Bible teacher with a passion for making disciples. Founder @NewCREEations and Kingdom Mindsets. Jesus reveals the truth that sets us free.
Maysville, KY
Joined March 2007
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We live in a world where morality is turning upside down. Many have an inverted sense of good and evil. People today vigorously defend all sorts of evil. At the same time they attack those who stand for what is good and right.
The Bible says that those who call evil good and good evil are lining themselves up for doom and impending judgement. It means there is some really bad stuff coming their way. By inverting morality, they open themselves up for all sorts of confusion.
Because they reject God and His ways, He leaves them to their own foolish thinking. As a result their lives become full of every kind of wickedness, along with all the horrible consequences of that wickedness.
Jesus is the only answer which can truly fix the mess our culture is sliding into. Therefore, as believers, you and I have a personal responsibility to exercise our influence to impact those around us. Unless we stand up, evil will continue to grow in our world.
Today, make it a point to demonstrate the love of Jesus for someone to see.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! — Isaiah 5:20 (WEB)
Many people attempt to find the answers to their questions by looking inward. But that doesn't work. That's like a ship trying to set its course by looking at its own masthead light. “I must be OK because the light is still in front of me.”
Meanwhile the ship is heading straight for rocky destruction.
The captain must find a navigation aid that does not move before he can safely plot his course. Since his ship is constantly in motion, he must reference something solid and unmoving outside his own ship like a lighthouse to determine his course accurately.
In life, the best possible navigation aid we can use to plot our own course is God and the unwavering truth of His word. Trying to use the ever shifting relative truth inside ourselves will likely cause our life to end up shipwrecked on the rocks.
At the very least we will wind up someplace different from our intended destination.
Instead of looking inward, we do well to looking outward to God. The answers we need are found in Christ. Then we can chart a course which is true and our lives will ultimately arrive at the best possible destination!
O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. — Jeremiah 10:23 (NKJV)
Chris Cree retweeted
I’ve been meditating on a passage from Hebrews which addresses this. The term “first principles” jumped out at me in this verse,
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. — Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV)
First principles is a concept originally from Aristotle. Paul quoted from Greek philosophers, so it’s very possible the author of Hebrews would have been familiar with this term from Aristotle.
Aristotle described first principles as the starting points of knowledge: the foundational propositions that are self-evident or so basic that they don’t depend on other claims. Everything else is derived from them.
Elon Musk famously uses first principles thinking to build some pretty amazing things at Tesla and SpaceX. Basically it involves:
1. Stripping a problem down to its fundamental truths (physics, economics, human nature, math, etc.).
2. Ignoring analogies, conventions, and “how it’s always been done.”
3. Rebuilding a solution from those basics.
It’s the opposite of reasoning by analogy, which asks “How has someone else solved a similar problem?” or “What’s the standard approach?” First-principles thinking asks “What is actually true here, and what must follow from that?”
Back to Hebrews where it’s talking about the “first principles of the oracles of God.” An oracle is a supernatural word in the same way a miracle is a supernatural action.
So apparently there are some first principles in the New Covenant that we all do well to build on. These are revealed a few verses later in Hebrews 6:1-3. There are six of them:
1. Repentance from dead works
2. Faith toward God
3. The doctrine of baptisms
4. Laying on of hands
5. Resurrection from the dead
6. Eternal judgement
How would our lives be different if we stripped all our religious activities and creeds down to these core first principles and built our faith on those instead?
Might it be like the difference between the Raptor 1 and Raptor 3 engines?
Apparently Raptor 3 is about 50% lighter when fully integrated into the rocket, costs between 75-90% less, while producing 50% more thrust.
What kind of results might we see in our faith if we applied first principles thinking straight from the Bible to it?
The only way to overcome evil is by responding with good. Proverbs tells us the wisdom in being kind to the enemy who has wronged us. This is one example where the world is exactly backwards from the Kingdom of God.
