Josh Anderson

Pastor of Colleyville Presbyterian Church in the Mid-Cities area of Dallas-Fort Worth. I am a baptized man.

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

As this post is getting negative response, I'd like to say, as a PCA pastor with two adult children at CC, how grateful I am for this college and the good and faithful work there under the leadership of Brad Voyles. My kids are flourishing in their love for Jesus and his church.

[byFaith Online @PCAByFaith]

The faculty and board of Covenant College unanimously approved to update the college's core curriculum for the first time since the 1990s. https://t.co/Og0Ahwm2kx

[Virginia Men's Basketball @UVAMensHoops]

Watch the full Tony Bennett court dedication here:

#GoHoos

[Jacquie Franciulli @JacquieFran_]

Former UVA coach Tony Bennett addresses the JPJ crowd

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@demyronhaynes Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[𝐎. 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞 @TheAlanNoble]

Don’t

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@jchasedavis Peterson pastored in the very boring suburbs of Maryland. He vacationed in Montana. I've been influenced by Peterson for the past 20 years and have no desire to move to Montana or learn how to fly fish.

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@DZRishmawy Also...

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@DZRishmawy

[Derek Rishmawy @DZRishmawy]

One good way to celebrate Father's Day is to go spend time with your Heavenly Father at Church.

And then go call your dad, if you can, and thank him for trying the best he knew how.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

People ask, “How do I get back into reading?” The first step is to completely unplug from the endless entertainment machine, find a quiet room and sit alone with your own thoughts. Soon your attention span will flourish. Things that once seemed boring will now fascinate you.

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@coltonlbrewer Know the WSC cold. Know the WCF well. Be familiar with the WLC.

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@coltonlbrewer Be able to summarize in a sentence or two the content of at least 15 psalms. I'd recommend Ps 1, 2, 8, 16, 18, 22, 23, 24, 31, 32, 45, 51, 88, 89, 90, 95, 100, 110, 118, 119, 139, 150.
Obviously an outline and summary of the content and context of every book of the bible.

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@coltonlbrewer Be able to give a chapter by chapter summary of at least Genesis, Exodus, 1 & 2 Samuel, each of the four gospels and all of Paul's letters. Acts and Revelation, too.
For example:
Gen 1 - Creation of the heavens and earth
Gen 2 - Creation of man and woman
Gen 3 - The fall of man

[Paul_Edmondson @Paul_Edmondson]

@CoffeewClassics @stanley_wells Thank you for this reading-list of influences on Lewis, all of which resonate with me, though there are three I have yet to read... I thought you would like my Collect for Lewis.

[Joshua Culley @jovial_cynic]

The fact that I am deeply loved by God is increasingly the core of my identity, what I know about myself with most confidence. Such a conviction is, I am convinced, the foundation of any significant Christian spiritual growth.

-David Benner

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@joeljmiller @TheAlanNoble Aren't both of these descriptions the same thing?

[🪩 Aaron Belz 🪩 @belzpoems]

Here's an old poem I barely even wrote -

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@HootenWilson

[Josh Anderson @jsethand]

@ScottyWardSmith FWIW, it doesn't appear that Augustine actually said this. https://t.co/yZVD0IDCvA