In my work, God has led me down a winding road—from accounting to leadership positions at McDonald’s, then Jiffy Lube, then Shell, then BP, and now at a fintech startup. But in every twist and turn, at work and church, he’s graciously provided me opportunities to serve and lead. Servant leadership is one of the most influential and highly debated leadership theories of the last 40 years. Even to Bible-believers, who know God’s Word is perfect (2 Sam. 22:31), profitable (2 Tim. 3:16–17), and pure (Ps. 12:6), biblical truths may sometimes seem to run counter to common sense. Since God’s ways are higher than man’s ways (Isa. 55:8–9), the believing leader must reconcile his or her thoughts—his or her reality—with God’s mind and will as revealed in the Bible, not the other way around (Phil. 2:2–4; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:20–24). While the Bible’s apparent paradoxes may present temporary conundrums, they aren’t contradictions. Like God, we can both lead and serve. We can put others ahead of ourselves. Let me share six surprising scriptural secrets of service, surrender, and sacrifice. 1. To achieve greatness, serve everyone. In his teaching on human ambition, the Lord taught his disciples that those who wish to become the greatest among them must serve all (Matt. 20:16; Mark 10:35–45). He used himself as the supreme example of the high cost of selfless sacrifice, saying, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). The son of the Sovereign, himself sovereign God, said he came to serve. His life-ransoming service cost him everything but ultimately gained him (and us) even more. The son of the Sovereign, himself sovereign God, said he came to serve. When serve-first CEOs work early mornings and late nights, when church planters set up chairs and take out the trash (like my father did), or when plant managers take extra summer shifts so their line workers can take time off, we see the others-first, self-denying marks of true servant leadership. 2. To get more happiness, give more. The apostle Paul quotes Christ when he says, “It is more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35). While this principle may appear emotionally relevant at birthdays and Christmastime, in context, it seems to apply more to giving sacrificially to “support the weak” (v. 35). In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul refers to the fact that he and his missionary companions had been hungry, thirsty, mistreated, and homeless (v. 11) and needed God’s people to care for them. The paradox seems to be that it’s more blessed (more conducive to true happiness) to give to the most needy—those least likely or able to give anything back—than it is to receive a gift like being well fed, well clothed, and well treated. Leaders should remember that giving time and energy to those followers who need it most, and who may seem to have the least to offer in return, is part of servant-leader altruism. For example, retired leaders may spend time mentoring interns, CEOs may invest in employees who will eventually work elsewhere, or managers may take a chance on hiring someone they aren’t sure will be reliable. In each case, these leaders are giving to those who can never pay them personally—and in some cases will not even benefit the company. 3. To go up, the way may be down. The messianic journey of the eternally preexistent Son (John 1:1) was an epic journey down—from the highest heights of glory to the depths of the grave (Eph. 4:9). But because Jesus was obedient to and through death, God highly exalted him, bestowing on him the highest title and position: Lord of all (Phil. 2:9–11). I worked at McDonald’s for 14 years early in my career. After six years in a regional controller role, I entered an executive training program in restaurant operations. Even though I was a CPA and MBA, I began as a crew trainee in the restaurants. I cleaned toilets, worked every weekend, counted cash drawers, and scrubbed trash cans. After two years in the restaurants full-time, I was operationally qualified to lead markets and regions for the company. When I became the regional vice president in Nashville and then Kansas City, I was able to make better decisions based on my recent real-life serving experiences with both customers and crew. Those two years in the restaurants were some of the most difficult but also, by far, the most formative and rewarding of my career. 4. Ending is better than beginning. The wise preacher in Ecclesiastes taught that the day of one’s death may be happier than the day of one’s birth, and a funeral is better than a party (Eccl. 7:1–4). When a life has been well lived and the journey is complete, the ending may be more joyful than the uncertain beginning. One example: I enjoy traveling. I like the anticipation of the journey and the high and low points. But nothing makes me happier than packing on the last day of a trip and preparing to return home. In the biblical sense, the journey’s last day is happier than the first, because our Odyssean journey has been completed, and we know we’re going home. In the same way, the day we retire should be sweeter than our first day on the job. We can look back at the ways God has provided, praise him for both his severe mercies and abundant generosity, and rejoice in the satisfaction of a job well done. 5. To achieve victory and freedom, yield. On the penultimate day of his earthly life, Jesus yielded. In the darkest hour before the cross, when all he could do was physically and emotionally labor in prayer, Jesus surrendered his will, once again, to the Father’s divine will (John 6:38). Through his obedience and yielding, the world’s greatest victory was achieved and every believer was made victorious in him. Similarly, every believer must yield daily to the Father’s will (Rom. 12:1). The servant leader, instead of insisting on the rights and privileges attending the office, may unexpectedly choose to yield the prerogatives of leadership for the real power found only in sacrificial service and selfless surrender. At work, this could mean silently accepting the boss’s unfair decision, waiting patiently for a long-overdue promotion, or giving in to a coworker when a conflict starts to escalate. 6. To leverage sacrificial service, learn. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered (Heb. 5:8). The all-knowing, eternal Son of God, present and active from the creation of the cosmos (John 1:1–5), learned. He learned obedience experientially. Not only is Christ an exemplary servant leader, but he’s also the ultimate example of a servant learner. If the all-knowing God leverages his human trials to learn, any executive may seek new insights from even the most challenging life experiences. Start-up life is hard. After I’d spent more than 30 years in corporate roles and experienced six interstate relocations, my wife and I moved back to our hometown, and I joined a small tech start-up as CEO. We had six employees and two weeks of payroll in the bank. I learned to leverage relationships to raise the capital we needed to grow. We nearly ran out of money twice in that first year. I learned faith and dependence on God through those lean times. After six years, we’re now fully funded and sustainable thanks to more than 100 courageous investors who believed in us. While this was later in my leadership journey, I learned much from the process. My Thoughts, His Thoughts The servant leader may seek to reconcile his or her thinking with the mind of God as revealed in the Bible (Eph. 4:20–24), which will result in the practical development of a Christian worldview. When viewed from God’s perspective, the Bible’s apparent paradoxes reveal surprising scriptural insights about the heart of leadership—service, sacrifice, and surrender. I learned faith and dependence on God through those lean times. Consider Christ’s range of service—how far he came and how much he gave to serve obediently and perfectly. These choices and actions demonstrate the extent of Jesus’s serve-first, others-first servant leadership. God the Father, too, lacks nothing and is all-sufficient and eternally complete in himself (Acts 17:24–25). Yet his every interaction with us is others-focused. And the Holy Spirit serves by guiding and teaching (John 16:13) each believer as we develop progressively from one glory to greater glory (2 Cor. 3:18) in the process of ongoing sanctification (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2). God’s divine motivations and actions are consistent with servant leadership. The leader who holds a Christian worldview may benefit from prayerful meditation on God as the original and ultimate servant leader.

In this lecture, Don Carson highlights the original scandal of the cross in the ancient world and its power to divide humanity between those perishing and those being saved. Paul’s message emphasizes that true ministry must center on Christ crucified, not human eloquence or cultural status. Carson warns against modern evangelical distractions and urges a return to the gospel’s transforming power. He teaches the following: The shocking implications of the cross and crucifixion in the first century, and how they’re different today Why people often want to set their own criteria for what God should be like God has already passed judgment on the best that the world has to offer through the cross The cross’s message is that God’s wisdom and power are displayed in the moment of greatest human weakness Why being wise, powerful, or well-born cannot be a criterion for being a Christian A warning against the idolatries of evangelicalism, such as the love of methods and self-promotion How focusing too much on social and political ramifications can lead to a quiet denial of the gospel The cross’s message is the only polarity in the human race that’s of of eternal consequence

Police said they found a pipe bomb and other improvised explosive devices at the home of a man who was arrested near a No Kings protest in West Chester, Pennsylvania.Law enforcement searched the home of 31-year-old Kevin Krebs on Conestoga Road in East Whiteland Township on Monday evening and disabled all of the explosives, according to a spokesperson for the West Chester Police Department.'I always tell him, you are safe always. You're always being protected. You're never in any harm's way.'Officials had initially said that seven explosives had been found at the home but later said the total number came to 13 explosive devices.Krebs had a fully loaded Sig Sauer P320 handgun under a long yellow raincoat when he was spotted at the protest Saturday, according to police. He also was found with ammunition, an M9 bayonet, a pocketknife, pepper spray, a ski mask, and gloves.Police said they found an AR-15 style rifle on the floor of his SUV.RELATED: Video captures the moment SUV driver barrels through No Kings protesters after getting surrounded in California Photo by: Visions of America/Joseph Sohm/Universal Images Group via Getty Images Investigators said they also found sketches of explosive devices in the home, as well as tactical vests and other items.Krebs was initially released on a $250,000 bond, but he was rearrested and denied bail. He is being held at the Chester County Prison and faces a slew of charges, including 13 counts of weapons of mass destruction. Krebs' younger brother told WPVI-TV that the suspect carried the weapons for his protection."In his brain, he's scared," said Alex Krebs. "I always tell him, you are safe always. You're always being protected. You're never in any harm's way."In a separate incident from the protest in Riverside, California, an SUV driver barreled into protesters after they surrounded the vehicle and one damaged a rear brake lamp. Police are trying to identify the driver, and one woman suffered critical injuries from the incident.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Timothy Snyder has built a career trying to convince Americans that Donald Trump is a latter-day Adolf Hitler — a fascist demagogue hell-bent on dismantling America’s institutions to seize power. Last week, the Yale historian and author of the bestselling resistance pamphlet “On Tyranny,” briefly changed course. Now, apparently, Trump is Jefferson Davis. In a recent Substack post, Snyder claimed Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg amounted to a call for civil war. He argued that the president’s praise for the military and his rejection of the left’s historical revisionism signaled not patriotism but treason — and the rise of a “paramilitary” regime.Trump doesn’t want a second civil war. He wants the first one to mean something. No, seriously. That’s what he thinks.Renaming Fort BraggTrump’s first alleged Confederate offense, Snyder said, was to reinstate the military base’s original name: Fort Bragg. The Biden administration had renamed it Fort Liberty, repudiating General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate ties. Trump reversed the change. The Biden administration had renamed the base Fort Liberty, citing General Braxton Bragg’s service to the Confederacy. Trump reversed the change. But he didn’t do it to honor a Confederate general. He did it to honor World War II paratrooper Roland L. Bragg, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explained.Snyder wasn’t buying it. He accused the administration of fabricating a “dishonest pretense” that glorifies “oathbreakers and traitors.”That charge hits close to home.My grandfather Martin Spohn was a German Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Berlin in 1936. He proudly served in the U.S. Army. He trained with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Bragg before deploying to Normandy. Like thousands of others, he saw the base not as a Confederate monument but as a launchpad for defeating actual fascism.Restoring the name Fort Bragg doesn’t rewrite history. It honors the Americans who made history — men who trained there to liberate Europe from tyranny.That’s not fascism. That’s victory over it.Deploying the National GuardFor Snyder, though, Trump’s real crime was calling up the National Guard to restore order in riot-torn Los Angeles. That, he claimed, puts Trump in the same category as Robert E. Lee.According to Snyder, the president is “preparing American soldiers to see themselves as heroes when they undertake operations inside the United States against unarmed people, including their fellow citizens.”Let’s set aside the hysteria.Trump didn’t glorify the Confederacy. He called for law and order in the face of spiraling violence. He pushed back against the left’s crusade to erase American history — not to rewrite it but to preserve its complexity.He didn’t tell soldiers to defy the Constitution. He reminded them of their oath: to defend the nation, not serve the ideological demands of woke officials.Snyder’s claims are as reckless as they are false.He smears anyone who supports border enforcement or takes pride in military service as a threat to democracy. Want secure borders? You’re a fascist. Call out the collapse of Democrat-run cities? You’re a Confederate.This isn’t analysis. It’s slander masquerading as scholarship.The real divisionBut this debate isn’t really about Trump. It’s about power.The left has spent years reshaping the military into a political project — prioritizing diversity seminars over combat readiness, purging dissenters, and enforcing ideological loyalty. When Trump pushes back, it’s not authoritarianism. It’s restoration.The left wants a military that fights climate change, checks pronouns, and marches for “equity.” Trump wants a military that defends the nation. That’s the real divide.Over and over, Snyder accuses Trump of “trivializing” the military by invoking its heroism while discussing immigration enforcement. But what trivializes military service more — linking it to national defense or turning soldiers into props for progressive social experiments?RELATED: The real tyranny? Institutional groupthink disguised as truth Photo by Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesAnd Trump isn’t breaking precedent by deploying the National Guard when local leaders fail. Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson used federal troops during desegregation. Johnson federalized the Alabama National Guard to protect civil rights marchers. The Guard responded during the 1967 Detroit riots, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the Black Lives Matter and Antifa upheavals of 2020.Trump acted within his authority — and fulfilled his duty — to restore order when Democrat-run cities descended into chaos.A House divided?Snyder’s rhetoric about “protecting democracy” rings hollow. Trump won the 2024 election decisively. Voters across party lines gave him a clear mandate: Secure the border and remove violent criminals. Pew Research found that 97% of Americans support more vigorous enforcement of immigration laws.Yet Snyder, who constantly warns of creeping authoritarianism, closed his post by urging fellow academics to join No Kings protests.Nobody appointed Timothy Snyder king, either.If he respected democratic institutions, he’d spend less time fearmongering — and more time listening to the Americans, including many in uniform, who are tired of being demonized for loving their country. They’re tired of being called bigots for wanting secure borders. They’re tired of watching history weaponized to silence dissent.Snyder invokes Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address to condemn Trump. But it was Lincoln who paraphrased scripture when he said, “A house divided cannot stand.”Americans united behind Trump in 2024. Snyder’s effort to cast half the country as fascists or Confederates embodies the division Lincoln warned against.Here’s the truth: Trump doesn’t want a second civil war. He wants the first one to mean something.He wants a Union preserved in more than name — a Union defined by secure borders, equal justice, and unapologetic national pride.If that scares Timothy Snyder, maybe the problem isn’t Trump.Perhaps, the problem lies in the man staring back at him in the mirror.

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