jefftolle

I love God and people. Pastor @ Vida Church, Dean @lifepacific, culture analyst. Husband and father to five.

[jefftolle @jefftolle]

This is a problem.

[Libs of TikTok @libsoftiktok]

Gavin Newsom signed AB1955 today which bans schools from making rules requiring parental notification if a child identifies as transgender.

Get your kids out of public schools.

[Virgil L. Walker @virgilwalker]

Karmelo Anthony was found guilty of murder today. A teenager who will likely lose his freedom for decades. Austin Metcalf already lost his.

We raise black boys to perform toughness, to harden their faces around white people, especially. We tell ourselves we are preparing them for a hostile world. We are handing them a script that ends in a courtroom or a casket.

I know, because that script was handed to me. We have to stop doing this to our sons. https://t.co/pib5fzjlkR

[jefftolle @jefftolle]

Horrendous.

[Ben Zeisloft @BenZeisloft]

When you fight for the life of your dog…

… But murder your baby out of convenience.

“Wherever there is animal worship, there is human sacrifice.” — G.K. Chesterton

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

Dear @WhiteHouse, my name is Rodney Smith Jr., founder of Raising Men & Women Lawn Care Service in Huntsville, Alabama. Through our 50 Yard Challenge, over 6,000 kids across the country have signed up to mow free lawns for the elderly, disabled, veterans, active-duty military, first responders, and single parents. With America celebrating its 250th birthday this year and me also being born on July 4th, I wanted to humbly ask if a few kids from our program and myself could travel to Washington, D.C. to help mow the White House lawn for this historic celebration.

More than anything, I want these kids to see how a simple act of service something as ordinary as mowing a lawn for someone in need can lead to extraordinary places. What better lesson in community service than showing them that helping others can take them all the way to our nation’s capital? I’d also love to bring my American flag-themed mower in hopes that the President might sign it, so I can later auction it off and donate 100% of the proceeds to a nonprofit supporting veterans. It would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to highlight the importance of service, patriotism, and the impact young people can have when they choose to make a difference. 🇺🇸

[O’Shea Jackson Jr @OsheaJacksonJr]

I saw it. Now you have to see it. His name is Samuel. And he…is a king.

[jefftolle @jefftolle]

Your message on Acts 28 was fantastic. So grateful for all you’re doing and how the Lord is using you. May He continue to favor you and open doors no one can shut!

[jefftolle @jefftolle]

@howertonjosh

As a @WeAreFoursquare pastor, I was at our convention last week in San Antonio. After finishing, we drove to Dallas and went to Lakepointe on Saturday night. We’ve partnered with @nathanironside in ministry and saw him as well…a blessing!

[Mark Chironna @markchironna]

The false self is brilliant at engineering small deaths to avoid the one death required. It will sabotage the marriage, the calling, the friendship, the gift, because each of these small deaths simulates the Cross without paying its price. Self-sabotage is often a counterfeit cross. The real Cross does not ask for installments. It asks for the false self entire. And the strange mercy of the gospel is that what you fear losing is precisely what is killing you, and what you fear becoming is precisely who you already are in Christ.

[Josh Howerton @howertonjosh]

The grandpa you laughed at behind his back for letting you watch violent war movies as a kid, but who freaked out about the Disney show where the kid had 2 Dads... that guy was right.

There was evil in the war movie, but it was generally evil depicted AS EVIL in a great struggle between good and evil, and it trained the consciences of a generation to value things like...

- Valor
- Self-sacrifice
- Courage
- Integrity
- Honor
- Patriotism (yes, patriotism IS a good thing)

My Dad used to say, "The worst kind person is the guy who was born on third and acts like he hit a triple."

Be wise, but watch a war movie with your kids today and help your American kid understand they were born on third base because a bunch of people died to get them three bases ahead.

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

Not quite.

1. Our founders knew - and declared - that the rights that undergird all laws come from God. They weren’t thinking of some general diety. They were thinking the God of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were thinking of Jesus Christ.

2. Understanding our innate rights come from our Creator is not synonymous with creating a national religion

3. Even if Christianity were declared our national religion, Christianity and Islam are not the same. Christianity is based on what is good, true and beautiful. Islam is largely advanced through violence and force. Christianity elevates the worth of a person; Islam denigrates it. Christianity produced the greatest nation that’s ever existed; no other worldview has come close

[Lloyd Legalist @LloydLegalist]

It’s because that’s why…I can’t watch today’s NBA. #NBA.

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

“All thrones and dominions
All powers and positions
Your name stands above them all”
@christomlin

What a powerful anthem to declare over our country. The gospel was shared plainly and God was glorified today.

[Rob Wood @coachrobwood]

Most men imagine they will somehow rise heroically when catastrophe arrives, yet history, warfare, business, marriage, fatherhood, and spiritual life all testify to a far harsher reality: when pressure descends suddenly upon a man, he doesn’t just ascend magically into discipline, wisdom, or courage. He falls backward upon whatever foundations he spent years constructing quietly in ordinary life.

