• Sandy Cove Communicators Conference

The Sandy Cove Christian Communicators Conference (September 29-October 3) is my favorite conference at my favorite conference center—right on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay with spectacular sunsets! (There’s still time to register!)
Here’s what I’ll be doing there:
Giving the opening keynote: I Have a Dream
Teaching a continuing seminar: Taking the Word to the World [...]

• 700 billion!

If, like me, you’re having a tough time wrapping your mind around 700 billion dollars ($700,000,000,000 or nearly three-fourths of a trillion), here’s a piece I wrote when the government was talking about blasting 500 billion into outer space:
What will half a trillion buy?

• Ray Boltz’s ‘yoke’

In 1986, award-winning singer-songwriter Ray Boltz wrote these powerful lyrics:
Standing up on the outside
Falling down within
Looking righteous as a Pharisee
But filled with guilt and sin
Trying to walk with Jesus
On a straight and narrow road
And holding onto this world
I just could not let go
That’s such a heavy load
Come and break the yoke, Lord
Come and set this [...]

• Squeezing good out of bad

Life is filled with lemons: those life-puckering, lemon-juice-in-the-eye events we all encounter. Some are only temporary: kidney stones, crashed computers, lactose intolerance, sadistic dental hygienists, overdrawn checking accounts, and IRS audits. Others, however, can leave a long-lasting bitter taste: cancer, family feuds, prodigal children and death.
Here’s the Table of Contents from Squeezing Good out of [...]

• 9/11 plus seven

“Cross” rises from World Trade Center rubble. (Click pic for larger view.)
9/11. Those two small numbers have become shorthand for an enormous range of emotions: the shock and disbelief of watching the terrorist attack on live TV, the horror of watching the twin towers collapse upon themselves, the national grief as the number of confirmed [...]

• If I were running for president . . .

In the 2000 election, I ran for president as the Tupperware Party candidate (“Fresh ideas for preserving left-over values”) and received as many Electoral College votes as Pat Buchanan and Ralph Nader combined! Click for some of the planks in my resealable plastic platform.
I’ve also collected some of my nonpartisan thoughts on the current US [...]

• Indian Christians need prayer, protection

According to Christian Post:
Hindu extremists, some wielding machetes, have been on the rampage in the north-eastern state since the murder of Hindu leader Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati and four of his associates last month. Christian homes, orphanages and churches have been burned down, while 16 people have been killed.
In one of the worst incidents, a [...]

• August’s top ten sites

I have in my right hand—direct from my home office—August’s top ten most popular pages here at jameswatkins.com [July's ranking]:
1. Home page / blog [1]
2. Mr. Platypus’ billabong page [2]
3. “I just want to die” [4]
4. The hidden habit: masturbation [8]
5. Top ten reasons I’m not divorcing my wife [6]
6. Women in ministry [...]

• Good news, bad news

Bad news: The radiation for prostate cancer is finished—and so am I. I’m just totally, completely exhausted.
Good news: That means the cancer cells are dying and releasing toxins into my blood stream. So the worse I feel, the better!
Bad news: The radiation doctor said it could take a month to get back to 100 percent [...]

• God and Gustav: comments

Some interesting comments on my Monday post over at ThinkChristian.net. So, some comments on comments.
First, God doesn’t invite me to His strategic planning meetings, so I’m never sure what He’s up to. I’ve got to trust His will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2), but usually I’m in the dark as to His plans.
Second, [...]