Good morning.

It’s not always a good morning.

We’re caught up in so many things. I’ve personally said yes too way too many things recently and it’s splitting my focus and attention. I’m distracted. Between commitments I’ve made and purchases that have seemed vital in the moment to being not enough when they arrived, I’ve said yes to too many things.

That’s a lot of noise. It’s a lot of things pulling us in one way or another.

There’s a verse that’s been rattling around in my mind this week. You’ll read a bit more about this in approximately a month, if the release schedule stays the same, but I didn’t want to wait that long to talk with you.

Pure in heart.

What does that mean to you?

I really want to dive into this in an upcoming newsletter but for the moment, don’t think about it terms of good and evil.

Think about purity in terms of diamonds.

Does a diamond have other minerals embedded into its crystalline structure? How much of that structure is genuine diamond?

Or, does it have impurities?

Do we have impurities? Are we 100% diamond? Is there any small fraction of impurity in us?

This sailor has more than a small fraction. Most days, I look in the mirror and see more coal than diamond. This isn’t going to turn into “oh the pressure turns us into something good,” either. It may, but even with the purest of diamonds, there’s still trace impurities.

And so, this is who we stand before God as. One day we will be exposed, no longer able to hide behind the fig leaves we’ve woven together to make ourselves presentable.

I understand there’s been a lot of hurt. There’s been a lot of disappointment. Many of our leaders have failed us. I’m not writing to you here as captain of the ship. I’m more like Ishmael, a member of the crew of the Peaquod. Thankfully, Captain Ahab is not at the helm of this ship, either. Captain Ahab sacrificed his crew for his obsession with vengeance.

God sacrificed himself for an enemy that made war against him, and not merely bringing them into his crew, but making them family and giving them an inheritance.

I don’t know where you are in your faith journey, but if you’re still breathing, it’s not over yet.

Today is Good Friday, 2026.

This weekend, Christians celebrate something incredible. Truly incredible, and it starts with the darkest moment in all of history.

The day we killed God. The day we chose ourselves. The day we we felt exposed by the light and tried to extinguish it and bury it in the earth.

God loved this world and sent His Son to rescue His bride, who was a mixture of coal with maybe some diamond impurities mixed in, from the dragon of death. However, rescuing the bride wouldn’t be enough. The dragon of death still held her, even if she were to be pulled from the castle. Death’s name was written on her forehead, claiming her as his. For her impurities, death would extract its wages. God’s Son would not merely rescue the bride, he would redeem her. He would give his life as a ransom for hers, an accept all the impurities that stacked up the debt the dragon had claim on.

We killed Jesus. We nailed Him to the cross. It was for our sin and our shame and our blame shifting and our false sense of impurity and the lies we tell to see some kinds of fig leaves together in a farce attempt to look good that He did it. You see, if there’s any traces within us, we’ll never see God. Justice demands the dragon receives his payment.

And he did. When Jesus died on the cross, what we celebrate on Good Friday, he took on the debt we’d accumulated for ourselves and marked it as paid. He stood in our place. He satisfied the debt.

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

In a couple days, we’ll also celebrate Easter.

God’s Son, sharing the attributes of His Father, could not be held by death. He was pure. He lived the sinless life we could not. The gates of hell, the boundary of death, would not prevail. New life is given to those who were his enemies. Those who killed him. Those who thought they could be pure enough on their own but still had traces of death warrants residing deep in their hearts.

Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

Grace is somehow God making a way where we could be His sons and daughters. Grace is having all our impurities burned away, purified, where when God looks at us, wrapped up in the good diamond of Christ, he only sees His Son. What does it take from us? Not calling God a liar, an act that continues to make war with Him, and trusts that Jesus paid it all.

As I said a few minutes ago, we’ve had our share of disappointments. I’ve been a disappointment to others and let them down. If we look to others for that sweet sound of salvation, we’ll hear the resonance of their leftover impurities, still ringing around until death tries to claim us only to be met with the resurrection power of the Son and be defeated.

However, it’s not always that case. Some who have been set free are still trying to cling onto the tower the dragon held them in. They’re still trying to find safety and control in not letting god and trusting the wisdom and order God has established. They only see Him as God, and not their Father. They’re still learning, they may even still have a lot of outward impurities. The Lord sees the heart, and who can stand? Which is why we must be wrapped in the salvation of His Son.

I need to bring this ship to harbor, but one of the reasons Christians still cling to the ways of death and the dragon’s control is because they don’t understand the love of the Father. They don’t understand that in Jesus, all the impurity has been taken away, and now, they are only seen as pure and holy.

Today is the day of salvation. Trust in the mercy of God that Jesus paid the penalty for you.

If you want to talk more about this, reach out to me. Respond. Hit reply. Send me a text if you have my number.

Otherwise…

Good Friday.

~ Josh Simons