A Slow Soul in a Fast World

Specifically, a lot of my struggles have to do with the pace and timing of my inner life and the world happening around me. The world comes at you fast. And my natural inclination is to react to that rushing, oncoming traffic rapidly and quickly. I meet speed for speed. The world is rushing at me and my inner life speeds up to match it.

Five Things I Love About Churches of Christ

1. Recognition of the Importance of Baptism
2. Scripture Takes Precedence Over Tradition
3. Informal, But Reverent
4. Weekly Observance of the Lord’s Supper
5. Elders to Shepherd the Church

Why preachers plagiarize

How to Avoid Plagiarism

• Start doing your own research, study, and meditation.
• Start giving credit.
• Learn from others, but do your own work.
• Keep your pride in check.

Senators Angry TSA Budget Is Being Redirected To Border

The US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee oversees the TSA. Both Republican and Democratic members of the committee are concerned that re-direction of personnel to the U.S. Southern Border will come at the expense of airport security screening. This summer is slated to shatter all previous travel records in terms of number of passengers, putting increased strain on already-stretched TSA personnel.

Stop Changing Your Oil!

The majority of automakers today call for oil changes at either 7,500 or 10,000 miles, and the interval can go as high as 15,000 miles in some cars. Yet this wasteful cycle continues largely because the automotive service industry, while fully aware of the technological advances, continues to preach the 3,000-mile gospel as a way to keep the service bays busy. As a result, even the most cautious owners are dumping their engine oil twice as often as their service manuals recommend.

Hoo Boy: Navy Pilots Reported UFO Sightings ‘Almost Daily’

Over Memorial Day weekend, The New York Times reported that between 2014 and 2015, Navy pilots claimed of seeing UFOs “almost daily.” Nobody is using the “alien” word — meaning these are actually flying objects that are unidentified — but the fact remains nobody is really sure what these flying objects are.

ARTICLES FROM AROUND THE WEB, DESIGNED TO MAKE YOU THINK (OR MAKE YOU LAUGH!)

Memorial Day

If the church is to be an ambassador of the good news and an agent of healing in the world, the church is going to have to become serious about being something other than the high priest of religious nationalism. With so many churchgoers entangled in the tentacles of nationalism, it’s time for the church to actually be the church. As Stanley Hauerwas has said in so many ways, it’s the first task of the church to make the world the world. And for the church to appear as distinct from the world — the world of war that Jesus told Pilate his kingdom does not come from — the church is going to have to face the fact that it cannot pledge its allegiance to both Caesar and Christ. As Jesus said, “no one can serve two masters.”

Dear Izzy, If Only You Had Behaved Like An Elite Athlete

If you had picked up your ex-girlfriend and hurled her into a garage door at 2am following an epic bender, you’d still be on track for your job. If you had only kicked the livin’ daylights out of an unconscious man lying in the gutter, outside a nightclub, you could have avoided this heartache you’re now in. But no, Izzy. You had to go all the way and do something so much worse than these acceptable misbehaviours: you shared the Bible’s message on your own social media page. Now that is unacceptable.

Why it is important not to conflate prophecy and teaching in discussions about women preaching

Paul does not want anything to happen during corporate worship or in any other setting that would upset the headship principle that he so carefully exhorted his readers to obey in 1 Cor. 11:2-16. For that reason, Paul enjoins women to refrain from the judgment of prophecies. He’s not commanding an absolute silence on the part of women. Indeed he expects them to be praying and prophesying. He does, however, command them to be silent whenever prophesies are being judged. And the women are to do so out of deference to male headship.

SBC President JD Greear talks new book, Trump-supporting evangelicals, and complementarianism

We don’t want to have our position where she either occupies a role as a pastor-elder or even implies that she does. So we have also chosen that because the Sunday morning sermon is so closely associated with the authority of the church, we don’t have a woman that delivers that sermon. We believe that that would be a violation of 1 Timothy 2. However, we’ve had women who’ve shared during the Sunday morning service in ways that showed that they were not the ultimate teaching authority.

Your Best Outreach Programs are Already in Place. You Just Don’t Know It.

The Two-Degree Rule is the practice of identifying what we do well and then turning the focus a few degrees out into the community and into the world, freeing our hands to serve those who are not yet in the church. It involves pushing the needle of the church compass two degrees off dead north (caring for ourselves) to direct some of our resources, time, care, energy and love toward those who are still far from God. It’s taking what we are already doing to care for, equip, and minister to our church family and giving it an evangelistic focus.

