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I Wish We Would Just Stop

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  It happens almost every day now. I’ll be scrolling through my feed, and there it is again—another prominent Christian leader being publicly eviscerated. R.C. Sproul. Rick Warren. Billy Graham. Even John MacArthur and John Piper. Men who have spent their lives preaching the Gospel, pastoring flocks, and defending the faith are being dismissed with a casual click of the keyboard as heretics, false prophets, deceivers, and modern-day Pharisees. Just because someone doesn’t agree with you on all points of theology does not make them a false prophet or heretic. The Casual Cruelty of the Screen Back in the 1960s through the 1980s, if someone wanted to attack another person’s character, they typically had to do it face-to-face—or hide behind a literal, physical mask to hide their face. People often hid behind their mask of anonymity to avoid being known. Today, we’ve traded the physical mask for an electronic screen. And strangely, we’ve become more willing to reveal our true ...
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"God Bless America": Do We Actually Mean It?

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You hear it from senators and school board members, from country singers and late-night hosts trying to seem relatable, from your neighbor's bumper sticker and your grandmother's needlepoint pillow. "God bless America" may be the one phrase left in this country that crosses every line we've drawn — political, religious, economic, regional. Progressives say it. Conservatives say it. Atheists at ballgames say it without blinking. It has become less a prayer than a punctuation mark, the verbal equivalent of standing for the anthem: something you do because it's what closes things out. Which raises an honest question, and it's not a rhetorical one. If God actually did what that phrase asks — if He actually turned and blessed this nation — what would we be signing up for ? And once we know the answer, do the people saying those three words still want it? A Phrase Everyone Uses, and Nobody Quite Owns The phrase has a longer and stranger history than most p...
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When the Court Weakens the President, It Weakens the Presidency

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  There is a troubling pattern developing in American government, and it ought to concern every citizen who still believes in constitutional order, national strength, and common sense. The Supreme Court may not admit it, and some in the political class will certainly deny it, but recent rulings give the appearance that President Donald Trump is not simply being judged by the law, but judged through the lens of personal and political hostility. Again and again, when this President attempts to clean up what many Americans believe is a bloated, politicized, and unaccountable federal system, he finds himself restrained by courts that seem more interested in limiting Trump than in preserving the proper strength of the presidency. That is a dangerous game. The issue is not whether President Trump is flawless. He is not. No honest supporter has to pretend that he is. He speaks bluntly. He fights hard. He offends easily. He has a personality that often creates storms even when his po...
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Without Firing a Shot

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  It has long been said that Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev once warned the West, in effect, "We'll take you without firing a shot." I was a boy when that line was circulating, but I still remember the grown-ups around me reacting to it — not with fear exactly, but with a kind of indignant disbelief. The notion that anyone could take America without an army, without a bomb, without so much as a bullet, struck them as absurd. We were the strongest nation on earth. We had just come through a world war. We were not going to allow such a thing to happen. I have thought about that line many times since. Not because I believe Khrushchev was a prophet in any biblical sense, but because the question he raised — can a great nation be undone from the inside? — turns out to be one of the most important questions any people can ask of itself. How We Got Strong For most of my life, the United States led the world on nearly every front, and I don't think that was ...
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A Word Through the SBC Storm: Fighting the Right Battle

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  Are you 'weary' yet? I am. As a life-long Southern Baptist, I am weary - (I know, "Let us not grow weary In well-doing, we shall reap if we faint not.") Today, there is a wide difference of opinion as to what "Well-Doing" might be. The Southern Baptist Convention finds itself in a difficult and painful season. Questions about accountability, trustee oversight, entity transparency, abuse reform, theological boundaries, cultural engagement, and cooperative mission have all converged into what feels like a denominational storm. Many Southern Baptists (like me) are weary. Others are angry, suspicious, and some are even afraid. If we are honest, many have begun to fight one another with a level of intensity that has distracted us from the very reason Southern Baptists exist in the first place. That should be a deep concern for us. Scripture reminds us: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the...
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Orlando - What the SBC Might Expect

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  As Southern Baptists gather in Orlando in just a few weeks, the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention will likely be about far more than reports, resolutions, elections, and procedural business. On paper, the SBC annual meeting is a gathering of messengers for worship, encouragement, and denominational business. In reality, Orlando may serve as something much deeper—a moment of reflection on the direction, trust, and future integrity of the Convention itself. Allow me a personal note: I love Southern Baptists for all kind of reasons. This has been my spiritual home for close to 70 years. The SBC has endured through the best and worst of times because they stayed true to Jesus, His word, and respected each other. This year may be a challenge for many reasons. As I shared with my small country congregation, "When you get to be a cooperative organization of this magnitude, issues will arise and have to be dealt with. The questions before Southern Baptists are not simp...
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The Answer for the USA

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  America is living through a season of deep division. Nearly every headline, court decision, podcast, sermon, and political conversation is interpreted through one question: “Are you for Donald Trump or against him?” Supporters view him as a defender of forgotten Americans, traditional values, and the answers to this country's problems. Opponents see him as a threat to their power, the democratic norms and national unity. In many ways, President Donald Trump has become more than a political figure; he has become a symbol around which the frustrations, fears, hopes, and anger of an entire nation revolve. But this division did not begin with Donald Trump. His presidency revealed or exposed something that had already been growing in the American soul for decades: a nation slowly losing its moral center, its trust in institutions, and perhaps most importantly, its shared faith in something greater than itself. America has always experienced political disagreement. From the fierce deba...
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An Anchor of Truth in a Sea of Uncertainty

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The Anchor in the Shift: Finding Certainty in a Changing World We live in a culture that moves at the speed of emotion. Today, personal feelings are frequently elevated above objective facts, and what is considered "true" can shift from one day to the next. Navigating this landscape can feel like walking on quicksand. When the cultural ground constantly moves beneath our feet, it is natural to feel disoriented, anxious, or disconnected. Yet today, our culture moment presents a profound opportunity. Instead of reacting with frustration (which is our first reaction), we can view this shift as an invitation to anchor ourselves in something that never moves.  As a child, Dad and I would ocassionally fish in the Pearl River. When we rented a little boat, we made sure we had an anchor because without it, we would be at the mercy of the river. In today's culture, we need to drop anchor in objective truth not emotional opinion.   The Fragility of the Temporary Living by f...
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