NO MIDDLE PLACE—ONLY CHRIST (Or, “The Doctrine of Purgatory Refuted”)

There are days when my heart rests in the quiet certainty that Jesus finishes everything He starts; He leaves nothing halfway redeemed, halfway forgiven, halfway cleansed. And when I think about the old idea of purgatory—a place somewhere between judgment and joy, a place where souls must somehow suffer a little more before they can see the face of God—I cannot help but whisper again the simple truth of the gospel: Jesus does not do halfway work. Purgatory imagines a temporary place of purification; Scripture reveals a Savior whose blood purifies completely. Purgatory says you must be cleansed after death; Jesus says you are made clean by His cross.

For the Word does not speak of shadows between life and glory—no, it speaks of a Savior who brings His people home. To be “absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8); and to “depart and be with Christ is far better” (Philippians 1:23). There is no pause between those lines, no delay in that hope, no middle chamber where grace must finish its work. His blood, shining with eternal power, cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7)—not some sin, not most sin, but all of it. And if He has cleansed all, then He has left nothing for us to pay.

So when the thief dying beside Him cried out for mercy, Jesus did not speak of waiting; He did not promise eventual joy; He did not describe a hallway between suffering and Paradise. He simply said, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Today—in the fullness of mercy, in the finished work of redemption, in the completeness of divine love. If ever a man seemed to need “more cleansing,” it was that thief; yet grace carried him straight into the arms of Christ.

And this becomes the quiet, steady music of my faith: there is no middle place; there is only Christ. No unfinished business, no lingering guilt, no after-death purification—only the Savior who perfected forever those who trust in Him (Hebrews 10:14).

When I finally step out of this world, I will step into His presence; not because I have been purified enough, but because He has been merciful enough. Not because I have climbed high enough, but because He has stooped low enough. And that, more than anything, is the comfort of the gospel—Jesus is enough, and therefore I will be with Him.

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Christmas 2025: “EVERLASTING FATHER”

When Isaiah called the Messiah “Everlasting Father,” he was inviting us to see the heart of Jesus in a way that stretches past time, past circumstance, past the limits of our own understanding (Isaiah 9:6). He was not blurring the lines of the Godhead, as if the Son and the Father were the same Person; he was showing us the nature of the One who would come. Jesus would step into the world as a child, yet He would carry Himself with the eternal authority of heaven; He would walk dusty roads, yet He would hold the ages in His hands. Isaiah’s language tells us that the Messiah would be the Father of the age to come—the One who begins it, sustains it, and rules it with a tenderness that never grows weary.

And when you watch Jesus move across the pages of the Gospels, you see that Fatherly heart everywhere. You see it when He gathers the little ones near; when He lifts the broken; when He welcomes the outcast; when He calls the weary to come and find rest (Matthew 11:28–30). He shepherds like the Lord of Psalm 23, restoring the soul and steadying the steps. He gathers like the Servant of Isaiah 40:11, carrying the lambs in His arms. Every act of compassion, every word of mercy, every moment of patience rings with that same eternal kindness that Isaiah had seen long before Bethlehem ever felt the breath of God.

Jesus is everlasting—unchanging, unbroken, unhindered by the rise and fall of the kingdoms of this world. Micah said His goings forth were from everlasting (Micah 5:2). John said that in the beginning He already was, and that all things came into being through Him (John 1:1–3). Paul declared that He is before all things, and that in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). And the writer of Hebrews sealed it by reminding us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The One who walked among fishermen and tax collectors is the same One who reigns above every principality and power (Ephesians 1:20–22).

So when Isaiah names Him “Everlasting Father,” he is showing us the Messiah who refuses to abandon His people. He is the Father of the redeemed—because through suffering He brought many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). He is the Father of the new creation—because He makes one new man from all nations (Ephesians 2:14–18). He is the Father of the eternal kingdom—because His dominion will never pass away (Daniel 7:13–14). Jesus is the One who holds us, keeps us, protects us, and calls us His own. And in a world full of shifting shadows, that is the kind of Fatherliness we need—the everlasting kind, the Christ kind, the kind that never ends.

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THE DEITY OF CHRIST MADE SIMPLE

You do not have to dig very deep to see it: the Bible makes it plain—Jesus is God. It is not hidden in riddles, and it is not something we guess at because He feels powerful. It is revealed, stated, and repeated. John opens his Gospel with it: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Then that Word became flesh, entered our world, touched our lives, and bore our sins (John 1:14).

God did not just send a messenger or a moral teacher; He came Himself, the eternal, infinite, unchanging God, wrapped in human flesh. That is the heart of the matter: Jesus is not only from God—He is God. He is not God the Father, He is God the Son. But God the Son is “just as much God “ as God the Father. You don’t have to wrap your mind around it. But you do need to believe it. Sincerely.

Imagine standing beside the ocean at sunrise: the light warming your face and the sun rising over the water are not two different kinds of power—they’re the same light, the same glory, reaching you in two different ways. That’s how Scripture presents Jesus and the Father. The Father is the source, the sun itself; Jesus is the radiant light that reaches us, the exact expression of that same divine nature (Hebrews 1:3).

One does not shine “more” than the other, and one is not more “God” than the other. The same glory that fills the heavens shines through Jesus in a way we can see, hear, and trust. When you look at Him, you are seeing all the fullness of God come near, not a lesser version, not a dim reflection, but God Himself stepping into our world with the same strength, the same holiness, and the same heart as the Father.

And it shows everywhere. Paul tells us that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The brightness of God’s glory, the exact image of His being, walking among us, teaching, healing, dying, rising again—this is Jesus (Hebrews 1:3). Thomas looked into His eyes and said it plainly: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

To call Jesus God is not a philosophical exercise; it is to trust the record God Himself has given. It is to know that the one who forgives sins, who calls the wind and waves to obey, who sits at the right hand of the Father—He is the same God who spoke creation into being, who holds all things together, and who will one day bring all things to perfect justice.

This truth is not meant to confuse us but to anchor us. If Jesus is God, then His promises are sure. His power is enough for our weakness. His presence is real in our everyday lives. His love is unshakable, because it is not merely human affection—it is divine, eternal, unstoppable.

And here is the simple, glorious point: you do not have to understand anything about how it works. You do not need to solve mysteries or explain the unexplainable. You only need to believe that He is everything you need Him to be—for salvation, for guidance, for comfort, for life itself. That is enough.

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THE UNBROKEN CHAIN OF REVELATION

There is a kind of holy common sense woven through Scripture—God does not speak in confusion, and He does not scatter His revelation into a thousand disconnected pieces. There is a chain to it, a flow, a divine order that keeps the message pure as it moves from heaven to earth and from Christ to His people. Christianity rests not on guesswork but on revelation, and revelation rests on God choosing how to make Himself known. That chain is not accidental; it is the backbone of our faith.

