This video series, "The Chosen", is a very interesting historical-fiction re-telling of the story of Jesus. The first four episodes are available for free watching this weekend only:

https://studios.vidangel.com/the-chosen-reg-cf/livestream

Important interview from Dr. Eric Wallace, Chicago pastor, about gun violence.

https://crev.info/2018/08/pastor-blames-crime-evolution/
Excerpt:
"We need to change the hearts and minds of those folks who are committing these crimes. And they want to talk about gun violence as if the guns are running around and shooting people. It’s people shooting people, and we need to be able to minister to them and get them to have a heart transplant, if you will, through the power of the Holy Spirit."

Napalm Girl, the Problem of Suffering, and the patient transforming love of Jesus Christ.
Fascinating article -
https://world.wng.org/2018/04/through_fire_to_forgiveness

What's the connection between the age of the earth and the problem of Evil?

Great article: https://creation.com/age-of-the-earth-christian-apologists

Here's a fascinating article (book excerpt) about historical personal philanthropy in the USA.

https://world.wng.org/content/the_philanthropy_of_the_little_guys

Here are two interesting articles.

The BBC discusses how fossils form... their conclusion is that you need quick burial, and being surrounded by lots of mineral-rich water, then more sediment piled on top for pressure. In other words, Noah's Flood would be ideal (though they don't say that). http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180215-how-does-fossilisation-happen

By the way, last year's top-grossing Christian documentary "Is Genesis History" (https://isgenesishistory.com/) is coming back to theaters this Thursday, for that one evening only! It discusses the scientific evidence supporting Genesis 1-11, especially including the global Flood. It is also on Netflix and out on DVD.

Here are a couple reviews of books read over the past few months.  For more, see here.

Single, Dating, Engaged, Married: Navigating Life and Love in the Modern Age, by Ben Stuart

I've read a lot of books about dating and marriage, and I'd say this is the best "overall" book I've read on these topics. There are other books that might be more applicable for people in particular situations, like "Courtship in Crisis" for those coming out of conservative homeschool backgrounds trying to figure out how to date, or "For Men Only/For Women Only" for trying to understand the other sex better, or books by the Smalleys or the Eggerichs or the Holcombs for those in difficult marriage situations, or books by Piper, Keller, or Chan for 'theory-of-marriage' type discussions. But this one by Ben Stuart is like 4 books in one, and it is accessible for Christian or nonChristian, and for those coming from a "romantically conservative" or "romantically liberal" background. These are two very different audiences, and it is hard to write to both of them. But I think Stuart succeeds. For example, he writes on page 61 that it is important to have both "character and chemistry", when deciding who to date. The importance of "chemistry" is very important to hear for the "romantically conservative" single Christians who are typically being told by other older married Christians that they must be being too picky, and should just go date and marry some particular godly person in their sphere regardless of whether they're attracted or not. The importance of "character" is important for the "romantically liberal" singles who too quickly/easily fall into romantic attachment with someone who is not sufficiently mature/godly.

In the chapter on singleness, Stuart hits all the same points which these books usually hit, regarding the purpose of singleness in the life of a Christian (ministry)... but he goes deeper, more thoroughly and more Biblically. He goes through the example of the life of Paul, in discussing how to leverage singleness for the glory of God. Some points: 1. Never stop (e.g. Paul even at the end of his life was still active in ministry), 3. invest in the next generation (e.g. Paul mentoring Timothy and others), 3. Cultivate deep friendships (e.g. Luke, etc), 4. Keep learning ("bring the parchments"), 5. Make enemies (! Most books on singleness would not go this far, but I think he is right... following Jesus will typically cause one to make enemies...), 6. Forgive (2 Timothy 4:14, etc), 7. Be courageous, 8. Rest (trust in God's sovereignty)

Next, he presents 7 principles on dating, which are excellent. 1. The importance of prayer. 2. The importance of clarity - explaining to the other person what are your intentions and where you are emotionally at various points in time so they're not guessing. 3. The importance of autonomy- the danger of becoming 'exclusive' (or physical) in the dating phase (rather than reserving exclusivity for engagement, and all physical until marriage). 4. Similarly, the importance of purity. 5. The importance of graciousness (this one was kind of vague, but basically, act in such a way to try to build up the other person, so that regardless of whether the dating relationship moves toward marriage or not, the other person is helped and bettered through the relationship), 6. The importance of community (friends, counselors, family)... interestingly, all of the examples he shared were of friends exercising 'veto' recommendations, recommending against continuing a harmful relationship. He did not share any examples of friends putting pressure on a person to date a particular someone else... and rightly so, I think, because the latter is much less helpful. 7. The importance of patience in dating ... taking time to get to know someone, seeing them in many, varied, and stressful situations, etc. A few other miscellaneous points of interest - in his chapter on sex, he mentions that conquering temptation requires two things: getting stronger on external boundaries, and softer regarding internal self-condemnation. The latter involves remembering how we have been forgiven by Jesus, accepted and loved perfectly by Him, etc. Both (external fighting and internal reveling) are necessary, whereas most people focus on only one or the other.

