(Toby Sumpter)—Why do we worship the way we do? One way to answer this question is by noticing the texts in the New Testament that urge us to offer our bodies and our praises as sacrifices: We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). When we walk in love toward one another, it’s a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:2). When we give offerings and gifts to the work of ministry, it’s a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God (Phil. 4:18). When we acknowledge God and do good and share with one another, these are sacrifices of praise, pleasing to God (Heb. 13:15-16). We are being built up into a spiritual house together in the church, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 2:5).
But once we establish this point that New Covenant worship is to be full of these kinds of spiritual sacrifices of praise, we realize that the Old Covenant sacrifices were our training wheels. They were previews of the final bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, but they were also tutors or teachers, preparing us to offer what God truly always wanted: broken and soft hearts, lips of praise and thanksgiving, joyful fellowship, and wholly consecrated lives.
And that is what we find in the three principle Old Testament sacrifices: a sin offering focused on cleansing from sin, a whole burnt ascension offering – focused on a wholly consecrated life arising to God as sweet smelling aroma, and a peace offering, where the worshipers ate and fellowshipped in the presence of God. And wherever we find those three sacrifices together, they are always offered in that order: sin offering, whole burnt ascension offering, and peace offering.
If you add a Call to Worship to the beginning and a benediction at the end, we find this same basic pattern of Christian worship throughout the history of the Church: we are called into the presence of God, we confess our sins, we hear the Word read and preached, consecrating our entire lives to Him, we sit down for communion in His presence, and then we are sent out with His blessing. Why do we worship this way? Because we are holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