It begins where it must begin—with Jesus Himself. He is not simply the first link in the chain; He is the source of it. “God…has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Everything God intends us to know finds its center in Christ—His words, His actions, His cross, His resurrection. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the fullness of God in a form we can look at without being destroyed. And because He is the perfect revelation, nothing needs to be added to Him, corrected for Him, or polished after Him. He is the message and the messenger in one.

Then Jesus entrusted that revelation to the apostles and prophets—not as editors or creative writers, but as Spirit-guided witnesses. He told the apostles that the Spirit would “teach you all things” and “bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26). Paul said the mystery of Christ “has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 3:5). They did not invent Christianity; they received it. They did not speculate about truth; they transmitted it. Their authority is derivative—real, binding, essential—but always pointing back to Jesus. This is delegated revelation—God’s truth passed through chosen men, safeguarded by the Spirit so that the church would have certainty and not drift into imagination.

And then, after Christ…the apostles…the prophets—comes us. But our place is different. We are not links in the revelatory chain; we are receivers of it. We do not add to the message; we live under it. We do not receive new Scripture; we obey the Scripture already given. Our task is not to revise but to remember, not to innovate but to be faithful. “Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). That “once for all” matters—it means the chain is complete, and we honor Christ not by expanding His revelation but by submitting to it.

In a world that runs on feelings, impressions, and spiritual improvisation, this chain of revelation is a steady anchor. It keeps us from drifting into a private religion of our own preferences. It keeps us grounded in the Christ who actually lived, died, rose, and spoke. It keeps us tied to the apostolic testimony—not as museum pieces, but as the living voice of God for every generation.

So I read Scripture with a humble confidence. I am not waiting for new light from heaven; I am walking in the light already given. The chain is secure: Christ → apostles & prophets → the church. And in that order—in that beautiful, Spirit-guarded sequence—God has told us everything we need to know to walk with Him, trust Him, and be shaped by His truth until the day we see the Source of all revelation face to face.

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ANGELS WATCHING OVER US

Sometimes I think we make angels either too strange or too sugary, and in the process we forget the simple, steady truth Scripture puts right in front of us: God cares for His people, and part of that care involves unseen servants—quiet, watchful, obedient—moving at His command. You do not have to drift into fantasy to believe that; you just have to read the Bible and trust that God says what He means.

Hebrews says they are “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14). That’s not poetry; that’s policy. It is the steady hand of God extended in ways we cannot see, yet ways that matter, ways that have mattered for His people from the beginning. And—even if I can’t diagram how it works—I can live with the comfort that heaven is not passive toward my life; the Father who loves me never leaves me unattended.

Think of Lot being pulled out of danger, even when he hesitated, because God would not let His mercy fail (Genesis 19). Think of Daniel, who learned that the strength he felt in the lion’s den was not his own—“My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths” (Daniel 6:22). Think of Peter being freed from prison in the quiet of the night, chains falling like they were ashamed to cling to him (Acts 12). These are not fairy tales; they are the steady record of a God who watches, who guards, who assigns protection not because we are important, but because He is faithful. And the principle has not changed.

And there is that small, beautiful line in Psalms—simple, unembellished, and never outdated: “The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them” (Psalm 34:7). Encamps. Not swoops in from time to time, not checks in occasionally, but encamps—sets up guard, stays put, stands watch.

You and I go about our days unaware of ninety-nine percent of what threatens us; He is aware of one hundred percent, and He is never late. And even though I do not ask for angels and I do not pray to them—they are not my mediators or my hope—I trust that God, in His wisdom, assigns His servants as He pleases for my good.

So I move through the day with a quiet confidence—not magical, not mystical, just biblical. The Father’s providence includes more moving parts than I’ll ever understand, but every one of them bends toward His purpose of keeping me in His grace and bringing me home. And when I lie down at night, I don’t need to know how many angels have walked with me; I only need to know that the God who sent them loves me still, and that is enough.

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DO NOT WORRY — THE QUIET FREEDOM OF TRUST

Worry slips into the heart like a thief in the night; it steals today by pretending to prepare us for tomorrow. Yet our Lord—gentle, patient, sovereign over sparrows and seasons—speaks directly into that anxious ache. In Matthew chapter 6, He lays down principles so simple that a child can grasp them and so profound that a lifetime cannot exhaust them. And in His words, we find not only comfort; we find a command rooted in His own presence.

First, worry does not help anything. “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” (Matthew 6:27). There is a holy bluntness here, the kind that clears the fog and lets the soul breathe again. Jesus is not dismissing our troubles; He is lifting our eyes. Worry does not lengthen life, strengthen faith, or lighten burdens. It is a weight without purpose—an energy spent on shadows. Christ calls us to remember that anxiety produces nothing good; trust produces everything needed.

Second, tomorrow is not here yet. “Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34). The future does not belong to us—not even the next breath, not even the next hour. The Father holds every sunrise in His hand, and He alone knows what each day will bring. Worry tries to live a tomorrow we have not been given; faith receives the grace that belongs to today. There is a rhythm here—daily bread, daily mercy, daily strength. We live one sunrise at a time; anything more becomes a burden we were never meant to carry.

Third, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow—so why worry about next week? Jesus presses this truth gently: “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). Not only is tomorrow outside your grasp; it is outside your knowledge. You cannot see around the corner of time. Only the Father sees the fields before they bloom. Worry tries to write a story that only God can write. But faith says, “My Father knows.” And that is enough.

Fourth, the Father Himself is the antidote to worry. This is the heartbeat of the whole passage: Look at the birds. Consider the lilies. Watch the fields, and learn how God provides. If He clothes grass that lives for a moment, how much more will He clothe the ones who bear His image? “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things” (Matthew 6:32). Worry assumes we are alone; Jesus reminds us that we are held. Worry whispers scarcity; Jesus speaks abundance. Worry imagines an orphaned world; Jesus reveals a Father’s care.

Finally, seek God first, and everything else finds its place. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). This is not a promise that life will be easy; it is a promise that life will be guided. When Christ reigns in the center, the future no longer has to. When His kingdom is our pursuit, our needs come under His provision. When His righteousness is our desire, our fears bow to His presence.

And so we come back to where Jesus began—“Do not worry.” Not because life is small, but because the Father is great. Not because our troubles are imaginary, but because His care is real. Today is enough for today; tomorrow will be met by grace when it arrives. The One who holds eternity invites us to walk with Him one step at a time—unhurried, unafraid, resting in the God who provides before we ask and leads before we understand.

May we breathe deeply of His peace today; may we trust Him with tomorrow when tomorrow comes.

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NOTHING NEEDS TO BE RESTORED

There is a certain idea that floats through the minds of sincere believers — the notion that if we could only “get back” to something, recover something, rebuild or restore something, then the church would finally be what it ought to be. But the more I meditate on Christ, the more I realize the gentle truth that silences all such striving: nothing needs to be restored. Not in the sense some imagine. Not as if Jesus left anything unfinished, or as though the church somehow slipped from His hands and needed rescuing by us.

