As we entrust our sorrows to him, we find that he has first entrusted them to us. He has assigned to us these sorrows so we can in turn consecrate them to him. He means for us to faithfully steward them, confident that they will guide us into deeper submission to his purposes and deeper conformity to his Son.

It is inevitable that we face times of difficulty and impossible that we escape them altogether. To be born is to suffer and to live is to endure all manner of trouble and trial. Just as none of us escapes death, none of us escapes all hardships.
And when we face such hardships, we invariably long to overcome them. We want to get past them, through them, over them, around them—whatever it takes for them to come to as quick an end as possible. Yet it does not take us long in the Christian life to learn that God means for us to get something from our hardships—he wants us to gain something precious and obtain something valuable. And sometimes this means the hardships will persist for a long time or even for the rest of our days on earth.
One of the pearls of wisdom that has served me well in life and that has been both challenging and comforting is this: Suffering always comes bearing a gift. It comes bearing a gift of God’s blessing if only we will seek for it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure.
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To arrest a possible breakup, you need to talk about the threat before the root of bitterness grows. Deal with it quickly. Like cancer, it must be handled as soon as it is discovered because any delay only allows the cancer to grow. 

Jesus’s Prayer for the Church
Toward the end of Jesus’s life on earth, he prayed that his people may be united. His prayer was deep. He said, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:20–23).
Can any words be more sublime? Yet, you only have to be a Christian for a short time before you realize that churches suffer from disunity and splits after seasons of peace as surely as valleys follow rolling hills. Often, you can see the downward spiral coming from a distance. In this article, I point out ten ways in which you can fracture the church to which you belong. Most of these ways can be caused by anyone. The last few are normally caused by church leaders. If any of these describe your actions or your attitude, may God give you grace to amend your ways for the sake of Christ who desires his people to be truly united.
1. Self-Centeredness
If you join a church primarily because of what you can get from others, you will soon be full of complaints about “lack of love” in the church. Your grumbling is because of a failure to get from the church what you want. It is as James put it, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1–2). Church is a place to love others and to be loved, to give and take.
2. Impatience with Others
Christians come in all shapes and sizes, and so the church is very much like the human family. Some are hard workers while others are lazy. Some are fast learners while others never seem to grasp the most basic concepts of life. The process of sanctification takes time. If you fail to realize this, you will become impatient and grumpy. You will be complaining about the very people you are meant to exhibit Christian patience towards. That is why the apostle Paul said, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:1–3). Learn to be patient with others.
3. Importing Fights from Elsewhere
Sometimes your own church can be peaceful, but churches across town or in another country may have locked horns over an issue that is far removed from you. However, because you are connected to what is happening there through friends or relatives, you begin to agitate for a stance in your church that others see no need for. This has become common, especially with the advent of the internet. In the process, you brew a storm in a teacup and are seen as a mere troublemaker crying, “Wolf! Wolf!” where there is no wolf.
4. Unresolved Issues
Another way in which fights are imported is when you live with unresolved issues. You think that by changing churches or shutting out some people in the church you have closed that chapter of your life, but you have not. That grudge becomes like a bitter root that causes you to be toxic. Mole hills will become mountains by your opinion. People around you fail to understand your overreactions to issues in the church. The Bible warns, “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled” (Heb. 12:14–15). This root of bitterness is usually because of unresolved issues. Learn to resolve issues instead of burying them and leaving them to fester. They can be disruptive, if not deadly.
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Keep working for the Lord…You and I may be just very ordinary people. But we can do some extraordinary things with the help of our Lord. We might just be ordinary, but our God certainly is not.

