Jeff Poor

Pastor & writer helping you read the Bible better. Author of When Jesus Tells the Story (Nov 2026). Rethink: YouTube + Substack.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

Freedom gets sold as the absence of rules. No one telling you what to do, nothing to answer to, nothing in your way.

But Paul told a church they'd been set free... for freedom. Not free from everything. Free for something.

A river without banks isn't free. It's a swamp.

The freedom Jesus offers isn't fewer boundaries. It's the right ones, finally pointed somewhere.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. That's not a line about geography or politics. It's about something that can happen to a person standing completely still, in a small room, with nothing around them changed yet.

Freedom was never mainly about your circumstances. It's about what no longer has a grip on you.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

@ScottRoberts Tim Keller from afar.

But the pastors who have impacted me the most are the ones who are in my life.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

The disciples were in a boat, in a storm they were sure was going to kill them, and Jesus stood up and told the wind and waves to be still.

Two words. And it stopped.

He has that kind of authority over wind and waves. He has that kind of authority over whatever's loud in your head right now too.

Same voice. Same authority. The only question is whether you believe it reaches that far.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

No. Not without a shadow of a doubt.

I believe it. I've staked my life on it. But Hebrews says faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; certainty is.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

@philipnation Agreed. Though the ditch runs both directions. Some know far more than they obey. Others obey out of ignorance because they've never opened it. Both end up in the same place: disobedience.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

We've made worship about how it makes us feel. If the music hits, it was a good service. If it doesn't, something was missing.

But worship was never a mood. It's a posture. Choosing to declare something true about God whether or not you feel it.

Some of the rawest psalms were written by a man running for his life, and they're still full of praise. He wasn't lying. He was choosing what was true over what he felt.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

You don't find peace by fixing everything that's wrong. You find it by trusting the One who isn't surprised by any of it.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

@JoshuaBarzon John.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

We say we want peace, but we check our phones for the thing that's stressing us out.

We say we want rest, but we feel guilty the moment we sit down.

We say we want to hear from God, but we fill every silence before He gets the chance.

Maybe the problem isn't that God's been quiet. Maybe it's that we've never actually given Him the room.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

Faith isn't certainty about what's coming. It's trust in who's coming with you.

Faith isn't the absence of fear. It's taking the next step anyway.

Faith isn't a feeling you wait for. It's a decision you make, sometimes daily, sometimes hourly.

None of those require you to feel brave. They just require you to move.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

You are not the worst thing you've done.

You're not the best thing either.

Your identity was settled at the cross, not on your résumé.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

@MattSmethurst Exactly. We earn our freedom, we live from it.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

@WretchedNetwork 100%. You have to understand the original readers context before you can accurately apply it to ours.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

Grace offends people. Not because it's unfair to the person receiving it, but because it's unfair to the person who thinks they earned their way there first.

That's the older brother. That's the workers who showed up at dawn and watched the latecomers get paid the same. That's most of us, if we're honest.

Grace was never going to feel fair. That's what makes it grace.

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

Join my substack to get practical content that helps you grow in your faith! https://t.co/HHlLGwH8TG

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

There's no shortages of opinions about the last days. But many skip what the Bible actually teaches and land on opinion. https://t.co/4rLJwO0nAa

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

The Bible is full of people who question God. And what’s incredible is the Bible doesn’t hide their questions, but rather highlights them. https://t.co/OiyTFyJhYF

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

Psalm 55 is an incredible Psalm that holds powerful truth for us today. If you take a few minutes to reflect and learn from the meaning of Psalm 55:22 your faith will be strengthened and encouraged. https://t.co/7X0EuhTseA

[Jeff Poor @jeffery_poor]

Over the past several years we’ve had unprecedented opportunities to show God’s love and hope to others around us. Instead we’ve sacrificed our faith for temporary power and political gain. And that trade was not worth it. https://t.co/ZagGtHMydJ