Blogs

How Melinda Gates Tackles Huge Problems Without Burning Out | Missy Schwartz, Fast Company
“I have to take that time to fill my own joy bucket if I’m going to be good at this work. I build in 15-minute breaks so that I can take some quiet time and close on one meeting before I go to the next. I’m a big believer in taking time to pause and reflect, particularly when y ou’re working on some of the big challenges in the world.”"

A Minister’s Regrets | Geoff Thomas, Banner of Truth
This is a must-read article by one of the longest-ever serving ministers in one congregation.

Jim Webb Addresses America’s Elites, Trump, And Foreign Policy | The Federalist
Here’s a fascinating political analysis by Jim Webb, once a contender for Democratic nominee.

BuzzFeed Wants To Destroy Chip And Joanna Gaines For Being Christian | Hans Fiene, The Federalist
“Chip and Joanna, HGTV superstars and perhaps America’s most beloved married couple, belong to a church whose pastor preaches that homosexuality is sinful. Horrors.”

5 Reasons Your Team Should Use Case Studies | Eric Geiger
“We often assign a case study when something does not go as planned, when we have failed to execute as we had hoped. We also assign a case study when something goes so incredibly right that we want to crystalize it in the culture and spread it to other teams. The case study typically contains (1) an executive summary of what took place, (2) recommendations for the future, and (3) a thorough chronicling of what went well/wrong. One point person is assigned to lead the case study, coordinate the analysis, and report back to the team.”

5 Ways Christian Institutions of Higher Education Can Avoid White Supremacy | Jarvis Williams, Reformed African American Network
While some of the language here about white supremacy goes too far, there are many good challenges in this article.

The Commandment We Forgot | Tim Challies
Tim Challies begins a series on honoring our parents, with a special focus on doing so even when we become adults.

New Mercies Every Morning | Dave Zuleger, Desiring God
“If we’re not careful, those first few groggy, heavy minutes can define the rest of the day. We’re not naturally prone to follow the command to set our minds on things above, where Christ is (Colossians 3:1–4). It has always seemed ironic and foolish that the first few moments after a full night of total, unaware dependence, we immediately wake up and go into independent, self-trust mode. We often trust quickly in our own ‘horses’ and ‘chariots’ instead of in the sovereign love of our Lord (Psalm 20:7).”

3-Day Sale: 50% Off Reformation Study Bibles
I use this Bible a lot in my personal devotions.

New Book

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.

No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God by Aimee Byrd

Kindle Deals

Preach: Theology Meets Practice by Mark Dever and Greg Gilbert ($0.99)

The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You by John C. Maxwell ($0.99)

Caring for People God’s Way: Personal and Emotional Issues, Addictions, Grief, and Trauma by Tim Clinton, Archibald Hart, George Ohlschlager ($2.99)

Video

NOVA: School of the Future
See the link above to watch the whole program.

Nancy Guthrie’s latest One Year Devotional is called Praying Through the Bible for Your Kids. Like her previous devotionals in the “One Year” series, this is “designed for people who live busy, active lives.”

The Bible readings are brief, the devotional commentary is simple yet profound, the prayer is tailored to each reading, and each day is headlined with a memorable title that neatly sums up the day’s focus.

Her aim is to encourage parents to worry less and pray more. The book will do all that and much more, not least the enrichment of our prayer lives through more varied and specific prayers.

This would be a wonderful gift for parents to help them grow not just spiritually closer to their kids, and to one another, but, above all, closer to God.

Blogs

Growing Up in a Porn-Saturated World | Thinking Out Loud
22 ways your kids’ world is much different than yours

Are Chip and Joanna Gaines ‘Cultural Heretics’? | TGC
Pray for Chip and Joanna and their church. The cultural inquisition is coming.

Pastors Can’t Afford to Neglect Themselves | TGC
Erik Raymond on the need for pastors to continue personal development.

Citing the pressing demands of ministry many simply don’t prioritize continuing theological education, training, and learning. Specifically, this means that many are not intentionally reading theological books, biographies, journals, or other materials geared to developing theological depth—unless they are studying for their sermons.

Top 10 Education Technologies that Will Be Dead and Gone in the Next Decade | Campus Technology

3 Common Ways Churches Overcomplicate Their Calendars – Eric Geiger
“When there is a plethora of programs/events on the calendar, it is hard to know which ones are really important. How do churches get to an overcomplicated church schedule? How does busyness creep in? Here are three common ways:”

11 Simple Techniques to Wake Up Earlier Every Morning
Only for those who are getting to bed on time the night before.

CDC Study Says Teen Virgins Are Healthier Than Sexually Active Teens
“High school students who are virgins rate significantly and consistently better in nearly all health-related behaviors and measures than their sexually active peers.

