Failing at failure?

This could be a great way to bring up an important conversation with our kids. The fear of failure stops many children from trying new and hard things. God gave them talents, and if they are going to develop those skills (and not bury them – Matthew 25:14-30) our children will need to push their limits. That might mean running so hard they start tripping, stumbling, and even eating some dirt. They need to know there is such a thing as God-glorifying failure… but not God-glorifying cowardice.

Marriage makes men better

Though he doesn’t acknowledge God, this evolutionist has discovered that God’s plan for the family – marriage – works best, reining in men’s antisocial behaviors.

There is a really great metaphor here, too, about our rational self being a rider trying to control an elephant that represents our impulses. Those impulses – or, in Christian terms, sinful desires – can be easier or harder to control depending on where we take them. So, for example, a rider troubled by alcohol shouldn’t “take his elephant” into a bar. To extend this to the family realm, a dad or mom trying to deal with a kid that pushes their buttons shouldn’t indulge in watching the late show – they’ll have to put their elephant to bed early each night to better enable them to be calm and controlled.

The Swiss Family Robinson: a return to the classics

Jonathon Van Maren makes a plug for this great book. Parents, if you get your kids a copy, be sure you get an attractive one: a great cover, good font, and a few illustrations thrown in here and there can really help by making a classic so much more appealing.

G.K. Chesterton on AI

If you want to understand AI, then who better to ask than someone born two hundred years before it was invented? This is a good one! And for an in-depth dive check out what’s on offer at Creation.com.

The most bizarre experience of my life

When theologian E. Calvin Beisner was invited to do an interview about climate change, he never expected to be interviewed by a clown. Who knows how this will end, but some people certainly are desperate to try to make Christians look bad.

“He Gets Us” takes a big “L” in the Super Bowl

Among the Super Bowl commercials last week were two to promote the “He Gets Us” evangelistic campaign. Many Christians have defended them as “pre-evangelism” – sure, they didn’t hint at the Good News, but they did tell people that Jesus gets them. That’s a start, right?

There’s some truth to that – they had a minute, and if you had just a minute would you be able to present the whole of the Gospel to someone? To say it another way, an incomplete message isn’t wrong… it just needs more.

But the problem comes when we say the easy part and stop. And a lot of “churches” are content with just telling folks that Jesus gets them. But they don’t want to offend anyone. Telling people they need to repent? Jesus as Saviour is offensive indeed.

Now someone has shown how it is possible, in just a minute, to tell people quite a lot about Jesus and their need for a Saviour. And Ray Comfort gives his own version here.