Daily Links 11-19-13

In this morning's link roundup: a collection of bookish tote bags, how to make your marriage last a lifetime, the thankless job of a pastor's wife, and more.

*****************

A bookish collection of tote bags via Book Riot.

*****************

Two things you can do to make your marriage last a lifetime.

*****************

One way to figure out today's "must do" item is to make a list of things that make you most anxious or uncomfortable and start there.

*****************

When Columbia University was moving into their new library in 1934, they used a really long book slide.

******************

Thom Rainer has a wonderful word of encouragement to pastors' wives. It is a truly thankless job.

******************

As children, their family were spared the violence of the Kristallnacht by an SS officer. Now, 75 years later, they are on a quest to find that officer to thank him for his kindness.

******************

The 50th anniversary of the passing of C. S. Lewis is coming up in a couple of days. Here's an interview with HarperOne publisher Mark Tauber on Lewis' enduring appeal.

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.

*****************

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.

*****************

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

*****************

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.

*****************

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.

*****************

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)

******************

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

Weekend Playlist - When Did You Fall In Love With Me

Chris Rice is best known as a contemporary Christian artist. But he managed to score a huge hit with this wonderful love song about a guy who realizes that his female friend has fallen in love with him. It's a great example of someone who is an artist first and a Christian second. It's also a really cool song. Enjoy.

Should Teens Be Allowed to Date?

Our family has chosen to not allow our girls to date until they are ready to consider marriage (which won't be for a while yet). Lest you think I am being too prudish, I offer this article from Acculturated for your consideration.

Think about the purpose of dating. It’s not just some fun thing people do. It’s going into dating with that mindset that takes a wrecking ball to the heart. 

No, the most essential purpose of dating is to seek out and get to know a potential spouse. Sure dating also entails emotional and spiritual growth. But a big part of that growth is to prepare you to be a better spouse and parent. Life and nature have this pretty stubborn trajectory, and marriage and family is the direction we hurtle, whether we like it or not. 

So let’s go back to teen dating. Pretty sure there is a broad consensus that teenagers should not get married. With the exception of maybe the Duggar family, people on both sides of the aisle tend to agree that men and women should be emotionally (and heck, physically) mature before they take lifelong vows, especially if those vows are to stand a chance of actually being life-long. Ok maybe the Duggars are a bad example because Josh Duggar (married son) actually seems like more of a man than your average 30 year-old. But I digress.

Heck, call me a bad social conservative, but I don’t even think women should get married until they are in their mid-twenties and have had a little time to experience some independence after college, which yes, I think they should attend. Unmarried. 

The average female body doesn’t even stop growing until around the age of 25. And call me crazy, but it seems un-ideal for a woman to have a baby when her body is still growing and developing. And considering that babies are the natural result of marriage, well – it’s worth thinking about these things.

Yes, it is worth thinking about these things. Unfortunately, many families don't carefully consider the pros and cons of teenage dating before allowing their children to pursue relationships. And it's best to start thinking about it early before your kids are teenagers.

Daily Links 11-15-13

Links for your weekend reading: Unrequited love redeemed, the schedule makers, tea inspired by books, the best careers are not planned, and more.

**************

An essay on unrequited love redeemed. Now that's how to do the proposal.

**************

Putting together Major League Baseball's regular season schedule is no easy task. 30 teams, 162 games apiece. It's a logistical nightmare. The amazing thing is that for more than a quarter century the task has been completed by a husband and wife team using no more than a pencil and paper. Their story is featured here.

**************

Nothing accompanies a good book as well as a hot beverage. If you're a tea drinker and love books you will want to check out this line of teas inspired by classic literature.

***************

The best careers are not planned (Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds):

I was having a discussion with a friend recently about career planning. I told him that I had received some advice about my career plan. I had been told that I need a more defined career plan and need to control where my career is going. Some of the advice was solid. For instance, I was told that I need to identify my weaknesses and find ways to improve them or get the experience required for my dream job. True. But I was also told that I need to work out the details right down to choosing a region and finding organizations in that region for networking. That seemed a bit intense to me. I was assured that I could apply my own personal metrics and essentially control my career path. 

My friend asked me how old the person offering the advice is and I gave the age. My friend grinned and said, "Oh, well that is young enough to think he can control those things." 

I love that answer. 

I love it because we are all told to plan and try to control every aspect of our lives to win the prize of career, money or other desired goal. The problem is that our ability to control really stops at the end of our fingertips. We can only control ourselves (and in some instances that is complicated and difficult).

This article really resonates with me because my current career is not at all what I had planned coming out of college. A lot of folks I have talked to have had the same experience. Rarely do we end up pursuing as a career what we think we will.

**************

Aaron Armstrong continues his series on improving your bible study with a helpful list of technological aids.

**************

Dr. Timothy George offers his perspective in the debate over Strange Fire.

Daily Links 11-14-13

In this morning's roundup of links: systematic theology, Victorian slang, pop-up reading rooms, whatever happened to Bible study, and more.

*****************

Aaron Armstrong continues his series on Bible study. In this post, he makes the case for needing a systematic theology.

*****************

A fun list of Victorian slang words.

*****************

Tim Challies continues his interview with John MacArthur regarding the criticisms of his Strange Fire conference. As I have mentioned before, I don't have a firm position on this issue. I post these articles only because they interest me in studying this issue. An added bonus: a charismatic responds to MacArthur.

*****************

This pop-up reading room brings books to different parts of New York City. A very cool idea.

