Dads, we are not the thermometers of the family simply reflecting the temperature. We are the thermostats. We set the temp.
Run hard. Love big. Walk with the King.
The World Cup has turned America into a discovery channel for the rest of the world.
And they are not handling it well.
In the best possible way.
Here is what they are discovering:
Free public restrooms. Europeans pay every time.
Free water at every restaurant. Just appears.
Free refills. Coffee. Sodas. Iced tea. Unlimited.
Free chips and salsa before you even order.
Free warm bread with dinner.
Ice in drinks like civilized people.
Air conditioning everywhere. Not a moral debate. A fact.
Parking lots attached to the actual place you are going.
Drive throughs where the food comes to the car while you sit in it.
Ranch dressing by the gallon.
Tex-Mex that cannot be explained only experienced.
Dental care that actually works.
Buccee’s. There are no words for Buccee’s.
Then they found the grocery stores.
Five of them within one mile.
Each one the size of an aircraft hangar.
Burgers. Steaks. Brisket. Ribs. Pulled pork. Lamb. Veal. Every cut of every animal ever domesticated by human civilization available in one refrigerated aisle at ten in the morning on a Tuesday.
The Germans stood in the meat section for forty five minutes.
In silence.
Processing.
They finally understand why we do not have trains.
We have roads wide enough for the cars we actually drive.
Parking lots the size of small European countries.
Airports in every city worth visiting.
Why would we need trains.
The Germans are taking ranch home by the bottle.
The Dutch found queso and briefly lost the ability to speak.
The Japanese are photographing HEB like it is the Louvre.
The Czechs are weeping in West, Texas.
Welcome to America!
The greatest country on earth.
Christian morality is morality. Period.
Adding the adjective "Christian" in front of it is redundant — because it's the morality fitted to human beings as such within God's creation order.
New essay: https://t.co/lWonKGVoWT
“If the Church fails to apply the central truths of the Christian religion to social problems correctly, someone else will do so incorrectly.” — Carl Henry
Some of the anger I saw from pro-lifers responding to my tweets was essentially, "how dare you insinuate that pro-life people would abort a child with Down Syndrome!"
Guys, I've been in the care of souls business for 18 years now. And when you're in the care of souls business, something you see often is people who have been lifelong, devout Christians completely bail on the faith the SECOND holding to it requires them to suffer.
People who have spent decades faithfully coming to worship will leave forever the second their kids come out to them and tell them they have to choose between holding to the Bible and having a relationship with their kids. People who have always upheld what the church teaches about cohabitation immediately reject it the second their kids start shacking up.
People who lament the evils of divorce will get divorced the second they think they can come out of the situation better off, and they will give you every rationalization for why the words of Jesus don't apply to them. Ask your pastors about this. Dudes will leave their congregations, go to another down the street to another congregation with their mistress on their arm and act like nothing happened, utterly convinced that God supports them in doing so.
People who have thanked you for preaching against the idolatrous nature of youth sports that keeps kids out of church on Sundays will immediately embrace the idol when their kids have the opportunity to join a travel team. And so on.
And yes, when people who have boldly and faithfully stood against the evils of abortion find themselves carrying an unwanted child? They will often employ the very same vile rationalizations that they have condemned fifty trillion times before.
Do people who identify as pro-life have fewer abortion than pro-choicers? Of course. But with love and respect, you are absolutely clueless if you think that a notable percentage of women having abortion weren't pro-life identifying ladies until the moment their desire for abortion overpowered their faith and convinctions.
And, more to the point, if you are offended by this assertion because you know would never in a million billion years ever do this, you are clueless to the power of the sinful nature that lurks within you. If you think you would stand where they fell because you are more pious, more devout, more devoted, etc...well, pride comes before destruction.
@Arbys just had the worst service at one of your restaurants. Staff was incredibly rude. No greeting, no thank you & when they forgot an item on our order, no apology. They did not speak to us other than to take our order. Trust me your food isn’t that good.
@JamesTate121 Guessing he missed that part in the Triumphal Entry where Jesus accepted the worship of the crowd and said that if the people didn’t worship even the rocks would cry out.
A message to my fellow Southern Baptists. We need to get this done and move forward together. I propose an amendment to preserve our unity in truth. https://t.co/51wbtoJoMT
The cost of having children is worth the presence of children.
Full stop.
I am dumbstruck at how our society thinks of children as a costly, time-consuming drag. What an impoverished way to think.
No vacation will hold your hand in the hospital. No amount of mimosas at brunch can walk with you through grief. Double incomes cannot replace empty seats around the dinner table.
My latest at @WNGdotorg: “Where’s Mom?”
“So-called same-sex ‘marriage’ covets—and is now legally permitted to acquire—the fruit of the very institution it uproots, all while remaining inherently incapable of meeting a child’s most basic developmental and emotional needs.”
https://t.co/jRL0d4AONC
The more I reflect on the discipline of Christian ethics, the more I see justification by faith alone as both a biblical and logical necessity.
When one takes stock of the moral law and our total inability to obey it and fulfill its requirements, the more necessary it is to see our salvation coming entirely outside of ourselves.
Salvation is, biblically, and must be, logically, "Extra nos," as the Reformers put it—completely and effectually external to the sinful creature. Not cooperatively or conjunctively, but monocausally of Christ alone. If my righteousness rests upon my own merits and strivings, I will fail. Always. My conscience tells me this every day, for everyone must reckon themselves "the foremost of sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15).
Only by a righteousness external to ourselves may we partake in a true, perfect, and complete righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). Our ethics result in damnation. Only Jesus' ethics satisfy the requirements of a true, perfect, and complete righteousness that accomplishes salvation.
What we lose when the Bible is only on a screen:
1. You remember where the verse lives on the page and aids memorization.
2. The page shows you much more at once. You see the context, not just a few verses at once.
3. The page keeps your notes. Years from now they will still be there, in your own hand.
4. The page cannot distract you with a notification. It only asks to be read.
5. The page is something your children watch you open and they know it’s the Bible.
The screen gives much. The page gives more.