jmb

Public Key

npub14f0xen78ed7rgvw39v82fwp7tv65yasz2gsgpf4gvxy4q5nlsydsk37k3l

NIP-05 Address

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs25hnvelruklp5x8gjkr4yhql9kd2zwcp9ygyq565xrz2s2flczxcpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduq35amnwvaz7tmwdaehgu3wdaexzmn8v4cxjmrv9ejx2ase29t5l

Publishing to

christpill.nostr1.com

atlas.nostr.land

Author Public Key

npub14f0xen78ed7rgvw39v82fwp7tv65yasz2gsgpf4gvxy4q5nlsydsk37k3l

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-08-11 05:26:32 UTC

- reply

Praying for you.

2026-08-11 03:45:41 UTC

@nprofile…0x2z, you and your family are loved and being prayed for/thought of.
Over 600 people who care about you and have benefitted from your work have stopped to like/comment since yesterday evening.
You’re not alone.
https://i.nostr.build/2ga6m5vciVyZQ9H2.jpg

2026-05-02 01:50:21 UTC

- reply

God loves you so much that He will often orchestrate circumstances that exhaust your resources (intelligence, power, etc) so that you will call out to Him and find Him faithful.
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” - 2 Corinthians 1:8-9
#nevent1q…kfy6

2025-11-06 16:57:34 UTC

- reply

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” - Philippians 3:12-15

2025-09-16 17:23:02 UTC

- reply

Building on this beautiful observation, one of the lies of our modern technological age is that the great telos of our lives is individual self-actualization. This drives us to long to escape any constraints which would keep us from experiencing our desires coming to pass or challenge our autonomy (self-rule).
Threats to this autonomous world order are treated as hostile, even though all of us would acknowledge if asked that we are ignorant of many subjects and frequently want things that we later come to discover would have been disastrous for us and/or those closest to us.
Despite how reflexively right these desires seem, they completely conflict with every significant aspect of our existence: we didn’t choose to be born, to whom to be born, or when to be born. We don’t volitionally keep our hearts beating, our brains working, our kidneys working, our lungs pumping, gall bladder gall bladdering, or maintain any of a host of other bodily functions.
We are born helpless. Unlike most mammals who are able to move around and live somewhat independently shortly after birth, we are completely reliant on the kindness of parents or others for everything for years.
All of this is meant to communicate to us that life and existence are not open-ended investments in our own vanity startups. They are an inheritance designed to be received and stewarded for the glory and purposes of the Giver of every good and perfect gift, including the gifts of working organs, bodies, minds, and lives. Stewardship and ownership are very different, and ought to produce different attitudes.
But this isn’t designed to be the relationship between a slave and a cruel master. How do we know? What kind of master is this God? He’s a father so kind that his only begotten son was willing to leave His side to justify His Father’s name and reputation by dying for his enemies and raising from the dead, adopting them into His family as fellow heirs, sharing His life so that they might see and know His goodness in the same way that he, the only righteous Son, knows him.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, [20] for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
#nevent1q…lsxq

2025-03-27 04:07:31 UTC

- reply

The problem with the supposition that the Church is back in exile mode (and to pray for peace of the city) is that the typological symmetry of Christ, the new and better Joshua, sees the church entering the land and dispossessing the unrighteous inhabitants of the world.
“The gates of hell” (or any other nation delineating border) will not stand against the happy, insisting, forward march of the people of God.
Also, trying to separate the mandate given to the first Adam and restatement of that mandate given by the Last (who is in fact the one who mandated it in the first place) simply won’t do. God’s mind and place are one, from beginning to end.

