I’m not quite yet back from vacation, but close enough that we are back to our normal schedule at the blog. It has been a good time in Europe, but I’m ready to get back to normal life again!
I have once again updated the Kindle deals page where you’ll find quite a few good deals.
(Yesterday on the blog: Letters to the Editor (Gospel, Porn, Sober Warnings, and Joel Osteen))
The Church Needs Fewer Men Who Feel “Called” to Ministry
“We need fewer men who feel ‘called to ministry’ and more men who aspire to the office of elder. But if we dump the language of calling, how do we know if we should pursue ministry? Here are five indicators…”
Beware Theological Dangers on Both Left and Right
Tom Schreiner: “We live in a world, as we see in the political realm, where those who disagree are quickly demonized, where partisan concerns are ramped up. As Christians, we mustn’t follow the same path. We need to be vigilant for the truth and to defend the faith. At the same time, we need to be careful about drawing lines too tightly, and to beware of pulling out the heresy charge too quickly. We need to ask ourselves if the brother or sister simply disagrees with us and with our theology.”
The Strange Case of Kijong-dong And Daeseong-dong
This is kind of bizarre and really quite interesting. “As part of the armistice signed, a 4-kilometer strip of buffer zone called the DMZ or the Korean Demilitarized Zone, stretching the entire 250-kilometer-long border was created separating the two countries. Both nations were required to evacuate their part of the DMZ of all civilian settlements, except one that each nation was allowed to keep or create. These sole outposts, thinly masquerading as working villages, were built for propaganda to extol each side’s superior way of life. They sit directly opposite each other.”
Watch One Family’s Journey Through A Life-Changing Face Transplant (Video)
“In this short film, follow the incredible journey of Katie Stubblefield’s family as they wait for a donor for her face transplant.” A a book geek, I couldn’t help but notice that a Tim Keller book made a cameo appearance. Also, I wish they hadn’t cut short the prayers because prayer seemed like it was more meaningful to the family than to the filmmakers.
How TripAdvisor Changed Travel
Since I am traveling a lot this year, I found this article interesting and informative. Like most people, I probably have an over-reliance on TripAdvisor! Why would I bother climbing a 4.5-star mountain when I could climb a 4.6-star mountain?
Hit Totals Take a Nosedive as Strikeouts Surge
This is for those baseball fans out there. “One thing you learn from studying baseball history is that people have always predicted the sport’s demise. Over and over, the game weathers every perceived crisis and continues to thrive. More than 70 million fans will attend major league games this season; another 40 million or so will go to minor league games. Countless more watch the sport on television and online. And yet attendance is down, and more and more balls are being kept out of play. Some longtime observers consider the shifting landscape — hitters swinging for the fences, pitchers throwing everything with maximum effort, fielders standing in unusual spots — and wonder what has happened to their game.”
Hill Country Farming (Video)
We saw a dog herding some goats in Switzerland a couple of days ago. He was not nearly as skilled as these ones. There’s a strange kind of beauty watching this from the air.
Flashback: Two Gifts You Give To Others in Your Sanctification
The means God uses to sanctify us are a gift to the rest of the church so others can be encouraged by our faith, so they can be motivated by our endurance, so they can weep with us who weep and rejoice with us who rejoice.
Teens have to learn algebra, economics, et cetera, in high school, but at church we’re like “Noah built an arky arky outta gopher barky.”
—Dan DeWitt