Jesus Himself is the restoration. He did the only restoring work heaven required — and He did it perfectly, eternally, magnificently. He reconciled us to God by His blood (Colossians 1:20). He made us alive when we were dead (Ephesians 2:5). He built His church upon Himself, the Rock that cannot be shaken (Matthew 16:18). What Christ finishes never needs redoing. What Christ builds never needs rebuilding. What Christ restores never needs restoration.

Some point to Moses and say, “But didn’t God tell him to build according to the pattern?” Yes — but Moses was a type of Christ, not a type of us. Moses was a shadow pointing forward; Jesus is the substance. Moses built a tent; Jesus builds a kingdom. Moses followed the pattern shown to him on the mountain; Jesus is the pattern, descended from heaven, the image of the invisible God (Hebrews 8:5; Colossians 1:15).

And the tabernacle Moses raised? It was a type of Christ’s people — the church, the dwelling place of God through the Spirit (Ephesians 2:22). The gospel does not command us to build the church; it invites us to enter the one Christ already built. The apostles did not restore something lost; they announced Someone present. They did not recover a blueprint; they proclaimed a risen Lord.

Christ built the church according to the pattern — perfectly, completely, gloriously. And because He built it, it is already here. It has always been here. It will never not be here. Human traditions rise and fall; movements come and go; cultures shift and seasons change. But the church — the real church, the blood-bought, Spirit-indwelt, Christ-anchored church — stands in the unbroken continuity of His life.

There is nothing for us to restore because nothing was ever lost in Him. The truth may be forgotten by men, but it is never forgotten by God. The gospel may be obscured by the noise of the age, but it is never dimmed in the throne room of heaven. Christ never misplaces His bride. He never drops what He carries. He never asks us to repair what He has already rendered eternal.

Our calling is not restoration but faithfulness — not rebuilding but rejoicing — not recovering a vanished ideal but resting in a finished reality. We do not look backward for something missing; we look upward to Someone reigning.

And in that simple truth, the heart finds peace. The church is here because Christ is here. The pattern is fulfilled because the Son is enthroned. And the restoration the world longed for has already happened at Calvary.

Nothing needs to be restored — because Jesus restored everything that ever mattered, once for all, forever.

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MUSCLE SHOALS AND MOTOWN — THE GOSPEL ABOVE THE SOUND

I’ll confess something with a smile — I like the Muscle Shoals sound more than the Motown sound, though not by a wide margin. For context, listen to I Second That Emotion by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and then listen to Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You). The former is Motown; the latter is Muscle Shoals. Both are fantastic — both make the soul move and the heart lean in — but Muscle Shoals has that earthy grit, that gospel-soaked warmth, that hint of the river and the red dirt. And no, the fact that I’m from Alabama has absolutely nothing to do with it — he said, trying his best to be funny.

But here’s the thing: as beautiful as these musical differences are, they teach us something about the kingdom of God. If the gospel is preached in a church that sings a different style, plays a different groove, or worships with a different feel — we are still on the same team. One church may sway like Motown with polished harmonies, another may growl like Muscle Shoals with raw, heart-deep soul. One may clap on the one and three; another may clap on the two and four. But if Christ is proclaimed, if the cross is lifted up, if sinners are pointed to the risen Lord — then we are family (Philippians 1:15–18).

The gospel has always worn different clothes in different places. It sounded like a fisherman’s accent in Galilee, a scholar’s tone in Athens, a jailhouse hymn in Philippi. The melody changes; the message doesn’t. And that is what matters. We may prefer one sound over another, but the Spirit harmonizes all true preaching into one song — the song of the Lamb (Revelation 15:3).

Music, like life, is full of variety. God seems to enjoy letting His people sound different, look different, express their joy differently. It’s His way of reminding us that unity is not uniformity — unity is love held together by truth (Ephesians 4:3–6). And when the truth is the gospel, we can rejoice wherever Christ is exalted, even if the worship set doesn’t sound like our favorite playlist.

Motown or Muscle Shoals, hymns or choruses, organ or acoustic guitar — these things matter, but they do not matter most. Christ matters most. His grace matters most. His cross matters most. And when He is preached, heaven leans down to listen, and the angels rejoice.

So whether the sound is polished or gritty, smooth or soulful, let the church sing. Let us stand shoulder to shoulder, thankful that the same Savior who rescues us also delights in the varied music of His people. We are one choir, held together by one gospel, singing one great truth:

Jesus saves — and that is the sweetest sound of all.

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Devotional in Song HE MAKES LOVING FUN

There is a question people sometimes ask me, spoken with that curious tone: “Do you listen to secular music?” And I almost want to smile, because what does “secular” even mean to a heart that has been taken over by Christ? When Jesus walks into a man’s life, nothing is secular anymore; everything becomes sacred, everything becomes consecrated — not because the thing itself changed, but because I changed, and because He goes with me wherever my feet wander. The ground becomes holy because the Holy One is standing on it. And so, when the music starts, whether it came from a choir loft or from a California studio in 1977, Christ is already there — for I brought Him with me.

I don’t want the filth of the world; I don’t want vulgarity dressing itself up as freedom. Only the devil offers corruption as entertainment. I will not drink from a polluted well when the Lord offers living water. But clean music, honest music, searching music — I can find Jesus in it, because He has trained my heart to look for Him. And when I listen to Fleetwood Mac sing You Make Loving Fun, something inside me turns the lyric heavenward. It becomes “He makes loving fun.” He — the One who loved me first, the One who loved me best, the One who loved me when I was least lovable — He is the joy behind every joy.

Christ makes life and love fun — not trivial, not shallow, not lighthearted in the sense of carelessness, but fun in the deepest sense: full of purpose, full of warmth, full of wonder. The gospel removes the grim weight of meaninglessness. It answers the ache of “Why am I here?” and silences the fear of “Where am I going?” When those two questions are settled in Christ, the soul can breathe again. Suddenly the world brightens; suddenly even ordinary things sing; suddenly the heart rises like a child at play, because its Father is near.

And of course, difficulties still come. Christ never promised that the path would be smooth — only that He would be on it (John 14:18). But when the Shepherd walks beside you, valleys turn into classrooms, storms turn into testimonies, and even tears become the seeds of joy (Psalm 30:5). He makes loving fun, because He makes living possible. He makes obedience sweet, because He makes forgiveness real. He makes worship natural, because He makes grace personal.

So let the world divide music into sacred and secular; I cannot. Not anymore. When Christ owns your heart, He owns your ears as well. And when the song begins, if your soul is tuned to Him, you will hear His footsteps in the rhythm, His kindness in the melody, His presence in the quiet between the notes. Anyone may sing you make loving fun, but my heart will always answer back to Christ Jesus: You make loving fun — You make life itself worth living.

