“And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD.” (2 Kings 19:15a)
Hezekiah had good reason to pray! Hezekiah was the King of Judah. Maybe you’ve heard of Judah: it was a small nation, the only two tribes left over from the Twelve Tribes of Israel. And Hezekiah, King of Judah, had a problem: he was an enemy of the pagan king of Assyria, Sennacherib (pronounced sen-AK-er-rib). Assyria back then was a little like America is today: the strongest nation on earth. And the nation of Judah was like one of those tiny countries you see on a map – so small that nobody remembers the name of. In other words, King Hezekiah was no match for King Sennacherib.
Because Hezekiah and Sennacherib were enemies, Sennacherib brought his forces down to do battle against Hezekiah and the Kingdom of Judah. Sennacherib fought hard, and his armies defeated a lot of Judean towns. Hezekiah became frightened. So instead of relying on God, he sent money – some of it was God’s money – to Sennacherib, trying to buy him off!
Well, Sennacherib didn’t just want money. He wanted to humiliate Hezekiah in the capital city, Jerusalem. So Sennacherib sent messenger boys to Hezekiah, announcing that Sennacherib would defeat God’s people if they resisted him.
What could Hezekiah do? He’d already sent money to Sennacherib, but Sennacherib wasn’t satisfied. Hezekiah was so upset that he tore his clothes and went to the temple of the Lord. Instead of sending more money to the wicked king Sennacherib, Hezekiah sent word to Isaiah, the prophet of God, asking what to do. Isaiah sent back word not to worry, since God would take care of Hezekiah’s problem with Sennacherib.
When Sennacherib heard what Isaiah had said, he sent a letter to Hezekiah, repeating his threats. Hezekiah grew very upset again. This time, he didn’t send money to the wicked king, and he didn’t even call on God’s prophet. Instead, he spread out the letter on the ground and prayed to God.
After Hezekiah had pled with God for help, God sent word by the prophet Isaiah saying that God had heard Hezekiah’s prayer. In Isaiah 37:21, God says that because Hezekiah had prayed, He would rise up against Sennacherib and defeat him. Soon afterwards, God miraculously killed 125,000 of Sennacherib’s troops, and Sennacherib returned home to Assyria without ever fighting against Hezekiah. Eventually, two of Sennacherib’s sons assassinated him while he prayed to his false god.
You’ve probably noticed that the story of Hezekiah and Sennacherib is complicated. You can read the whole thing in 2 Kings 18-19 and Isaiah 36-37. Each version of the story gives details that the other one doesn’t mention. When Isaiah tells the story, he makes the point that this devotional is making: it wasn’t until Hezekiah himself prayed to God that God defeated Sennacherib.
Was it bad for Hezekiah to ask advice from God’s prophet, Isaiah? Of course not! And when Hezekiah asked advice, God promised to help. But it wasn’t until Hezekiah himself prayed that God actually struck down Sennacherib’s army. God had planned to fight against Sennacherib, but He waited to do it until after Hezekiah asked Him to do it. God wants His people to bring their concerns to Him and to rely on Him to do His will.
When you face difficult circumstances, it’s not good to try working things out on your own, as Hezekiah did when he paid money to Sennacherib. It is good to ask advice from older, more mature Christians like your teachers, parents, and pastors. But that’s not enough! You should ask God for help. God wants to hear your prayers, and He wants to show His power in response to your prayers.
God powerfully responds to the prayers of His people.
My Response: » When I face difficulties, do I try working things out on my own? Or do I pray for God’s direction and help so that I’ll know how to respond?
Early Tuesday morning, a significant portion of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station along the Dnieper River in Ukraine was destroyed. The reservoir it previously restrained held roughly 18 million cubic meters of water, most of which has now spilled over the remaining walls and flooded much of the area between what’s left of the dam and the city of Kherson, less than fifty miles away. As many as one hundred towns and villages downstream from the dam have either already flooded or are in danger of that fate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it “the largest man-made environmental disaster in Europe in decades.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed those thoughts, describing the dam’s breach as a “monumental humanitarian, economic and ecological catastrophe,” adding that it represented “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
But while we cannot know the full extent of that devastation until the waters recede over the next five to seven days, the damage wrought by the flood could be felt for years to come.
Far-reaching consequences from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam
One of the greatest fears, initially, was that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant upriver from the dam could experience a meltdown since it relied heavily upon the now-depleted reservoir to cool its reactors. It would appear that, at least for a few months, they have sufficient supplies of water in reserve to operate safely, but officials have noted that bringing in water from the outside could be necessary eventually.
The more pressing fear is that the lands along the river will be unusable for quite some time. The reservoir was responsible for irrigating much of Ukraine’s most fertile farmland, and any land that survived the flood could be difficult to rely upon without the reservoir’s reserves.
Considering that, prior to the war, Ukraine provided roughly 16 percent of the world’s corn exports and supplied 40 percent of the grain used by the World Food Program to help feed some of the most impoverished and malnourished people on the planet, the loss of that arable land will be felt around the globe. The rise in wheat prices—up 3 percent in the hours following the dam’s collapse—offers another reminder that we will all feel that impact to some extent.
