The post discusses Elihu’s perspective in the Book of Job, emphasizing his respectful listening and patience despite being younger than Job’s friends. Elihu criticizes Job’s self-justification and highlights that suffering may serve purposes beyond punishment for sin, as the other 3 friends insisted. Ultimately, Elihu encourages trust in God.
A clear, simple, and wonderful explanation of the Gospel. Eternity can come for you at any moment. Are you ready? Poetry by Kay Cude
The Night of Golgotha, 1869, Vasily Vereshchagin
Are You Known? Did Christ see your face from the Cross at Golgotha? There your sin was laid upon Him and remains your effective condemnation if you have rejected Him. Me la The Son of God. He is Messiah. He is The Only Acceptable Sacrifice, blameless and without sin. He is the The Ransom of The Lord God Almighty provided for the forgiveness of your sin.
Understand, there is nothing unfamiliar to Him about your face. He has known your name from before eternity past. Before He created all living things before He laid the foundatione of the heavens and the earth, before the birth, life and death of centuries of your parental ancestors; before kings and kingdoms rose and fell, HE determined to die in your appointed place of condemnation to reconcile you to God
He knew every life choice you would make, every word you would speak, and every heart-decision you would put into physical action. This All-Knowing Christ Jesus, this Saviour-Redeemer, is God The Son, and He has forever known who you are. But, are you one who has never known Him?
I AM The Resurrection and The Life, he who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. DO YOU! believe this?” John 11:25-26
What will YOU do with Jesus?
Therefore I say unto you that you will die in your sins, unless you believe that I AM HE you will die in your sins.” John 8:24
“For there is One God, and One Mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. who gave Himself as a Ransom for all, The Testimony given at the Proper Time.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6
ART- THE NIGHT OF GOLGOTHA Vailly Vosbchagin, 2000. Original in Trstyskor Gallery, Mincow, Rassis: http://www.styskorgallery.ru/) -Text addition by author Kay Cude
SYNOPSIS Amy Carmichael was a dedicated missionary in India from 1895 to 1931, focusing on rescuing children from temple prostitution. She authored nearly 40 books and emphasized the concept of Calvary love, contrasting her sacrificial life with modern ministry approaches that prioritize comfort and doubt.
In my review of a book set in Wicklow, Alabama, the protagonist, Anna Kate, returns to bury her grandmother and confront her family history while grappling with magic realism. I explain the genre of ‘magic realism’, discuss my genre preferences, and note that some genres present stumbling blocks to some while not to others.
I share my experiences in New England, relating the traditions of spring. I connect this to the biblical concept of salt, emphasizing its preservative, flavorful, and corrosive qualities. Believers, like salt, are meant to influence the world positively as “salt and light” while also understanding salt is a corrosive to some.
Burning Man, an annual event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, showcases a temporary city of self-expression and artistic endeavor, rooted in principles of radical participation and self-reliance. However, it also reveals deep spiritual emptiness, with many attendees searching for meaning and purpose, unaware of their need for spiritual fulfillment through Christ.
Chip and Joanna Gaines are producing another television show, another reality show. This is the popular Texas couple formerly of Fixer Upper, a home renovation tv show, currently of Magnolia Silos/Bakery/Realty/Journal/Furniture etc. & etc.
They recently were involved in a controversy this past June. Their current TV show on television now is called ‘Back to the Frontier,’ a reality show that tests modern families to live like 1880s homesteaders. It features a homosexual couple with their adopted twin boys obtained from a surrogate woman. This is not a family according to the Bible, and many people told the Gaines this. Chip Gaines replied on social media with all the usual talking points from clueless liberals, such as “love one another”, “stop the hate”, “don’t be judgmental,” and so on.
Vanity Fair-
BUNYAN: PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, 1844. ‘Christian & Faithful Pass Through Vanity Fair.’ Engraving after a drawing by H.C. Selous, for an 1844 edition of John Bunyan’s ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress,’Copyright: Credit: The Granger Collection, New York
This time with the new TV show, the situation is worse, because it proves the inclusion of the homosexual couple on Back to the Frontier was not an accident or an oversight. It is a purposeful furthering of the perversion agenda that has successfully made inroads into evangelicalism. The Gaines claim to be Christians, and attend an evangelical church, or, they did.