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PREDESTINATION MADE SIMPLE

We hear the word predestination, and for many hearts it stirs confusion — perhaps even fear. We imagine a dark, divine lottery where souls are chosen or discarded, and we wonder if the doors of grace are locked from the inside. But the Bible never speaks that way. The New Testament uses the word sparingly, tenderly, and always with a pastoral purpose. Its aim is not to plunge us into philosophical knots; its aim is to lift our eyes to the God who gets all the credit for everything good, and whose heart leans toward saving sinners.

When you gather every verse on predestination and lay them side by side — Romans 8:29-30, Ephesians 1:4-5, Ephesians 1:11 — you discover something profoundly simple: predestination is not about God deciding who cannot come; it is about God deciding what He will lovingly do for all who do come. It is God’s eternal promise that everyone in Christ will be shaped into His image, washed in His grace, adopted into His family. It is not a fence that keeps repentant sinners out; it is a guarantee that God Himself will carry believers home.

Predestination is never presented as a cold decree; it is a warm assurance. Paul doesn’t use the word to stir anxiety but to stir worship: “to the praise of the glory of His grace” (Ephesians 1:6). He is not describing a God who shuts the door — he is describing a God who opens it. The plan of redemption was not an afterthought; grace did not begin when you repented. Before the world was formed, God planned to save sinners through Jesus Christ. In His mind, the cross was already standing; the empty tomb was already open. And what God planned in eternity, He carried out in history, and He offers freely in the present.

Some hear the word predestination and think of a harsh fatalism — a kind of theological communism where the individual is swallowed up by an impersonal system. But that is not the God of Scripture. Calvinism has the propensity to horrify the individual in the name of intellectualism and theology; the gospel restores the person in the embrace of the Father. Calvinism can easily steal freedom and leave a gray, lifeless world in its wake; the gospel gives freedom and fills the world with color and hope. Calvinism says your destiny is determined by forces beyond your control; predestination says your destiny is secured by a God who loves you and calls you. One can dehumanize; the other redeems.

The Bible never tells you to examine some invisible decree to decide whether God wants you. It tells you to look to Christ, because “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). If predestination meant you might want salvation but God might refuse you, Scripture would speak differently — it would warn the willing, frighten the repentant, and unsettle the hopeful. But it does the opposite. It pleads with the sinner, assures the seeker, comforts the bruised heart. And when you finally put your trust in Christ, predestination becomes the pillow under your weary head: God has chosen to save all who are in His Son, and no force on earth or in hell can undo the purposes of the Almighty.

So let certain scholars wrestle if they wish; let certain debaters sharpen their arguments. Some may get caught up in intellectualism and convoluted human reasoning. But at its heart, predestination is simple enough for a child: God planned to save, God is willing to save, and God will save all who come to Him in faith. It is a positive force, not a negative one — a promise, not a prison; a door flung open, not bolted shut.

And in that truth we rest:

God gets all the credit, Jesus gets all the glory, and you and I get all the grace.

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Christmas 2025: GOD ON A CROSS

This time of year always draws our eyes back to Bethlehem, back to a manger too small to hold the glory it carried, back to a Child who slept beneath a sky He Himself had once spoken into being. We say, “Jesus became human,” and we nod, as though such a sentence could ever be simple. But hidden inside that truth is the heartbeat of the gospel—more staggering than stars, more humbling than dust.

For if He became human, and if He is divine—and the Scriptures speak of this with unembarrassed clarity—then what happened at Calvary can only be described in one way: God on a cross.

Not a messenger.

Not an angel.

Not a created spirit clothed in borrowed flesh.

But God Himself, stooping so low that nails could fasten Him to wood He once designed.

The mind trembles to hold such a truth. Yet the soul is steadied by it.

We remember that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). We recall that in Him “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). We hear the angel call Him “Immanuel”—God with us (Matthew 1:23). And then we stand beneath the shadow of Golgotha and realize: if the One walking toward that hill is truly who the Scriptures say He is, then the cross is not merely the death of a righteous man—it is the self-giving love of God poured out in human form.

God on a cross—that is the essence of everything we preach. For a distant deity does not save; a theoretical Christ does not redeem. But the God who writes Himself into our story, who steps into our skin and carries our griefs, who tastes death for every one of us—that God can lift the world out of its ruin. And He has.

If He had only come as a teacher, our hearts would have admired Him.

If He had only come as a prophet, our minds would have listened to Him.

But because He came as God incarnate, our souls must worship Him.

The wonder of Christmas is not merely that a Child was born—it is that a cross already cast its long shadow over the manger. The One who nursed at Mary’s side came to bear the sins Mary herself could not carry. The hands that clung to Joseph’s finger came to be stretched wide in redeeming love. The cry that broke the silence of Bethlehem would, in time, break the power of death itself.

This is why simple faith feels so deep during this season. We are caught up in something eternal. We behold the humility of God, and we try to absorb the impossible truth that love became flesh—and then allowed that flesh to be broken. The gospel is not a set of doctrines lined neatly on a shelf. The gospel is the shocking announcement that the Creator entered His creation, walked its dusty roads, and died at the hands of the very ones He came to redeem.

And when the hammer struck the nails—and when the sky grew dark—and when the earth trembled beneath the weight of His surrender—the universe bore witness to the greatest mystery of all: God on a cross, giving Himself for us (2 Corinthians 5:19).

So as we think of Christ’s birth, let that truth steady your heart. Let it lift your worship. Let it quiet your fears. The infinite has come near. The holy has stepped into the ordinary. And the God who lay in a manger is the same God who hung upon a cross—because love could not stay distant.

And today, because of Him, neither must we.

BDD

MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, AND REMARRIAGE MADE SIMPLE

Bible students can argue for hours about marriage, divorce, and remarriage. They gather in circles, compare word studies, dissect Greek verbs, try to dot every “i” and cross every “t,” and still walk away unable to agree on the “exact” rules. The reason is simple: the Bible was never written as a legal handbook filled with endless technicalities. If God had wanted to reveal His will in a detailed, legal code—He certainly knows how. Read Leviticus sometime. Every garment of the priest, every offering, every ceremony is spelled out with precision. Nothing is left to guesswork.

But the New Testament is different. It is a book of principles, not a book of legal codes. It does not attempt to anticipate every exception, every unusual circumstance, every situation that arises in life. If it were a book of laws, it would have to answer thousands of questions—questions no young person, no parent, no elder, no preacher could possibly memorize.

Jesus and the Pharisees

In Matthew 19 and Mark 10, Jesus is confronted with a legal question from the Pharisees: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” They were not seeking God’s heart; they were trying to trap Him. They wanted technical rules so they could win arguments.

But Jesus did not give them a list of exceptions or a long legal code.

He took them back to one simple truth: “From the beginning it was not so.”

Marriage was meant to be faithful, permanent, rooted in God’s creation design.

Yes, Jesus acknowledged the Pharisees’ background—the practice of Deuteronomy 24, where men were divorcing their wives for shallow reasons and handing out certificates as if they were swapping property. But His point was not to address every possible situation. His point was to call people back to God’s heart: marriage was not meant to be thrown away.

