Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, December 28, 2025.
Every so often I find myself in the wilderness, in difficult spots where things are not going the way I would like, and there I'm being asked whether I'd switch up on God (forsaking everything I accept as right and good) to get my way.
The wilderness is inevitable. Everyone is either going into it, in it, or coming out of it. Understanding this helps us to avoid getting stuck there by answering the actual question at hand: "Will I forsake God?"
Never forget that when you overcome such a temptation Satan only departs "until an opportune time". (Luke 4:13)
So, be sober and vigilant, beloved. Because our adversary walks about as a lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
Originally posted on Facebook on Sunday, December 28, 2025.
An inheritance is something you receive after someone has died. Asking for it beforehand is not only reckless, it suggests, "I wish you were dead".
Before the son even engaged in prodigal living, he was guilty of offense against the father by demanding his inheritance.
However the father did not curse his son out or condemn him, but he allows his son his choice.
Why?
Could it be what the Father did was in hope?
Could it be that in his loving wisdom he looked many steps ahead and did the only thing that would allow his beloved son to truly come home?
What a master class in parenting and love.
It challenges me to expand my view of parenting and correction beyond coercing them to conform but to create the conditions necessary for me to receive them.
This begins with righteousness, love, and mercy at home.
Without righteousness there is no way for the son to recognize, "I have sinned **against heaven** AND before you." (Luke 15:18)
Without love there is no way for the son to recognize that people are treated well and nurtured there, "[Even] my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare…" (Luke 15:17)
Without mercy there is no way for him to expect to be received, "I will arise and go to my father…" (Luke 15:18)
The father does this not once, but twice. He shepherds another son who is just as astray as his brother though he never left the house. He ministers to him in a different way that reaches him and meets him where he is. (Luke 15:28)
What's clear for both however, is that the father wants them both together with him (Luke 15:31-32).
Originally posted on Facebook on Friday, December 19, 2025.
Sometimes, you can be down in the trenches so long that you lose sight of what you're fighting for and dejection creeps in.
Then the Holy Spirit reminds me,
"[look] unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…"
— Hebrews 12:2
This is about more than mere survival or simply making it through something, it is a hope that compels and propels me forward—"the joy".
So what is the joy that Jesus lived for, and that enabled Him to endure the greatest suffering imaginable?
I believe the joy is this (Romans 8:21): all of creation delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of Christ, shared with those born of His blood—the children of God—never to be made afraid again, to the glory of the Father.
Righteous, loving, and just government.
Safety on all sides.
Peace—because Christ, the Prince of Peace, is King.
That is the joy.
The best part is that I can have a taste of that, right now.
"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. […] These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
– John 14:27, 16:33
Peace is the freedom from violence, but should not be confused with the absence of violence.
It looks like taking up the whole armor of God. The fiery darts still come, but they strike the shield and not the soul.
My charge is that of a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9), but should not be confused with being a pacifist.
Like a shepherd with a flock, I guide toward safety in Christ and confront threats to their safety.
Day to day, this looks like enjoying that peace and extending it to as many as will accept it:
“And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.”
— Luke 10:6
Jesus said, "My peace I give to you…" and "in Me you may have peace…".
Therefore peace is positional.
I enjoy it and extend it by centering the unadulterated Christ.
By this, I press forward, seeking to bring others into safety and giving them a taste of what is to come when my joy is fulfilled.
Originally posted on Facebook on Tuesday, December 16, 2025.
This is dark.
I'm currently studying the book of Esther.
It's easy to fall into a sanitized and romanticized version of this account, but the circumstances of Esther are heartbreaking.
Esther is a woman, young enough to be my daughter—a child, who is robbed of her God-given agency by a corrupt power system and forced into the sexual service of a powerful man, King Ahasuerus.
I didn't initially see that. My wife helped open my eyes to it as we were discussing the text and I ignorantly asked a variant of this question:
Would Esther's situation have been considered oppressive in her time? Wouldn't it have been considered a good thing to her? Wasn't it a promotion over her current state of affairs? She was being made royalty!
My wife said to me, "There's nothing anyone can offer me that's worth more than my choice."
I've been sitting with that ever since.
My line of questioning is very much the same logic oppressors have used to excuse sins of the past (and present).
It's no different than saying people were happy (or should have been happier) being slaves because their slavery afforded them more access to opportunity. But with their agency and resources left intact they could make their own opportunity.