In the world, revenge and getting even with those who do wrong by us is not only acceptable, but it’s often applauded. However, returning kindness when people wrong you is the best way to get back at the person in the Kingdom. Plus, God will reward you for that kind act too.
Jesus instructs us to bless those who curse us. He said that we are to love our enemies and that we would have a great reward from God when we do love them.
Be the light in your dark world, and watch your environment change. People will naturally be drawn to your light and want to know what makes you different. That is perhaps the best way to expand the Kingdom of God.
Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. — Romans 12:21 (WEB)
God has increase waiting for you to receive. It takes faith to receive what God has for us. He won’t force His goodness on you against your will.
Sometimes the way to exercise faith to receive God's best is by expanding our capacity to receive more from Him. It is vital for us to expand our capacity because God will never give us more than we are prepared to handle.
Even God's supernatural provision is limited by our capacity to receive it. The oil stopped flowing when the widow and her son ran out of pots to pour it into in 2 Kings 4. The miraculous catch of fish that Peter and his business partners caught in Luke 5 filled their boats to capacity without sinking them.
Perhaps the increase you are believing God for is hindered by your lack of capacity.
Does your business have the systems in place with the capacity to serve more customers with excellence?
Have you grown your personal skills to the point where you can take on the added responsibility that comes with promotion at work?
Do you invest enough personal time with God and in His word that there’s an overflow from you able to minister to more people?
Enlarge the place of your tent. Lengthen your ropes and drive those tent pegs deep. Now is the time to expand your capacity so that you can receive the increase God is giving you.
Release your faith by increasing your capacity and watch God expand you to the left and to the right.
Enlarge the site of your tent,
and let your tent curtains be stretched out;
do not hold back;
lengthen your ropes,
and drive your pegs deep. — Isaiah 54:2 (HCSB)
Jesus was unique among God's people when He came on the scene. Up to then the focus had entirely been upon the weight of the Law. Grace was only mentioned in passing as something that was rarely found.
But when Jesus arrived, He was full of both grace and truth. And that mix of both is exactly what we all desperately needed.
As wonderful as it is, the Law without grace ultimately doesn't work for us because our flesh is powerless to keep the Law.
At the same time, grace without truth doesn’t work either because it feeds the flesh instead of our spirit. We need both grace and truth to be healthy and grow into maturity.
Possessing that mix of both wasn't generally available to us before Jesus. But now, everything you need for an abundant, happy, peaceful life is waiting for you in Jesus.
That same fullness of grace and truth is yours now too in Christ. You can make a decision today to receive everything Jesus purchased on your behalf. Just renew your mind to learn about it all.
As you do, you will transform wondrously as your soul begins to line up with what Jesus already accomplished in your spirit.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:14 (MEV)
When the author Luke opens the book of Acts, he says his gospel contained all that Jesus began to both do and to teach. That word “began” jumps off the page.
Jesus got things started. Now He calls on you and me to continue what He started, both the doing and the teaching.
In fact, Jesus said that those who believed in Him and what He did would do even greater works than He did.
That's hard to get our minds around. But since Jesus said we'd do greater things than He did on this earth, then shouldn’t we at least expect to do the same things He did?
According to Him, our teaching should be accompanied by our doing as the Holy Spirit works through us in the same supernatural way as Jesus.
Are you willing to continue what Jesus started?
If so, say yes to God and ask Him to teach you how to do the kinds of things Jesus did so you can bless others more.
The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Jesus began both to do and to teach — Acts 1:1 (WEB)
God promised Joshua that he would be successful in all God told him to do, but that promise was conditional. God gave Joshua responsibility to do something before God would ensure his success.
Joshua needed to, "observe and to do all that is written in,” God's word. Joshua was to walk in God's ways. By doing so, God said that Joshua would make his own way both prosperous and successful.
Here's a hard truth. If we are not prosperous and successful in what we are doing, the reason is because we are not walking in God's ways as we do it. Fortunately God told Joshua how to walk in God's ways.
