One of the many delightful features of Fredrik Backman’s bestselling novel is his frequent use of apt similes and metaphors to paint vivid, miniature portraits of the cantankerous and lovable main character in A Man Called Ove.
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Month: October 2017
Classic Writing Advice from a Dystopian Author
George Orwell published his famous essay “Politics and the English Language” in 1946 while he was working on his dystopian novel 1984. Both deal with the way bureaucracies hide their agendas with convoluted grammar, pretentious word choice and intentional ambiguity. In this way, they conceal the fact that “pacification of the population” actually means “defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets.”
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Grandchildren and the Older, Older Story
Two of my passions are grandchildren and the Old Testament. That may seem like an odd pair, but that also seems to be the case for Psalm 78. So it was a natural to include a study on that Psalm in our Grandparenting LifeGuide (the third study, if you are counting).
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Why I Wrote Mark Through Old Testament Eyes
For years now I have taught the gospel of Mark to InterVarsity college students. Often they would raise questions about confusing or troubling passages:
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