Stop telling people that they can be anything they want to be, stop telling them that things will get better when they grow up, or that they will one day be able to have it all. Look in the mirror and recognize that the only way to enjoy any of life, is to take it for what it is, messed up, with only glimpses of what real happiness and true joy are linked too.

These are the thoughts of a man processing his grief…

As I consider how broken I feel, I look up to how broken His body was for that same sin. As I consider how helpless I am to bring relief to my girls, I consider how Jesus, though God, surrendered and obeyed even to death on the cross. I take comfort in the fact that because He died and was raised on the third day conquering death, these temporal consequences I face today are not eternal consequences by grace through faith in Him. Whereas a father I failed my children, and even now I continue to do so I can point them to a heavenly Father who will never fail them and a savior in whom they too can take comfort.

When men are afraid of speaking the way the bible speaks, there is a serious problem in the church! This is where we find ourselves though today. Men are afraid of even acknowledging the differences between men and women for the glory of God.

But, most importantly, let's laugh, let's praise God together, let's worship Him and encourage one another, because all of this is to only serve His purpose. The nations may rage, but God sits in the heavens and laughs. So, continue to seek to glorify God, and make Him known as we are conformed to His image!

Our King has already won the war, but we were not given permission to rest and try to just hold on to what we have. Our part now is waging war against those who continue to be His enemy. We go out into enemy territory proclaiming His victory and destroying the remainder of His enemies by the proclamation of His Word while calling all of those who would repent to join the fight.

In all of this though, our greatest victory has absolutely nothing to do with our circumstances. No, instead it has to do with everything we have been through and Gods constant and faithful reminder that in all of it we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, for we are becoming convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

These two truths in and of themselves have been humbling as I currently wrestle through a confusing season. Reminding myself that life is to be lived for His glory, and submitted to His plan. There is more to humility, but definitely not less, we can look at the service aspect of it also, but without these foundations there can be no service that isn't self-serving and therefore lacking humility!

As for the results of the election, trust in Jesus who sits on His throne ruling the nations and making His enemies a footstool. Come January someone will be sworn in, and the world will continue to move closer to a day that every knee will bow and tongue confess, "Jesus is Lord".

When a Christian says, I don't mix religion and politics, they are really saying they don't believe in the Lordship of Jesus Christ!

In a verbal battle, I am the sacrifice. Here is what I mean, my character, my person, mean nothing in the heat of battle, and I have nothing there worth defending!

To a nation of fools, the gospel remains our only hope. Christian, no, you're not crazy, but you are surrounded by fools. That only means the ground is fertile for us to go forth and preach the gospel!

In other words, you can't just go at it halfway in training and then expect for the other half to kick in when the real thing comes. It doesn't work that way! In fact, it's often the opposite, when the real thing comes much of your training can go right out the window. That is, unless, it's been so deeply engrained by your training that it has become second nature!

Jesus expects for His disciples to be more devoted to Him than they are to anything else in this world. Even that which we have our closest connections to, even those who gave us mortal life, cared for us and taught us valuable lessons in life. When Jesus calls us, the call is to abandon all ties to the world, for a seat at His table.

Pain is not weakness leaving the body, pain is the recognition that weaknesses are present, and it points us to the fact that many of our weaknesses are beyond our ability to repair but that same pain is meant to drive us to our savior: who bore our sins, and took our pain, so that we would one day know no more pain, and one day be completely free from sin.

The answer is, yes, we are that foolish, and so we need to have the Gospel preached to us as much as we need to preach it to others. I know, for many, it's not the answer they want, it's not the way they would choose to fix society. But look around, does it look like their ways have been working? Of course not, but where the Gospel has gone forward, life has followed, and where it is quenched, death is lurking.

we are told in Ephesians to speak words that will build up, that which will give grace to the hearer. Sometimes grace hurts, but just because it hurts, doesn't mean it is hateful. By grace my sin was revealed to me, that hurt, but if not for that pain, I would not have turned from it and put my faith in Christ.

The difficulty is that because we live in a day where news moves faster than reality, as Christians we may be late on speaking out on matters of cultural significance. But, it's not a race! We can't impact a culture by conforming to it. Our voices must be one that reflects the God we serve, which then means, we should not spread or pass on what we cannot verify. For most of us (me included) that means, that there will be a whole lot less sharing on social media!

We Christians are supposed to be the ones who are seasoned, the ones who are already living lives surrendered to the will of God. We Christians are supposed to be the ones who already recognized that we aren't in control in this life, it was supposed to be us, to whom the world looked when the bombs came and said, “What's wrong with these people? How can they be so calm in the middle of such chaos? That will never be us.”