News from Around the World (14/11)

What That Empty Seat Says - We’ve all done it. We shuffle down a row of chairs and, just before we arrive at a person, we stop one chair short. We leave an empty seat between us and the other person, secretly hoping an usher won’t ask us to “scoot in.” What does that empty seat say? Why are we compelled to leave that “safe seat” between us and others?


Free to Say We'veSinned - When you hide your sin, pretending to be a perfect Christian, you’re actually telling the world that God is a liar. Did Jesus, or did Jesus not, need to suffer and die for your present sins? When you feign perfection, you’re saying you didn’t need Him to do this for you.


A Few Practical Lessons from the Puritans - Some practical helps from the puritans on preaching, catechizing, preserving and pride.


Defining the “Gospel” in a Gospel-Centered Theology - Here are the six key things that Bird thinks are essential for understanding the gospel (pp. 47-52). And it’s in sections like this that Bird’s strengths as a biblical theologian really come to the forefront.


Dangerous ideas - If Christ Jesus is the Son of God who died and rose again, everything changes. It is the most dangerous idea. The people who ought to be most clear about this, by what we say and how we live, are true believers.

News from Around the World (13/11)

Paul and the Faithfulness of God - D. J. Moo's review of N. T. Wright's book.

 
Truth Remains - Check out this post that provides a link to 4 short clips on the history of the 4 great English Bible.


Is John Piper Really Reformed? - Do I think TULIP is the essence of Calvinism? No. Do I wish many who think of themselves as “Reformed” would go a lot farther back and dig a lot deeper down? Yes. But does it bother me that people think of Piper, Mohler, and Dever as Reformed? Not at all. 


Buddy, can you spare a dime? - It seems to me that many of us work in churches where we as ministers are among those most protected from the harsh realities and dangers of life in a post-Christian world.   So we should not flatter ourselves about how hard and dangerous our calling is.

Should every church be multiethnic? - I meet pastors all the time who insist that their homogenous church simply reflects the homogeneity of their community. However, when they examine their community’s census data, they discover that there are significant numbers of diverse people all around them.

Five Truths About Christian Suffering - But just because we experience suffering as we await the redemption of our bodies, it doesn’t mean that our suffering is random or without purpose. And neither does it mean that Scripture doesn’t tell us how to think about our suffering now. Here are five important biblical truths about suffering every Christian should have ready

Walking with God in Everyday Life - The Bible says that “the Lord was with” Abraham, Joseph, David, and Hezekiah. We’re also told that Enoch and Noah “walked with God.” These are two sides of the one coin, two perspectives on the same experience of God’s special presence with His people.

News from Around the World (12/11)

Loving Something Too Much - It is in the context of him writing on the temptation to suicide but it's been very helpful indeed in thinking about what am I loving too much - wife, children, ministry. It's all too easy to idolise them.


Jesus and My Complicated Relationship With the Psalms - If the Psalms begin to feel confusing read them through the lens of Christ. Read them as if Christ himself were speaking them. Jesus is the key to unlocking the Psalms. He shines light upon all the dark and confusing places. He is the reigning king who shares his righteousness with those who don’t deserve it.


Why You Shouldn’t Turn Homework in Late - Grade impact should certainly be part of the equation when you’re faced with this situation. But it’s not the only one. I’d like to suggest a couple of other reasons to think twice before handing that assignment in late, reasons that may not immediately come to mind when you’re trying to decide if seeing Catching Fire on opening night is worth a little academic slippage.


4 Reasons to Teach the Bible’s Storyline - What’s the big deal? Why is it so important for Christians to be able to connect the dots of the Bible’s grand narrative? Here are four reasons.


Why We Still Read C.S. Lewis 50 Years After His Death - Some reason by John Piper.


The 5 D's of a Good Meeting - As many of the people I work with know, I am not a fan of long meetings. Generally, they drain me of my energy as we swirl around and around an issue. So, I’ve started thinking about how I can better hold a good meeting. Here are five ideas.


How Systematic Theology Can Energize and Enrich Your Preaching.

News from Around the world (11/11)

How to Rapidly Improve your Writing and Preaching - If so, you’ll need to gather around you a diverse group of brutally honest folks who don’t mind giving you the one-two on a weekly basis. Let them beat the junk out of your content, and you’ll come away with a well-molded pot that’s the better for the beating.


Jonathan Edwards and Handling Controversy - In one public debate, however, Edwards raised the bar for how Christians during his time should engage each other. His principles can help Christian leaders and their followers today.


