Wreath!
You probably shouldn’t hang it on your front door. If you do, make sure you have armed guards around 24–7.
This wreath costs over $4.5 million. The world’s most expensive wreath.
The thing has sixteen rubies and thirty-two diamonds, including a vivid red 17.49 carat ruby, a 3.03 carat yellow diamond, and a Hellebores flower head that has twenty-two loose diamonds totaling 2.64 carats. The jewels are removable and you can recycle them for other displays after Christmas.
Forgiveness!
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918–2013), the architect of the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa, and its first President afterwards, recipient of over 250 international honors—including Russia’s Order of Lenin, India’s Bharat Ratna, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Nobel Peace Prize—passed away on December 5.
Mr. Mandela was imprisoned for twenty-seven years, eighteen of them in Robben Island, in a small cell, sleeping on a straw mat on the floor,
Who Was The Young Man?
Ever wondered who the mysterious guy was, who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested—a cameo found only in Mark, in 14:51−52? Well, today is your lucky day!
Check out this article that ran in the current issue of Dallas Theological Seminary’s award-winning quarterly, Kindred Spirit: “Who Was The Young Man?”
As a bonus, it not only discusses the “Naked Runaway” of Mark 14, but also the “Enrobed Reporter” of Mark 16.
Let me know what you think.
Grit!
Talent is good. Gifting is great. Being at the right place at the right time is terrific. Etc. But none of these is a reliable marker of success.
So says MacArthur Fellowship recipient Angela Lee Duckworth, Associate Professor of psychology at U Penn.
So what is a dependable predictor of success? Grit!
Dr. Duckworth studies grit—hard work, perseverance, doggedness, tenacity. What causes people to stick with a goal, a dream, a pursuit, for years and even decades? Grit.
Her
Adequate!
In stark contrast to the electronics industry’s pursuit of perfection, researchers the other day unveiled a computer chip that is—get this!—inexact. Yup, inexact. Imperfect. Inaccurate. One that allows occasional errors.
At a conference in Italy on Computing Frontiers, scientists from Rice University in Houston collaborating with others from Singapore, Switzerland, and Berkeley, demonstrated a prototype of the “inexact” chip.
You would rightly ask: “Why?”
Apparently
Mark 14:1−11
Accepting the suffering mission of Jesus, disciples make sacrifices that are profuse, pure, precious, and praiseworthy.
“A good deed she has done to Me.”
Mark 14:6
This is another of Mark’s sandwiches, with an outer story (the betrayal of Jesus; 14:1–2, 10–11) and an inner story (the anointing of Jesus; 14:3–9).
Jesus, unlike the religious leaders in Jerusalem, is in Bethany; Indeed, he seems to have deliberately made his way to the house of one banned from the
Attentive!
Early this month, Sachin Tendulkar retired from cricket after a spectacular career spanning 24 years!
More than half of India’s 1.2 billion is under 25; they have only known the Age of Tendulkar!
Over the decades, cricket-watchers the world over—and I count myself one of those fortunate ones—have been transported by his feats, disheartened by his injuries, frustrated by his failures, and thrilled by every one of his magnificent accomplishments. Saturday, a fortnight
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.