After residing for over thirty years in Northern Virginia, my wife and I recently moved to Austin, Texas. Even though both locales technically own the label “Southern,” Texas feels a bit like a foreign culture. And I’m not just referring to vocabulary choices like y’all, yonder, and “howdy.” Learning new roads (with U-Turn lanes!), tasting...
Continue Reading
As a child, George Lucas drew me in: fantastical worlds, unique aliens, futuristic technology, high-action combat, and especially the lovable heroes and despicable villains, they all immediately drew me into the Star Wars trilogy. But the main thing that first hooked me, and captivates me still some twenty years later, is the story itself. The...
Continue Reading
Let’s play a game. I’ll quote a Bible passage and omit the last word. See if you can fill in the blank. (If you already know this verse, this game loses its effect. And no cheating: Do not open your Bible for this game.) “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in...
Continue Reading
Attempts to read straight through the Bible rarely make it as far as Proverbs. The descriptions of the tabernacle in Exodus often knock out the first group of would-be “Bible in a year” neophytes. If that doesn’t do, Leviticus is waiting, and after the surprising relief of Numbers being a delightful if also disturbing book,...
Continue Reading
Growing up, I regularly spent time with the Berenstein Bears. You may have really loved those books—I certainly did, and do—but you may or may not be aware that the Berenstein Bears series caught a lot of controversy for being some of the first children’s books that displayed what has been called “The Doofus Dad,”...
Continue Reading
As a pastor in a local church, I deeply enjoy our weekly practice of walking through the Bible together section by section, book by book, and seeing how the timeless word of God comes alive to our people–that even though we are centuries removed from the original writing of the Scriptures and worlds away from...
Continue Reading