The longer you are a Christian, the less you speak about “coincidence” and the more you speak about God being at work. A number of my articles fit this category—this present piece included. So let me bring some various threads together into a coherent whole.
First, something that former wild child and now new Christian Russell Brand has said certainly ties in here. He is on an amazing journey of discovery with his newfound faith, and everything seems so grand and wonderful to him. He said this recently: “The more I pray, the more coincidences happen.” Yep.
So let me piece together this latest string of events which I must regard as a God thing. On the weekend I along with a few others spoke at a pro-life meeting organised by my friend and pro-life hero Kathy Clubb on behalf of 40 Days For Life Melbourne for the 3rd World Day Against Abortion.
It was a well-attended event with an eager audience. I suppose the highlight for me was having some folks come up to me afterwards saying that they have been following me and my work for years, or that they heard me speak long ago, and they said it had a real impact for good on their lives.
Well, that sure beats the usual criticisms I get! Indeed, if you are like me, you might often wonder if you are doing much good for Christ and the Kingdom, and feel that you are not making much of an impact. So positive words like these certainly help me to keep on keeping on.
That night I was flicking channels on the television when I spotted the recent film, One Life. I decided to watch it again. I had seen it when it first hit the cinemas early this year. I even wrote it up at the time. As I said in that piece, this film is about
saving young children in Prague—most of them Jewish—from the Nazis in 1938-1939. It is called One Life and it stars Anthony Hopkins who plays a true character: the British stockbroker and humanitarian Nicholas Winton. He had become deeply concerned about these poor children, many orphaned, all in precarious positions, given the Nazi threat they were facing. It was just a matter of time before Hitler took all of the nation. All up Winton and a dedicated team managed to save 669 children and bring them to England, just before WWII broke out. The film looks at his life both during the late 1930s, and in the 1980s.
It was good to see it for the second time. Some things I wanted to write about in my first piece I did, but a few bits I had forgotten. I did write in the first piece about the power of a few individuals to make a difference. I did write about how God normally uses ordinary people.
But one little bit of dialogue from the film I had not included, so I do so now. A young Winton in the late 1930s is sitting with a few others discussing the situation in Czechoslovakia, and they are asking what they can do to help these children. In that brief scene we hear this discussion:
Ordinary people wouldn’t stand for this if they knew what was actually happening.You’ve a lot of faith in ordinary people.I do because I’m an ordinary person.So am I.And me.Well, there you go.That’s just what we need, isn’t it? An army of the ordinary.
If someone can find that particular clip of the film and share it here, that would be appreciated. But I love that last line: “An army of the ordinary.” That is what we Christians are. We of course serve an extraordinary Lord, but we ourselves are just ordinary, broken and frail individuals.
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[God’s] got you now, present tense. But he’s got you in the future too. He will keep you from evil. He will keep your life. He will keep your going out and coming in not just now but into eternity. It’s not just a promise for this life but for all time. God has promised good to his people throughout eternity.

