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Here are some interesting articles from around the internet this week:

1. God’s Gracious Incursions Into Our Souls – “One of the primary ways that God still speaks is through what Dallas Willard has called “gracious incursions into our souls” (In Search of Guidance, 19). His point is that God puts words, phrases, sentences, images and the like into our minds, stamped with the indelible print of his voice. Although undeniably subjective and occasionally slippery, “impressions” are a valid means of divine communication in our heart.”
2. The Loving Service of Listening – “One of the best acts of service you can give someone is your ears and heart engaged at the same time. Roaring into every conversation with your guns fully loaded with the “right” answers to fire at people is not the most helpful or loving approach to serving others in conversation. It is through words that people give us their stories and hearts, so why would we not learn to cherish and serve one another, and represent Christ well by listening well?”
3. When You’re Lonely For a Friend – “Curiously, however, many of us seem to be standing beside one another, holding identical longings for friendship yet resolutely believing we’re alone in them. The truth is we aren’t actually wandering alone; we’re practically tripping over each other as we grasp at our dreams of friendship that is perfect and easy. These ideal dreams of friendship are often created and watered in our loneliness, and these dreams produce bitterness as we begin demanding from others and from God according to our exacting standards.”
4. Something Better Than The Land – “The worst thing that can happen to a person is not suffering, or wilderness wandering, or even the lack of any tangible earthly possessions. The worst thing that can happen to a person is separation from God, unbelief in his goodness and his saving power. Israel wandered for years. Israel went down to Egypt and was held captive. Israel waited a long time for the land. But God kept them and revealed himself to them. He did not do that with Esau. That is the tragedy of this verse. Esau got land, but no God. Jacob didn’t get the land in his lifetime, but he got God forever. God is always better than the land.”
5. Could The Ancients Not Perceive The Color Blue? – “Certainly, to some extent, color is a mental construction.  The many people who are color blind are not perceiving a different reality from everyone else.  Their perception is just different. And to get all college-student-late-night-bull-session about it, how do we know that all of us are experiencing the same thing when we perceive a color?”