Most Popular Bible of the Year

Americans don’t lack access to the Bible, but it remains a big business for publishers in the United States. In fact, 88 percent of Americans have a copy of the Bible in their homes, according to a 2015 report from the Barna Group. Most homes have more than one copy, and nearly a quarter of people have more than five. Nevertheless, 13 percent of Americans said they bought Bibles within the past year.

So why do Americans seem to have an insatiable appetite for Christian scripture?

You can read the rest.

Verbose Church Sign

This is easily the most descriptive church sign I've ever seen. Anyone still have any questions about them?

P.S. You misspelled "charismatic."

HT: Ed Stetzer

You Are How Much You Work

Meteo/Flickr

HT: Dorcas Cheng-Tozun

And then there’s the Amazon way, recently documented in a scathing exposé by The New York Times. The report, one ofThe Times’ most commented-upon articles ever, paints an appalling picture of a brutal work environment: “At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (emails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are ‘unreasonably high.’ ”

Since the article was published, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and current Amazon employees have quickly decried its claims as inaccurate, outdated, and overblown. In a corporation with more than 150,000 employees, and tens of thousands of former employees, it’s unsurprising that individual accounts would differ and even conflict.

The debate continues over the details of the report, but for Silicon Valley residents like me, the story sounds too familiar. Our region is replete with brutally competitive workplaces that burn through well-educated professionals like expendable commodities. Apple, the most valuable company in the world, has long had a reputation as one of the most intense workplaces in the Valley, its ethos still infused with co-founder Steve Jobs’s famous obsession with perfection. A recent biography of Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, portrays his tendency to treat those who work for him “like ammunition: used for a specific purpose until exhausted and discarded.”

You can read the rest.

Indiana Jones and Going Back to School

HT: John Mark N. Reynolds

Everything you need to know about education can be found in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is an overstatement, of course, but not much of one. Character will define the education you receive or give and character is the theme of the lastIndy film: have it and you choose wisely and live, turn out to be a Nazi or a self-serving worm and die. You might survive a school bureaucracy as a totalitarian or a grifter, but you will never be educated or be an educator. You might not rise up the hierarchy through virtue, but you will please God and best serve your fellow humans.

Choose wisely.

Only the penitent man shall pass.

Only in the footsteps of God.

The leap from the lion's head.

Rend Collective's New Album is Out!

Rend Collective is an innovative, worshipful and fun-loving Christian band from Northern Ireland. They've managed to crank out three full-length quality albums in the past three years (despite, at one point, having equipment stolen) of poetic and powerful lyrics put to an interesting fusion of Celtic, classical and contemporary musical accompaniment. Rend Collective continues to tour in both the States and Europe. My wife and I have enjoyed their live worship leadership, and I'm listening to their new album as I put together breakfast for the kids. It's awesome!

You can download and/or research the album here.

HT: Rend Collective

Prayer for Trusting the Lord, Despite Competition

HT: Scotty Smith

Dear heavenly Father, the battle for our heart’s trust is relentless, often vicious, and quite deceptive. As this day begins (and continues), we affirm that only you are worthy of our worship, love, and trust; and yet we also name the people, places, and things to which we often default, in our sin, weakness, and foolishness. In David’s day, it was chariots and horses, in our day, the battle for our hearts includes . . .

You can read the rest. 

Conversation with TobyMac

(c) TobyMac/The Media Collective

HT: Samuel James

It’s an unfortunate reality of Christian music that most of its truly talented artists either abandon the CCM genre for mainstream exposure or flame out in the abyss that separates “family friendly” radio airwaves from artistic flourishing. The Christian music industry, as a whole, does not tend to be friendly to bands and artists whose honesty and musicality exceed their willingness to coddle audiences.

That’s what makes the career of TobyMac so unique.

You can read the rest.

The Bible Project

HT: The Bible Project

The Bible Project is producing some great, free resources for the church. Because the medium they use is animation, you might assume (without watching it) that this is only for kids. But it’s really something that could profit all of us.

(To find out more about how to provide donor support for this free resource, go here.)

If "Friends" Were Homeschooled

I wasn't homeschooled, and I never got into the sitcom "Friends," but I enjoyed this!

HT: VitaFamiliae

Meditation on Blessed Assurance

HT: Tony Carter

How can the testimony of the Spirit assure you of your salvation? Sadly, assurance is the bane of too many Christian lives. The majority of counseling situations have some element of the confidence the counselee has in Christ and the work of the Spirit in his life. If you are saved, the work of the Spirit in your life is inevitable and indispensable. He produces real results. God desires for us to know it, but how?

You can read the rest.

Did God Betray You?

HT: Paul Maxwell

When I suffer, I become certain of two things: 1. God exists, and 2. he is a traitor.

I didn’t always believe that. I accumulated experiences with God. In every unpleasant moment, in every tragedy, in every moment of confusion, a light and deceptive hand turns my mind’s gaze Godward:

“He did this.”
“He should have stopped this.”
“He wants you to think you can be happy,
. . . but he’s a mischief maker.
A traitor.”

You can read the rest. 

Injustice Never Gets the Last Word

HT: Michael Clary

On July 19th, an old Cincinnati wound that has been slowing healing for the past 14 years was reopened when white University of Cincinnati campus police officer Ray Tensing shot and killed African American Samuel Dubose. Mr. Dubose was pulled over for not having OH state tags on the front of his car. Major news outlets from around the world have been covering this story (Cincinnati.com, MSNBC, BBC, Foxnews). Before the grand jury’s indictment was announced, the mood around town was tense. University classes were cancelled. Police were on high alert.

Personally, this all hit home because the shooting occurred in my home neighborhood, Mt. Auburn. The church I planted 5 years ago is home to dozens of UC students who walk to church each week. On July 19th, while I was preaching a sermon about how Christians can faithfully navigate America’s cultural decline, Samuel Dubose was being shot in the head and killed less than a mile away.

You can read the rest.