Godd morning! In today's edition: Hugh Hewitt on living The Happiest Life, Sherlock Holmes the scientist, don't waste you weaknesses, essential books on the American Revolution, and more.
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National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez
interviews Hugh Hewitt about his newest book The Happiest Life. Related:
my review of the book. It was also one of my
favorite books I read last year.
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John Piper encourages us to
not waste our weaknesses:
What is your goal in 2014? I hope it is to be humble and to magnify the power of Christ. If it is, then one key strategy is to identify and exploit your weaknesses.
What does this mean? Negatively, it means that we stop complaining (to God and to people) about the things we are constitutionally not good at. And, positively, it means that we look for ways to turn our weaknesses into a Christ-exalting experience.
When I say “constitutionally not good at,” I mean that we have done our best to overcome the weakness, but we can’t. God has ordained that, through genetics or life-experience, we are limited, broken, weak. Paul asked that God would take his weakness away (verse 8), but God said no. Which means that sooner or later, we should stop praying against the weakness and accept it as God’s design for our humility and the glory of Christ.
Hat tip:
Challies
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How
Sherlock Holmes is the archetypal scientist.
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A symposium on the
essential titles to read about the American Revolution. (Hat tip:
Washington's Library). I would recommend David McCullough's
1776 and
John Adams, David Hackett Fischer's
Washington's Crossing, and Jeff Shaara's two Revolutionary War novels
Rise to Rebellion and
The Glorious Cause as a good place to start.
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What does the future hold for libraries in the digital age?
Here are five possibilities.
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Joe Carter offers a more unconventional (and possibly more practical) method for reading the Bible:
A few years ago I stumbled across a variation of the four steps in an article by theologian Fred Sanders and implemented his recommendation that day. I later had the pleasure of meeting Sanders in person and telling him how his post had transformed my life. My hope is that at least one other person will follow this advice and experience the same transformative effect.
Before I reveal the four steps I want to reiterate that while the advice could transform your life, it likely will not. As with most life-altering advice, it is simple, easy to implement, and even easier to ignore. Statistically speaking, the odds are great that you'll ignore this advice.
But a handful of you will try it so for the one or two people who will find this useful, the four steps that will transform your worldview are:
1. Choose a book of the Bible.
2. Read it in its entirety.
3. Repeat step #2 twenty times.
4. Repeat this process for all books of the Bible.
Christians often talk about having a Biblical worldview yet most have only a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible. They attempt to build a framework without first gathering the lumber and cement needed to create a solid foundation. The benefits of following this process should therefore be obvious. By fully immersing yourself into the text you'll come to truly know the text. You'll deepen your understanding of each book and knowledge of the Bible as a whole.
