The Texas Medical Center in Houston (largest medical center in the nation) announced 2300 new cases of #COVID19 were added yesterday. Additionally, their base ICU is at 97% capacity. (They have constructed overflow ICU areas.)
This has the potential to be very, very bad.
Everyone in the Greater Houston area needs to be following guidelines, particularly wearing a mask.
Approximately 1 million Houstonian kids are currently slated to return to school in seven weeks.
If we don’t change the trajectory, our city is in trouble.
One more thing. I just noticed that the TMC internal dashboard includes ICU projections. They are currently projecting that the base ICU will run out of beds in two days and that the surge capacity will be overrun in twelve days.
MASCULINITY: A THREAD. “The end of all things is near; therefore, be alert and sober-minded for prayer. Above all, maintain constant love for one another, since love covers a multitude of sins.”—1 Pet 4:7-8
Staring down the end, Peter commends two things:
Prayer and love.
If I have any advice to offer to other pastors today, it is this:
Prayer and love may appear weak and naïve, but they are the most effective weapons in the church’s arsenal.
Churches who forsake these for “telling it like it is” are no churches at all.
The cyclical obsession with “masculinity” in the church (this is *at least* its third iteration in evangelicalism since I’ve been a pastor) ought to lead us to ask, “What does Jesus require of a man?”
The answer is the courage to love and pray, believing this Way is best.
⛪️ 🇺🇸 CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM : WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT ISN’T, AND WHY IT MATTERS
During the Q&A at the @holypostpodcast event, someone asked, “What is Christian Nationalism?” Fair question, since it’s thrown around quite a bit these days.
I want to try to summarize my answer here. 1/11
WHAT CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM ISN’T:
It’s not Christians participating in politics, voting, or participation in civic life. Christians should participate in each of those things as citizens in a democratic republic. 2/11
It’s not advocating for policies, legislation, etc. That’s something we each do in our form of government. Every law is a codifying of morality of some sort, and Christians would be remiss to withdraw from that public conversation. 3/11
🚨 SBC Insider Baseball Tweet Thread Alert. 🚨 I made this somewhat cheeky tweet in hopes to demonstrate what I perceive to be hermeneutical inconsistencies and some confusion re: the proposed Law Amendment. I saw a few questions in response, so wanted to follow up and clarify.
First, my original tweet. I was attempting to point out how many of those who want to read the role of females in the NT church as “crystal clear” will simultaneously ignore other seemingly “crystal clear” commands or apply a cultural hermeneutic to them. For example…
Romans 16:16 says, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” This is common in some church cultures, but not in the United States, because it doesn’t translate into our culture. We usually shake hands or hug. But I don’t see lots of folks leading a “holy kiss” movement in the SBC.
I don’t talk a ton about my health on the socials, but I’m texting with a longtime friend who is up against it right now in the battle with cancer, and I wanted to share a couple of quick things.
For the uninitiated: I have heart failure and should’ve died in 2003. 🧵Thread:
For all my passion about living the Kingdom here and now, my source of hope is that one day the dead in Christ will rise and Jesus will bring about the death of death. Some days it's the only thing that keeps me going.
If you’re disease-ridden:
We hope in the Resurrection.
When this life feels like too much, I go to the following places in my Bible:
Two days ago news broke of an amicus brief filed in which the SBC, SBTS, and Lifeway were all third parties. The suit attempts to prevent the statute of limitations being lifted in cases of sexual abuse. I waited a beat before speaking to ascertain facts and await explanation.
As best I can tell, the EC acted unilaterally w/o trustee approval. The trustees were voted on by messengers and messengers have consistently and nearly unanimously voted in favor of sexual abuse reforms since @RobertDownen_’s @HoustonChron story in 2019. houstonchronicle.com/news/investiga…
The EC opposing this lawsuit unilaterally without consulting trustees is bad on a number of levels. I understand EC leadership must make decisions w/o trustee approval from time to time, but this topic has been at the forefront of discussion and reeks of self-preservation.