*****************

Whatever happened to Bible study?

It seems to me that simple Bible study – when we open a Bible and study it together – is slowly vanishing from the church. 

Oh, we have studies and we call them Bible studies, but the primary source of the study is often a book or curriculum about the Bible, not the Bible itself.  The Ladies ministry has “Bible Studies” but they are really studies the thoughts and writings of Beth Moore or Mary Kassian or Lysa TerKeurst or Liz Curtis Higgs or some other well-known author and speaker. I’m not particularly offended by any of those ladies and I’m sure there is lots to be gleaned from their books and study guides. Men gather and study some book about being godly men and there’s nothing wrong with that! I even hear of preachers who do series based not on a book of the Bible, but based on someone’s book about the Bible. Small groups use this book or that study. And, in full disclosure, my life was radically changed at a pastors’ conference when we studied Henry Blackaby’s “Fresh Encounter” series, and later the “Experiencing God” curriculum was instrumental in a time of revival in my church in Cedar Rapids. 

I am not opposed to Christian books, discipleship curricula and such things.

But I am just wondering, “Where did all the Bible study go?”

Hat tip: Challies

***************

Take a virtual tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

***************

An incredible gallery of photographs from Charles Dickens' London.

This Is Real

Daily Links 11-13-13

In this morning's edition of links: remembering Veteran's Day, lessons about marriage from Pride and Prejudice, a new documentary on the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty fame, what real manhood is all about, and more.

*****************

Monday was Veteran's Day here in the United States. Unfortunately, Americans don't do as good a job as the British do in remembering the day. Called Armistice Day in the United Kingdom (in honor of when World War I ended), the British have a number of wonderful traditions including a two minute silent ceremony conducted at 11:00 a.m.

Workers at Lloyds of London pause for a moment of silence on Armistice Day

In addition, a small village held a funeral at 11:00 a.m. for a World War I veteran who had died alone a month earlier.

We should never forget those who sacrificed so we can enjoy freedom.

*******************

Karen Swallow Prior argues that everything she needed to know about marriage she learned from Pride and Prejudice:

When I teach Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, I take great pains to un-sully it from students’ film-adaptation-induced misconceptions that it’s a “romantic” novel. As a satirist, even if a gentle one, Austen offers rather unromantic corrections to vices and foibles, many of which range far beyond the surface themes of love and marriage. Indeed, like most early novels, Austen’s contend with the seismic social shifts birthed by modernity, particularly the rise of the individual. In Pride and Prejudice, as in Austen’s other works, the private angst surrounding the choice of a marriage partner really reflects the larger, public anxieties swirling around a disintegrating class structure, a new social mobility, and increasing personal autonomy.

Nevertheless, the truth is that I still learned everything I needed to know about marriage from Pride and Prejudice

Read the whole thing. (Hat tip: Acculturated)

*****************

You know the Robertsons from their hit show Duck Dynasty. But do you know the whole story. On November 21, I Am Second will premiere a full length film on America's most famous family. You can see the trailer here.

*****************

Stephen Mansfield on what real manhood is all about:


A review of his new book will be coming soon. Stay tuned.

****************

A delightfully bookish collection of wedding cakes.

How I Survive Baseball's Offseason

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.

*****************

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.

*****************

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.

*****************

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.

*****************

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.

*****************

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

*****************

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

*****************

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.

"Everyone Thought We Were A Bit Mad"

Meet Simon Fitzmaurice, an Irish filmmaker who chose life in the face of certain death:

Ruth Fitzmaurice watched as the consultant, a man they had never met before, entered the hospital room and made his way towards her husband’s bed.

Simon, a talented filmmaker and the father of three small boys, lay there with a tube going down his throat, pushing air into his lungs, allowing him to breathe but preventing him from being able to talk.

They listened as the medic spelled out in no uncertain terms what he expected them to do.

'He basically announced that this was the end of the road,’ explains Ruth. ‘That was it, they had done all they could - that he had phoned Simon’s own consultant in Beaumont Hospital who agreed that ventilation for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is not advocated in Ireland.’

The consultant continued, telling Simon that it was now time for him to make ‘the hard choice’ - to agree to come off the ventilator.

But Simon was not going to give up that easily.

Despite the consultant’s stark and very clear recommendation, Simon refused to grant permission to take him off the machine that was keeping him alive.

‘Simon’s family very much think for themselves, and Simon in particular is a very strong character,’ smiles Ruth. ‘He wouldn’t be fazed by being told what to do by a doctor, he would question things and say: “Hang on a second.”

‘The consultant told us if he stayed on the ventilator that he wouldn’t get out of the hospital. With MND [a degenerative condition that destroys the cells that control voluntary muscles and can affect speaking, walking, breathing, swallowing and general movement] it’s like, “where do you think this is going? You’re only going to get worse. Why would you choose to ventilate?” So that’s when we decided to fight.’

Not only did they decide not to take Simon off the ventilator they went a step further by deciding to have more children (they already had three when they received his diagnosis). They ended up having twins.

‘Everyone thought we were a bit mad,’ laughs Ruth. ‘But we felt in the face of death and with everything that had happened, well, kids are the ultimate opposite of all that, they’re life-affirming.’ 

But that's not all. Simon also went on to finish a script that he had been working on for a movie he will direct starting next year.

Rather than accepting a death sentence, Simon has chosen to go on living life to the fullest possible. It's a beautiful picture of what it truly means to choose life. Be sure to read his entire story.