Joshua was to constantly speak scripture out loud and continuously meditate on it too. The same truth holds for us today as well. When we immerse our souls in the promises of God's word by speaking out passages from the Bible and pondering what those words mean for us as we go about our day, then our thinking begins to change.
When we change the spirit of our minds, it sets off a transformation that ultimately changes the things we do. Then our ways start to line up with God's ways and we see more success in our lives.
Sadly, very few believers are willing to commit to the process. But if you will make that commitment, then the same promise of success and prosperity that God made to Joshua can be yours too in Christ as you meet those same conditions God laid out.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. — Joshua 1:8 (NKJV)
Some people mistakenly think that leadership is all about doing whatever you want. But that's not the case. Good leaders are themselves subject to authority. We know this because we can look to Jesus who is our example in all things.
Even though the name of Jesus is above every other name and He is King above all kings, Jesus Himself remains subject to the Father.
We see this in the gospels where Jesus said that He only does what He sees the Father doing. The Bible also says that even to the end of time, Jesus will remain subject to the Father.
Rebellious people never make good leaders because a critical component to leadership is submission to a higher authority. As believers, we should look to Jesus as our authority in all things.
At the same time, we should respect the various leaders God has appointed over us. Whose leadership are you submitted to today?
Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. — 1 Corinthians 15:28 (NKJV)
God gave everyone the assurance that the gospel is true when He raised Jesus from the dead. And the word that the Bible uses to tell us this is the same Greek word that is translated 239 times in the New Testament as "faith" and only this one time as “assurance."
This means the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our faith as believers. We can have confidence believing the rest of God's truth because of the historical fact that Jesus was raised from the dead.
The full weight of the Kingdom of God is available to everyone here and now through Jesus. Because you believe the resurrection is true, you can now receive the Kingdom as your very own inheritance.
Your only requirement is to learn God's Kingdom ways, discover what God has promised to you, come into agreement with them to the point where you believe them deep down at a heart level, and make the adjustments in your life to line up with them.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. — Acts 17:30-31 (NKJV)
Arc announcing they are shutting down the project in a few weeks created an opportunity for other web browsers to step up. There are several out there.
I’ve been using @zen_browser as my default for the past 6 months because it was closest to the experience I had with Arc. I like that it’s open source and cross platform. It’s built on the same framework which powers FireFox.
But Zen always felt less polished then Arc was, like I was settling for second-best.
After Arc posted their below official sunsetting announcement the other day, I took another look around to see if there might be something else.
I found Yab (@yab_browser), and I’m glad I did.
First thing I noticed with Yab is the experience is very similar to Arc, but even better in some ways. In fact, it felt enough better than Zen that within an hour of downloading it, I made Yab my default browser.
Things I Like About Yab:
Mac Native - Because it’s built on the same engine that powers Safari, Yab has that built-in security and power/memory efficiency.
Spaces - Yab has spaces which can have different logins (or optionally the same) and switching between them is a simple 2-finger swipe on my trackpad.
Sidebar Tabs - I prefer my tabs in the sidebar instead of up top because it’s easier for the numbers of tabs I generally have open at one time.
Folders - In the sidebar I have folders of bookmarked links I go to almost daily, like client sites, tools, and services, etc. Having them in folders makes them easy to find.
AI Not Required - Yab also has some AI integration. I haven’t even touched that part yet. Everything I like about it so far is without any AI connecting to it. It looks like there are some potentially good things there. We’ll see.
Cmd+T Launcher - In Arc, Cmd+T pulled up a box to select a new/existing tab to open. With Yab it does so much more, and may become the power feature in this browser. The developer says he was inspired by the Raycast launcher and it shows.
As an example, I’ve got several years worth of daily graphics on my laptop. Normally, when I go to post one, I have to click through the folder tree in My Documents to get to the graphic for a given day.
