Brad Jones

What can the 5-1 Marlins do to get you out to the ballpark in April?

Statement by President George W. Bush on Robert Mueller: "Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service. As a Marine in Vietnam, he proved he was ready for tough assignments. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before returning home to pursue law. In 2001, only one week into the job as the 6th Director of the F.B.I., Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11. He led the agency effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family."

Waiting for an elevator and a guy looks at my quarter zip and says, “Roll tide!” “Excuse me?” “Roll tide!” “This is an Atlanta Braves logo” “Oh, crazy that they have the same logo.” “They don’t” (and I explain the difference)

Nathan MacKinnon on Canada's Olympic final loss: "You be the judge of who was the better team today." MacKinnon's open-net miss was one of several opportunities the Canadians failed to convert.

There is no such thing as “intrusive thoughts.” You won’t find them in the Bible. It’s just empty rhetoric so folks can get out of taking responsibility for thoughts they’re literally having. Using such terminology cripples you and others. There are mindful thoughts and unmindful thoughts but every thought involves your will. You are the Thinker, the acting subject. You are responsible for every thought, every feeling, every emotion. And no amount of empty rhetoric can or will save you. Instead of trying to save yourself and others with empty rhetoric, you must… 1) Admit that your thoughts, feelings, and emotions are your fault. Take responsibility for them. Your brain had the thought. You had the thought. 2) Call every thought, feeling, and emotion that is contrary to God and His design, “sin.” The evil thought is sin because it’s produced by the flesh, not the Spirit, it’s the beginning of a desire to sin, and it’s aimed at sin. Thoughts about committing sin are the beginning of desiring to commit that sin (Gen 3:6). It’s the beginning of desire for what God forbids. 3) Every evil thought must be repented of. When an evil thought enters one’s mind, reject it, confess it as sin, enjoy Christ, and think on good, true, and beautiful things. If you didn’t act on the evil thought, rejoice, and also repent for having thought of it, because you had the evil thought. 4) Worship God by the Spirit through the Son to the Father continually. In all that you do, do it for God’s glory. Pray, read God’s word, worship with a local church, listen to and sing Christian hymns often, memorize catechisms, etc. Cultivate your affections and thoughts for God and think on good, true, and beautiful things. 5) Go see a medical doctor and get a checkup/bloodwork. Eat foods that are good for you, go easy on the sugar, and get good sleep and exercise. 6) Enjoy Christ above all things and pursue Him. He is worth repenting of everything in us that is contrary to Him. No one loves us like Jesus. He is why we fight all indwelling sin, and pursue being like Him with our entire lives: hearts, souls, and minds.

Friends- This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do. I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all. Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints. There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come. Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son. A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears. Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet. Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective: “When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.” I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape. But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9). With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices, Ben — and the Sasses

All playoff games including the National Championship should be played on college campuses.

Churches should participate in communion every week.