8 witnessing tips

Click here. These are simple and effective.

Hey, it cuts down on the number of in-laws

My wife’s three brothers married three sisters from another family. It seemed unusual when I first heard of it, but we’re all used to it. The story was recently in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. What is even more unusual is that have all stayed married. Each of them (plus their two sisters, including my wife) [...]

When was the New Testament written?

There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about how and when the Bible was formed. Some liberal historians try to date the Gospels and other New Testament writings as far from the death of Jesus as possible because it supports their hypothesis that they were largely made up. Of course, if the Gospels really [...]

Mmmmm . . . bacon

Daughter #2 once wanted to be a vegetarian. Then I informed her that vegetarians typically don’t eat bacon or Chicken McNugget’s, both of which she loves. They also tend to like vegetables, which she does not.
One day when she was four, I was making some bacon for her after church. I pointed out that Jesus [...]

Moral schizophrenia

This is a rerun from 2006.  Long time readers: Try to look surprised.
If you haven’t seen the video and story of the boy with autism who got to play in a high school basketball game and proceeded to score 20 points in 3 minutes, you need to watch it. It is truly inspiring.
When I watched [...]

“No personal attacks, you moron!” and other principles for civil debate

I came across this well done site written by a couple teenagers. It has guidelines for commenting on blogs and a list of “8 Principles For Logical and Respectful Discussion.” They are very practical. If only more of us debated like this.

Death taxes are ghoulish

While the estate tax debate is typically framed as a soak-the-rich proposition, I find the whole concept to be immoral. If the government desperately needs those tax revenues it should find them somewhere else. It is simply wrong for the government to profit from the death of anyone, rich or poor.  If actions such as [...]

National Council of (liberal) Churches

According to this article entitled Exploiting Fallen Soldiers, the National Council of Churches (NCC) has organized a campaign so that “This weekend, leftist churches are expected to ring their bells to note the 2,500th U.S. military death in Iraq.” As the article notes, this is basically a political exercise.
If they really care about unjust deaths, [...]

Fear is a liar

John MacArthur had a good sermon on Matthew 6:25-34. He pointed out that fear is a liar – that is, most of the things we fear will never come true.
He also emphasized how God gives Christians enough grace each day to deal with whatever comes our way. We can be fully confident of that. But [...]

Veggie Boy

My protein shake is better than Pat Robertson’s. I’ve been making health shakes for 30 years and have now achieved the state of the art. Here is the used-to-be secret recipe for my un-patented Veggie Boy protein shake. (For you Cheers fans, you’ll remember this is the name of the health drink Woody was hypnotized [...]

Hot topics

The issue of gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender “rights” is ever present in our societies and in church, so I plan to write on it from time to time. But I want to say a few things up front. First, I completely agree with and support the United Methodist position as documented in our Book of Discipline:
Homosexual persons no [...]

New US church leader says homosexual behavior is not sinful

Ironically, it appears that she was selected as the leader of a large denomination not because she knows how to interpret the Bible, but because she doesn’t know how to.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, newly elected leader of the U.S. Episcopal Church, says that homosexuality is not a sin and that homosexuals “come into the world” with [...]

4Simpsons.com in China?!

 A good friend of mine who is from Taiwan shared my website with some of his friends in China. Since China regulates religion so heavily, I was surprised they could view it. Apparently sites are tagged as religious, commercial, etc. and are permitted or banned based on the classification. My sites must not be tagged [...]

Zero based budgeting

 Yes, I know that is an odd title. But this hasn’t turned into a business blog, so stay with me here.
Zero Based Budgeting is a financial process where instead of tweaking previous budgets (e.g., here’s a 3% increase for this area, and 5% for that area . . .), you start from scratch and re-justify [...]

“Everybody’s a sinner . . . except for this guy.”

One of my all-time favorite lines from The Simpsons was when Homer complained about how expensive his Bible was. He goes on to say:
And talk about a preachy book! Everybody’s a sinner . . . except for this guy.
I know the writers weren’t trying to make a serious theological statement. It was just a funny [...]

OCD: It’s not just a disorder, it’s a lifestyle.

We started watching Monk (the obsessive-compulsive detective on the USA channel) a couple months ago and have enjoyed catching up on old episodes. I’m not sure why we like it so much. Perhaps because it makes our OCD look less raging. We buy Purell by the half-gallon. Seriously. Hey, my wife teaches 4th grade, an [...]