When we try to slice and dice Jesus’ words into technical categories—when we try to turn His answer into a law code—we miss His intention entirely. The Lord did not write a Leviticus-style chapter on marriage. He answered the question in front of Him and pointed His listeners back to covenant faithfulness.

Why the New Testament Doesn’t Read Like Leviticus

Because the New Testament was written for people growing in Christ—not for a courtroom.

God could have given specific, binding regulations:

• what to do if this happens,

• what to do if that happens,

• how many exceptions are allowed,

• what counts as “legal,”

• what counts as “invalid,”

—but He didn’t. Not because He forgot. Not because it slipped His mind.

But because He wants hearts shaped by love, repentance, humility, and faithfulness.

Think of how a priest lived under the old covenant. God told them exactly what to wear, when to wash, how to walk into the temple, how to handle every object they touched. The New Testament gives no such ceremonial instructions. Not for preachers, not for elders, not for married couples. Why? Because the new covenant is spiritual, internal, principle-driven, and heart-centered.

The Simple Principle: Be Faithful

When you set aside all the complicated debates—when you stop trying to read the New Testament as if it were a legal dictionary—the principle becomes remarkably simple:

Be faithful.

That is the heart of every passage on marriage.

Faithful to your spouse.

Faithful to your promises.

Faithful to Christ.

Faithful to purity, humility, and repentance.

That is why Jesus begins with creation. That is why Paul in Ephesians 5 points to Christ and the church. That is why the New Testament spends more time on how to love your spouse than on when you can leave them.

But What About Those Who Have Already Messed Up?

This is where the Bible stays beautifully consistent:

If you have sinned, repent. If you are broken, seek mercy. If you have failed, walk forward in faithfulness.

There is no such thing as a second-class Christian in the kingdom of God.

The gospel does not have a category called “unforgivable marriage mistakes.”

The pattern is always the same in Scripture:

• When you sin—confess it.

• When you repent—God forgives.

• When you have made a mess—walk in newness of life.

• When you have a marriage—be faithful in the one you are in.

The New Testament never commands a person to break their current marriage to fix a past one. It does not ask people to untangle years of human mistakes with legal precision. It simply calls us to live faithfully from this point forward—repentance, grace, and obedience walking hand in hand.

A Teenager Could Understand This

You could explain it like this:

1. God wants marriage to be faithful.

2. People sometimes break that faithfulness.

3. When they do, God wants repentance, honesty, and change.

4. After repentance, live faithfully from now on.

5. Don’t play legal games with God’s words—follow the principles of Jesus.

That’s it. Not a library of legal codes. Not a chart on the wall. Not a list of fifty exceptions.

Just the heart of God.

The Bottom Line

Marriage, divorce, and remarriage are real-life issues involving real people who carry real wounds. The New Testament gives principles—not exhaustive laws—because God is shaping hearts, not filling out legal forms.

So here is the simple truth the Bible gives us:

Be faithful. And if you have failed, repent, receive mercy, and be faithful from here on.

God meets us where we are, not where we should have been.

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IF YOU WANT TO GET TECHNICAL About Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage

Every now and then, someone will say, “Well, that may sound good, but if you really get technical about marriage and divorce, the issue is far more complicated.” And I understand the concern. For generations, believers have wrestled with Jesus’ words, Paul’s counsel, the background of Moses, and the tangled heartbreak of human relationships. And in their effort to defend truth, many have built entire systems—intricate, detailed, rigid—attempting to cover every possible situation.

But here is the irony: the closer you look, the more you study the language, the context, the background, and the intent of the biblical writers, the more you discover that the technical approach actually supports the simpler, principle-centered view. What looks complicated only becomes complicated when we force the New Testament to function like Leviticus—a book of case law, exceptions, footnotes, and ceremonial detail. But the New Testament was not written that way, and the more carefully you examine it, the more obvious that becomes.

Jesus Was Not Writing a Law Code

Legalists often say, “But Jesus said…,” and then they quote a line from Matthew 19 or Mark 10 as if He were handing down a statute that covers every imaginable scenario. But Jesus was not speaking in a legislative assembly—He was engaging Pharisees who were trying to trap Him. They were not asking for wisdom. They were battling for their own tradition.

If you want to get technical—really technical—then you must start here:

Jesus’ words were given in the form of a controversy dialogue, not a legal handbook.

He was not laying down a series of regulations. He was correcting their abuse of Deuteronomy 24, where men treated women like disposable property. Scholars of all stripes acknowledge this: Jesus’ answer rises out of an immediate context and addresses a specific distortion. He returns to creation—not case law—because He is pointing them to God’s heart, not giving them a legal chart.

If God wanted a legal chart, He could have given one.

He did it in Leviticus.

He spelled out what priests wore, what they washed, where they walked, what they touched, what they offered.

No ambiguity. No debate. No guessing.

But the New Testament does not give any such detail—not for marriage, not for ministry, not for anything. Because this covenant is spiritual, internal, principle-driven, and centered on the character of Christ.

The Language of Jesus Supports Principles, Not Technicalities

Those who want to turn Jesus’ words into a rigid legal code often claim they are being faithful to the language. But if you look at the Greek carefully—yes, if you want to get technical—Jesus speaks in general moral categories using gnomic, universal statements, not detailed statutes. He uses forms and structures common to teachers, not lawmakers.

Legalists pull the passages apart like a mechanic disassembling an engine. But Jesus did not speak that way, Paul did not write that way, and the early church did not interpret the passages that way. The most technical reading actually proves the point: Jesus gave broad kingdom principles, not an exhaustive list of rules.

Paul’s Pastoral Care Proves It

If someone wishes to push the technical argument further, then they must answer the Apostle Paul. Because Paul, under inspiration of the Spirit, directly addresses marriage and divorce in 1 Corinthians 7—and what does he do?

He refuses to create a legal code.

He clearly distinguishes:

• what Jesus addressed

• what Jesus did not address

• and where apostolic judgment must shepherd complicated, messy situations

A rigid list of technical rules cannot survive 1 Corinthians 7 without collapsing on itself. Paul acknowledges real-life scenarios Jesus did not discuss. He applies the principles of peace, repentance, faithfulness, and Christian calling. He does not instruct anyone to unravel their past. And he certainly does not build a Leviticus for the New Testament church.

Technical readers must deal with this:

Paul, the most brilliant mind of the early church, refused to do what modern legalists insist must be done. He would not turn Jesus’ words into a civil code. He gave Spirit-led principles that guide believers through the complexity of real relationships rooted in grace.

If You Want to Get Technical, the Technical Side Supports the Simple Side

Let the “legal mind” examine:

• the context

• the grammar

• the historical background

• the early church’s understanding

• the pastoral theology of the new covenant

They will find that everything points in one direction: the New Testament was never meant to function as a rulebook covering every scenario. It gives us the heart of God. It gives us the character of Christ. It gives us the principles of covenant faithfulness.