6 Reasons Not to Abandon Expository Preaching - Our aim is to take the sacred text, explain what it means, tie it to other scriptures so people can see the whole a little better, and apply it to life so it bites and heals, instructs, and edifies. What better way to accomplish this end than through expository preaching?


50 Incredibly Tough Books for Extreme Readers - Try it, if you dare.


10 Errors to Avoid When Talking about Sanctification and the Gospel - Sometimes the truth can be seen more clearly when we state its negation. So rather than stating what we should believe about sanctification, I’d like to explain what we should not believe or should not say.


Is All Sin Equal in God's Eyes? - It is a common question and the answer is of the variety that is always a little bit unsatisfying: It is one of those “yes and no” answers.


The Power of Introverts!

News from Around the World (7/11)

Writing in Your Books - Here are five reasons I believe defacing an author’s work is warranted.


10 Love Challenge - Yesterday I gave my congregation 10 Love Challenges that  translate the sometimes nebulous idea of love into very practical, do-able actions. In some ways each action might not seem very much; each challenge has only one fairly quick and easy action per month.


Fellow Christians: I'm Rich and I'm Sorry - I need the new conversation about money. I need it, not only because I am rich and feeling sorry, but because I believe—and the Bible insists—that the much with which I've been entrusted has been meant for good (2 Cor. 8:14).


Study Theology, Even If You Don't Believe in God - “theology is the closest thing we have at the moment to the kind of general study of all aspects of human culture that was once very common, but is now quite rare.” A good theologian, he says, “has to be a historian, a philosopher, a linguist, a skillful interpreter of texts both ancient and modern, and probably many other things besides.”


7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living - Reflections on how to keep the center solid as you continue to evolve.


No One Is Having Sex on Their Wedding Night Anymore - Of course, the trend in couples living together (and having sex) before getting married renders the wedding night sex thing a bit obsolete.


A New Perspective for Moms

News from Around the World (6/11)

6 Actions for Younger Women - 6 things on how to be a younger woman in today's context. 


Challenges To The Christian Faith - So how should Christians respond to ideas which, if they were true, might undermine our faith? Following are general suggestions we can utilize when evaluating disturbing challenges.


Training Leaders and Teachers Who Understand “Gospel Centrality - But information alone doesn’t change us. Application alone doesn’t change us. Only Jesus changes us. That’s why the information we present needs to be connected to Christ. And the application we give needs to be grounded in Christ’s work for us too.


How the Scandal of Preaching Will Reach Our Postmodern World - Of course, the first reaction to such an idea is, “Are you kidding?” When faced with the challenges of postmodernity, do we really think the solution is to stick some guy in front of the group and let him talk for 30 minutes?  Wouldn’t a video be more effective?  Or at least a dialogue or panel discussion?


Different Types of Affairs - You can see that there are many variations on a theme. Each affair has unique nuances that you don’t want to miss. Being a patient, good listener will serve you and the couple well as you embody the grace of Christ in these early stages of care.


Doug Phillips' Resignation -  What a warning to us all, especially to those of us who have leadership roles in the church, and especially in the areas we are strongest and most vocal on.


Lies I told to become a spy - But lying to myself was the biggest betrayal of all. I make real-life plans now, analyze career choices, and live with ordinary secrets. I have no glamorous cover. I would probably pass the polygraph test if I took it today.


The Failed War On Cancer

Christian News from Around the World (5/11)

Hey guys, just an update, I'll be combine the news and christian news in one post instead of 2, so you can read them all in one post.


8 Principles for a Gospel-Centered Systematic Theology - "We still need a systematic theology that is truly centered on the gospel." - Michael F. Bird. So Bird sets himself on the task of developing a systematic theology that does precisely this. And he goes on to explain eight principles that will guide him along the way.

5 Beliefs Atheists and Christians Have in Common - As it’s always a good idea to find common ground before disagreeing with someone or trying to correct them, here are five areas that both Christians and atheists agree on.

7 Issues We Need To Talk About In Our Youth Groups! -Here's  a good list of things you should most likely be talking about in your youth groups.


Moral Convictions Must Emerge Out in the Open - For a purely internal commitment, a moral conviction that never emerges out in the open when confronted by its negation, can easily, perhaps inevitably, become spectral, inconsequential, and eventually lifeless.


25 signs you're addicted to books - Just for some laughs. I sure found some that I could identify with.


Taking Ironman Seriously - The aim of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (Talos) is to give special ops fighters greater protection inside armor that can withstand bullets, all while downloading live video data from drones and other sources. The suit would have a powered exoskeleton that could help a soldier move quickly while carrying heavy weight.


