James Britcher

@MatthewHartke Just for fun, I thought I’d throw in the end of his intro, here, where he casually proposes turning the question of the Hard Problem of Consciousness on its head. (Not that he’s the first to do so).

@MatthewHartke P.S. sorry for the tacky/clumsy layout of my fragmented reply here. Obviously X isn’t a medium I’m very adept at using. 😬 (I just deleted and re-posted those 3 pics in the corrected order 🤦🏻‍♂️)

I’m strongly conditioned to say yes, but honestly I think that would be disastrous for most of us. Given the challenges of our world, self-deception wouldn’t be so pervasive if it didn’t bestow substantial advantages for our survival. But longterm, slowly, as we are able: yes.

@MatthewHartke P.S. sorry for the tacky/clumsy layout of my fragmented reply here. Obviously X isn’t a medium I’m very adept at using. 😬

Blind power builds tall things but never deep things. It knows how to spotlight, but not how to stoop. And when it does stoop, it makes sure the cameras are rolling. It turns compassion into content. It launders pride through the language of service. It often poses beside poverty, but refuses to live near it.

Heaven is not impressed by how many hours you spent praying in a closet compared to the way you look a widow in the eye and don’t flinch at her grief. By whether your hands, after prayer, carry bread or just more words. By whether your voice, after silence, speaks comfort or control. By whether your fast made you softer or just more self righteous. Heaven watches not just the hour of prayer, but the hour after. Not just the tongues you speak in, but the tone you use with the weary, the wild and the ones who have nothing to give you. If your prayer doesn’t lead you to love, to lower yourself, to be quiet when someone else is aching, then it is simply noise. A well rehearsed echo. If you want to know where God is, don’t look for the spotlight. Look for the stoop. Look for the basin. Look for the barefoot ones breaking their last piece of bread to feed someone else.

I feel very very seen

@michaelgungor Sorry that when you come by here, from time to time, the trolls are the ones greeting you. Much love, amigo. ❤️ 🤜🏻🤛🏻

The only response to my post about playing my first Gungor show in a long time. Quite an environment around here

I'm not leaving until I see who walks out of this house.

@LloydLegalist André lives on

If you care about tribes over truth (even unconsciously), you won't understand the motives of someone who prioritizes truth (in the domains relevant to your tribe). Example: if someone shares a core tenet of your tribe but raises reasons against it, you might think they are trying to build a bridge with those from other tribes, or perhaps that they are losing their "faith" (e.g., slipping out of the tribe). From the perspective of the truth-seeker, that's all projection: they are simply seeking to better understand something, to get more truth, whichever tribe (or non-tribe) that truth happens to located in. Behind this perspective is the understanding that there are more treasures of truth than can be found in ANY tribe. No tribe has a corner on truth.

@JennMGreenberg Merlot……ahem… I’m told

Question: Do Nacho Cheese Doritos pair better with Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon?

@michaelgungor Footage of me at the :32 mark when that tambourine started to drop on the Djembe…

🎈

@IdanNimtso @Joel7Richardson

Give Palestine back? 🇮🇱🇵🇸

A reminder in light of the ongoing sins/scandals being exposed among leaders in our day: Stop using David's sin and restoration as justification for ministers who have disqualified themselves. Stop using David's kingly anointing as a prooftext for the "anointing" of unqualified church leaders. Stop using Israel's "irrevocable" national election and calling as a prooftext for the supposedly irrevocable calling of Christian leaders. The absolute authority and divine unity of Scripture matter. David's role and Israel's role may overlap in many ways with how we think about Christian leadership, but they are not identical. Let us be finished with lazy Bible interpretations. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. The apostles were clear in their teaching regarding the shepherding of God's house, and we mustn't deviate from them with newfangled methodologies or novel "revelations". There are qualifications for Christ's undershepherds (1 Tim. 3/Titus 1), and while men who have fallen into sin may absolutely be forgiven for their sins and find true repentance and restoration of faith, if they have disqualified themselves from Christian leadership, they must be removed from their place of influence and responsibility. The fact that this is even a question for many professors of faith is a disclosure of how far we have fallen from "the faith once delivered to all the saints." The preservation of an organization or church brand should not even be a matter of consideration when dealing with these matters. To play that game is to disregard the plain teaching of Scripture. This approach has all too often been taken in recent decades, and it is unfortunately taking place yet today. It is nothing less than the offering up of "strange fire." Let us state it plainly: A just standing before God through repentance and faith is not identical to fittedness for Christian leadership. All leaders are in a "body of death" and possess indwelling sin, and we are all desperately and utterly in need of Gospel grace and preservation through faith on every leg of the journey. But that is not the same as disqualifying sins/crimes, not to mention the propounded darkness required in the attempt to hide them for the sake of saving our ministerial veneers. Brothers, these things ought not to be. It is not only poor hermeneutics to twist Scripture in these ways, it is a poor example of basic Christian discipleship and ministry. Nothing good at all can come from laying hands on men hastily or "restoring" them to ministry on sub-Biblical grounds. To do such things is to breed further deception, to position men to hear "I never knew you" on the last day, and to set in motion the dismembering of leaders, ministries, and the families that were once under their care -- families for whom Christ greatly cares. It is time to wake up from the long dark of worldly ministry efforts, saints. Let us return to a true interpretation of God's Word, a true trembling before God's Word, and a true application of God's Word. Let there be not even a hint of manipulation or compromise in us. "And do not give the devil a foothold." Our works will be tried by holy fire one day, brothers and sisters. That day will be upon us sooner than we think. Let us see to it that Christ crucified is the foundation we build upon. Let us build up His house according to His Word. And may we "walk in the fear of the LORD and the comfort of the Holy Spirit," looking forward with reverence, awe and humble hope to the Day when the Chief Shepherd appears with majesty and great glory. He is coming soon, and His reward is with Him.

@michaelgungor Glad that Loving Awareness is still over there existing in and as Michael Gungor. Hope you are well, friend. ❤️

Hi. I have nothing much to say and this place seems like a hell hole of an app now, but I used to talk to some of you sometimes and I liked that, so I’m just saying hi