Jared Longshore's Blog, page 2

When the Kingdom of God Takes Root

[Exhortation from first service of Christ Church DC – Sunday July 13, 2025]

When the kingdom of God takes root in a particular region, it is always disruptive. This was the case when Joshua marched the people of God into Canaan’s land and giant’s blood seasoned the soil. This was the case in Babylon where Nebudchadnezzar went insane. Herod trembled when our Lord appeared in Bethlehem. In Jerusalem, Pilate’s wife lost sleep. In Ephesus, Aretemis railed. In Rome, Nero sharpened his sword against angel armies. Our Lord said that His kingdom was not of this world. But don’t mistake the genetive case. Christ’s kingdom does not run on the same steam as the kingdoms of this earth but it does run in the same place, on earth. In Daniel’s vision, the kingdom of God did not come as a rock to cozy up to the Roman Empire. It came to grind all pagan empires to gravel.

Because of our many and twisted conceits, man attempts to evade Christ’s kingdom. His first approach is to imagine the kingdom of God as a carnal one, assuming the Spirit of God needs a fundraising team. Worshipping at the vain and pitiful altar of the demos, this approach would tell Jesus that He has his throne by the will of the people. When that folly fails them, man tries to vaporize the kingdom of God, as if the living stones of God’s temple were the mist wafting forth from a humidifier. 

Our answer to the first error is that Christ funds His own kingdom, and that by His own blood. And our answer to the second is that Christendom is harder than the many marble pillars that mark our nation’s capitol. The option before you is quite plain. It is Christ or chaos. Christ or destruction. Build your life, family, vocation, laws, your all, on the rock that is Christ. Or be crushed by that Rock. 

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Stable Citizens

Seeing that you have all been brought into the kingdom of God, one of your aims is to become a stable citizen, to fulfill the commands given by the apostle Paul, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). In the early church, the Judaizers taught that the way to this stablity was back to the old covenant, circumcision, the Levitical priesthood, and the Old Testament Passover. They were horribly mistaken because that old order was vanishing with its priests, sacrifices, and sacraments. 

The temptation for Christians often runs in the opposite direction. We would be steadfast, we would know a peaceful resolution if only we knew what was coming over the horizon, the future economy, the future of our children, the threats, and trails of coming days. But those who look for such knowledge are not steadfast and they wouldn’t be even if they obtained such secret knowledge. The source of our settled assurance is the once for all sacrifice of Christ. Eat your steadfastness here. Drink your peaceful resolve at this table. Two thousand years ago He said, “It is finished.” And it really is. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Why You Defend Your Mother

The misguided scholars who say America is merely an idea would say the same thing of the Christian religion. They assume that our religion is a set of beliefs to be set forth to the rational mind of man, then adopted or rejected as the free and independent human will determines. Far too many Christians have adopted this same manner of thinking. They assume the apologetics course is complete after they have supplied students with all of the necessary syllogisms to refute propositions levelled against Christian truth. Nothing aginst logic, of course. But you don’t defend your mother because the logic checks out. You defend your mother because she is your mother.

Sin is to miss the mark. But modern Christians can think their misses are the misses of a man shooting targets alone at the range. When in truth our misses come amid battle as we fight for the glory and honor of our king and the preservation of our families and kingdom. Your duty, then, is grow a chest full of loyalty, allegiance, and devotion to the man, your King, Jesus Christ. That swelling love in the chest is the central thing that must be in you and your children. Train yourself and them to that end. Worship today to that end.

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The Basis of Civil Society

We know, and what is better we feel inwardly, that religion is the basis of civil society, and the source of all good and of all comfort . . .we prefer the Protestant; not because we think it has less of the Christian religion in it, but because, in our judgment, it has more. We are protestants, not from indifference but from zeal.

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

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Not Surprising at All

It shouldn’t shock anyone that this table strikes terror into the heart of our enemies. Imagine being up against an organization that meets at the same time and place every week to partake of one sacrament that binds them together in unity. There are many people, ideologies, and movements that have raised themselves up against Christendom, only to fracture themselves against this bread and wine. Then, they look on to see the Church come yet again to table fellowship, partaking of one bread as one bread.

