Mac McCaleb

Follower of Jesus, husband to Kim, dad to Josh and Sarah Beth, pastor at Marble City Baptist Church.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

Young men,

Whenever you meet an old fool, remember that he was once a young fool. And whenever you meet a wise old man, you are meeting someone who confronted his foolishness years, perhaps decades, before.

So look into the mirror of Scripture. See where you are foolish and confront it today. The years pass more easily than you think. If you will not deal with your folly now, time will only harden it. But if you face it honestly and repent of it, the years can turn a foolish young man into a wise old one.

[Southern Seminary @SBTS]

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In partnership with @Logos , we’re giving away a theological library filled with trusted resources for ministry and Christian scholarship.

To enter:
• Mark sure you are following @SBTS
• Repost this post
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Open to U.S. residents only. Winner will be chosen and contacted Friday, June 5.

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

The two key attitudes in a successful marriage are self-denial and self-giving, both of which are contrary to human nature but made possible to Christians through the Holy Spirit. The husband and wife who are walking in the Spirit will be walking in unselfish humility and forgiving, restoring love that always puts the other first. - MacArthur

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

@Pontifex “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” 1 Timothy 2:5

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

Marriage is an exclusive, lifelong covenant union between one man and one
woman.

[Ryan Hayden @rynhayden]

I'm reading "Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor" about Tom Carson (DA Carson's Father).
He was done wrong by TT Shields, the most famous pastor of his era and area. (He ministered as a missionary pastor in Quebec). Shields' actions were so egregious that it caused a huge rift in the Union Baptists and ended up starting a new seminary where most of the students went.
But DA Carson never heard of it. In fact, despite the personal slight, his parents praised Shields to their children , shared his books with them and recounted the good things he had done.
Carson had to learn of the truth of his own father for the first time studying Canadian Baptist history in college.
Oh to have that grace for the people who have wronged us.

[Dean Inserra @deaninserra]

The world of sports has recently seen a surge in athletes being more outspoken about their faith. Satan’s trying to cool that off. I hope coaches and athletes who follow Christ will refuse to flinch. Easier said than done, but God did not give a spirit of fear.

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

On this day, February 21, 2018: Billy Graham, the most well-known and effective evangelist of the twentieth century, dies at 99. “America’s pastor” preached to millions and saw throngs come to Christ during his evangelistic “crusades” through the United States and across the globe. Graham also advised numerous American presidents and was the driving force behind establishing Evangelicalism as a movement within American Protestant Christianity and beyond.

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

I have always been impressed by @BenSasse who was at one time a U.S. Senator from Nebraska and later became the president of the University of Florida. A few months ago he announced that he had terminal cancer. I really appreciate the way he continues to express His hope and confidence in Jesus and that he is sharing it publicly even now while he is in much pain.
https://t.co/sBZva1nLDE

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

@elonmusk yep

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

"Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul."
Psalm 54:4 (NASB95)

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

“God takes us to hard places not to do things to us, but to do things for us and in us. Today, be thankful that these hard moments, in His hands, are tools of rescuing and renewing grace.” - Paul David Tripp

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

@BenSasse I grew to respect and appreciate
@BenSasse
when he served as the Junior Senator from Nebraska in the U.S. Senate. He was my favorite person in Washington in those days. Now he is facing terminal cancer. You are in my prayers, Dr. Sasse.

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

I grew to respect and appreciate @BenSasse when he served as the Junior Senator from Nebraska in the U.S. Senate. He was my favorite person in Washington in those days. Now he is facing terminal cancer. You are in my prayers, Dr. Sasse.

[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

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

On this day, December 4, 1829, Britain outlaws "suttee" in India, a Hindu practice where a widow burns herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre.

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

On this day, November 22, 1873: The French ship Ville du Havre sinks in the north Atlantic, killing all four daughters of Chicago lawyer Horatio G. Spafford. His wife survived, and Spafford immediately booked passage to join her in England. While passing over the spot where his daughters died, he began writing what would become the famous hymn "It Is Well with My Soul.

[FBI Director Kash Patel @FBIDirectorKash]

Another day where 2/3 of the FBI goes without a paycheck, after 45 Senators (all of whom are still getting paid) voted against paying them last week.

When law enforcement isn’t paid, it weakens our ability to keep America safe.

We owe it to those who protect this nation to end the shutdown.

[Mac McCaleb @macmccaleb]

“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.” (Psalm 86:5, NASB95)

[EllyKayUSA @EllyKayUSA]

If Winsome Sears were a Democrat, she'd be on every magazine cover & mainstream media would be extolling her at every opportunity.

But since Sears has an (R) next to her name, they pretend she doesn't exist, & if Spanberger loses, it's due to misogyny. 🧐