To Honor John McCain, His Wife Says, Americans Could Be Nicer To One Another

To some, Republican Sen. John McCain embodied principles of a bygone Washington: He sought common ground; he reached across the political divide; he had close friendships with Democrats.

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The ICE chief called family detention ‘summer camp.’ Here’s what it looks like inside.

Albence said that, unlike the Border Patrol facilities where children lacked toothbrushes and were photographed sleeping on the ground, ICE’s family residential centers give children and parents three hot meals a day and access to a wide array of services, including a 24-hour infirmary, a day care, a library with internet and email access, a beauty salon, a charter school and a canteen.

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Easy come, easy go

Ben Shapiro chides cultural snowflakes: “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” I propose a similar axiom: “Cash doesn’t care about your deservingness.” Don’t worry about money, because money isn’t worried about you. Jesus spoke of the fickleness of Lady Lucre this way: “moth and rust destroy … thieves break in and steal.”

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4 Unexpected, Counterintuitive Truths About Uncool Churches

1. A lot of uncool churches are doing genuine, contextual ministry
2. We don’t understand their context as well as we think
3. We’re not giving them the credit they deserve
4. Cool churches can’t give them what they need

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3 Ways to Kill Gossip

1. Tell the person you refuse to hear it.
2. Tell the person they need to go to the person they are gossiping about, or you will.
3. Enact church discipline directly at the source(s).

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How to Spot a Fake, and a Real, Expert

In most of our churches there are real experts, and there are fake experts. We are probably each experts in something – at one time I was almost an expert in issues related to Cessna 402 and 404 aircraft. Today, I doubt I could get one off the ground. I know nothing about farming or cattle ranching, but if you ask me about Dietrich Bonhoeffer I can give you a fairly educated answer. I would starve to death if I had to earn a living repairing cars or welding something, but let me teach a class on the book of Revelation and I can give you your money’s worth. Just because you are not an expert in Greek does not mean that you cannot teach a class on the gospel of Matthew – just don’t try to fool anybody with knowledge you do not have.

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The Church-Budgeting Book You Didn’t Know You Need

Those who have worked in local-church leadership know it’s common for members to make a false distinction between spiritual and financial matters. Correcting that mindset isn’t an easy task. Budgeting for a Healthy Church is a wonderful resource that will meet this need. I’m asking our leaders to invest the time to read this short book. And I encourage other churches to do the same.

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How Two Words Can Change Your Life

Saying thank you is a habit. It shows that you appreciate everything. Big things and little things. And appreciation is an important aspect of a happy life.

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Boy holds hands of crying classmate with autism on first day of school

“Tell your son I said thank you so very much!” Crites said. “That little boy he helped is my son and is autistic, I worry everyday that he is going to get bullied for being different and your son just absolutely warmed my heart. If there were more children like him I wouldn’t worry about such things.”

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Washington man’s car gets stolen while he’s busy robbing a store

After surveillance video was reviewed, police discovered that the reason Kelley had left his truck was because he was off stealing items from a business across the street.

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LINKS FROM OTHER WEBSITES: Articles to make you think or make you laugh. No endorsement nor agreement implied.

Should Christians Participate In Partisan Politics?

To be without a political tribe may be terrifying to many Americans, but if we are truly going to pursue the heart of Christ in our world, we must begin examining all policy (not just the ones our party endorses) and voting by conscience, not political party. In a Divided States of America, the Church can be a great example of what it looks like to find common ground and reimagine a politics that is not binary, but rather adaptive and fluid.

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America Is Not in the Bible

When that inner work is taken to heart, it will be hard indeed to see how anyone could ever countenance thinking that the Infinite Creator of the infinite cosmos could be pinning the divine hope on one small landmass in the western hemisphere that decides to write itself into an ancient Jewish story.

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From Gay to Gospel: The Fascinating Story of Becket Cook

But the Word of God doesn’t change based on our feelings. In terms of responding to those close to us who come out as gay or lesbian, it’s important to love them unconditionally without compromising your convictions. As Christians, we are in exile. And just as Shadrach and friends refused to bow down to the golden statue in Babylon (Daniel 3), even though the consequences were potentially dire, we have to resist the temptation to bow down to the culture we are in—no matter the cost. I’m not saying this is easy. Some who come out will be super offended when you hold to your traditional biblical views. The issue is now so deeply tied to identity that it can feel like you are rejecting them.

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Challenging “Gay Christian” Identity

In other words, hostility toward the old self and hospitality toward the new self should characterize the Christian. Why? Because the old self is no longer the true self, the authentic self. The old self has been crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6) and therefore we are called to mortify it and its desires (Col 3:5–10). The new self is who we are.

