This is how most Americans actually live.
Guy gets out of his truck, politely explains the semis need room to get through the farm, and works it out with a thumbs-up. No attitude. No drama.
The loud, angry, chip-on-the-shoulder crowd yelling online and on TV? Tiny minority. Most folks are decent, practical, and just try to get along like neighbors.
This right here is the real America.🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I just quoted this in a reply, but I note replies often get overlooked. I included this quotation in my first book on "Calvinism" about 35 years ago. It explains why otherwise intelligent men can repeat such utterly idiotic arguments without giving them a second thought. Spurgeon, as normal, put it well:
“There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation — the kingship of God over all the works of His own hands — the throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne.
On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth; and when we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter, then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne whom we trust.”
— Charles H. Spurgeon
I pastored a church for 17 years that remained under 100 people and a $120,000 annual budget.
Pastors, let no one determine the significance of your ministry on numbers or money.
The goal is faithfulness where God has placed you and perseverance to the next Sunday.
While Jesus may lead us into "valleys" we would rather avoid, He will never lead us carelessly.
Even when our heart is hurting… even when we don't understand what He’s doing… we can trust His love. We can follow Jesus, the Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep.
A Hebrew Kind of Forgetting
When I was in my early 20’s, I forgot to pick someone up from the airport. Today, this situation would be easily resolved by a quick phone call. But this was well before the age of cell phones. By the time my friend fed several quarters into a payphone, talked to two or three people at the university I attended, who in turn talked to two or three other people to hunt me down, she had waited hours.
Needless to say, she was not very happy with me. I had forgotten her.
When I was in my mid 30’s, I forgot God. No, of course, it wasn’t like I forgot he existed. How could I? I was a professor of biblical studies. My job was to teach God’s word. Nevertheless, I forgot God by focusing exclusively upon myself, letting my head grow fat with pride, giving free rein to lust, and living as if the only deities whom I must follow were the puny gods inside my depraved heart, all of whom bore the image of myself.
I forgot the true God because I gave my heart over to false gods.
You see, there’s more than one way to forget someone. The first, like forgetting to pick someone up from the airport, is a mental lapse. It’s not malicious. It just happens.
The second kind of forgetting is a Hebrew kind of forgetting. It is an active forgetting, such as when Israel “forgot [שׁכח] the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth” (Judges 3:7). Or, as Moses warned Israel, “Take care lest you forget [שׁכח] the LORD your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget [שׁכח] the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 8:11-14).
What Moses described—forgetting all the good things that God has done for you—was precisely what happened to me. This shakach [שׁכח] was not a slip of the mind but an adulteration of the heart.
But the Lord, whom we serve, is not like us. He didn’t say to himself, “Well, fine. I’m done with you. Go to hell, you ingrate!” No, he hunted me down, dogged my steps, and by and by brought me to repentance, faith, and thankfulness. As Psalm 23 says, “He restored my soul.”
Why? Because our Lord Jesus Christ does not forget us. In his mercy, he actively remembers us, chases us down, and, like the lost sheep, slings us over his shoulders and rejoices to bring us home.
Rather than a forgetful God, we serve one who actively, graciously, lovingly remembers us in Jesus Christ.
What's in the Heart of God?
Christ’s love for you predates his judgement. Even before he peered into your heart to see nothing there but evil, he said, “I love you.”
Jesus doesn’t inspect the hearts of humanity to find a select few worthy of his love. He simply loves. Loves indiscriminately. Loves lavishly. Loves toddlers and terrorists. Loves Jews and Muslims and the old church ladies. Loves those who hate him, ignore him, and worship him. His heart overflows with prodigal, promiscuous mercy.
He’s the kind of God you can trust. Not just when times are good, but when your life looks like the twisted ruins spit out by a tornado. Because he’s the kind of God who will sit with you as you weep, hold you as you scream in anger, and slowly heal you in the hospital of his cross.
You want to see what’s in the heart of God? A man. A man who took a bullet for you. A man who endured hell for you. A man who had everything, but gave it all up in exchange for you. That man, Jesus, is all God. And all God is him.
When you want to know what God thinks of you, whether he’ll stick by you, the answer is suspended on the cross.
The late African-American pastor and evangelist Dr. E.V. Hill was once asked if he thought Jesus was Caucasian, as depicted in paintings. Here is his reply:
"I don't know anything about a white Jesus... I know about Christ, a Savior named Jesus. I don't know what color He is. He was born in the brown Middle East; He fled to black Africa; and He was in heaven before the gospel got to white Europe. So, I don't know what color He is."
"I do know one thing: if you bow at the altar with color on your mind, you'll get up with color on your mind. Go back again - and keep going back until you no longer look at His color, but at His greatness and His power - His power to save!"
This representation of getting an autism diagnosis, the reaction of the parents, (fear, worry, stigma), the evaluators handling of it.
Talking about disability neutrally.
I cannot stress how important this is.
Bravo, @theproudfamily
Tony Dungy, the Hall of Fame NFL coach who spoke at the March for Life rally yesterday is being attacked by left wing extremists over his pro-life Christian views. Dungy has 3 biological children and 8 adopted children. Retweet to show your support to this great man!