From Josh Butler, The Pursuing God. A beautiful re-presentation of the gospel’s saving narrative. Please pass this on. I once had a vision of an artist painting a masterpiece. With lavish brushstrokes and bold strikes, he threw splashes of rich, beautiful color, pouring himself into his painting with passion on a large, wall-sized canvas bordered by an ornate gold frame. When the masterpiece was complete, he stood back and gazed with joy upon the wonder his hands had made. As if... Read more

Robert Asher concludes his book Evolution and Belief with a brief discussion of probability in biology and closing thoughts on the belief in God. The randomness and improbability of evolution is often emphasized in the popular literature, but evolution is not a random process. Concepts of probability and randomness in biology are often seriously misunderstood. Probability and Contingency. Asher uses the example of dice. Suppose we role five dice, three times in succession. The odds of getting any particular outcome,... Read more

Stacy Rinehart, author of Upside Down, observed that “there is an epidemic of power leadership loose in churches and ministry organizations today. Power leaders are so common that we’ve lost our immunity to this style of leadership.” This quotation comes from one of my favorite “leaders,” Kent Keith, president of PacRim University in Honolulu and author of The Christian Leader at Work: Serving by Leading. (Notice that subtitle, would ya? Brilliant. Not leading by serving but serving by leading. That’s upside down.) Epidemic... Read more

Source: For the past five years the media has been speculating about whether a very low-calorie diet, pursued for a limited time, can ‘reset the clock’ for many type 2 diabetics, following a study on 11 diabetic patients in 2011. The initial results were promising, but were based on a very small sample. A slightly larger trial at Newcastle University recently concluded that the condition can be reversed in some patients — ‘some’ being the operative word — and these... Read more

Wonderful coffee — I rate I Have a Bean coffee right next, if not above, Intelligentsia and Hansa Coffee: he Second Chance Coffee Company’s “I Have a Bean” in Wheaton, formed in 2007, is a for-profit business that percolated from the Brazil trip and Leonard’s decision to provide former felons an opportunity to be on his payroll. “There are people who have a felony record that cannot find employment at most other places of business,” Leonard said. “I think the major... Read more

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. BCP Read more

The following description of Bill Hull comes from his web site: “Bill Hull’s passion is to help the church return to its disciple making roots and he considers himself a discipleship evangelist. This God-given desire has manifested itself in twenty years of pastoring and the authorship of many books.” Bill’s latest book, Conversion and Discipleship: You Can’t Have One Without the Other  framed this conversation. David George Moore conducted the interview. Dave blogs at www.twocities.org. Moore: Late in life, St.... Read more

This professor not only listed his “visible” successes but also his “invisible” failures: A professor at Princeton University has published a CV listing his career failureson Twitter, in an attempt to “balance the record” and encourage others to keep trying in the face of disappointment. Johannes Haushofer, who is an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at the university in New Jersey, posted his unusual CV on Twitter last week. The document contains sections titled Degree programs I did... Read more