TRUE JOY AND TRUE SAFETY

I woke this morning to a hot and humid Ghanaian sunrise after nearly 9 hours of catch-up sleep.

The jet lag was brutal yesterday after boarding the plane in New York Wednesday at 4:30 pm and landing in Africa at 2:00 am Indiana time. I napped a bit on that plane on and off, but no real sleep - so I was very thankful to have a comfortable bed last night.

Dave, Emmanuel and I are staying in New Ningo at a beachside hotel called Coconut Pointe. I can't complain! Yesterday when we checked in, though, I had the odd displeasure of meeting a very large, very drunk German man whose room was next to mine. 

This man could not keep his balance without leaning against a wall. He said he was high up in the German police and knew how to kill me instantly if he needed to. This conversation took place while he had a firm grip on my hand, attempting to prove how strong he was.

By the time I managed to get away from him, though, I think he had taken a liking to me. He invited me to join him later in his room to watch porn together.

(To be clear, I declined.)

 Instead, I got a good night's sleep and, upon waking, I took a walk along the beach to admire God's creation. 

Gorgeous, even in the heat and humidity.

I decided to pull up a Psalm on my phone and came across these lines in #4:

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?

Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”

You have put more joy in my heart

than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;

for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

This morning, I am saying "Amen!" Experiencing true joy in the Lord is far greater than alcohol could ever hope to produce. And I have the assurance of ultimate safety in God's hands - even if there's a homicidal drunk German next door.

I am looking forward to seeing what today holds!

TRIP ON WEDNESDAY

No time to write tonight. I leave tomorrow morning to spend 10 days in Ghana and there are still too many items on my list to complete.

Unfortunately, it is turning out that the timing for this trip is not great. One of my church members is lying in hospice tonight - possibly his last night of earthly life. 

I hate to miss the funeral, but the family understands. Thankfully, two of Sardinia's former pastors still live in Columbus and both are more than willing to step in while I am away.

I would appreciate prayers for safe and productive travels. My flight leaves Indy at 12:30 pm and I have a short layover in New York before a ten-hour flight to Accra, putting me in Ghana on Thursday at about 2:00 am Indiana time. That's not too long of a trip.

I am looking forward to this trip in particular because it will be the first time I will be in Ghana alongside my boss, Dave Ketchum. For four years now I have been eager to see Africa through his eyes and now it is finally happening.

I wonder what God has in store!

RIGHT NOW

Here's a short and powerful illustration of the difference between proclaiming a "truncated gospel" (of "You're a sinner but Jesus died for you so that you can go to heaven when you die if you just trust in Him") and proclaiming the more robust biblical gospel of the Kingdom. 

It's a paraphrase of something YouTuber Kevin Thompson said in one of his videos:

I used to evangelize by asking people, "Do you know where you are going when you die?" Now I want to ask people, "Do you know where you are going IN THIS LIFE right now?" 

I AM BLESSED

Today was a good day. Sunday, February 1st, 2026. 

The drive to church was absolutely magical this morning. An early morning frost had frozen on all the trees and across the stubble in the fields, poking out from under the 14 inches of snow that fell last weekend. 

My good friend from seminary days, Tim Price, and his wife Suzanne and their daughter Macy had come to provide music for the morning, but now all of that was in jeopardy due to a malfunctioning church furnace - on a morning when the outside temps were in the negatives. 

A couple of our trustees tried to get the furnace up and running, but by the time they worked their miracle, there wasn't enough time to warm up the sanctuary by 10:30. Tim and I decided we'd go ahead and do a live stream on Facebook.

And then church members showed up anyway. Everyone kept their coats on. Some brought blankets. It was a fun morning. 

Tim and Macy did a beautiful job leading worship and people were genuinely appreciative of their gifts. 

This evening I drove back out to church, and the landscape was again magical, now bathed in the peculiar slant of light of a winter sunset. 

The church was still cold, but the youth met together for dinner and a lesson on the Lord's Prayer. They are a lovable group of goofballs. 

At the end of our meeting, our youth leader, Pam, asked the kids to surround me and pray for my trip to Ghana this week. 

It was a beautiful moment. 

A beautiful day.

SIMPLIFY

Typically, I keep my online "mouth" closed when it comes to political events. 

When it comes to the latest outrage, I am just not as certain as a lot of people are that I know the full and obvious truth or that I have THE proper interpretation. 

Nor am I convinced that the world is dying to know where I stand. 

And, thankfully, I personally long ago gave up the immature notion that if your beliefs don't align with mine, then you are a terrible person and probably not even a true Christian. 

I am nervous that the current river of rage, hatred, mockery, hyperbolic rhetoric, and self-righteousness is carrying us all into dangerous territory. 

It is disappointing to see so much of this being furthered by individuals I otherwise respect. 

I understand. We are emotional beings. But now would be a good time for everyone to count to ten and then practice some critical thinking skills. 

I doubt James Clear was thinking about politics and social media when he wrote the following, but it does apply:

"To simplify before you understand the details is ignorance. To simplify after you understand the details is genius."

The current level of ignorance is scary. 

JUST A TICKET TO HEAVEN?

Free Grace Theology - with it's "Believe these propositional truths about Jesus and you are irrevocably in the Eternal Life Club, no genuine righteousness required" - ends up with this big question:

Why does God arrange this particular system for entry into heaven? 

The Free Grace folks highlight this arrangement as bringing glory to Jesus - "He paid the price for you. It was ALL Him. Your righteousness or lack of righteousness had nothing to do with it. All you have to do is believe. And because He is faithful, once you believe, the Father will honor this arrangement, no questions asked."

So through all of human history, the Lord repeatedly offers humanity guidance toward righteousness, asks for righteousness, blesses obedience and punishes unrighteousness. But in the end, He really doesn't care that much about human righteousness because the really important thing is that His Son gets glory for sticking to His word?

Sounds a little like God just gave up on human righteousness, instead of making a way to enable it.

But I think what bothers me most about Free Grace Theology is its focus on justification - defined as simply the ticket into heaven.

There's no sense of humanity being reconciled to the Creator. (Which is really what justification is all about.) Rather, it's just "do this one simple thing and I will let you into heaven". 

It's a great example of what Matthew Bates calls "the truncated gospel": "You are a sinner destined for hell but Jesus died for you so that you can go to heaven when you die so just believe in Him." 

Which falls SO FAR SHORT of this vision, for example, from the mouth of Jesus Himself: "Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." (John 17:3)

NEW TRADITIONS CAN BE WORSE THAN OLD ONES

As I look into "Free Grace Theology", I am not familiar enough with its history and core doctrines to distinguish between teachers who are pillars and those who are outliers. 

So I could be wrong, but this is what I am seeing as core doctrines from a couple of different teachers:

• Stress on justification by faith alone - to the extent that repentance is not necessary (or is considered just another word for "faith"). 

• Justification and sanctification are strictly separated. Justification is what secures your place in heaven. It happens in an instant when you feel confidence in Christ's death for your salvation. 

• Sanctification involves good works, certainly, and it is the preferrable path for disciples, but it is not at all necessary for salvation. Believers who take sanctification seriously in this lifetime will simply win greater rewards in heaven.

• Once saved, always saved. Justification, once granted, is irrevocable.   Believers can have confidence their place in heaven has been secured even if they live a morally corrupt life after their initial moment of faith. 

This is a mess and there's so much to unpack here. 

So here's one good rule of thumb to avoid getting enmeshed in a misguided theological tradition in the first place: If you are tempted to hitch your horse to any particular theological movement, make sure its roots go back MUCH further than 20th century America.