As followers of Jesus, we must not let the darkness blind us to His hand at work in our world, or even in our own lives.

If we are to know true freedom, the freedom to choose against our self-obsessed natures, the freedom to choose against who we have been, then we must submit ourselves, soul, body, and mind, to God as He has revealed Himself in Jesus.

So, what is election, and what does God's election have to do with salvation? In this episode, J. Thomas discusses Romans 9-11 and its importance for our doctrine of Scripture.

It will cost us much, but there is life and peace on the other side of loving our enemies, praying for those who persecute us, turning the other cheek, and ultimately even laying down our lives for the sake of our enemies.

Might we choose today to live in the tension created by the confession that all is in the hands of God, but many things will not happen in this world without our deliberate and considered action?

May we be a people with the courage to speak the truth of our pain, and may we be a community who learns both how to mourn ourselves and how to mourn with those who mourn.

In this series, we engage with the foundational doctrines/beliefs/assumptions of the Christian Church.  In this first episode, J. Thomas begins a discussion of what precisely the Bible is--that is, what started Israel writing these texts, how they were produced, what Israel's purpose in this generational project was, what is bound up in the concept of inerrancy, etc.

Parents must not always protect their maturing children.  And parents must also humble themselves that they might empower their maturing children.

Let's resist the temptation to model disrespect, to spread dissent, and to escalate discord.  That is the world and those are the values from which Jesus died to free us.

It is the meek who will inherit the earth, not because meekness is powerful in and of itself, but because God is on the side of the humble, of the broken, of the meek.