However, the reservoir was also the primary source of water for Crimea, the region that has been under Russian occupation since 2014.
Given that most experts have blamed Russia for the attack—though the cause is still uncertain as of this writing—many have wondered why the Kremlin would cripple the portion of Ukraine that is of greatest concern to most Russian citizens.
However, Russia is prepared to ensure that the region still gets its water. The difference is that now it will be forced to rely largely on water pumped across the Kerch bridge from the Russian mainland. Consequently, even if Ukraine manages to retake the area, it will be difficult to sever ties with Russia completely.
Did Russia destroy the Nova Kakhovka dam?
Ultimately, most have laid the blame for the dam’s collapse at the feet of the Kremlin.
Last year, Zelensky claimed that the Russians had placed mines on the dam and warned that “there may come a moment when an explosion occurs.” Considering that the invading armies have been in control of the dam and its power plant from the opening days of the war, they would have had ample opportunity to prepare it for sabotage in the event that such an extreme step was deemed helpful to their cause.
However, Ukraine had also carried out test strikes on the dam last year to see if it would be possible to raise the river’s waters enough “to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages.” The tactic was held as a “last resort,” though, and the circumstances of the war have changed enough in the time since that it would make little strategic sense for Ukraine to have attacked the dam. The rising waters and muddy landscape the floods will leave behind are likely to prove to be a great impediment to their attempts at a counteroffensive.
Russia is most likely to blame for the dam’s collapse, either through outright attack or negligence over the last year. The destruction of the dam was not the only attack on civilian infrastructure to make headlines yesterday, though.
The Ukranian plot to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline
News also broke on Tuesday that the CIA learned last June of a Ukrainian plan to sabotage the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline that linked Russia to Germany. The Kremlin was initially held responsible by most Western powers, including the United States, but that belief shifted as the investigation pointed in other directions. And while Ukraine has denied any responsibility for the attack last September, the details in the leaked report align so closely with how the attack took place that it has become increasingly difficult to believe anyone else could have been behind it.
The intelligence report claims that Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer, General Valery Zaluzhny, was given command of the attack so that President Zelensky would have plausible deniability in its aftermath. As such, his comments that the destruction of the pipelines was “a terrorist attack planned by Russia and an act of aggression toward [the European Union]” look both manipulative and damning in retrospect.
The increasing odds that Ukraine was behind that attack do not change the likelihood that Russia was responsible for what took place at the Nova Kakhovka dam, but it does remind us of an important principle to keep in mind when evaluating both the war in Ukraine and complex situations in other realms of life.
A warning against dichotomous thinking
It is human nature to prefer a simple explanation—even when it’s wrong—to a more complex one. As a result, it can be easy to ignore inconvenient truths when they muddy the waters of how we would prefer to see a given situation.
With the war in Ukraine, it is simpler to see Ukrainians as valiant heroes, fighting in defense of their homeland and Russians as the evil invaders bent on destruction. To be sure, there is a good bit of validity to both characterizations.
However, neither side is without fault in this war, and it’s vital that we don’t lose sight of the gray areas in which the truth often resides just because the world seems simpler in black and white.
And that perspective is equally important in other areas of our lives as well.
Take politics, for example. Our country and our culture would be so much healthier if people were willing to see beyond the labels and put in the work to truly understand those who think differently. In the same way, how much healthier would our churches be if we did the same there? How about our families or workplace?
Ultimately, we will be far better witnesses to the One who is the truth (John 14:6) if we are willing to embrace a more nuanced and correct view of the world around us instead of clinging to the simple stereotypes that can so quickly lead us into error.
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
God’s Word tells us that “righteousness exalts a nation” (Proverbs 14:34). God does something interesting in this verse: He combines an individual choice with a corporate organization.
The choices that we make as individuals create a blessing for the entire body. We often think of this in a backwards manner. Some believe that if we can get righteousness on a political platform, it will change everything. Wrong! Righteousness is not a political platform; it is a personal choice.
Righteousness is knowing to do right and following through with right action. It is a choice I make. It is a choice that you make. No candidate, no policy can force us to think and act rightly. Righteousness cannot be legislated. The personal decision to live rightly exalts a nation. If I do right, if you do right, if we all do right corporately, we begin to get better. It starts with you and with me. It is not an outside-in change; it is an inside-out change.
Change begins when we examine our lives, when we ask God to search our hearts and reveal any wicked way that He finds in us (Psalm 139:23-24). When we acknowledge where we have crossed the line, where we have crashed through the borders that He has erected for our best lives, we can repent and run back within the borders of blessing.
Let righteousness begin with you. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Re-establish the borders of God in your life. Return to His Word and His commandments. Change begins in you!
Blessing:
Heavenly Father, search my heart. Show me the places where I am in opposition to You and Your Word. Forgive me, and lead me back to right standing with You. I long to live and move and have my being in You. In the name of Jesus… Amen.
