Eras, Easter Eggs, and the One Worth Following: What Taylor Swift Can Teach Us About Jesus
A lot of people don’t just listen to Taylor Swift. They commit. They learn the lyrics. They study the storylines. They catch the “Easter eggs.” They travel for concerts. They defend her online. They know the eras, the outfits, the lore. For better or worse, it’s devotion. And if you’re a Christian, you don’t have […]
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February 20, 2026
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The God Who Meets You in the Broom Tree
Some of the hardest moments in life are not the ones where everything falls apart all at once, but the ones where you realize you’ve been holding it together for too long. You’ve been strong for people. You’ve been faithful through pressure. You’ve kept moving because you had to. And then one day you wake […]
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February 16, 2026
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Faith That Holds When Life Doesn’t
There are seasons when faith feels natural. Prayer comes easily, worship feels like oxygen, and hope seems close enough to touch. But there are also seasons when faith feels heavy. You still show up, but your heart is tired. You still believe, but it feels like you’re doing it with trembling hands. If that’s where […]
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February 7, 2026
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Come Home to God’s Rest
There are times when the heaviest thing you carry is not one specific crisis, but the constant feeling of being behind. Behind on what you promised. Behind on what you hoped you’d be by now. Behind on prayer, behind on patience, behind on being the kind of person you wish you were. It’s possible to […]
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January 22, 2026
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Who’s Discipling You?
Romans 12:2 gets quoted a lot like it means, “Don’t watch bad movies.” But Paul is talking about something deeper than your entertainment choices. He’s talking about formation. About discipleship. About the slow shaping of what feels normal, wise, and “just how the world works.” “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed […]
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January 11, 2026
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New Year, Same Kingdom: Why Your Resolution Needs a Neighbor
January has a certain religion to it: fresh notebooks, new gym memberships, apps that promise to optimize your life like you’re a phone that just needs the right update. The whole culture turns into a giant altar to self-improvement, and we’re told that if we can just try harder, track better, and hustle smarter, we […]
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January 4, 2026
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Your Pastor Isn’t a Life Coach: The Gospel Is Not Motivational Speaking
There’s a kind of preaching that fills rooms, sells books, and makes people feel powerful for about 48 hours. It’s polished. It’s upbeat. It’s full of “You’ve got this,” “This is your season,” and “God is about to blow your mind.” It’s also often a bait-and-switch. Because what a lot of church folks call “encouragement” […]
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December 31, 2025
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Your Church Isn’t a TED Talk: When “Self-Help Christianity” Replaces Jesus
There’s a kind of church that feels amazing to attend. The vibe is upbeat. The message is “practical.” You leave thinking, I can do this week. I feel lighter. I feel empowered. And look—God can absolutely use encouragement. The gospel is genuinely good news. People who are weary need hope. People who are drowning need […]
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December 29, 2025
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The Dangers of “Feel-Good Christianity”
In many modern churches and Christian spaces, a version of faith has emerged that centers almost entirely on personal happiness, emotional comfort, and positive affirmation. This approach—often called “feel-good Christianity”—emphasizes encouragement while downplaying repentance, sacrifice, holiness, and the cost of discipleship. While encouragement is biblical and necessary, Scripture warns that a Christianity focused only on […]
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December 28, 2025
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The People in the Pew Today Aren’t “Fake.” They’re Hungry.
You can feel it in the room on Christmas. The parking lot is fuller. The sanctuary is louder. The lobby is suddenly full of faces you don’t recognize—and faces you do recognize, just not from last Sunday. The “once-or-twice-a-year” crowd is back. And if you’re honest, something in you wants to smirk. To whisper, “Christmas […]
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December 25, 2025
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Christmas Isn’t About Family (Sorry). It’s About a Baby Who Threatened Kings.
Let’s say the quiet part out loud: Christmas is not about family. Not because family is bad. Family can be holy. Family can be a gift. But family is not the center of Christmas. And if we keep pretending it is, we’ll keep turning the birth of Jesus into a Hallmark ornament—pretty, sentimental, harmless. But […]
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December 24, 2025
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Sabbath vs. the Scroll: God Said “Stop.” Your Phone Said “One More.”