2025-02-07 21:48:54 UTC

Thanks to the translation skills of our friend and Swiss member of parliament @npub120g…5mmw , the German version of ‘The Gospel According To Bitcoin’ will be dropping soon featuring incredible cover art from @npub1lce…pa0l and the design talents of @npub16az…ekhp! https://i.nostr.build/msss01sFWRcAzTWN.jpg

2025-02-02 02:59:47 UTC

“…many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” - Matthew 9:10-13

2025-01-15 23:36:53 UTC

My dad grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania and was the last of seven kids. His dad was an alcoholic, taking him with him to the bar on many occasions. When he was 6, his oldest sister began attending a local Baptist church, where over time a number of the men asked her if she thought any of her siblings would want to come with her. She said, “Maybe my youngest brother,” and started bringing him with her. These men shaped his life in profound ways, and he is still friends to this day with those that are still alive. These men invested thousands of hours in him, talking with him, picking him up, helping out any way they could with the disfunction in his household.
He loved his dad and learned many things from him, but there were other things that he only learned from those men, whom he didn’t seek out and couldn’t ever have anticipated.
He came to faith in Jesus at an early age, much to the chagrin of his parents, who thought it was stupid. By the time it came time for college, my dad decided to go to a one year Bible college in the Adirondack Mountains, and his parents did everything to convince him not to go, arguing that it was a waste of time and that he ought to focus on his career. With the encouragement of folks from church, he went to the college, where he would later meet and marry my mom.
Mom grew up the youngest of three on a farm in Ohio, a surprise baby 10 years younger than her closest sibling. Her parents became Christians several years prior to her birth, and their lives changed dramatically. My grandfather was the kindest and strongest man I’ve ever known, and his life was radically changed by the love and grace of Jesus. He spent the later years of his life ministering to prisoners in the local jail, leading them in Bible studies and offering “graduation certificates” to those who completed the classes. He spoke about how moved many of the men, who had never completed high school or college, were to receive those certificates, in some cases crying on the phone with their family members telling them about their accomplishment. Several of those men came to his memorial service and told us how grateful they were for his life and ministry.
While they (especially my dad) had experienced life and reality both before and after Jesus, there was never a point when I didn’t believe. While I loved memorizing Scripture as a child, being a Christian was all I knew, and that familiarity bred contempt over time. I went to public school, and had few Christian friends. Being outspoken about my faith made me weird in the eyes of most of my peers, and over time the desire to have friends and be like surpassed the desire to be truthful about what I believed. By the time I reached middle and high school, my identity was completely enveloped in sports. I joke that basketball was my real god, and I worshipped at the altar for three hours per day. My parents forced me to attend church (never in a domineering fashion but just as a normal part of life) and while I went, I was miserable and had no desire to be there. I remember a particular day as a 14 or 15 year old when my dad sat me down and tried to help me see the important of reading the Bible and praying for a few moments each day. I remember holding up a copy of the Bible in front of him and saying, “This book is stupid. Why would I waste my life reading it?” before tossing the book down and storming up to my room.
This whole time I knew Jesus was real but didn’t want to surrender my life to Him. I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I wanted to play basketball in college and then get a job working for ESPN.
Two years later I went to a Christian camp. The reasons I went were simple: girls and basketball. In God’s providence, my dad’s best friend was teaching from the Bible that week. His name was Tom, and he had sons who were slightly older than my brothers and I, but he became a father figure to us over time.
He would travel to professional sporting events and preach the gospel afterwards, and several times he would come back with gifts for my brothers and I. This always amazed me; he had his own kids yet was always thinking about us. Even during the time that I couldn’t care less about God, I loved Tom, because he loved and cared about me. That first night at the camp, Tom opened the Bible and repeated more or less the same message that I had heard for my entire life: that God created the world, that humanity rejected him, and that rather than punish humanity he sent His son to take responsibility for and save his enemies by dying for their sins before conquering sin and death by rising from the dead.
I could have articulated all of that information, but I didn’t love God. When Tom finished speaking, there was no voice from heaven or availing light, but it was overcome by an awareness that regardless of who I was or wasn’t and the ways that I had rejected him, Jesus loved me and suffered in my place. It wasn’t some sort of cold rational argumentation, but it wasn’t emotionalism either. In the span of minutes I went from having zero desire to know and obey God to only wanting get alone to spend toe with him by reading the Bible and praying. I was more shocked than anybody, I didn’t know any of the other kids in my cabin, and I spent the majority of that week getting alone to pray and read.
I was not (and am not today) some amazing, perfect person, but I was a new and different person and was set on a new trajectory by those new desires and convictions.
I say all that because I think @npub1qex…82qk is absolutely correct; there is no combination of words alone in English or any other language that can convince him or anyone else of the reality of God, because that’s not my experience nor the experience of many of Christians down through the ages. Spiritual reality is a revealed reality. Many of the people who put Jesus and his disciples to death were Bible experts. They memorized much of the Bible. Their problem was not primarily the content of their heads but what was/wasn’t in their hearts. If Jesus was who he said he was, it would be a tremendous shot to their pride. They would be forced to admit that they needed forgiveness, and that their family lineage and best attempts to please God were insufficient and all doomed to fail.
At the end of the day, belief is meaningless if it’s not grounded in reality. Jesus is either risen from the death and loose in the world, steering history to his ends or dead and guilty of deceiving (wittingly or unwittingly) billions of people into thinking about him in false and undeserved ways.
The Christian claim is that there is no middle ground.
My counsel to people who find themselves in the situation you describe is to put Him to the test. Ask Jesus to show you the truth, and to uphold you with a willingness to seek truth wherever it leads.
As @npub1e07…w4rg mentioned, we wrote TGATB to talk about this exact issue, and we’d love to send you a copy. I’m not at all saying that it’s some sort of silver bullet that will make every reader a Christian. Ultimately we care about and want people to find Jesus for the same reasons we want people to understand Bitcoin: because it’s true and it has fundamentally transformed how we understand and think about our lives.
#note1a9v…49sj

