Good morning from Washington D.C., and welcome to your weekend reading! I only have a few stories for you to read this week before you go enjoy a classic fall weekend. My abbreviated reading list is as follows…

Derek Thomas writes from South Carolina, where he pastors a congregation that has seen their homes absolutely devastated by the recent flooding: “In the darkness of a Sunday morning, the “raging waters” threatened to engulf them, and though their lives were spared, their belongings were not.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, seen be many as the next Speaker of the House, has dropped his bid for the Gavel. Politico’s take here, the Washington Post here.  There are now a plethora of potential candidates for the position which is constitutionally third in the succession line to the President.  During my time on Capitol Hill yesterday, I wouldn’t describe the situation as “panic”, but there’s definitely no clear way forward for GOP leadership – unless Paul Ryan changes his mind. 

This morning I read that the White House was sacking its $500m training program of Syrian rebels, which reminded me of another story earlier in the week which described how the Russians were firing Cruise Missiles into the area (VIDEO). 

In the race for President, the only news was some fundraising totals (Carson raised $20m but has a VERY high burn rate, Marco and Rand both have ridiculous burn rates, and Ted Cruz raise over $12m in hard cash…more totals being released soon I’m sure).  But there was a story about how a second cloud storage/computing company has turned over Hillary Clinton emails to the FBI. 

The most tragic story of the week was the American airstrike that hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan, killing several and wounding more. It was a horrific and incompetent mistake, which the President took responsibility for. It’s these kinds of things that remind you of the need to pray for people you don’t know, half a world away.

Al Mohler posted ‘Some Thoughts on the Reading of Books’ – he occasionally tweaks and reposts this column from time to time, and I enjoy his perspective on how, what, and why to read books.

There was yet another Planned Parenthood video released this week. 

Tim Challies posted this rather funny blog about church music called ‘A Songwriting Rant’ – I don’t agree 100% with everything this guy says, but he’s right on with so much that its worth reading. For example, “…there are also some lyrics which, even after having sung dozens of times and given a fair bit of thought to, I genuinely cannot fathom. Nothing else could take your place to feel the warmth of your embrace. Wait: what? If someone else was in your place, they would feel the warmth of your own embrace? How does that work? You spoke the earth into motion, my soul now to stand. I give my life to follow everything I believe in. I’ll walk upon salvation. What on earth do they mean?”

And two funny stories about Chick-fil-a this week.  First, on how they out perform MANY other fast food chains in terms of shear revenue, and second (and much more silly) what happens to your body an hour after eating food from Chick-fil-a…

Interestingly, Time Mag had a list of the 10 richest people of all time, and many (most!) of these people I’d never even heard of…

Finally, Challies released a nifty test on the Trinity – see how well you know about the Triune God!

That’s it!  Go enjoy your weekend, and feel free to pass along any good reading that you’ve done in the coming week!

PJW