This morning The Boss said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations!” But I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak. I am afraid and insecure.” And The Boss said, “Do […]

Yesterday and today The Boss walked me through Ecclesiastes. Here are the highlights: “Find enjoyment in your toil.” [2:24] “I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart – yet […]

“The targets of this story are not “wayward sinners” but religious people who do everything the Bible requires. Jesus is pleading not so much with immoral outsiders as with moral insiders. H wants to show them their blindness, narrowness, and self righteousness, and how these things are destroying both their own souls and the lives […]

Imagine if the Iranian government chose to lavishly finance the work of Christian orphanages. Imagine if Ali Hosseini Khamenei (علی حسینی خامنه‌ای) said, “Let all the expenses of Christian orphanages be paid from the royal treasury of Iran!” And imagine if Ali Hosseini Khamenei said, “Moreover, our military will aim all of their might at […]

Lee said, “People are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule—a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting—only the deeply personal and familiar.” Samuel said, “Apply that to […]

Read it. Or listen to it. Here’s a sample [Samuel Hamilton talking to his wife Liza as he prepares to confront Adam Trask]: In the midst of painting the blacking on his worn shoes he looked sideways up at her. “Could Itake the Bible along?” he asked. “There’s no place for getting a good name […]

With my back on the floorCold linoleum icing my growing painsWatch the ceiling fan turn its shape againMy threads are coming looseYeah, I’m one spoon awayFrom setting the ends of my hair on fireIf I’m kindling for a little whileAt least I’d feel of use Maybe then my breath could embodyA wildfire startingI’d sweep up […]

Wars are raising for herCrusades to adore herThe light of your afterword Are you losing her true natureWhen you loosen nomenclatureWhen you gift another moniker? What’s true is like a sickleIt’ll cut you to the middleYour rose is without a thorn But no, my mouth don’t taste of metalFrom the pot here to the kettleI […]

In my morning meeting with The Boss we talked about the life of King Asa. The Boss said, “Asa led the community into a covenant to seek the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul. And whoever would not seek the Lord, Asa put them to death, whether young or old, man […]

“The life of grace is not an effort on our part to achieve a goal we set ourselves. It is a continually renewed attempt simply to believe that someone else has done all the achieving that is needed and to live in relationship with that person, whether we achieve or not. If that doesn’t seem […]