Myers-Briggs Personality and Household Income - It's tempting to draw conclusions from the outcomes of various Myers-Briggs types.... But there is also reason for caution in drawing conclusions from this graph - or trusting the personality types too much in general.

News from Around the World (4/11)

A 15th Century Cathedral Transformed into a Modern Bookstore - I'm not sure if I want to be happy or sad over this news.

Abandoned Wal-Mart Converted into the Country's Largest Single-Story Library - This is much better, definitely more happy with this story.

Tiananmen Mystery: Can China Hold an Open Terror Trial? - China’s new generation of leaders can now show that the Bo Xilai trial was not an aberration. After that trial, the Study Times, a weekly Party journal, wrote that the gestures of transparency “displayed China’s confidence: the confidence of the rule of law; confidence of the facts; confidence of the ability to distinguish right from wrong.” An open terror trial is another opportunity. 

The World's Most Depressing Museum - Most cities have monuments to the past, so it seems appropriate, given the bloody history of Iraqi Kurdistan, that Sulaymaniyah's main tourist attraction is a torture museum.

FAA to allow use of electronic devices during flights - The FAA’s current policy forces passengers to turn off most portable electronic devices, such as smartphones, laptops, tablet computers and e-readers, during takeoffs and landings -- technically, below 10,000 feet. The fear is that the devices might interfere with flight equipment. However, surveys have showed that many passengers do not turn off their devices, either intentionally or accidentally.

News from Around the World (3/11)

The Man who drove across the US in under 29 hours -You might think the hardest part of setting the cross-country driving record is driving across the country. You might think the hardest part is staying awake for more than 24 hours, or constantly keeping your foot on the floor. You might think the hardest part is round-the-clock vigilance for law enforcement. You'd be wrong.


Top Reviewers On Amazon Get Tons Of Free Stuff - As it turns out, a lot of reviews on Amazon are written by people who are nothing like you. They're written by elite reviewers who are sent free merchandise to review products. In other words, it's possible that the guy reviewing that toaster you're looking at wasn't in the market for a toaster to begin with and didn't pay a cent for it.


Best Microscope Photos of the Year - These are really beatuiful.


Wind Turbine Syndrome - Those suffering from Wind Turbine Syndrome live within a few miles of wind turbines and suffer from a mixed bag of problems like dizziness, mild nausea, insomnia, difficulty breathing, and/or headaches.





The Church of the Jedi - Being a Jedi, it seems, is not as easy as it looks in the movies. But these folks in the basement are giving it their best shot... Yes, they're followers of the faith from Star Wars that helped Luke Skywalker pilot X-wing fighters with his eyes closed and Anakin Skywalker, a.k.a. Darth Vader, choke people from across a room. The Force. The Dark Side. The divine wisdom of a 900-year-old backward-speaking puppet. These pilgrims believe in it all.

News from Aroudn teh World (2/11)

Huge Dark Matter Experiment Finds Nothing but More Mysteries - It might appear strange to the rest of us, but a null finding is actually encouraging for physicists, who will use the results to set stringent limits on what kind of dark matter they might expect to find in the future.

Why Drug Traffickers Love Buses - Drug smugglers know this, which is why they love buses. Drug cops also know this, but can't do much about it.

Boeing 747 flying into the sunset - "The 747 is a dead man walking at this point," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation industry consultant and managing director of Leeham Co. in Issaquah, Wash. "It had its day and ushered in the era of the jumbo jet, but now that day is done."

How the World Population has Changed - This map can tell you everything about it.


Facebook Police - The junior analysts who make up the User Operations team are the human decision-makers behind the generally faceless Facebook machine. They are very real people who have been hired, oftentimes with only a few years of experience, to judge whether the videos and photos you post—or report—are potentially offensive, walking the line of propriety that would send the site spiralling into the irresponsible.

News from Around the World (1/11)

Google's Nexus 5 - The Nexus 5 is available today at the Google Play store. It's a fully unlocked device, priced at $349 with no contract for the base 16GB model. The 32GB version prices in at $399, and both are available in white and black.


Which Is More Evil: Coke or Pepsi? - If you don't like GMOs, then you probably shouldn't drink either of America's leading soda brands. But let's say Coke and Pepsi products are your only options. How do the two soda giants compare on the social-responsibility index? Here's our totally subjective guide to the relative malevolence of America's favorite pop-making multinationals.
 

Why Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold—Physicists Solve the Mpemba Effect - You might know that if you use hot water instead of cold water it actually freezes faster. But now you know why it does!