Kindle Books

The Happy Christian by David Murray $2.99.

Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace by Heath Lambert $3.99.

Preaching to a Post-Everything World: Crafting Biblical Sermons That Connect with Our Culture by Zack Eswine $3.99.

Video

A Drone Through Africa

Have a little peek into heaven

I’ve often thought that future generations will look back on those of us who lived through the digital revolution and wonder, “What were they doing?” “Did they not realize the damage they were doing to themselves. The research is already beginning to reveal the harm we are doing to our brains. Here are some stats taken from the presentation The Great Disconnect: MegaHERTZ to MegaHURTS by Michael Wolff and Bradley Bridges.

JAMA reported that each additional hour of television a toddler watches can potentially result in a seven percent unit decrease in classroom engagement and a 13 percent unit decrease in weekly physical activity. Of those studied, television-watching toddlers also showed a 10 percent increase in classmate victimization, and are five percent more likely to have a high BMI.

8-10 year old children spend on average 8 hrs of media/tech time a day.

Tweens or teenagers average 11 hrs or more.

Girls dominate Visually Oriented Social Media Platforms like Snapchat and Instagram

Boys are much more likely to play video games.

The typical person by their early 20’s will have spent more than 30,000 hours on the internet or playing videogames. That’s roughly 3.5 years on the internet, playing games or using technology.

Children now spend more time with the media than they do with their family, in school, or sleeping.

The pleasure seeking center of the brain shows a similar activity pattern on cocaine and on video games. The picture on the left is the brain playing video games. The first picture on is the brain on cocaine, the second, the brain on video games.

Compared with the group that played nonviolent video games, the group that played the violent video game demonstrated less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain, which are involved in inhibition, concentration and self-control, and more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal.

Frequent multi-taskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another.

University of London found people who multitasked during cognitive tasks experienced IQ score declines similar to if they had smoked marijuana or stayed up all night. IQ drops of 15 points for multitasking men lowered their scores to the average range of an 8 year old child.

University of Sussex compared the amount of time people spend on multiple devices (such as texting while watching TV) to MRI scans of their brains. They found that high multi-taskers had less brain density in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region responsible for empathy as well as cognitive and emotional control.

Read more here.

Blogs

Top 16 Books of 2016
I always look forward to Tony Reinke’s annual list. Would make a great reading plan for 2017.

How to Read the Major Prophets Devotionally
“In the end, the best way to understand the Major Prophets is simply to invest time in reading them prayerfully. It’s not always easy going, but we can be confident God will enrich our souls when we seek him in his Word.”

Let’s Sing the Songs Jesus Sang
An article on the resurgence of Psalm singing.

5 Reasons Leaders and Creators Need Routines
“Creativity is fostered in daily rhythms that conserve your best thinking and energy for your work.”

How Domino’s Pizza Reinvented Itself
Fascinating article on how Domino’s turned around its sinking business and share price. One paragraph that caught my attention towards the end of the article can easily be applied to church leadership/

Omission bias is the tendency to worry more about doing something than not doing something, because everyone sees the results of a move gone bad, and few see the costs of moves not made. Loss aversion describes the tendency to play not to lose rather than play to win. “The pain of loss is double the pleasure of winning,” he argues, so the natural inclination is to be cautious, even in situations that demand creativity.

Kindle Books

The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters by Sinclair Ferguson $3.99.

Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines by David Mathis $3.99.

Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full: Gospel Meditations for Busy Moms by Gloria Furman $3.99.

What Is Addiction?

A condition that results when a person ingests a substance (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, nicotine) or engages in an activity (e.g., gambling, sex, shopping, social media/technology) that can be pleasurable but the continued use/act of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary life responsibilities, such as work, relationships, or health. Users may not be aware that their behavior is out of control and causing problems for themselves and others.

Are You Addicted to the Internet? (or substitute “Texting”)

1. Do you feel absorbed in the internet (remember previous online activity, or long for the next session)?

2. Do you feel satisfied with internet use if you increase your amount of online time?

3. Have you failed to reduce, control, or give up internet use repeatedly?

4. Do you feel nervous, temperamental, depressed, or sensitive when trying to reduce or give up internet use?

5. Do you stay online longer than originally intended?

6. Have you taken the risk of losing a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of the internet?

7. Have you lied to your family members, therapist or others to hide the truth of your involvement with the internet?

8. Do you use the internet as a way of escaping from problems or of relieving an anxious mood, e.g., feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety, or depression?

You are an internet addict if you answered “yes” to questions 1-5 and to at least one of the remaining questions.

Extracted from the presentation The Great Disconnect: MegaHERTZ to MegaHURTS by Michael Wolff and Bradley Bridges.