Robert K. Greenleaf, born in 1904, spent four decades working in corporate management for one of America’s largest telecommunications companies. Toward the end of his tenure there, he became disenfranchised with corporate management philosophy. He saw it as a top-down, authoritarian, and power-based approach. So he resigned and founded a non-profit to research the idea of servant leadership. His work planted seeds of change that continue bearing fruit to this day.
The style of leadership Greenleaf reacted to—authoritarian, top-down—was the style Jesus identified in His day among Gentile rulers: They “lord it over” and “exercise authority over” their subjects (Mark 10:42). But Jesus demonstrated a different style: He came not to be served by others but to serve those He came to save. And His style was evident throughout His life and ministry. His service was sacrificial, costly, and humble—but it changed the world. And God “highly exalted Him” and lifted up His Name (Philippians 2:9).
Look for ways today to lead by serving. It’s a simple but powerful way to show Jesus to the world.
Our humility serves us falsely, when it leads us to shrink from any duty. J. R. Miller
Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy.
Shortly before he died, Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, recorded a song called “Party.” Here are some of the lyrics: “We were up all night, singing and giving a chase… the next morning everybody was hung over.”
In the refrain he repeatedly implores his party mates to “come back and play.”
Don’t be pulled into the illusion that drinking and partying will make you a happy person. Christians should live apart from that.
Romans 13 tells us, “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living” (verses 11–12 NLT).
Here’s how the J. B. Phillips New Testament puts it: “The present time is of the highest importance—it is time to wake up to reality. Every day brings God’s salvation nearer. The night is nearly over, the day has almost dawned. Let us therefore fling away the things that men do in the dark, let us arm ourselves for the fight of the day!”
That is good advice. Don’t chase after those things. Proverbs 20:1 says, “Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls. Those led astray by drink cannot be wise” (NLT). Eventually the party will be over. Then where will you be?
I’m reminded of the great hymn of the church that says, “On Christ, the solid Rock I stand—all other ground is sinking sand.”
This world offers you cheap thrills that never will meet your deepest needs. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon arrived at the same conclusion: life is empty without God.
Here are some vacation tips: The next time you’re traveling through Middleton, Wisconsin, you might want to visit the National Mustard Museum. For those of us who feel that one mustard is plenty, this place amazes, featuring 6,090 different mustards from around the world. In McLean, Texas, you might be surprised to run across the Barbed Wire Museum—or more surprised there is such a passion for, well . . . fencing.
It’s telling what kinds of things we choose to make important. One writer says you could do worse than spend an afternoon at the Banana Museum (though we beg to differ).
We laugh in fun, yet it’s sobering to admit we maintain our own museums—places of the heart where we celebrate certain idols of our own making. God instructs us, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3) and “you shall not bow down to them or worship them” (v. 5). But we do anyway, creating our own graven gods, perhaps of wealth or lust or success—or of some other fill-in-the-blank “treasure” we worship in secret.
It’s easy to read this passage and miss the point. Yes, God holds us accountable for the museums of sin we create. But He also speaks of “showing love to a thousand generations of those who love [Him]” (v. 6). He knows how trivial our “museums” really are. He knows our true satisfaction lies only in our love for Him.
“Putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness . . . receive the word” (James 1:21).
You cannot receive God’s Word and harbor sin at the same time.
When the psalmist said, “I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy word” (Ps. 119:101), he was acknowledging a key principle of spiritual growth: you must set aside sin if you expect to benefit from God’s Word. Peter was expressing the same thought when he said, “Putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Pet. 2:1-2). Likewise, James admonished us to put off sin and receive the Word (James 1:21).
Neither James nor Peter were addressing unbelievers, because without Christ, people have no capacity to set sin aside or receive God’s Word. But we as Christians are characterized by our ability to do both, and must continually purify our lives through confession of sin, repentance, and right choices. That’s why Paul said, “Just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Rom. 6:19).
The Greek word translated “putting aside” in James 1:21 originally meant taking off dirty, soiled clothes. “Filthiness” translates a Greek word that was used of moral vice as well as dirty clothes. Its root word was sometimes used of ear wax, which impedes a person’s hearing. Similarly, sin impedes reception of the Word. “Wickedness” speaks of any evil intent or desire. Together they stress the importance of setting aside all evil actions and intentions.
Simply stated, you should never presume on God’s grace by approaching His Word with unconfessed sin. David prayed, “Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous [deliberate] sins; let them not rule over me; then I shall be blameless” (Ps. 19:13). He wanted to be pure before the Lord. I pray that you share his desire and will always receive the Word in purity.
Suggestions for Prayer
Memorize Psalm 19:14. Make it your prayer as you study God’s Word.
For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort] in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence).
Sometimes we have to make a few adjustments in our lifestyle to follow wisdom. We may have to say no to too much activity. Hebrews 11:1 teaches that faith is the assurance of things we do not see now. But, like God, we can call “those things that be not, as though they are” (see Romans 4:17). This spiritual principle applies in the negative realm as well as in the positive realm. So, we may need to make some adjustments to the things we say.
If you feel that it is hard to get up in the morning, don’t say, “I am too tired.” Get all of that weak, tired, wimpy, quitter, give-up talk out of your vocabulary. Instead, say, “Because the Lord is my strength, I can do whatever I need to do today.”