Science secrets of the scariest haunted houses - There are two approaches to understanding how fear works in the brain. Joy Hirsch of Yale University investigates using an fMRI scanner. In the scanner, researchers provide study participants with a stimulus -- usually an image of a frightened person or a spider or snake -- that is known to trigger the response.


This is a great. You HAVE to watch this.

News from Around the World (31/10)

How To Read More — A Lot More - I think there are three main barriers that hold people back from making this happen and I want to disassemble them right now so you can start reading way, way more.


iPhone Touchscreen Accuracy - Testers should always ask questions. Testers and engineers should always ask questions. By asking questions and trying to look below the surface, you gain a better understanding of the problems you’re trying to solve and the original questions you were trying to answer. As developers and testers, asking questions is how we build better products and yield the best results.


Neuroscience Behind How Sleep Cleans Your Brain - Through a series of experiments on mice, the researchers showed that during sleep, cerebral spinal fluid is pumped around the brain, and flushes out waste products like a biological dishwasher. The process helps to remove the molecular detritus that brain cells churn out as part of their natural activity, along with toxic proteins that can lead to dementia when they build up in the brain, the researchers say.


The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board - But the real question, the one everyone wants to know, is how do Ouija boards work? Ouija boards are not, scientists say, powered by spirits or even demons. Disappointing but also potentially useful—because they’re powered by us, even when we protest that we’re not doing it, we swear. Ouija boards work on a principle known to those studying the mind for more than 160 years: the ideometer effect.

Google Nears Smartwatch Launch - The new device, which will run on Android, will be integrated with Google Now, the company's intelligent personal assistant that can answer questions, make recommendations and predict what information users need based on what they are doing, a person familiar with the situation said.

News from Around the World (30/10)

10 Facts About The Transforming Global Religious Landscape - Here are ten things that you should know about the current state of religion in today's world.


Mathematical 'crystal ball' that may predict calamities - Lead researcher Dr Lionel Barnett says: "The key insight in the paper is that the dynamics of complex systems – like the brain and the economy – depend on how their elements causally influence each other; in other words, how information flows between them. And that this information flow needs to be measured for the system as a whole, and not just locally between its various parts."


Secret Life of the Ghost Hunter - On a recent investigation, his work bag contained a slightly smaller inventory: a laptop, some EMF meters (“To pick up changes in the electromagnetic fields,” he explains), small speakers, a few voice recorders, two flip video cameras and some dirty gym clothes.



Adorable Animals That are Jerks - Without a doubt, dolphins are jerks. Male bottlenose dolphins will sometimes team up to target a single female and harass her persistently, forcing her to mate with them despite her attempts to escape.


The Church’s Spiritual Message in Prince George’s Baptism

News from Around the World (29/10)

9 Things You Should Know About Down Syndrome - October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Here are nine things you should know about the condition.


50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel - The main rule for this exercise was that the innovations should have come after widespread use of the wheel began, perhaps 6,000 years ago. That ruled out fire, which our forebears began to employ several hundred thousand years earlier.

Seeing Through Camouflage - To experimentally assess which types of visual camouflage better interfered with learning, Toschianko had human participants play a simple computer game. A computer-generated photo was presented on a touch screen, and the participant had to touch the spot on the photo where they thought they saw a triangle that looked like a hidden “moth.”

The Incredible Shrinking Plane Seat - This doesn't sit well with many travelers, particularly those who are large or overweight. Arm rests and aisles are also getting slimmed to wedge in the extra seat, meaning more elbows get bumped. And while seats are now being designed more ergonomically, with better cushions and head rests, the improvements don't stop people from rubbing shoulders.

3 Simple Ways to Time Travel

News from Around the World (28/10)

7 Things You Might Not Know About Calvin and Hobbes - If you always liked reading Calvin and Hobbes, do give this read.


The Bible Paradox - Nearly 80 percent of all Americans think the Bible is either literally true or is the inspired word of God. And yet, most Americans have no idea what is actually in the Bible.


The Brief History of 'Dude' - The contemporary use of dude developed in the Pacific Coast surfing culture of the early 1960s, it entered mainstream popular culture in the early ’80s, and it’s persisted, until recently, along the same basic lines.


Why Kettle Whistles - It may come as a surprise to some, but in all the years that people have been brewing tea, no-one has ever quite been able to work out why kettles whistle. In a basic sense, of course, the reasons are pretty clear, but the physical source of the noise and the specific reason for the whistling sound have both remained elusive.