We’ve been looking at psalms of courage this summer, and we’re finally at the end. We’re also at one of my favorite psalms of all.
The question is: where will you turn for help when life gets hard?
This is a question that’s highly relevant to some of you, because you need help, and you need it yesterday. You have bills you can’t pay, problems you can’t solve, relationships that need help. There’s a group of us here that are at the end of our resources, and we know we need help, and we’re not afraid to admit it. When I ask you where you turn for help, you’re not really surprised. You know you need to turn somewhere.
There’s a whole other group here, though, that is going to be surprised by this question. Most of us go through life not knowing that we need help. Even if we did, we’re like the proverbial guy that won’t stop for directions. We may know we need help, but we’re not prepared to admit it to anyone else. When I ask you where you turn for help, you’re a little bit surprised.
But the truth is, we all need help. And the psalmist asks: where will you turn for the help you need?
Thousands of years ago, this question was asked on a fairly regular basis. Psalm 121 is one of the Songs of Ascent. These are songs of pilgrims who sang them during their journey to Jerusalem for one of the three yearly festivals. They’re songs that are meant to help God’s people as they travel to worship.
The trip was sometimes dangerous. You had to walk or ride for miles. There were no real roads—those came later—but just well-worn paths across the valleys.
God had told them to go—to come where his presence was (1 Kings 8:10–11)—but the road was dangerous and uncertain.
Along the road, the people met threats above and threats below, most of which they could not see or predict. They were fully exposed to scorching heat and volatile weather. Robbers hid in the caves and hills, knowing exactly when to expect their victims. The people knew they had to go, but they did not know if they would all make it. Surely, some didn’t. So, they felt fragile, vulnerable, unsafe.Marshall Segal
Jesus himself would have taken this trip many times. This is a song for rough roads, both back then on the way to Jerusalem, and for us as well.
The Question and Answer
And the psalm begins with a question that the psalmist asks of himself.
I lift up my eyes to the hills.From where does my help come?
It’s possible that the speaker is looking to the hills in fear, scared of robbers who might be lurking there. But the term “lift up my eyes” is generally a positive one, as shown in Psalm 123: “To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!” So it’s possible that the pilgrim is approaching Jerusalem. And he asks himself the question as he gets closer: where does my help come from?
This is an important question for all of us to answer. Where does your help come from? Where do you get the help you need as you travel on dangerous paths on the way to your eternal home?
We need to do an honesty check here. I recently read a quote that really got me. Family therapist Jay Haley famously told his clients, “I don’t address problems; I address attempted solutions.” What are the attempted solutions that you turn to for help? What friends and coping mechanisms and strategies help you when you experience danger or trouble or need help?
I want you to think about this. How would you answer the question, “From where does my help come from?” The answer really matters.
The truth is, when we get into trouble, our first response is not usually to turn to God for help. We have all kinds of other places we turn for the help we need. Where will you turn when your life falls apart, or you feel discouraged or despondent, or you face a problem you just can’t solve on your own?
Here’s how the psalmist answered: “My help comes from the LORD.” That is a good answer! But what I love about the psalm is that he doesn’t stop there. This psalm is a meditation on why the Lord is so qualified to be the source of the help that we need. He doesn’t just give us the answer; he gives us the reasons why it’s good to turn to God for help.
It’s important we learn the answer. Where does our help come from? The Lord. Jesus is the helper of his people now and for eternity.
But it’s also good to learn the reasons for the answer. And the psalmist gives us three.
The Reasons
Why does our help come from the Lord? Because the Lord is a good helper for three reasons:
He is a good helper because he is the Creator.
Verse 2 says:
My help comes from the LORD,who made heaven and earth.
What qualifies the LORD to be our helper? He is the maker of heaven and earth. He is the Creator, and that makes him uniquely qualified to help us.
The Lord is not some tribal deity. He’s not just some minor god with limited power. Think about who God is.
As far as we know, the observable universe is some 90 billion light years wide, but we don’t even know. The Milky Way Galaxy alone has some 100 billion to 400 billion stars. God created all of it. How powerful is the Lord? We can’t even comprehend his power. He is very qualified to help you.
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Because Churchill insisted on fighting, Cooper [popular historian] suggested, he is the real villain of the war. Churchill, he said, wanted war to make up for his part in the disaster at Gallipoli in World War I. Though nothing in Churchill’s writings suggests this, Hitler clearly articulated his intentions and, despite what Cooper claimed, it was not to pursue peace.

Last week’s online controversy was the interview with Darryl Cooper, whom host Tucker Carlson called “(maybe) the best and most honest popular historian in the United States.” In the interview, Cooper not only claimed that Winston Churchill was a psychopath but also that he was “the real villain” of World War II. Though Cooper admitted Hitler was evil, he also argued that history’s most notorious villain was, in fact, backed into a corner by Churchill, who was bent on war from the beginning. Thus, it is Churchill and not Hitler, Cooper claimed, who should bear most of the blame for the war and the Holocaust. Cooper, during the interview and afterward, chalked up opposition to his telling of the story to core elements of American identity since the war that are too deeply engrained to be questioned.
Typically, claims like these would be unworthy of a response, other than perhaps an eyeroll and quick dismissal. However, this interview has been viewed by millions and was conducted by the most popular news personality in the United States. Also, Cooper has since doubled down on his claims on X.
In his misrepresentation of the two most important figures of World War II, Cooper obscured several basic facts. First, in a claim that reveals his “extensive research” failed to consider basic history texts, he posited that historians never talk about why Hitler rose to power in Weimar Germany. In fact, many have and still do.
Cooper also argued that Hitler’s anger was the fault of England and France because they declared war on Germany after his invasion of Poland. Had they not, he claimed, the war would have been over before it really began. However, this claim ignores Hitler’s repeated goal of building “living space” for Germany in Eastern Europe, how he broke his word before the war by taking all of Czechoslovakia rather than just the German-speaking areas, and the treaty obligations England and France had to Poland.
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At the end of life, when he is no longer able to sing, the man who has led his family in song will have a rich repertoire at hand and will have prepared himself well for the eternal song of the saints of God in heaven.