2024-12-25 18:30:44 UTC

- reply

Merry Christmas brother!

2024-12-25 13:08:22 UTC

Merry Christmas, Lopp.
Would love to send you a copy of our new book, The Gospel According to Bitcoin, in honor of the completely rational celebration of the arrival of the Savior of the world.
https://tgfb.com/store/The-Gospel-According-to-Bitcoin-p714568125
#note199q…d86z

2024-12-06 21:13:55 UTC

Hilarious to hear @npub1qny…95gx's incredulity on @npub10ut…xdlq over the name Wizard Sardine, followed by what was almost assuredly a mad dash to GoDaddy to see if the domain was still available.
The only thing Odell is longer on than Bitcoin is domain names.

2024-09-06 22:00:55 UTC

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” - Matthew 6:28-30
#note1skp…zhr8

2024-09-06 20:22:53 UTC

- reply

I would begin by asking Jesus to help you. Everybody has experiences, mental models, and/or vices that make that prospect difficult, and asking him to help you navigate that minefield will help.
Love/strong feelings are tied to recognition that someone else loves, protects, and provides for you. So you want to find someone who can help you think and talk through what Jesus did and what it has to do with you, and who can answer the questions you have (and the ones you will have).
I would be happy to chat if you don’t have somebody else who fits that bill.

2024-09-04 03:39:07 UTC

The word "god" is a title. It is a role to be filled, and a non-negotiable role at that. There is a god in every system, whether that system is a sports team, a company, a nation, or a universe.
The only real question is who or what will occupy that role.
Whose will is sought? Who is above critique? To whom are costly sacrifices rendered? To whom do knees bow, and whose name do tongues praise? Who has their heart? Where do they run when they are afraid? Who do they love and trust? What is the source of their joy?
Answer those questions, and you will find the god of a system, whether they’re worthy of it or not.

2024-09-01 21:52:39 UTC

No modern Christian believes usury to be as grave a sin as Luther (and the Scriptures) assert here.
https://x.com/_matthewpearson/status/1830280752623165658

2024-08-31 19:21:26 UTC

“God made me for a purpose, but he also gave me a Z-turn, and when I mow I feel his pleasure.”
https://image.nostr.build/670df625927a901fbf0fc359879fdf5ca43f97af65ff9b5f234ea7e544f3da7c.jpg

2024-08-29 04:27:07 UTC

- reply

This is the way. Incredibly, two thousand years apart, you and the Apostle Paul make very similar points.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way…” - Philippians 3:12-15

2024-08-28 02:24:23 UTC

- reply

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” - Romans 8:26-28

2024-08-26 05:30:06 UTC

- reply

He was Catholic.

