Send us a text

What happens when politics borrows the language of the pulpit? We open the door on a hard conversation: immigration, slogans that sound compassionate, and the subtle ways the church can trade theological depth for quick applause. Our aim isn’t to inflame, but to shepherd—calling out misused scripture while holding fast to mercy, order, and the lordship of Jesus.

We dig into the claim “Jesus was an immigrant,” exploring why the heart behind it matters and why the history doesn’t fit modern categories. From there, we challenge the assumption that empathy justifies lawlessness, tracing a biblical thread from creation’s order to Israel’s laws to the early church’s discipline. Grace doesn’t dissolve boundaries; it transforms people within them. Along the way, we ask why easy slogans spread faster than truth and how repentance, not affirmation, keeps the gospel alive in our hearts.

Drawing on a Wesleyan lens—Scripture as primary authority, with tradition, reason, and experience in their proper place—we offer a path to love immigrants without twisting texts. We unpack how turning Jesus into a political mascot silences his lordship, and how weaponized compassion, however well-intended, distorts the gospel’s call to holiness. The final charge is simple and demanding: love the stranger, pursue justice, resist cruelty, and refuse to bend Scripture to our instincts. Uncomfortable grace is still grace, and truth spoken in love still stands.

If this conversation helps you think more clearly and love more faithfully, share it with a friend, subscribe for more thoughtful theology, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Support the show

Send us a text

A single line from Matthew 7 can steady or shatter the soul of a preacher, and it’s the line that drives this conversation: not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. We wrestle with how a “more gracious” gospel can sound compassionate while quietly redefining obedience, minimizing repentance, and removing the shape of discipleship. Instead of abstract theology, we trace concrete consequences—how words from the pulpit form consciences, how silence can masquerade as kindness, and why Jesus reserves his sharpest warnings for those who mislead the vulnerable.

We unpack a crucial distinction: grace doesn’t lower God’s standard; it lifts the sinner to it. That lens reframes familiar debates about holiness, self-denial, and the narrow gate. Drawing on James’s charge that teachers are judged with greater strictness and Ezekiel’s watchman imagery, we consider the weight of pastoral responsibility. We also revisit John Wesley’s vision of transforming grace and social holiness, clarifying how the Wesleyan quadrilateral only holds when Scripture governs experience, tradition, and reason—not the other way around.

Across these themes, one thread holds: sincerity isn’t safety. Paul’s warnings about “another Jesus” and “another gospel” are not relics; they are pastoral guardrails for a church tempted to trade revelation for affirmation. The goal here isn’t outrage but reverent clarity. We invite you to test everything by Scripture, let love speak truth without flinching, and recover the courage to warn because warning is love. If this conversation makes you tremble, you’re standing in the right place. Share this with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway so we can keep the dialogue honest and hopeful.

Support the show

Send us a text

We trace the fracture back to authority and ask whether the church wants holiness or relevance. We walk through Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, and argue that grace must transform desire for discipleship to remain real.

• defining the core issue as authority, not sexuality
• contrasting culture’s identity story with Scripture’s formation of desire
• outlining the Wesleyan quadrilateral with Scripture as primary
• explaining how accommodation erodes theology, worship, and discipleship
• clarifying love as willing the good, not mere affirmation
• linking sexuality to body, worship, covenant, and allegiance
• warning signs of compromise in worship, holiness, and doctrine
• calling for renewed confidence in grace and sanctification

If you're not dead, God's not done. And the best of all is Christ is with us.

Support the show