Daily Links 11-11-13

Giving C. S. Lewis his due, the best time to drink coffee, Saving Mr. Banks, and responding to critics of Strange Fire in today's link roundup.

************

November 22nd will mark the 50th anniversary of the death of C. S. Lewis. According to Christianity Today, he will finally receive a recognition that is long overdue:

On the anniverary of his death, Lewis will be commemorated with a memorial plaque in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, which honors authors and other cultural figures whose work has shaped English society. A two-day conference on Lewis's works will begin the preceding day.

Alister McGrath, the latest to examine Lewis biographically, believes this anniversary year will solidify Lewis's reputation as an apologist and classicist. At Oxford's recent literary conference, McGrath's sold-out talk on Lewis led to requests for him to give three more. 

"We've minimized Lewis's importance [in the UK], and we have catching up to do [with U.S. evangelicals]," said the author of C.S. Lewis: A Life. "Lewis is here to stay; that debate is over. Now there is this sense of, 'There is more to learn from Lewis, so let's read him again.' "

***********

More on C. S. Lewis: why he is still relevant fifty years after his death.

***********

There's no question that coffee helps you stay alert. But did you know there is a best time to drink coffee, scientifically speaking? (Hat tip: Challies)

***********

John MacArthur answers his critics regarding Strange Fire. For example, why MacArthur chose to emphasize what is essentially a second-level issue of doctrine:

These questions remind me of an article Thabiti Anyabwile wrote during the Strange Fire Conference, in which he explained why this issue is so important. He wrote, “First, we have to admit that there’s a correct and an incorrect position on this issue. Somebody is right and somebody is wrong… . Second, we have to admit that how we view this issue substantially impacts the nature of the Christian life. It matters. It’s not an inconsequential idea. Someone worships God appropriately, someone doesn’t… . Third, we have to admit that this issue practically impacts Christian worship and fellowship. It’s not only a private matter, but a corporate one as well.”

I agree with all of that. This is an issue of critical importance because it affects our view of God as well as our understanding of how to live out the Christian life, both individually and corporately. 

I don’t think, however, that this issue is unclear in Scripture. The fact that Christians disagree on what the Bible teaches does not mean that there is a lack of clarity in Scripture, but rather in Christians. The Word of God is our authoritative rule for faith and practice—meaning that it is perfectly sufficient for teaching sound doctrine and governing right living. Certainly, an orthodox pneumatology fits under that umbrella. 

On the one hand, I would agree that this is a second-level doctrinal issue—meaning that someone can be either a continuationist or a cessationist and still be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ. I have always maintained that position, and I reiterated that point several times during the conference. I have good friends who consider themselves continuationists, and I am confident that these men are fellow brothers in Christ. But that doesn’t excuse the seriousness of the error. In fact, I would appeal to my continuationist brethren to reconsider their views in light of what Scripture teaches. 

On the other hand, I am firmly convinced that this secondary issue has the very real potential to taint a person’s understanding of the gospel itself. In such cases, it becomes a primary issue. For example, charismatic theology does corrupt the gospel when it expresses itself in the form of the prosperity gospel. Moreover, the global charismatic movement happily shelters other heretical movements—such as Catholic Charismatics and Oneness Pentecostals. Taken together, the number of charismatics who hold to a false form of the gospel (whether it is a gospel of health and wealth or a gospel of works righteousness) number in the hundreds of millions, which means they actually represent the majority of the global charismatic movement. That is why we took such a strong stand both at the conference and in the book. 

Be sure to read the whole thing. More to come on this subject.

***************

One of the movies that I am really looking forward to seeing is Saving Mr. Banks which tells the story of how Walt Disney convinced author P. L. Travers to allow him to make a movie version of Mary Poppins. The film focuses in part on the writing of the songs that would make up the memorable soundtrack. The songs were written by Richard and Robert Sherman (portrayed in the movie by B. J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman). Thankfully the duo had the opportunity to work closely with Richard Sherman throughout filming.  

Weekend Playlist - I Haven't Met You Yet

What happens when you combine a handsome, talented vocalist with a well-styled music video? You get this weekend's featured song, of course. Michael Buble is arguably one of the best vocalists working today. His music reflects all sorts of genres that make it difficult to pigeon-hole him into one type of music (and that's a good thing). Here's one of my personal favorites of his songs. It's a lot of fun.

Daily Links 11-8-13

A bookish roundup of links to start off your weekend: a cool bookmark, why you should write in your books, a really neat audiobook you can listen to for free, and more.

*****************

I love this bookmark....

You can find more neat designs here. (Hat tip: Book Riot)

*****************

Here are five reasons you should write in your books. I've never been in the habit of writing in my books but this makes a fairly good case for doing so.

****************

Although C. S. Lewis is probably best known as a theologian I think his fiction books are his best works. One of my personal favorites is The Screwtape Letters. One of the earliest audio editions was narrated by none other than John Cleese. You can listen to all of it for free here.

***************

Ernest Hemingway is arguably one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. Although he never wrote about how to write fiction he did mention the subject in a number of letters, articles, and books. Here are seven of his best tips on how to write fiction.

***************

Here's a terrific list of books on reading and writing.

***************

If you live in Copperas Cove, Texas, you better return your books to the library on time or end up in jail:

An ordinance adopted by the City of Copperas Cove could mean an arrest for patrons if they don't return library materials.

A recent case landed one man behind bars for a book he'd had checked out for more than three years.

On Wednesday Jory Enck was booked into jail and released for overdue library materials.