2024-08-26 04:34:32 UTC

“In Jesus Christ, there is no distance or separation between the medium and the message: it is the one case where we can say that the medium and the message are fully one and the same.” - Marshall McLuhan

2024-08-25 00:22:49 UTC

One of the life’s greatest joys is the discovery of kindred minds: those who share your worldview and who have gone ahead and written on topics that you could would have been interesting in trying a hand at writing and doing it far better than you could have ever dreamed.
The resulting sense of camaraderie, humility, respect (especially when the work was written by someone from ages past), and gratitude is one of the most profoundly spiritual experiences I’ve ever had.
I’d put O’Donovan there. Lewis too. Wendell Berry. Chesterton. Doug Wilson.
Whose work has similarly impacted you?

2024-08-18 17:47:21 UTC

“The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass God is waiting for you.” - Werner Heisenberg, 1932 Nobel laureate and father of quantum mechanics

2024-08-15 15:31:59 UTC

“…as government is beginning to frankly break down on a number of its core responsibilities, we ought to be thinking in terms of developing alternative institutions, resilient communities, resilient families (all anchored in churches by the way), to see to it that we can effectively carry out our dominion mandate..." - Dr. Glenn Sunshine at #TGFB24
https://video.nostr.build/51eb37e8caee24ba2d2ce197d97cf9fad077df507b71ddbf1314734a218b1ea3.mp4

2024-08-02 03:05:17 UTC

Thank God for @npub1jlr…ynqn and for the @npub1mlc…8jpa.
https://image.nostr.build/c142f246bc5c83d6cf154c6e5fea79bdfdbef1ae60713e141cdf027f3718196c.jpg

2024-05-06 06:17:58 UTC

“The continual voice which tells you that your best actions are secretly filled with subtle self-regard, and your best prayers still wholly egocentric—must for the most part be simply disregarded—as one disregards the impulse to keep on looking under the bandage to see whether the cut is healing. If you are always fidgeting with the bandage, it never will.
A text you should keep much in mind is I John iii, 20: “If our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart.” I sometimes pray “Lord give me no more and no less self-knowledge than I can at this moment make a good use of.
Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted–i.e. keep on fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station, asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the right way. Walk—don’t keep on looking at it.”
—C.S. Lewis in a letter to a man struggling with “excessive selfness” (the man’s own words). Also called “morbid introspection” or perhaps even scrupulosity.

2024-04-23 23:39:45 UTC

Rudy Giuliani’s career arc should put the fear of God into @nayibbukele.

2024-04-23 23:32:32 UTC

Christians shouldn’t confuse a #Bitcoin’s price with its value for the same reason they shouldn’t confuse a #Bible’s price with its value.

2024-04-09 17:14:05 UTC

#THANKGODFORNOSTR @npub1mlc…8jpa
#note1jdw…yesu

2024-03-29 03:07:57 UTC

Two men met a resurrected Jesus on a road.
It didn’t even occur to them to kill him because they were too busy having their minds and hearts blown by the best #Bible study ever.
They’re not the only ones.
Luke 24:13-35
#note1evw…a6hs

2024-03-05 20:24:54 UTC

Alright guys. I spent the last few days orange pilling folks at a #Bible college in Zambia. We spent two and a half hours tonight going over wallets and custody, and talking about other innovations that leverage Bitcoin including #Nostr, @npub1yfg…v6vg, @npub12vk…pugg and more.
I met one girl during the class named Lumba who is a musician. She has her music on Spotify but basically doesn’t make any money at this point. Right after the session ended, she created a Wavlake account, uploaded a song, and is off to the races. Check out her song and give her a warm #satstreaming welcome if you like what you hear!
https://www.wavlake.com/lumba
@npub14kw…j7y0 @npub13qr…almy @npub1sg6…f63m @npub1jlr…ynqn @npub1fnn…4xnx @npub1xk5…mr0f @npub1sy7…2srx

2024-02-13 23:07:20 UTC

Looking for ways to support @npub1g3r…lnnz's work of helping the Church understand and use #Bitcoin for the glory of God and the good of people everywhere?
Support our Patreon. patreon.com/TGFB

2024-02-09 17:05:32 UTC

- reply

Brings to mind that Keller quote: "Truth is more important, freedom is more complex, and Jesus is more liberating than (most people) think."

