Tom Harzula

Husband and Father | Pastor @heartfirechurch | #BoilerUp | @AsburySeminary Grad | Wondering if @spacex will appoint me the first chaplain on Mars

[Tom Harzula @tharzula]

The two most important responsibilities of a father to his children: Show them what God is like and love their mother.

[Philippe Lemoine @phl43]

This whole thing was completely useless and a total waste of lives and resources on an epic scale with absolutely no upside whatsoever except for the fact that we'll get to watch hawks melt down about how their magnificent war didn't turn out as they expected.

[Senator Jim Banks @SenatorBanks]

This proposal is a disgrace.

Thousands of heroic Americans sacrificed everything in service to our nation during the Global War on Terror.

I served in Afghanistan. These were real people with real stories.

They deserve to be honored with dignity, not disconnected abstract art.

[Library of Congress @librarycongress]

The Committee of Five—John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman—was appointed to draft the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago today.

Jefferson's draft of the document is here at the Library, and will be featured in a new exhibition opening July 3.

[The Methodist Ordinary @MethodistAesth]

Infant baptism is a testimony of the ancient church, of the doctrinal heritage of the Church Fathers, of our Wesleyan foundation as Methodists.

It is a blessing and more than a mere symbol, the active work of God the Holy Spirit.

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

Goodness. What a prophetic quote from 44 years ago.

[Rick Davis @TheRhetorRick]

There is only one God (Deut 6:4)
The Father is God (1 Jn 3:1)
The Son is God (Heb 1:8)
The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4)
The Father is not the Son (1 Jn 4:14)
The Son is not the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:7)
The Holy Spirit is not the Father (Jn 14:16)

[☧ Today in Christian History @HistoricalRook]

#OTD June 7, 1891:
Charles H. Spurgeon, the renowned English Baptist preacher who regularly drew around 6,000 people to his services, delivered his final sermon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. In it he declared:
“Those who have no master are slaves to themselves. Depend upon it, you will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Saviour. You will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters; but if you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most magnanimous of captains.”

[Robb Allen @ItsRobbAllen]

Today, I decided to leave my church.

I can't sit through another political sermon where the phrase "White Supremacy" is used again and again, and I'm told I'm not doing enough for the LGBTQ+++ crowd.

I want a church that has more crucifixes than rainbow flags and whose bishop doesn't send videos to play about how he protests at whatever the church's politics-du-jour is.

And thus, I am no longer a member of the United Methodist Church.

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

If Christ has died for me, I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend.

— Spurgeon

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Clark may have paid the highest personal price. Almost nobody knows his story. Buckle up.

He was a New Jersey farm kid considered too frail for farm work, so he taught himself math, then surveying, then law. He never got rich from it because he kept defending poor farmers who could not pay him. His neighbors called him "the Poor Man's Counselor."

In the early hours of July 4, 1776, while Congress debated independence in Philadelphia, Clark wrote a letter to a friend with one of the most chilling lines of the Revolution: "Perhaps our Congress will be exalted on a high gallows."

He signed anyway.

Then the British made it personal. Two of his sons were officers in the Continental Army, and both were captured. They were thrown onto the prison ship Jersey in New York Harbor, the deadliest place of the entire war. More Americans died on British prison ships than in every battle of the Revolution combined.

One son got it even worse. He was locked in the dungeon and given no food except what other starving prisoners could push through the keyhole of his cell.

The British reportedly offered Clark a deal: renounce the Declaration, switch sides, and your boys go free.

He refused.

Here is the part that breaks me. Clark sat in Congress through all of it and never once brought it up. No special pleading, no favors. Congress only found out through other channels and threatened retaliation against a British officer, which finally got his son out of the dungeon.

After the war, he kept choosing the little guy. He fought for debt relief for struggling farmers and refused to support the Constitution until he was assured a Bill of Rights would protect ordinary citizens.

In September 1794, at age 68, the self-taught surveyor who outlasted the British Empire died of sunstroke after a long day working on his own farm.

No statue on the National Mall. No musical. Just a small town in New Jersey called Clark, and most people who drive through it have no idea why.

Some men signed the Declaration with ink. Abraham Clark signed it with his sons.

[M.A. Franklin @FoundationDads]

Your kids will become like you, and so you must become more like God.

This realization is what drives the sudden maturity of new fathers.

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

Some church will always have better coffee, better music, better facilities, better speaking, better marketing.

Showcase Christ and his gospel. Nobody can improve on that.

—@jaredcwilson

[Mary Anne Landers @Mary_Anne_L]

You can't please everyone.

🛩

[Midwest vs. The Rest @midwestern_ope]

Most used phrases as a Midwesterner:

Ope sorry
Jeez Louise
Yeah no yeah
Welp I spose
Watch out for deer
Wouldn’t be so bad without the wind

[Minnesota Methodist🕊 @Bombasotta]

Running VBS and making the children learn all 18 stanza of O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing

[Spencer A. Klavan @SpencerKlavan]

There is not a single poet in the English language—not Blake, not Milton, no, not Shakespeare—who ever wrote words more beautiful than these:

Through the tender compassion of our God
The dawn from on high shall break upon us
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death
And to guide our feet into the way of peace.

[Tyler Roney @TylerJRoney]

It’s that time of the year when a Midwesterner sees the current temperature outside is 75° but stop to question whether that’s 75° in a 90° way or 75° in a 60° way.

[Wes Huff @WesleyLHuff]

Justification gets you out of Egypt, but sanctification gets Egypt out of you.

[P.R. Neider🐦‍🔥 @Methodist_Prime]

@RonaldDPotts1 You know, I read Ephesians 5 and then immediately started thinking if I even have fulfilled my role. And I think that’s exactly how it should hit…the husband’s call to self-giving love is so demanding that any honest man should read it and repent before he evaluates the spouse

[P.R. Neider🐦‍🔥 @Methodist_Prime]

The NT never says “I was saved.”
It says we were saved (Eph 2:8), we are being saved (1 Cor 1:18), and we will be saved (Rom 5:9).
Three tenses. One Body.