But with Yab, the upload button triggers the search field instead of the normal browser file-upload interface. Since my graphics have date-based names, I just started typing 20261024 for today’s date and Yab instantly found the file to upload. Hitting enter uploaded it to my post.
Easy-peasy. And way faster than digging through deeply nested folders in My Documents.
Potential Negatives About Yab:
It’s Mac only - While that’s not a problem for me, it obviously won’t work for a lot of folks.
It’s one guy’s passion project - From what I can see, Yab is currently being developed by one guy: @korablev In my opinion he’s doing an amazing job with it. The improvements I’ve seen just in the 48 hours since I first installed the browser would be impressive for a good sized team. That it’s just one guy doing it is a bit mind-boggling.
What happens if/when he gets tired of working on it and moves on to something else? It’s a risk. Changing browsers is a bit of a pain.
My take is if the project gets abandoned, I’ll find something else. For now, it’s impressive enough that I find it work the risk.
Personally I would prefer it to be open sourced. At the same time I appreciate that a tight team (or one guy?) can move things much more quickly to improve them.
WebKit Instead of Chromium - Personally, I think this is a strength for a Mac-only browser. All the Chrome extensions I use work fine. But there might be some extensions needed by very serious power users which might not.
Minor Bugs - It’s very early days for the browser and there are some minor bugs. For example, a couple of times I’ve noticed things in the sidebar stop responding to the mouse, especially after I’ve been in another app for a while. Restarting Yab seems to resolve those type of issues I’ve seen so far.
All that to say, Yab is where I’ve landed as an Arc refugee.
What do you like most about the browser you use?
We've decided to sunset Arc on December 22, 2026.
That's not an easy sentence to write. We spent years building Arc and celebrating each and every release along the way: we have so much pride and love for what we made alongside the Arc community.
Our priority is to deliver best-in-class security for our members. Keeping a browser secure takes constant, dedicated work that is only increasing in the age of AI. Dia was built from the ground up to meet today’s security standards, so that's where our engineering and security teams will focus moving forward.
We've worked to make switching to @diabrowser as easy as possible for Arc members. Here's how:
· Your passwords, bookmarks, extensions and history come over to Dia seamlessly.
· Spaces, Folders, and Tab Groups are in Dia and import over with your data intact.
· Dia now surpasses Arc benchmarks in stability, speed, and security.
· The browser features you use in Arc are free in Dia, and the AI is optional.
Thank you for using Arc, for pushing us to make it better, and for building alongside us. The team that made Arc is the same team behind Dia, and some of our most ambitious work is just ahead. We'd love for you to be there with us when it lands.
One thing we see in the book of Job is that Job longed for a mediator between himself and God. Jesus is that mediator for us today. It's a role Jesus is uniquely and perfectly suited for because He is both God and man.
The Bible says He is our High Priest who experienced being human with all our frailties and temptations, yet was without sin. Jesus now mediates over a better covenant than ever existed before, which is established on better promises.
Do you have a problem in your life and need God to intervene on your behalf? Talk with Jesus. He is the one who can give you the answers you need to see change for the better. Right now Jesus is seated in heaven next to the Father in heaven.
The truth is, as a believer, you are also seated right there with Jesus too. Through Jesus, you have been adopted into God's own family. And not as some second class person either. You are now a joint heir with Christ with an equal inheritance to the whole estate.
King Jesus is your brother. God is your Father.
You are royalty now, all thanks to Jesus!
Nor is there any mediator between us,
Who may lay his hand on us both.
Let Him take His rod away from me,
And do not let dread of Him terrify me.
Then I would speak and not fear Him,
But it is not so with me. — Job 9:33-35 (NKJV)
Lack of connection and intimacy with God leads to hopelessly confused futile thinking. This is true for us as believers, as much as it is also true for unbelievers.
When we pull away from God and let our relationship with Him grow cold, our heart actually will harden to His ways. Then it becomes harder for us to hear His voice.