Here's an excerpt from his study of Abraham's servant:
"As soon as I say that, I know some of you may be thinking, 'That's easy for you to say, Ben. But what are the odds I'm going to find someone like that? It seems all the good ones are gone.' But I challenge you to adopt Abraham's perspective: the God who leads us will also provide for us. Abraham is a man of faith. This leads me to my next point: trust that the God who saved you can provide a mate for you [*]. Many of us can trust God with a lot of stuff, but when it comes to marriage we're scared to death he's going to do something terrible to us: we'll never meet someone, or if we trust God to provide a husband we will have to wait forever and then the guy will be weird or not at all what we want. So we take it into our own hands, which usually involves trying to dress a certain way, or act a certain way, or say certain things in order to 'catch', 'land', 'bag', or 'win' our mate. As a result, trusting the Lord (with the side effects of joy, peace, and a whole lot more) goes flying out of our lives. Don't be a 'believer' who doesn't believe God will care for you. If you have trusted God with your eternal destiny, you can trust him with your love life."
[*] IMHO, I think he should have added a caveat here, "... if He knows it would be best for you to be married." I.e., God certainly CAN provide. But He has not promised to provide a spouse for most people, and we should not pretend that He has promised this.

Stuart's recommendations on the type of person to look for are excellent (based on Rebekah and Isaac), but they are fairly common-sense, and identical to all the other dating books.

Next, he discusses the engagement period. Regarding indecision and when to pop the question, he has some excellent (though probably controversial!) advice. Excerpt: "... when trying to discern if commitment is present. Does this mean that you will always feel a strong sense of passion? No. What I am about to write here will sound very unromantic, but it is reality. You will be playing the percentages. What I mean is this: if 90 percent of the time you feel confident they are the one for you, that is a good sign. Our emotions rise and fall throughout the day. No one has a single, sustained emotional experience every minute of the day. That means there will be moments you feel indifferent about the love of your life. ... My question is, how many moments of the day are filled with thoughts like that? ... Now if four or five out of every ten thoughts about him or her are, 'Eh, I don't know if this is going to work', then don't get married!..." This helpfully "de-spiritualizes" the decision-making process, IMHO.

He has several helpful suggestions. He suggests that before engagement takes place, a serious conversation or set of conversations related to confession should happen... e.g., explaining all the secrets and baggage and stuff from one's past. There should be no big secrets between the couple, before engagement. He also suggests that engaged couples should carefully consider the finances (budget, savings, giving, etc), and discuss with the parents to show that they are financially ready for marriage. He also suggests that regularly (e.g. once a week) the engaged couple set aside time to avoid talking about the wedding and instead discuss plans for the marriage, and he presents a bunch of discussion questions.

In the section on marriage, he has good advice, and tries to exegete the most important Biblical texts on marriage, e.g. Ephesians 5. He chickens out a bit at one or two spots when trying to explain what "submit" means, but overall he does a good job. He tries really hard to make it palatable for modern ears.

The last section, about ministry together as a couple (Aquila and Priscilla), is excellent (and reminiscent of Francis Chan's book and other books).
I highly recommend this book, as a "general", "overall", "safe to give to anyone", "unique", "up-to-date", "gentle", "Biblical", and wise guide to all four life stages (singleness, dating, engagement, and marriage). I think it would be an excellent book for couples to read together and discuss, and for premarital counseling talks. I think that this one and the recent book "Courtship in Crisis" are the two best books for modern singles to read about the topic of dating. Stuart's book is also worth reading about the topic of singleness.
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Contested Bones, by Christopher Rupe and John Sanford
This book goes through all the fossil human and ape (and alleged ape-man) bone discoveries (as of late 2017), and discusses their history and morphology. It convincingly shows that there are no transitional forms, between apes and humans. It also discusses the problems with dating of the bones, such as the history of certain bones being re-dated again and again to fit changing external scientific paradigms or political schemes. It also briefly discusses the genetic evidence, which likewise does not support evolution. Instead, the evidence strongly fits and confirms the Biblical account in Genesis, of separate creation of the kinds (human, ape, etc), and the Flood, and subsequent age. This is an excellent book! The research is superb. The tone is gentle and professional. I was sometimes annoyed by the writing style, which was repetitive (often repeating the same point 3 or 4 times in slightly different wording). But I think one can overlook the writing style in view of the excellent research presented. Highly recommended.
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Behind the Ranges: the story of J.O.Fraser, by Geraldine Taylor
This biography is about an early missionary to China, J.O.Fraser. He was a very godly and talented man, spending lots of time and effort reaching the people in the southwest corner of China with the gospel. He spent lots of time in prayer. The book tells of his successes and failures, various people he mentored, etc. He reached thousands of people with the gospel, and mentored many local churches. His is a life worth studying and emulating, and this is a book worth reading, I think.

What's the connection between MLKJ's vision of social justice and the creation/evolution dialog? Are all humans created equal, or not? Great article by Nancy Pearcey:

https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/nancy-pearcey/liberal-elites-are-killing-martin-luther-king-jrs-vision

Newly discovered Australian giant dinosaur tracks support the Bible's account of Noah's global flood... cool! http://crev.info/2017/03/aussie-dino-stampede/

"Why Haven’t We Found Civilizations Older Than 7,000 — 8,000 years?"
Nifty article - http://crev.info/2017/02/civilization-late-in-coming/