Category Archives: Books we have written

The first chapter of our book “Pray Anyway”

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At the end, we will tell how to order the book.  Here is chapter one...

HAVE TROUBLE PRAYING?  NO PROBLEM.  JUST PRAY ANYWAY.

While others spring from the bed each morning eager to spend an hour with the Lord in prayer, do you feel like the only one who has to drag yourself over to a chair and open the Bible and force yourself to think spiritual thoughts?

Welcome to the club.

Others pray smoothly and eloquently and always know what to say; but you are the only one who stumbles along haltingly as though you were just learning to speak or were trying out a foreign language.

Sound familiar?

Others are never plagued by doubt and offer up these magnificent sacrifices of praise and intercession that Heaven welcomes, values as jewels, and immediately rewards; you’re the only person who fights back the doubts as you pray and wonders whether the whole business is accomplishing anything.

Others see answers to their prayers as a matter of routine; you’re the only one who doesn’t.

Yeah, right.

It does feel that way sometime.

But it’s wrong.

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First two chapters of our book “A Healthy Church”

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(We are posting the first two chapters of our book A Healthy Church.  At the conclusion, we’ll tell how to order the book.)

CHAPTER ONE:  HOW TO SPOT A HEALTHY CHURCH IN 30 SECONDS 

Something about those children intrigued me, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.

For several weeks during my daily walk on the Mississippi River levee, I had been noticing three small children playing in their yard which joined the green expanse of the levee.

They seemed unusually happy and physically active, which the pastor/grandfather in me found charming.

The oldest child might have been seven or eight. There was a younger brother and a little sister.  The yard held all kinds of play equipment.

No matter how cold it was, they were out there laughing and running, jumping and hiding, having a big time.

You could hear them a block away.  They were always enjoying themselves and seemed to love one another.

“Whatever the parents are doing,” I thought, “it’s working.”

Then one day I noticed something different.  Another kid had joined them, and they had several large-wheel vehicles on top of the levee which they were riding down into the yard.  Two women sat near the house keeping an eye on them.  One was the mother, I assumed.

As I drew closer, the children coasted off the levee, all except the oldest boy.  He looked up at me and said, “Hi.  I’m Harley.”  I was so taken aback, I had to ask, “That’s your name?” It was.

I said, “Hi Harley.  My name is Mister Joe.”  He gave a big grin and said, “Hi, Mister Joe!” Then, off the levee he went.

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“Grief Recovery 101” (The first chapter)

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(Following is the first chapter of Bertha’s and my book Grief Recovery 101: How to Get Back Up When Blindsided by the Death of Someone You Love.  At the conclusion, we will tell how to order the book.)

CHAPTER ONE:  THE GRIEF ARRIVES

Grief happens when you least expect it and are completely unprepared for it.

How I became so knowledgeable about grief.  (I sure didn’t volunteer!)

My wife died suddenly.

On a Friday morning in January of 2015, Margaret and I had spent an hour at the breakfast table as we usually did.

After breakfast, she went back to bed.  Her physical ailments were always warring against her, the pain was constant, and her energy level was never very high.  Even walking into the kitchen was an ordeal for her.

Shortly after finishing my blog, I closed the laptop, took my morning shower and got dressed.  Sometime around 10 o’clock, I was lying on the bed in the back bedroom reading a novel when Margaret called down the hall.  “I’m going to drive myself to the nail salon and get a pedicure.  I’ll be back in a little while.”

My last word to my wife of 52-plus years was, “Okay!”

Sometime around noon, Ochsner Hospital called.  “Sir, you need to come to the emergency room now.  We have your mother.”

I said, “My wife.”

“Sir, we have your wife.  You need to come to the emergency room now.”

That’s all they would say.

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