Common Mission

03/24/2025

03/24/2025

"No power—neither death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor anything in all creation—can sever what God has signed with his Son’s blood. The impossible victory is his, and the powers that rage are footnotes to his triumph...The cross, an instrument of defeat, becomes God’s signature move, stripping the "gods" of their weapons and parading their impotence."

Faith in the Unseen - God's Signature

03/21/2025

https://open.substack.com/pub/commonmission/p/gods-signature?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=5b3i7o

03/21/2025

"Without empathy, God’s knowledge would be cold, missing the covenantal chesed of Micah 6:8’s justice and mercy."

A Theology of Divine Empathy - "Chapter 5"

02/25/2025

"Yet, some miss this, picturing God as distant. Divine Empathy says no—He’s the artist, feeling into His canvas, as we feel into His work. This challenges, “Can God be all-knowing if He can’t have empathy?”—no, not relationally...."

A Theology of Divine Empathy - "Chapter 4"

02/25/2025

"It’s as if God, the artist, splashed His love, power, and wisdom across the canvas of stars, oceans, and sparrows, leaving clues for us to find Him. The Psalmist agrees, singing, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Creation isn’t mute—it’s a symphony, a painting shouting God’s glory, inviting us to see and feel."

A Theology of Divine Empathy - "Chapter 3"

02/25/2025

"The moment is haunting. After Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, they hide, overcome by shame and fear. God calls out, “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9, ESV).[^1] That Hebrew word, ayekkah (איכה), isn’t a GPS ping—it’s a lament, a longing, a father’s heart breaking as He searches for His children."

A Theology of Divine Empathy - "Chapter 2.1"

02/24/2025

"Picture a quiet moment in your life—maybe a night when tears soaked your pillow, or a dawn when joy lifted your heart like a song. Now imagine God, not as a distant judge watching from afar, but as a friend sitting beside you, sharing those tears or singing with your laughter. That’s the heart of Divine Empathy...."

A Theology of Divine Empathy - "Chapter 2"

02/23/2025

“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” (Romans 8:26, ESV).[^1] These aren’t cold, calculated facts—they’re groans, sighs, emotions too profound for language, as if God Himself feels the weight of our pain alongside us. Picture it: the Holy Spirit, like a friend sitting beside you in silence, sharing your tears.

A Theology of Divine Empathy - "Chapter One"

02/23/2025

"Whether we’re interpreting a painting or a person’s mood, we’re engaging in a similar act of emotional interpretation. We’re "reading" external cues—brushstrokes or body language—to access an inner world."

Imagine standing before a painting—say, Van Gogh’s Starry Night. As you gaze at the swirling skies and luminous stars, something stirs within you. You’re not just seeing brushstrokes; you’re feeling the artist’s awe, his longing, perhaps even his turmoil. In that moment, you’re not merel...

02/08/2025

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02/07/2025

Our prayer is an ascending offering that delights His heart.

Check out Common Mission’s video.

02/06/2025

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT2ha27yC/

Check out Common Mission’s video.

07/20/2024

The "blood and soil" mantra is a false hope. It is a perversion of the true hope found in the gospel.

"Blood and soil" is rooted in death, by default. It is an inversion of Eden. It is a return to the "Sheol" of the old covenant. It is simply a lie designed by Satan to keep people's eyes off the only way life can be had -- the heavenly life that is the only way to inherit the earth/cosmos.

This perverted desire for "blood and soil" is to seek "rootedness" in the "fleshly-earthly" (demonic), as James warns us in his epistle:

//James 3:15 ESV
[15] This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.//

This is the reason the associated fruit is pride, false love, and every work that James described:

//James 3:16 ESV
[16] For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.//

The way to true life, is to have ones rootedness in heaven; one's citizenship in the city that is descending to the earth.

From our perspective, we must resist this lie, and be willing to lose our life--citizenship in this world--for the life found in Jesus Christ alone; in the Spirit. We must renounce our "blood and soil" ties to this world:

//Matthew 10:34-39 ESV
[34] “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. [35] For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. [36] And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. [37] Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. [38] And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. [39] Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Also see, Luke 14:26-27)//

Though this is the opposite of "our natural affections", it is the wisdom from above. By following our Lord Jesus Christ, we receive a heavenly family/kingdom, in which, we become "rooted" in the life-giving "soil" beside the river that flows from Christ's throne. This is the only way to have a true inheritance.

The lie of Stephen Wolfe's "Christian" Nationalism, is to separate the "two" kingdoms as if this world is not redeemed by "rooted-life", right now, in the "coming Kingdom" of the Beloved Son of our Father. By desiring a "blood and soil" rootedness according to our "natural affections", Satan keeps us under the power of death, which he lost in the death of Jesus Christ (the only blood that matters), and in His resurrection as the new humanity (the only family that matters), and His ascension to heaven; bringing the souls waiting under the alter (old covenant blood and soil) to heaven with Him -- the place we too, by the Spirit, are also seated-rooted.

From this place of life, we the true Christians, declare the only life there is to have; redeeming/inheriting the earth.

- Terry W. West

01/11/2024

Psalm 20

12/30/2023

Baked spaghetti. It looks like lasagna. 🤤❤️💯🍽️🍷

12/06/2023

A reminder to look for "Wading Deep Waters" single release on your favorite music store.

Please add to your playlist and share with others!

Thank you!

Listen to Wading Deep Waters by Wading Deep Waters

12/05/2023

Now on Amazon music!

On Amazon Music