Prayer of the Day: Lord, help me to follow wisdom and make whatever adjustments to my lifestyle that need to be made. Help me to speak words of faith and trust in Your strength to overcome any challenges that come my way, amen.
“The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.” (Psalm 10:16)
“I’m king of the mountain!” shouted Sammy, as his younger siblings scrambled up the huge mound of dirt to dethrone him. The Rettus children were spending an afternoon playing King of the Mountain. To be king of the mountain, one person had to stand on the top of a designated mountain (a pile of snow, a sand dune, or a mound of dirt) without letting his siblings push him down. Whoever was the lone person on top of the mountain was king, ruling over all the others.
Scripture tells us that God is King. He is King of all the earth (Psalm 47:7); He is King above all gods (Psalm 95:5); He is King forever (Psalm 10:16); He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16). God reigns over all, and no man can overthrown His rule.
When playing King of the Mountain, the younger Rettus children would plot to overthrow Sammy. Danny and Joey would use dirt bombs and large reeds to distract him, while the Jon would charge up to overthrow the king. But no matter how hard they tried, Sammy usually ended up on the top of the mound shouting, “I’m king of the mountain!”
Wicked men live their lives as though God could be overthrown. It’s like they’re throwing dirt bombs and using sticks to try to defeat God – the King over all. They attempt to fight against God. But in the end, God will always be king, and the wicked will perish for eternity.
Do you serve God as your King? Or do you live in rebellion under His rule? Do you humbly follow His commands in Scripture to obey your parents (Ephesians 6:1), to love your enemies (Matthew 5:44), and to submit to authority (Hebrews 13:17), or do you ignore His Word? Each day you have a choice: you can live in submission to God your King, or you can live in rebellion against the King of all the earth.
Because God is king, you must submit to His rule.
My Response: » Do I obey God as my King? Do I follow all of His commandments?
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.
God has given us the gift of borders. As long as we live within the boundaries He has designated in His Word, we receive His blessings, His provision, and protection. The moment that we step across and outside of those borders, we stand against His will and undefended.
Before a mother even knows that she is pregnant, the child has blood. God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). Before the man and woman ever conceived a child, before the mother even knew that she was carrying a baby, God knew that child.
Before a child ever draws a breath, God sees in them his image. God has chosen us to be the light of the world, to be the salt of the earth, right here and right now. The King of Glory has forgiven us, the debt of our sin. He paid the price to set us free when we had no ability to do so ourselves. Choose to live within the border of blessing. Tear down the barricade between yourself and God to restore His ultimate purpose in your life.
Blessing:
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace. May God take you through the problem to the provision. May you, with bold relentless faith, go straight through the problem and receive the promise of God. Let this day and the days that follow be days of triumph and victory because God is a faithful God who will never fail you. In Jesus’ name, we receive the answer, Amen.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed [David] in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. 1 Samuel 16:13
On the day of His ascension to heaven, Jesus prepared His disciples for the task that was before them. He explained the Old Testament Scriptures to them (Luke 24:45), He outlined their mission (Luke 24:47), and He told them they would receive “power from on high” (Luke 24:49) from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). Thus, He revealed the two dynamics that would equip all who would follow Him: Word and Spirit.
The equipping of believers by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit became the hallmarks of Christian discipleship. By the Spirit, we are given gifts, abilities, and traits to manifest the ministry of Christ in the world (Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Galatians 5). And by the Word of God we are taught, challenged, corrected, and trained so we “may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Do you want to be useful to God in ministry? Yield to the Spirit of God and live in the Word of God, and you will be thoroughly equipped.
Every man who is divinely called to the ministry is divinely equipped. A. W. Pink
It isn’t that unusual anymore to hear about another rock star who overdosed or another Hollywood celebrity who has checked into a drug rehab unit—or, tragically, has committed suicide.
It’s hard for us to understand how people living in a Tinseltown world could be miserable. But they have the same problems we have. The difference is they have a lot of the things that we dream of, yet they see the emptiness and futility of it all.
Solomon saw this as well. He wrote, “Everything is wearisome beyond description. No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied. No matter how much we hear, we are not content. History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new” (Ecclesiastes 1:8–9 NLT).
It’s the conclusion that everyone will come to eventually. Of course, we can discover it the hard way, or we can discover it the easy way. We can take God’s word for it, or we can foolishly chase after all the things that, in the end, will leave us empty.
And some people who go down that road will lose their lives in the process.
You don’t have to find out the hard way. You can come to God, and He will fill the void in your life. We all were born with an emptiness inside. No earthly relationship will fill it. No amount of sex or possessions will fill it. Nor will knowledge or morality or even good, clean living.
We were designed to know God. And until you come into a relationship with Him, you will keep coming up empty, time and again, just as Solomon did.
When you turn to God in faith and let Him forgive your sins, He will fill the void in your life—a void that only He can fill.
There were two frustrating aspects of megachurch pastor Andy Stanley’s recent advocacy of theistic evolution.
