Source (HT: :mic): THE WINDY CITY TEMPERATURE CONVERSION CHART 60° F: Arizonans shiver uncontrollably; people in Chicago are still sunbathing. 50° F: Californians try to turn on the heat; people in Chicago plant gardens. 40° F: Italian sports cars won’t start; people in Chicago drive with the windows down. 32° F: Distilled water freezes; Lake Michigan water gets thicker. 20° F: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves and wool hats; people in Chicago throw on a light jacket. 15° F:... Read more

Source: Any surprises? What would you say will be gone in 5 years? With the speed of innovation in the tech industry, we can’t know every piece of technology that will fill our everyday lives in five years, but we can predict what won’t last. As smartphones begin to render low-end cameras obsolete and Netflix continues to upend the DVD and Blu-ray market, it’s clear the technology landscape will look dramatically different in the near future. Here are five tech products we predict... Read more

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

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Source: 23 almonds weigh about 1 ounce. As do roughly 167 pine nuts, 49 pistachios, and 19 pecan halves. Take a look at the chart below for other 1 ounce counts. 1 ounce of almonds, hazelnuts, or pistachios delivers 3 to 4 grams of fiber. Not a lot more than other types, which have 1 to 2 grams, but good to know if you’re looking to get more of that important component into your diet. Some nuts are higher in magnesium than... Read more

Thinking of warmer weather might help us in this frigid weather. As Andy Williams Griffith once said, “What it was was football.” Well, the shape of the football deserves explanation: The reason a football bounces so strangely is because of its shape. A football is a prolate spheroid, and it’s shaped that way because that’s also the shape of an inflated pig’s bladder, which is what the first footballs were made of. Soccer balls were also made of pig’s bladders,... Read more

To start this New Year, we’re going to have a little fun with the “Woman at the Well” story from John 4. I want to present Jesus in some contemporary media images.  Today Jesus is like Oprah. Jesus sat down on the edge of Jacob’s Well near Sychar and said, “Welcome, friends! Today’s show will feature a Samaritan woman whose story you just have to hear. Her’s is a story of heartbreak and shame, of isolation and pending hopelessness. I’ve... Read more

William Webb, in his newest book, Corporal Punishment in the Bible: A Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic for Troubling Texts, examines what might be called the traditional view of spanking among evangelical Christians. He calls it the “two smacks max” or “two spanks max” method. He begins with that method and examines whether it is really biblical. Thus, “Christian advocates of spanking [and he names James Dobson, Focus on the Family, Wayne Grudem, Al Mohler, Andreas Koestenberger, and Paul Wegner] generally claim that... Read more