I largely dislike the constant stream of info thrown at us from social media. That is why I got off Facebook, and put an RSS reader on my phone and tablet. I presently have a Twitter account, but nothing compares to actually going to the websites you want to read and read their articles via an RSS reader or directly. It’s the difference between watching television and watching programs. I once heard that John MacArthur responded to the question, “Do you watch television?” He said, “No, I watch programs.” Meaning that he doesn’t aimlessly surf channels letting TV set the agenda, rather he watches shows he wants to go to watch intentionally. With that said, here are some articles I found worth pondering for this week. Just three stops on the sub-creation of the ponder-osa today! Enjoy!

Israel in the New Covenant—Call of the Church

John White’s insightful words on the New Covenant are worth a read. Excerpt: “The personal salvation of many people is part of that plan, but it is a means to an end. God incarnates His word in His people and He will see that word proved holy, powerful and effectual in history. Thus, God’s stated purpose in the New Covenant dove tails seamlessly and purposefully with prophesies in the Old Testament about a glorious, victorious future for Israel. The glorious prophesies about Israel’s future in the Old Testament refer to Israel in the New Covenant. And they show repeatedly in a thousand different ways that God’s word in His people will bear fruit, that His word will do its work and will not return to Him void, but that it will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it — to demonstrate, to prove in history, His holiness, His power and His might. And these prophesies likewise give us the contours of what that “proving” will look like in the earth. The work of God’s word in His people will usher in what the Bible refers to as a new heavens and a new earth (Is. 65:17). Just as God’s word in an individual renews and progressively makes all things new, so it will be with the church (Eph. 4:11-16), society and the world across future generations. Society is renewed by the power of the gospel in accordance with God’s law and bears glorious fruit.”

Aquatic Engineer at Your Service—North American Beaver

“Did You Know . . .

illustration by DAVE MOTTRAM

A beaver can stay underwater for up to 15 minutes.

Beavers forcefully slap the water with their tails to warn other beavers that a predator is approaching.

Beavers’ large front teeth never stop growing. Constant gnawing on wood helps keep them from getting too long.

The world’s longest beaver dam is a whopping 2,799 feet (850 m) long and is found in Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta, Canada.

According to the Guinness Book of Records the biggest beaver lodge was the size of a medium-sized house—nearly 1600 square feet in area (12 x 12 m) and 16 feet high (4.8 m).

During the winter, cameras placed in beaver lodges to study beaver behavior have surprisingly found other animals, like muskrats, sharing the lodge with them.”

Archaeologists Uncover Missing Chapter Of Job Where He Has To Put Together IKEA Furniture

Anyone who has ever purchased something from IKEA will get this. If you don’t know what it is about, it is satire humor about the typical experience of getting thousands of pieces of whatever you have purchased to put together for days.