The first, as already documented on these pages, was that Stanley’s position is at odds with the biblical story of creation, which he, as a pastor, is charged to defend. While the Northpoint Church Community head tried his hardest to synchronize Genesis with Darwin, the plain reading of Scripture doesn’t allow such a harmonization to take place.
The second frustrating aspect, which will be the focus of this article, is that those who preemptively disavow the creation account so as not to be seen in conflict with “the science,” are, ironically, not keeping up with the “the science” themselves as it pertains to evolutionary claims.
Far from discrediting theism, the latest scientific literature continues to drive a stake through the heart of Darwin’s original hypothesis.
This new evidence comes by way of an international journal called Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, which is a peer-reviewed publication established in 1950. It seeks to offer “informative and critical reviews of recent advances in different aspects of biophysics and molecular biology.”
We’re not talking about Internet randos posting on Wikipedia.
The journal published a paper not too long ago with this title: “Neo-Darwinism Must Mutate to Survive.” It was penned by one scholar at the University of Missouri-Columbia and another at the University of Texas at Arlington.
The authors waste no time in getting to their main idea:
“Darwinian evolution is a 19th century descriptive concept that itself has evolved. Selection by survival of the fittest was a captivating idea. Microevolution was biologically and empirically verified by discovery of mutations.
“There has been limited progress to the modern synthesis. The central focus of this perspective is to provide evidence to document that selection based on survival of the fittest is insufficient for other than microevolution.”
As a reminder, “microevolution” concerns the variation that exists within a particular species. It could be the result of environmental factors, like impacts on a local climate, or it could be man-made, as is the case with animal breeding.
The point is that this variation takes place within a specific group. Microevolution does not account for an entirely new species. Fish classifications are numerous, for instance, but they remain fish; they don’t mutate into frogs, crocodiles, or birds.
With that background, why do Olen Brown, who holds a Ph.D. in microbiology, and David Hullender, who is a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, assert that “selection based on survival of the fittest is insufficient for other than microevolution?”
In short, it’s mathematically preposterous to infer macroevolutionary developments from microevolutionary observations.
They write that macroevolution has “shown to be probabilistically highly implausible (on the order of 10-50) when based on selection by survival of the fittest.”
Now, if you’re like me and still have no idea how you passed your high school precalculus class, you see a number like 10-50 and your brain shuts off in protest. Yet unlike my high school days, there are currently online tutorials that put the concept of negative exponents in layman’s terms.
You can see for yourself how many zeroes are to the right of the decimal point when calculating ten to the power of negative 50 as a possible outcome; basically, it’s a prospect that we non-mathematicians would call a … ridiculously absurd likelihood.
Brown and Hullender are distinguished university employees, so their conclusion is more academic sounding. But if you read the following paragraph carefully, you certainly get that ridiculously absurd likelihood vibe:
“Any overall mechanistic explanation of the origin and evolution of life ultimately must satisfy two challenges: the transition from non-life to life, and the blossoming of life forms that is so extreme as to appear outrageous.
“Evolution of a few flowers on a hillside is reasonably explained by mutation and selection; it stretches logic to explain the millions of extremely diverse species seen currently and in the fossil record.”
The duo note that such “probability assessment has largely been overlooked” for the simple fact that “evolution is generally accepted as scientifically established.”
The consensus attitude is, “It happened, we are here, so the probability is one.”
Expressed differently, today’s scientific community has assumed Darwinian evolution to be true because they are philosophically hostile to a theistic alternative.
Outspoken atheists like Richard Dawkins, for example, are so intent on making sense of “intelligent design” apart from God that they have been reduced to spit-balling guesses about space aliens or multiverse phenomena as potential answers to our fundamental questions about life’s origin.
This atheistic pre-commitment is less about science and more about absolving themselves (in their minds, at least) of accountability to a Holy God who requires our obedience.
Mathematical implausibility aside, proponents of Darwinian evolution are running up against another obstacle.
Charles Darwin’s theory, remember, is built on a model of transitionary phases, wherein lower lifeforms evolve into higher, more advanced ones through the method of natural selection and survival of the fittest. This process, we’re told, has taken place through incremental intervals spanning millions of years, eventually producing the most superior organism to date: humans.
This theory, it turns out, makes a big assumption: That these transitionary phases improve an organism’s chance of survival.
This assumption, however, is unwarranted, as Brown and Hullender maintain:
“[S]urvival of the fittest is illogical when proposed as adequate for selecting the origination of all complex, major, new body-types and metabolic functions because the multiple changes in multiple genomes that are required have intermediate stages without advantage; selection would not reasonably occur, and disadvantage or death would logically prevail.”
To paraphrase: What advantage does a half-evolved eye offer for survival? Or how about a three-quarters evolved lung? Or a two-thirds evolved genitalia? How do mammals even reproduce without fully functioning sex organs?
This is what Brown and Hullender are getting at when they assert that “survival of the fittest,” contrary to popular acceptance, is a death warrant to its recipient because the “evolved” organism is left physically vulnerable during these “intermediate stages.”
It’s as if creatures were first created in a mature, completed state.