He Remembers That We Are Dust

And God remembers all this. And according to Psalm 103 graces flows from that recognition. God will not deal with according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. And why? Because God knows our frame: He remembers that we are dust.

These Navy SEAL tricks will help you perform better under pressure

Controlled breathing, on the other hand, is the fastest, most effective way to trigger the relaxation response, enabling you to think more clearly and perform better under pressure, she says.

Squirrel served daily ice cream mini-cones at North Carolina shop

“You call her name, and she literally will come out of her nest in one of these big trees and hop her way down to the roof, ultimately to the rail and waits on her cone,” Scott Martin told local ABC affiliate WWAY. He co-owns the business with his wife, Pam Martin.

Spiritual Things NOT More Important Than Physical Things

A person is NOT spiritual if he is NOT animated, influenced, or empowered by God’s Spirit. In other words, if his wisdom and behavior come from the world, rather than from God, he is not spiritual. But in the same way, when someone is transformed and becomes a spiritual person, he does not cease to be physical.

The Church Today in Cultural Captivity

Christian apologist Os Guinness says that when we look at evangelicalism today, it is the world and the spirit of the age that are dominant, not the Word and Spirit. The church in the U.S. is strong numerically, but weak because it is worldly. The church in America is in the world and of the world; and as a result, it is in profound cultural captivity.

She Stopped to Help Migrants on a Texas Highway. Moments Later, She Was Arrested.

Earlier this year, federal agents raided the home of a volunteer who provides meals, housing and other aid to migrants in the Texas border city of Brownsville. In Arizona, four volunteers with No More Deaths, a nonprofit based in Tucson, were convicted on misdemeanor criminal charges after leaving water and canned food for migrants hiking through the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. Five other volunteers also faced charges, including one felony case now pending in Federal District Court in Tucson.

Most Abortion-Minded Women Aren’t Calculating Killers. They’re Afraid.

Objective arguments against abortion based on an unborn baby’s humanity are true. And they have their place. Even images of pre-term and aborted babies may be persuasive—though in recent years many have begun to question their efficacy. But these arguments and photos usually aren’t best employed on the sidewalk outside an abortion clinic.

You Can Always Use One More Translation, or Why I Read the NIVNKJVESVNLTNASBMSGKJVCSBNET Bible

And here’s something to keep in mind: In the vast majority of cases, when a New Testament author quoted the Old Testament, he used the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew. The Septuagint could be described as the ancient world’s most popular thought-for-thought translation of the Jewish Scriptures, on par in translation style with the NIV or NET. And yet Peter, Luke, John, and others presented it as the authoritative words of the Lord, no different than if they had held high the tablets of Moses.

The Myth of ‘Learning Styles’

Or at least, a lot of evidence suggests that people aren’t really one certain kind of learner or another. In a study published last month in the journal Anatomical Sciences Education, Husmann and her colleagues had hundreds of students take the VARK questionnaire to determine what kind of learner they supposedly were. The survey then gave them some study strategies that seem like they would correlate with that learning style. Husmann found that not only did students not study in ways that seemed to reflect their learning style, those who did tailor their studying to suit their style didn’t do any better on their tests.

Don’t Visit Your Doctor in the Afternoon

This same pattern of doctors defaulting to the easy thing later in the day has appeared for decreased influenza vaccinations, increased opioid prescribing for back pain and decreased physician hand-washing. We doctors like to think of ourselves — and the public might like to think of us — as rational decision makers, but depending on the time of day, treatments change.

Walk Fast? Good News—You’re More Likely to Live Longer

People who walk faster are more likely to live longer regardless of their weight. That’s according to a study scientists say suggests fitness levels might be a better indicator of health than an individual’s body mass index (BMI).

Is There a Connection Between Undocumented Immigrants and Crime?

According to Adelman and his team, however, the impact of undocumented immigrants is probably similar to what the research indicates about immigrants over all: They tend to bring economic and cultural benefits to their communities. They typically come to America to find work, not to commit crimes, says Yulin Yang, a member of the team.

Worth a Thousand Years of Waiting

Today, the average estimates of Christians within Iran range from 300,000 to upwards of one million, according to some missions experts. Operation World, a missions research organization, continues to list Iran as having the fastest-growing evangelical church in the world. In fact, more Iranians have become Christians in the last twenty years than in the previous 1,300 years, since Islam came to Iran.

101 Small Ways to Share the Gospel

That’s why I compiled this list. Here are 101 of the best-yet-microscopic ways that we can teach others about Jesus. You’re not meant to do all of them; instead, pick one to focus on this week. Next week, pick a different one. Then, take one and change it up for the week after that. If nothing else, let these ideas serve as springboards for your own evangelism efforts.

