Each week (give or take one or two here and there) I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too.
1) ESV Subscription
The ESV Bible is what we use at our church and has been my primary Bible for about 25 years. I periodically use others for personal reading, but the ESV remains my go-to. And I don’t think there is a better value than the annual ESV subscription. It only costs $40 for the year (that’s less than the cost of a single commentary in many series), and users get access to all the study resources associated with the ESV: expository commentaries, preach the word commentaries, study Bible notes, etc. You also get access to all the ESV audio bible narrators. When I am preparing to teach or preach I always lean on these tools. On top of the resources made available to users is the set of tools they provide for interacting with scripture: note-taking, favoriting, highlighting, etc. so that you can engage the Bible in the manner that helps you the most. And it is a simple suite of tools aimed at helping normal Bible readers and studiers into the text. It is useful for devotional study, teaching prep, or even academic work. I love it and use it frequently.
2) Matchbox and Hot Wheels
One of the best things about having young children is being reminded of things I used to love. My son is two-and-a-half and loves to play with cars. He is enamored with all wheeled motorized vehicles in real life and in toy form. And so we have begun stockpiling matchbox and hot wheels cars. And man, sitting on the floor and launching cars all over the downstairs of our house is so fun. Crashing cars is fun. Parking cars is fun (which basically means lining them up so my son can crash them). We recently traveled as a family, and you know what packs up really easily? A half dozen hot wheels cars to keep the boy entertained. I have never been a true gear head, but but I have always loved the design of cars so it’s even fun to find classics in miniature. I think my son has more fun with his Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars than I do, but just barely.
3) “J&G Blues” by Gene Harris & Jack McDuff
I have highlighted music from Gene Harris and Jack McDuff before, but this album is so good that individual tracks are worthy of their own moment. Very simply, when Jazz and the Blues procreate, they make beautiful offspring.