The authors of “Neo-Darwinism Must Mutate to Survive” follow up with this bold statement:
“It is our perspective that the burden is too great for survival of the fittest to select evolutionary changes that accomplish all evolutionary novelty. Thus, evolution lacks a sufficient mechanism for multifactorial selections because a process that looks forward, is nonrandom, deterministic, or occurs by an unknown biological process, is required.”
Those words “nonrandom” and “deterministic” are important.
In context, they mean that our vastly fine-tuned universe cannot be explained rationally by a materialistic worldview that is premised on random, “non-purposeful” acts.
In Romans 1:20 the Apostle Paul states that God’s “invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made,” leaving us all “without excuse.”
Looks like modern-day science is reluctantly catching up.
I recently came across a helpful word: wintering. Just as winter is a time of slowing down in much of the natural world, author Katherine May uses this word to describe our need to rest and recuperate during life’s “cold” seasons. I found the analogy helpful after losing my father to cancer, which sapped me of energy for months. Resentful of this forced slowing down, I fought against my winter, praying summer’s life would return. But I had much to learn.
Ecclesiastes famously says there’s “a season for every activity under the heavens”—a time to plant and to harvest, to weep and to laugh, to mourn and to dance (3:1–4). I had read these words for years but only started to understand them in my wintering season. For though we have little control over them, each season is finite and will pass when its work is done. And while we can’t always fathom what it is, God is doing something significant in us through them (v. 11). My time of mourning wasn’t over. When it was, dancing would return. Just as plants and animals don’t fight winter, I needed to rest and let it do its renewing work.
“Lord,” a friend prayed, “would You do Your good work in Sheridan during this difficult season.” It was a better prayer than mine. For in God’s hands, seasons are purposeful things. Let’s submit to His renewing work in each one.
“Let everyone be . . . slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:19-20).
If you resent God’s Word, you cannot grow in righteousness.
Have you ever started reading your Bible, thinking everything was fine between you and the Lord, only to have the Word suddenly cut deep into your soul to expose some sin you had neglected or tried to hide? That commonly happens because God seeks to purge sin in His children. The Holy Spirit uses the Word to penetrate the hidden recesses of the heart to do His convicting and purifying work. How you respond to that process is an indicator of the genuineness of your faith.
“Anger” in James 1:19-20 refers to a negative response to that process. It is a deep internal resentment accompanied by an attitude of rejection. Sometimes that resentment can be subtle. Paul described those who “will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires” (2 Tim. 4:3). They’re the people who drift from church to church in search of someone who will tell them what they want to hear—or a congregation that wants a pastor who will make them feel good about themselves instead of preaching the Word and setting a high standard of holiness.
Sometimes resentment toward the Word ceases to be subtle and turns to open hostility. That happened when the crowd Stephen confronted covered their ears, drove him out of the city, and stoned him to death (Acts 7:57-60). Countless others throughout history have felt the fatal blows of those whose resentment of God’s truth turned to hatred for His people.
Receiving the Word includes being quick to hear what it says and slow to anger when it disagrees with your opinions or confronts your sin. Is that your attitude? Do you welcome its reproof and heed its warnings, or do you secretly resent it? When a Christian brother or sister confronts a sin in your life, do you accept or reject their counsel?
Suggestions for Prayer
Thank God for the power of His Word to convict you and drive you to repentance. Welcome its correction with humility and thanksgiving.
For Further Study
Read 2 Timothy 4:1-5, noting the charge Paul gave to Timothy and his reason for giving it.
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God’s power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance. . .. For in the Gospel, a righteousness that God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. As it is written, the man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith.
— Romans 1:16-17 (AMPC)
Faith is a word the apostle Paul used often in his writing. When writing to the Thessalonians, he wanted to know about their faith. While the word faith means belief or absolute trust, it’s more than that—the word also implies loyalty and commitment.
Faith means being convinced that something is true. In 1 Corinthians 15:17, the apostle told the Corinthians that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, their faith was meaningless. He was saying that all they believed was utterly useless. True faith acknowledges that the message of Jesus’ death and resurrection is true.
True faith begins when we’re receptive—when we’re willing to listen. It starts with a kind of mental assent—it seems reasonable that it’s true. But that’s not true faith. True faith happens when we say, “Not only does it make sense to me, but I’m willing to stake my life on it.”
Paul taught from Habakkuk 2:4, saying that the just—the righteous—shall live by faith. One way to think of the just is to think of those who were “justified,” or made right, by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. If we are justified, it means that God treats us as though we are not and have never been sinners. He treats us as His own—His beloved children. Instead of being God’s enemies, we’re His friends. Instead of fighting Him, we serve Him.
When God calls us just, or righteous, we enter into a relationship of love, confidence, and friendship. We need not fear or worry because there is no punishment for us.
When Paul says in Romans 1:17 (AMPC), the man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith, he means that those of us who have been made right with God live by our faith. That is, we live by our trust in the God who reaches out to us.
