USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
God may bless us with drought - yes, I said bless.
He may withhold success from us, so that we find identity in him alone. He may allow our dream to die, to help us discover a vision for his kingdom instead. He may allow us to experience spiritual dehydration, only to produce a deeper thirst for relationship with him.
In 29 days, we will celebrate the 250th birthday of our exceptional nation, which became the greatest of all because we were the first to declare the self-evident truth that all people are created equal by God.
Not “born equal.” We are “CREATED equal.”
Because God made us all in His image, it means EVERY SINGLE PERSON has inestimable DIGNITY and VALUE—and our value is not related in any way to the color of our skin, what zip code we live in, what our talents are, our health condition, or any other factor. Our value is inherent, because it is given to us by our loving Heavenly Father.
When a culture devolves to the point of depravity where “influencers” can go online and so casually dismiss the deliberate murder of their own precious child, the survival of that culture itself is at risk.
God have mercy on our nation as we pray and work for an end to this evil, for hearts and minds to change, and for a renewed understanding of the self-evident truths and the sanctity of all human life.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
@jasonwhitlock If you don’t appreciate the way OKC plays basketball, you don’t understand the game. The ball movement. The off the ball movement. The defense. The unselfishness. Getting to the line is a priority for every team.
You know what they don’t do? Complain.
Stop it, already.
So much of the Christian life can be boiled down to two simple truths.
1. You are no longer your own. You belong to Christ.
2. You are no longer 𝘰𝘯 your own. He gave you the church.
I don’t see how someone can watch this and not tear up at the combination of the glories of newborn life and the valor of heroism on display. Such beauty!
“Because the hardest place to be godly is in ordinary life.”
In chapel, Sam Emadi, Senior Pastor of Hunsinger Lane Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky opened 1 Timothy 3 and reminded us that pastoral ministry is built on ordinary faithfulness. The qualifications for elders are not about platform or personality, but about steady, everyday obedience in the unseen places of life.
Pastors model the Christian life. That work begins long before ministry starts, in the daily pursuit of godliness.
Dear @chicagobulls,
I am a lifelong fanatical Bulls fan. Been to many games, bought your merch, and supported loyally through ups and downs.
Until today. My greatest loyalty is, as is Jaden's, to Jesus Christ and truth. And I am grateful to live in a nation that protects freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
Your violation of the first amendment--and, even more problematically, your ideologically selective while culturally amenable cancelling of a man who did nothing more than hold to his convictions--is a tragic capitulation to the spirit of the age.
I urge you to do the right thing and publicly apologize to Jaden, acknowledging the error of censoring a man for believing what Scripture says and what Jesus taught.
Respect, @JadensIV.
-a Chicago pastor
Holiness, when called legalism, is terribly misnamed. Our calling is to be wholly holy, beginning with an inner holiness that results in an outer holiness. Our God is the Holy One; thus, every particle of our lives must be submitted to, and directed toward, His holiness.
.@WNGdotorg published an editorial this morning by Pastor @jonathanparnell of Cities Church, which was unlawfully invaded by leftist activists in January. https://t.co/ZF88OMTIPA
It's easy to underestimate the sheer courage it takes to tell the truth about our deeper hurts. We are safe and fully supported when we bring such things to God. He never asks for a polished version of us. He invites us to come as we are so he can do the work only he can do.