Wake up. Check. Scroll. Compare. React. Refresh. Repeat. Before your feet hit the floor, your soul is already doing laps. And we call it “staying informed,” “being connected,” “keeping up,” “just checking one thing.” But if we’re honest, a lot of our exhaustion isn’t coming from heavy lifting. It’s coming from never putting the world […]
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December 19, 2025
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‘God Will Never Give You More Than You Can Handle’ Is Not a Bible Verse
“God will never give you more than you can handle.” It sounds spiritual. It sounds sturdy. It sounds like the kind of thing you put on a mug next to a sunrise. It’s also not a Bible verse, and sometimes it’s not comfort—it’s a brick. Because when someone is drowning, you don’t throw them a […]
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December 13, 2025
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Holy Verse, Hot Pics: When Your Instagram Becomes an Altar to Attention
The bio says:“Saved by grace. ✝️ Child of the King.” The grid says:“Please notice me. Please want me. Please tell me I’m enough.” Welcome to the altar of attention. When does my Instagram stop being self-expression and start becoming worship… of the wrong god? In scripture, altars are places where people bring sacrifices to whatever […]
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December 1, 2025
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From Thirst Traps to Living Water: What Your Instagram Is Actually Preaching
You’ve seen the profile. Bio:“✨ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me ✨ – Philippians 4:13” Feed:A carefully curated scroll of bikini shots, thirst traps, and “just woke up like this” but somehow fully contoured and filtered into next week. Instagram as a modern-day well In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan […]
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December 1, 2025
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Sunday Sermon: How Philippians 4 Teaches Joy in a Burning World
If Philippians 4 dropped today, it might sound like this: “Beloved, I know your group chats are full of bad news, the climate is on fire, democracy feels fragile, your job is draining, and your soul is tired. But listen: there is still a way to live with real joy that the chaos can’t cancel.” […]
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November 30, 2025
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From Happy Hour to Holy Ground: When Alcohol Becomes an Idol
Now let’s talk about us. Not ancient vineyards. Not first-century weddings. America is soaked in alcohol. It’s in our memes, our merch, our mom groups, our church small talk. We’ve turned “wine o’clock” into a personality trait and “I need a drink” into a liturgy. Wine moms and the gospel of “I deserve this” Think […]
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November 29, 2025
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Wine, Worship, and Wreckage: What the Bible Actually Says About Alcohol
Christians love to argue about alcohol. Some act like one glass of wine is a one-way ticket to hell. Others raise a craft beer and say, “Jesus turned water into wine, relax.” So what does scripture actually say? First, the Bible is clear: alcohol is neither a demon nor a deity. It’s a created thing […]
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November 29, 2025
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When God Hands You a Tiny Revolution: Becoming a Father
Becoming a father is not just getting a new title; it’s being entrusted with a life that ultimately belongs to God (Psalm 127:3). One minute your time, money, and plans feel like they’re yours. The next minute, a tiny, wrinkled human looks up at you like you are the whole universe. And in that moment, […]
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November 29, 2025
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Sunday Sermon: This Thanksgiving, You Might Be Thankful, But Are You the One Who Returns?
Thanksgiving comes with a script most of us could recite in our sleep. “Everyone say one thing you’re thankful for.”“My family.”“My health.”“Food.” Then someone cracks a joke, someone passes the potatoes, and we all kind of feel like we did the “gratitude thing,” even if our lives are still running on anxiety, comparison, fear about […]
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November 23, 2025
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Eras, Idols, and Altars: Finding Jesus in Taylor Swift’s World
If Paul were writing letters today, I’m pretty sure at least one of them would mention Taylor Swift. Not because she’s a savior (she’s not), but because she’s everywhere—a glitter-covered mirror for what our culture loves, fears, and quietly worships. And if we’re going to talk honestly about Jesus in 2025, we have to talk […]
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November 22, 2025
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What If the “Gay Agenda” Is Actually a Cry for Help?
