Soli Deo Gratis
Florida, USA
Joined June 2008
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Least of These retweeted
There is a pattern in Scripture that, once your eyes are opened to it, you begin to spot it all over the place.
It’s the threefold sequence of BLESSING followed by TESTING followed by FAILURE.
It begins at the beginning. God blessed Adam and Eve in paradise, but then came the temptation in Genesis 3. The result? Failure.
God blessed Abraham and Sarah with the promise of a son through whom countless offspring would come, but rather than waiting for the Lord to fulfill his promise, they took matters into their own hands through Hagar. Once more, failure.
We see this same pattern in our Bible in One Year readings from 2 Samuel 9–11. David had been richly blessed by God. His kingdom was established, his enemies defeated, and the Lord had promised to establish his royal house forever (2 Samuel 7).
But then what? David lusted, lied, committed adultery, and murdered.
Over and over, God's people are blessed, tested, then fail.
Against this dark background, the events of Matthew 3–4 shine with hope and redemption. At his baptism, Jesus is declared to be the Father's beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descends upon him. Blessing indeed!
Immediately afterward, the Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
BLESSING followed by TESTING followed by….SUCCESS!
Where Adam failed in paradise, Jesus remained faithful in the wilderness. Where Israel failed during forty years in the wilderness, Jesus stood firm during forty days of temptation. He is the true Israel, the last Adam, the faithful and obedient Son.
And Jesus is not merely an example of how to resist temptation. He is our Savior, who has overcome temptation for us. Because he himself suffered when tempted, he is also able to help us when we are tempted (Heb. 2:18).
And there is our hope! Our salvation does not hinge upon our ability to withstand every temptation or remain faithful in every trial. If it did, we would all be fuel for the fires of hell.
It rests solely and completely upon Jesus Christ, whose perfect obedience and righteousness are imputed to us by faith. Where we have failed, he has succeeded. And through his faithfulness, we receive forgiveness, righteousness, and life.
Least of These retweeted
🙏 PRAY FOR THOSE IN THE PATH OF HURRICANE ISAIAS.
As Hurricane Isaias approaches the U.S. Gulf Coast, families across Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and surrounding communities are preparing for dangerous winds, flooding, and storm surge.
Least of These retweeted
Too many Christians want resurrection power with western comforts, Biblical promises with worldly priorities, and Jesus as Savior WITHOUT Jesus as Lord.
My friends, that is not Christianity.
Comfort fades. Wealth disappears. Circumstances change but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Least of These retweeted
Lots of talk about "common good" these days, but, as Andrew Willard Jones points out (The Church Against the State), they largely miss the point.
"Common good" isn't a political principle, certainly not a statist political principle. It's a cosmology.
God created all things good. Not just each thing good in itself, which later are brought into communion. They're created in communion, each with each, each with all.
Thus, the good individual things of creation "become fully themselves only through their interactions with other parts becoming fully themselves."
The good of the world is common because "it is essentially shared, because it is a good that can be had only when it is had together."
Plants need water to achieve their glory, but one of water's glories is to nourish plants. They rise from glory to glory together, in mutual dependence.
Each thing realizes itself by transcending itself, which it can achieve "only through the humble reception of the power of another."
In short, "the good of each includes essentially the good of the other."
And so too with man. We reach our perfection only when other people activate our potential. This is the dynamic that makes "human social order [an] image of cosmic order."
Man the microcosmos: this is how "common good" becomes a politics, realized most fully in the church.
Think of Paul's teaching on the body: Gifted teachers fulfill their particular good in teaching, and their teaching brings their hearers to maturity.
Least of These retweeted
If we want awakening in our cities, we must first seek the peace of our cities.
Pray. Speak Truth. Vote wisely. Love courageously.
Call people to repentance. And never forget: our ultimate citizenship is in Heaven.
#awakehouston
Least of These retweeted
Jesus prayed that His people would be one so that the world might know the Father sent Him (John 17:21). Pray for churches across Houston to unite around Biblical Truth, fervent prayer, Gospel mission, and courageous obedience to Christ.
Least of These retweeted
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?” (Psalm 85:6). Revival begins with God’s people returning wholeheartedly to Him. Pray that the Lord will revive His Church in Houston and awaken believers to renewed joy, obedience, and devotion to Christ.
I Fled Socialism. I Know What Comes Next
leadingtheway.subspla.sh/7jj…
Food for thought, church.
This is a good example of why contemporary worship is often very detrimental to congregational worship. Hymns are written to be sung by a congregation, which means you typically only need an octave and a third vocal range (at most) to hit all the notes.
But contemporary music is written to be performed, which means it's typically written with the abilities of professional performers in mind, which means it will often require a vocal range that most people don't even have, let alone feel comfortable employing. So the end result is that people watch the professionals sing instead of actually singing.