[Kayleigh McEnany @kayleighmcenany]

🚨 OLYMPIAN RYAN LOCHTE: "We started watching these people getting baptized, and something came into me, something so pure."

"I'm going to start crying. It felt so real watching these people get baptized."

"And I asked [my girlfriend], 'What is this?'"

She said, "They're washing away their sins. They're getting a fresh start publicly."

"And I was like, 'Honey, I want that.'"

"And so, I got baptized. I washed away my sins, and trust me, I had a lot!"

"... To put your life in front of God and give it to God has changed everything for me."

"I'm finding who I am."

"I am being a better father, a better person, and I just love the person that I've become now, and I owe it to God."

@SatAmericaFNC @FoxNews ⬇️

[Carnivore Aurelius ©🥩 ☀️🦙 @AlpacaAurelius]

you need to be delusionally optimistic

negative thinking poisons your brain and leads to congitive decline

whereas positive thinking, and gaslighting yourself into thinking everything is amazing, ACTUALLY makes your life amazing too.

you must be a silly goose

[Burt Macklin @BurtMaclin_FBI]

Caught my wife doing laundry and stopped her immediately. I said, “Babe, it’s Mother’s Day. You don’t do chores today. Go sit down and relax; these clothes will still be here tomorrow.”

I’m such a good husband.

[jefftolle @jefftolle]

So true. I extol both on both days.

[JD™ @LostMyHats]

Praying for all the dads who endured a sermon extolling the universal sainthood of mothers today, knowing next month you’ll have to endure a sermon demanding you try harder and do better because you’re letting your family down.

Thanks for suffering through this tradition.

[Cynical Publius @CynicalPublius]

The Bible has one of the best Mothers’ Day stories, one that every son or daughter can relate to.

It’s the wedding at Cana. (John 2:1-11)

Jesus goes to this wedding with His mother, Mary, and the wedding celebration runs out of wine. (That was kind of a disaster. Can you imagine a modern wedding reception where the open bar runs out of booze?)

Jesus had not started His ministry yet but Mary knew who He was and what powers He possessed.

Mary just looks at Jesus and simply says “They have no more wine.”

Every son or daughter knows that terse, commanding look—“Do something about it Jesus, I’m not playing.” (That’s not actually scripture, that last part is my imagination.)

So Jesus says: “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.”

Then, in one of the more humorous moments in the Bible, Mary just ignores Jesus and looks at the servants and says: "Do whatever he tells you.”

It’s really easy to imagine Jesus rolling His eyes, giving off a deep sigh, and then doing what His mother told Him to do. He turned six stone jars of water into the best wine anyone had ever tasted.

Because even the Son of God listens to His mother.

Happy Mothers’ Day.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

So my encouragement to pastors, especially to younger ones, is this:

Do not despise ordinary faithfulness.

Do not become addicted to visibility.

Do not mistake audience for authority.

And do not become a vagabond minister.

Love an actual people.

Build an actual household.

Serve an actual church.

Stay somewhere long enough for people to really know you.

Stay somewhere long enough to suffer.

Stay somewhere long enough to be inconvenienced.

Stay somewhere long enough that your ministry can no longer survive on image alone.

Because eventually every platform fades.

Every movement cools.

Every conference circuit changes.

But faithful shepherding, faithful households, faithful churches, and faithful local communities, those things endure.

#notes

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

The opening line of Matthew packs a powerful Gospel punch.

He writes, “The book of the genealogy [biblos geneseōs] of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (1:1). More than a mere heading, this is Matthew telling us that in Jesus, God has begun a New Genesis.

The Greek phrase “biblos geneseōs” (Βίβλος γενέσεως) is rare. It appears only here in the NT and, in the Greek translation of the OT, only in Genesis 2:4 and 5:1. There it introduces the story of creation and then the continuation of humanity after the rebellion of Genesis 3.

By using that exact language, Matthew deliberately takes us back to the beginning. What God did in creation, he is now doing again. A new beginning has arrived.

This is not merely a family tree. It is the record of a new creation. The long story of the Old Testament has been moving toward this moment, and now, in Jesus, the new age has dawned.

And who is he? Matthew tells us: the son of Abraham and the son of David.

As the son of Abraham, Jesus is the promised Seed through whom all the promises are fulfilled, the offspring through whom the nations are blessed (Gen. 3:15; 12:3). What God pledged from the beginning is now coming to pass.

As the son of David, Jesus is the King. He is the one who brings the promised kingdom, the ruler who will reign over God’s people and establish his dominion. Indeed, the Hebrew letters in the name of David, דוד, have the numerical value of 14 (ד=4, ו=6, ד=4), which explains why Matthew repeats that number three times.

Even the inclusion of the exile in the genealogy reminds us that Israel’s story was unfinished, still waiting for redemption. That waiting now reaches its turning point. The Redeemer has come.

From his opening sentence, Matthew is telling us that the story that began in Genesis has reached its fulfillment. The promised Seed is on the scene. The New Genesis has arrived in Jesus.
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We began reading Matthew today in Bible in One Year. Join us at any time at https://t.co/XxNvEtNH7e