Top 5 Things That Have Recently Blown My Mind

1. In countries as widespread as Brazil, Rwanda, Turkey, and the United States, researchers have found that rises in soap opera viewing are correlated with lower fertility rates, more rights and responsibilities for women and girls, and increased stickiness for messages about public health.

2. A prominent historian in California has gathered compelling evidence that it was the Soviet entry into the Pacific conflict, not the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that forced Japan's surrender and ended WWII. If this is true, it raises provocative questions about the morality of the atomic attacks and the concept of nuclear deterrence, a cornerstone of global military strategy.

3. The United States military owns and operates a secret robot space plane.

4.  The first openly gay presidential candidate from a major political party in American history is running right now. He is a Republican.

5. In 1941, a Japanese pilot who participated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor crashed his damaged plane into a small Hawaiian island. Assistance given to him by three local Japanese immigrants (which included freeing him, arming him, helping him take hostages, and helping him burn down a villager's house) may have influenced the creation of Japanese internment camps in the United States.

Waiting

How then should we live?

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

If this ball of hate and pain is headed for destruction, if almost everything we encounter here is irredeemable, if we have been rescued from a perpetual downward slide which still remains around us, if the only hope for anyone in this life is salvation when it's over—then we do our best to help others be rescued from sin. We serve the poor because Christ did. We spread the word so when Christ returns, there will be many to greet him. We are waiting on God.

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of hell thy people save
And give them victory over the grave

If this ball of hope and promise is headed for redemption, if almost everything we encounter here is redeemable, if we have been called into a perpetual renewal which is all around us, if our hope in this life is to see God's kingdom come—then we do our best to remake the world. We serve those who are in need, we fight for justice, we battle oppression because God has instructed and enabled us to join his ongoing work. God is waiting on us.

O come, desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind
Bid thou our sad divisions cease,
And be thyself our King of Peace

Rejoice, Rejoice
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel

Image: Pedro Moura Pinheiro
This post draws on a recent sermon by WCF senior pastor Del Glick and this previous post.

Why did he come?

Why did he come?

Some say he came to free us from sin. They say this world of ours is corrupt beyond repair, and he came to give us hope that one day all its fear and pain and evil would be purged by fire, and through his sacrifice we would be welcomed into a new one, where there would finally be peace. Now ye need not fear the grave: Jesus Christ was born to save.

Some say he came to redeem the world. They say his ministry was an example of how to live in ways that daily bring his kingdom to earth through his power, his peace, his justice, his grace, his mercy which makes all things new. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

Some days you leave the house and enter a world so marred by sin and evil that you cannot believe good could exist in such a place. Death eats at everything. The Bible delivers a message our society has forgotten: we are irreversibly prone to evil. In the turmoil of our time, fear is pervasive and commanding. We hope for Christ's return.

Some days you leave the house and enter a world so full of promise you believe you can see the hand of God reworking the soil. You find hope in community, in service, in humility, in signs of life. We hope for the redemption of our world.

Often it seems he can't have come for both. Either the world is head to hell in a hand-basket or heaven in a slow cooker. This is the tension of already but not yet resurrected fallen man: A world where there is hope and there is no hope. A person who is damned but sanctified. A savior who was God and man.

Image: Lehigh Valley, PA

Johnny Cash – "Ain't No Grave"

Courtesy of the intriguing Johnny Cash Project.

All Your Show

The following are lyrics from a song called "Instead of a Show" by one of my heroes, Jon Foreman. As someone who is involved with music at my local church, they are deeply convicting to me. I feel it might do us some good if every worship leader in every church across America had these words taped to their wall. 

I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stomp on my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show

Your eyes are closed when you're praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There's blood on your hands
You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don't fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There's blood on your hands

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Let's argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let's argue this out
You'll be one of the clouds
Let's argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can't love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can't stand at all
I hate all your show

Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show

Image: ollycoffey

The Unlikely Love Songs of Josh Ritter

I love Josh Ritter's music for the particular narratives — sometimes joyful, sometimes haunting — he weaves in his lyrics. Here are four of his unlikely, moving love songs:

An anthropologist and a re-animated mummy


A nuclear scientist and a soldier in an underground bunker


An explorer and his ship


An extra and a star in a silent movie


Image: Kmeron