7 Ways Fathers Provoke Their Children - “The Bible tells fathers to do two things: bring children up in the ways of the Lord and do not provoke them. How can a father avoid provoking his child?” Here are 7 ways dads may provoke their children.

F-35 - Here’s an interesting article on the long-awaited, much-delayed future of American air power. “After a decade of administrative problems, cost overruns and technical glitches, the F-35 is still not ready for action.”

I Don’t Wait Anymore - This is a poignant article. “When I was 16, I got a purity ring. And when I was 25, I took it off. I didn't tell anyone I was doing it -- it wasn't a statement or an emotional thing. I just slipped it off my finger that day and, before tucking it away in a box, ran my finger around the words on the familiar gold band. ‘True Love Waits.’ Waits. What's it ‘waiting’ for, anyway?”

Living With Less. A Lot Less - This writer’s ideologies may differ from mine, but the point of his article is illuminating. “Somehow this stuff ended up running my life, or a lot of it; the things I consumed ended up consuming me. My circumstances are unusual (not everyone gets an Internet windfall before turning 30), but my relationship with material things isn't.”

Pretty Boy Preachers - “Spurgeon feared no man. Constrained only by the bounds of God's Word, Spurgeon said what he liked, when he liked, how he liked. The problem with Spurgeon was not that men misunderstood his meaning. The problem was that men understood him completely.”

You Won’t Finish this Article - One glance at statistics software is enough to tell me that few of you read all the way to the end of my articles. Slate explains why we do this.

Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand. —Thomas Brooks

Satan wants to help you—to help you sin. He is hell bent on taking you to hell with him. Thomas Books, in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, drew up a list of the devices Satan uses to draw you—yes you!—to sin. Here are six of them:

He presents the bait and hides the hook. Satan shows you the pleasure and the profit that may flow out of yielding to sin, but hides the wrath and misery that will inevitably result. This is, of course, exactly what he did with Adam and Eve: he displayed the benefit of eating that fruit, but hid all the cost. "There is an opening of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promises them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them."

He paints sin with the colors of virtue. Satan knows that if he were to present sin accurately, you would run away from it rather than be attracted to it. Therefore, he conceals sin behind the camouflage of virtue so you can more easily be overcome by it and take more immediate pleasure in committing it. When he does this, pride comes in the form of neatness, covetousness in the form of thrift, and drunkenness in the form of a good time. Whatever temptation you are prone to he will likewise dress up as a virtue.

He convinces you this is only a little sin. Satan tries to convince you the temptation you face, the sin you are drawn to, is just a small and a harmless one. He wants you to believe this is a sin you may commit without any great danger to your soul.

He shows you that even noble men have sinned while hiding from you their sorrow and repentance. Satan will let you see that greater men than you have fallen into this sin and still been loved by God. He will set before you the adultery of David, the pride of Hezekiah, the impatience of Job, the drunkenness of Noah and the blasphemy of Peter. But as he does so, he will hide from you their tears and laments and he will hide from you that they repented of those very things and would plead with you not to succumb to the same temptation.

He presents God as only and ever merciful. Satan will convince you that you do not need to be afraid of this sin, that there is no real danger in this sin, for God is full of mercy, he delights in mercy, is ready to show mercy, never wearies of mercy and is more prone to pardon than to punish. And as he presents God's mercy, he deliberately conceals God's justice.

He convinces you that repentance is easy. As Satan presents a temptation before you, he will try to convince you that the work of repentance is an easy work, that it is not at all difficult to turn, to confess, to be sorrowful and to beg the Lord's pardon. And if all this is true, there is no urgent need to bother yourself with battling sin, for you can repent later just as easily as you now commit the sin.

Every analogy breaks down at some point which is why it is unwise to push an illustration too far. In the past I have written about the data each of us creates on a daily basis and have illustrated with airplanes and bloodhounds. We create data all the time and just as airplanes leave contrails in the skies, we leave a trail of data; like bloodhounds can track a trail of sweat and breath and dropped skin cells, people with access to our data can track what we have done and what we are doing.

