Weekend Reading: December 5, 2014

Welcome to your weekend! Below are the most interesting, wacky, encouraging and important articles, music, video I took in these past few weeks. For you night owls you’re getting this a bit early, so enjoy!

First things first – Happy Birthday to my Pops! You’re a hero to me, and I’m thankful for you every day!

***If you’re getting this prior to Midnight then check out Ligonier’s $5 Friday – especially ‘The Word Became Flesh’ download. And if you don’t get this in time, buy it anyway because you won’t hear anything better in terms of Christmas music (I promise!)

Okay…Let’s start with the fact that the trailer for the new Star Wars movie debuted over Thanksgiving. What do you think? Good? Bad? Time will tell!  Speaking of Star Wars…someone dug up this clip of Mark Hamill being interviewed in the 80’s about possibly doing an Episode 7 (h/t KT W) – a more recent interview gives some insight into the new film. 

Hey – you know what, its Christmas season! Which means that there are lots of music options out there. I mentioned one above, and here’s another – Shane and Shane have released a new album and so have Sovereign Grace!

Tim Challies wrote what I think is probably the most honest little blog I’ve read in a while. It’s titled ‘No I Won’t Pray for You.’

And if you’re not going to read anything else this week, check out this article by David Mathis over at Desiring God. He’s writing about silence, and getting away from the hustle and bustle. 

Another pretty good article over at DG’s website is by Jonathan Parnell and is titled ‘Taking Homosexual Sin to Church’.  Sometimes Parnell can through a lot of thoughts out there and forget to bring them home to a relevant conclusion, but here he really seems to make some solid points.

For the kids…R.C. Sproul’s video versions of children’s stories ‘The Lightlings’ and ‘The Prince’s Poison Cup’ have been posted here. 

Speaking of the kids, National Journal posted a story titled ‘The Most Dangerous Toys in America’, and since most of them are of the scooter variety I would agree! (My 4 year old can attest to this)

John Piper’s advent book is free on Christian Audio.com

And – a little on the weird side – there’s been some chatter online about this proposal to redesign our currency. 

Not nearly as cool as Amazon’s latest in Robot technology…

If you love golf, you’ll enjoy this round up of the best golf shots of 2014.

Wretched Pastors Corner: What ever happened to Rob Bell? Answer: He’s Oprah’s new lackey. And Rick Warren gets 5 gold stars for his continued soft-headed approach to ecumenicalism. Read the comments section for context and whiplash.

Al Mohler had a well-rounded commentary on the Ferguson non-indictment. Voddie Baucham also got some deserved attention on the matter, and a man I really respect in ministry, Thabiti Anyabwile, posted what I think is the most illogical and naive article yet on the matter. It’s s frustrating situation in Missouri, but I think Thabiti missed the boat Voddie got it right – you decide!

Another great little piece by Tim Challies a week or so ago re: money and enjoying what money we do have. Check it out!

…And Michael Morales over at Ligonier had a nice piece on the Great Commission in the OT. It’s a little heavy, but still pretty decent.

Something to think on for the week ahead – an article in the Atlantic about ‘The Fall of Facebook’…very interesting stuff. 

I appreciated Brian Najapfour’s article called ‘Six Truths About Sickness’ 

And finally, some politics, Mike Allen over at Politico has an article profiling 20 of the most likely GOP Presidential candidates. Karl Rove had something similar but it was such mush I didn’t bother linking it.

Enjoy your weekend!

PJW