Boletus Media

01/02/2026

Today woud have been my dad's 100th birthday. My sister passed on to me some artifacts our mom had saved from his life.
The picture is of him from when he was in the Army Air Forces during World War 2.
The first artifacts image shows his USAAF shoulder patch and tab, his corporal chevrons, and his dog tags. He was part of a unit recovering gliders during pilot training down in Texas (they used gliders to transport some troops and equipment before helicopters replaced them after the war).
The second image shows some pins, clockwise from bottom left:
His American Legon pin; his pin from SPEBQSA pin (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America)--he was part of two Barbershop choruses from the Chicago area that competed nationall and internationally with other choruses; his pitch pipe and Jew's harp; and lower right corner are an Illinois Realtor's pin and a pin from Baird and Warner Real Estate Company--he was the manager, for a time, of the Wheaton, IL office.
The third image is his G.R.I. pin, "Graduate of the Real Estate Institute." It's my understanding that only those who've graduated from the institute may put the initials "G.R.I." after their name and call themselves "Realtors" as opposed to Real Estate salesmen.

01/01/2026

The "How" and "Why."

https://www.facebook.com/share/1NsPsBtqmv/

The field of science is filled with questions. But are we asking the right ones?

01/01/2026

12/31/2025

"Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways." Haggai 1:5

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12/31/2025

No fear

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12/24/2025

My newest book has just been released.

This is a collection of scripts for three evangelistic Christmas dramas written and produced some years ago when I was the drama director at Falls Baptist Church in Menomonee Falls, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Each script contains suggestions for Christmas music by a choir and orchestra between the scenes, but the dramas run a bit longer than the average church musical production. I hope they help a church or a school that wants to produce a bigger drama. Here is a brief description of each:

“The Greatest Love”
A drama set during the epic siege of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in December, 1944. A veteran squad of U.S. paratroopers reacts to a new replacement who is a devout Christian.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

“The Christmas Runaway”
Based on themes from the Book of Jonah, a troubled college student struggles with hatred and the clear call of God to a mission field he refuses to obey.
“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD . . . .” Jonah 1:3

A Special Adaptation of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”
The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God and a guilty conscience to break through the crust of a bitter, selfish old man. Scrooge doesn’t merely turn over a new leaf, he turns to new life through faith in Jesus Christ.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2Corinthians 5:17

Each of these stories have previously been rewritten as Christian historical fiction novels/novellas and are also available on Amazon in that form. "The Greatest Love" was rewritten as the novel A BATTLE MORE DESPERATE. "The Christmas Runaway" was rewritten as the novella DAVID YOUNGMAN: RUNAWAY MISSIONARY. And the adaptaion of "A Christmas Carol" was rewritten with a change in setting and characters' names, but the same story, as novella THE PASSING AWAY OF CEPHAS STREELE.

12/20/2025

12/19/2025

Was Jesus born in the winter or the spring?

Good question in picking a date for celebrating His birth. I had to consider this and research it when I wrote my book MARY'S STORY a couple of years ago.

Some say Jesus was born in the spring, they reason, because isn't that when ewes give birth to their lambs? Now this is true of most breeds of sheep coming from Europe, but I found out that the breed in Palestine in the First Century was a fat-tailed, Midde Eastern variety (still used today). Grass in the pasture lands of Judea turns brown in the dry summers like it does out in the American West. Rains come again to Judea in autumn and early winter, and fresh green grass sprouts up again. The fat-tailed sheep give birth when this tender, juicy grass is avalable for the mothers to eat and supply rich milk to the new-born lambs. The shepherds back then were out watching their flocks out in the open because of the lambs being born. They didn't confine their ewes to a sheep fold and risk those lambs being trampled. A celebration of Christmas in December is appropriate, even if we don't know the exact date, because it is the time for lambs to be born in Bethlehem.

12/12/2025

From a morning devotional I gave six years ago when I was a teacher at Mountain View Baptist School

GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN
Luke 2:10-11 “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

The world of sin can discourage and depress us. But God wants us to know comfort and joy through our Savior. Last night in our mid-week service, we sang the Christmas Carol “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” The opening words of this song are words of encouragement because of the birth and saving work of Jesus Christ.

Languages can change over the years. The word “ye” in the opening phrase and the comma after the word “merry” are clues that this is an older form of English. The word rest used to mean more than “to pause or relax,” it also meant “to keep or make.” The opening phrase isn’t about asking God to help those Gentlemen who are merry to “pause and relax,” but it’s about asking God to “make or keep” those Gentlemen happy and rejoicing because Christ was born on Christmas Day to save us from sin and Satan’s power. That’s a deep spiritual truth. It’s through trusting Jesus to save us that we may know the “tidings,” the good news, of “Comfort and Joy” that we sing about in the song’s chorus. Because of Jesus, even when Satan’s power might cause dismay, God will “rest us merry,” or in the modern sense, “keep us rejoicing,” when we remember our Great Savior.

Our thought for the day: Remembering Jesus Christ keeps us joyful at Christmas!

12/11/2025

An invasion by giant elfin clones? The work of a hyperactive Santa salesman? Or just a neighborhood with a sense of fun?

We drove down Earle Street this evening and discovered at least sixty houses displaying a giant inflatable light-up Santa (with a couple inflatable Grinches, and an inflatable Tyrannosaurus Rex thrown in for good measure). What is called an "Inflatatopia" stretched on for several blocks in the Historic Earle Street District north of downtown Greenville, SC. Almost all were the same model pictured in this article. We enjoyed counting them all (including the handful which were deflated).

Free holiday fun! The holiday inflatatopia taking over Greenville, SC.

12/10/2025

https://youtube.com/shorts/75P9BCb-OFU?si=SPNSJNeGBAD7SQ93