Singing is a manly and powerful means of leadership. Throughout history, men have led others in work, warfare, and worship with their singing.
Men sing as they lead others to work. A beautiful example of this is the singing of Welsh coal miners who would sing hymns together on their way to the mines through the first half of the twentieth century. The valleys could be heard resounding with hymn tunes such as “Bryn Calfaria” and “Cwm Rhondda.” Theirs was purposeful singing. It helped them, and those around them, to endure the harsh conditions of the mines and grueling physical labor. This cultural phenomenon was beautifully portrayed in the classic 1941 film How Green Was My Valley and in a 1957 musical recording titled Music from the Welsh Mines, which featured a choir made up of Welsh miners. Annual Welsh male-choir festivals with hundreds of participants still bear witness to the impact of generations of men singing while they work.
Men sing as they lead into battle. When King Jehoshaphat sent his army against the enemies of Israel, we are told that he
appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.” And when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the men…who had come against Judah, so that they were routed.2 Chronicles 20:21–22
This event demonstrates that the Israelites acknowledged God’s sovereignty in their victory, even before their victory was realized. It is key for us, as people of God, to acknowledge the Lord with our worship as we fight our present spiritual battles. Those who study human behavior and its effects on the mind and body are just scratching the surface of the benefits of singing in terms of fighting anxiety, depression, and stress. How much more does singing benefit us in fighting sin and spiritual apathy. God doesn’t always tell us why He commands us to do something, but I’m convinced that God commands us to sing for our own good and to sustain us in the fight.
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While Christians may not like the alternatives, voting for a party that celebrates murder in the womb, transgenderism, and a host of other sexual deviancies is at best exceedingly unwise and at worst sinful. Christians live as dual citizens of an earthly nation and the heavenly kingdom. 

To paraphrase Aristotle, politics is the science and art of governing men. We normally use the word politics to refer to governing people at the level of the government or the governing authorities or the state.[1]
Today many evangelical churches in America feel tension about how to approach politics. All Christians care about justice, but we don’t always agree about how to identify injustice and how to right those wrongs.
I plan to address politics, conscience, and the church by recommending a way forward. I’ll do that by answering three questions:

Why do Christians sometimes disagree with one another over politics?
Why should Christians distinguish between straight-line and jagged-line political issues? For a clear biblical command, there is a straight line from a biblical or theological principle to a political position (e.g., the Bible forbids murder, so we oppose abortion). For an issue that requires wisdom, there is a multistep process (or a jagged line) from a biblical or theological principle to a political position (e.g., immigration policy).
How should Christians disagree over jagged-line political issues?

I have opinions about politics, and I think my political judgments about issues such as immigration, tax policy, healthcare, welfare, global warming, and gun control are right. (And you think your opinions about politics are right, too.) But as much as I would enjoy arguing for my personal convictions, my goal in this article is to help you understand why, when, and how you should agree to disagree in political matters.
1. Why Do Christians Sometimes Disagree with One Another over Politics?
Christians disagree with one another over politics for at least two reasons.
Reason 1. Because Christians Care about Justice and Believe That Their Political Convictions Promote Justice
Let’s break this first reason down into four components:
1. Justice according to the Bible is (1) getting what you deserve and (2) giving others what they deserve.[2]
Justice is doing what is right according to the standard of God’s will and character as he has revealed it in his word.
It’s important to carefully define our terms because some people have recently redefined justice and fairness and equity to refer to equal outcomes. They think that God is unfair if unequal outcomes exist. An example of an unequal outcome is that some people have more wealth than others.
But we must distinguish between (1) equal outcomes and (2) justice or fairness or equity or impartiality. God is just and fair and equitable and impartial, but that does not mean everyone experiences equal outcomes because God has the freedom to show undeserved kindness to whomever he wants.
Case in point is Jesus’s parable of the laborers in the vineyard in Matthew 20:1–16. The master gives each laborer what he deserves, and he gives some laborers more than they deserve. To get justice is to get what you deserve. It is not unfair to give extra to some, even when they are less deserving than others. As long as God gives each person what he deserves, God is not unfair when he sovereignly chooses to be undeservedly kind to some and not others. And not one of us deserves God’s kindness. God is always fair: “all his ways are justice” (Deut. 32:4).
2. Christians care about justice.
Why? Because justice characterizes God: “he has established his throne for justice” (Ps. 9:7), and he “is exalted in justice” (Isa. 5:16). And the just God has justified Christians. Justification is to justice what faith is to good works. Faith results in good works; doing good deeds gives evidence of faith (Matt. 7:15–20; James 2:14–26). Similarly, being justified results in a desire to do justice; doing justice gives evidence of being justified.
3. Governments exist for the purpose of justice.
Remember, justice according to the Bible is (1) getting what you deserve and (2) giving others what they deserve. God instituted governments to do justice for everyone created in his image (Gen. 9:5–6; Rom. 13:1–7; cf. 2 Sam. 8:15; 1 Kgs. 10:9; Prov. 29:4). So when Christians talk about abortion, immigration, poverty, or so-called same-sex marriage, they are fundamentally talking about doing justice and opposing injustice.
What are some examples of public injustice that Christians should be concerned about today? In a WORLD Opinions article in March 2022, Thaddeus Williams wisely presents four issues that our pursuit of justice should include even if it’s unpopular in our culture (I’ll quote and paraphrase him):