What if the “gay agenda” isn’t a coordinated plan to destroy America—but a bunch of scared kids trying to survive? Picture this: a teenager who loves Jesus, says the pledge, sings the worship songs…and lies awake at night begging God to “fix” them before anyone finds out they’re gay. Meanwhile, the adults they trust most—pastors, […]
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November 22, 2025
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Sunday Sermon: Are We Robbing God? Malachi 3 and the Church Budget
A lot of us have Malachi 3 baggage. If you grew up in church, you probably heard “Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me… Bring the full tithe into the storehouse” (Malachi 3:8–10) right before the offering. It became the soundtrack to a thousand sermons about giving 10% to keep the lights on […]
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November 16, 2025
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The Head of the Biblical Household
Church folks still love to say, “The man is the head of the house.” It sounds biblical. It also sounds like a line written for a 1950s sitcom—where dad has the recliner, mom has the dishes, and nobody asks hard questions. But when you actually read Scripture with Jesus in the center, the roles inside […]
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November 16, 2025
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The Proverbs 31 Wife
Scroll “tradwife” TikTok and you’ll see soft filters, vintage aprons, and captions about “getting back to biblical womanhood.” Proverbs 31 gets thrown around like a brand label: bake bread, obey your husband, stay small, stay sweet. But the actual Proverbs 31 woman? She would break the algorithm. When you read the whole passage, not just […]
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November 16, 2025
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Would Jesus Have a TikTok? The Problem With Christian Influencers (Including You and Me)
There’s something off about our feeds right now. We’re watching people go viral for talking about humility. We scroll past “servant leaders” with personal brands, cinematic testimonies, and affiliate links. Christian influencers are everywhere, saying “all glory to God” through $4,000 cameras and carefully curated aesthetics. Is that automatically wrong? Not necessarily. Is it spiritually […]
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November 16, 2025
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The Devil Doesn’t Care Who You Vote For — As Long As You Worship Politics
Scroll for five minutes and you can feel it: rage, fear, absolutism. Every headline screams pick a side. Every clip says hate them harder. And quietly, almost invisibly, politics becomes less about ordering our common life… and more about owning our souls. That’s not an accident. It’s a tactic. Scripture calls Satan “the father of […]
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November 16, 2025
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When Your Gym Becomes Your God: Is Your Body the New Golden Calf?
We live in a world where six-packs are the new sainthood. Hitting your macros is liturgy. The gym is a daily altar with squat racks for stained glass. And if we’re honest, a lot of us show up for leg day more faithfully than we ever show up before God. Scripture doesn’t hate fitness. Paul […]
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November 16, 2025
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Would Jesus Swipe Right?
Dating apps like Tinder promise connection, but most of us know the drill: open the app, swipe through faces, chase a little hit of validation, then close it feeling just as lonely—maybe lonelier. The question for followers of Jesus isn’t, “Are apps evil?” It’s much sharper: What is this doing to my heart, my view […]
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November 16, 2025
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Jesus walks into the Abortion debate
The word abortion hits like a grenade. Timelines explode. Friendships fracture. Churches split. But before we fire off one more post, here’s the harder question: What would Jesus do if He walked into our abortion debate? Scripture is clear that God is intimately involved with life in the womb: “For You created my inmost being; […]
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November 16, 2025
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Jesus Didn’t Die for Soundbites
Every time tragedy hits—another shooting, another preventable disaster—our leaders step up to the podium, bow their heads, and offer “thoughts and prayers.” Then they go right back to the policies, money, and power structures that helped cause the pain in the first place. If that feels hollow to you, it’s because it is. In Scripture, […]
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November 16, 2025
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Jesus Doesn’t Fit in Your Party Platform
We keep trying to squeeze Jesus into red or blue, conservative or progressive. But Jesus refuses to be a mascot for any political brand. Christian nationalism says, “Our nation is chosen; we’re the good guys.”Jesus says, “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) and “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9), not the power-grabbers. […]
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November 15, 2025
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Christian Nationalism Is Building a Kingdom Jesus Already Turned Down
If your Christianity needs a flag to feel powerful, it might not be following Him. Right now in America, “Christian nationalism” is having a moment—waving Bibles at rallies, wrapping crosses in red, white, and blue, talking like Jesus personally wrote the Constitution. It sounds holy. It feels patriotic. But if we hold it up next […]
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November 15, 2025
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If ICE Had Been in Bethlehem: Jesus, “Illegal” People, and Woke Faith
If an agency like ICE had existed in first-century Judea, there’s a good chance they would have had a file on the Holy Family. A brown-skinned baby is born under an occupying empire. Within a couple of years, a paranoid ruler orders the killing of little boys (Matthew 2:16). Joseph wakes from a God-given dream, […]
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November 15, 2025
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The Gospel of the Margins
If you map out the stories of Jesus, a pattern shows up: He is rarely where respectable religious people expect Him to be. He eats with tax collectors who collaborated with empire, like Levi and Zacchaeus, and calls them by name instead of by their reputations (Matthew 9:9–13; Luke 19:1–10). He touches people everyone else […]
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November 15, 2025
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When “Christian” Isn’t Enough: How Jesus Measures a Life
If you flipped through a Bible with a highlighter and circled every time the word “Christian” shows up, you’d put the cap back on your pen pretty fast. It’s there three times total (Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). That’s it. Three verses to carry a label that now fills entire bookstores, voting blocs, […]
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November 12, 2025
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