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People Are Getting Sued Over the Billy Graham Rule Now

The case will likely rest on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which requires employers to make a “reasonable accommodation” for employees’ religious beliefs. Torres may have to prove that the Billy Graham Rule is indeed a religious belief and not just a personal rule, but he’ll also run up against the possibility that female employees will claim discrimination for being denied training.

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What Missionaries Can Teach Us in Post-Christian America

Newbigin meant that Westerners, including Americans, must start living like missionaries to their own culture. This exhortation is not mainly concerned with whether we call every Christian a missionary. (In fact, merely changing labels would change nothing much at all.) No, this is about the vital need for the American church to recover a missionary mentality. It’s about the call for us to live like foreign missionaries in our own cities and neighborhoods, which are quickly becoming places increasingly foreign to the gospel.

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If I Share The Gospel, I Might Ruin Our Relationship

You are to pick up your cross and follow Christ. That means that each and every day you declare that everything you have in this life, whether it is money or relationships, belongs to God and that obedience to Him is worth more to you than anything else. If loving and obeying Christ means that you will have to choose him above father, mother, or friend, then so be it because God deserves all our worship for eternity.

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Your Ambition Might be Satanic

The antidote to the deadly poison of selfish ambition is to set our minds on Christ and to see ourselves as the sinners which he came to save. We are not competing with each other or with Jesus for glory; we are weak beggars who have been served by the Lord and who in turn must count others as more significant than ourselves.

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Funeral for lost ice: Iceland bids farewell to glacier

Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurðsson pronounced the Okjokull glacier extinct about a decade ago. But on Sunday he brought a death certificate to the made-for-media memorial. After about 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, children installed a memorial plaque to the glacier, now called just “Ok,” minus the Icelandic word for glacier.

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This viral Michael Buble video has parents everywhere crying about our kids growing up

The video is a simple animation of a child’s room as it transforms over time from a nursery to the packed-up bedroom of a young adult leaving the nest. We held it together until it got to this part: “It wasn’t so long ago, we walked together and you held my hand. and now you’re getting too big to want to.”

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Babylon Bee’s Satire Gets Shared by People Who Think It’s Real

It’s no surprise that, depending on the headline, satire might be more likely to deceive members of one political party over another. Individuals’ political worldviews consistently color their perceptions of facts. Still, Americans’ inability to agree on what is true and what is false is a problem for democracy.

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The US labor shortage, explained

But in the meantime, there’s no better time for working-class Americans to demand better wages, benefits, schedules, and work conditions. It also means immigration reform is more urgent than ever. In order to fill all the open jobs and keep the economy growing, Congress will need to allow more low-skilled immigrants to work — legally.

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How to Make a Theological Argument

• First, restate the meaning of a biblical text in its canonical context
• Second, argue from revealed premises
• Third, use reason
• Fourth, throughout, be Spiritual

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On Controversy and Rules of Persuasion

Ethos is an appeal to the ethical character of the person with whom we are debating. Logos is an appeal to the logic or reason of the arguments raised by the person with whom you are debating. Pathos is an appeal to the emotions of the people to whom you are appealing. So much debate that we witness in our day–or in which we are presently engaged–is built on differences about the propriety or measure of the ethos, logos or pathos with which we debate a matter.

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The Sofa Salesperson Who Did Everything Wrong

It’s not that difficult, is it? Listen. Draw out. Empathize. Listen some more. Then take action or make recommendations only as I am equipped and in a way consistent with my vocation.

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Make a habit/break a habit

If you can replace a bad habit with a good one, you’ll live with the benefits for decades. The challenge is to set up systems that are likely to create habits, not sprints that lead to failure.

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Your Church Needs More Time for Personal Testimonies

As God’s people give public praise to God for his deeds, those far from God find compelling evidence to consider our claims. As we declare God’s marvelous works before a watching world, we bear witness to him. What he’s capable of doing for them is communicated by what has already been accomplished for us.

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Overcoming the Fear of Evangelism

Some of you don’t struggle with such things. That’s awesome. I’ve envied you before. But for those who like me have experienced butterflies in the stomach at times when you think about speaking the gospel to the lost, here are a few things that help me.

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Putting the “Service” Back in Worship Service

So, look for ways you can serve during the sermon. Perhaps there’s a mother whose rambunctious toddler makes it difficult for her to focus. Offer to sit with her and help. Make eye contact with the preacher, turn to the passage in your Bible, and don’t be afraid to offer an “amen” or verbal affirmation. These habits will serve the preacher as he labors faithfully to serve you the Word.

