Week In Review – 1/8 – 1/14

Its been a couple of weeks since the last week in review so my pool is a little larger. That means you are only getting the best of the best.

My favorite author wrote a great piece discussing the problem that evolution poses in the world of ethics. Kanon Simmons – Why Hitler Is No Longer A Sure Bet.

My time as a student at Virginia Tech was perhaps the most spiritually life changing time of my entire life. One of the main reasons was I saw God take a man (Ryan Penley) who was lost and remake him into the best evangelist I personally know (he’s now the Campus Director for Campus Crusade at the University of Maryland). It’s hard not to love a God who changes lives. Russell Moore reminds us that is God’s business. Russell Moore – The Next Billy Graham Might Be Drunk Right Now

I think Christians should be generous. Certainly God was generous to us. Raymond Johnson – Is A Laborer Deserving of His Wages?

Perhaps the most important rule of hermeneutics. Don’t try to interpret the Bible until you read it. Justin Taylor – The Importance of a Superficial Reading the First Time Through

Week in Review – 12/18 – 12/24

I’ll start with 3 Christmas posts…

• Last year I posted a link to a flash mob experience that I thought was completely awesome. Though it doesn’t exactly fit into the week in review category, I still like it a whole year later so I am including it anyway. – Nathaniel Simmons – Hallelujah 

• Matt Redmond reminds us that Christmas is about something more important than happy times with our families; its about the gospel. – Matt Redmond – Christmas Is For Those Who Hate It Most

• The angels brought the Shepherds good tidings of great JOY, Christians should be a particuarly happy people. – Mark Altogge – How Joyful Are You This Christmas?

And here are some others, not specifically about Christmas, that I particularly enjoyed.

• I absolutely loved Russell Moore’s letter to his new born son, whom doctors thought would be born with Down’s Syndrome. Russell Moore – An Open Letter to a Newborn Son

• I love listening to sermons online, however this post reminded me that there is a big difference between delivering sermons and being a pastor. A pastor needs to know us. Trevin Wax – Your Podcast Is Not Your Pastor

• Perhaps part of the problem with Christian ethics is that we allow the culture to establish the terminology. A.B. Caneday explains why the shift from virtues to values undermines our ability to discuss ethics with our culture. – A.B. Caneday – Of Graces, Virtues, and Values

Week in Review – 12/11 – 12/17

I thought it might be helpful to start passing along 4 or 5 of the best articles that I read in the previous week. I hope you enjoy them too!

• One of my favorites was a lesson in critical thinking by Justin Taylor. He gives us some great advice concerning how to listen to arguments online. – Justin Taylor – Thinking Through Arguments in the Public Square

• Here are two really fun and really short posts by Taylor. – Justin Taylor – God’s Funeral and Justin Taylor – Two Ways to Look at Christian Liberty

• My wife wrote a great piece that points out how quickly we begin to think that we deserve grace – Kanon Simmons – RC Sproul on Mistaking Grace for Entitlement

• One of my seminary professors learned that his son has leukemia this week. He has blogged about the experience and it has been both heart breaking and encouraging. – Steve McKinion – We Don’t Want Your Cancer Beads

• I am not on a crusade to against tattoos but I did think this article was interesting. – Gene Veith – Tattoo Regrets

• And I can’t leave out at least one review of the death of one of the world’s most famous atheists. While I will include a full length article, I also found John Piper’s tweet helpful. He wrote, “Think Christopher, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” – Doug Wilson – Christopher Hitchens has Died…

You Know This…

You may not know this, but my wife, Kanon Simmons, has started her own blog called “You Know This….” You can find it at www.kanonsimmons.blogspot.com.

The major point of her blog is to talk about natural law. But before you start yawning, I assure you that it is actually interesting, both her blog and the topic. Natural law refers to the the knowledge of right and wrong that naturally exists in every person, even if they have never heard of the Bible.

It used to be that everyone simply recognized that natural law existed. People assumed that everyone knew that certain things were right and certain things were wrong. For instance, everyone knows that murder is wrong. You don’t have to convince me that murder is wrong, I just know it. This innate knowledge of right and wrong is what the founders of our country referred to when they said, “we hold these truths to be self-evident…”

Today the notion that everyone naturally knows that certain things are right or wrong has fallen under suspicion. There are actually some people who suggest that the only reason we think murder is wrong is because we have been taught that it is wrong by our culture. In their minds murder may be wrong for you, but you can’t say that it is wrong for everyone.

I am really excited that Kanon is going to start blogging about natural law. The topic is fun and I think her writing is fun. I hope you read her blog along with me. I am confident it will help us become better thinkers about ethics, politics, and Christian living.