Nicole Kidman is known for her gorgeous red hair and porcelain skin. While the Australian graced the cover of People’s 50 Most Beautiful People issue in 1992, she didn’t always feel so confident. Like many of us, Nicole battled with insecurities and the desire to fit in. Even when the world thinks you are beautiful, fighting your negative feelings is hard. Just because you’re a celebrity doesn’t mean that you aren’t a human being with feelings. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Nicole Kidman (@nicolekidman) As Nicole Kidman’s Career Took Off, Designers Took Notice Nicole Kidman recently opened up about her past insecurities for the Hulu documentary, In Vogue: The 90s. Now at age 57, she’s able to embrace her physical features, but it wasn’t always easy. During the third episode of the series, we meet John Galliano. The designer talks about wanting to design a gown specifically for Nicole as she is becoming a huge star. She explains that she is awestruck after years of feeling insecure. “Can you believe it?” Kidman asked. “My whole life, I wanted to be 5’2″ and curvaceous and suddenly, being 5’11 and completely sort of skinny and flat chested was like, ‘Great, we can dress you.'” The night she wore the custom-designed dress felt like something out of her wildest dreams. “I mean, I was a red-headed, fair-skinned girl who was almost 5’11 at the age of 14,” she said. “I would get teased, and it wasn’t kind. So every time I was given access to that whole world, you feel like a little girl who’s been given the chance to step into this sort of fantasy world.” The first three episodes of In Vogue: The 90s are available on Hulu, and the final three episodes will drop on September 20. This story’s featured image is by Kevin Winter/Getty Images. The post Nicole Kidman Shares How She Learned To Love Herself After Years Of Insecurities appeared first on InspireMore.

Let’s talk about how we should be praying for our country, the upcoming election, and for godly leadership.

One morning, in my study of 1 Thessalonians, I read these words from Paul in 5:1-11, lingering over our key verse, “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” As he often does, Paul reminds believers that they are soldiers in God’s army and must prepare and protect themselves for battle.

This week, construction crews finished destroying a church building in my neighborhood. I drove past last weekend to mourn one final time. The white columns and colonial steeple still stood. But the sanctuary, offices, classrooms, and fellowship hall had already been chewed into dust by excavators. For me, it was the end of a dream. I lived for five years on Red Mountain, just south of Birmingham, Alabama, overlooking Shades Valley. This church’s steeple jutted through the canopy of pine trees that separated us. From my deck and the southern windows in my son’s room, my kitchen, and my office, I looked down on the steeple and prayed nearly every day that a faithful, biblical, gospel-preaching church would open in the building. I couldn’t quite believe the dream had died until I saw for myself the facade standing sentinel over piles of rubble. Why Many Don’t Mourn I might be alone in my mourning, however. News reports billed the church’s end as a win-win. The PC(USA) congregation couldn’t afford upkeep and maintenance on the building they could no longer fill. They merged with another PC(USA) congregation down the highway, endowed that church with the sale proceeds, and still gave away $1 million to other ministries. I looked down on the steeple and prayed nearly every day that a faithful, biblical, gospel-preaching church would open in the building. The city was more than happy to remove a nonprofit ministry from some of the most valuable real estate in the Southeastern United States. Fourteen lots will sell for more than $1.25 million each, and custom homes will sell for at least $2 million. At those prices, the school district won’t have to worry about adding many kids at the elementary school down the road. The new residents will pay a 9 percent sales tax as they buy groceries and eat meals at upscale restaurants across the street. It’s a great deal for everyone involved. Perhaps my mourning is misplaced, because there’s no shortage of churches in the immediate vicinity. Drive for less than 10 minutes and you’ll find a thriving PCA congregation. It’s only five minutes on the same road to the Anglican church. The Baptists are booming a little further down. Within that 10-minute radius, three nondenominational megachurches can be found. One of them is among the largest churches in the U.S. All told, I know up to 10 churches within 10 minutes that need more worship space and parking. So it’s not like anyone who would have attended this demolished church will struggle to find options. Why I Mourn So why do I mourn the loss of this one church building? Two reasons. First, we don’t have enough church buildings in my community. We might live amid the Great Dechurching, but the effects aren’t evenly distributed across the United States. You’ll find little evidence of church decline in my neighborhood. You’ll see churches that attract large families as well as single women. You’ll see churches that celebrate more baptisms than funerals. If you want choirs or worship bands, youth ministries or live streaming for shut-ins, you have options in my neighborhood. Nearby Samford University helps fuel this church growth. My own nondenominational church can’t find a building big enough to accommodate the hundreds of college students who attend. We meet in a building acquired from a former Southern Baptist congregation. Despite years of praying and searching, of saving and planning, we can’t secure enough space. Losing such a beautiful church building, when so many churches need more space and can afford to pay for it, feels like a loss for God’s kingdom. Second, I’m reminded our churches can never afford to lose the gospel. I don’t know what was preached and taught in this church that closed. I only know they belonged to a denomination that has revised its theology in recent decades, especially related to sexuality. Even as that denomination declined from 3.1 million members in 1984 and 1.1 million members in 2022, many leaders resisted calls to restore confessional integrity and biblical authority. I have friends still faithfully serving in this denomination, in my city, in historic buildings. Their steady witness inspires me. I wish I could guarantee that their testimony to the transforming power of the historic, orthodox gospel will keep their doors open. But I can’t. No one can. Deferred maintenance stalks plenty of biblical churches that stand against Western culture’s liberalizing trends. Warning for All Churches While I can’t guarantee biblical congregations will stay open, I can nearly guarantee revisionist congregations will close sooner or later. Bigger churches with bigger buildings in my neighborhood may face the same decision about closing. They don’t preach a gospel that conforms to historic confessions or confronts Western culture. Staying up to date may be beneficial in certain businesses, but it’s nearly certain to end in death for churches today. Though churches should clearly communicate to our age, they must resist every temptation to adjust their theology to suit our age. Staying up to date may be beneficial in certain businesses, but it’s nearly certain to end in death for churches today. Two generations ago, adjusting is what many conservative churches did in my city. Many supported segregation. They conformed to the age instead of preaching the timeless gospel. One prominent church ended up as a pile of rubble, paved over to become a parking lot. The gospel creates tension in every age, in every culture. Jesus will not be domesticated. We must never go back on his Word. Because only in his Word do we find power to live for God, forever. When churches forsake the Word, they have no spiritual power to fuel genuine discipleship. And in a culture that offers infinite distractions from church, nothing but spiritual power will suffice to compel attendance and service. If people know they can afford to miss church, they will. They don’t need churches to tell them to be good people and do nice things for others. Thankfully, they hear that message in other venues. They need the message they’ll only hear in a Bible-believing church: that Jesus, the only Son of God, sacrificed himself on the cross and rose from the dead for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. From my old house on the mountain, I didn’t just see the church steeple. Birmingham Zoo sits at the base of the mountain; I could hear the lions roar. And I thought about that glorious day when all creation will sing the song of the Lamb (Rev. 15:3-4). On that day all the world will rejoice. Praise will not be confined to church buildings. But for now, we give thanks for these buildings that point us beyond the mountains to the heavens, where our help and hope comes from (Ps. 121:1-2).

“Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” are words the psalmist wrote as he gazed on the creation and beheld God’s glory (Ps. 19:2). He watched the sun run its course across the heavens and likened it to an athlete running his race (vv. 4–5). The psalmist, however, didn’t merely marvel at creation’s beauty but acknowledged that it disclosed knowledge: “There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard” (v. 3). What does the creation say? What speech does it disclose? Creation reveals God’s existence. Some theologians reject this idea, and yet Scripture and classic Reformed theology say otherwise. God reveals something about himself in creation, a disclosure that falls under the category of natural revelation. This stands in contrast to special revelation, which is the knowledge God discloses about himself chiefly in Scripture. We can liken natural revelation and special revelation to two “books.” When people read the book of creation and interpret it, this is called natural theology. Let’s briefly consider the objections to natural theology, what Scripture and historic Reformed theology have to say about it, and the importance and benefits of natural theology for the Christian life. We can liken natural revelation and special revelation to two ‘books.’ Objections to Natural Theology Theologians from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas to John Calvin have acknowledged we can know something of God’s existence from creation. But in the wake of the Enlightenment, philosophers such as Immanuel Kant claimed we couldn’t reason our way from the creation back to God. Kant separated our knowledge of the world from our knowledge of God. Other philosophers such as David Hume contended that we cannot assume a relationship between cause and effect. Say we hit a cue ball with a billiard stick and watch it strike the eight-ball, which then rolls into the corner pocket. This doesn’t mean the cue ball caused the eight-ball to move. Hume doubted the relationship between cause and effect, and these doubts resonated with Kant. Can we reason from the creation (the effect) back to the Creator (the cause)? These objections seemed weighty to the minds of some 20th-century theologians both conservative and liberal, and so natural theology and proving God’s existence from the creation seemed like a fool’s errand to many. Let us, though, contemplate what Scripture says and how the historic Reformed tradition understood Scripture’s teaching. Scripture and Classic Reformed Theology Not only do we have the psalmist and his inerrant commentary on creation’s message about God’s existence, but we also have the apostle Paul’s words: “[God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Rom. 1:20). We can trace the lines of Paul’s statement from creation (the effect) back to God (the cause). Only a sovereign and mighty God has the power to create this immense cosmos with its trillions of stars. If creation is always in a state of change, then only an immutable and unchanging God can produce such a creation. The creation tells us, therefore, something about God’s nature. Consider also what historic Reformed theology has said about these things. The Westminster Confession of Faith draws a clear line to say we can know God exists from the creation, but we cannot know the gospel from the creation: “Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, as to leave men unexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation” (WCF 1:1). Scripture and historic Reformed theology affirm the legitimacy and necessity of natural theology, a tool that enables human beings to know that God exists, among other important truths. Significance for the Christian Life While some acknowledge that we can know something of God’s existence from the creation, they may doubt the necessity of such knowledge given our possession of Scripture. Some question the legitimacy of reading the book of creation when we have the book of Scripture, a book that discloses that God is triune, the incarnation of Christ, the gospel, and so much more. The simple response is that God has given us both books to read and study. If creation is always in a state of change, then only an immutable and unchanging God can produce such a creation. When Scripture speaks of God’s creation, it beckons us to lift our eyes from the pages of holy writ and gaze on the world’s beauty. Scripture calls us to look at things as small as ants (Prov. 6:6) to ponder God’s wisdom and to consider birds and flowers to learn something of God’s providential care for his children (Luke 12:24–31). Natural theology in concert with Scripture teaches us much about the God we worship and serve. We can know of God’s existence through creation and with Scripture in hand we can plumb the depths of God’s wisdom, his invisible attributes, and his power and nature—and we can fill our hearts with wonder. We can join with the psalmist and say, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1).

And the road back to the top begins now

Just ahead of the evening news, reports broke of an Iranian hack targeting the Trump campaign, with hacked materials then being forwarded to the Biden (and later) Harris campaigns. This intrusion was reported by CBS and NBC as an afterthought tacked on to other coverage, and ABC omitted the story altogether. Here’s how CBS reported the Iranian hack: NORAH O’DONNELL: It's good to have you here, too, because there’s some breaking news just coming in and that is about Iran regarding their efforts to try and undermine the U.S. election. What do we know about what Iran is doing?  MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Norah, U.S. intelligence just disclosed that this summer there was a hacking campaign by Iranian actors where they stole information from the Trump campaign and sent it to members of the Biden campaign. This is similar to that hack and leak operation we saw in August, where information was stolen that was damaging to the Trump campaign and given to journalists. In both cases, we don't have evidence that damaging information was used, but this is a loud warning by the intelligence community that as we get closer to the presidential election, we will see more actions by foreign actors to influence the outcome. O’DONNELL: There is a lot of foreign influence in these elections. We will be on guard and watching it and reporting on it. Margaret Brennan, thank you so much. This brief report was an addendum to CBS’s coverage of the ongoing rash of exploding Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies. Margaret Brennan’s studio sit-in, cited here, came after Imtiaz Tyab’s full report from Beirut. And, to be clear, this oh-by-the-way is the most extensive of the reports filed across the network dial. Speaking of dial, as in dialing it in, this was NBC’s offering: RYAN NOBLES: And late tonight, more evidence that Iran's efforts to interfere in the election continue. The FBI says they've discovered that Iran attempted to send stolen digital materials from the Trump campaign to the Biden campaign. But there’s no evidence the Biden campaign used any of it.  This came on the back end of a full report on overseas actors creating fake news sites with AI. Scant, for sure. But these brief reports were a lot more than was offered on ABC World News Tonight, which was absolutely nothing. The most Harris-friendly network couldn’t be bothered to cover a story that might run the risk of casting Donald Trump, or at least his campaign, in a sympathetic light. Once upon a time, network newscasts were interested in foreign election interference. Based on how this Iranian hack was covered, reasonable people might conclude that network interest in such stories is directly proportional to the single letter between parentheses displayed after the hacked candidate’s name. Click “expand” to view the full transcripts of the aforementioned reports as aired on their respective network newscasts on Tuesday, September 18th, 2024: CBS EVENING NEWS 9/18/24 6:36 PM NORAH O’DONNELL: For more, let's bring in Face the Nation moderator and CBS News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Margaret Brennan. I know, Margaret, you’ve been working the phone talking with sources. So how much did the U.S. know about how this operation was carried out? MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, Norah, my sources told me that the U.S. was given a brief heads up about 20 minutes before yesterday's attack against Hezbollah militants, but just the idea was- something was about to happen. The covert operation was not shared in detail in advance. But we do know that the U.S. is assessing at this point, war is not inevitable. The Biden administration still trying to broker both a cease-fire in Gaza and a deal between Hezbollah and Lebanon. Hezbollah in Lebanon and Israel. O’DONNELL: It's good to have you here, too, because there’s some breaking news just coming in and that is about Iran regarding their efforts to try and undermine the U.S. election. What do we know about what Iran is doing?  BRENNAN: Well, Norah, U.S. intelligence just disclosed that this summer there was a hacking campaign by Iranian actors where they stole information from the Trump campaign and sent it to members of the Biden campaign. This is similar to that hack and leak operation we saw in August, where information was stolen that was damaging to the Trump campaign and given to journalists. In both cases, we don't have evidence that damaging information was used, but this is a loud warning by the intelligence community that as we get closer to the presidential election, we will see more actions by foreign actors to influence the outcome. O’DONNELL: There is a lot of foreign influence in these elections. We will be on guard and watching it and reporting on it. Margaret Brennan, thank you so much. NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 9/18/24 6:45 PM LESTER HOLT: Just in, America's intelligence agencies revealing Iran hackers sent the Biden campaign materials stolen from Trump campaign emails. It comes as top tech company officials were grilled about Iran and other countries' efforts to undermine the election on their platforms. Here's Ryan Nobles. RYAN NOBLES: Tonight, the Senate Intelligence Committee warning the overseas efforts to interfere with the 2024 election is already under way. From Russia, Iran, China, and others. MARK WARNER: Other nation states who figured out that it's easy to spread misinformation and disinformation and try to interfere in our elections. NOBLES: Senators say overseas actors are using artificial intelligence to create web pages that mimic traditional news sites. Pointing to one example, falsely claiming there were three potential shooters in the assassination attempt on former president Trump in Pennsylvania. The main goal of these false posts, senators warn, is not to push for a particular candidate but to sow dissension and raise doubt in the American political system. And they say the tech companies need to do more to stop it. MARCO RUBIO: You don't need to have a big, expensive operation to pursue some of this. I think we should anticipate that in the years to come and it's happening already. NOBLES: The tech platforms argue they've made great strides in detecting false posts. Sometimes with the help of AI. BRAD SMITH: Just this morning, we saw a Russian group put online an AI-enhanced video putting into Vice President Harris' words at a rally words she never spoke. NOBLES: That post was taken down. And late tonight, more evidence that Iran's efforts to interfere in the election continue. The FBI says they've discovered that Iran attempted to send stolen digital materials from the Trump campaign to the Biden campaign. But there’s no evidence the Biden campaign used any of it. Lester? HOLT: OK, Ryan, thank you.  

A medieval bestiary is a vibrantly illustrated compendium of both real and mythical animals — and the comically bizarre way scholars drew these beasts has baffled historians for centuries. The post 44 Images From Bestiaries That Show Just How Strange These Medieval Animal Encyclopedias Were appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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