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I am a False Prophet

How many false predictions have I made to myself over my lifetime? Millions? Billions? How much adrenaline has been unnecessarily let loose in my body? How many hours of sleep have I lost just by worrying about how many hours of sleep I might lose? How much ibuprofen have I taken for headaches caused by catastrophic situations that never materialized?

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The Power of Biblical Hospitality

What about you? Are you stuck on entertainment or zealous for genuine hospitality? You might think this to be some kind of superfluous add-on to the life of a kingdom-disciple, but a simple glimpse at the life of our Savior demonstrates that this was one of his primary means of ministry. All without a home of his own. Welcoming others. Eating with them. Listening to their story. Ministering to their pain. Holding out the invitation of the kingdom.

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Ministering to International Students

There has never been an opportunity in the history of humanity where people who are far from Christ are now in such close proximity to those who follow him. To honor those who are risking their lives and the lives of those they love most in order to live and work in countries where many of these international students are coming from, we must join them in their mission to reach the unreached with the gospel.

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Responsibility and the power of ‘could have’

And it continues with a simple tactic: Instead of defining the minimal legal requirement, outline the maximum possible action you could have taken.

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What3words: The app that can save your life

What3words essentially points to a very specific location. Its developers divided the world into 57 trillion squares, each measuring 3m by 3m (10ft by 10ft) and each having a unique, randomly assigned three-word address.

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F-bombs away: Why lawmakers are cursing now more than ever

An increase in expletives, says Bergen, shows that the swear words politicians are using are “more acceptable in public discourse than they were a decade or two ago. That’s a general change in the culture. We’ve seen media become democratized. There are fewer and fewer channels of communication that are censored. And as a result, there’s just more swearing around,” he says.

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7th grader donates $15,000 earnings from county fair to St. Jude Children’s Hospital

A 7th grader in Ohio is getting praise from around the country for a recent act of kindness. Diesel Pippert donated all of his livestock premiums to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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Most Churchgoers Say They Spend Their Day Seeking God

Around 2 in 5 churchgoers (38%) say they set aside time for private worship, praise or thanksgiving to God every day. Another 29% say they do so a few times a week, while 13% set aside the time once a week, 7% a few times a month, 4% once a month, and 9% rarely or never.

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Why You Should Resist Conspiracy Theories

This kind of reasoning undermines rational thought, our intellectual obligation to weigh evidence, and, in the end, our ability to think critically. As a Christian, if you sincerely believe in these outlandish conspiracies, you are undermining your witness for Christ, undercutting your own case for the resurrection and giving people a reason not to listen.

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Jeremiah 29:11

Even in the midst of this prophecy of punishment, there was a sliver of hope: the exile would be long, but it would not be permanent. God purposed to chasten His people, but He would not destroy them utterly. He would in fact bring them back to their land—after seventy years (v. 11).

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Reading Makes People Feel Happier and Smarter, According to New Poll

55 percent of respondents said they only need to read for 15 minutes to feel like they’ve accomplished something. (Fun fact: People who read books for 30 minutes every day may live an average of 23 months longer than non-readers according to a 2016 study.)

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White Arkansas woman pulls gun on 4 black fundraising teens

Police in the eastern Arkansas city of Wynne, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock, said the incident happened Aug. 7. Police responding to reports of “suspicious persons” found the four children on the ground, with Jerri Kelly, who is white, standing over them holding a gun, Memphis TV station WMC reported.

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Jeffrey Epstein kept painting of Bill Clinton in drag at his house

Among the most unusual of works is an oil painting of Mr Clinton, dressed in a blue dress similar to the infamous one worn by Monica Lewinsky, and wearing red stilettos. Mr Clinton is shown lounging in a chair in the Oval Office, and leering at the camera.

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A Security Researcher’s Attempt to Prank the DMV Backfired in a Spectacularly Expensive Way

His hypothesis proved partially correct: The systems didn’t properly process his “NULL” license plate, but the outcome was basically the opposite of what he was hoping for. First, upon trying to renew his tags, the DMV website informed him that his license number was invalid. Then he was hit with a barrage of parking tickets that totaled more than $12,000, because a processing center had used “NULL” for all parking misdemeanors committed by unidentified vehicles, and the system mistakenly attributed them all to Droogie’s car.

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Pumpkin Spice Spam arrives just in time for fall, uh, ‘flavor’?

“True to the brand’s roots, SPAM® Pumpkin Spice combines deliciousness with creativity, allowing the latest variety to be incorporated into a number of dishes, from on-trend brunch recipes to an easy, pick me-up snack,” a Spam spokesperson told NBC.

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