Court documents show he checked out a GED study guide in 2010 and didn't respond to attempts from the library to get the book back.

I have heard of extreme penalties for overdue library books but this seems like a little bit much.

***************

Fans of Jane Austen beware: there is a new updating of Sense and Sensibility coming to bookshelves soon. While it's a popular thing to attempt, there are several pitfalls writers would do well to avoid.

***************

Here's a list of 9 books that you should drop everything to read right away.

***************

This is without a doubt one of the coolest bookstores you're likely to find anywhere. The Dutch really know how to make the most of an abandoned church:

Details (and more photos) here.

Daily Links 11-7-13

How the Internet affects your brain, an update in the war on boys, calling vs. career, and more in this morning's roundup of links.

*****************

How the internet is rewiring your brain. This is both fascinating and scary at the same time. (Hat tip: Stephen Mansfield)

*****************

The latest story in the continuing war on boys via Christina Hoff Somners:

Being a boy can be a serious liability in today’s classroom. As a group, boys are noisy, rowdy and hard to manage. Many are messy, disorganized and won’t sit still. Young male rambunctiousness, according to a recent study, leads teachers to underestimate their intellectual and academic abilities. “Girl behavior is the gold standard in schools says psychologist Michael Thompson. “Boys are treated like defective girls.”

These “defective girls” are not faring well academically. Compared with girls, boys earn lower grades, win fewer honors and are less likely to go to college. One education expert has quipped that if current trends continue, the last male will graduate from college in 2068. In today’s knowledge-based economy, success in the classroom has never been more crucial to a young person’s life prospects. Women are adapting; men are not.

Hat tip: Nancy Pearcey

*****************

John Ortberg on calling versus career:

American society does not talk much about calling anymore. It is more likely to think in terms of career. Yet, for many people a career becomes the altar on which they sacrifice their lives. Benjamin Honeycutt, a historian who specializes in the history of work at the University of Iowa, notes that work has become our new religion, where we worship and give our time. As people’s commitment to family, community and faith are shrinking, they begin to look to their careers to provide them with meaning, connectedness, identity and self-esteem.

A calling, which is something I do for God, is replaced by a career, which threatens to become my god. A career is something I choose for myself; a calling is something I receive. A career is something I do for myself; a calling is something I do for God. A career promises status, money or power; a calling generally promises difficulty and even some suffering – and the opportunity to be used by God. A career is about upward mobility; a calling generally leads to downward mobility.

*****************

A cool collection of Scrabble themed gifts.

****************

A fascinating list of 10 celebrities who also were spies.

****************

It's not our job to "police" other Christians:

In my experience as a Christian and Preacher, you would think that any disagreements, arguments, or debates I'd have would be with the non-Christian, the atheist, or those from other religions, but not true. It seems anytime I've had a disagreement with someone over Christianity it is always a fundamental or legalistic Christian who feels it's their mission and life's work to be God's police to the world. 

These types of people make it their personal mission in life to prove others wrong, be right, argue, debate, belittle, name-call, and look down on those who do not line up with them whether doctrinally, theologically, denominationally, or other church or faith issues.  It's a mind-set of either you are for me or against me.  You either agree with me or you are a liberal, heretic, sodomite, watered-down, ignorant, stupid, (add you own description here), I've been called a lot.  The sad thing is I don't like to argue(really!), but some folks can't seem to understand that, their whole faith system is made up of proving others wrong, being right, and making a point to "police" Christians.

A Word About Southerners.....

Presenting the following as a public service to non-southerner visitors to the blog:

Daily Links 11-6-13

David Suchet bids Poirot "Adieu", John Cleese lectures on creativity, things I will not regret doing with my wife, and much more in today's roundup of links.

*****************

After 25 years portraying Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, David Suchet will make his final appearance when Curtain airs in the UK next week. American audiences will have to wait until next year to see the final films. The Telegraph has a wide-ranging interview with Suchet about the role that made him famous that is a must read.

*****************

John Cleese is arguably one of the funniest men in show business. But he also has some great insights into fostering creativity from this lecture from 1991. Take the time to watch this excerpt:




Hat tip: Brain Pickings

****************

Duck Dynasty has been a huge hit for A&E. It's also not without a little bit of controversy over what's getting edited out of the show. R. J. Moeller argues that Duck Dynasty's values don't need editing.

****************

I bet you didn't know that it was a little girl who inspired Abraham Lincoln to grow out his beard.

****************

Tim Challies shares 18 things he won't regret doing with his wife. He also shared 18 things he won't regret doing with his kids. Both are worth reading.

****************

Trying to decide how many kids to have? Consider reading this first. These are some good things to consider when determining how large a family to have.

Daily Links 11-5-13

A fresh roundup of links for your morning reading. In today's edition, a call to parents to require obedience from their children, defining fecundophobia, and more.

*****************

John Piper has a few things to say about children and obedience:

I am writing this to plead with Christian parents to require obedience of their children. I am moved to write this by watching young children pay no attention to their parents’ requests, with no consequences. Parents tell a child two or three times to sit or stop and come or go, and after the third disobedience, they laughingly bribe the child. This may or may not get the behavior desired. 

Last week, I saw two things that prompted this article. One was the killing of 13-year-old Andy Lopez in Santa Rosa, California, by police who thought he was about to shoot them with an assault rifle. It was a toy gun. What made this relevant was that the police said they told the boy two times to drop the gun. Instead he turned it on them. They fired. 

