Daily Links 4-18-14

A roundup of links for your weekend reading pleasure. In this edition: Would Paul have used video, the coffee shop as your office, it's okay to fail, things healthy couples don't do, and more.

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Aaron Armstrong poses an interesting question:

If Paul were ministering today, would he use video? 

This is an important question, and it’s not one that is as clear cut as you might think. Many who have embraced video venue gatherings point to Paul as their example. Because he was all about becoming all things to all people in the hopes of winning some to the gospel, he would surely use any (non-sinful) means at his disposal to extend the reach of the gospel.

That’s generally how I’ve seen the argument go, anyway. (I realize I’m probably oversimplifying a bit.) 

The question of whether or not Paul would use video is an important one, but I wonder if it might also be the wrong one.

Would Paul use video to share the gospel? Probably, sure. But, more importantly, what would he use it for?

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Mr. Met was once threatened by the Secret Service. No, really. Just goes to show the lengths they would go to protect the President.

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Fun facts about one of the best baseball movies of all time, A League of Their Own.

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If you do a lot of work at the coffee shop, you should read this.

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Forget the bucket list. How to make moments that matter.

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Now this is what I call a cool tablet keyboard.

Hat tip: Book Riot

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8 things that healthy couples don't do. #3 is the toughest for me.

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10 productivity tips to make your life easier.

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The best thing about shopping at Ikea is that their furniture is cheap and can be repurposed for numerous other uses. The fact that there is a whole website devoted to Ikea Hacks should be a clue. Here are 20 of the best Ikea furniture hacks.

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Instead of a to-do list how about a done list? Harnessing the power of progress.

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Contrary to popular belief it's okay to fail.

Daily Links 1-29-14

In today's edition: a road trip any baseball fan would love to take, re-reading The Screwtape Letters, the many ways to educate a child, and more.

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The ideal road trip for any baseball fan would be to visit every ballpark. But imagine visiting all 30 parks in 30 days. Will Leitch figured out how to do it to start out the 2014 season. Looks like a terrific trip to me.

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What do you do when disillusionment sets in? It's bound to happen to everyone at one time or another. Some very practical tips on how to deal with the all too real crises of faith.

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Aaron Armstrong on re-reading The Screwtape Letters:

When I first came to faith, one of the first authors I read was C.S. Lewis. I’d loved Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a child, and had read some of the other books in the series, so when I found out he was a Christian, I was pretty darned excited. 

The thing I noticed about Lewis’ theological work in contrast to his fiction, is it tends to be slow-burn material. The kind of stuff that, if you rush through it, you’ll miss something very important. 

In other words, re-reading is necessary.

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Do you want to be someone or do something? Lessons from the life of John Boyd.

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Rod Dreher: There are many ways to educate a child.

We always wanted to try homeschooling, but when our firstborn became of school age, we put him in kindergarten in Dallas, and then in school, just to see how he would do. Because of his Asperger’s, and the accompanying sensory processing disorder, he couldn’t handle it. So we had to embrace homeschooling because our son needed us to. I say “we,” but really, it was 99 percent Julie. It was she who threw herself into researching Matt’s condition, consulting with experts, and working, through trial and error, to find programs that worked for him. It was, and remains, an extraordinary feat of perseverance and love. More than once I have been grateful for the fact that we live in a time and place in which it is possible to educate our son on our own, and tailor his educational experience to his own strengths and weaknesses. I think about how our boy, the squarest of square pegs, would have done in a previous generation, when this wasn’t available, or how he would be doing if he didn’t have a mom like the one he has, and it’s hard to imagine. It would have broken him, most likely.

I have to say that my daughters are blessed because their mother has been so committed to making sure that they both get a proper education. She has certainly done the lion's share of work in homeschooling our girls. She's certainly the reason that they both have done so well with school.

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Daily Links 11-18-13

Good morning. Here's the latest roundup of links for your reading enjoyment. How you should read your Bible, why you shouldn't have goals, some thoughts on marriage, and more in today's post.