It tells us:

• Marriage calls for faithfulness.

• Divorce is a tragedy, not a convenience.

• Remarriage carries responsibility, not a loophole.

• When we sin, we repent.

• When we have repented, we live faithfully in the present.

• The gospel does not ask people to unlive their past to make the present tidy.

If you want to get technical—truly technical—this is where the evidence leads.

The Simple Truth That Survives Every Technical Test

Here is the truth that stands both for the scholar and the young novice:

Be faithful.

If you have sinned, repent.

And from this moment forward, walk faithfully with Christ.

This is not loose theology, nor is it slippery grace. It is the sound, contextual, linguistically responsible, Christ-centered reading of Scripture. It is what the New Testament teaches when you stop forcing it to behave like Leviticus and let it speak with the voice God gave it.

The legalist may try to build a labyrinth of exceptions and sub-exceptions, but the gospel clears the path. The Lord is not laying traps for His people. He is calling them to follow Him with integrity, with repentance, with mercy, and with a heart that keeps covenant.

And that is something both scholars and children can understand.

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“SPEAKING THE SAME THING”: What Paul Really Meant (1 Corinthians 1:10)

When many people read 1 Corinthians 1:10, they assume Paul is telling Christians that they must agree on every doctrine, every interpretation, and every issue. But when we slow down, read the passage carefully, and consider the context, we discover that Paul is addressing something entirely different. He is calling believers to agree on who they belong to.

In 1 Corinthians 1:10, Paul pleads with them to “speak the same thing” and to be united in mind and judgment, but the following verses show that the problem was not doctrinal disagreement; it was divided allegiance among the people of God.

Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 1:11–12 that he has heard some believers saying, “I am of Paul,” “I am of Apollos,” “I am of Cephas,” and others, “I am of Christ.” They were grouping themselves according to their favorite teachers, as though belonging to a certain preacher gave them a spiritual identity.

They were not fighting over interpretations of Scripture; they were fragmenting into personality-driven groups. Their loyalties had drifted away from Christ and toward mere men, and Paul immediately corrects this by asking, “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13). His point is unmistakable: Only Christ died for us, only Christ was raised for us, and only Christ is Lord—therefore only Christ deserves our loyalty.

When Paul urges them to “speak the same thing,” he is not requiring Christians to think alike on every issue or to agree on every doctrinal detail. That would be impossible, and Paul himself allows differing opinions later in the same letter, especially about eating meat offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8. Instead, he is telling them to stop saying, “I am of Paul,” “I am of Apollos,” and “I am of Cephas,” and to start saying the same thing about who they belong to. They are to confess with one voice that they are of Christ. To “speak the same thing” simply means that all believers must acknowledge one Lord, one Savior, and one Head—the Lord Jesus Christ.

The call to be “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” is also clarified by the context. Paul is talking about unity of loyalty and unity of purpose, not the impossible expectation of uniformity in every opinion. The same mind means a mind centered on Christ rather than on human leaders. The same judgment means sharing the conviction that Christ alone is the foundation of our faith. Paul’s goal is not a church where everyone agrees on all points of teaching, but a church where everyone agrees on the One who unites them.

The Corinthians were not divided because they held different doctrines; they were divided because they had misplaced loyalties and weakened love. Their attitudes were off center. Their devotion to Christ had been overshadowed by devotion to their preferred teachers. Paul seeks to draw their hearts back to Christ and back to one another.

If they loved each other more than they loved winning arguments, and if they loved Christ more than they loved their favorite preacher, they would be united. Paul’s solution is simple and powerful: speak the same thing by acknowledging with one voice that you belong to Christ, lay aside your party spirit, stop dividing over personalities, and remember who saved you, who loved you, and who continues to call you His own. True unity is not the unity of identical opinions, but the unity of shared devotion to the same Lord.

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FELLOWSHIP BASED ON AGREEMENT?

There have always been disagreements among the children of God, and there is no reason to imagine this will ever cease. No two people can think and reason in precisely the same way any more than they can look exactly alike or carry the same personality traits. Inherited dispositions, differing upbringings, varied experiences—these are only a few of the forces that shape each of us into unique individuals. No two snowflakes mirror one another perfectly, and no two Christians will ever be identical in all things. If we would truly accept this God-given reality, we could avoid many of the “fellowship problems” that so often hinder the work of Christ upon the earth.

Consider marriage. A husband and a wife may love one another deeply, yet they rarely think exactly alike, and they seldom approach every question or concern from the same angle. It is not that one is always wiser and the other always less informed; it is simply that they are different people, each crafted by God with his or her own inclinations and ways of reasoning.

And yet, in spite of these differences, they remain one flesh—united by God Himself—bound together in the most intimate of earthly relationships, even when they disagree. Why? Because their unity is not based on perfect sameness but on a covenant God has formed.

In the same way, every child of God on the face of the earth has been united with Christ and summoned by the gospel into the fellowship of His Son. We have been added to the one body along with every other believer, and we share in the family fellowship of God’s redeemed.

There is one body—Paul says this plainly in Ephesians 4:4. He does not say there should be one body or that we are striving to create one body—he declares that there is one body, and every saved person has been added to it. If Jesus is your Savior and God is your Father, then you are my brother or my sister, and that settles the matter. We do not determine who belongs in God’s family any more than we choose the members of our earthly families.

The only choice we are given is how we will treat one another and whether we will embrace in our hearts what God has already made a reality—that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Our fellowship is not determined by perfect agreement on every issue or by identical interpretations of every passage, but by our common faith in Christ as Lord and Savior.

When we were baptized into Christ, we entered God’s family—not because we passed a doctrinal examination or held flawless views on every point, but because we trusted in God’s Son and were added by God to His church. If fellowship depends on seeing everything alike, then there will never be fellowship, because we will never see everything alike.

Believers stand at different levels of maturity, and so the command is not to judge one another but to “forbear one another in love” (Ephesians chapter four verse two). If there were no real differences, there would be nothing to forbear. In fact, Romans chapter fourteen is entirely devoted to urging believers to accept one another as brethren without demanding doctrinal conformity.

“But,” someone will ask, “are we not told to speak the same thing?” Indeed, Paul urges the Corinthians to “speak the same thing” and to be of one mind and one judgment (1 Corinthians 1:10). Yet when this verse is used as a weapon to divide sincere disciples of Christ, it is used in the exact opposite way Paul intended.

He was not teaching that we must speak the same thing on every issue, for just a few chapters later he allows believers to reach different conclusions about eating meat offered to idols (1 Corinthians 8). And in Romans chapter fourteen, he permits differing opinions on religious days, eating practices, drinking wine, and other matters of the time. They clearly did not have to “speak the same thing” about all of that.

So what did Paul mean? Read the context. The Corinthians were dividing into factions—saying, in effect, “I am loyal to Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas”—instead of belonging wholly to Christ. Paul was saying, “Stop dividing yourselves around human leaders! Speak the same thing—namely, that your allegiance belongs to Christ alone.”