Electric Superbike of the Future

News from Around the world (27/10)

Wildlife at Chernobyl’s Fallout Zone - Chernobyl’s abundant and surprisingly normal-looking wildlife has shaken up how biologists think about the environmental effects of radioactivity. The idea that the world’s biggest radioactive wasteland could become Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary is completely counterintuitive for anyone raised on nuclear dystopias.

5 Surprising Facts About the Oarfish - A sputtering oarfish may look like a terrifying sea monster, but it is not thought to pose a danger to people or boaters.

The First Venomous Crustacean Species - Within this toxic dynasty, one of the major arthropod groups—the crustaceans—sticks out. There’s no such thing as a venomous crab or lobster, prawn or shrimp. There are some 70,000 species of crustaceans and, until recently, it seemed that all of them were venom-free.

Smart, Powered Bicycle Wheels - Enter two exciting new, and funded, projects for powered bicycle wheels that are simply smart: the Copenhagen Wheel and FlyKly.

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Digital Microscope

News from Around the World (26/10)

How People Have Died in the 21st Century - the 2 (maybe 3) huge causes of death is really quite visible.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki = Liveable, But Not Chernobyl? - This difference is attributable to three factors: (1) the Chernobyl reactor had a lot more nuclear fuel; (2) that was much more efficiently used in reactions; and (3) the whole mess exploded at ground level.


What Makes A Boomerang Come Back? - “When the boomerang spins, one wing is actually moving through the air faster than the other [relative to the air] as the boomerang is moving forward as a whole,” explains Tan.


Junk DNA (no more) - "Enhancers are part of the 98 per cent of the human genome that is non-coding DNA – long thought of as 'junk DNA'," says Visel. "It's increasingly clear that important functions are embedded in this 'junk'."


Popsicles of the Future - Putting the shaky scientific claim aside, Marx’s invention is the result of a three-year collaboration with university scientists, a Michelin three-star chef, and a manufacturer of industrial nitrogen machinery with the goal of completely reinventing the form, function, and flavor of freezer pops.

News from Around the World (25/10)

Unconventional Reasons Why You Should Read - Here are seven good reasons why you should be reading.


Photographing the Amish - Nevala’s job ultimately became easier when the children on the farm started to take an interest in him. The restrictions on children being photographed, Nevala found, were looser, so he felt free to snap away as they played in their tree house and raced on wagons.


Apple’s New-found Fondness for ‘Free’? -Aside from the potential backlash, having set a precedent, I think Apple is playing a clever game. Sacrifice two sources of revenue in order to boost the appeal of the hardware and the ecosystem.


15 Awesome MS-DOS Viruses in Action - They're pretty old, but reminds you that you really need to secure your system if you're using a Windows OS.

How Mac Pros Are Made - While folks always love taking a look at teardowns of Apple products, sometimes it's just as nice, if not more interesting, to take a look at how those products are put together in the first place.

News from Around the World (24/10)

Windows and Poor Battery Life - "Instead of the 26% less battery life in Windows that Anand measured in 2009, we're now seeing 50% less battery life. This is an enormous gap between Windows and OS X in what is arguably the most common form of computer usage today, basic WiFi web browsing. That's shameful. Embarrassing, even." (Moral of the story: If you want long battery life, just switch over to mac, you wouldn't regret it!)

Hopes of Cure for Baldness - Now, Colin Jahoda at Durham University, UK, and colleagues have managed to produce multiple dermal papillae that retain their specialised abilities by culturing the cells in a 3D rather than 2D system.

World's 'Most Traveled' Man - Meet Mike Spencer Bown who's 44 years old and have travelled to more than 190 countries.

Ma’am, Your Burger Has Been Paid For - “This is an example of goodness gone viral,” said Ms. Ryan, who since the publication of “Pay It Forward” has become somewhat of a clearinghouse for random acts of kindness. “People bring me their pay-it-forward stories, and I’ve been hearing about the drive-through phenomenon a lot lately.”

If Beer Ads were Forced to be Honest

News from Around the World (23/10)

9 Most Vandalized Landmarks - Good or bad, you decide.


Lying for Financial Gain - This results might surprise you, I think maybe the data needs to be examined at more carefully.


Giant Asteroid Won’t Hit The Earth In 2032 .... Probably - “To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent,” said Don Yeomans, the Spaceguard manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.


The ban of 'Q' - And while it’s true that the letter Q was outlawed for 85 years, from 1928 until last month, the reason for the ban had little to do with aesthetic bias or onomastic whim.


Strange Laws of USA - If you're thinking of going down to USA any time soon, do read this first. You do not want to break the law unknowingly.