A pilgrim striving for rest; husband; father; pastor; podcaster; travel agent; and maker of songs. @calebandlane, @thatvacationco, @gracelifeavon
New York, USA
Joined January 2009
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Caleb Berg retweeted
There is nothing more important than The Gospel.
Without It, there is no life or works.
Only death and depravity.
Praise God for The Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Caleb Berg retweeted
The Christian life isn’t a project of turning ourselves into the kind of people who wouldn’t have needed saving in the first place.
We are debtors to mercy, always. Debtors to grace, always. We look to Christ, always.
Caleb Berg retweeted
“Law/gospel”, not “glawspel”.
What God has separated, let no man join together.
— Pat Abendroth
Caleb Berg retweeted
Either Jesus did it all, or he didn’t.
It’s either all of Christ, or it’s all of us.
We’re either trusting him or something else.
It really is that simple. And, for what it’s worth, we don’t sing, “Jesus paid a lot.”
Caleb Berg retweeted
“For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am compelled to preach — and woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” - 1 Corinthians 9:16 CSB
Caleb Berg retweeted
May I recommend that you take up the tale - Galahad and The Grail - by poet and national treasure @malcolmguite
It is magnificent - I absolutely loved it. Every page sings. It's an epic poem in ballad form, and the first volume in his 'Merlin's Isle: An Arthuriad' four volume series.
Volume 2 is out in November.
Caleb Berg retweeted
Again you have to ask: what does this mean? These players buying into a supposed siege mentality and yet they will be immediately out of the door the moment sanctions are handed down. Fans gloating about it all. Such a bad look for the Premier League.
RT @JamesPearceLFC: That's an abysmal decision from Kavanagh.
Moments after he failed to penalise Guehi for wrestling Koumas to the ground…
Caleb Berg retweeted
Many of us have been shaped by Christian environments where the law and the gospel are confused.
The gospel is treated as the entry point, while the Christian life is framed as a project of performance, intensity, and improvement.
Read more. Pray more. Feel more. Do more.
And if you're honest, you never feel like enough, because you can't be.
The good news was never do more — it's that Christ has already done it, and you rest in him. That's what frees you to actually live — not to earn him, but because you already have him.
Caleb Berg retweeted
Have you noticed among the first Christians there was a total absence of enlisting the aid of the state in promoting the gospel?
Caleb Berg retweeted
Those now agitating for Christian Nationalism, for various forms of a religious test, or constitutional enshrinement of the nation's Christian origins seem animated by a desire to return the nation to a more moral foundation; to revert to a model when a public acknowledgment of God and (in some cases) natural law meant that society held to this shared morality.
The United States did have such an experience, but what happens in cases where there is external pressure, government getting involved in enforcement of orthodoxy or swearing of belief? Luther had an answer:
“Heresy is a spiritual matter and cannot be prevented by constraint. Force may avail either to strengthen alike faith and heresy, or to break down integrity and turn a heretic into a hypocrite who confesses with his lips what he does not believe in his heart. Better to let men err than to drive them to lie.” (Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther)
When the state has gotten enmeshed in matters of faith, it inevitably sullies the faith. The founding era of the US, is, I think, the wrong place for Christians to look. Imagine the first Christians protesting that they needed Rome on their side.
Caleb Berg retweeted
In the recent kerfuffle over calling down curses on people, the pattern I’ve seen among the defenders of it is leaning into the Psalms as the controlling texts for everything else. A few offered NT counter-examples such as Paul noting Alexander the coppersmith, and saying “the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” But, he does not invoke a curse, but leaves it to God, exactly in keeping with Romans 12, where Paul leaves both the timing and manner of divine discipline entirely to God.
Others cited the anathemas of Galatians 1 and 1 Cor 16 as examples. But these, too, are different than what the imprecatory psalms contain. Paul includes himself among the accursed—should he deviate from the gospel. This is a defense of the gospel's integrity, not retaliation for persecution. Likewise in 1 Cor 16, this is conditional and impersonal, not “naming names.”
What I do not see is defenders of curses engaging with the other texts of the NT; with Romans 12, Luke 9, and 2 Tim 2, as well as passages in the Sermon on the Mount. In other words, several NT passages speak directly to this and well explain why calling down curses on named individuals is not in keeping with the covenant we belong to.
The advent of Christ genuinely transforms our orientation toward enemies. This is not a marginal NT theme of Christian behavior, but a characteristic and repeated emphasis. Failure to appreciate this is an under realized eschatology.
Caleb Berg retweeted
A sermon never stokes fear about God in His people.
It comforts, assures, and strengthens them.
Dear brothers and sisters, any 'preaching' which doesn't do that isn't actually preaching.
It isn't Jesus speaking.
It's someone misusing, even abusing, God's word.
Take heart.
Caleb Berg retweeted
"Children are told that they cannot have their cake and eat it too, but this rule does not apply to God's comforts. You can have a promise and enjoy it, too."
- Charles Spurgeon
Caleb Berg retweeted
The idea that salvation can be lost despite Jesus having lived perfectly, died vicariously, risen victoriously, and ascended gloriously for his people...is insane.