I do not know the details of that situation or if Andy even heard the commands. So I can’t say for sure he was insubordinate. So my point here is not about young Lopez himself. It’s about a “what if.” What if he heard the police, and simply defied what they said? If that is true, it cost him his life. Such would be the price of disobeying proper authority.

I witnessed such a scenario in the making on a plane last week. I watched a mother preparing her son to be shot. I was sitting behind her and her son, who may have been seven years old. He was playing on his digital tablet. The flight attendant announced that all electronic devices should be turned off for take off. He didn’t turn it off. The mother didn’t require it. As the flight attendant walked by, she said he needed to turn it off and kept moving. He didn’t do it. The mother didn’t require it. 

One last time, the flight attendant stood over them and said that the boy would need to give the device to his mother. He turned it off. When the flight attendant took her seat, the boy turned his device back on, and kept it on through the take off. The mother did nothing. I thought to myself, she is training him to be shot by police.

Hat tip: Challies

******************

Dispelling the myth "I'm bad at math" is genetic. The bottom line is that you have to work harder but you can get better at it.

******************

Mollie Hemingway has an insightful piece on fecundophobia - the irrational fear of families with large numbers of children:

There is much more than a whiff of the misogyny in denigrating mothers of multiple children as brainless, in stating that mothers who are homemakers are inferior to those who “earn” their living, or in attacking women for prioritizing fertility above independence. It’s not just that nobody on planet earth could be truly independent — which is to say completely self-reliant or free of any other human support. It’s not just that we each depended on others from the moment of our conception to birth, but all of society is comprised of individuals who work with each other and depend on each other throughout their lives. Or healthy societies are, at least. It may be impolitic to suggest that men and women are in any way different, science be damned, but many women have a particular specialty in cultivating relationships and family. To denigrate women who acknowledge and accept this as a good thing rather than fight against it is not exactly life-affirming.

Hat tip: John Stonestreet

*******************

How to read a lot more than you are now.

*******************

A defense lawyer's reply to the government's motion to not be referred to as "the government". (Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds)

*******************

Revealed: a once-lost art collection valued at approximately $1.5 billion that was thought to have been destroyed in air raids during World War II was discovered behind rotting food in a Munich apartment.

Daily Links 11-4-13

Do reporters report the news or invent it? What should we make of the fight between Mark Driscoll and John MacArthur? Are we raising a generation of wimps? Answering these and more of life's important questions in today's roundup of links.

*****************

The Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals first met in the World Series in 1946. The final game ended in controversy when Johnny Pesky of the Red Sox held on to the ball hit by Harry Walker to drive in Enos Slaughter to win the series. The problem with this story? It didn't happen that way. The sportswriters altered the facts to create more drama. 

*****************

Barnabas Piper is discouraged by the fighting between Mark Driscoll and John MacArthur in the aftermath of the Strange Fire Conference. What kind of message does this send to young evangelicals?

*****************

Are we raising a generation of wimps? Well, yes. We need to do something about it.

*****************

What do they teach kids in schools these days? That is not merely a rhetorical question meant to criticize the state of public schools.

A Pennsylvania woman set out with a video camera to learn what college students in her state know about the Holocaust — and discovered an incredible lack of knowledge not only of the genocide of the Jews, but of basic facts about U.S. history and World War II. 

Rhonda Fink-Whitman visited college campuses in Pennsylvania this fall, including the venerated Ivy League institution the University of Pennsylvania, where she was repeatedly faced with a remarkable ignorance about events that took place in the last century. 

Students didn’t know where Normandy was, why U.S. forces landed there, why the U.S. even entered the war or who was president at the time. (Wilson, Eisenhower and JFK were among the guesses.)  One student didn’t know who Anne Frank was, because he said he never read the book.

Be sure to watch the video at the link for the full story.

*****************

How do you set your priorities and make decisions? Following these guidelines from President Eisenhower can help.

*****************

Kirsten Powers shares how she became a Christian. It's a fascinating article.

Weekend Playlist - Feelin' Good

This is a case of a song being written for a particular show but takes on a life of its own thanks to a popular cover. Here's the background on the song and its original appearance in a 1964 musical. Nina Simone's version recorded in 1965 became a big hit and has appeared in numerous places. But I would venture to bet that most people know this version by Michael Buble the best. The video is a pure classic as well. Enjoy.

CD Review: The Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament - Dramatic Audio Bible

Our culture today (particularly among the so-called millenial generation) is a media-soaked culture. Millenials consume media at a greater rate than any other generation. With this in mind, Thomas Nelson published the Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament in a dramatized audio version. The star-studded cast features a number of younger Hollywood stars including Sean Astin, Anasophia Robb, Corbin Bleu, Jordin Sparks, and many others. The idea is simple: present an audio drama version of the New Testament targeted towards millenials who are more likely to sit and listen to a drama than read the Bible.

Pros
This is a high quality production. It's pleasant to listen to and makes for an enjoyable experience. I felt like I was really immersed in the biblical narrative through the presentation.

Some of the casting choices were quite good and performed better than I expected for an audio drama. This is a much different type of acting where you have to relay a wide range of emotions and thoughts through the voice.

Each book of the bible also has an audio introduction by Max Lucado and Jenna Lucado. These were very helpful in setting up the context for each book so that the listener could fully understand what was happening at the time the book was written.

Cons
The production is obviously targeted towards a younger audience. The producers chose to use the International Childrens Bible (ICB) translation for the script. While this offers the benefit of having plainer and simpler language (particularly in the narration) it felt a little like the scripture was being watered down for the audience. The ICB lacks the beauty of other English translations of the Bible and this is particularly apparent when it's being read aloud.

