Good Saturday morning! This email is a weekly compilation of the most pertinent and interesting stories, videos, blogs, and (occasionally) books that I’ve enjoyed throughout the course of the week. Honestly, “enjoyed” may be a strong word, but some thing you just simply must be aware of. Don’t linger on everything, but scan and scroll and see what you need to catch up on!

As a follow up to the Hollywood outrage over the lack of black actors winning awards at a recent award ceremony, Thomas Sowell writes on Hollywood’s racism and their “demand for villains” (h/t Ben F!). Here’s the best excerpt: With all the heated and bitter debates between those who believe in heredity and those who believe in environment as explanations of group differences in outcomes, both seem to ignore the possibility that some groups just do not want to do the same things as other groups.

I don’t always listen to it, but Al Mohler’s Briefing can be an excellent source of commentary on the latest news and events from a Christian worldview. On Thursday, his briefing was pretty interesting. He talks about America’s obsession with political polling, and addresses the NY Times editorial about how Planned Parenthood was “vindicated” recently – to be quite honest I had the editorial in my clips and deleted it out of disgust.

As you probably know, there was a GOP debate this week. This one was only 2 hours as opposed to previous marathons which tacked on an additional hour. Donald Trump wasn’t there (out of protest), and it actually made things easier to watch.  A lot less ad hominem attacks, and perhaps the best line of the night came from Ted Cruz at the very beginning when he said:

“I’m a maniac, and everyone else on this stage is stupid, fat, and ugly, and Ben,” — he gestured toward Ben Carson — “you’re a terrible surgeon,” he deadpanned. After a pause, he added, “Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way, I want to thank everyone here.”

Here’s Politico’s Top 10 Moments from the debate…

Fox News’ response to Donald Trump not participating… 

Trump was going to hold a charity fundraiser for wounded warriors (nice prop, don’t you think?), but as the Weekly Standard writes, for years he’s never given much money to these organizations. Furthermore, later in the week many of those organizations announced that they didn’t want his money.

Equally disgusting was the Cruz proposal to give $1.5million to a wounded warriors charity if Trump went one on one with him in a debate. 1. He’s ALSO using these vets as props and 2. It was clearly a politically motivated way to elevate him as the clear alternative to Trump.

Of course, like the child left out of the fun, Carly raise her hand “me too! me too!” agreeing to match the $1.5m, but then decided to “up the ante” to $2m.

Trump’s response to Cruz was actually pretty funny…I missed if he bothered to respond to Carly.

This set of stories literally turned my stomach. Besides the fact that the whole thing was so childish, anyone who has known vets personally, appreciates their service and the amazing sacrifice they’ve made for their country and countrymen. We have to be careful not to make them a political football with which to score points with the electorate.

More on the Presidential Campaign…

Some friends have asked me questions relating to 1. how the Iowa Caucuses work, and 2. When does all this voting begin?  Here is a link to the Wall Street Journal Calendar of events (including debates), and here is the Republican Party’s explanation of how each state works.

John Kasich is “wooing Iowa voters” from New Hampshire. Nice little insight (with video) of how the Governor’s campaign is going.

The Wall Street Journal says its time to start taking Bernie Sanders seriously.  And if you have to read one article on the presidential, this is the one I’d recommend you read. What does it mean when we say that Sanders is a “socialist”? Find out some specifics about what he’s proposing here, and what that means.

IJ Review produced a pretty funny little video with Marco Rubio that plays off his past football miscue.

Predictable: “Evangelical” “leader” Jerry Fallwell (Jr.) endorses Donald Trump

Recap: Erickson on Pastors for Trump

Challies linked to this article from the Cato Institute that argues ‘Christians should Vote for Good Governance over Good Theology’.  I sort of agree here with what he’s saying, though its not a very complete argument. The basics of what he is saying are sort of undermined by the argument’s shallowness. I think that if someone has the character qualities and integrity necessary to provide good leadership in office, then we should vote for them. If they are a Christian, then those qualities ought to be there, and therefore its a definite plus to have a Christian running for office (this is a line of argument Rubio has used recently, and one that Kasich has used for a long time now). However, what the heart of this article is getting at is this: if you are down to two options, one is an incompetent Christian, and the other is a competent man/woman of integrity who isn’t a Christian, then you should vote for the latter. This I agree with. I’ve met many bumbling Christians running for office, and I wouldn’t want them anywhere near the levers of power!  Still, there is a balance here. It would be a mistake to think that leadership doesn’t come with severe tests of character, and it is my belief that while every man on this earth is fallible and fallen, the men and women who have built their lives upon the “rock” (Matthew 7:24-27) will be much more likely not to make bad decisions in times of crisis.