Abortion: Our pursuit of justice should include “these tiny humans exterminated because larger humans consider them inconvenient, genetically inferior, or too female.”
Pornography and its connection to child porn, human trafficking, rape, domestic violence, impaired brain function, broken relationships, and depression: Our pursuit of justice should include “the victims of the exploitative pornography industry.”
The persecution of believers around the world: Christians are “being targeted, imprisoned, beaten, raped, hanged, crucified, and bombed for claiming Jesus as Lord.” Our pursuit of justice should include “the millions of Christians imprisoned or executed around the globe.”
Socialism: “The quest to achieve economic equality between the rich and poor through communist and socialist policies has resulted in more than 100 million casualties in the 20th century alone.” Our pursuit of justice should include “the desperately oppressed victims of far-left economic systems.”[3]

Each of those four issues is a matter of systemic injustice. Those are just four examples of public justice issues.
4. The world has redefined justice by attaching certain adjectives before it.
Here are five examples:

LGBT justice: Everyone must affirm and celebrate the ideology of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people—and any sexual orientations or gender identities that do not correspond to heterosexual norms. That’s LGBT justice. (I think that justice would look more like Genesis 19:24: “The LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.”)
Reproductive justice: Pregnant people (not women but pregnant people since now “men” can get pregnant, too) have a human right to have personal bodily autonomy—to choose to keep or to kill the unborn baby in one’s womb. That’s reproductive justice. (I think that justice would look more like what God commanded the Israelites in Leviticus 20:2: “Any one  . . . who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death.”)
Distributive justice: Society must distribute (or allocate) power and resources so that there are equal outcomes. That’s distributive justice. (I think that justice is that God-ordained authorities impartially punish lawbreaking and right wrongs.)
Racial justice: Society must remove systemic racial disparities in areas such as wealth, income, education, and employment. Justice is equal outcomes, and a failure to have equal outcomes is racism. That’s racial justice. (I think that justice is that society treats all ethnicities impartially.)
Social justice: In order to understand what social justice typically means in our culture today, you have to understand what Critical Theory is. In a nutshell Critical Theory affirms four beliefs:[4]

(1) Society is divided into two groups: oppressors and oppressed. The oppressors have power, and they are evil bullies; the oppressed do not have power, and they are innocent victims.(2) Oppressors (the dominant group) maintain their power by imposing their ideology on everyone.(3) Lived experience gives oppressed people special access to truths about their oppression.(4) Society needs social justice—that is, society needs to pursue equal outcomes by deconstructing and eliminating all forms of social oppression. Social oppression includes not just disparities regarding race and ethnicity but also gender, sexual orientation, religion, physical ability, mental ability, and economic class. The term wokeness refers to the state of being consciously aware of and “awake” to this social injustice. The term woke is “a shorthand to describe someone who, whether consciously or unconsciously, has adopted grievances and activism rooted in Cultural Marxism and Critical Theory, especially related to the intersectional oppression matrix of race, gender, and sexuality.”[5] That’s social justice. (Is that justice? I think that justice is that God-ordained authorities oppose partiality in civic life by impartially punishing unjust perpetrators and righting wrongs.)[6]

