READINGS FOR THIS WEEK, October 26-31
26    1 Timothy 2
27    1 Timothy 3:1-13
28    1 Timothy 3:14-4:10
29    1 Timothy 4:11-5:8
30    1 Timothy 5:9-6:2
31   1 Timothy 6:3-21

READINGS FOR THIS WEEK, August 3-8
3     1 John 3:1-10
4     1 John 3:11-4:6
5     1 John 4:7-21
6     1 John 5
7     2 John
8     3 John

READINGS FOR THIS WEEK, July 13-18
13     John 8:31-59
14     John 9
15     John 10
16     John 11:1-45
17     John 11:46-12:19
18     John 12:20-50

This Is The Scientific Way To Win Any Argument (And Not Make Enemies)

What the research on reframing shows is that the key to winning any argument is to understand your opponents’ perspective first, and then to link the beliefs supporting their perspective to your argument. The point is to influence them by finding enough common ground to win them to your side–not running to opposite corners and shouting across the divide.

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Avoid Foolish Questions

Perhaps a good question to ask would be this: “Would someone who disagreed with me on this topic believe the debate/conversation is worth it?” If the answer is no, that’s a good sign you should keep your thoughts on a topic to yourself. If I disagree with you, but don’t see the point of talking about a subject because, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to a hill of beans, maybe take the hint. This isn’t a fool-proof guardrail, but it has served me well.

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The Bully

May we raise up young men who see that being a bully is not manly at all. In fact, the bully is an insecure, small boy who may be in a man’s body but who has never grown up. May we raise up a generation of young men who pursue true strength, wisdom, and godly integrity. These are building blocks for character for those who refuse to settle for the small life of the bully.

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Make Disciples … Me?

Christ calls us to be salt and light living at home, in our churches, and in our work environments. Why not climb down out of the stands and get on the playing field? When it comes to making an impact in the lives of others, let’s take the napkin off our laps and put on an apron, preparing to serve others in the name of Jesus. As we represent Jesus daily, we will be living out the Lord’s command to be salt and light in his name.

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Don’t Just Stand There, Say Something: Intention vs. Action in Evangelism

Here are three ways to turn your intention to action in the day to day:

1. Consistently host a community event at your house, like a cookout or dessert night.
2. Spend time intentionally going and meeting people where they live, work, study, or play.
3. Weave the truth of the gospel through as many conversations as you can, seeing yourself as a translator of the good news of Jesus into the lives of others.

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Seven Thoughts on the Billy Graham / Mike Pence Rule

The long and short of it is that there is great freedom within the Christian life to hold or not to hold to the Billy Graham slash Mike Pence Rule. In this, as in so many other areas, “each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).

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American religious groups vary widely in their views of abortion

Among those who do identify with a religion, the majority view about abortion among members of a particular group often mirrors that group’s official policy on abortion. This is the case with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon church) and the Southern Baptist Convention – both churches oppose abortion, as do most members of those churches. And the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Unitarian Universalist Association, and Reform and Conservative Judaism, for example, all support abortion rights, in line with most of their adherents.

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How the Canada Summer Jobs program became a freedom-of-religion controversy

But this year the program has sparked a huge controversy over whether the government is violating religious freedom by requiring all applicants to sign an “attestation” that includes respect for reproductive rights — in other words, access to abortions.

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Very liberal or conservative legislators most likely to share news on Facebook

The most ideological members of Congress shared news stories on their Facebook pages more than twice as often as moderate legislators between Jan. 2, 2015, and July 20, 2017, according to a new Pew Research Center study that examined all official Facebook posts created by members of Congress in this period.

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Do Your Driving Habits Show Emotional Intelligence?

In other words, Brooks is right that driving styles communicates the general character of a place, and thus helps form that character. Which means that every time you pull out into traffic, you’ll either be making your community a better, friendlier place to live, or a worse, more hostile one.