Now for a few NON-PRESIDENTIAL stories (finally, right?)

Fascinating article my brother Alex sent along about how “nanowire” is being “grown” to make solar power more effective.

A sad ending to the Bundy standoff in Oregon. 

That’s it for this weekend!  As I was laying in bed last night, I appreciated some verses that came to mind from the past. They reminded me of the sovereign hand of God on all of history, and that the end goal of all history is his glory. This is what Paul says:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33-36 ESV)

Welcome to the weekend!  Lot’s happened this week, so let’s get to it!

First, Rev. Russell Moore wrote a must-read column called, ‘Sorry, the Bible Doesn’t Promise to Make America Great Again’.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard 2 Chronicles 7:14 wrongly applied to America. And in light of all that the Presidential candidates are saying right now, this is a good reminder/perspective.

The big things that happened this week: Obama gave his final (thank goodness) State of the Union address, The GOP had a rather nasty  (but entertaining) debate, the stock market continued to plunge, Christ continued His reign.

What else? Well…

Walmart said its closing a lot of stores – here’s the list.

Jeb Bush continued to hemorrhage support (donors can’t wait to jump ship). And Chris Cillizza says its pretty hard to imagine him winning the nomination. 

Marco Rubio was endorsed by a “Controversial Theologian” (I couldn’t be laughing harder right now at Time Mag’s definition of “controversial”!)

Ted Cruz (born in the home of Maple Leafs) and his citizenship continued to persist as a topic of debate (thanks to Donald Trump who tweeted about it even this morning!). Here’s the controversial WaPo article discussing the matter.

Other interesting items…

Sean Penn stirred up his share of controversy when Rolling Stone released an interview he conducted of El Chapo (mexican drug scumbag). The only thing I can say about this article is that it was so disgustingly self-righteous and so disgustingly long, that I couldn’t even make it to the interview part. I’m only posting as an FYI so you know what’s going on in the world…I’m not advocating you spend time reading the whole thing!

More controversy…super swimmers!  This is definitely a sign of the times. What bothers me is that we see similar issues invading the church today.

Nice little blip about how John Kasich still attends (or tries to) a bi-weekly Bible Study.

And, did anyone else see this?? Kinda sad…

Shrill: Ann Coulter says “Deport Nickki Haley” 

Best blog of the week! Challies on ‘Amusing 1-Star Reviews of Great Books’

Another MUST READ for people trying to figure out the difference between Cruz and Rubio – look at the type of evangelicals who are supporting these two men. From my own observation, Cruz is probably a more devout or at least educated Christian. But I still can’t help but wince when I read articles like this…

Under the Radar: More Hillary email issues – looking like a Smoking Gun

Unfortunate reality setting in: J.I. Packer can no longer read or write. This is a man whose books have moved generations to their knees, and to a better understanding of their Creator. If you’ve never read any of his books, you owe it to yourself to pickup a copy of ‘Knowing God’

TECHNOLOGY: How to Use Snapchat (for those of us over 30). I found this pretty funny – and helpful (sadly)

Perspective: ‘Istanbul Suicide Bomber Entered Turkey as Syrian Refugee, Officials Say’.  Not the type of article that makes the case for letting in a mass of Syrian refugees to America.

This is just Gross! 

Finally, this is a long, but interesting read: ’50 years later, disagreements over young Trump’s military academy record’

That’s it! Have a great weekend!

PJW

Happy Weekend and Happy New Year to you!  After a brief holiday break, the Weekend Reading is back. So here are the most interesting articles, videos and blogs I collected throughout the last few weeks.

As you know there’s sort of standoff right now between the Bundy’s and the federal government out in the desert in OR. One of the most interesting articles I read was on how these guys are Mormons – militant Mormons! Which led me to wonder more about Captain Moroni, which led me to wonder more about these so-called ‘Nephites‘.  Enjoy the rabbit trail!

King….errr….President Obama recently issued an executive order having to do with gun control. Breitbart gives the rundown on why its a constitutional overreach.

Speaking of guns and gun control, The Donald recently had an interesting proposal for Hillary Clinton to consider.  

And there was a bit of a dust-up in the wake of John Piper’s article on whether or not Christians should carry guns – which itself was a reaction to the President of Liberty University encouraging students to “arm themselves.” I may have posted Tim Challies’ article on this a while back (which is an excellent summary of the matter), but just recently I was sent James White’s post on these matters and thought it worth passing along as a follow up. (h/t my Kate).

Back to the POTUS race, I thought this Presidential candidate tracker for 2015 was pretty cool. And this was my favorite Politico piece over the holidays: the 2015 Holiday Gif Guide!

