It’s that time again – to catch up on some reading for the week.  So flag this email and scroll through it as you enjoy some time off from the daily grind.  Here’s what’s shaking now, and what you might have missed this week…

First off, the top three stories of the week were undoubtedly the Congress’ decision to send President Obama money and permission to arm Syrian rebels, the Alibaba IPO, and the decisive “NO” vote on Scottish secession.

And this week’s MUST READ article comes from Al Mohler who writes to Christians about how Biblical Theology (a way of reading the Bible) ought to inform our thinking on sexual morality (among other things I’m sure).

The new rage is now ‘coffee-naps’ for those who have the constitution and schedule availability to nap in the middle of the day…perhaps not me (though I wish it were). What came to my mind was remembrance of great men like Ronald Reagan and Winston Churchill who used mid-day naps in order to essentially create two working days from one. There are other bizarre nocturnal resting habits out there as well…

This was a quick and amusing article on how people in America talk – I say “quick” because it’s not worth reading the entire thing, but is worth a quick scroll.

Along similar lines, there’s a neat mapping feature that Pew Research has setup that will allow you to see migratory flow in different countries.  Click on the USA and you’ll notice immediately that as of 2013 over 45million people currently living in America were born in other countries…12million from Mexico etc.

There’s a great (and not too long) article in the American Thinker that quickly dispels the myth that oceans are “eating” the earth’s heat (which is one of the excuses die-hard climate change cultists use to explain away the lack of skyrocketing global warming recently).

The ‘Thinker’ also has a fabulous article called ‘The Mysterious Moderate Muslim’, which I enjoyed immensely, but all the more because expert researcher Fritz Wenzel was quoted!

Speaking of the fringes of intellectual reasonableness, someone is now making art from iPhone smudges…I refuse to attempt an explanation, you’ll just have to read it.

And speaking of phones and technology, Tim Challies has a new app he’s recommending to enrich your prayer life…check it out. As they say, “there’s an app for that…”

Here is a simply fascinating video on ‘How Wolves Change Rivers’ (4min – h/t Fritz Wenzel).

An interesting news piece from Business Insider was posted this week about the growing field of Nurse Anesthetics (h/t proud N.A. Rebecca Petzinger)

Hilarious (if not a bit crass – you’ve been warned) article to get the weekend started with a laugh. The author riffs off the old euphemism “happy as a clam” and asks the vital question: ‘Why are Clams so Damn Happy???’

A little more seriously, Challies reposted the Cripplegate’s little ditty on the Death of Thomas Cranmer, which is a nice little piece of historical encouragement.

And along the lines of standing up to the bullies of ignorance, Bill Maher found himself in the ironical position of standing up for Christians of all people…in so doing he exposed Charlie Rose as a dithering leftist buffoon of the most embarrassing variety.

On the opposing side of ignorance is Monergism.com who announced this week that they’re offering 125 free eBooks (of the Christian theological variety).

Also, in a fight against not only ignorance, but that attitude which pervades much of our society – Apathy – Paul Maxwell over at Desiring God has a column addressing the topic. 

And, in what was probably the most useful post for me this week, Tim Challies makes another appearance on my list of links with this helpful column on ‘Preaching the Gospel to Yourself.’  I assure you that this one is worth bookmarking.

That’s it for this week – enjoy your coffee and your reading!

PJW

PS – I have an entire stack of articles, videos and blog posts that many of you have sent to me to check out. If you don’t see your article, it may be that I’ve simply not been able to read or listen to it yet – so thank you for the suggestions, and keep them coming!