A New & Difficult Dance

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We’ve been silent for awhile. Thank you for your patience. The following will explain. *** On December 24th, 1950, my wife’s father, Kermit Hammond, drove one of the last trucks onto a U.S. Navy ship at the port of Hungnam, North Korea. Moments later, army and navy explosive teams blew up abandoned allied weapons and supplies to keep them out of the hands of the advancing Chinese Communist forces. He was one of nearly 100,000 allied soldiers – and another 100,000 North Korean refugees – who were a part of what has come to be known as the Korean Dunkirk. … Read more…

(Not so) Superheroes

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When I was a child, I read the Bible like a child. The only thing that distinguished the heroes and heroines in scripture from the superheroes I saw in Marvel or DC Comics was their costumes. And the comic book heroes were way better dressed than how I imagined their biblical counterparts might have been. Even Joseph’s coat of many colors couldn’t compete with Spiderman’s spandex or Iron Man’s armor. Other than that, though, there wasn’t much difference between, say, Samson and Captain America or Deborah and Wonder Woman. But when I became a man, I had to put away … Read more…

Raisins & Chocolate Milk: A Mother’s Day Message by Lisa Vickery

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Sometime during the middle of 1933, my grandfather boiled a pot of water to use for his morning shave. His youngest child, a daughter who had yet to take her first steps, reached up and pulled down on the handle. Her shrieks rang out and the months to come were hard and sad for her parents, her eight siblings and for the child herself. Over time, the fingers of her right hand healed in a closed position. Her brothers and sisters mused that my grandad often petted or favored her, not only because she was the last of his nine … Read more…

Nana! You Can’t Say That Anymore!

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Reading the Old Testament prophets is a little like having a conversation with an aging grandparent. You know that it’s important and to be treasured, but a lot of what they say seems to belong to a world that no longer exists. If they carried an aroma, the words they use would smell like they’d been hanging next to worn out winter coats in an old wardrobe or like they’d been lifted from the pages of a Zane Gray western that’s been sitting on a basement bookshelf low these many years. But the most uncomfortable thing about reading the prophets … Read more…

How to Eliminate an Enemy

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Even without a read-through-the-Bible plan I spend a lot of time in the Old Testament. It’s kind of a big part of my day job. But like a lot of people, I tend to go back to the same passages – or at least the same kinds of passages – over and over. Comforting Psalms, the creation narratives, the Exodus, prophesies of Jesus, the promises of God. It’s not exactly O.T. lite, but it is O.T. soft. That’s why a reading plan is so good for us. It compels us to read or re-read the scriptures we might otherwise avoid. … Read more…

Leadership Requires Character

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Reflections on 1 & 2 Samuel In the opening monologue of the Bible’s most cynical book, Solomon writes, What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new?” (Ecclesiastes. 1:9 – 10). It’s a withering take on the world but I don’t think I can argue with it. Even our trust in technology is as old as that time in Genesis when the people living on the plain in Shinar discovered a revolutionary new building material. … Read more…

I Will Build MY Church: (Jesus Already Built His)

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Reflections on the Book of Judges ~~~ Here’s one benefit to reading through the Bible that I’d forgotten about – rediscovering the stories you’d forgotten about. Everybody knows the Samson story. Long hair, big muscles, high libido and low morals. Bruce Springsteen even mentioned him in a song once. But do you remember Micah? His story follows Samson’s in Judges 17 & 18. But with just a smidge of cultural updating it could be the next installment on your favorite podcast. Micah stole his mother’s silver but returned it when he heard her utter a curse on the anonymous thief. … Read more…

The Rules of (Hebrew) Hair Care are Simple & Finite

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More reflections on the odd laws in the Old Testament ~~ Looking back, I can’t think of a single rule or regulation that my parents enforced within their household jurisdiction that seemed arbitrary, injudicious or unreasonable. Note well the first two words in that sentence – “looking back.” As a child living under the jackboot of their parental authority, those policies were stifling. Don’t play near the street. Make your bed. Eat your veggies. Don’t throw darts at your brother. Their do’s and don’ts were nothing less than the systemic suppression of my God-given freedoms. They were cruel tyrants, co-dictators … Read more…

Walk This Way

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If you are joining us in the effort to read through the Bible in 2018, we are coming up on the end of the first quarter. And for my money, it’s the toughest. Genesis was a joy to read. So, too, the first half of Exodus. (Unless you’re Egyptian). Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy? Not so much. There are fascinating stories here and there in the last three books of the Pentateuch (the technical name for the first five books of the Bible), but for the most part, they present a serious challenge to even the most serious readers. So this … Read more…

Whine or Shine

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Reflections on Numbers 11 – 30 ~~~ You know what really scorches my grits? People who gripe and complain all the time. It’s like they roll out of bed on the wrong side every stinkin’ morning, drink a cup of bitter coffee and spend the rest of the day competing with each other to see who can win the gold medal of grumbling. They’d look a gift Ferrari in the grill and complain about the paint color. You could hand them a check for $ 10,000 and they’d grouse about having to pay taxes. If it’s sunny, they harp about … Read more…