2024-02-06 22:44:54 UTC

It's an election year, which seemed like the perfect time to discuss the relationship between God, government, and money.
Join us in #Nashville on July 24-25 for #TGFB24. Tickets available at tgfb.com/store. https://image.nostr.build/73113a2545183b3f7989a96121e90564b6321753066ff43f13cc50b0eb17f15c.jpg

2024-02-02 20:35:09 UTC

The dollar noose that enabled the US to lease and mold the world for 100 years will continue to tighten around its neck.
Our geriatric overlords have just crushed their sixth glasses of Jonestown Kool-Aid, and the room’s starting to spin.
Americans were shocked to see BRICS tossed through the window of their glass house, and Bastiat (to Krugman’s chagrin) will be proven true, and every Keynesian a liar.

2024-01-26 04:49:31 UTC

Wanting #Bitcoin to be more altcoin friendly for the sake of bringing warm bodies to Bitcoin is the monetary equivalent of mega churches playing Bieber/Kings of Leon songs to draw in rando unbelieving Zoomers/Millennials.
It’s a category error based in all the wrong motives that creates unsustainable and ultimately harmful expectations for all parties involved, to say nothing of how utterly cringe it is.

2024-01-25 17:04:04 UTC

TV shows like The Wire and Man Men are popular in part because of their unshrinking portrayal of reality of life in a broken world.
There is a place for this.
However, such “prestige TV shows” often neglect to portray the real beauty and goodness (read: grace) that also abounds in the world. That’s real as well, and there are shows that exaggerate evil or so comprehensively deny kindness, love, etc that the audience is actually shaken out of buying into the story.
This is, in part, because the acceptable ideological constraints required to work in Hollywood are way-of-life narrow, and almost completely secular. In ‘Egalitarianism As A Revolt Against Nature,’ Murray Rothbard wrote, “At the heart of the egalitarian left is the pathological belief that there is no structure of reality...that all the world is a tabula rasa that can be changed at any moment in any desired direction by the mere exercise of human will."
Film and tv allows directors to operate in a real sense as gods, creating entire worlds that grant them full executive oversight over even the most granular details of a story. They hire a cast to work as one, saying, “Let thy kingdom come, let thy will be done.”
This enables them to paint (at least semi-) credible and consistent stories that leave out God as a participant and either diminish (if not completely deny) or exaggerate consequences of choices made by characters. As Lewis once wrote, “You cannot go on seeing through things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it... If you see through everything, then everything is transparent. But a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To see through’ all things is the same as not to see.”
There are redemptive and “more real” portrayals of life on film, and I’m grateful to have met several people working to create holistically faithful work.

2024-01-08 05:23:21 UTC

Jesus knew a fair weather fan when he saw one, and wanted no part of them.
“Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.” - John 2:23-25 #Biblestr

2024-01-06 18:44:24 UTC

'Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf." - Proverbs 11:28
"As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy." - 1 Timothy 6:17 #Bitcoin

2024-01-05 19:36:46 UTC

“People are God’s money.
That sounds strange, but remember the components of the coin:
The image of the son of a god who was king and priest.
Is there anywhere in Scripture where God describes people in these terms?
Yes.
In the very beginning.
In Genesis 1, God's first words about humanity are, “Let us make mankind in our image and likeness.” Who else makes humans in their own image and likeness? Parents with their children.
After creating them, God tells his children to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” God wanted His money to be a universal, one world currency.
The second thing that God says to humanity is that they should “subdue” and “exercise dominion” over all of the other created creatures. Peter Leithart points out that the Hebrew words translated subdue and exercise dominion are used throughout the old Testament to describe the work of kings.
In Genesis 2:15, God tells Adam and Eve to “guard” and “keep” the Garden. Leithart again points out that the Hebrew words translated “guard” and “keep” are used throughout the Law and the Prophets to describe the work of the priests.
From the beginning, God created mankind to bear his image as His sons, to steward his kingly authority, and to serve as priestly mediators to ensure that the earthly kingdom bears heavenly resemblance.
But Adam and Eve failed. They heeded the voice of another father and sought to bring his will to pass, serving as his vice-regents and priests. And their children did likewise, down through Jesus’ day.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/economicsofglory/p/misrendering-jesus-part-1

