozen rock hard, each fish resting in pieces in its own plastic bag. With all the bags buried under ice. The stink was …

WE HAD A DISAGREEMENT in Sunday’s Bible study, my good buddy and me. We couldn’t agree on the name of Jesus. In a nutshell, which is certainly not where my friend belongs except when we talk politics, he said he thought “There’s something about that …

IT CAUGHT ME BY SURPRISE last week, while I was prepping to teach Sunday’s Bible study session. I was sitting in my chair in my office when my jaw dropped and my eyes began to fill. I was working with John 17. It’s the prayer Jesus prayed for …

BIBLE EXPERTS would love to know why the Bible says God ordered Joshua and the invading Jews to commit genocide, and “completely destroy” (Deuteronomy 20:17) every last Canaanite living in what is now Israel – men, women, children, and even their …

I JUST GOT BACK from my neighborhood UPS Store. A Kingston 64 GB flash drive the size of a baby kitten’s tongue is on its way to an editor. That sliver of metal holds the last nine months of my work. I beat the deadline by 3½ months, which I’ve heard …

MOST FOLKS DON’T KNOW what Romans in Jesus’ day had to say about crucifixion. Many know what the Bible says about it. They know that it says “Soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters…they stripped him… spit on him and grabbed a stick and struck …

I’VE BEEN WAITING ALL SUMMER for this. I discovered on Friday night that NASA had finally released the new and improved elevation data for the Middle East. That’s the stuff I need to make better maps for Bible study. The resolution NASA offered …

I DO NOT WANT SOME CHRISTIANS covering my back. I don’t want them coming to my rescue. I don’t want them helping me in a crisis. They will not cover my six. They will run from my attackers. They will hide in a crisis. They are reliably unreliable and …

PEOPLE ROLLED THEIR EYES at me when I suggested we read out loud all 16,000 words from the Gospel of John. I wasn’t sure I liked the idea either. I was sitting in the once-a-year meeting that leaders in my Sunday morning Bible study class have to set …