Fall carnival season is here, and Blifalloo spills the secrets on how to win at carnival games. Example: “Balloon Dart Throw: The balloons are under-inflated, and the dart tips are dull. Forget accuracy and throw the dart as hard as you can. Most people aim for the middle, so the game operators will often hide the ‘good prize’ tags behind balloons on the outside edges.”

Chad Knudson asks, “Would you buy a pocket Old Testament?” “We should not allow the word ‘old’ to distract us from the importance of the Old Testament. For example, when you go into Christian Bookstores you usually find pocket New Testaments and single volumes of the Gospel of John, but when was the last time you saw a pocket Old Testament or a single volume of the book of Deuteronomy?”

John Beukema relates a hilarious story called The Day I Tried to Preach Like Rob Bell (or, How a goat got into my sermon). “We noticed a potential drawback to the goat’s [Victor’s] usefulness in my sermon. Apparently my role in Victor’s abduction had traumatized him. As a result, every time Victor spotted me, he emptied his bowels and bladder. This was not the kind of Pavlovian reaction we were hoping for on Easter Sunday.”

D. A. Lague provides a brief biographical sketch of Henrietta Mears, the director of Christian education at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood and an influence in the lives of Bill Bright and Billy Graham. “From an early age she struggled with her eyesight and doctors told her mother that she would be blind by the age of thirty. However, Mears was convinced God had a purpose for her life so she read, studied and memorized large portions of Scripture in case her eyesight failed.”

Michael McClenahan reveals some things you probably didn’t know about Jonathan Edwards. “Jonathan Edwards is sometimes criticized for having too dim a view of human nature, but it may be helpful to be reminded that his grandmother was an incorrigible profligate, his great-aunt committed infanticide, and his great-uncle was an ax-murderer.” (from George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life, p. 22) Note: That’s Jonathan Edwards the preacher/theologian – not John Edwards the presidential candidate.