There is a God

“There is a God,” Portland Trailblazer head coach Nate McMillan said when Portland won the NBA draft lottery, giving our city the number one pick. It’s an understatement to say that event dominated news coverage here. Had Philadelphia been vaporized by aliens, it might have made page three.

“There is a God” is a common response to good news these days, so I’m not picking on Coach McMillan. But this expression reflects wrong thinking. The reasoning goes like this: when something happens that we like, it means there is a good God watching over us.

Of course, that ...

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

I spoke Sunday at Gresham Bible Church, a recently-formed fellowship with lots of “former-kids” in their mid-twenties. It was Father’s Day, and my daughter Angela introduced me. Her kind words brought tears to my eyes. (No matter who says what about my books or my life, I always care most what my wife and daughters think, because next to God they know best who I really am.)

As I spoke, I looked out at these people thinking how thirty years ago Nanci and I were in the brand new Good Shepherd Community Church (in Boring, Oregon, believe it or ...

Wait Until Then

Wait Until Then, a thirty-two page big format picture book, was published in February. It’s a very short story, only two thousand words, about a boy who loves baseball, and his grandfather who played one year for the Boston Red Sox with Ted Williams.

God Rejoices Over Us with Singing

George Mueller once said something like this (not verbatim, but this is its essence): “I read Scripture until I come to a verse that can bear my whole weight, and then I stop and ponder it.”

That happened to me yesterday, and today I am pondering the same verse. But first, the background, so you’ll know why I’ve found such comfort in it.

My latest novel, Deception (and various digressions)

My twenty-sixth book and seventh novel, Deception, came out in April.

Tell Me About Heaven: Just Released

Tell Me About Heaven is about a grandfather helping ten-year-old Jake come to terms with his grandmother’s death. Jake has all kinds of questions about Heaven, and what his grandma is doing and whether she remembers him. When he spends two weeks at his grandfather’s house out in the country, they do things together and talk about Heaven as they go. (It’s a low-key story. No shootings, pirates or Bruce Willis taking down a helicopter with a car.)

The World of Christian Books and Writers

I got back late last week from the annual Christian Booksellers convention. Always in July, it’s normally in a hot, sweaty southern city. This year was Atlanta, next year is Orlando. We haven’t been back to Dallas since it hit 120 degrees several years ago. Now if we could only have it in Portland or Seattle... Anyway, I’m going to spend a couple blogs talking about it.

Days of Filming and Divine Appointments

More on the International Christian Retail Show

Though I normally post on Tuesdays, I threw in an extra blog on Saturday, related to some filming we did in the Columbia Gorge last Thursday and Friday. God did some special things those days, and you might be interested in checking out the previous blog since many of you could easily miss it.

I have really enjoyed reading your comments on these first eight blogs. They’ve been very interesting and encouraging at a time where, frankly, I have needed it. God is faithful, and I have enjoyed some very rich and warm times even on some days that ...

Harry Potter: The Debate Among Christians Continues

Scholastic’s first US printing of the new Deathly Hallows, released last week, was an unprecedented twelve million copies. Over eight million copies sold in the first 24 hours. A newscaster said the other night that five thousand Harry Potter books are being sold every minute in the United States.

On the positive side, the books are well written and engaging, and the characters are likeable. I love that kids are looking away from video games and television and computers and their ipods and phones long enough to actually read. Of course, that raises the issue of what it is they’re reading.