I'm pleased to announce that I now have three books available for the Kindle: one novel and two short ebooks. The novel is called "Lesser Angels" and tells the story of a brother and sister who discover a secret about their deceased mother and set out to find answers. I titled it "Lesser Angels" because of the people they meet along the way and what they discover about themselves. "The Cure for Insomnia: Preaching That Won't Put People to Sleep" offers my perspective on preaching and communication. Much of this has been road-tested over the past twenty-five years, including those early sermons that inflicted too much pain on my audience. It's not intended to be an academic treatise but the journal of a fellow traveller. "Leading with Heart: Faith-Filled Thoughts on Leadership" is designed to look at leadership through the lens of faith. If leadership is best defined as influence,…
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Several years ago, while living in San Diego and riding the trolley back and forth to work, I wrote my first novel. The trolley ride took an average of 45 minutes each way and I had a Windows smart phone with a slide-out keyboard. A match made in heaven. "Lesser Angels" tells the story of two people who found what they didn't know was lost. It begins with a brother and sister who discover a secret about their deceased mother -- a secret that sets in motion a search that changes each in unexpected ways. It's only available on the Kindle.
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I've been prepping for a message I will preach at Valley View Christian Church on July 3. The theme is taken from Psalm 139:13-16 ... "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." What a wonderful passage about the providence and provision of God! As I've thought about being created, knitted, and ordained by God, it's been a good time to reflect and assess. We have been fashioned by God -- physically, emotionally, and spiritually. …
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Passing along a great article by Daniel Harkavy entitled "Bifocal Vision Required." In many ways it's similar to what's known as the "Stockdale Paradox." From Wikipedia: ********** "I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade." When Collins asked who didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied: "Oh, that’s easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart." Stockdale then…
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As the light changed from red to green to yellow and back to red again, I sat there thinking about life. Was it nothing more than a bunch of honking and yelling? Sometimes it seemed that way. Jack Handy
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