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Not long ago Tim Challies wrote a post entitled 18 Things I Will Not Regret Doing With My Wife. Now it is his wife Aileen's turn to offer her list of things she doesn't regret doing with her husband.

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Aaron Armstrong concludes his series on getting serious about Bible study by exploring some recommended resources for hermeneutics.

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Are goals a bad thing? Perhaps they are standing in the way of achieving the things we want to achieve. Maybe it's better to have a system designed for success rather than a specific goal to achieve.

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Lovers of Shakespeare know the old joke about everyone dying in the tragedies. But this infographic helps illuminate the point:

Source

It can also be purchased here.

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An app that creates interactive Shakespeare plays:

WordPlay Shakespeare is a study aid that pairs text with videos of professional Shakespearean actors performing the same plays. Each video is short and features the performers reciting the lines on the opposite page, which often amount to less than 10 lines or 150 words at a time. Splitting the play up into these digestible chunks makes it easy to understand the emotion and intent behind every word.

If readers are still stumped, each page features a "tap to translate" button that converts the Shakespearean text — in Wordplay's case, a combination of the First Folio of 1623 and the Globe editions of 1866 — into modern language. For example, touching the translate button turns this line from Macbeth: "He can report/ As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt/ The Newest state" into this: "He can report/ Given the gory state that he's in/ The latest news from the battlefield." Wordplay also offers a pictorial synopsis at each scene's beginning and a clickable cast list with each character's biography (but beware of plot spoilers). 

As with an e-book, readers can highlight portions of text and add notes. Readers can see their notes on digital index cards. Users can share their notes or favorite phrases from the play via email, text message, tweet or Facebook post.

Maybe I should think about buying an iPad. (Hat tip: Book Riot)

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The secret lives of four common condiments. This is a really interesting article.

Daily Links 11-12-13

Your daily roundup of interesting items from the web. In today's edition: the disappearance of the gentleman athlete, choosing a study Bible, ending the worship wars, and more.

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Emily Esfahani Smith argues that the gentleman athlete has disappeared (hat tip: Glenn Reynolds).

On a related note, Bobby Jones is another very gifted athlete that also epitomized what it meant to also be a gentleman athlete. His story is wonderfully documented in Mark Frost's excellent book The Grand Slam. Jim Caviezel also portrayed Jones in the movie Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius which is one of my favorites.

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Aaron Armstrong is encouraging folks to get serious about Bible study. The first place to start is picking the right Bible. More specifically, picking a study Bible. There are lots of good tips here on how to pick the right Bible for you.

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Thom Rainer believes there are signs that the worship wars are coming to an end. I especially agree with his second point regarding the resurgence of hymnody.

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What Shark Tank can teach us about capitalism. While I don't get to see this show often the few times I have watched it I have found it compelling television.

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Is all sin the same to God? According to Tim Challies, the answer is yes and no.

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Here's a handy chart of kitchen weights, measures and more.

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Kevin DeYoung offers ten errors to avoid when talking about sanctification and the gospel:

With lots of books and blog posts out there about law and gospel, about grace and effort, about the good news of this and the bad news of that, it’s clear that Christians are still wrestling with the doctrine of progressive sanctification. Can Christians do anything truly good? Can we please God? Should we try to? Is there a place for striving in the Christian life? Can God be disappointed with the Christian? Does the gospel make any demands? These are good questions that require a good deal of nuance and precision to answer well. 

Thankfully, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Reformed confessions and catechisms of the 16th and 17th centuries provide answers for all these questions. For those of us who subscribe to the Three Forms of Unity or to the Westminster Standards this means we are duty bound to affirm, teach, and defend what is taught in our confessional documents. For those outside these confessional traditions, there is still much wisdom you can gain in understanding what Christians have said about these matters over the centuries. And most importantly, these standards were self-consciously grounded in specific texts of Scripture. We can learn a lot from what these documents have to teach us from the Bible.