Jordan Bird

Pastor of Talatha Baptist Church in Aiken, SC

[Josh Barzon @JoshuaBarzon]

This is the Oxyrhynchus Hymn, dated to the late 200s AD. It is the earliest known Christian hymn manuscript with both lyrics and musical notation. A plain English rendering of the surviving words:

“Let all creation be silent.
Let the shining stars be still.
Let the rushing winds and rivers cease.
While we sing to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
let every power answer: Amen, amen.
Strength, praise, and glory forever to God,
the only giver of all good things. Amen, amen.”

[Ayaan Hirsi Ali @Ayaan]

Secular culture wants Christianity's joy—without Christ.

[Bart Barber @bartbarber]

@ErikReed @DavidAFrench James Talarico and Paula White are two sides of the same coin.

They can keep the change.

[Bart Barber @bartbarber]

Some of you have an open mind…I hope you'll watch this whole video.

Some of you hate my guts…go ahead and watch the video to make fun of my bad videography and the weight I need to lose.

Either way, learn some things about SBC Bylaw 8.

https://t.co/e6byiNCLWt

[Luke Stamps @lukestamps]

Thesis: The BF&M's article on religious liberty represents the mature Baptist vision on the subject and more faithfully renders the entailments of Baptist ecclesiology than individual authors in previous eras.

[Bart Barber @bartbarber]

What's happening right now with the question of pastoral qualifications in the SBC is, in my opinion, very healthy.

The Law Amendment came out and people falsely conflated mechanism with objective—if you don't like this WAY of doing it, then I accuse you of not wanting to do it.

[Luke Stamps @lukestamps]

This post is helpful insofar as it highlights the Baptist rationale for religious liberty: like our other distinctives, it is grounded in the newness of the new covenant. God has authority to rule coercively. He will on the last day. But he hasn't delegated that to the state now.

[Dr. Michael J. Svigel @Svigel]

Theology 101: “For if you wish to defend religion by bloodshed, and by tortures, and by guilt, it will no longer be defended, but will be polluted and profaned. For nothing is so much a matter of free-will as religion; in which, if the mind of the worshipper is disinclined to it, religion is at once taken away, and ceases to exist. The right method therefore is, that you defend religion by patient endurance or by death; in which the preservation of the faith is both pleasing to God Himself, and adds authority to religion.” (Lactantius, Divine Institutes 5.20)

[Dane Ortlund @daneortlund]

One of the most astonishing things I've ever read. I discovered this on Dec 17, 2004, working through the miscellanies (private theological ruminations) of Jonathan Edwards:

"By virtue of the believer's union with Christ, he doth really possess all things. That we know plainly from Scripture. But it may be asked, how doth he possess all things? What is he the better for it? How is a true Christian so much richer than other men?

"To answer this, I'll tell you what I mean by 'possessing all things.' I mean that God three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done--the whole universe, bodies and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, men and devils, sun, moon and stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all the silver and gold, kings and potentates as well as mean men--are as much the Christian's as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, the house he dwells in, or the victuals he eats; yea more properly his, more advantageously his, than if he could command all those things mentioned to be just in all respects as he pleased at any time, by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ, who certainly doth thus possess all things, is entirely his: so that he possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head doth; it is all his.

"Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy."

That's how you preach union with Christ.

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

Admonish the unruly, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

[Luke Holmes @lukeholmes]

Herschel Hobbs, author of the 1963 BF&M, on how Baptists are not creedal people. #SBC22

[J.H. Spencer Historical Society @JHSpencerHS]

BOOK GIVEAWAY!! First Edition of J.M. Pendleton's "Church Manual!" To enter you must be a subscriber to our account and share this post. The winner will be posted on 5/19/22. (U.S. residents only)

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

@jaredcwilson J

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

@garrettham_esq Garrett, I love all your takes. Never stop, my friend!

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

@brandonjobrien And I'm currently enthralled by the developing public schools back to school drama.

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

@brandonjobrien anger over who got PPP funds, directed by some at elite institutions and by some towards churches.

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

@tomcatxiv Thanks, Spencer! I appreciate you checking in!

[Michael Catt @MichaelCatt]

The man who shouts cannot drown out the whispers of the saint on their knees before the Lord.

[Micah Fries @micahfries]

Better an open reprimand than concealed love. The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive. Proverbs 27:5-6

[Jordan Bird @JordanHBird]

Good news: if you know a heart that's cold like ice or hardened like a stone--there's a tool for that.

"Is not my word like fire and like a hammer which shatters a rock?" Jer 23:29