2024-01-05 17:20:12 UTC

No one’s life is what you think it is. You don’t see the whole picture.
“Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’” - 1 Peter 5:5 #Biblestr

2024-01-05 17:13:22 UTC

Noah sends the dove, it returns with the olive branch (proof of new life), is sent out again, and doesn’t return.
God sends the Spirit at Christ’s baptism, it returns to God at Christ’s death with proof of Christ’s perfectly faithful life as the evidence of a new humanity, and is sent back to earth in Acts 2, where he remains until Christ returns. #Biblestr

2024-01-03 20:01:33 UTC

"Modern readers then move to application, instinctively interpreting this to mean that Jesus' words (in addition to its ancient meaning) require modern Christians to pay whatever taxes are levied upon them, regardless of how comprehensive. Rather than a specific way to fund and recognize the particular, legitimate, God-appointed-and-defined duties of magistrates, this and other tax-referencing passages in Scripture become chisels to carve away at the consciences and checking accounts of everyday people.
This is a textbook example of why James warned that not many should be teachers." https://open.substack.com/pub/economicsofglory/p/misrendering-jesus-part-1

2023-12-24 02:48:18 UTC

- reply

There is no magic formula as a husband or wife that will guarantee things work out the way you want. I agree with the general truth in that graphic and post, but to act like there aren’t situations where men or women aren’t unilaterally wicked is just wrong.
God was a perfect father and husband and his wife/children rejected and rebelled against him, and it was not indictment on him.
Christ was the best teacher ever, and his disciples all abandoned him, and it wasn’t an indictment on him.

2023-12-23 18:05:47 UTC

In many churches, Jesus is Lord.
In others, Jesus is whored.

2023-12-23 04:13:28 UTC

- reply

Careful; this could have been spoken by God after Genesis 3.

2023-12-15 17:53:06 UTC

Episode 13 of the @npub1g3r…lnnz pod is live! I sat down with @npub1zsy…krsp to hear how he went from running a print shop to running for office to becoming an enemy of the state as the face of the largest protest in Canadian history.
Listen and subscribe at https://thank-god-for-bitcoin.simplecast.com/episodes/bjdichter https://image.nostr.build/a271b09f95ab696d4365aae95adf2d1de81d4d300dcfa73121be25434619960b.jpg

2023-12-12 22:28:57 UTC

Huge news today: @npub12hs…ua2n has joined @npub1g3r…lnnz!
Mills spoke and hosted a panel at #TGFB23 and will bring a background in media, film, and event coordination to help us make #TGFB24 in #Nashville our best event yet.
The Lord's timing was perfect, and we couldn't be more excited and grateful to have her on board! https://image.nostr.build/24206596ceee6dda3aabf98fc2cb9a9cfa16a3328940345a3e78a57c0a04ed1c.jpg

2023-12-06 00:40:45 UTC

Ep 25 of the #TGFNpod is live! @npub1jlr…ynqn and I sit down for a review of our trips to the #Nostrville and #Nostrasia events and celebrate the one-year anniversary of Coracle.Social.
Listen and subscribe at https://thank-god-for-nostr.simplecast.com/episodes/nostrasia-nostrville-review-a-year-of-coraclesocial https://image.nostr.build/d1dab85c710e8a4929b0d4010f10a606b1640123dfd2ef3943b1a2f63ed96444.jpg

2023-11-29 14:01:51 UTC

Thank God For #Bitcoin Mechanic ( @npub1wnl…n3wr, @npub10vl…sp42, @npub10uk…a6ac) https://image.nostr.build/17301c2f096aa8b87049930348db0b892b1452e009e890b92db6ac9ef330cab2.jpg

2023-11-22 22:10:22 UTC

“You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the LORD.” - Leviticus 19:35-37
“A just balance and scales are the LORD’s; all the weights in the bag are his work.” - Proverbs 16:11 https://x.com/heavilyarmedc/status/1725256589043765312