The intentional casting of younger actors to appeal to a younger audience also seemed like a bit of a drawback. As a result, some of the performances lacked a bit of gravitas that you would hope for in a presentation such as this.

That being said, this is still a reasonably good production. Families who are looking for an audio bible to listen to with younger children will do well with this production.

The audio bible comes on 3 MP3 CDs as well as a behind the scenes DVD that offers insights into the production.

I would recommend this for families with pre-teen and teenage children.

This product was provided for review through the Booksneeze program. No compensation apart from the product to be reviewed was provided in exchange for this review.

Daily Links 11-1-13

Happy Friday! Here's a super-sized roundup of links for your weekend reading pleasure. The Right Stuff 30 years later, benefits of procrastination, separation of church and state, marriage and religious freedom, and much, much more.

******************

Last week, Dr. Albert Mohler addressed the students and faculty at Brigham Young University on the critical issue of marriage and religious freedom. An excerpt:

The moral revolution we are now witnessing on the issue of homosexuality is without precedent in human history in terms of its scale and velocity. We are not looking at a span of centuries, or even the length of one century. This revolution is taking place within a single human generation. 

I would argue that no moral revolution on this scale has ever been experienced by a society that remained intact, even as no moral revolution of this velocity has yet been experienced. We can now see more clearly where this revolution began. It is virtually impossible to see where it ends. 

But, for the first time in the experience of most Americans, the moral revolution revolving around marriage, the family, and human sexuality is now clearly becoming a religious liberty issue. The rights of parents to raise their children according to their most basic and fundamental theological and moral convictions are now at stake. Courts have ruled in some jurisdictions that parents cannot even “opt out” their children from sex education driven by moral revisionism. Legislatures in California and New Jersey have made it illegal for mental health professionals to tell minors that there is anything wrong with homosexual sexuality, orientation, or relationships. Parents are put on notice. How long will it be before the moral authority of the secular state is employed to allow children to “divorce” their parents? How long before the logic of sexual revolution and sexual self-expression leads to parents being told what they must allow and facilitate with their own children when it comes to sex, gender, and sexual orientation? The logic of moral change by legal coercion is already fully on display in many modern legal debates. How long will a respect for parental rights and religious liberty hold back the flooding river of this moral revolution?

Read the whole thing.

***************

A 95 year old World War II veteran who was a POW of the Burma Railway (made famous in The Bridge on the River Kwai) has come forward to tell his story. This is a fascinating account and I'm glad he decided to write a book. I hope it will be available here in the U. S.

Procrastination is a bad thing - or is it? Perhaps it doesn't necessarily need a cure.

***************

Seven obstacles to enjoying Sabbath rest. By the way, I disagree with the premise that it's not a mandate for Christians. I believe that the creation account from Genesis 1 as well as the Ten Commandments makes it clear that it is mandated.

***************

A historical examination of why we separate church and state (Hat tip: Acton Institute Power Blog)

***************

It's been thirty years since The Right Stuff first appeared on movie screens. Here's a look back at the film that helped Hollywood shake its "Vietnam Syndrome".

***************

The first automated library in the U. S. has opened in Norman, Oklahoma. It's kind of a Redbox for books. While on one hand this seems like a neat idea, I am not sure that I'm comfortable with the idea of not being able to browse for books.

***************

In defense of Disney princesses:

Disney movies aren’t telling girls that they should limit their aspirations to becoming princesses (although young women sometimes do become one, so be ready); they are teaching them to adopt the values of Disney princesses: kindness (Snow White), compassion (Ariel), intelligence (Belle), humility (Cinderella), courage (Merida), and determination (Tiana), among others. These are worthy attributes for boys as well as girls, but the point is that Disney isn’t steering girls toward being future trophy wives – it’s promoting values that make you a decent person, regardless of your career or lack thereof.

****************

It's Friday. Trevin Wax has some advice on what you should be saying at the end of the work week.

I'm writing this post on a Friday. It's been a frantic week, with a higher-than-usual number of meetings to attend, decisions to make, content to create, and people needing a response.

When I leave my office this afternoon, I will be leaving behind an inbox full of emails awaiting response.

There are editorial tasks I hoped to cross off my list this week. Unfortunately, they have risen in defiance of my careful agenda and have chosen to stubbornly persist into next week's to-do list.

hen I leave, I'll have my laptop bag strapped on my shoulders, but it's all the stuff I carry around in my mind that will weigh me down. The blogs to write, curriculum to edit, writers to enlist, the teams I lead, the contacts I need to make...

And like I do every week, I will whisper to myself as I walk out the door: And God saw that it was good.

Daily Links 10-31-13

Catching up with the Robertsons, don't follow your passion, why introverts make good leaders, plus a couple of bonus Halloween links in today's post.

*****************

Leave it to Si Robertson to succinctly state what is wrong with the world: "It ain't gun control we need; it's sin control." He made this statement in a lengthy profile of the Robertson clan of Duck Dynasty fame that appears in the current issue of Men's Journal. The whole article is worth reading. (Hat tip: The Blaze)

*****************

Darius Rucker first hit it big as frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish. But he's gone on to have a successful career in country music, too. The video below is a perfect example of his music. Be sure to watch carefully for some special cameos (and make sure to watch all the way to the end).