So the first reason Christians sometimes disagree over politics is that Christians care about justice and believe that their political convictions promote what they perceive as justice. The second reason is like the first.
Reason 2. Because Christians Have Different Degrees of Wisdom for Making Political Judgments and Tend to Believe That They Have More Wisdom Than Those Who Differ
Most political judgments depend on wisdom, and only God is all-wise. Some political judgments are difficult because we lack wisdom. Even if we agree on biblical principles, we may disagree over methods and tactics and timing and more.
The goal of politics is justice; the means is wisdom. Two examples may help illustrate that most controversial political issues depend on wisdom: abortion and immigration.
Example 1: Abortion
The Bible forbids abortion since deliberately killing an unborn person is a form of murder. Therefore, churches should take a stand against abortion—both in their preaching and in their membership decisions. We should not affirm that a person is a Christian—a church member in good standing—if he or she is unrepentantly promoting abortion, whether by personally encouraging women to seek abortions or by politically advocating for abortion.
But Christians do not agree on all the political tactics for opposing the injustice of abortion. For example, should a church promote a pro-life march? Maybe. Maybe not. A particular march may or may not be wise, and a pastor should use his pastoral authority wisely.
Example 2: Immigration
Consider the controversy surrounding migrants crossing the southern United States border. One group of Christians believes the present laws that limit immigration are just fine. If anything, they believe we need to tighten the restrictions in order to protect our nation and our children. Another group of Christians argues that humanitarian considerations mean allowing as many migrants in as the present law allows, or even changing the laws to accommodate more.
So how many migrants should a nation permit a year? How many asylum seekers? How will that affect the lives and livelihoods of its citizens? How should we combat lawlessness and terrorism? What is the best way to prevent and combat drug and human trafficking? Is a nation obligated to undertake all the costs of processing the hundreds of thousands of migrants who might show up at the borders?
Answering those questions requires wisdom. Political judgments require a person to rightly understand biblical principles and then to apply those principles based on social dynamics, legal precedent, political feasibility, historical factors, economic projections, criminal justice considerations, and more.
So those are two reasons that Christians sometimes disagree over politics. Now let’s consider Question 2:
2. Why Should Christians Distinguish between Straight-Line and Jagged-Line Political Issues?
Before I answer that question, I need to define what I mean by straight-line and jagged-line political issues.[7]

For a straight-line issue, there is a straight line from a biblical or theological principle to a political position. For instance, the Bible teaches that murder is sinful; abortion is a form of murder; therefore, we should oppose abortion. That’s a straight line. That is why a church should initiate the church-discipline process with a member who is advocating for abortion—such as encouraging a single pregnant woman to get an abortion or supporting Planned Parenthood.
But for a jagged-line issue, there is a multistep process from a biblical or theological principle to a political position. Fellow church members should agree on straight-line political issues, and they should recognize Christian freedom on jagged-line political issues.

Many political issues are not straight-line issues. Probably most are jagged-line issues—issues like immigration caps and tax rates and trade policy and healthcare and carbon dioxide emission caps. For such issues, I’m not sure we can say there is “the” Christian position—though some positions are better than others.
It’s right for churches to take a stand on straight-line issues through preaching and membership decisions. But church leaders need to be careful about whether to take institutional stands on jagged-line issues. Straight-line issues are about what we might call “the Christian position,” and jagged-line issues belong to the domain of Christian freedom (which doesn’t mean the issues are unimportant or that some views are not incorrect).
Now that we’ve explained jagged-line vs. straight-line political issues, we are ready to answer the question Why should Christians agree to disagree over jagged-line political issues? For at least two reasons:
Reason 1. Because Christians Should Respect Fellow Christians Who Have Differently Calibrated Consciences on Jagged-Line Issues[8]
Jagged-line issues correspond to what Paul in Romans 14:1 calls “disputable matters” (NIV) or “opinions” (ESV) or matters of conscience. Your conscience is your consciousness of what you believe is right and wrong. That implies that your conscience is not necessarily correct on every issue. What you believe is right and wrong is not necessarily the same thing as what God believes is right and wrong. You might believe with deep conviction in your conscience that a ten-year-old boy has the right to choose to become a female. If so, your conscience is not functioning correctly for that issue because it is based on immoral standards. You should calibrate your conscience.
The idea of calibrating your conscience pictures your conscience as an instrument. Instruments can be incorrect: your bathroom scale may say you weigh 142 pounds when you actually weigh 139. When an instrument is incorrect, it needs to be calibrated. To calibrate an instrument is to align it with a standard to ensure that it’s functioning accurately.
The standard for what’s right and wrong is God, who has revealed himself to us particularly through the Bible. So when your conscience is not functioning accurately, you should endeavor to align it with God’s words. The classic example of this in the Bible is the Apostle Peter. He was convinced in his conscience that it was sinful to eat certain foods—like pork. God told Peter three times to “kill and eat” animals that Peter considered to be unclean. Peter had the gall to reply to God, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” But because the Lord was commanding Peter to eat those foods, Peter had to calibrate his conscience so that he would have the confidence to accept food and people that he previously could not accept (see Acts 10:9–16).
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God reveals himself to us in the pages of this holy book. To the novice and the expert, to the young and the old, God offers himself to those who would take up and read.