Honoring Heroes – Dietrich Bonhoeffer and David Lipscomb

Bonhoeffer was considered an irritant by many in the German church. He was labeled a trouble maker and extremist. Lipscomb was also viewed as somewhat of an extremist – not so much for his theological positions, but for the radical ethical positions he drew from those theological positions. While Lipscomb could also be attacked by those further to the right on the Restorationist continuum, both of these leaders were marked for their obstinate refusal to surrender core biblical teachings, or to compromise for the purpose of “just getting along” with their opponents.

Role models as a tool for decision making

The role model’s image brings with it all of the nuance that’s missing from a dry discussion of tactics. It forces us to get real and to look further into the future.

Why You Should Start Binge-Reading Right Now

But in book after book, if you do push on through one chapter break, and then on through the chapter break after that, something amazing happens. Subplots that would once have been murky to the point of incomprehensibility (what was the deal with that dead sea captain again?) step into the light. Little jokes and echoes, separated by dozens or even hundreds of pages, come rustling out of the text forest. A writer’s voice — Grace Paley at her slangy best, Nicholson Baker at his hypomanic craziest — starts to seep into and color the voice of your innermost thoughts.

How Mapping Shots In The NBA Changed It Forever

If it’s true that 3-point shots go in 36 percent of the time and 10-foot shots go in just 40 percent of the time, then why are we assigning 50 percent more value to shots from beyond that magical little arc?

K-9 School Resource Officer Added To Bryant High School Yearbook

Posing for a yearbook photo with your tongue hanging out is typically a no-no. But not for Mya. The Bryant police dog’s photo — tongue out and ears perked up — was featured among faculty members in the Bryant High School yearbook this year.

The Kid Who ‘Put Everybody In Stitches’ At Handel and Haydn Society Concert Has Been Found

Seconds after the Handel and Haydn Society stopped playing Mozart’s “Masonic Funeral Music” at the Boston Symphony Hall on Sunday, 9-year-old Ronan Mattin was so swept away by the music that he loudly exclaimed — for the whole auditorium to hear — “Wow!”

The Best Advice You’ve Ever Received (and Are Willing to Pass On)

Lately I’ve been thinking: How many other people have life-changing words of advice to share? And wouldn’t “Crowdwise” be a perfect place to publish them? And so, dear readers, I invited you to submit the best advice you’ve ever received. Here’s some of what you shared, conveniently categorized.

I Was America’s First ‘Nonbinary’ Person. It Was All a Sham.

I’m one of the lucky ones. Despite participating in medical transgenderism for six years, my body is still intact. Most people who desist from transgender identities after gender changes can’t say the same.

Georgia Politicians Face Calls to Resign After Saying Interracial Marriage Is Unbiblical

“That’s the way I was brought up and that’s the way I believe,” he continued. “I have black friends, I hired black people. But when it comes to all this stuff you see on TV, when you see blacks and whites together, it makes my blood boil because that’s just not the way a Christian is supposed to live.”

Things I believe about Bible study

The Bible was written by certain men at a certain time to a certain audience. But they were inspired by the Holy Spirit and God certainly knew about the culture and times that every one would live in.

Rejection kills

And it is in our minds, perhaps, that rejection reveals itself at its most insidious – not in the pricks of pain it sends through our skulls, nor in the havoc it wreaks on our bodies. In the mind, rejection can live on, fed by nothing more than our own twisted imaginations. To perceive yourself as isolated means to be rejected over and over, even when in reality no one is slighting you. It is to be, at once, the one rejected and the one who rejects. This is how rejection ultimately hurts us – by making us hurt ourselves, complicit in its cruel act.

Percentage Of Americans Who Never Traveled Beyond The State Where They Were Born? A Surprise

The results are pretty amazing, and perhaps explain the gaps of knowledge many Americans seem to have of the world:

• — Eleven percent of survey respondents have never traveled outside of the state where they were born.
• — Over half of those surveyed (54 percent) say they’ve visited 10 states or fewer.
• — As many as 13 percent say they have never flown in an airplane.
• — Forty percent of those questioned said they’ve never left the country.
• — Over half of respondents have never owned a passport. (For years U.S. citizens did not need one to travel to Mexico, Canada and on many cruises, which may clarify the previous stat.)

Teens Lost at Sea Pray for Rescue; Boat Called ‘Amen’ Shows Up

He explained, “Exhausted and near the end the boy told me he called out for God’s help. Then we showed up. I told them the name of the vessel, that’s when they started to cry.”