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This Couple Who Met On Neopets As Children Fell In Love And Got Married As Adults

Kristin, who’s now 29, joined a role-playing guild on the site called the “Evil Jellies.” There she met Michael Andrews-Karr, a then-10-year-old user from Ohio whose pseudonym on Neopets was “Doctor.” Michael is now 27.

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Why you think you’re right, even when you’re wrong

In other words, if we really want to improve our judgment as individuals and as societies, what we need most is not more instruction in logic, rhetoric, probability or economics, even though those things are all valuable. What we most need to use those principles well is scout mindset. We need to change the way we feel — to learn how to feel proud instead of ashamed when we notice we might have been wrong about something, or to learn how to feel intrigued instead of defensive when we encounter some information that contradicts our beliefs. So the question you need to consider is: What do you most yearn for — to defend your own beliefs or to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?

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Taxi Drivers, Refugees, and Other Good Reasons to Pray

Given the current climate of hatred and division in our nation, and of fear in the face of global terrorism, the church is living in the best of times to complete the task of the church by the power of his enduring love.
Yes, we are living in a unique time in the history of Christianity, when the kingdom of Heaven is showing up joyfully tutoring English, and living and working intentionally in our cities, showing love to an immigrant or refugee neighbor, providing a homestay or meal for an international student, and taking a taxi home from the airport.

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Were Mary and Joseph Married or Engaged at Jesus’ Birth?

Returning to Joseph, he would have paid the bride price to Mary’s father at their engagement (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:27). Despite his misgivings, Joseph then obeyed the angel’s command to marry Mary (Matthew 1:20). The time of formal engagement, whether a full year or not, had passed between them. So Joseph and Mary had begun to live together except for sexual relations (Matthew 1:25). Luke’s understanding of mnēsteuō must be expanded to include both the betrothal/engagement as well as marital cohabitation.

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Who will cast a stone at Jesus?

Of course, if Jesus is a sinner, he is without question the worst of them all.
If he is sinless, then he is the Divine Savior, and Eternal Judge of all men.
Here we are, 2,000 years later. The invitation to call him a sinner still stands.
Who will cast the first stone?

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The Marshmallow Myth

The secret to success in the marshmallow test of life and work is not about delaying gratification. It is about discovering gratification in every situation. It’s about leveraging the unparalleled ability of the human mind to find—and focus on—small sources of gratification in any set of circumstances.

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Anton Chekhov: How to Become a Cultured Person

As Chekhov says, reading this letter (or books) is not enough. Getting from where you are to where you want to be is not easy. These eight conditions are not a checklist, but a guideline—a “true north” of sorts that reveals to us the direction we must go…

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A Latina comes to the defense of a Muslim couple being verbally harassed on the New York subway

A young Latina then intervenes. She asks the older woman what nationality she is and where she is from and the woman says she is from Puerto Rico. The young woman, who says she is Chinese and Peruvian, pleads with the woman in English and Spanish to be respectful to the couple. But in the bizarre exchange aboard the moving E-line train, the older woman tells her to mind her own business and stop scolding her.
“I am not asking you to be quiet. I am asking you to please respect her,” says the young woman who Univision Noticias identified as Tracey Tong, 23, of Queens.

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Grown-ups Are Stupid! How to Travel + See the World Like a Child

Consider the reasons:

• Everything is new to them
• They possess limitless curiosity + everything is a learning experience
• They live in a carefree bubble, without the worries of daily adult life (money, relationships, life and death)
• They love to create
• They don’t care what other people think
• They act with reckless abandon – doing “just because”
• Their default mode is “play”
• They live in the present

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An Oxford Comma Helped Decide a Labor Dispute in Maine

If often seems as if the ongoing war over the Oxford comma is likely to rage on for as long as there is a written word. Proponents of it claim that the comma is necessary in order to cut through any confusion in a sentence (it’s also the side we here at mental_floss fall on). Critics, however, say that the comma is superfluous, clunky, and maybe even a little bit elitist. But one dairy company in Maine just found out that the Oxford comma isn’t just helpful—it could also keep you out of court.

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