I must have read the most random stuff during the holiday break, because here’s a hilarious story about how one guy several years back went home for the holidays only to realize that his bedding/sleeping setup looked, well ridiculous. He took some pictures, posted them online, and in the U.K. its become a sort of hilarious holiday tradition to do this…

Funny: College Students are Renting out their Dorm Rooms on AIRBNB: What Could Go Wrong?

If you’re like me, then you may have taken the family to the movie theater over Christmas to see the new Star Wars movie. My opinion? It was excellent!  But in follow up to that, Buzzfeed did what they do best, organized a list of 30 things you “definitely missed” in the movie (h/t Parris P. — and of course there are spoilers here).

And…if you’re like me, you used some of your free time over the holiday season to do some fun things – like draw BB-8!  I enjoyed this tutorial video…

Kind of an odd story that peaked my interest this week: This Robot Suit is Designed to Make You Feel 100 Years Old. 

And this is depressing…the cake bakers in OR who refused to make a cake for a lesbian wedding are being “silenced” by a judge and fined etc etc.  The hits just keep on coming for these guys.

Random: This was the Christmas music (lists) played by the Obama’s. This is probably the most secular list of Christmas songs I’ve seen in a long time. I mean, its hard to avoid good Christmas hymns since they makeup the bulk of the Christmas music montage, but boy to the Obama’s do a good job of it! (at least they kept on Silent Night and Away in a Manger).

Speaking of the holidays at the White House, here’s a nifty little feature you may have missed about the gingerbread cakes they made…

Now that its the new year, there are all kinds of challenges being issued, and expectations to live up to. I like the 100 book challenge that Tim Challies put out, and this follow up article on how to achieve it. John Piper makes the point, however, that there’s only one must-read book this year…

Lastly, here’s an article I haven’t been able to read yet but looks fascinating. It’s from 2013 and was mentioned in a recent seminary lecture of mine this week: From Hitler’s Wolves to Christ’s Lambs. 

Have a great weekend!  I’ll leave you with a great verse for the new year – a “restoring” reminder of God’s care and joyful love for His people:

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3:17 ESV)

 

Welcome to the weekend!!!  Here’s a quick roundup of my favorite stories, blogs, videos and more from the week that was.

First off, this is Star Wars opening weekend and I got to see the ‘Force Awakens‘ with my daughter Chloe last night. I won’t post any spoilers here, but it looks like the film will break a lot of records. Here are some fan reactions from CNet (there ARE spoilers here).  All I will say is that our experience was really enjoyable, and that comparatively this may be the best Star Wars movie ever made – and that’s coming from someone who has been enjoying these movies since I was a kid. It left the prequels in the dust, corrected any of the problems that fans had with Ep.’s 1-3, took the best of Ep.’s 4-6 and enhanced the experience with better acting, well timed comedy, endearing new characters, and (of course) great fighting scenes.

There was another GOP debate this week, and I got to watch this one with my grandparents, in Portland, which was a lot of fun! In the days after the debate polling showed that Trump remained on top of the field. Politico has a rundown with the 13 biggest moments of the debate here. I enjoyed some parts of the debate – the parts I found most interesting were the exchanges on foreign policy between Sen. Rubio and Sen. Cruz – and the most annoying part of the debate for me was Gov. Christie bursting in with a dismissive word for ‘American viewers’ re: the Rubio/Cruz exchange. To him (and he supposed to us) these policy exchanges were just a bunch of boring Senate debate – In other words we had hit a moment in the debate where people were actually debating substance and Big Boy didn’t think Americans wanted to hear that. Overall I felt like it was an informative event though.

There’s some bad lip reading out...but not of the debate…(h/t Alex W.)

Kate told me she really enjoyed this new Rain for Roots album for Advent. I listened to some of it, and its worth checking out.

Maybe you caught this already, but the other night Jason Day and his wife were attending a Cavs game when LeBron James ‘plowed into her’.  She seems to be doing okay though. I was really impressed by James’ response, and frankly all parties public comms on this one were very dignified. Was trying to imagine what Tiger Woods would have said…(that would make a great Mad Lib wouldn’t it!?).

Speaking of Woods, apparently he’s making an effort to be human these days. According to a featurette I read in Time Magazine whilst I traveled to the left coast this week, he’s sounding pretty compassionate…almost…humble, actually.

Did you know: C.S. Lewis was a Secret Agent? (h/t Tim Challies)

Challies also posted a few articles about Circle, which I may have mentioned before. It looks very interesting and worthy of checking out. Circle is a device that sits in your home and governs the internet – protecting your family, and providing analytics, and even the ability to “pause” the internet for certain users. Interview with the founder here. Challies’ review here. It is worth scrolling through and reading what this can do and what they have coming up in the future – for $99, this is a worthy investment.