The force of gravity that one object exerts on another depends on a few factors: the mass of each object, a gravitational constant, and the distance between the two objects. But in the calculation, distance is in the denominator of the fraction, meaning that, all other things being equal, gravitational force and distance have an inverse relationship. The closer the two objects are, the greater the gravitational pull.
If you have trouble with formulas and forces, picture a whirlpool. A feather caught in the outside of the spinning water starts to move slowly in a circle. But the longer it stays in the whirlpool, the faster it moves, pulled steadily inward and down until it disappears.
A Book Like No Other
The Bible is a book like no other. We do not read it like a biography, a novel, or a textbook. We can return to it again and again with much profit. It is deeper and greater and more wonderful than anything else we could ever read.
Why do Christians read the Bible? If you are a Christian, why do you read the Bible?
We read the Bible to know God. About the Bible, the Westminster Confession of Faith states that “it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his Church” (my emphasis).
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Written by Matthew P.W. Roberts |
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
There is the temptation to trust our own wisdom. Proverbs warns us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (3:5–8). To believe that our own wisdom is sufficient to guide us not only is foolish but is the essence of sin. That belief led the first man and woman to eat the fruit that God had forbidden, for they trusted in their own judgment above the direct command of God.

The poem “Invictus” by the Victorian poet William Ernest Henley ends like this: “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” This well expresses our age’s deep conviction that self-trust is the highest virtue. “Believe in yourself” is taught to children in schools, repeated by celebrities and Insta­gram influencers, and spoken of by sportspeople as the key to their success. Anything, apparently, is possible if you believe in yourself.
But trusting yourself is pretty close to the biblical definitions of foolishness and of sin. It is the opposite of what humans are designed to do, which is to trust in God above all else (Ps. 91:1–2). We are dependent on Him: He brought us into existence, He sustains us moment by moment, and He has written all our days in His book before one of them came to be (see Ps. 139:16; Col. 1:16–17). We cannot keep ourselves alive even for a second, and we ultimately have no power to determine our futures. All comes from God, and so all creatures must look to Him to provide for them (Ps. 145:15–16).
And yet we fall into self-trust all the time. Think of the rich man in Jesus’ parable in Luke 12:13–21: “I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years: relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” He had been duped by his own riches into addressing his soul as if he were his own indulgent uncle, providing infallibly for his own future needs. It’s ridiculous, as the fate of his soul that night demonstrates. He is, as God calls him in the parable, a fool.
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Written by John V. Fesko |
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
If I’m unwilling to do the work, then it’s time to retire. I see too many pastors who want the paycheck, prestige, and honor, but are in cruise-control and are phoning in their sermons and counseling sessions. These are just some of the things I presently take into consideration as I think about what things will lead me to retire.

One of the more difficult questions to answer in a pastor’s life is determining when it’s time to retire from ministry. When should a pastor retire? This is a tough question for several reasons, but mostly because it all depends on a number of circumstances. Thus, there is no one set answer for this question; it ultimately calls for wisdom. I cannot personally answer this question with a great degree of certainty because I am nowhere near ready to retire. So, I can’t speak from personal experience, but I can address the question from Scripture, from observing others who have retired, and my own motivations and desires.
First, what does Scripture have to say about retirement? The short answer is, not much. The Bible does not specify an age for retirement. But one thing the Bible constantly reminds us of is, our union with Christ should ultimately define who we are. Our activities, as I said in last week’s post, should not define who we are. Our vocations and circumstances in life might regularly change but our union with Christ does not. Find your sense of self-worth in Christ, not in what you do. This is the most important scriptural truth we must remember when we begin to think about retirement.
Second, just because you retire does not mean you are no longer able to serve in Christ’s church. I know of many ministers who retire and continue to serve the church through pulpit supply, at presbytery or classis, or even at the synodical or general assembly level. In many respects retired ministers are a great asset to the church. I know of retired ministers, for example, who have served as interim pastors for churches that do not have a minister. In such a capacity, they have been a huge encouragement to a needy congregation. But even then, just because you retire doesn’t mean that you have actively to serve.
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