From Jake

The Blog

Raw reflections on Christ and prayer. Written for the man in the fight.

The interior of a decaying church, paint peeling from the walls and debris on the floor, with warm light falling on a wooden cross above the pulpit.

Church, Truth, and Culture· Featured15 min read

Sinful Churches Are Weak Churches

A church that hides sin may look united because no one is talking about the problem. That is not unity. That is fear.

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Biblical Manhood and Leadership

Become the Man God Wanted You to Be

God had a man in mind when He made you. You are not him yet. Here is how you close the gap. Not seven ideas to think about. Seven things to do, starting today.

5 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

They Took the Cross Out of Your Church

You can sit in a church every Sunday of your life, mean every word, and still be lost. A hard word on the soft gospel and the men it leaves behind.

7 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

You Cannot Discern From the Cheap Seats

A man can spend six hours a week watching other people's errors get exposed and zero hours serving anyone, and mistake the first for faithfulness. Judging is commanded. That's why doing it badly costs.

9 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

You're Not Alone. You're Not Forgotten. You're Not Finished.

Most people thought I was fine. That was the point. If you're reading this and nobody knows about you either, I'm not writing this at you. I'm writing it to you.

19 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

You've Restarted Your Bible Reading Twenty Times

You've started over in Genesis more times than you can count. Here's why the plan keeps dying in February, and what to do differently.

9 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

What Do You Do With a Prayer God Didn't Answer?

You prayed for years and the answer never came. Here is what Scripture actually says about that, without the formulas: Paul's thorn, Gethsemane, and the lament psalm that ends in the dark on purpose.

10 min read Biblical Manhood and Leadership

When Your Wife Is the Stronger Believer

He believes it's real. He believes God is real. And he still feels like a fraud sitting beside her. Being behind your wife spiritually isn't a disqualification, it's a starting position.

9 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

When Should a Man Leave His Church?

There are real reasons to leave a church, and there are bad reasons that feel identical from the inside. Most men who leave should have stayed. A few who stayed should have left years ago.

11 min read Biblical Manhood and Leadership

When Church Discipline Disappears, Darkness Moves In

When discipline disappears, darkness is not kept outside. It moves in. It finds room to grow.

23 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

I Let It Go to Voicemail

A brother called and I let it ring. I was working. When I finally called him back days later, I found out his wife had filed for divorce, and that wasn't even all of it.

9 min read Understanding Scripture

What "The Law of Christ" Actually Means

Nobody ever gave you the rule for which Old Testament commands still apply. Here's why the usual three-part answer doesn't hold, what replaced it, and why the standard got harder instead of easier.

10 min read Biblical Manhood and Leadership

The Anger You Think You're Hiding

Nobody's been hit. Nobody could report anything. And everyone in the house is adjusting all day around one man's mood. Not hitting people is a floor, not a standard. Here's the diagnostic that tells.

9 min read Understanding Scripture

The Warning Passages, and What They Actually Do

`A man reads Hebrews 6:4-6 and his stomach drops. The warning passages deserve a real answer, not a fast one. Here's the opposing case at full strength, and why the warnings keep you rather than doom you.`

10 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

They Thanked You. Then They Left You Alone.

Somebody shook your hand this year and thanked you for your service. That handshake is the whole relationship for a lot of men. Here is what happens after the mission ends, and why the word “just” is doing too much work.

5 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

Strong Men Were Never Meant to Carry Life Alone

You can be dependable without pretending you are invincible. Men were never meant to carry life alone.

16 min read The Warrior Monk

The Knights Templar: A Complete, Historically Accurate History

Nine poor knights, a war, a bank, and the most powerful order in Christendom, arrested out of existence in one dawn. The whole true story, with the myths labeled as myths.

3 min read Understanding Scripture

Jesus did not say, 'I am finished.' He said the work was finished. There is an important difference.

7 min read Biblical Manhood and Leadership

If You Want to Lead Your Home, Learn to Repent First

Biblical leadership is not built on getting the final word. It is built on taking the first step.

15 min read The Gospel and Grace

How Do You Know If You're Actually Saved?

A man can know. Not by counting up his good days, but by looking at what Christ already finished. On assurance, doubt, and the difference between feeling saved and being saved.

8 min read The Gospel and Grace

Feeling Sorry Is Not Repentance

A man can run the shame loop for ten years and call it a walk with God. Fail, feel awful, promise, fail again. Here is the difference between sorrow that kills and sorrow that turns a man around.

8 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

Christians Reserve the Right to Judge Each Other, and Why This Is Biblical

Jesus did not forbid all judgment. He commanded His followers to make righteous judgments.

29 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

The Church That Raised the Empire's Throwaway Babies

The Roman world threw away the babies it did not want, and said so without shame. A stubborn minority refused, and went out to pick the discarded ones up. Here is why they saw a throwaway infant as the image of God, and who your own age has left on the roadside.

10 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

Cannibals and Atheists: Why Rome Really Persecuted the Church

Rome called the first Christians cannibals, atheists, and worse. Every charge was a true thing seen through a keyhole. Here is where the rumors came from, how the earliest believers actually worshipped, and the one thing Rome could not forgive.

9 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

Christians Ran Toward the Plague

When plague emptied Rome's cities and everyone else ran, the Christians walked the other way, into the sick houses, and it cost them their lives. Here is why they did it, and the quieter version of the same test you get handed every week.

7 min read The Gospel and Grace

You Are Not Under the Law, You Are Under Christ

A lot of good men walk around crushed under a rulebook they can't keep, or sure grace means the rules are off. Both missed what the cross actually did.

7 min read Understanding Scripture

The Same Finger That Wrote the Law Wrote in the Dust

Religious leaders thought they were defending God's law. They did not understand that God was standing in front of them.

21 min read Biblical Manhood and Leadership

How to Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say

Prayer is not a performance. God is not grading your vocabulary or comparing you to the man sitting across the aisle.

15 min read Biblical Manhood and Leadership

The Importance of Prayer in Men’s Lives

14 min read The Gospel and Grace

Forgiveness Is Commanded. Reconciliation Is Not

Forgiveness releases the debt to God. Reconciliation rebuilds the relationship. They are not the same thing.

19 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

The Thing You Can’t Forgive Yourself For Has Already Been Paid For

You may know God forgives you. But somewhere inside you still believe what you did was too deliberate, too ugly, too late.

14 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

The Cross Around Your Neck Means Nothing If You Refuse the One on Your Back

Faithfulness begins where convenience ends. Anybody can follow Jesus when the road is comfortable. The cross reveals who follows Him when the road becomes costly.

19 min read Christian Living and Discipleship

You Do Not Need to Pull Yourself Together. You Need to Be Rescued

You do not clean yourself before being rescued. You call for help. You do not wait until you have learned to swim before admitting you are drowning.

16 min read Church, Truth, and Culture

Woe to the Church That Calls Evil Good

When a church blesses what God condemns, it is not showing love. It is leading people toward judgment.