Thus & Such, Vol. 19

We'll start this edition of Thus & Such  with a couple bits of humor.

1. First, check out these John Piper gifs.  They're hilarious.  I have a few favorites, like this one, this one, and this one (note: you have to read the captions too).

2. The second humorous bit was sent to me by one of my seminary friends, regarding a divinity school application for theological liberals.  Rather on the nose, I'd say!

OK, now on to some more serious stuff.

3. When I was a kid, one of my family's favorite Christian singers was Carman.  We had all his tapes (yes, tapes), and listened to them regularly.  My sisters and I even did quite a few lip syncing performances to songs like "The Champion" when we were younger.  We also had a couple of his music videos on tape that we probably wore out because we watched them so much.  In recent years it seems as though Carman has all but left the face of the earth, at least in the media and in Christian pop culture.  But it turns out that he's still been recording and touring extensively.  But today I came across this sad news that Carman has been diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of cancer.  He says that his doctors have given him a 3-4 year window of time.  By his own words, he is undismayed at this news, and plans to continue recording, touring, and ministering.  God bless him.

4. China is trying to wipe out the house church movement that is sweeping the country.  Why?  Because they consider members of house churches to be dissenters.  They want all churches to be registered with the government.  Think it could never happen here?  Think again.

5. President's Day was yesterday, so this link is a bit late.  Still, it's interesting to learn more about the faith of some of the most highly revered presidents our nation has had, and still more interesting to consider if we should care about a president's faith in our evaluation of him.  You can do both here.

6. One of the themes I hammer on in my work as Pastor for children and adults at Riverview is that all things influence and impact us spiritually.  That is, everything you see, hear, do, etc. is influencing you spiritually in ways that you aren't even aware of.  Here's someone who tries to think through how movies influence our understanding of gender.