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JUST FOR FUN, I’m going to pitch you some Bible verses that make me smile. Sometimes it’s the message. Sometimes the delivery. On occasion, it’s both – the double dip. In my spare time, I paraphrase the Bible. It’s a Bible-study technique I’m …

IT TOOK TWO LETTERS to do the job. I wrote a blog article last week about how people in my Bible study group surprised a fellow member of ours with letters of encouragement to help him through a difficult summer. He was a school teacher who got …

A LADY SHOWED UP on my Facebook news feed a few days ago complaining about people tearing into her for homeschooling her kids. “I am absolutely done,” she said, “with the ignorant opinions people have towards homeschooling.” My first …

IMAGINE YOUR POLICE MUG SHOT. That’s the look my buddy, Terry, held on his face for about 45 minutes during last Sunday’s Bible study session. It’s the expression of Barney Fife without a bullet. Here’s what happened. Our pastor has been preaching a …

GOD GETS INTO MY HEAD somehow, from time to time. I don’t know how he gets the idea in there. All I know is that it feels a bit like an intrusion. One moment it’s not there. The next moment it’s there. And it’s big. It consumes my thinking in those …

CHRISTIANS WHO WANT TO BASH A JEW, with words or inanimate objects, sometimes say it’s okay with God. They say they see Green Light passages in the Holy Bible. Igal German points out one of these passages in today’s Bible Question of the Week. How …

I HAVE A CONTEST GOING ON that’s producing unexpected results. For one, it’s making me feel like I’m a good human being. Here’s what’s happening. I’m giving away a $700 iPad to whoever tells me the best story that has anything to do with the books I …

MY SKIN COLOR is Premium Saltine Cracker. It is the color my dermatologist recommends. I am of European heritage. A little Brit and a little German, as best my cousin Sandy can tell, based on her genealogical quest for our beginnings. If I worked …

I RIDE BIKES WITH TIM. He has multiple sclerosis. One day I asked some of my Facebook friends what they would ask God if they got the chance to ask a single question. Tim’s wife, Barbara, submitted her question: Will you heal my husband? Tim and …

I’M NOT A FICTION WRITER. I can’t sit on my back patio and write a book while throwing tennis balls to Buddy the Dog. If I could, I would. Forget the typing. I’d kick back and dictate that sucker. “When Hermann Hershberger turned his buggy into Yoder …

I’M 800 MILES AWAY FROM HOME. I haven’t lived there in over 30 years, and I still call it home. What’s up with that? I should call it Ohio. “I’m going back to Ohio for a visit.” But instead I say, “I’m going home for a visit.” I’m not sure what to …

DID YOU EVER try to track the stories of King David with the songs he supposedly wrote in Psalms? It’s a pain in the neck. Francie Foster asks the Bible question of the week, and gets a free book for her trouble: I’m in a small group that is …