It's also relativistic. It says that right and wrong, justice and injustice are relative to the culture and norms of that time. That's not God's standard.
I repent.
The problem isn't being ignorant but choosing to remain ignorant in the light of better understanding.
I've personally been to a church that did just that, where the preacher said that we cannot judge men of the past for things like slavery (chattel slavery to be specific) because it was just "the way things were" then.
Is that really how we're to discern good or evil? Consensus? It's ok if enough of us say it's ok? Or, if the people in power say it's ok?
No.
How then are we to evaluate these things?
Jesus.
Jesus Himself is the answer to how we evaluate righteousness.
One of the things that most impresses me about Jesus is that you could place Him in the year 3035 and He would still be ahead of His time. Though we encounter Him in texts written over 2,000 years ago—within cultures many of us may quickly label as archaic—Jesus consistently transcends both their biases and ours.
That’s why I don’t believe cultural norms are what ultimately determine whether something is just or good. Jesus is God's standard.
When I evaluate whether something is good, just, or reflective of God’s intent, I look to Christ in three ways:
Christ in Creation — What do we see of God’s intent for humanity in His good creation through Christ?
“God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31)
“All things were created through Him and for Him.” (Colossians 1:16)
Christ in Redemption — How do we see God's intent for humanity in how Jesus relates to people, especially the vulnerable: the poor, the sick, and women?
“God shows no partiality.” (Acts 10:34)
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)
Christ in Re-creation — How is God’s intent for humanity demonstrated in the new creation Jesus establishes?
“Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)
"You have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." (Revelation 5:9)
Christ is the measure that tests every practice, culture, and time against God's ideal. This is the litmus test: Is this the way Christ would rule?
And by that standard, Esther’s oppression is apparent—not caused by God, but used by God for His good purposes (Romans 8:28).
Seeing the dark, problematic backdrop of Esther is a necessary element toward truly understanding and appreciating this text.
Against that backdrop, we confront the harsh reality of our state. Our ways are evil, our reasoning is corrupt, and our systems are oppressive, resulting in great suffering.
But, God.
Without naming the darkness, we misunderstand what God has done and we remain where we are.
He does not endorse our evil as so many use such texts to claim, but works to deliver us from it.
This account is not about Esther, Mordecai—or by extension, you and I—doing the right thing. But it is about God's goodness despite what we've done.
God's sovereignty in the darkest circumstances,
His providential hand even though He's not named,
His faithfulness even in our failure,
His deliverance, not because of what we’ve done, but from it:
This is the glorious lesson of Esther.
Originally posted on Facebook on Saturday, December 13, 2025.
Years ago, a young man wandered into my office with a long swan song about running out of gas, a pregnant girlfriend, and how they had to be somewhere urgently. All red flags.
This particular time I decided to give him money. Afterward, my co-worker chided, "You know he's just scamming you, right?"
I replied, "What he's doing is none of my business. But what I'm doing is communicating to him that there is light in this dark world: compassion, love and respect—for him."
It's a seed that I hope brings him back to that Light and explodes into abundant life in him.
The Way I follow is not to worry about other people and their motives, but to be prayerful, discerning, intentional and purposed in my heart, and then do what I set out to do.
Originally posted on Facebook on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.
It is not enough for each of us to perform acts of love.
True love shows up in our systems.
Love that does not create loving infrastructure is merely performative.
Love not only gives someone something to eat, it establishes structures that protect them from insecurity in the first place.
"You will know them by their fruit."
— Matthew 7:16
God's love is the sap—our lifeblood;
God's Spirit is the pressure—the force that drives it outward;
and the fruit—its ultimate expression is God's Kingdom, whose leaves perpetually heal the nations (Revelation 22:2).
Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, December 4, 2025.
Color me impressed.
I was putting together a technical guide and had to use screenshots from different computers with mismatching backgrounds and color schemes. It was driving me nuts! 😅
So, I gave ChatGPT a pretty vague prompt,
"I have pictures from different computers that I would like to change to match. Please generate an image of the screenshot ending in '-2.jpg' to match the color theme of the first image but keep all the text the same as the original."
From that it was able to recreate the screenshot to match the theme of the other images so that the look was consistent throughout the guide.
The crazy thing is, the image I was asking it to modify was actually a photo with a glare and everything, but it converted it into the form of a matching screenshot. I like.