*****************
Dilbert creator Scott Adams has some advice on how to be successful: don't follow your passion:

For most people, it's easy to be passionate about things that are working out, and that distorts our impression of the importance of passion. I've been involved in several dozen business ventures over the course of my life, and each one made me excited at the start. You might even call it passion. 

The ones that didn't work out—and that would be most of them—slowly drained my passion as they failed. The few that worked became more exciting as they succeeded. For example, when I invested in a restaurant with an operating partner, my passion was sky high. And on day one, when there was a line of customers down the block, I was even more passionate. In later years, as the business got pummeled, my passion evolved into frustration and annoyance. 

On the other hand, Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I was willing to try. When it started to look as if it might be a success, my passion for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden ticket. In hindsight, it looks as if the projects that I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success. Success caused passion more than passion caused success.

Hat tip: Lifehacker

***************

Readers can save the world! Not really, but reading is good for you according to our friends to the north.

***************

Four things introverts do that make them effective leaders. This is an interesting read. (Hat tip Adrian Warnock)

***************

Five myths of leadership. I have to admit I have heard every single one of these and thought they were all true. (Hat tip Vicki Whiting)

***************

It can now be revealed that Disney's Imagineers tested the Haunted Mansion special effects on the night cleaning crew:

Hat tip: Neatorama

****************

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast. You can listen to the entire broadcast here. Welles' sign-off was priceless:

"This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that “The War of The Worlds” has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn’t soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night …so we did the best next thing. We annihiliated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the Columbia Broadcasting System. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian …it’s Halloween!"

This Makes Absolutely No Sense

I mean, how does one go about smoking underwater, anyway?

Source: Neatorama

Daily links 10-30-13

In today's roundup of links: an interview with Tim Challies, some cool aerial photographs, the most unusual dress you're likely to see, and more in today's links.

*****************

Joe Carter has an interview with Tim Challies is well worth reading. They are two of the most influential Christian bloggers in the blogosphere today. Before I started the blog I was reading Joe Carter's Evangelical Outpost on a daily basis. His writing had (and still has) a big influence on me. I read Tim Challies' blog often.That should be evident by the number of posts I link to that come from Tim's site. In addition, I typically won't read a book without consulting his site. Tim is one of the most prolific and thoughtful book reviewers I know.

*****************

A fascinating article on the psychology of language.

*****************

A wonderful slideshow of aerial photos of baseball parks.

Above: Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, September 1932

*****************

According to a new study, homeschooled children are leaner than children who attend public school.

*****************

A British designer made a dress entirely out of chocolate. It's not how it looks. The important question is how does it taste? (Hat tip: Wardrobe Door)

*****************

17 year-old Karrie Brown wanted to be a model. She also has Down Syndrome. Wet Seal made her dream come true. Read her amazing story. (Hat tip: Life News)

Daily Links 10-29-13

Links of interest rounded up daily. In today's edition, the nanny state strikes again, advice from a father to son, twenty years of leadership, and more.

******************

Dr. Albert Mohler reflects on twenty years as president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It hasn't always been an easy road. (Hat tip: Challies)

******************

Advice from a father to son:

I encourage you, my son, to be a conservative but not in the narrowly political sense. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats embody the fullness of true conservatism, and I have no desire here to give you partisan advice. I want to draw you to something deeper, a way of life that is grounded in essential truths about God, man, and society.

The true conservatism I would steer you toward begins with a foundational truth that is revealed to us in the Bible but which has always struck me as the height of common sense: namely, that we were made in God’s image but are now fallen. The first part is the ground of all human dignity and intrinsic worth. Apart from it, we are nothing more than great apes with no ultimate claim to specialness. The second part is the reality check, the reason why we need laws and limits, checks and balances. 

******************

Reason #4,378 to homeschool: A school district tells a mother she has to provide a doctor's note in order to pack her child's lunch. No kidding. (Hat tip from my lovely wife, via Free Republic)

******************

Who was the first African-American major league baseball player? If you answered Jackie Robinson, you would be wrong.

******************

Neil Gaiman on getting children to read:

The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. 

I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children's books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. I've seen it happen over and over; Enid Blyton was declared a bad author, so was RL Stine, so were dozens of others. Comics have been decried as fostering illiteracy.

It's tosh. It's snobbery and it's foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn't hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.

Well-meaning adults can easily destroy a child's love of reading: stop them reading what they enjoy, or give them worthy-but-dull books that you like, the 21st-century equivalents of Victorian "improving" literature. You'll wind up with a generation convinced that reading is uncool and worse, unpleasant. We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy. (Also, do not do what this author did when his 11-year-old daughter was into RL Stine, which is to go and get a copy of Stephen King's Carrie, saying if you liked those you'll love this! Holly read nothing but safe stories of settlers on prairies for the rest of her teenage years, and still glares at me when Stephen King's name is mentioned.).

Read the whole thing.

Hat tip: Book Riot

Please Stand Clear of the Doors

This is a really cool t-shirt. If you've been to Disney World, you'll understand.

You can buy the shirt here.

Daily Links 10-28-13

An always entertaining assortment of links served fresh daily. In today's post, the most famous book set in each state, giving up the news, busyness is the enemy of good, and more.

****************

Here's a roundup of the most famous book set in each state in the United States. What do you think of the selection from your home state? I'm not sure that I agree with the selection for Virginia. (Hat tip: Susan Wise Bauer)

*****************

Long before we gave up cable (a story for another day) I had pretty much stopped watching the news. Part of the reason is much of the primetime programming isn't really news at all. Mostly my decision to stop watching the news came from this song by Chris Rice:

****************

Busyness is the enemy:

Charles Spurgeon wisely said, “Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin.” And I not so wisely have turned myself into a pretzel trying to learn Latin. Not actually read Latin, of course, just do the mental equivalent of it. It takes its toll on my energy, my spiritual growth, my relationships, and my ability to do anything well.