This is where many must fight the wiles of Satan. Instead of focusing on all God has done for us, they listen to the devil whisper, “Do you remember when you lost your temper?” “You’re worried about paying your bills, and if you worry, you don’t have faith, right?” “If you’re supposed to be a Christian, how could you have said what you did?”
The torments are there, and the devil never passes up the opportunity to remind us of past failures. All have failed, and we will continue to fail, but when we do, we can repent and move on.
I went through a particularly difficult time several years ago when there was absolutely no joy or peace in my life. Unhappiness filled most of my days. I repeatedly asked the Lord what was wrong with me, really wanting to know what my problem was . . . no kidding around. I was working so hard to please the Lord and trying to be the kind of Christian I thought I should be, but I certainly didn’t feel like any progress was being made.
Then one day, I came across Romans 15:13 (AMPC) in a box of scripture cards: May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope. That was it! I got it!
I had plunged into doubt and unbelief, allowing the devil to torment me with his evil lies. As a result, I had become negative, grouchy, short-tempered, and impatient. I was making myself miserable, and the devil was thrilled at the stronghold he had over me!
This scripture changed all of that old thinking! I knew the answer. Jesus loved me so much that He not only forgave all my sins of the past, but He also looked ahead and forgave me for those moments of weakness when I’d fail in the future. I’m not referring to deliberate sin, but to human weaknesses, those times when I just don’t live up to all the truth I know.
“Just think,” I told my husband, “2000 years ago Jesus not only died on the cross for all my sins before I even knew Him, but for all of my sins and failures until the day I meet Him face to face.” That was such a powerful thought to me.
Then I pondered the words of Paul quoted at the beginning of this devotion: For in the gospel, a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith] (Romans 1:17 AMPC). I finally understood the concept of living from faith to faith. I don’t have to allow Satan to sneak in with questions or unbelief. I can live every moment moving from faith to more faith to more faith.
Prayer of the Day: Lord Jesus, I am in awe of Your love for me, which is so great and so powerful that You not only died for all my sins before I was born, but You’ve provided for all my weak moments in the future. I am so thankful to You for Your love, and I rejoice in Your holy name, amen.
The Bible is replete with commands like this, urging us to pray without pause. This might sound like an overwhelming expectation, and we may wonder whether we could ever meet it, or even desire to. But perhaps if we see our need more clearly, we will be motivated to pray more consistently.
Our need for prayer becomes most obvious when we understand that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself believed in the absolute necessity of prayer. At the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, we have this account of Jesus: “Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). Even for the Son of God, prayer was important enough business to attend to early and not to allow the demands of the day to intrude upon.
Jesus knew that “he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed” (Matthew 16:21). Even so, in the Garden of Gethsemane we overhear Him praying for the cup of God’s wrath to pass from Him if it is His Father’s will (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42). The Son of God clearly knew that He needed to go before His Father. The writer to the Hebrews summarizes it perfectly for us: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence” (Hebrews 5:7).
Surely it cannot be that prayer was a necessity for Jesus and yet is simply optional for us. If anything, it must be the very reverse! If the Son of God Himself needed to spend time concentrated on prayer to His Father, then how much more does the one who follows after Christ! Prayer is simply too great a privilege for any Christian to ignore and too great a necessity for any of us to neglect. So, ask His Spirit to show you the wonder of prayer and to help you enter into it. When you recognize that there is no end to God’s capacity to help or His willingness to do so, and that there is no moment in which you do not need His help, you will find yourself “praying at all times.”
Questions for Thought
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.” (1 Timothy 1:12-13)
In this verse, you see Paul speaking about how God granted him mercy for his past sins because he did them “ignorantly in unbelief.” This is a miracle God does for each new believer. All past sins are forgiven by the Lord and that person is now guilt-free. The new follower now has power through the Holy Spirit to pray and hear God, to read the Bible and understand what it says! This great power was unavailable before the person accepted Christ as his Savior. What an advantage a believer and follower of Christ has over those who do not believe! When a believer acts upon what the Lord has taught, that follower has perfect power from God.
These verses are also a warning for those who have this power – for those who are not “ignorant or unbelieving.” When a believer sins, he has failed to use the power he was free to access. When an unbeliever sins, he doesn’t have access to this power. God’s mercy is great enough to forgive and wipe away the sins of both believers and unbelievers, but the believer’s sin was done in knowledge, and it etches a deeper wound. The believer’s sin can sever the trust of other believers, leaving the person with less responsibility, respect, and influence in God’s work on earth. More importantly, if the sin done in knowledge continues, the believer starts to loose contact with God and God’s work in his heart.
God loves all people, but He cannot give His power to those who are not willing to follow. Have you noticed a loss in power? Even a small loss is big – get back to learning and understanding right away. God wants you using His power for all good things in your life and in the lives of those around you. No sin is worth missing out on God’s power in your life.
God makes His power available to those who are right with Him.
My Response: » Am I failing to make use of God’s power by refusing to acknowledge my sins to God? » Are there sins I need to confess and forsake so that the Spirit can enable me to do His work?