2023-10-19 21:43:33 UTC

Episode 9 of the #TGFBpod is live!
I sat down with @npub1sy7…2srx to talk about the incredible of story of how God used New York City, selling gold with Peter Schiff, #psychedelics, #Bitcoin, and a faithful brother to bring him back to faith in Jesus.
Listen, subscribe and stream sats in the @npub1v5u…n0v5.
https://fountain.fm/episode/FiQQHbN6Me0dPXbM5f7x

2023-10-18 14:14:07 UTC

The newest episode of @npub1mlc…8jpa is live! Hodlbod and @npub14f0…7k3l sit down to discuss Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom In An Online Age by Samuel D. James.
Listen, subscribe, and stream sats via the @npub1v5u…n0v5. https://fountain.fm/episode/42qzYVJvgXTOP8c78Om9

2023-10-11 18:12:15 UTC

New episode of the @npub1g3r…lnnz pod incoming either tomorrow or Friday.
I sat down with @npub1sy7…2srx to hear his incredible story about walking away from and returning to faith in Christ, living in New York, working for and selling gold with Peter Schiff, psychedelics, and a lot more.

2023-10-09 23:38:44 UTC

New episode of #ThankGodForNostr incoming tomorrow! @npub1jlr…ynqn sits down with Alex Pacheco to talk about information warfare, biases and strengths of social media, @150_inc, and a lot more.
Like, subscribe, and stream sats @fountain_app. https://fountain.fm/show/vnmoRQQ50siLFRE8k061

