Think of the way that Jesus planned to impact the world after he accomplished his work. It's incredibly simple, and he devoted his whole ministry to it. The way Jesus planned to keep the work going is through specific, called men that he spent years equipping and preparing. That is amazing to me. Jesus spent time with his disciples, preparing them to be able to carry on his work once he eventually left earth to be with the Father. It wasn't trendy or super creative. It was simple and was able to be replicated. Train men to care for the people. Train men to train men. Equip pastors who can equip the saints. I would suggest that nothing has changed. That is still the plan. The question is what does that look like today? 

This week, I am focusing on some Black Friday deals I found.  Enjoy. 

About 3 years ago, I stumbled upon this really neat YouTube channel called "Smarter Every Day". The creator, Destin, is an engineer who posts videos about various topics and explains the science behind things you have always wondered about. In the first video I saw, he made a bicycle with a gear so that when the handlebar moved right, it turned the wheel of the bike left. In the video, he showed how difficult it was to re-train his brain because the neural pathways had been developed over years where this simple adjustment to the mechanical function of the bike caused significant problems in being able to ride it. It took him months to be able to ride the bike. Then he had his son try it, and he learned significantly quicker because his brain was more elastic and those pathways were not as developed. Amazing. 

Tim Challies was recently in China and met a Christian pastor on a train to interview him. The pastor's face was not shown and his voice was changed to protect him and during the interview he said something interesting. 

This week I found some really good stuff from around the web. Theology in cars, 

Many people imagine God looking for the lovely and then loving them. They see themselves as basically good, morally beautiful people and therefore, God's love is deserved. There is a problem though. That problem is that we are not, nor can we ever be, morally beautiful on our own. Hoping that God will look on us and love us because we are lovely ascribes attributes of human love to God and misunderstands the very nature of divine love. 

This week: the benefits of a home library, James Madison's nightmare, passive-aggressive conflicts, 10 things about the New Covenant, biography videos, and more!

This week on The Pastor Discussions Podcast, we talked about the recent results of The State of Theology study that Ligonier does every two years. One of the takeaways we talked about was confusion among professing American Evangelicals about the Trinity, the gospel, the condition of man, and other theological topics essential to Biblical Christianity. This week seems to have been a perfect storm with the release of American Gospel. The Arbor Drive staff watched it today and I will be doing another post with takeaways, but this is something that everyone should watch. You can watch it here on Vimeo by renting it for $4.99. This is something that every Christian should watch and is well worth the price. In a culture with so much gospel confusion, this documentary is a much needed breath of fresh air. 

As I stood at the door of the worship center after service last Sunday, a wonderful woman in our church asked me a question with a note of pain in her voice. The question was simple. How do you comfort someone who is suffering without being platitudinal or offering mere sentimentalities. This wonderful lady had family members who were in the midst of suffering and she longed to comfort them with something real. 

This week's awesome come in the form of video of skyscrapers being built and the top 100 books.