The Warrior Priest Podcast

When the nation and its people are held captive by an oppressive, morally and spiritually bankrupt government and society, then Christians and their families must push as hard against the government and society as it pushes against them. That's how a marriage and family with Christ at its center lives.

Though they did not know it at the time — the idea would have seemed preposterous — the sounding of "boots and saddle" that morning marked the beginning of the end of the Indian wars in America, of fully two hundred fifty years of bloody combat that had begun almost with the first landing of the first ship on the first fatal shore in Virginia. The final destruction of the last of the hostile tribes would not take place for a few more years. Time would be yet required to round them all up, or starve them out, or exterminate their sources of food, or run them to ground in shallow canyons, or kill them outright. - S. C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon

In those moments, when you want to give up, and family and friends don't show up for you, and you're sure you don't have the strength to get up again, you're going to wish, you're even going to pray, that you could be un-baptized. No more sin or Satan. No more wrestling with temptations. No more asking God, "Why have you abandoned me?"

The Church doesn’t need to search for the next, best, newest thing that will satisfy her until Jesus comes, because she is always given to by her Creator. She's given time and patience. The gifts of salvation are given to her to quiet and calm her fears. She's given life because her Savior speaks to her and serves her with absolute devotion.

For those unfamiliar with the term, zugzwang is when you place your opponent in positions that force them into positionally or materially worse positions, irrespective of what move they choose. Each move leaves them worse for the ware until there is nothing left but the checkmate. - Adisa Banjoko

Only in Christ does death equal victory and weakness equal strength. Long before Christ would say to his disciples, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39), these children were already resting securely in the arms of their Savior, the infant child Jesus. 

Santa Claus. Santa Claus is a nice enough idea. A white-bearded, old man comes from the sky to reward good little children, but withholds his gifts from the naughty ones. That’s Santa in a nutshell. That’s not God, but it does describe Santa Claus. But that’s how most people envision God. They imagine that he's very much like Santa Claus. And like Santa, they also believe that God is a white-bearded, old man who comes from the sky to reward good people and punish the naughty ones. But, Jesus isn't Santa Claus. Not even close.

The story about Jesus' birth, the true story, just wasn’t as nice as we make it out to be in children’s Christmas pageants. For example, in his Gospel, Luke gives a hint at the shame suffered by Joseph and Mary. He writes that there was “no room for them in the inn.” Now, despite the sweet-talking and all the hoop-jumping we go through to clean-up the story, the text doesn’t say there was no room. The text says there was no room for them. And this should cause us to do a little head-scratching.

"He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146.

Every sin of every sinner. No one's sins are kept away from this Lamb who was slain but lives. And like John, you are witnesses. You are put on the stand to testify to your little corner of this world. You are witnesses to Jesus – proclaiming, preparing, focusing your preaching on pointing this dying, messed up, terrorized, sin-filled world to its Savior.