The strength of your confidence doesn’t equate to the strength of your argument. The very definition of deception is to be convinced that you’re right when you’re wrong.
“Some say a Christian virtue is to be tolerant of other people’s views. Do you disapprove of that?”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: “I am bound to. Christ Himself said, I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the father but by me.”
We should absolutely live in a way that glorifies Christ but the gospel isn’t our lives, it’s Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Jesus didn’t tell His followers to be examples; He commanded them to proclaim the gospel and make disciples by teaching all that He commanded. Our lives should authenticate the message but they’re never a substitute for verbally proclaiming the gospel.
Every nation that has had a Christian influence should be thanking God everyday. While they're still imperfect, Christianity has benefited societies everywhere it has gone.
Your wife doesn't need you to have all the answers. She needs you to be in the room.
I've watched men lead billion dollar companies and crumble in their own kitchen because their wife asked them a question about their marriage and they didn't know what to say. So they said nothing, and the nothing became a wall that took years to name.
Your wife is not asking you to be perfect. She is asking you to be present. To sit at that table and not reach for your phone. To hear the thing she's been carrying all week that you didn't notice because you were busy being "the provider."
Providing is not leading. Providing is logistics. A direct deposit is not discipleship.
Leading your home means you open your Bible at that kitchen table and you read it out loud even when your voice shakes. It means you pray over your wife even when you don't feel spiritual. It means you go first into the hard conversations instead of waiting for her to drag you there.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it." Ephesians 5:25
Christ didn't love the church from a distance. He didn't provide for the church and call it done. He gave himself. That means you give your presence when it costs you something. Your time when you're tired. Your words when you'd rather stay quiet.
Saturday morning. Your family is in the next room. Put the phone down and walk in there and lead something.
Mormons are not Christians.
Jesus:
"No one comes to the Father except by me."
Joseph Fielding Smith, Mormon Prophet:
“There is no salvation without accepting Joseph Smith."