Nathan Stearman

@facebook has terrible customer service. If your account gets compromised. Argh. Good luck.

@tyfgibson Truth.

Whatever you possess in your memory possesses you. Think of yourself as a container, a receptacle, a space to be occupied. If you read and hear the beautiful truths of Scripture over and over again, until they are bouncing around in your head with vivid clarity all the time, the way God thinks and feels will become the way you think and feel. Gradually, all of the intellectual and emotional space inside of you will seamlessly merge with the mind and heart of God. Paul explains that as you “comprehend” and “know” the “love of Christ,” you will be “filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3.

@tyfgibson I like it!

ON RAISING KIDS With regards to raising children, I’ll offer a few comments since some have expressed skepticism regarding my previous post regarding love being antithetical to control, especially with regards to raising children in a manner that does not give them over to the ravages of tooth decay and other potential dangers in life. These are just my perspectives, of course. If you find them of any value, cool, and if not, carry on with what you know to be better perspectives. Five Child Raising Principles: 1. The answer is always ‘yes’ unless it has to be ‘no.’ This means the child is led to understand that mom and dad ONLY have their best interest in mind. Thus, there are no arbitrary rules—rules for the sake of rules, rules for the sake of control or exerting authority as an end in itself, rules for the mere satisfaction of the parent’s need to be in charge. The rules we have in the home are good rules, rules for the wellbeing of the family in general and the children in particular. The rules are, therefore, rational and gradually understandable to the child’s mind as they mature, which sets them up for responsible self-governance. And this naturally leads to the second principle. 2. Throw your child on the resources of their own reasoning and freedom as fast as possible. This means your goal for your child is responsible self-governance, NOT acquiescence to your authority; independence from you, NOT dependence on you. You want them looking to you for what they can and can’t do as little as possible and as quickly as possible. This also means you will need to be fine with them making mistakes along the way and patiently engaging with them on the level of rational conversation, or educating your children for freedom. 3. Never discipline in anger. This means that when the child has misbehaved, the issue is the misbehavior and its adverse effect for the child’s well-being or that of those impacted by the child's misbehavior. The issue is NOT that your will has been crossed, NOT that your authority has been violated, NOT that your control has been bucked. Of course, children do stupid things and misbehave, and, of course, we parents are inclined to be angered by their wrongdoing. When anger arises inside of you because of some wrong thing your child has done, be alone for a few minutes to achieve self-control and then engage with the child rationally. And that leads to the fourth principle. 4. If the child can be led to understand their misbehavior and be sorry for it, any potential punishment should be waived. This means that the goal for the child is that they understand, repent, and be less likely to repeat the misbehavior. The goal is NOT for the parent to experience the satisfaction of deploying frustration or anger upon the child. 5. Dignify the child and your relationship with the child by apologizing when you have failed them. This means, if you blow it, you own it. This may feel counterintuitive, especially if we operate with a premise of control as the objective rather than freedom. You may imagine that if you apologize to your child, the child will lose respect for you, but the opposite is actually the case. The child will have greater respect for and experience deeper bonding with the parent that can humbly acknowledge a wrong, even to a child. If you employ these freedom-based principles in raising your children, it is highly unlikely they will rebel, and it is highly likely they will grow up to be in eager voluntary relationships with you as adults, rather than figure out ways to create distance from you. This is because you have honored the nobility of their humanity by loving them rather than controlling them.

@Xfinity continues to drag this out, with the rep indicating I would have to wait for someone else to authorize the refunds for charges I received because of their failure to close the account the first time. Very frustrating.

@mjshally Great day to take the off-ramp 🤣

The worst thing Elon did to this site was monetizing it. Being paid for engagement brings out the worst in everyone. In the past you might have just blocked the trolls, but now every angry reply boosts your posts and increases your revenue. It incentivizes the outrage cycle.

@Xfinity Tried to cancel our service twice now and am still getting build monthly.

@Xfinity customer service makes it very clear their priority is not customer service. Looks like I’ve been charged an extra two months after being assured my requests would be addressed. Looking forward to a speedy and acceptable resolution.

Finally ... another installment (for anyone still paying attention here😜) 20K open.substack.com/pub/stearmanat…

We’ve finally launched! Loveshaped.life!

@tyfgibson Thought about you all. Praying.

We know many of you are aware that David and I are leading a tour group in the Holy Land. We have decided to get our people and ourselves out ASAP. It is the responsible decision. We have to prioritize the safety of our group over all else. We are trying to orchestrate getting our tour group out of Amman, Jordan. It is an organizational and logistical challenge. Prayers appreciated.

Today’s episode: player.captivate.fm/episode/a81dbd…. Also on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, etc.

@JosiahHawthorne Ok, that’s nonsense. Total nonsense. 🙄

I hate — HATE — this vision of “male space.” I’ve endured locker rooms just like this description, and they were hell.

@JayMallow3 @MuiRebekah ‼️

@DianeLangberg @willowbirds Yep.

When we believe that measures such as membership growth and financial gain in a ministry are proof of likeness to God, we will then make decisions that silence unwelcome truths about fraud or abuse and tell ourselves the cover-up “preserves God’s honor.”

@tyfgibson This is so on point. Man, if only we could learn this deeply.

“I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6, ESV). We become superstitious, ritualistic, legalistic, mechanistic, when we are spiritually lazy in cultivating intimacy with God. We multiply outward forms and develop hypersensitive religious scruples when romantic depth is lacking in our walk with God. We render neurotic outward minimums to God in the absence of passionate inward maximums.

@nickmobrien This is 🔥

If God is making me whole, perhaps His intention is forming me into a person who shows the world what God looks like as I bring healing and wholeness to my neighbors, my enemies, and to creation itself (7/9)

@nickmobrien Yes!!!!

We tend to talk about salvation as if it’s merely rescue, from our sin and from an eternally stormy lake of fire But what if the goal of salvation is not merely rescue, but wholeness? (5/9)

The gospel of Christ is not about falling in line. It’s about falling in love. Externally imposed rules generate either rebellion or hypocrisy, either open hostility toward God or religious pretending about God. What cannot be generated by externally imposed rules, is love, nor that truer and deeper obedience generated by love. “We have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Galatians 2:16). #Scripture

In our eager celebration of grace we must not miss the fact that grace is primarily concerned with goodness now, not forgiveness or access to a heavenly afterlife. Ephesians 2:8-10.

@MuiRebekah On point.