And watching other people worship through song is not really worship.
Least of These retweeted
“Bill Maher and Salman Rushdie Clash Over Islam: “There’s Been a Deadly Mutation”
Bill Maher: Turkey's President said, "Women are not equal to men, our religion has defined position for women, motherhood."
I can't imagine a Western government leader saying that.
What we've said all along, and have been called bigots for it, is when there's this many bad apples, there's something wrong with the orchard.
Salman Rushdie: There's been a deadly mutation in the middle of Islam.
This is not a random mutation.
Governments from the Sunni side, the Saudi government;
on the Shia side, the Iranian government have been putting fortunes of money into making sure that extremist mullahs are preaching in mosques around the world, building schools in which a whole generation is being educated in extremism.
But in a way, we're a side show. This is a project to seize power in the Islamic world.
Whether it's the Taliban, ISIS, Boko Haram, or Al-Shabaab, what they're trying to do is create a mindset which allows them to conquer the world of Islam.
Paul Begala: That's critical for Americans to realize. It's not about us. The real fight is not Islam versus the West, it's within Islam. It's between the terrorists and the tolerant. It's between Al-Qaeda and Malala.
Kirsten Powers: Yeah, but it is Americans who are being beheaded by ISIS right now.
Bill Maher: There should be a distinction, because obviously the vast majority of Muslims would never do anything like this. But they share bad ideas.
Sam Harris said, "Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas," and everyone went fucking nuts, but it is!
These two guys who shot up the cartoonist the other day were revenging the prophet.
A bad idea! Martyrdom, a bad idea! Women as second-class citizens, a bad idea! And unfortunately, the terrorists and the mainstream share a lot of these bad ideas.
“Let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”
- Andrew Fletcher, 1653–1716, Scottish writer, politician and patriot, Commissioner of the old Parliament of Scotland,
Quoted in Donald J. Grout, A History of Western Music, 1973
(The problem with the modern church) is not rebellion in the streets...it is silence in the soul @MichaelYoussef_ @LeadingTheWay
Living Unashamed: When Christians Believe in Christ but Fail to Witness for Him
What modern discipleship looks like.
Mariam Yahia Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian and medical doctor, was sentenced to 100 lashes and death by hanging after refusing to renounce her Christian faith.
Because Sudan considered her Muslim through her absent father, the court convicted her of apostasy despite her lifelong confession of Christ. According to them, she could not be a Christian, married to a Christian, in this Muslim majority country. She was given three days to recant. She refused.
At the time (in 2014), Meriam was eight months pregnant and already caring for her young son in prison. She spent months chained to a prison floor with her 1-year-old son by her side.
While shackled, she gave birth to her daughter, Maya, inside the prison. Her execution was delayed because of the pregnancy, but she remained imprisoned until an international outcry led an appeals court to overturn her conviction and order her release.
Looking back on her ordeal, Meriam said she was not afraid. "Being in prison strengthened my faith even more," she told CBN News.
Least of These retweeted
You know what wrecked me when I was converting to Christianity?
Jihad is literally the gospel in reverse. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.
The gospel says Christ shed His blood for YOU.
Jihad says you shed your blood for ALLAH.
Jesus lays down His life to save His enemies. Jihad calls you to take the lives of enemies in pursuit of God's favor.
Christianity says the Shepherd dies so the sheep can live. Jihad says the sheep die hoping the Shepherd accepts them.
They are mirrors. One is grace, the other is striving.
One says, "It is finished." The other says, "Do more."
Jesus never asked me to earn God's love with my blood, he proved God's love by shedding His own.
That's why the cross changed everything for me. Jesus didn't come to tell us how to die for God.
He came to die for us so we could truly live. PRAISE GOD! I AM FREE! Now, we need to make all the Muslims Christian.
For something to be meaningful, it must be based in reality.
Thankfulness must have a recipient to be meaningful.
To whom are you grateful? m.economictimes.com/news/int…
Least of These retweeted
As America marks 250 years, I thank God for this nation and the freedoms we have been given. But liberty cannot survive without Truth, and no nation can stand when the Church forgets her first love.
This Fourth of July, let us do more than celebrate. Let us repent. Let us pray. Join us as we seek God for another Great Awakening in our day 🙏🇺🇸
awakeamerica.com
#FourthOfJuly #Americas250th #GreatAwakening #PrayForAmerica #indepenceday #july4th #AWAKEAmerica
I’d like a comment from @MichaelAYoussef on this.
Theologian JD Hall to Tucker Carlson:
The Muslim rulers didn't tax churches during the Ottoman period. They were very kind to Christians.
As a matter of fact, they took care of our holy sites. Islamic authorities rebuilt the Church of the Holy Sepulchre three different times over the centuries.
They had a law protecting Christian pilgrims on their journey. Nobody messed with the pilgrims.