When we neglect to spend time in intimate relationship with God, we exclude ourselves from the very life of God He makes available to us. As that intimacy grows weaker, our thinking becomes more muddled and our understanding of the things of God grows darker.
Therefore this lack of intimacy with God is one of the chief reasons we have so much trouble finding solutions to our life's problems.
Are you facing a challenge in your life today? God has a solution to enable you to overcome that challenge. Draw closer to Him and watch your mind start thinking God-thoughts which will reveal that solution to you.
Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. — Ephesians 4:17-18 (HCSB)
God's original intention for mankind was for us to rule over creation as His children and heirs. Adam forfeited his authority to the enemy of our souls in the Garden of Eden, and that of all mankind too, when he came out of agreement with what God told him and chose to agree instead with what the enemy said through the serpent.
Fortunately, Jesus came and took that rightful authority back, even defeating death and the grave. At the end of the gospel of Matthew we see that Jesus has all authority on earth and in heaven. Then He commissioned His disciples to go in that authority and make disciples of all nations.
Now you no longer have to live as a victim of your circumstances. In Christ you have more authority than you know. Jesus commissioned you with His authority to go and help complete His assignment. You were created to wield authority, not to be a victim.
This is God's intention for you. You can choose to believe what Jesus said and what He did for you. When you do, it will empower you to step into your destiny. Or you can choose to believe you are still a victim. In that case you let the enemy win.
God made you to be in charge of everything He created. Will you choose to believe that and step into your rightful authority in Christ?
What is man that You remember him,
the son of man that You look after him?
You made him little less than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him lord over the works of Your hands;
You put everything under his feet — Psalms 8:4-6 (HCSB)
Some people see God's grace as license to live anyway they want. For them it becomes an excuse for their ungodly sinful behavior. As a result, they feed their fleshly lusts and worldly desires, sowing bad seed into their lives which causes them to reap destruction.
In doing so they miss the entire point of God's grace.
Yes, God's grace does indeed mean that He loves us entirely independently from our behavior. At the same time, God's grace both teaches us to live righteously and empowers us to do so as we honor the One who set us completely free from the bondage of sin.
If you know you have a habitual pattern of sin in your own life, allow God's grace to equip you and free you from that destructive weight of bondage. Try saying out loud, "I am the righteousness of God in Christ,” each time as you start that thing you know is wrong.
Renew your mind to your true righteous and holy identity in Christ.
Over time you will begin to deeply believe in your heart that you are indeed the righteousness of God in Christ. Intellectual knowledge of the truth and giving it our mental assent isn’t enough to see it produce fruit in your life. But truth becomes effective in us to produce supernatural results when we are fully persuaded of it in our hearts.
The more revelation you receive of the power of God's grace, the less those old worldly desires will control you and drive your life. His grace truly will free you from your old sinful habits supernaturally when you are fully convinced of your new perfectly righteous identity in Christ.
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, righteously, and in godliness in this present world. — Titus 2:11-12 (MEV)
The Bible is very clear. Saying, "God does not exist," is evidence that the person saying it is a fool. The person may be very intelligent. And they might be highly educated. But intelligence and education are not the same thing as wisdom.
Education imparts information and knowledge. Intelligence is the ability to process that information. But wisdom is something else entirely. Wisdom is the correct application of that information and knowledge.
Intelligence looks at the "what" question and considers possibilities. Wisdom addresses the "why" question and selects the possibilities that truly are the best for all concerned.
God is the source of all wisdom. Those who refuse to acknowledge that God even exists have cut themselves off from its source. This means there is no foundation whatsoever to support their thinking. When shaking comes, as it inevitably does in every life, those things which they are so sure about now will come crashing down as they are shown to be nothing but hollow constructs.
In contrast, those who acknowledge God in their ways start from a place where wisdom can flow. It’s a solid foundation on which to build their lives. As a result, when the shaking comes, those who acknowledge God in their ways remain standing.
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt.
