You know what shook me when I was Muslim?
The story of Hosea. God tells a prophet to marry a woman He knows will betray him.
She does. She runs to other men. She ends up enslaved, sold, used up, worthless to the world.
And God tells Hosea to go BUY HER BACK.
To pay money for his own wife who cheated on him, and love her again. Hosea 3.
I thought it was the most humiliating command in the Bible. Why would any man do that?
Then I realized I was the wife.
I gave my heart to everything but God. I chased other masters. I sold myself cheap. I made myself worthless.
And God looked at me, the betrayer, and didn’t say “you’re not worth it.”
He said, “Name the price. I’m buying her back.”
That’s the Gospel. God doesn’t wait for the unfaithful to come crawling back clean.
He pays to redeem them while they’re still dirty.
Islam told me to make myself worthy of God.
Hosea showed me a God who pays to redeem the unworthy.
The cross was Him naming the price.
Praise the Lord.
If you’re arguing that “the Septuagint” or “the Dead Sea Scrolls,” both included certain books, and on that basis we must have those books in our Bibles today, then you have a big problem. Both “the Septuagint” and “the Dead Sea Scrolls” are mini-libraries — they include documents considered both scriptural and non-scriptural in their day. For example, the Letter of Aristeas, 3rd and 4th Maccabees, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Testament of Job, the Life of Adam and Eve, the Psalms of Solomon, and the Assumption of Moses are all part of the Septuagint collections. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Community Rule, recordings of the last words of Joseph, Judah, Levi, Naphtali, and Amram (the father of Moses) were amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls. Few (if any) of these books are considered scripture today by modern Christian or Jewish groups. Both the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls are representative of ancient library collections — collections that contained scripture but that were not themselves wholly considered scripture. We today group them in these convenient categories with these helpful titles, but it is a misunderstanding to think of them as, or necessarily representative of, a single thing.
Clarence Thomas' whole speech is eloquent and impactful, but I found his closing remarks particularly moving.
He makes the case against tacitly accepting injustice simply because it is socially convenient, arguing that it is incumbent on each and every individual to assume responsibility for our collective future, not simply our own personal present.
Furthermore, he argues that choosing the path of righteousness over that of least resistance creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that both improves our collective standing and makes the choice easier on the individual over time:
"Courage, like cowardice, can be habit-forming."
🚨 COOLEST GIVEAWAY EVER! 📜
I am giving away one of @WesleyLHuff ’s P52 New Testament Manuscript Replicas.
Entering is simple. Just…
• Follow @JoshuaBarzon & @WesleyLHuff
• Like & Share the post
• Tag someone below
I’ll pick the winner a week from today on 4/17/26.
“You either need to transition your child or you don’t get to keep your child.”
Attorney Erin Friday says California Child Protective Services can threaten parents who refuse to use their child’s preferred pronouns.
She told me she feared calling the police when her 13 year old daughter ran away because she worried CPS would take her child.
“My daughter, who was 13 years old, just starting high school, was secretly socially transitioned at school.”
“The school started to call my daughter by a male name, use male pronouns.”
“When I called the school and told them to stop, that next week Child Protective Services was at my door.”
“The next day, the police.”
“That was an immediate alert to me that the school wants to parent my child.”
“If I didn’t follow and call my daughter a boy, Child Protective Services may come and take my child away.”
“Parents in Southern California had lost custody of their children because they wouldn’t transition their daughter.”
“I already had a black mark, and a few months later my daughter ran away.”
“The normal thing for a parent to do is to ask law enforcement to help find your child… but I couldn’t make that phone call.”
“Because Child Protective Services can swoop in anytime and take my child.”
“It’s coercion at its highest level.”
“You don’t get to parent your child.”
“This is America. This is insane.”
@erinfriday75490
@jason_howerton I’m a Pastor with 50 years of experience in ministering to others. I created this website to help parents share the gospel with their children, loved ones, and friends. https://t.co/PrrjYthSvY
@AshFarms I’m a Pastor with nearly 50 years of service. I’ve helped a lot of people sort through their questions about God. Reach out, if you want. No charge. No weirdness. https://t.co/D4oVdvZicJ