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A La Carte (11/17)

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Yesterday Apple made their earth-shaking announcement: the Beatles are now available in iTunes. And the world reacted with a collective yawn. I would imagine most iTunes users have some level of respect for the Beatles, but at the same time, I can’t help but think that the iTunes demographic tends to be far more interested in Katy Perry and Lady Gaga than some dashing young British lads in funky suits. I think this one was a bit of a swing and a miss.

Free Piper Books – I’m guessing most people already know this, but if not, get ready for a feast. You can get most of John Piper’s books for free in PDF form. They are just there, on the DG site, ready for the taking. This is especially good if you’ve got an iPad or Kindle. Dive in!

Navigating History – This looks like an interesting project. Four young Christian men will be traveling to Egypt later this month to shoot an adventure video series, featuring historical and cultural commentary from a Reformed worldview. It will begin shooting (and broadcasting) on December 1.

The Phone Call Is Dead – One trend we are seeing in communication today is a move from more-mediated to less-mediated forms. So we are less face-to-face than ever before. And now text is taking over even from voice. It’s worth thinking about what we stand to lose as the face and the voice recede in favor of the digital word.

The Troubling View of Joel Osteen – Joel Osteen was recently a guest on The View in order to promote his new book. There are some people writing “Christian” books who are good at non-answers (Brian McLaren comes to mind). Joel Osteen doesn’t even have the ability to non-answer smoothly.

New Life, New Message – CNN’s Belief blog has an article about Christian rapper Lecrae, focusing on his conversion.

Duncan on Lausanne – In this video Derek Thomas and Jeremy Smith interview Ligon Duncan on his impressions of the recent Lausanne Congress.

Homeschooling – There are a couple of laughs here from Tim Hawkins. I’ve given up asking Christian kids what grade they’re in. Now that everyone’s homeschooling, it’s no longer a straightfoward question!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e735f-uwb64?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6

Worldlings make gold their god; saints make God their gold.

—Matthew Henry

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