I don’t see life slowing down anytime in the next weeks or months. In fact, I know I’m on the threshold of what could be one of the busiest or deepest growth seasons of my life. I want to be faithful with the time, to redeem it, to rest in it, to rely on the Father through it. But this is my confession—busy is the other four-letter word for me. I hate busy. It is just as much a thief of my soul as being “fine.”

Hat tip: Blogging Theologically

****************

A roundup of the ten best songs about baseball players.

****************

A neat collection of family tradition ideas.

****************

Aaron Earls asks some tough and necessary questions about teenagers and social media:

A 12-year-old girl in Florida committed suicide after she was repeatedly and relentlessly bullied online by classmates. Unfortunately, these types of stories are becoming more and more frequent with too many parents being caught unaware of what their child was enduring.

As a parent of three, one of which just started middle school this year, these stories make me want to lock him in a room until he's no longer a threat to himself or others. Or even more to the point, I want to perfectly shield him from other students who seemingly fail to recognize as human those different from them. 

But I know that's not possible. Being hurt is part of living and growing. Love, on some level, requires at least the possibility of pain. Love takes risks. That goes for him as he is growing and it goes for me as a parent. Loving him means I allow him to grow and I risk letting him be hurt. 

Having said that, loving him also means I do not remain blind to avoidable dangers that lurk in front of him. He may not see them, but it's my job to spot them and protect him as needed. One of the dangers that parents seem to continually be naive to is social media, until it is too late as was the case in Florida.

So I'm going to ask parents two questions about social media. Hopefully, this steps on toes and anger some people because something needs to change or we will continue to see deadly consequences of cyber bullying.

Weekend Playlist - I'm Gonna Sit Right Down (And Right Myself A Letter)

There's no question that Nat King Cole died far too young at age 45. Though his career was all too brief he was one of the premier vocalists of his day. He had an extensive discography and amassed an incredible number of credits in a short period of time. When trying to pick out a song to highlight it's difficult to pick out just one. But this track is one of my personal favorites. It was originally written in 1935 and has been recorded many times. It's even been included in the show Ain't Misbehavin'. Enjoy this classic song.

Daily Links 10-25-13

In today's roundup of links: origins of Star Trek, pitfalls of our celebrity culture, why restarting your computer is the easiest way to fix problems, and more.

*****************

Willie Nelson once sang "Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys." Now it might be more appropriate to say, "Don't let your babies grow up to be celebrities."

*****************

Star Trek only ran for three years on television but became an instant legend. The irony is that it wouldn't have made it on air at all if it hadn't been for a rather unlikely producer: Lucille Ball.

*****************

Most people know that performing a complete restart on your computer or other electronic device is often the easiest way to fix a problem. Why is that?

*****************

Why we overestimate the power of technology and underestimate the power of words:

Many experts assume that Amazon’s social recommender system is its killer feature. But what exactly about this feature makes it a killer? 

What — in fact — is the magic sauce of Amazon? 

Sure, there is some predictive value in keeping track of many different variables. There always is. It’s probably Amazon’s best kept secret. But I am guessing it’s not only a secret for people outside of Amazon.

If you would ask me what the most persuasive ingredient is of the sauce, I would say it’s copy.
The smartest algorithms make sure you get to see products that you love (to buy). A recommendation engine knows what you really want, what you really really want. Computing thousands of variables is the key to predicting consumer behavior. Right? 

Nah, I don’t buy it. The black box probably does have an impact, but I know for sure that the copy does.

*****************

Play with your food! Some amazing food art:

More here.

****************

Daily Links 10-24-13

Duck Dynasty is a biblical sex-saturated reality show, why you should keep a journal, finding libraries in unusual places, and more in today's roundup of links.

*****************

Duck Dynasty is one of the most popular reality shows on television. Part of its appeal is the fact that it shows the Robertson clan as the real down home folks that they are. It's a show that is steeped in family values. It also is a biblically sex-saturated show. That's a good thing.

*****************

Seven reasons for keeping a journal. (Hat tip: Challies)

*****************

Finding libraries in unusual places (even on the back of a donkey!)

*****************

Stories like this one make me feel old: 10 things that are disappearing from elementary schools.

*****************

I definitely need this: how to quit wasting time on the internet.

*****************

I don't need encouragement to read more books but this doesn't hurt either: 7 unconventional reasons you should read more books. (Hat tip: Trevin Wax)

*****************

One father shares about removing his children from the internet. (Hat tip: Challies)

*****************

It's time to emphasize winning with our kids and sports:

My son will play in soccer tournaments today. And I want him to win

I feel like I’m going against the tidal wave of parental niceness to even say such a thing, but it’s true. During this game, I don’t want him to just have fun or play safely. I want his team to win.

And I hope every dad cheering from the sidelines for the other team feels the same way.

I believe we should resist the fashionable tendency to take competition out of sports. 

That’s why, at the beginning of the soccer season, I asked my son: ”What’s more important? Having fun or winning?" He answered: “Having fun?”   

No,” I replied. “Winning. Because if you’re not winning, you’re not having fun.”

What do they teach children in school these days?

******************

Calling all writers: 41 redundancies you should ditch.

Advice for Parents