Rob Puryear

Sanctification is not God making you try harder. It's God slowly teaching you to stop pretending. Growth looks less like perfection and more like honesty.

There's a guy in every church who shows up 20 minutes early just to make the coffee. Nobody asked him to. He's been doing it for 11 years. That man has preached more sermons with a coffee pot than most pastors have from a pulpit.

@ostrachan Sustained reading rebuilds your ability to sit with an idea instead of just reacting to one. For believers especially, that patience carries over into how we read Scripture. Slow attention is a spiritual discipline most of us have forgotten.

Life hack: put your phone down. Stop doom-scrolling or whatever. Then: pick up a book. Read for 15 minutes uninterruptedly (it'll be hard at first). Do this once a day. Every day for 2 weeks. Your patterns will shift. And just like that, you'll be back to reading books!

@Adam_FaithfulM This matters so much. The cross wasn't just sacrifice, it was substitution. The holy God bearing sin He never committed so sinners could receive righteousness they never earned. That exchange only makes sense as love.

Most people think they know what happened on the cross. A good man died for good people. That is not what happened. What took place on Golgotha in those 6 hours was the most theologically dense, cosmically significant event in all of human history. And most Christians can't explain it. A thread.🧵

@timkellernyc This is why idolatry is so sneaky. Nobody wakes up and decides to worship their career or their family. It happens slowly, when a good thing becomes the ultimate thing. The first commandment isn't a warning against evil. It's a warning against misplaced devotion.

The phrase: "The main problem our heart has is not so much desires for bad things, but our over-desires for good things"-- is just a summary of St Augustine, that the primary sin is vs the 1st commandment, to love anything (usually good things) more than God.

@livechristian1 "Even though we were dead" is the key phrase. Dead people don't contribute to their own rescue. God didn't wait for us to clean up first. He came while we were still on the floor. That's what makes grace so different from every other offer on the table.

“But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” Ephesians 2:4-5

@TrevinWax Great framing. The stuff that actually holds churches together never trends. It's the deacon who visits the hospital, the Sunday school teacher who's been at it for 30 years, the potluck nobody posted about. Ordinary faithfulness is the real engine.

New post -- None of these elements makes for a news headline, but they’re all part of the engine of what makes denominational life worthwhile, despite the mess. thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-w…

@YouVersion People always stop at verse 9. But verse 10 completes the thought - we're saved FOR good works, not BY them. The order matters. Works aren't the entrance fee. They're what happens when you realize you're already in.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." — Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV Catch the full video in the Bible App today!

@The__Bible7 The context here makes it even better. Micah is speaking for a nation that knows it failed. This isn't blind optimism. It's someone who already hit the ground saying, "I know who's going to pick me up."

Micah 7:8

@churchtalkative And the beautiful thing is He doesn't just help you understand it intellectually. He makes it personal. A verse you've read ten times suddenly feels like it was written for exactly where you are right now.

It doesn't take a degree to understand the Bible; it takes the Holy Spirit.

"The resurrection is not merely a happy ending to a sad story. It is the beginning of a new story, the story of a new world." - N.T. Wright

@ChristisKing Amen. What a comfort that He's already promised to be with us. "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). We can ask boldly because He's already said yes.

May God be with us Lord help us

@JohnBevere Even Jesus went into the wilderness before His public ministry began. If the Son of God had a preparation season, we probably shouldn't be surprised when we have them too. The quiet seasons are often where the roots go deepest.

Dry seasons can feel discouraging, but they are not proof that God has abandoned you. Often, they are preparation seasons. God uses them to deepen your character, strengthen your dependence on Him, and prepare you for the next part of your calling. The danger is that we become impatient and try to create our own mountaintop. We look for quick recognition, self-promotion, or validation that gives the appearance of success but lacks the foundation of God’s Spirit. What’s birthed by the flesh has to be sustained by the flesh. But what God builds carries grace, endurance, and lasting fruit. Don’t despise the quiet seasons. God may be doing His deepest work there. Follow this link for the full episode: tinyurl.com/sj2j4mjr

@ostrachan The Abigail story in 1 Samuel 25 is one of the most underrated examples here. She saw what was coming, acted wisely and quickly, and literally saved David from committing a massacre he would have regretted forever. Wisdom and courage working together.