The very text meant to condemn sectarianism has been misused to justify it, requiring believers to agree on every matter before they can recognize one another as brethren. But such conformity is impossible, and God never required it.

The unity that allows us to “speak the same thing” is not intellectual sameness or doctrinal uniformity. It is the fact that we have been “called into the fellowship of His Son” (1 Corinthians 1:9). We do not speak the same thing in order to get into the fellowship; we speak the same thing because we are already in the fellowship. Our unity rests on allegiance to Christ—not on flawless interpretation of Scripture.

If perfect understanding were the condition for acceptance, then we would all stand condemned, for not one of us knows all that God knows. If God required of us what we often require of one another—agreement down to the finest detail, submission to every opinion, conformity to every interpretation—then none of us would ever find our way into His family. Thank God He does not treat us the way we so often treat each other. God is seeking ways to receive us, not excuses to divide us.

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A VISIT FROM LENA HORNE

There is an episode of Sanford and Son—“A Visit from Lena Horne”—that remains, for me, one of the purest joys in television. I have seen many comedies; I have laughed at countless scenes; but that one…that one is in a class by itself. The way Fred Sanford trembles with excitement, the way his eyes widen as though he has just glimpsed the gates of heaven itself—he is a man overwhelmed by the honor of being in the presence of someone he has admired from afar. His whole face changes; his whole being lights up; every ounce of him says, “This is the moment I dreamed of.”

And yes—it is a simple analogy, but sometimes the simplest ones hold the most weight. When I watch Fred stumble and babble and nearly collapse in the presence of Lena Horne (and I totally understand why), I cannot help but ask a quiet question to my own heart: Am I that excited about Jesus? Not the idea of Jesus. Not the doctrines surrounding Him. Not the cultural familiarity with His name. But Him—the living Christ, the One who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

Fred Sanford’s excitement came from admiration at a distance; but the Lord we serve is not distant—He is near, present, welcoming, calling us to come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). And still, I often find myself more moved by earthly heroes, earthly pleasures, earthly visits, than by the staggering reality that the King of Glory has invited me into fellowship with Him. The angels veil their faces in His presence—and here I am, sometimes yawning through prayers, drifting through worship, treating the Lord of heaven as though He were merely another appointment in my day.

Lena Horne walked into Fred Sanford’s living room for a few minutes of sitcom delight; but Jesus walks into the rooms of our souls—the dusty ones, the cluttered ones, the forgotten corners—and He brings grace that cleans, restores, and renews. He is not a celebrity to admire from afar; He is a Savior who comes near. He is not a guest who leaves after the final act; He is Immanuel—God with us—God staying with us.

And so, yes, I still watch Sanford and Son. I make no apologies and offer no defenses. If anything, that old show reminds me of something deeper: that joy is a good teacher, that laughter has its place, and that even a sitcom can whisper a spiritual truth if you are willing to listen for it. When Fred Sanford nearly faints in the presence of Lena Horne, his joy becomes a mirror held up to my soul—and I pray that my heart might learn again what it means to live in awe of Jesus, the One infinitely more beautiful, more worthy, more satisfying than any star who ever walked across a television screen.

Because one day—far sooner than we think—the faith we now hold will become sight, and the One we have read about, sung about, preached about, will stand before us. And on that day, no analogy will seem too simple. And no excitement will seem too much. For we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2); and our joy—far greater than Fred Sanford’s—will finally overflow.

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THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE MADE SIMPLE

If we strip the idea of inspiration down to its essential core, we arrive at something both surprisingly simple and immensely profound: the Bible is not merely a record of what people thought about God — it is a record of what God chose to communicate through people. That single distinction explains why Scripture has endured while civilizations have come and gone, why its words continue to stir hearts long after the languages of its earliest readers have faded into history. Paul’s phrase “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16) is not poetry for its own sake; it is a precise claim. It says the Bible carries something of God’s mind, His intention, His self-disclosure.

Now, the interesting part is this: divine inspiration does not behave like dictation. God did not reduce the writers to mere instruments, as though they were typewriters with pulses. Instead, He worked through their personalities, vocabularies, and limitations — yet guided the process so that what they wrote was exactly what He intended. Peter’s explanation is almost startlingly mechanical in its clarity: men “were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). They were not erased; they were carried. They were not overwritten; they were steered. It is the difference between a robot and a human pilot assisted by a guiding hand.

Because of this, the Bible exhibits something no merely human book can manage — unity across vast spans of time. Dozens of authors, separated by centuries and cultures, converge on the same themes: the holiness of God, the brokenness of man, the necessity of redemption, the centrality of Christ. The remarkable coherence of Scripture is not accidental; it is the natural result of a single Mind speaking through many voices. If we encountered such harmony in scientific data, we would immediately suspect a common source. The same logic applies here.

And perhaps the most compelling evidence of inspiration is experiential rather than theoretical. The Bible does not merely inform; it confronts. It diagnoses with unsettling accuracy and then offers a cure with unexpected grace. It speaks with an authority that is neither tyrannical nor tentative, but simply steady — as if truth itself has no need to raise its voice. Cultures shift, philosophies evolve, empires dissolve, but the Word persists (Matthew 24:35). Not because it resists change, but because truth does not need to adapt in order to survive. It simply remains what it is.

So when we say the Bible is inspired, we mean this: its origin is divine, its message is coherent, its effect is transformative, and its endurance is unmatched. And perhaps that is the simplest way to put it — the Bible continues to speak because the One who first spoke it has not fallen silent.

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THE INSPIRED WORD OF GOD

The Bible is inspired because God is not silent, and never has been; the God who spoke the worlds into being still speaks, not with thunder now, but with the quiet authority of words preserved and breathed upon by His Spirit. When Scripture says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16), it dares to claim that behind every line, every promise, every warning, there is a divine breath; not the breath of poets searching for beauty, nor of historians reaching for clarity, but of God—steady, sure, life-giving. It is not that holy men wrote lofty thoughts and God nodded in approval; it is that He moved them, guided them, carried them along, so that their words became His word, and their voices became His voice.

And because Scripture is breathed out by God, it carries a weight the world cannot imitate; it comforts the broken, steadies the fearful, humbles the proud, and awakens the dead. Ordinary sentences become burning bushes; familiar verses become the whisper of Christ walking beside us, reshaping our thoughts, exposing our sins, and lifting our eyes to the cross. When we read Scripture, something happens that cannot be explained by ink or grammar—our hearts are pierced, our minds are renewed, our doubts are softened, and hope quietly rises like dawn over a weary soul. Only God can do that, and He does it through the word He breathed.

This inspiration does not mean that every mystery is simple or every passage easy; it means something far better—that the God who cannot lie has spoken truth, pure and unbroken, truth that stands when empires fall, truth that keeps its promises when all others fail, truth anchored forever in the risen Christ. Scripture does not merely contain truth; it is truth, because it comes from the One who is truth. And when Jesus said, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17), He tied the Bible to His own character—unchanging, faithful, eternal.

