A North Carolina megachurch pastor pulled no punches when preaching to his congregation about false teachings, even name-checking the Trump-endorsed Bible and Christian Nationalists. Loran Livingston, lead pastor of Central Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, was speaking on the importance of studying Scripture directly, without influence from false doctrine. He specifically mentions the danger of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” Bible, which was recently endorsed by Trump. “I’m here to tell you that is a cheap ploy,” Livingston began. “If your spirit can’t tell the difference from your so ..read more

Movies are in a bit of a lull right now. Sure, there’s a small handful of dystopian dramas and action-packed options at the theaters, but the summer blockbuster bump hasn’t quite hit yet. So, while you’re stuck at home scrolling for an option to pass the time, why not choose something that has an inspiring message? One that holds significant messages, prevalent themes or ideas that will compel you off your couch and out into acts of service? If that sounds like something you’re looking for, check out these five options — all available to stream on Netflix: What We Leave Behind Julián Moreno i ..read more

After being passed by both houses of Congress, this morning President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that would ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it is sold within a year. The new law applies to any social media app owned by a foreign adversary that has more than 1 million yearly users in the U.S. With 170 million American users, Chinese-owned Tiktok definitely fits that bill. It is the most serious threat yet to TikTok’s future in the U.S., but don’t expect to see any changes to the app just yet. Here’s what we know: Is TikTok shutting down? No. The law states that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese ..read more

For most of us, our brain is an unknowable thing, and the landscape and pattern of our minds is as foreign as the bottom of the ocean. We tend to stumble through our mental processes on instinct, chasing our thought life wherever it goes and assuming there’s little else we can do. That’s a perception Dr. Caroline Leaf hopes to change. She’s a cognitive neuroscientist who’s been researching the connections between our minds, our brains and our bodies for almost 40 years, and she’s been using her studies to teach people how to manage their minds and organize their “mental messes.” Dr. Leaf recen ..read more

Google has developed a new artificial intelligence model that can predict weather forecasts faster than meteorologists. Scalable Ensemble Envelope Diffusion Sampley, or SEEDS for short, uses the power of AI to generate numerous weather forecasts in a short amount of time. This in turn allows researchers to analyze a wider range of possible weather outcomes, and can even predict natural disasters days or weeks before they happen. “Accurate weather forecasts can have a direct impact on people’s lives, from helping make routine decisions,” Google wrote in a blog post. “The importance of accurate ..read more

When it comes to experiencing revival, worship artist Kim Walker-Smith knows what she’s talking about. Walker-Smith spent 21 years leading worship revivals with Jesus Culture around the world. Beyond that, she was a school of ministry graduate who had studied past revivals at different moments in the church’s history. Over the last few years, however, she’s begun to rethink her idea of what a revival is, specifically what it is we’re asking for. Eventually, she realized she did want something deeper, something more. “I don’t want just a moment in time,” Walker-Smith said. “I would love somethi ..read more

One of my friends recently told me she was seeing a guy she met on an app. I was over the moon for her — I can’t tell you how many conversations we’ve had about our mutual lack of a love life. I was asking her questions about him, wanting to know how he caught her eye and what interested her the most. They had so much in common, she told me, except for one thing: he wasn’t a Christian. I was shocked, to say the least. She and I met in a small group three years ago. She has been involved in our church for even longer than that. How could she be interested in dating a guy who didn’t go to church ..read more

Greg Daniels’ The Office spinoff/reboot/revival has found its first two actors. Domhnall Gleeson (Star Wars) and Sabrina Impacciatore (season two of The While Lotus) have signed on for whatever Daniels has up his sleeve. Sabrina Impacciatore For now, we know that Daniels, who created the U.S. version of The Office as well as other beloved sitcoms like Parks and Rec and King of the Hill, has been developing some version of a show that’s set in the same universe as the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. Last month, it was reported that Nathan For You co-creator Michael Koman was joinin ..read more

I did it. I made the move to a new city. The hard part is over — wasn’t it? That’s what I told myself when I moved halfway across the country on my own last year. I thought getting there was going to be the most difficult part, but after the boxes were unpacked and I figured out how to get to the grocery store without using Google Maps, I realized there was a big part of my journey that was going to be more difficult than I realized: making friends. I figured I could make new friends easily. After all, I’d done it before in college. I met people in class, at church, at the coffee shop who beca ..read more

I am a disciple of Jesus. But if I am honest with myself, I am probably more of a selective disciple. I find myself, sometimes unknowingly, but again if I am honest, knowingly, “choosing areas in which commitment suits [me] and staying away from those areas in which it will be costly,” as John Stott wrote in The Radical Disciple. What about you? Are there areas where you pick and choose what to submit to the authority of Jesus? I wonder if sometimes these areas are things we think really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. By saying it is not a big deal we are able to downplay the poss ..read more