1/

Here’s a long thread for your Monday!

For the United States: In 1820 the avg life expectancy was 40. In 1920 it was 60. In 2020 it is 80.
2/

I’ve said this for a few years now but I think longer life expectancy has actually caused us to handle the reality of death even worse. Billions of dollars are spent every year just on fighting the appearance of aging!
3/

Though we now live twice as many years on average as Americans 200 years ago, I’m not sure we are living twice the life as so much time, energy, and money is spent on avoiding the inevitable.

The covid-19 crisis has only illuminated this issue.
4/

When a people is so afraid of dying that it is willing to stop living it reveals an unhealthy infatuation with avoiding death and a misunderstanding of our purpose on earth.
5/

We do not exist today to “not die”. We exist to live. To live for God’s glory even as we seek to make His glory known over all the earth.

No doubt we need to make wise & loving decisions during these days. We should be hygienic and exercise and not smoke or eat poorly, etc.
6/

We should be good stewards of our bodies.

But this short life we’ve been given by our sovereign God is too short to waste in fear of the certainty of what will happen to all of us: it is appointed unto man once to die.
7/

If the reality of death keeps us from living for God and following His Word, we have failed to understand the purpose of why we are here. Again, we are not here to “not die.” We are here to live by enjoying God and glorifying Him forever.
8/(End)

I don’t know how many minutes, days, months, or years I have left. But the time I do have left, may I truly seek to live for King Jesus. I hope you’ll join me.

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More from @cuatronelson

11 Aug
Thread:

It’s ok to have diff ideas on what our weekly physical assembly in local church looks like during COVID-19. We ought to be charitable in this.

However one of the biggest things I’m seeing since March is we have a rather weak ecclesiology in “conservative” Christianity
Actually, this was evident before Covid-19. Take for example the lineup for our SBC 2020 PC and the worship practices of pastors invited to preach.

But Covid has only shined a brighter light on a big problem in evangelicalism. We don’t understand the church.
We think we can participate in the Lord’s Supper “virtually”. We think we can “be” the church apart from regular assembly with the church. We think we can dispense with pastors preaching and replace it with small groups. Not to mention many think women preaching is okay.
Read 7 tweets
9 Aug
For a couple of different reasons I think we need to not think of Sunday as part of the “weekend”. First, it’s not accurate. Sunday is the beginning of the week, not the end. It is literally the first day of the week.
Secondly, the “weekend” makes us think of time to ourselves or perhaps for recreation, sports, extra projects, hobbies, etc. but Sunday is not “our day”. It is the Lord’s Day. The day Christ rose from the dead.
The day, as the Baptist Faith and Message rightly states, is to “include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private.”
Read 4 tweets
6 Jul
When 21st century evangelicals look down from their ivory towers to judge the sins of our forefathers saying “farewell” to Edwards, or throwing away gavels, or generally just dismissing the orthodoxy of faithful men it reveals 3 things:
1. They are caught up in the current cultural revolution. This revolution has no atonement. It’s end is death.
2. They have no concept of the pervasiveness of their own remaining sin. They don’t accept simul justus et peccator
3. They have no concept of the magnitude of God’s Grace. They can’t explain, for example, David’s life. How he had multiple wives and concubines and yet how we also rightly learn from him in so many other areas. This doesn’t condone his wrongs.
Read 5 tweets
9 Apr
Thread:

The reason *some* churches are try to have Lord's Supper virtual during COVID-19 is b/c they see the church as the fans in the stand at the football game. Sure, we'd rather be at game, but at least we can still watch from home & have similar experience.

Continued:
But, if we want to use this analogy biblically, we must see the local church not as fans in the stands, but as the players on the field. And we can no more have "virtual communion" than football players can "virtually" carry the football into the endzone.

Continued:
The physical presence of the team is required or the game simply cannot be played even if each guy is at home throwing a football. They aren't actually doing anything.

Continued:
Read 5 tweets
31 Mar
Thread: (1/7)

"If you live inside this massive promise [of Romans 8:28], your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest. Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside Romans 8:28 all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty.
2/7

Outside this promise of all-encompassing future grace, there are straw houses of drugs and pornography and dozens of futile diversions. There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans.
3/7

There are cardboard fortifications of deadbolt locks and alarm systems and antiballistic missiles. Outside are a thousand substitutes for Romans 8:28.

Once you walk through the door of love into the massive, unshakeable structure of Romans 8:28, everything changes.
Read 7 tweets
24 Mar
Here's the deal, I am disappointed on a number of levels about #SBC2020 being canceled. I still think that *perhaps* it was a bit early to make that call, however, I understand this was a big decision and it had to be made.

Now, I will share my real frustration:
How can our leadership come together and unanimously decide something like rescuing us and our neighbors from physical dangers (COVID-19), when it takes so much fighting, backbiting, name-calling, and what at times feels like a brawl to make decisions on spiritual matters?
Would to a Holy and Righteous God that our leaders would treat the spiritual viruses in the SBC as seriously and decisively as COVID-19.

This situation PROVES that we do have the ability to come together and make decisions when we deem it necessary.
Read 7 tweets

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