So we open the Bible not as archaeologists dusting off relics but as disciples leaning close to hear our Master; not as critics seeking flaws but as children hungry for bread; not as doubters searching for cracks but as believers listening for the Shepherd’s voice. And we find Him there—speaking still, comforting still, calling us into the light, shaping us by the very words He breathed. Inspiration made simple is this: the Bible is God talking—and when God speaks, everything changes.

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“JUST THE FACTS”: A Christian Call to Stay Grounded

Joe Friday (Jack Webb, Dragnet) never actually said the exact words, “Just the facts, ma’am.” But his whole manner reflected that spirit—direct, steady, uncluttered, committed to truth over noise. And as believers, we would do well to learn something from that posture. In a world filled with speculation, opinions, and confident guesses, the Christian must continually return to what is solid—what is factual—what is true. We must become people who can say with quiet confidence, “Let’s stay with what we know.”

Science, for example, is a wonderful gift from God. It allows us to study the order, beauty, and consistency of His creation. But science can only work with what can be observed, measured, repeated, and tested. Once we take it beyond those boundaries, we’ve left science and wandered into speculation.

Questions about ultimate origins—how everything began—simply lie outside the reach of laboratory tools. No one can repeat the creation of the universe under controlled conditions. Scientists can study what exists now and make reasonable models, but they cannot scientifically prove the ultimate beginning of all things. That is not a failure of science; it is simply the nature of the discipline.

So Christians do not need to panic when theories shift or when researchers propose ideas that stretch beyond the text of Scripture. Science can tell us many things, but it cannot answer eternal questions. In that realm, we must calmly say, “Just the facts.”

If science has its limits, Scripture has its clarity. The New Testament does not hide what God wants from His people. The commands of Christ are simple, beautiful, reachable. Love God. Love your neighbor. Walk in humility. Show mercy. Encourage your brothers and sisters in Christ. Do good to all. Bear the fruit of the Spirit. Live a life that reflects the character of Jesus.

This is the heart of Christianity, and it is astonishingly clear. When we begin to add layers of legalism, philosophical speculation, or human rules, we take what God meant to comfort and turn it into something confusing and oppressive. The more we complicate the faith, the more we drift from the facts that matter most.

The facts are these: God desires a people shaped by love. Christ calls us to follow Him in sincerity, not in fear. The Christian life is not a maze of rituals but a walk of devotion—a heart transformed by grace, expressing itself in kindness toward others.

When we remain with what God has plainly revealed, we find freedom. When we stray into the weeds of human invention, we lose the joy that Christ came to give.

So whether it is the natural world or the spiritual life, the call remains the same: stay with the truth, stay with the solid things, stay with what God has actually said. Love God. Love your neighbor. Encourage and strengthen those around you in any way you can. It really is that simple.

A child could read the New Testament and know exactly what kind of person God is calling us to be and what kind of life we are supposed to live. Don’t complicate it. Stay with just the facts.

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THE FATHER WHO LOVES FLOWERS Why the New Testament Cannot Sustain an “Authorized vs. Unauthorized” Worship System

Where is the authorization for having a church building, for putting up a sign, for belonging to a separate denominated group distinct from other believers? Where is the authorization for preachers who speak to the same congregation every Sunday? It isn’t there—because it doesn’t have to be. The New Testament simply isn’t that kind of system. Either go all the way with this authorized-versus-unauthorized mindset or step off that legal train entirely and begin walking in the grace of Christ. He has freed you from that kind of system so that you may serve Him in any way that is good, that expresses love for God, and that expresses love for others.

__________

Imagine this picture—quiet, simple…and devastating.

A father sits in his home, and his little children come running to him with a flower they picked from the yard. The petals are uneven, the stem is bent, and a little dirt still clings to the roots. But they are smiling; their eyes shine with affection; they simply want to give their father something beautiful because they love him.

Now imagine that father tearing the flower to pieces. Imagine him shouting, “You did not have authority to pick this flower!” Imagine him locking the children away, disowning them, cutting them off forever—not because they brought something evil, but because they brought something not “specifically authorized.”

No sane person believes such a father is good. And yet—some have imagined God that way. And have unintentionally misrepresented Him that way.

Affection Cannot Be Commanded

Love cannot be produced by regulations; affection cannot be generated by syllogisms; devotion cannot be sustained by fear. The New Testament is not the story of a God who polices technical details but of a God who pours His love into human hearts through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:5). Worship in the new covenant rises from relationship, not regulation—from hearts captured by grace, not consciences enslaved by checklists.

Anyone who has tasted the goodness of God knows: You cannot command affection. You can only awaken it.

And the gospel awakens it.

Why the “Authorized/Unauthorized Acts of Worship” System Collapses

There is a mindset—sincere, but tragically misguided—that speaks of “the five acts of worship,” of “authorized” versus “unauthorized” actions, as if the New Testament were a legal code rather than a covenant of grace.

But the case is painfully simple:

There is not a single line in the New Testament that divides Christian worship into “acts.”

There is not a single passage that treats worship as a list of regulated rituals requiring explicit authorization.

There is not a single verse that gives a blueprint of a worship service.

Instead:

• The New Testament speaks of lives offered to God (Romans 12:1).

• Worship becomes the fruit of lips touched by grace (Hebrews 13:15).

• Singing arises from hearts filled with the Spirit, not from legal obligation (Ephesians 5:19).

• Giving is cheerful and voluntary (2 Corinthians 9:7).

• Prayer is continual (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

• The Lord’s Supper is about Christ, not compliance (1 Corinthians 11:23–26).

If the New Testament intended a strict regulatory system, it would have given one. Instead, it gave us a Savior—and then said, “Follow Him.”

An Unavoidable Truth: If Legal Authorization Is Required, No One Is Safe

Here is the problem that no one in that old mindset wants to face: If God condemns anything not explicitly authorized, then no one—literally no one—is safe.

Because:

• Where is the authorization for church buildings, pews, electricity, microphones?

• Where is the authorization for clapping, for saying “Amen”, for using PowerPoints?

• Where is the authorization for multiple cups, passing trays, or using grape juice instead of wine?

• Where is the authorization for Wednesday night services?

If “silent Scripture” condemns, then silence condemns everyone, everywhere, every week.

It is an impossible system.

It collapses under its own weight.

Grace Changes Everything

In Christ, God is not the father who tears apart the flower—He is the Father who smiles at the child’s attempt, gathers the little hands close, and says, “Thank you—I love that you brought this to Me.”

The new covenant is built—not on precision—but on a Person.

Not on technicalities—but on truth.

Not on rituals—but on relationship.

The Father seeks worshipers who love Him, not worshipers who fear making a mistake (John 4:23–24).

He seeks hearts—

hearts moved by the beauty of Christ,

hearts lifted by grace,

hearts that bring Him a flower simply because they love Him.

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