Christ Confessors

Welcome to Christ Confessors! This week we’re discussing Christian Nationalism. Have a question or topic suggestion? Email us at cole@riseandbuildacademy.com

Christians should care more about the pornography epidemic in their own churches than the homosexual infiltration in Andy Stanley’s church.

The Kingdom is not here. Or there. It’s in our midst. The Kingdom is yet to come.

Pastor Josh Fields teaches that on the path to folly, we start out as Simple Men. We believe everything (Proverbs 14:15). We inherit folly (Proverbs 14:18). And we are killed by turning away from wisdom (Proverbs 1:32). Then devolve into Fools (Proverbs 12:16; 29:11; 17:10; 18:2; 17:24) And finally into Scoffers (Proverbs 21:24; 29:8; 24:9; 22:10) In the Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, there is a senior demon, Screwtape, who is teaching his nephew, Wormwood, how to keep Christians away from God. Their main strategy is to incrementally separate us from God, but sometimes encouraging the Simple’s Man folly is sufficient for their purposes.

Where is this bus heading? This one. The one we’re on right now. The Present moment. Can we control these Present Moments? Are we the driver of this bus? Or merely the passengers hoping that the driver isn’t asleep at the wheel?

In what ways do you need to die to your Self? How’s your pride? Are you imagining winning a conversation before it’s had? How’s your anxiety? Any more panic attacks at work? How’s your lust? Are you walking to her house? At her door? Inviting your Self in? Walk. Stand. Sit. See Psalm 1:1. How’s your work ethic? Are you planting seeds and tending the soil? Or just praying for rain, hoping God will finally bless you? How’re you loving your spouse? What’s the temperature of your home? Or to borrow from Doug Wilson, what’s the “aroma” smell like? Or better yet, when you think of your Self, what comes to mind?

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis calls us “amphibians” because we are dual-natured: we occupy two worlds; we are bound by the flesh and the spirit. We go up and down through “a series of troughs and peaks.” (The Screwtape Letters, Letter VIII). This same undulation can be seen in marriage as well. We have our good moments (the beautiful sunset) and we have our bad fights (the darkness that follows). We reconcile (the sunrise) and the warmth of the noon-day sun is felt throughout our home and everywhere we go. Inevitably, the sun sets again and darkness follows. Up and down. Back and forth. What C. S. Lewis calls, the Law of Undulation. Is it possible, then, to just have the sunset with our marriages? Or in other words, can we buy the sunset by buying the field from which we have seen it?

Dr. Andy Davis uses the analogy of a grand tapestry to illustrate God’s grand design and all the Beauty contained therein. Sure, the tapestry looks “good” or “beautiful” from one side, but what about the other side? The side that faces the wall is just as much part of the tapestry as the “right” side because each thread plays its part. Each thread is there for a reason, a purpose only known to its creator. The same can be said of our lives as well: we worry about a given day or a given event, but from God’s perspective, that day is but one thread in a glorious tapestry that He is creating. Our hope as Christians is that one day we will see the “big picture”—the beautiful side of the tapestry—and realize that our tiny thread played a crucial role; that God used our lives for His Glory. Or in other words, don’t be anxious! God is weaving the Glorious Tapestry.

Why do we keep going up and down, back and forth in our spiritual growth?

Follow God. Pursue Christ. And Glorify God in all things.

We are created for freedom in Christ

Excuses blind us to sin.

God commanded men to work.

Christ is Lord of All.

God has written eternity into our hearts.

The Glory of God outshines the fattest of figs.

3R Thursday is presented by Rise & Build Academy: providing online education for the next generation of Kingdom Builders.

Incremental separation from God.