Pray more fervently.

Sing more loudly.

Repent more deeply.

Forgive more mercifully.

Run more quickly.

Love more genuinely.

-Gabe Cali

"By delay of repentance, sin strengthens, and the heart hardens. The longer ice freezeth, the harder it is to be broken." - Thomas Watson

The Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7) is the great equalizer. We are all murderers. We are all adulterers. But embracing meekness, humility, mercy, peace-making, purity, starving for righteousness and living such that you are vulnerable to persecution submits your soul—your mind, will, and emotions—to the Potter’s hand as He conforms us into the image of the One slaughtered at the Place of the Skull, who “made Himself of no reputation” and served His enemies with costly access to a life we didn’t earn and don’t deserve.

“So you shall be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

-Stephanie Quick

The myriads of Gentile narratives and theologies generated over the centuries have made the waters muddy, but Peter's sermon in Acts 2 is best understood within the framework of first-century Jewish apocalyptic eschatology. - Joshua Hawkins

The apostles didn't use Psalm 110 to say that Jesus ascended to heaven to reign as king.

They use it to say that he is at God's right hand *waiting* for the day of his wrath, when God will make his enemies his footstool and he fills the places with corpses (v5-6).

Terrifying.

-Joshua Hawkins. 

The only King who will ever rule the nations in perfect righteousness is the One who will wield the iron scepter with nail-scarred hands. - BA Purtle

Judas saw his association with Jesus as a means for self advancement and gaining significance. He was seeking his life. If you use Jesus as a means to find your significance in life, like Judas you’ll lose it. You must lose your life to find it.  - Bob Sorge

Ministry isn’t everything. Only Jesus is. I don’t think he cares about our ministries as much as we think he does. He’s walking among the lampstands and his eyes are like a flame of fire. He desires truth in our hidden, innermost parts. More than anything, I want to be conformed into his image. There’s no one like him. - Brian Kim

Let others be foolish enough to receive fame and acclaim. You should avoid it like the plague.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

-Nick Uva

"It is good to have certain hours appointed for prayer, not because we’re tied to hours, but unless we would ever become unmindful of prayer." —Calvin

Theology 101: If your church's worship feels like a theatre, don't be surprised if members behave like spectators, actors, or critics. - Dr. Michael Svigel

Biblical hope is not wishful thinking or an optimistic outlook; rather...

it is a confident expectation based on the certainty of God's Word that as He has anchored us in the past, so He will in the future. - David Wilkerson

I hold to historic premillennialism. But I feel no need to give optimistic or pessimistic qualifiers.

The Bible teaches clearly that the church will be persecuted while the Gospel advances powerfully, ‘til Christ appears to judge the wicked, redeem Israel, and glorify the saints. - BA Purtle

2023 Summer

"It is the duty and privilege of the Christian Church to preach the gospel to the Jew...  [and] to remind the Jews of that splendid future which both the Old and New Testaments predict for Israel." - Spurgeon

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, but there is conviction. 

A truly believing people will be a deeply repenting people. 

No exceptions. - BA Purtle

This is the pattern: The only way to live is to die! And do you know what the problem is? We won’t die. - Leonard Ravenhill

His chastenings are overtures of mercy. - BA Purtle

God chose the crucifixion of the Messiah as the means of justification and the inheritance of eternal life because it humiliates human pride and self-justification. - John P. Harrigan

"Are Gentiles being conditioned and groomed to find joy and peace in believing the promises given to the patriarchs (Rom.15:13), or are their ears being tickled with Gentile myths that ease the difficulties raised by Jewish election and apocalyptic sobriety (2. Tim. 4:3)?" - John P. Harrigan

John Harrigan on the Messiah Podcast. Highly recommended! 

When you feel the piercing sting of the Spirit’s conviction, lean into the surgeon’s scalpel and ask him to cut deeper.  

Be of good cheer, surgeons don’t operate on dead men. - Aaron in Writing

The Father has fixed a time and season for the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel. Though it tarries, wait for it. It will come. Maranatha. - Bill Scofield

My teaching on the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3. Notes. Audio 1. Audio 2. 

"Eschatology is not a distraction for discipleship. Instead, it is a driver for discipleship." - John P. Harrigan

"Like it or not, the Jewish question will be the ragged edge on which many will be tested and found deficient from a truly exegetical standpoint of the clear witness of Scripture." - Walter Kaiser Jr. 

God has bound himself to a specific people group and a specific land as his chosen means to bring about lasting peace and perpetual human flourishing. Until we come to grips with that, we'll miss what God is really doing in the world. - Joshua Hawkins

John’s declaration of the kingdom of God being at hand (Matt. 3:2) was also associated with apocalyptic realities, such as “the wrath to come” (v. 7), bad trees being axed and “thrown into the fire” (v. 10), and chaff being burned “with unquenchable fire” (v. 12). Both John and Jesus (cf. 4:17) were simply reiterating the heart of the prophetic and apocalyptic traditions: “The day of the Lord is at hand” (cf. Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15; Zeph. 1:7; Mal. 4:5; 1 Enoch 1:1; 51:2; 96:8; 100:7; 4 Ezra 4:26; 6:18; 9:2; 2 Bar. 23:7; 31:5; 76:5; 82:2; 83:1). 

Because of the associated divine judgment, the proclamation of the kingdom of God had a negative edge designed to evoke repentance.  - John P. Harrigan

“Supporters of the view that Jesus thought of the kingdom as present as well as future point to Luke 16.16 but particularly to sayings like Matthew 11.5f. and to Luke 11.20 and 17.21b. Despite the fact that the consensus of New Testament scholarship accepts that Jesus believed that the kingdom of God had already in some sense arrived in Jesus’ words and deeds, the fact has to be faced that the evidence in support of such an assumption is not very substantial”  - Christopher Rowland

The messianic kingdom comes part and parcel with the day of the Lord, the judgment, and the resurrection. This pattern is also a narrative pattern. To change one part of the story would substantially change the whole story. If Jesus sought to change the meaning of the kingdom of God, then he would also be changing the overall apocalyptic narrative of redemptive history. If this were indeed the case, we would expect to see such a profound redefinition clearly articulated and expounded upon in the Gospels. In reality, however, the evidence is relatively scarce. - John P. Harrigan

We can distill from this mass of writings a general pattern of End-time events, themselves amplifications of themes shaping the older prophetic paradigm of Exile and Return. Before the End comes, the righteous will suffer persecution at the hands of the wicked. Suddenly, though, things will begin to reverse. The Day of the Lord will arrive,when the world will be convulsed by celestial and terrestrial catastrophes: earthquakes, plagues, darkness at noon, falling stars… With the resurrection of the dead, the judgmentof the wicked, and the vindication of the righteous, Israel will reassemble, all twelve tribes, and return to the Land. God’s spirit will pour out onto “all flesh” (Joel 2:28). The redeemed will gather in Jerusalem, at a rebuilt or renewed temple. Peace unalterably established, the entire world, human and divine, will acknowledge and worship the god ofIsrael. - Paula Fredriksen