While we all know that we leave data trails behind us, we may have been under the comfortable impression that this data is like contrails and skin cells that dissipate so that in a short time it is gone and can no longer lead to anyone or anything. But this is where the illustration breaks down. In what may prove to be one of the greatest government leaks of all time, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA and warned us all that our data is being actively collected and stored so that, in time, it may be analyzed and used against us. Big Brother is watching all of us, or, at least, he can watch all of us if he so chooses. It is little surprise that sales of Orwell's 1984 have spiked almost 10,000% in the days since.

You and I are data-creating machines. We create electronic data actively through Facebook comments, emails, blog posts, phone calls, and so much else. Even the letters we mail end up creating data as the envelopes are (sometimes) photographed and stored as an image. We also create data passively through cell phones checking in at the nearby towers and loyalty cards swiped at checkouts. All of this data is collected and increasingly it is collated and analyzed in order to create profiles. Such profiles are invaluable to businesses who want to market their products as precisely as possible; such profiles are invaluable to governments who want to prevent terrorism or dissension.

We still do not know exactly what the NSA and other government bodies are collecting and what they are doing with it. Caution is in order as some of the early reports probably over-stated the matter. What we do know is that government organizations are apparently demanding and keeping records of who is calling whom, when and for how long. There is a lot of dispute about whether they have some kind of backdoor access to Facebook and Apple and Google and all the other giants of the digital world. We will probably never know the exact details. It is likely that some of what is captured is genuinely helpful and important to the security of nations; it is equally probable that far more data is captured than is needed and that this data is stored for future use. But either way, the government is monitoring you.

I am in the unique and enjoyable position of receiving copies of most of the latest and greatest Christian books and I like to provide regular roundups of some of the best and brightest of the bunch. Of all the books I have received recently, here are the ones that appear most noteworthy.

Pocket Dictionary Reformed Tradition by Kelly M. Kapic & Wesley Vander Lugt. According to the publisher, “Beginning to study Reformed theology is like stepping into a family conversation that has been going on for five hundred years. How do you find your bearings and figure out how to take part in this conversation without embarrassing yourself? The Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition takes on this rich, boisterous and varied tradition in its broad contours, filling you in on its common affirmations as well as its family tensions. Here you will find succinct and reliable entries on…” a whole series of theological terms and controversies, important names and councils, and so on. “The Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition is ready to assist you over the rough parts of readings, lectures, conversations and blogs. It will also be a companionable and concise introduction to one of the great Christian traditions.” (Learn more or buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

Name above All Names by Sinclair Ferguson and Alistair Begg. Alistair Begg and Sinclair Ferguson. Do we need to say a whole lot more than that? “Jesus Christ has been given the name above all names, the highest seat of honor, the right to reign and rule. Yet the busyness of our lives and the diversions of this world often distract us from knowing the most important person we could ever know. Perhaps we need some help to see Jesus afresh. In this thoughtful study and worshipful reflection, two influential pastors draw on decades of pastoral experience in order to guide us through the whole sweep of Scripture and examine seven key qualities of Jesus's identity and ministry. Name above All Names helps us to see and meditate on the incomparable character of Christ—a spiritual exercise that enables us to readily respond to the exhortations of Scripture, to focus our gaze upon the King of kings, and to better understand just how great Jesus really is.” (Learn more or buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

Sex and Money by Paul David Tripp. “Pleasure. We live in a world obsessed with finding it, passionate to enjoy it, and desperate to maintain it. Chief among such pleasures are sex and money—two pleasures unrivaled in their power to captivate our attention, demand our worship, and drive us to hide or to despair. You don't have to look far to see that we are in big trouble in both areas. Many of us see the battle. We feel the strain of the war. And we are eager for freedom in a world gone mad. Seasoned counselor and pastor Paul David Tripp pulls back the curtain on the lies that surround us and on the distortions we often overlook. As Tripp thoughtfully exposes the insanity of our culture, he also wisely speaks to our own tendencies to fall prey to sexual and financial idolatry. Sex and Money ultimately directs us to God's Word and the liberating power of the gospel, offering real-world advice, and giving us the guidance we need to find true joy and enduring satisfaction.” (Learn more or buy it at Amazon or Westminster Books)

Fanny Crosby: The Blind Girl’s Song by Lucille Travis. Trailblazers is an excellent series of biographies for young readers and the most recent volume is on the hymnwriter Fanny Crosby. If it is consistent with the rest of the volumes, it will be a great addition to the series and one to consider for the kids. (Learn more or buy it at Amazon)