Speaking of Challies, he had an original post called ‘You Don’t Need a Date Night’ which was fantastic. I really agree with him on this one.

Now…a series of the best videos from the week…

• Hilarious: “An announcement from the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.”
• AWESOME: former Navy Seal makes fun of an ISIS recruitment video…(lesson: don’t carry a knife in your mouth…)
• WWII Meme that traveled the world
• What goes on at Westminster Bookstore anyway?

Finally, I really enjoyed Joel Miller’s blog, ‘What we’re missing when it comes to nativity scenes‘ – I actually learned something new about nativity scenes in this one!, and appreciated his historical perspective.

That’s it! Have a great weekend!

PJW

Good morning – and welcome to your weekend!  What an interesting (and sad) week it’s been in the world. In all things though, we know Who is in control, who rules the world, and holds all things in the palm of His hand. Nothing happens apart from His say-so.  I’ve been memorizing these verses with some friends of mine that reminds me of these truths:

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:1-2)

Now to the most interesting things I read, watched, and listened to this week…

Amazing Investigation: This is shocking, and eye-opening, ‘Terrorists Once Used Refugee Program to Settle in US.’ And along similar lines: House sets up task force on Syrian resettlement plan.

Re: immigration and the Syrian controversy, Kevin DeYoung has written a piece that should help Christians think through the situation. How do we balance compassion for others + our American heritage with the obvious danger (not to mention the unfairness) posed by allowing hundreds of thousands of refugees from Muslim lands to skip ahead of the line and get fast-tracked citizenship?

The NY Times has a Map of those settled thus far…

Best blog I didn’t get a chance to read: What Tolkein and Lewis teach us about surviving dark times. 

Article I didn’t get to read by wished I did: The End of ‘One China’

A helpful video review of the new iPad Pro from the Wall Street Journal. Once this thing actually has a way to save files/a file management system that is NOT just in the cloud, I’ll examine it a little closer.

Blog of the Week: A Call for Christian Extremists, by Tim Challies.  This is a must read.

I bet you didn’t know that the day before Parris, Beirut weathered a giant ISIS attack – you didn’t know because no one is talking about it. 

Speaking of France, their retaliation: Drop 20 bombs

Key Op-Ed: Wake up ,Mr. President. Excerpt, “The Paris massacre should mark the end of that self-deception. Jimmy Cartershed his illusions about the Soviet Union after its invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and Mr. Obama needs a comparable rendezvous with reality. This will be harder for Mr. Obama, a man of great ideological vanity, but perhaps the prospect of defeat for his party in 2016 will force him to see the world more clearly.”

New Topic…Great couple of highly relevant articles I finally got to read from John Freeman at Ligonier Ministries. First, ‘Christ and Sexual Sin‘, and second, The Gospel Remedy for Homosexuality‘. Very thoughtful articles here that are worth scrolling through.

The Presidential…What Carlos Lozada of the Washington Post learned about Donald Trump after reading all his books. More from the post: Carson’s campaign doesn’t know a lot of geography (I kid, I kid)

I discovered a new blog this week written by a guy named Joel J. Miller. Good, short writing here. Two samples:

1. Islam is a religion of violence: Or, why abstract theology actually matters
2. The existential crisis behind today’s Islamic violence

Over at Desiring God, Jon Bloom says, ‘You are Meant to Move Mountains’, and the heart of the blog is meant to answer this question: “How would you live differently if you really believed that nothing would be impossible for you?” Bloom is probably one of the best existential thinkers in the evangelical world right now. It’s worth reading his stuff just to learn to think more like this.

Some Interesting Stuff….

Big movies coming out this winter – obviously the Star Wars movie is going to be huge – but an interesting article from WSJ made me think more about the effects of blockbuster movies on the supply chain of that industry. 

Time Magazine is moving their offices to a new location in Lower Manhattan. So they’ve been publishing different pieces about their archives. Challies linked to this one called, ‘7 Fascinating Letters from the Time Inc. Archives’

Fascinating: World’s Second-Largest Diamond Discovered in Botswana. 

Lastly, I enjoyed this video/story over at Vox about how the internet is spread around the world…underwater!

That’s it!  Have a wonderful weekend.

PJW

Good morning and welcome to the weekened! Here are the most interesting articles, blogs, videos and more from the past week…

Over the last several hours we learned that over 100 people were killed in a massive terrorist attack in Paris, France. ISIS is taking credit for the attack, claiming that its retaliation for France’s roll in the bombing campaign in Syria. Key clip from ISIS statements, “Paris is the ‘capital of prostitution and obscenity, the carrier of the banner of the Cross in Europe’ while its attackers were ‘a faithful group of the soldiers of the Caliphate.'”

