Liberty to the Captives

“We are resurrection people. We are holistic ministers. We live between Eden and eternity. Let us walk in divine dependence, build communion, and live like the tomb is empty and the throne is occupied.” Day 1: The Tree of Life — From Eden to Gethsemane In Eden, two trees stood before humanity: the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Humanity chose autonomy over divine dependence. But in another garden—Gethsemane—Jesus reversed Eden’s rebellion with these words: “Not my will, but yours be done.” — Matthew 26:39 “This is my body, given for you.” — Luke 22:19 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.” — 1 Peter 2:24 We must live by divine dependence, not human autonomy. The fruit of the Tree is Christ Himself—relationship, not rebellion. Today, surrender an area of life where you’ve been choosing autonomy over communion with God. Pray: “Not my will, but Yours be done.” Day 2: The Tomb — Death Defeated From the Inside Out The Tomb is not just where Jesus lay; ...

Day 1: Naming the Spirit — Discernment in a Time of Seduction Biblical Text: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” — Mark 13:22 We live amid a theological captivity—where language that once evoked transformation has been hollowed out by convenience and cooptation. Donald Trump represents not just a political figure but a concentrated embodiment of a seductive spirit—one that weaponizes religious vocabulary to forge allegiance while dismantling the moral scaffolding of Gospel fidelity. His influence, particularly within white Evangelical Christianity and increasingly among communities of color, reflects a crisis not of ideology alone, but of theological dislocation—a conceptual captivity where the Gospel has been absorbed into nationalist frameworks and identity-based nostalgia. Yet, even as we name Trump’s deception as spiritually unprecedented, we cannot be naïve about the progressive left, which too can di...