My book, The Man in the Box has maintained a near-perfect star rating on Amazon.com and I was 1 of 100 Kentucky-based authors to showcase it at the prestigious  Kentucky Book Fair last month (alongside mystery writer Sue Grafton, and Cardinal’s coach Rick Pitino).

Yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.

The second edition will be available to buy early next year.

And ten lucky people will receive a free autographed copy before its big re-release. Here’s how you can win:

…Wait. You’re probably wondering what it’s about.

Fair enough. It’s a suspense-charged story about an average family man who discovers a new world inside a cardboard box. The more he ventures into this world, the more he neglects his wife and kids. The question is: which life will he choose in the end? (It’s not as obvious as you think.)

Think dinosaurs, giant panthers, zombie-like monsters, rebellious kids, daddy…

A fresh snow is gently falling in the north country where we live.
Snowflakes free falling softly covering the ground with a pearly blanket of white. A new fresh covering bringing refreshing to our land.
Such beauty to see when you have the opportunity to slow down, from the rapid pace of life pausing to enjoy it’s beauty and freshness.
With all the hustle bustle of Christmas, people rushing and becoming impatient; it is lovely
to have a day of quietness and rest.
In America I believe we have lost our sensitivity to the Art of enjoying life!
Stopping to enjoy our God, His creation, our family’s, our friends. Taking time to make new friends,create new adventures in life which have been side stepped by busyness and constant work.
God gave man 6 days to work and on the seventh day rest. It is so important to enter into that…

¹⁹ Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual ²⁰ and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. ²¹ So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. ²² The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, ²³ and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace.  Daniel 3:19-23

What a story!  At Daniel’s request, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar to be administrators over the province of Babylon.  This great honor soon became a potential stumbling block as the King made…

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

After all is said and done, more is said than done. (Aesop c 550 bc)

I recently heard the Aesop line used by the University of Connecticut women’s basketball coach,  Auriemma as he was being interviewed after one of the Huskies games in this relatively new season.  He’s a man who knows what he is talking about. In his 28th season as head coach, his teams have won…

Today many of us will be rushing about. I wanted to share a poem with you today. I hope you like it!

Youth ~ by Samuel Ullman

Youth is not a time of life–it is a state of mind. It is not a matter
of red cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a temper of the will;
a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; it is a freshness
of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predomi-
nation of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a 
life of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty, more than in a boy of
twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people 
grow old by deserting their ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the
soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair…

Reblogged from Bread for the Bride, April 2012:

Recently I did a Google image search on ‘bride of Christ’. The results were interesting. With a few thought-provoking exceptions, the majority of images portrayed a Western bride dressed in long white gown and veil, with flawless fair skinned complexion and a radiant smile. Sometimes she is shown holding a sword, or depicted from the back looking searchingly towards the skies, at times surrounded by angels. But almost invariably the Bride shown in these images could have stepped straight out of a Hollywood movie.

I’m not suggesting there’s anything inherently wrong with this kind of imagery but it does seem to demonstrate a rather limited, stereotypical idea about what the Bride of Christ should look like, especially among Western Christians. Is this really how we imagine her to be in the eyes of Christ?

The Bride I’ve glimpsed differs somewhat from…

My brother Steve shared this on Facebook. The Psalm will bless you, and you can add your prayer as well.

From Steve:

________
Young friends, Daniel and Matthew (and Kristin) crying out an original psalm as a prayer for Matthew’s brother Brenden who is battling serious health issues! This breaks my heart and warms it at the same time. You guys are good! Worth a listen, and join them in praying for Brenden!

‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.’

This verse called the Isrealites to be Holy for Him. this meant they needed to be different from the other nations around them. God wanted them to be different because they were His chosen people and He had a plan to use them for great and wonderful things. In the same way God called the desert-wondering Isrealites, God has called us to holiness too.

“…for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16

God calls us to be holy for Him. Holiness is commonly defined as to be “set apart”. This means anything that is holy is distinguishable from the profane world around it. God wants us to be holy in this way, being different from the world around us. People need to be able to tell us apart from others who are not believers by…

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

I’ve been reading the beginning of the Old Testament recently and I realized that the word giants is mentioned numerous times.  In checking Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, I discovered that it occurs 20 times.  Tribes described as giants included the Amorites, the Emim, the Zuzim (Zamzummim), the Rephaim, the Nephilim, and the Anakim.  Goliath and Og were two noted by name.  Yet for all their size and strength, all of these people were destroyed.  And not just by the Israelites–the sons of Esau and Lot also had to deal with them in the land that God had given them as well.

Even as a young, unsaved child, I was always amazed at David’s defeat of Goliath and the faith it took to even attempt to fight him.  Despite all the…