Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and family today. A special shout-out to my parents, brother, and sisters (and their families) down in Atlanta and Chattanooga and places in between!
Today’s Kindle deals include a bunch from Os Guinness.
Be sure to check in tomorrow as I’ll be spending today hunting down and compiling Black Friday deals.
Instilling Gratitude in Your Family
We will start with a couple related to Thanksgiving. “Our society cultivates discontentment. Consistently, we hear a message of want. Mass media, advertising, and holiday seasons all capitalize on the misconception of necessity and the hungering for more. There are quite literally thousands of images, commercials, and marketing ploys that are meant to create a sense of need. I ‘need’ this new phone to be satisfied, or this new product to be fulfilled. Advertising develops a feeling of deficiency within us. It seeks to convince us that without the latest beauty product, invention or gadget, we are lacking. In Philippians 4:11-12, Paul rebuffs this message by challenging us to be content in any circumstance—in plenty or in want.”
Not All Turkey and Touchdowns
“The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony weren’t the first Europeans to settle in North America, nor were they the first permanent English colonists. But because of our annual celebration of Thanksgiving, and our hazy images of their 1621 meal with Native Americans, the Pilgrims have become the emblematic colonists in America’s national memory. Although modern Thanksgiving has become largely non-religious — focused more on food, family, and football than explicitly thanking God — the Pilgrims’ experience reveals a compelling religious aspect of our country’s roots.”
A Call for Patient Evangelism
This is important, isn’t it? “Jesus made it abundantly clear that the effectiveness of sowing the word cannot be accurately measured right away. The parable of the soils shows us it takes time to see if a conversion is substantial or ephemeral (Matt. 13). Sometimes, said pastor Charles Bridges, ‘The seed may lie under the clouds till we lie there, and then spring up.’”
A Breathtaking Illustration Of How Congress Got So Partisan
This is a remarkable illustration. I suppose you can always question the methodology, but it remains an interesting bit of data visualization.
The LGBT’s False Dichotomy of Love and Hate
“Christians, it turns out, are given a choice. One option is to approve of people satisfying same-sex desires through sexual contact. If Christians do that, they are believed to love LGBT people. The other option is to affirm Jesus’ teaching that sexual activity is reserved for a married man and woman (Matt. 19:1–4). If they do that, then Christians are allegedly hateful towards LGBT people. It’s a tiresome, false dichotomy.”
The Hidden Hands of Caitlyn Jenner
Here is what Caitlyn Jenner’s hands tell us.
This German Town Is Literally Cracking Apart (Video)
A drilling operation in 2007 went very, very wrong.
Flashback: The Hidden Power in Every Idol
The hidden power of idols is what they do to those who worship them. These idols have no power, they have no life, they have no purpose. And those who worship them mimic them until they are just like them, people of no power, no life, no purpose.
Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.
—C.H. Spurgeon
