Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
Today’s Kindle deals include books by Barnabas Piper and Leland Ryken.
(Yesterday on the blog: Sorrowful Departures and Joyful Arrivals)
Sin Is “Barbs In Your Eyes, Thorns In Your Sides”
“Imagine a barb in your eye. A thorn in your side. Talk about painful. Debilitating. Something that hurts. That’s the picture God uses to warn the pre-land Israelites what it’ll be like if they don’t drive out the nations. The nations will be ‘barbs in your eyes and thorns in your side.’ Translation: They’ll really hurt you. As he says, ‘They shall trouble you.’ Yet the bigger question is, Why? Why will these nations hurt the Israelites?”
The Dangers of Digital Discourse
Kevin DeYoung: “It’s no secret that the digital world can be rough. The way we talk about each other and to each other online is not often a model of careful reason and good faith. But maybe a little literary theory can help.”
Modeling Disagreement with Charity
It’s possible for two Christians united around the gospel to engage in charitable conversation even amid substantive disagreement. Introducing the Good Faith Debates. (Sponsored Link)
To Dip or Not to Dip? The Case Against Intinction
TGC has a pair of articles, one for and one against the practice of intinction—dipping the bread into the wine during the Lord’s Supper. (Here is the case for it.) For what it’s worth, I am generally opposed to it.
I Am Proud Of You
“I have a new hobby. I love to make teenagers cry. Now, I don’t make them cry the way that you might expect. I don’t insult them or tear them down. I don’t tell jokes about their mom or make fun of their hair cut. But, I do use words. Five special and powerful words…” These are some of my favorite words too.
How to Renew a Decadent Evangelical Culture
There’s lots to think about in Samuel James’ article about our decadent Evangelical culture.
Doesn’t Science Disprove the Resurrection?
“The scientific method involves observing something in the world, theorizing an explanation for it, testing that theory, making additional observations, and doing more testing. The cycle continues until a reasonably reliable explanation can be made. Making repeated observations and conducting tests other scientists can repeat is fundamental to scientific inquiry. It’s also what makes it difficult or even impossible as a way to study historical events—things that happen only once and cannot be repeated.”
Flashback: Simon, Would You Still Have Passed That Way?
“I would pass that way again in an instant to serve him again in a moment, for I know now that I carried his cross so I would never need to suffer upon mine.”
Better read less and meditate more, than read much and meditate little.
—F.B. Meyer
