Working to see the world’s least-reached hear about Jesus. Father of four, husband to Amy, a child of God because of His merciful grace. soli Deo gloria!
@SouthDallasFood With great joy. In tortillas, making little tacos. Blowing on it (and the hot tortilla in your hand) a lot as you go; it doesn’t stop boiling.
One of Screwtape's strategies for his nephew Wormwood was not to keep his patient from church altogether, but to ensure he only attended once he found the perfect one. The man should go to church, but always on his own terms, constantly scanning for faults and measuring the congregation against some ideal in his head. If Wormwood can convince him to hold out for the perfect church, he will never find it.
This does several things:
- It keeps him from committing anywhere.
- It feeds pride, placing him in judgment over the church rather than under it.
- It cuts him off from real Christian fellowship, which requires patience and humility.
- It trains his attention on trivial concerns rather than the substance of worship.
The goal is to keep him sitting back, critiquing and comparing, and ultimately detached from any actual body where he is known and corrected.
This pattern seems apparent today in how people consume online discourse. Podcasts and social media raise expectations that no local pastor or congregation can realistically meet. The subject becomes doctrinally opinionated and ecclesiastically rootless, which ends up being a disaster for the patient.
I was recently part of a conversation with a man who avoids church entirely because no congregation is sufficiently "based" in his area. "Most are compromised," he said, and he was actively encouraging others toward the same conclusion. Honestly, Screwtape could not have scripted it better.
https://t.co/qoM3x8aJnU
News from the Husbands in México: three months in review, some early plans for summer, and a reflection on how AWESOME weddings truly are!
@SlowToWrite I have deep appreciation for you and your ministries, brother, and am incredibly grateful for your voice.
Even if (though) this is your personal soteriology, *many* true brothers & sisters in Christ disagree in good faith. I urge you to walk this back, at LEAST in presentation.
@latterdaylaura That’s kinda the LDS model: opposition makes my heart beat faster; it must be true.
‘Not a single one has swayed me’ doesn’t reflect the arguments’ quality, but rather your prior commitment to a system.
I praise God, who gives sight to the blind. May He free you. 2 Tim 2:25-26
@hodgetwins 100% yes. The Jews were and are also God’s chosen people. He has set them aside due to their rebellion, but He’s not done with them (see: Romans 9-11). He has some pretty choice thoughts on our being arrogant about Israel being temporarily cut off, too.
@Soteriology101 I keep wishing Dr. White would just have the friendly, ‘let’s learn to articulate each other’s POV clearly, & see what we learn’ convos. He could offer so much to the conversation for both sides if he wasn’t so laser-focused on winning debates.
@1984_nate I think the issue comes down to a perceived equality of the parts.
God’s part accomplishes everything, & COULD sidestep man’s part if He had wanted it that way.
Man’s part inherently accomplishes nothing, except that God chose it to be that by which men are included in Christ.