• One: Baylight Church Community started a “Read the Bible in Two Years” thing over at the blog, and you can track the conversation in the comments or on the Facebook page. I think it’ll be a great season for the church.
• Two: Marcia wrote a great post about our journey to simplify. I’ll write more in the future too, but it’s been a great process for us.
• Three: Want some more free Kindle books? You can pick up some Devotions for Lent or a biography of John Newton for, that’s right, zero bucks. And remember, there’s a Kindle reader for Windows, the iPhone/iPod Touch, or the Blackberry, so you don’t even have to have a Kindle!
• Four: We now watch a fair bit of Sesame Street. Plus, Muppets are cool. So check out this awesome interactive page on the various Muppets over the years. I never knew Elmo was three and a half. So articulate!

Peace.

• One: Some good friends introduced us to the music of Sara Groves, and her songwriting, themes, and sound are powerful and inspiring. And right now, you can download her latest album Fireflies And Songs for just five bucks.
• Two: As we celebrate Christmas, one of the most striking words that comes to mind is “Immanuel,” meaning “With us, GOD.” At our church community gathering earlier in December, we were reading through the full lyrics of the song “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” and we were struck by the depth of the words. Just this week, I got to the section in New Testament Theology where he discusses the connection between the Gospels and the Old Testament. He made a profound connection (for me) between the beginning and end of the gospel of Matthew: “We also see a theme that frames the entire book of Matthew. Jesus is Immanuel – God with us (Matt. 1:23) – and the book concludes with Jesus’ words, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ All that the OT teaches about God being with his people is fulfilled in Jesus as Immanuel.” (Schreiner, 73)
• Three: Any Bible software geeks out there? Logos is running their Christmas Specials through the end of the year. Some pretty good stuff in there.
• Four: My friend Leslie Kim has a timely thought about joy in the midst of chaos, in which she concludes, “joy overcomes the chaos, putting the flotsam and jetsam of my life in perspective.  Peace, joy, blessedness reign.”

Indeed, may joy reign in your life as 2009 comes to a close.