So as you come to partake of Christ as one body, ensure that the sacrament does its work in you. Ensure that this one bread makes you truly and indeed one bread. Put away strife, enmity, backbiting, gossip, and grudges. Those are the things that dissolve our opponents and leave them weak, unfruitful, and uneffective. Come with a clear conscience that you really do love all of the saints, and are prepared to show them the same kindness that has been shown you by the Lord of this table. This is a new covenant meal and with it Christ has given us a new commandment: “Love one another, as I have loved you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples” (John 13:34-35). Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Upon Our Heads

When our God and Father swore an oath to save us from our sins, He was not satisfied to leave that oath floating up in the ether. He sealed our salvation on earth in His Son’s blood two thousand years ago. And that same salvation is sealed to us in baptism. The promise of God is not far from us. He brings that promise down like the flood waters in Noah’s day, like the Spirit at Pentecost. He brings that promised down right upon our heads in these waters of baptism. In them Christ says, “Behold, I am with you always.”

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Act Like Men

A society led by weak men will not be a society for long. Be it the family, church, or state, these societies are living organisms that must be guarded and governed by the faithful sons of Adam. Paul’s directives are straightforward, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 6:13). Fathers, it is your duty to watch your family, to watch our community, to know what evils assail the things that we love. And when you identify those evils, it is your duty to stand there, unmoving, to act like a man and meet those evils with the strength God has given you.

Our country and culture is steeped in effeminacy and we would be foolish to think that the plague of soft men has not crept in among us. It takes strength to pray. It takes strength to obtain wisdom. It takes strength to love, to govern with patience and understanding, to provide for a family. So take an honest assessment of where you have been lazy, or soft, or complaining. And take an honest assessment of what needs to be done that you have left undone. Confess that before the Lord, and ask Him for strength to rectify the situation.

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Robert E. Lee

My dear sister:

I am grieved by my inability to see you. I have been waiting for a more “convenient season,’ which has brought to many before me deep and lasting regret. We are now in a state of war which will yield to nothing. The whole South is in a state of revolution, into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn; and though I recognize no necessity for this state of things, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for the redress of grievances, real or supposed, yet in my own person I had to meet the question whether I should take part against my native state. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, and my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State with sincere hope that my poor services will never be needed. I hope I may never be called upon to draw my sword. I know that you will blame me, but you must think of me as kindly as you can, and believe that I have endeavored to do what I thought right. To show you the feeling and struggle it has cost me, I send you a copy of my letter of resignation. I have no time for more. May God guard and protect you and yours, and shower upon you everlasting blessings, is the prayer of

Your devoted brother,

R. E. Lee 

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Enter Into the Joy

In Jesus’ parable of the talents, the good and faithful servants were told, “Well done . . . enter into the joy of thy lord” (Matthew 25:23). This parable was a parable of the kingdom of heaven into which you have entered. What the master said to the servants in the parable, your Master says to you here, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” One of the foundational things to remember if you would be a joyful human is that joy of the saints is just like their righteousness, it is not their own. It is the joy of another in which they participate. 

God our Father delights in His Son and the Son delights in His Father and that mutual love between the Father and the Son is a Spirit of Love. The remarkable grace is that we have been born unto life by that love, washed by that love, convicted, helped, and comforted by that Spirit of love and joy. So as you come and welcome to Jesus Christ, do remember that you come and welcome to all that He is and all of His benefits. Here you receive the whole Christ and that is to enter into His everlasting joy. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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Laughing on the Highway of Holiness

When it comes to form and freedom, people have a tendency to opt for one or the other, which is a really bad idea. You can find families, churches, or organizations that are all form without freedom or all freedom without form. Form without freedom is strict enough, but suffocating, like a well-orderd classroom in which nobody learns anything. Freedom without form is wild enough, but one does question whether the kids should be doing back flips off of grandma’s china cabinet.

The natural man’s instinct is to pull back on the freedom or relax the form. Man pursues this middle way of mediocrity because it is managable and doesn’t require faith in the God who is three in one and one in three. But Chrisitans follow in the footsteps of the Triune God and that way is freedom in form and form in freedom. Whatever your particular temptation you do not need to add a dash of freedom or add a pinch of form. You need to laugh and bound your way down the highway of holiness, which come to find out is the only way to go down that particular street.

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