Jake McCluskeyStand Your Watch

From Jake

The Blog

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

11 posts in Culture War

Brand card, oxblood Jerusalem Cross on paper: God Counts the ChildrenCulture 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 Outdated targeting coordinates.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 upCulture 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

Dark text graphic. A struck-through line reads 'God won't give you more than you can handle.' Below it in large letters: 'It's a lie.' Then in gold: 'He will. So you learn to lean on Him.' The Jake McCluskey logo sits at the bottom.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