I remember my visit to Beijing’s massive Tiananmen Square some years ago as if it were yesterday. The area is named for a gate in the wall of the Imperial City built in 1417; the square was built in 1651 and enlarged fourfold in the 1950s. It is intended to impress visitors with its size (it measures more than fifty-three acres) and thus with the grandeur and power of the Chinese ruling dynasty.
Its political purpose was tested as never before, however, when nearly a million protesters crowded into central Beijing in May 1989 to call for greater democracy. Yesterday marked the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the day when Chinese troops and security police stormed through the square, firing into the crowds. Perhaps thousands were killed; as many as ten thousand were arrested.
What kind of government fires on its own citizens?
The kind that violated maritime laws in the Taiwan Strait two days ago in what US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called an act of “coercion and bullying.” The incident marked the second major provocation by China’s military in the span of a week.
The kind that props up North Korea as it continues to develop nuclear warheads that, according to its latest claims, could be capable of striking South Korea and Japan. The kind that supports Russia’s immoral war in Ukraine with economic aid and military technology. And the kind that serves as Iran’s largest trade partner as the latter moves closer to obtaining nuclear weapons than ever before.
“You are not destined to live in quiet times”
Imagine a future in which three nuclear-armed powers (along with a fourth if Iran fulfills its nuclear ambitions) are aligned against the West. Add the warning last week from technology experts that artificial intelligence could lead to the extinction of humanity. And the partisan political divisions that are deeper and more vitriolic than they have been in decades.
The fact is, as Walter Russell Mead recently noted, “You are not destined to live in quiet times.”
Mead is the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal, a Strategy and Statesmanship fellow at Hudson Institute, and a foreign affairs and humanities professor at Bard College. In my view, he is one of the most perceptive geopolitical analysts working today.
One factor he identifies in “making sense of our times” is the widening gap between technological advances and cultural values. Mead writes: “Our political parties and institutions took shape long before the internet and social media existed. Our government bureaucracies, our schools, and our legal system were all built for conditions that no longer exist. . . . Many of our political ideas and ideological assumptions also reflect the conditions of an earlier era.
“If society’s operating system is running on the equivalent of a long-outdated version of Windows, that makes real reform difficult to imagine, and harder still to carry out.”
Mead concludes: “While the ever-accelerating and ascending wave of human progress has brought us to peaks of achievement and affluence that our ancestors could scarcely imagine, it has both failed to keep us safe from the most dangerous predators of all and—to the degree that the rate of progress has become a major force of destabilization—progress itself may now be the greatest source of danger humans face.”
A culture at a crossroads
As China’s autocratic dictatorship widens its influence and enforces its will on more and more of the world, we are seeing Mead’s thesis in action. A government bereft of biblical or even objective morality, one that exists solely to protect its leaders and advance its national interests even at the expense of its own citizens, shows us what happens when technological progress outstrips moral boundaries.
As America moves further and further from biblical morality and objective truth, we are illustrating the same warning culturally and spiritually: “Progress itself may now be the greatest source of danger humans face.”
Our “progress” with human sexuality is destroying families through adultery, damaging minds through pornography, and deceiving generations of impressionable children and teens through LGBTQ ideology. Our “progress” with artificial intelligence is, in the view of many experts, threatening our future as a civilization. Our “progress” with information technology is enabling us to consume only the political perspectives with which we agree while demonizing our political opponents.
At such a crossroads, you and I hold the only hope for a flourishing and redemptive future.
The choice that defines our future
Perhaps Tim Keller’s most famous quote was his observation, “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
I invite you to embrace and proclaim the two biblical facts Dr. Keller noted.
One: Humans are so “sinful and flawed” that we have no assurance of a better future of our own making. Left to our own devices, we invent nuclear technology that powers cities but also destroys them. We create innovations that improve our lives immeasurably but also threaten our survival as a species. And, whatever our particular experiences with these realities, we will all die one day (if the Lord tarries) and face eternity.
Two: Humans are so “loved and accepted in Jesus Christ” that, when we put our hope in him, he is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). When we make Christ the king of our lives and encourage everyone we know to do the same, our future is as bright as his omnipotent love.
Our choice between these two realities defines our future as a nation and as individuals.
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God created us in His image. You are an expression of the manifested genius of God. He looked at this world and thought that this planet would be better off with you in it. He divinely designed you. Before He even formed you in the womb, He knew you (Jeremiah 1:5).
The book of Acts declares that God determined the seasons of our existence, that He set the boundaries of our lives so that we might seek Him and find Him because He is never far from us (Acts 17:26-27). He chose you. He appointed you for a purpose. He placed you on this earth for this specific time. God made a choice when He created you!
God’s heart is towards people. He sent His Son to redeem all of us. Jesus died to save us, to bring us into right relationship with God, into the parameters of the borders that God has established. It is time to point back to the unchanging borders that God has created. Let us fulfill His expectations of us!
Blessing:
Heavenly Father, I acknowledge You as my Creator. Please forgive me for all the places that I have fallen short of Your expectations, where I have sinned. Please wash me clean and re-establish Your borders in my life. Empower me to live according to Your will…not mine. In the name of Jesus… Amen.
DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION 