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I GOT A CALL FROM AN EXCITED EDITOR last week. He had an off-the-wall idea for a book. I told him so: “That’s off the wall. Is marijuana legal in your state?” He laughed, but never answered the question. I looked it up later. It’s legal in his state, …

WE’VE HAD SO MANY SHOOTINGS since guns have become more accessible to all souls crazy, weird, and whacked, that it’s probably time we put together a checklist that Christians can work through after the shooting like the one Wednesday night at the …

I SPENT 8 HOURS WITH A SHOVEL on Monday. I don’t recommend it. Monday night I fell asleep in front of my DVR recording of the History Channel show, “Texas Rising.” Which is kind of funny, since I did not rise until midnight. When I did I was so …

THINKING BACK ON IT, I’m wondering if our Sunday school teacher, Bob, had a little dyslexia going on. He was a layman teaching a class of young adults – about a fourth of whom were seminary students. Me among them. Bob wanted to use the Hebrew word …

MOTHER’S DAY and Father’s Day get the glory. But there’s a Children’s Day, too. It’s celebrated by many churches and other organizations on the second Sunday in June. That’s this coming Sunday. Midweek I went to the homes of both of my kids, to do …

DANCING IS SIN, according to what preachers told me during what could have been my breakout years as a child prodigy. It could have been Fred Astaire, John Travolta, and then Stephen M. Miller. Instead, when it came time to learn square-dancing in …

I’VE GOT RAIN ON THE BRAIN. And in pools in my backyard. It has been raining so much here in the heartland that we have little choice but to mow the yard when the grass is wet. I wondered if the Bible has any laments I could sing about that. But …

WRITING BOOKS about the Bible has gotten complicated. It used to be I’d write books about the Bible and get paid a decent royalty by most Christian publishers. But today, the business of writing now requires so much more than writing. I can’t just …

A FRIEND SURPRISED ME at supper this week. He’s going through a divorce, so I met him at his preferred pizza place, to give him a little company for at least one meal this week. “Before I forget it,” he said as we parked ourselves in the booth, “you …

THERE ARE TIMES when the Bible gets it wrong. It’s not that the writers got it wrong, as far as we can tell. It’s that the Bible translators can’t figure it out. They have to guess. Sometimes translating the Bible into English is a bit like betting …

THE GUY WHO BUILT MY HOUSE said he was a Christian. I probably should have felt badly about chasing him off my property. But I didn’t. And I don’t. I’d do it again if he came back. The crook. When his painters outside painted over the mud boards and …

I FEEL BUMMED. I could stop reading the news. That wouldn’t fix it. I’m living the problem. There’s so much wrong. From big to small. In my country we have a representative form of government that no longer represents us. They represent their …