From Jake

The Blog

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

22 posts in Culture War

Culture War

We Called It Love. It Was Cowardice.

We took cowardice, the silence that keeps everyone comfortable and keeps you liked, and crowned it compassion.

3 min read

Culture War

Your Freedom Is Not a Weapon

You can be completely correct and completely destructive in the same breath. Your liberty was never handed to you as a weapon against a brother.

3 min read

Culture War

What You're Watching Is Discipling You

You think you are just looking. You are being shaped. A man becomes what he feeds his eyes, and yours have been in school for years.

3 min read

Culture War

The Wolf Doesn't Deny the Bible. He Distorts It.

He does not walk in and deny the faith. He keeps the words and changes the meaning. Peter saw him coming and read his verdict.

3 min read

Culture War

A Church That Can't Offend You Can't Save You

It cut sin, hell, and repentance to keep everyone comfortable. A gospel that asks nothing of you cannot give you anything either.

3 min read

A lone working man in a dark, near-empty church at night, seen from behind, sitting alone in a wooden pew, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "The Church That Cut Out Hell" set across the graphic.

Culture War

The Church That Cut Out Hell

A church that only ever says God loves you, and never that God will judge, has left a man defenseless at the edge of a cliff. Love with no wrath is not love. It is sentiment, and sentiment gets men killed.

6 min read

A lone working man sits in a near-empty church sanctuary at dusk, seen from behind and slightly to the side, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "When the Pulpit Is Afraid of the Culture" set across the graphic.

Culture War

When the Pulpit Is Afraid of the Culture

A church that will not tell a man the truth about his body and God's design, because it fears being called a bigot, has already handed him to the culture. Silence is not love. It is a shepherd hiding while the wolves work.

7 min read

A lone older man in a plain button shirt stands at the back of an empty church sanctuary at night, seen from behind and slightly to the side, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "Your Pastor Fears the Wrong Person" set across the graphic.

Culture War

Your Pastor Fears the Wrong Person

A shepherd who softens the truth to keep you comfortable is not being kind. He is afraid of you. And a man who fears the congregation cannot warn it.

6 min read

A working man in his forties sits alone in the back row of a dark auditorium after a service, elbows on his knees, an unopened Bible resting on the empty seat beside him, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "They Turned the Sermon Into a TED Talk" set across the graphic.

Culture War

They Turned the Sermon Into a TED Talk

Eighteen minutes of a man's opinions with three verses sprinkled on top like garnish. You walked out feeling something and learned nothing you could feed yourself with on Monday.

6 min read

A working man alone in the back row of a dim church sanctuary after everyone has left, elbows on his knees, head lowered, one hand pressed to his forehead, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "The Church That Won't Say the Word Sin" set across the graphic.

Culture War

The Church That Won't Say the Word Sin

They swapped sin for brokenness and repentance for self-care. But a man never told he is a sinner is never told he can be saved. You cannot heal a wound you are not allowed to name.

5 min read

Culture War

Which Jesus Are They Talking About

A man in a robe can deny that Christ is God, sinless, risen, and the only way to the Father, and still keep the name. Paul had a word for that. So before you receive anyone's Jesus, ask which one he means.

4 min read

Culture War

God Counts the Children

On the last morning of February, an American cruise missile hit an elementary school in Minab, Iran. The Pentagon's own preliminary investigation owns it. Outdated targeting coordinates. One hundred fifty-six people died

12 min read

An empty small-town sanctuary at dusk, one lamp lit near the front, dust hanging in the light, worn wooden pews, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "How to Find a Good Church" set across the graphic.

Culture War

How to Find a Good Church

Leaving a church is easy to want. Knowing what to walk toward is the part nobody teaches you. Here are the marks of a healthy one, and what to stop shopping for.

3 min read

Culture War

Come as You Are. Don't Stay as You Are.

The church is a hospital for sinners, yes. And nobody checks into a hospital to stay sick. Grace admits you as you are, then it heals you.

3 min read

Cornerstone verse card, oxblood Jerusalem Cross on paper, 1 Peter 3:15: Don't blend in, don't blow up

Culture War

How a Man of Christ Stands in the Culture War

Two easy ways for a Christian man to lose the culture war, and most pick one. Blend in, or blow up. Both lose. There is a third way.

4 min read

Culture War

God Never Said This. It's a Lie That Shames Men.

It nearly finished me, and it is not even in the Bible. God will give you more than you can handle, on purpose, so you stop carrying it alone and lean on Him.

4 min read

A weathered man sitting alone in an empty church pew carrying a hard reckoning, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "They Took the Cross Out of Your Church" set across the graphic.

Culture War

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

A man seated alone in a dark empty balcony high above a lit sanctuary floor where others are serving, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "You Cannot Discern From the Cheap Seats" set across the graphic.

Culture War

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

A man in flannel standing alone at the last pew of an emptying sanctuary, coat over his arm, facing a tall lit window, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "When Should a Man Leave His Church?" set across the graphic.

Culture War

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

A lone Templar in a white mantle on a stone rampart at dawn facing the road to a distant walled city, in the dark cinematic style of the series, with the words "The Knights Templar: A Complete, Historically Accurate History" set across the graphic.

Culture War

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

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.

Culture War

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.

15 min read

A flock of sheep files along a ruined road into a church whose sign reads All Welcome, past wooden signs bearing slogans that deny sin and repentance.

Culture War

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.

22 min read