They have done abominable deeds.
There is no one who does good. — Psalms 14:1 (WEB)
Love is the most powerful force in the universe. It is the greatest of three things that the Bible tells us will last forever, along with faith and hope. This means love is enduring as well as powerful.
Love is the defining characteristic of God. God is love, so everything about His nature and everything that He does flows out of His love.
Jesus tells us to abide in His love. Jesus also told us how to remain centered in His love. We do so by following His instructions. God will never ask you to do something which is not for your own benefit.
When God asks you to give something to someone, it is because He is looking to clear the way so He can give you something even better. This is because God always operates from a position of love.
The bigger a revelation you have of God's love for you, the easier you will find it to follow His instructions and, in doing so, love Him back in return.
Ask God to show you today that He loves you in a tangible way that speaks uniquely to your heart. If you make it a habit to ask Him this every day you will become rooted and grounded in His love. Then you will be overflowing with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. — 1 Corinthians 13:13 (NLT)
God is good. He is the source of all abundance. When we walk in God's ways that He laid out for us in His Kingdom, that is when we walk in His abundance in every aspect of our lives.
This includes the condition of our souls, our physical health, our interpersonal relationships with one another, and even our own finances.
God's grace has made perfect provision for our every need. This means when we have a need we can look to God's grace to find that provision.
If you are sick, you can look to the promises God made about healing your body. If you are in bondage to an addiction or uncontrolled destructive emotion like anger, you can look to God's promises to set you free. If you struggle financially, you can look to God's Kingdom promises about provision.
Only good things come from God. Therefore, when good is lacking in your life, that means the answer is to get more of what God freely offers.
Discover His promises. Meditate on them to the point where your heart becomes fully persuaded that those promises are true for you. Walk in them. And step onto God’s paths which overflow with abundance.
You crown the year with Your goodness,
and Your paths drip abundance. — Psalms 65:11 (MEV)
God's word must be mixed with faith in order for it to become effective in our lives and be profitable to us. This means first must know what the Bible says. How can you believe something you haven't heard?
Then, once we know what God has to say, we must choose to come into agreement with Him and believe Him. Unbelief inhibits God's ability to bless us. We see this in the life of Jesus where He was unable to any mighty works in His hometown because of the unbelief of the people there.
What some miss, is that it’s more a matter of persuading our hearts than convincing our minds of the truth. We can mentally assent to truth without being fully persuaded of it, which produces inconsistent results at best.
Where we stand in our heart gets revealed when challenges come into our lives. Do we first look to natural solutions and what we must to do solve the problem? Or do we first seek God and His wisdom? What’s the first thing we do when a symptom starts in our body? Do we go to God, or do we go to Google?
When we are fully persuaded in our hearts that not only is God fully able to do what He promises, but that He will also keep a particular promise to us personally by doing it in our lives, that’s when faith really begins to come alive.
But there’s one more step.
Finally, after we come fully into agreement with what God says and choose to believe His word, we must then act on that word in faith. The Bible tells us that it's the faith we apply to God's word which makes His word profitable for us.
You can see the truth of the Bible produce powerfully profitable results in your life. Just mix your faith with God's word and watch it work in your life!
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. — Hebrews 4:2 (NKJV)
It's natural to think that the things we are going through are totally unique and that no one has ever experienced anything like what we are experiencing. Those thoughts can lead us to thinking that we are uniquely flawed or that no one can possibly know our pain.
However the Bible tells us this truth: There is nothing new under the sun. When it comes to the human experience, what has been will be again. Sure the technology changes and knowledge available to mankind keeps increasing.
But the emotions and problems each of us experience are nothing new. Others have experienced them before us and most likely there are others who are having similar problems and experiences right now.
Jesus understands and can empathize with your problems, weakness, and sin. He was tempted in every way that you (and I) are, yet did not sin. Take your pain and problems to Jesus. He has solutions and healing for every single one of them.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun. — Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)