In this next iteration of their ever-expanding empire, the Gaines’ are producing a show featuring a “queer activist” host, “crossdressing judge,” and an “all-LGBTQ skate team”. More here.
@megbasham opined on Twitter, “Another show that @chipgaines and Joanna Gaines are producing. This blows apart Chip’s pretense that they are merely trying to be kind and understanding to individuals who identify as LGBTQ. They are clearly using their positions and influence to promote disordered sexuality and gender behavior.“
It is very sad to see people claim Jesus but conform to the world. Romans 12:2 says,
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Chip and Joanna Gaines obviously do not know the will of God.
The wise person’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I know that one and the same fate happens to both of them. (Ecclesiastes 2:14)
That same fate: death. Death apart from Christ is folly. Death in Christ is glory. Gaineses- Repent today and be saved!
I’m excited to hear the next edition of DB Harrison and Virgil Walker’s podcast, Just Thinking, because they will tackle “AI and the Gospel.” If all goes well, it is supposed to be released at the end of August, as stated on August 9th. You can listen to previous episodes such as the most recent one, called “A Biblical Theology of the Social Media”. I listened to it and it’s excellent. I am both fascinated and repelled by the advance of AI, or Artificial Intelligence. I personally increasingly see how it will be uses & abused during the coming Great Tribulation. I need a Gospel centering on this subject, as my mind is all over the map on it. The Just Thinking Podcast will help me in this.
Fred Butler is the Manager of the GTY (Grace To You) volunteers. This is the media arm of John MacArthur’s ministry. GTY volunteers are the ones who package the written material and send it out to the subscriber list, they record, edit, and maintain the broadcasts of MacArthur’s sermons, and so on. Fred wrote this week,
So today marks the end of a significant ministry at GTY and for me. For the last 25-plus years or more, I have had the privilege of helping record the Sunday morning sermons of John MacArthur. Today [Sunday, August 24] is the last day GTY will be officially recording the Sunday messages.
The messages from the Grace Community Church pulpit WILL be recorded, it’s just the end of the era for GTY doing that task. Why? Fred explains,
“The church media team will [record the services], but not GTY. We were exclusively the keepers of John’s voice.”
As I received a book from this month’s GTY mailing and put it on my MacArthur shelf, I realized this is the last book. The man is no longer on this earth to write new material, and I will no longer hear his voice preaching new sermons. It gives a jolt as you continually realize someone you’re used to or rely on has passed away.
Virgil Walker at his Sola Veritas substack, wrote an essay on Women, Emotions, and the Call to Kindness: A Christian Perspective. In these feminist days, now a generation (or two) having grown up under the second wave of feminism rushing through the culture, women are repeatedly told to be bold, daring, loud, unafraid to offer opinions, to brashly sit at the ‘same table as men, and the like.
Don’t believe me? Jen Wilkin struts around a stage telling pastors “what they need to know about women“. Beth Moore calls herself (rightly) obnoxious and publicly complains about brothers in an elevator who fail to pay proper homage to her acknowledge her. These are leading women and younger women see their poor example and copy it.
Mouthiness in women is oft-putting. I know someone from 40 years ago who had a girlfriend and her friends, when they got together, were loud and obnoxious. He used to call this gal group the Deci-Belles.
Here is Virgil Walker’s guest writer Nedelka Medina with some advice for women who are led by their emotions:
In today’s culture, some women interpret rudeness, sharp criticism, or overt assertiveness as signs of empowerment or strength. Social media, pop culture, and certain feminist narratives often celebrate those who speak harshly or dominate conversations as “confident” or “independent.” From a Christian perspective, this is a distorted view of strength. True empowerment is not in asserting dominance or lashing out but in exercising self-control, humility, and love.
The memorial service for John MacArthur, held on August 23, 2025, celebrated his impactful 56-year ministry at Grace Community Church. Attendees honored his dedication to preaching and discipleship, reflecting on his friendship, encouragement, and unwavering focus on God. MacArthur’s legacy as a faithful servant will inspire future generations.
In Thyatira, a woman identified as a false prophetess, referred to as “Jezebel,” was leading the church into sin and idolatry, which Jesus condemned. Despite the church’s loving deeds, it tolerated her harmful teachings, risking its spiritual purity. This ultimately contributed to the church’s decline by the second century, and gives us in this century lessons to learn.