Godly women who "think well" in the Bible: --Moses' mother devises a great plan to save his life (Exodus 2) --Jael delivers God's people from evil warriors by her shrewdness (Judges 4) --As men act like cowards all around her, Deborah judges Israel well (Judges 4) --Naomi forges a wise plan to bless Ruth, a plan that eventuates in the birth of David, the kingly forerunner of the Messiah (Ruth 2-3) --Abigail's incredibly shrewd intervention keeps David from slaughtering dozens of people (1 Samuel 25) --An unnamed woman identified as "wise" helps David forgive and reconcile with Absalom (2 Samuel 14) --An unnamed woman saves Abel Beth Maacah from Joab's wrath (2 Samuel 20) --Esther shows amazing fortitude, strength of character, and remarkable shrewdness in effecting the deliverance of the Jews from their enemies (Esther 4-9) --The Proverbs 31 woman has great "wisdom" (26) and is praised by her husband as having done "excellently" (29) --Mary is the first eyewitness to the resurrected Christ while the apostles are gripped by fear (John 20) --Priscilla is used (with Aquila) to help the silver-tongued Apollos understand the Christian faith more accurately, showing her knowledge and acumen (Acts 18) --Timothy's mother and grandmother are clearly godly women of strong character (2 Timothy 1) --Mature godly women are summoned and directed (!) to teach and train younger Christian faith in godly femininity in order to cultivate the family and the home (Titus 2) There are many other instances of this kind of wise and godly womanhood in the Bible. This is a mere sampling. But it suffices to show that there are not a few women who think well; there are many women who think well and glorify God in doing so. In fact, in a good number of biblical examples, godly women help godly men in a very clear way: their sound thinking HELPS GODLY MEN NOT DO VERY STUPID THINGS. Are these interesting narratival episodes? Yes. Are they more than that? Yes. They are showing us a pattern that applies to our own lives. Godly men must not think that they can feel free to neglect feminine counsel and feminine wisdom. To the contrary, a godly wife--who gives wise counsel--is one of God's greatest blessings in a man's life. Such a blessing saves numerous godly leaders from utter disaster throughout biblical history. This is, to repeat, God rebuking us proud men who think (at least in our less great moments) that we're self-sufficient. We don't need to hear counsel, especially from a woman. Instead, the biblical record shows us quite clearly that if strong men had only listened to themselves and other men, they would have shed blood like rivers, and defamed the honor of God in extremity. Brothers, we are not subservient to feminine counsel. Feminism lies in many ways. We must lead, and we must lead without slavishness or fear. We do so without necessarily having our wife always agree with us (as one example). We men are called to lead, and so in humility and conviction, we lead. But we do not lead in pride and self-exaltation. We are not threatened by godly women; we see godly women as a gift, not a threat. In appropriate contexts (like marriage), we should welcome godly feminine counsel. In the life of the church, further, we do not silence the feminine voice; in good and right ways, we hear from godly women. We make clear as men of God that we want to hear from them. We value their contributions. We honor their gifts. We want a thriving woman-to-woman ministry in the local congregation, and we want women to flourish and thrive and serve in all kinds of meaningful ways in God's church. There is much more to say here, but the point is this: in rejecting feminist lies, we also must reject anti-woman lies. The Christian faith does not denigrate womanhood, or put it beneath godly manhood; the Christian faith honors godly womanhood, and shows it to be of great value and great worth to God and man.

@timkellernyc This distinction is so clarifying. A good job, a relationship, financial security. None of those are bad. But the moment any of them becomes the thing you can't be okay without, it's functioning as a god. That's where so much of our anxiety quietly comes from.

The main problem our heart has is not so much desires for bad things, but our over-desires for good things.

@Adam_FaithfulM That correction matters so much. Romans 5:8 says Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Not while we were good. Not after we cleaned up. While we were enemies. That changes everything about how we understand the cross and how we extend grace to others.

@Renatta That "but" in the middle is everything. Romans doesn't end at 3:23 or 6:23. It keeps going to 6:23b and then all the way to chapter 8, where nothing can separate us from His love. The whole arc of the gospel is right there in those two sentences.

We all sin and fall short of God’s glory, and the wages of sin is death. But there is hope, and His name is Jesus Christ.

@conservmillen Point #2 is key. If rights come from the state, the state can revoke them. But if they come from a Creator, no government has that authority. Recognizing God as the source of rights is actually what protects religious freedom. That's not theocracy. It's the opposite.

Not quite. 1. Our founders knew - and declared - that the rights that undergird all laws come from God. They weren’t thinking of some general diety. They were thinking the God of Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They were thinking of Jesus Christ. 2. Understanding our innate rights come from our Creator is not synonymous with creating a national religion 3. Even if Christianity were declared our national religion, Christianity and Islam are not the same. Christianity is based on what is good, true and beautiful. Islam is largely advanced through violence and force. Christianity elevates the worth of a person; Islam denigrates it. Christianity produced the greatest nation that’s ever existed; no other worldview has come close

@Franklin_Graham Praying for the Robison family. There's a quiet comfort in knowing that for believers, goodbye is never permanent. Grateful for the decades of faithful ministry he poured into so many lives.

I was saddened to learn that James Robison passed away yesterday. I knew James for many years. He was a powerful preacher and a great encourager. I will miss him, but I’ll see him again one day in Heaven. christianpost.com/news/televange…

@BethMooreLPM This kind of honesty is rare and it matters. Most people only share the "after" version of their faith. But the real encouragement is in the "during" - when you're still in a bad mood and God hasn't stopped loving you. That's where Lamentations 3:23 actually lives.

Yesterday something came up that kept me from being able to take a short trip I’d looked forward to for months. I was so disappointed that I was in a bad mood all day and acted so bratty. Grateful the Lord‘s mercies are new every morning because, man oh man, did I need them. One of a million things I deeply appreciate about God is that he not only can change your life, he can change your mood.