The Christian response to such acts of hatred and rage and pure evil ought to be prayer for the victim’s families, and a gospel-driven love for people whose worldview is shaped by the wrong-headed views disseminated by Islam. Certainly any religion can be twisted or made militaristic, but for those who know Islam well, this is a perfectly natural outgrowth of its teaching. Deep inside I think we know its wrong and a symptom of a fallen world to think that suicide and murder combine toward redemption. Politically, it is a reminder that even the evil of ancient ideas can infiltrate into any ‘civilized’ 21st century city or country. Modernity is not a perfect form of insulation from the tide of terror.

Now back to America, and Presidential campaign’s state of play. Donald Trump took his rhetoric too far this week, comparing Dr. Ben Carson to a child molester.  I personally believe that its only a matter of time before the enthusiasm for Mr. Trump will be transferred to a more worthy candidate.

Some people may or may not know this, but Dr. Carson is a 7th Day Adventist. What exactly does that mean? An articulate and accessible video by a Masters Seminary prof explains.  And since we’re talking Carson, last week he took some hits in the media over his foreign policy, but it seemed to only help his standing in the polls. 

The GOP Debate that took place this past Tuesday was another interesting spectacle. This time the reviews seemed to favor Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, two young conservative Senators from Florida and Texas respectively.

Zooming out a little bit, Peggy Noonan penned a thoughtful column in the Wall Street Journal about the GOP field and state of play in the nominating process. Her main point was that Democrats are united because their single goal is to seek and keep power, whilst the GOP candidates are currently not united because they are having a very healthy debate of the meaning of conservatism, and what that looks like policy-wise in a host of areas. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

In light of the controversial actions of the University of Missouri football team and some of the student protestors in said school, the Dean of the School of Journalism penned this statement (h/t Tracy L.).

I appreciated Cliff Sims’ take on the Starbucks Cup so-called-controversy. This is just one more area where Donald Trump bloviated, and though this one is a small deal, it ought to inform conservative and Christian opinion about this man’s inch-deep morality and policy convictions.

So much happened this week that caused me to shake my head, but this article about a WWII vet from my Kate’s home town was encouraging. It focuses on the ex-soldier’s bible – a bible which had survived Normandy, and more.

And in case you missed it, the US showed some strength when it flew several B-52 bombers within 12 nautical miles within the man-made Chinese islands in the South China Sea in a show of freedom which sent the following message: the Chinese do not own this Sea!

In tech news, the guys and gals at Apple released what they are calling the iPad Pro. Look pretty interesting…

To more uplifting items…

Tony Reinke wrote a short blog on Desiring God’s site titled ‘What Stops our Fighting?’ that I found to be a good and humbling reminder from James chapter four.

Tim Challies blogged about the phenom devotional ‘Jesus Calling’ and titled the post, ’10 Serious Problems with Jesus Calling’.  I have to say that it is worth looking this over. I know a lot of people who read this devotional, some who are older Christians. Ought we not to have more discernment in who we read?

Challies also penned a less controversial, yet just as insightful, blog called ‘God’s Not Really that Holy, I’m Not Really that Bad.’ You might be encouraged by the reminder of God’s grace.

Speaking of good authors, Ligonier Ministries announced that both Dr. Derek Thomas and Dr. Al Mohler were joining the ministry as Teaching Fellows. That ostensibly means that they will produce content for, and speak at, Ligonier events and other Ligonier programs.

Probably my favorite Christian blog post this week was on 7 Gospel-Centered Principles for Protecting Your Marriage. 

Top two posts I didn’t get to check out but wanted to: A Quiz on the Doctrine of Scripture, by Tim Challies, and ‘Is All Worship Equally Acceptable to God?‘ by Tim Barnett.

And this hasn’t been talked a lot about in my circles yet, but I still found it interesting that a giant merger between two huge beer companies took major steps forward toward finalization this week. 

In case you missed it, thing seem to be continuing down the ‘serious’ path for Hillary Clinton’s email probe…

HOME: Kind of on the odd side, this article caught my eye from Houzz – its all about how to clean your microwave. I mean, who doesn’t see cleaning the microwave as a terrible thing?

MUSIC: Christmas is coming! Which means there will be a lot of good music being released. I have not yet heard the Chris Tomlin album, but I have purchased and am thoroughly enjoying the Sovereign Grace release ‘Prepare Him Room.’

That’s it for now, have a great weekend!

PJW