Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of books by Tozer and a few others also worth checking out.
(Yesterday on the blog: Three Things To Know about Korean Christianity)
Why Do Christians Still Die?
“Why do Christians have to die? Why can’t they just live and then go to heaven without passing through the experience of death? Although the wages of sin is death, and believers have certainly sinned, has Christ not paid the full penalty for our sins? So, why do Christians have to die?”
What Does it Mean to Abide in Christ?
“The exhortation to ‘abide’ has been frequently misunderstood, as though it were a special, mystical, and indefinable experience. But Jesus makes clear that it actually involves a number of concrete realities.” Sinclair Ferguson explains.
The Tragedy Of Adultery
“It is a tragedy that sells papers: sex, power, conflict, money – it has it all. An opportunity to embarrass and divide the government, to bring down a leader, to reveal the hypocrisy of a religious moralist – it is a politician’s and journalist’s dream. But apparently the politicians/journalists had to handle it delicately lest they be accused of moralising, invading privacy, returning to Puritanism, or opening up any inquiry into the home life of other politicians, journalists or staffers. ‘Love is love’ and people’s sex lives must not come into any moral question. “
The Coin Flip Conundrum (Video)
“When you flip a coin to make a decision, there’s an equal chance of getting heads and tails. What if you flipped two coins repeatedly, so that one option would win as soon as two heads showed up in a row on that coin, and one option would win as soon as heads was immediately followed by tails on the other?” Now things begin to get complicated.
Fake Videos Are on the Rise
This is a bit alarming and something to begin to keep in mind. “All it takes is a single selfie. From that static image, an algorithm can quickly create a moving, lifelike avatar: a video not recorded, but fabricated from whole cloth by software. With more time, Pinscreen, the Los Angeles start-up behind the technology, believes its renderings will become so accurate they will defy reality.”
Studying God’s Word When You’re Tired and Busy
“In any given season, a myriad of factors can keep us from reading the Bible: limited time, guilt, a lack of discipline, a lack of desire, unrealistic expectations of what time in the Word should look like, a lack of mental energy, or utter exhaustion.”
The Playboy Who Got Away With $242m
This is a good bit of reporting on a very successful confidence trickster. “One day in August 1995 a man called Foutanga Babani Sissoko walked into the head office of the Dubai Islamic Bank and asked for a loan to buy a car. The manager agreed, and Sissoko invited him home for dinner. It was the prelude, writes the BBC’s Brigitte Scheffer, to one of the most audacious confidence tricks of all time.”
Flashback: O NSA, You Have Searched Me and Known Me
We have every reason to fear the government’s desire to know everything about us. We have every reason to rejoice at God’s perfect ability to know everything about us. “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”
Any gospel which says only what you must do and never announces what Christ has done is no gospel at all.
—Kevin DeYoung
