There are lots of interesting Kindle deals today. Many are Christian, but I also added a whole list of historical works as well.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Prayer Before Listening to Sunday’s Sermon)
Trusting God with Our Unknown Future
Vance Christie has a nice little biographical sketch of hymnwriter Philip Bliss. “This Sunday, December 29, marks the 143rd anniversary of the untimely death of Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876), a popular nineteenth century hymnwriter. Circumstances surrounding Bliss’s death provide a profound lesson concerning trusting God with our unknown future. May we all be encouraged and enabled to do that with all the unknowns of the New Year to come.”
The Real Scam of ‘Influencer’
Seth Godin writes briefly and compellingly about influencers. “Part of the scam is that the pyramid scheme of attention will somehow pay off for a lot of people. It won’t. It can’t. The math doesn’t hold up. Someone is going to win a lottery, but it probably won’t be us.”
Your Ministry Will Take a Lifetime
Ray Ortlund: “This article is for every young man who feels that his glory is taking too long to become obvious. This is for every young man in ministry who feels restless and eager and ambitious (with godly ambition) for more opportunities to make his mark for Christ. Yes, you have mixed motives. Who doesn’t? But your desire to cut a wide swath of gospel harvest is of God.”
Religion and Living Arrangements Around the World
You can read this article, or just look at the charts and graphs. Either way, it has lots of interesting things to say and show about the ways different people live.
Want to Lift 200 Pounds without Breaking a Sweat?
You wonder whether a new technology like this will become common or whether we’ll never hear about it again.
Wayne Grudem’s Third Reason Divorce is Justified
Ariel Gonzalez Bovat provides some interesting context to Wayne Grudem’s recent change on the subject of divorce.
How This Abandoned Mining Town in Greenland Helped Win World War II
I found this one fascinating. “Founded in 1854, the town of Ivittuut (formerly Ivigtut) once held the world’s largest reserve of naturally occurring cryolite.”
Flashback: Strength = Good, Weakness = Bad
Consider how God can and will work in you in the year ahead if only you will be weak. Make this the year where you will rejoice in weakness so you can rely on God’s strength.
The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It’s a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don’t want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel.
—John Piper