2023-09-25 16:36:17 UTC

Not all taxes are created equal. 🧵
Many Christians treat the passages in the New Testament that outline the good and just purpose of taxes and the Christian duty to pay them as if they were an absolute defense of all taxes everywhere.
Spoiler alert: they aren't.
However well-meaning their intent, this is a naive, eisegetical, rationally-fraught nightmare of a way to read literature in general, much less the Bible, and threatens to throw humanity (especially the poor) to the lions in the name of obedience to God.
The context of Jesus' words about taxes matters. Jesus was asked whether the Jewish residents of Jerusalem were responsible for paying tribute to Caesar. That tribute consisted of a day's wage, which (based on an average salary of $45k) would amount to $123.29 today.
When Jesus advocated giving to Caesar that which belonged to Caesar, he advocated recognizing the authority and protection that Caesar provided them by paying tribute to him, a tribute of approximately 1/365th of the wealth they would earn in a year.
Modern readers, armed with Bibles that feature the word "tribute" translated flatly as "taxes," instinctively interpret this to mean that Jesus' words (in addition to their contextual meaning) also require that modern Christians should pay whatever taxes that come down the pike, regardless of how they come. Rather than a specific way to fund and recognize the particular, legitimate, God-appointed/defined duties of magistrates, they essentially become blank checks to fund the tyrannical tantrums of narcissists.
The idea that Jesus' defense of the legitimacy of paying a 0.028% tax could be used to justify paying a seemingly limitless percentage of one's income is insane. The context of Bible passages matters.
So, what level of tribute/tax is Biblically legitimate and/or defensible?
This valid question can only be consistently and sensibly answered once several other orienting and anchoring questions have been answered first.
- What are people, what are they for, and how do we know?
- What is government, what is it for, and how do we know?
- What is money, what is it for, and how do we know?
- What is life, what is it here for, and how do we know?
- What is freedom, where does it come from, and how do we know?
- What is death, where does it come from, and how do we know?
By what standard?
The world is at a point of definitional crisis. All the systems that have historically provided feedback to help us ground and orient ourselves in the world are being called into question. These definitional questions help us unpack where things begin, where they end, and to what end they exist. They seem impractical, but in reality, philosophical questions like those above are the most practical questions that can be asked because they shape everything we think, believe, say, and do. Utilitarians want to slough off the need for such conversations in the name of urgency: "We don't have time to consider these difficult and divisive questions; we need action NOW!"
There is obviously a time for decisive action, but if you never take time to orient yourself and critically examine the grounding of the intuitive, "obvious" beliefs you have about the world and the way it works, you will eventually find yourself (to quote Francis Beckwith) with feet firmly planted in thin air. The same roots that give a plant life keep it from being dragged around, and when uprooted for too long, the plant will necessarily die.
If you content yourself with answers to those foundational existential questions grounded in positivism, then you lose a principled basis to object to (for instance) even the most comprehensive tax power grabs.
Here's a test: if a government wrote into law that every citizen had to pay a 100% tax on all they owned, how should a Christian respond?
What if the law was 90%? 80?
These aren't simple thought exercises; tax rates in the US are already as high as 37%. In France, that number has climbed as high as 45%. Japan, Finland, and several others hover around 56%, and (as of 2021) the Ivory Coast had the highest tax rates in the world for their highest earners at a tax rate of 60%. Think about what this means: citizens of the Ivory Coast are forced to surrender close to 2/3 of the fruit of their productive capacity to the State. Asking about the prospect of 80%-100% tax rates isn't far off.
Think about the logic of an 80%-100% tax: That you possess life (primarily or entirely) to establish and sustain the will and reign of an earthly kingdom.
We live in a society that has, for generations, in the name of pragmatism, toleration, and liberalism, surrendered definitional authority to an antinomian mob of antihumanists. Rather than the freedom, vitality, and stability we were promised, we have become slaves of coddled, indulgent children, egomaniacal women, and self-regarding, all willing to sacrifice anyone and anything upon the altar of their own comfort in pursuit of an atomized and undefined "freedom," "change" and "progress."
These leaders know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Their "wisdom" and "freedom" have repeatedly subjected the world to unparalleled debt and endless wars. They have consistently demonstrated a willingness to submit themselves and others to horrors that would make Goebbels blush in exchange for and in pursuit of absolute autonomy. This is literally the oldest trick in The Book.
The reason that the Bible can speak of the goodness of taxes is that it was written both by and to people who were "too foolish" to fall for the "obvious truth" that we can print our way to prosperity and bend reality to our will by putting colored pictures of dead men on special paper. They were "too stupid" to comprehend that image-bearers of the Almighty God would willingly surrender half of their productive compensation to a government that (for example) creates money out of thin air to send to impoverished countries to "aid" them in snuffing out the lives of their children.
Life and prosperity issue from self-denying work. Death precedes resurrection, and there is no shortcut.
We ought to gladly pay legitimate taxes with grateful hearts but abhor, cry out against, and fight many other taxes/tributes, especially when they are sought by a murderous gang of warmongering vampires sucking the life and productive capacity out of billions of our children and grandchildren that haven't even been born yet through deficit spending.
This is not a new phenomenon. Francis Schaeffer once said, "If there is no God above the State, then the State is God." Wicked, power-drunk rulers have always tried to weaponize the Bible to enslave ordinary people's consciences into blind submission to their every whim.
For as long as there have been Christians, they have refused to bow the knee to tyrannical rulers. "We must obey God rather than man." But this refusal is done for the same two reasons that motivate everything Christians do: love for God and love for neighbor.
It isn't loving or kind to God or neighbor to indulge the fantasies of would-be demigods. We live in a world of scarce resources, and to pretend otherwise subsidizes their delusions of grandeur.
There is a God above the State. The tribute He seeks isn't your money but you. This isn't a tribute sought by a ruler who needs your money for a vanity project. It's the logical response based on the provision of the Heavenly Father, who lovingly made you, the world, and everything in it. If Caesar's protection and provision warranted a day's wage, how much is warranted for His divine provision and protection of life, much less eternal life? The life stewarded to you exists to further His kingdom and purposes and thus cannot be completely at the disposal of a rival king. https://image.nostr.build/d3dd13055b49e311f8f79c7628f7f9f4462913c55c03a5dc02aab856d8bc661f.jpg

2023-09-13 19:16:13 UTC

Ep. 12 of #ThankGodforNostr is live!
@jimmysong joins us this week to talk Nostr, Bitcoin, family (including how he spent ten months traveling the world with six kids), and more.
https://fountain.fm/episode/5Khznt3beM9tBsAtbuzs

2023-09-05 13:13:21 UTC

"If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love - You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance.
The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point." - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory