“I want the whole Christ for my Savior, the whole Bible for my book, the whole Church for my fellowship, and the whole world for my mission field.” - John Wesley

Pastors need to wisely pick the battles they fight, because credibility held in reserve is what gives their words weight when they finally need them. And there are those times when they need that gravitas. Anyone who has not carried the pastoral burden cannot fathom what a true pastor actually carries. When a pastor has not spent themselves on trivia, the people know that their seriousness signals something important, something holy. Restraint is not weakness. It is the stewardship of trust.

Changing your opinion after learning new information is a mark of true intelligence!

My dear Wormwood, One of the most important tactics to keep injustice present is convincing the humans that racism is strictly an overt act of discrimination by an individual. Don’t let them focus on the systemic nature of it. Keep up the good work. Your Uncle, Screwtape

It’s admirable

This is sanity. This is balance. This is honesty. You can be a conservative—hyper, even..And not have a heart full of Bible and a mouth full of hate. 👏🏾 (Side note: it didn’t look fantastic to me..but that’s my opinion)

When you pray for a hedge of protection

I long for a day when the United States has a president who, just for starters, not to even get into more serious matters, is not older than Methuselah and does not sound like a 13 year-old on TikTok talking about middle school classmates. I don’t think this is too much to ask. And do not say to me, I guess you wish we had so-and-so and think what they’d do. We don’t have so-and-so. We have this one. And I don’t think it makes me woke to wish he acted like a grown-up.

The current wave of Keller criticism is a symptom of a fast-spreading form of culture warring that is foreign to New Testament Christianity, but very "at home" in American conservatism as a siloed, anemic, partisanly-hijacked ideology masquerading as evangelicalism.

Yo!

RT @gpackiam: The sin of worshipping the golden calf was not idolatry as we think of it— worshipping something else in God’s place. It wa…

This is powerful. “The answer to hate is not hate”. No rejoinders needed. No disclaimers. No buts…just powerful.

Friendly Reminder: Marriage > Youth Sports Church > Youth Sports Education > Youth Sports This is for all of us wading through youth sports culture. Let’s keep it in perspective. 🙏🏿

Erika Kirk forgiving her late husband’s assassin should speak to all of our hearts. We don’t have to agree with him or the entire event, but we’ve let the world desensitize us if we feel nothing. Forgiveness is at the heart of the Gospel.

1 John 4:20 CSB If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,  he is a liar.  For the person who does not love his brother or sister  whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

I find it interesting how loud some Christians are about the mutilation of physical bodies [gender operations], while in the same breath affirming the mutilation of Christ's body [by tearing down other pastors]. Help, Lord.

Rich theological reflection without thick situational analysis is misguided and unhelpful. The result is little more than theologizing one’s settled political and social opinions. I have read many posts, but I rarely see a public figure arrive at genuinely surprising reflections—where a thick understanding of a situation is put in a “conversation” with a broad theological theme, and it made them arrive at an unexpected conclusion. Many of us seem to be reading situations in a different way. That’s OK. We need each other's lenses and perspectives. That’s the point of community. But it’s not fair to say that just because someone doesn’t act or speak the way you want them to, it’s because they either (a) lack courage or (b) lack conviction. It could be that (c) we are assessing the situation differently. (I say this every few months. I may need to write a substack on this soon!)

Looking for an act of rebellion to respond to the events of this week? Wondering what to do with all the heartbreak, anger, and heaviness you feel? Go to church Sunday. Lift your voice in worship. Let yourself be surrounded by a community of people praising Jesus together. Allow your heart to be stirred by the preaching of the gospel. God. Family. Community. In a world that pushes self above all, there’s nothing more countercultural than choosing to love and serve all three — in that order.