As the death toll continues to rise in Maui with at least a thousand people unaccounted for, some of the survivors’ stories are beyond horrific. Meanwhile, officials are warning that airborne pollutants created by the wildfires remain in areas devastated by the conflagration and are dangerous to humans. Toxic particles from burning homes, pipes, propane tanks, and cars can contaminate the water system and can affect the lungs, eyes, and skin.

In other words, what you cannot see can be as dangerous as what you can.

For example, unless you live in Montgomery County, Maryland (just north of Washington, DC), you may not know about a lawsuit being brought by parents seeking to shield their children from sexual LGBTQ materials. Parents from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish backgrounds have rallied together and are accusing the school district of denying them the right to determine the religious education of their children.

Books at the center of the dispute are for Pre-K and elementary-school levels. Two of the objectionable books are Pride Puppy, a “queer-centric alphabet book,” and Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, in which a girl’s uncle marries his boyfriend. Both illustrate the ongoing quest to normalize LGBTQ behavior starting with our youngest children. The superintendent and school board chose not to notify parents or allow them to opt their children out of these and other LGBTQ materials in class.

Then there’s Austin, Texas, where the school district encouraged staff, students, and their families to attend the annual Austin Pride Parade last Saturday. The district provided free shuttles to the event and recommended that students and their families wear “pride costumes and rainbow colors.”

Culture wars know no bounds

Does the incessant drumbeat of cultural opposition to biblical morality discourage you? It does me. Since I don’t live in Maryland or Austin, I’m tempted to ignore these stories. But that would be like ignoring the ongoing tragedy in Lahaina just because I don’t live on Maui.

Not to mention the fact that the culture wars know no geographical boundaries. For example, activists want to normalize and legalize LGBTQ behavior across the country while stigmatizing and criminalizing opposition wherever it exists. This is why Christians need a way to resist our secularized, anti-Christian culture while impacting our nation with God’s redeeming love and unchanging truth.

The key to both is found in a commitment that is transformative for our souls and empowering for our witness.

On Monday we explored the contrast between a religion about God and a relationship with him, noting that the latter is God’s intention for each of us. We are each called to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), a foundational commandment Jesus considered essential to all the rest.

Today, let’s take a step further: there is a difference between loving God and being in love with him.

“I seek not a long life, but a full one”

Those who commit adultery or view pornography may say they love their spouse, but they cannot be in love with them while doing so. I may love my friend, but I cannot be in love with him while deceiving him.

This is one way Christianity is different from all other world religions: we can have a personal, intimate relationship with our Lord as if he were a living person, because he is. What’s more, his Spirit lives in us to guide and empower us in this relationship.

It is as if your spouse were living inside your body and helping you to love them today.

Such passionate, personal intimacy with Jesus explains Paul’s sacrificial zeal to know Christ and make him known at all costs (Philippians 3:10). It explains John’s worship on Patmos sixty years after his best friend returned to heaven (Revelation 1:10). It explains martyred missionary Jim Elliot’s prayer, “Consume my life, my God, for it is Thine. I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.” And his famous testimony: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Such passion for Jesus empowers us to stand boldly yet compassionately for his word and will. It transforms us in ways that attract our lost culture to our Lord. It is the key to living victoriously in this dark season in human history.

“What an immeasurably profound love!”

How can you and I be more in love with Jesus today than ever before?

First, ask the Holy Spirit to manifest love for Christ in your heart. Since love is a “fruit” of the Spirit, it is most powerfully produced by him (Galatians 5:22).

Second, do what love does. Love is a commitment before it is an emotion. Nowhere does the Bible describe how it feels to be in love with Jesus, but all through the New Testament we are told what we will do when we love him passionately: we will obey his word (John 14:15), pray with thanksgiving daily (1 Thessalonians 5:17–19), love others (1 John 4:7), and serve them sacrificially (John 15:13).

Third, remember Jesus’ sacrificial love for you. St. Catherine of Siena (1347–80) prayed: “Moved by love and wishing to reconcile the human race to yourself, you gave us your only-begotten Son. He became our mediator and our justice by taking on all our injustice and sin out of obedience to your will, eternal Father, just as you willed that he take on our human nature.

“What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down from the heights of his divinity to the depths of our humanity. Can anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?”

What about yours today?

Denison Forum

On April 4 of this year, former President Donald Trump was indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for his role in paying hush money to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 election, the first time in US history a former president has faced criminal charges.

On June 8, he became the first former president charged with federal crimes when he was indicted on thirty-seven felony counts related to “willful retention” of national security information after leaving the White House. Three additional charges were filed in late July.

On August 1, he was indicted for alleged efforts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 election.

This morning we are learning that he is facing a fourth indictment. A grand jury in Atlanta has charged Mr. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and other allies with operating a criminal enterprise that attempted to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Georgia.

Has our government been weaponized?

CNN reports, “There is a deep and sincere belief among many Republicans that the multiple indictments against Trump are proof of his claims that the US government has been weaponized to persecute him by Democrats who fear his return to the White House.” As evidence, the article adds, “The country has never seen federal prosecutions of a potential major party nominee effectively under the auspices of the administration of his possible general election opponent.”

Mr. Trump’s supporters also point to the now-disproven allegations of collusion in the Russian investigation and the recently collapsed plea deal for the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Many also oppose the naming of David Weiss, the US Attorney for the District of Delaware, as special counsel in the Hunter Biden administration, viewing it as further evidence of political collusion.

I remember when the shoe was on the other foot. After five justices who had been nominated by Republicans to the US Supreme Court stopped the recount in the 2000 presidential election, resulting in victory for George W. Bush, many Democrats complained of political bias in the “stolen” election. Many opponents refused to consider Mr. Bush the US president.

Is America “too far gone”?

The viability of any democracy depends on the degree to which the people trust the processes and institutions by which they are governed.

When sizable parts of the nation become convinced that instruments of government can be weaponized for political purposes, some give up on the process, choosing not to run for office, vote for candidates, or otherwise participate in their democracy. I often hear from people who have stopped watching the news or paying attention to “anything coming out of Washington,” convinced that America’s governance is “too far gone” to be redeemed.

By contrast, some view their political opponents as the enemies of democracy, convinced that they must do whatever it takes to defeat them so as to preserve America for future generations. The ends justify the means in this regard: if the “other side” has weaponized its political and financial resources, we must do the same.

And some are not convinced that things are so bad that we should abandon hope in our democracy or vilify and attack our political opponents. But they concede that the unprecedented indictments of Donald Trump mean that our democracy is on unprecedented political ground with an uncertain future.

There’s a fourth way to view the current state of American democracy, one I invite you to embrace with me today.

“Man becomes his own measure”

Any government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” as Abraham Lincoln so eloquently described us, is only as viable as the people. And yet Scripture says of the human race: “They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 53:3).

As a result, we should not be surprised when our leaders act like the people who elected them. Whether you believe Mr. Trump is guilty of the crimes with which he is charged or the victim of a political conspiracy, you are accusing either a former US president or some of America’s highest governmental officials of significant moral failings.

The current character of our governance reflects the current character of our nation. Our post-Christian culture has abandoned belief in objective truth and morality, biblical authority, and the relevance of the Christian worldview. Many consider basic, orthodox biblical beliefs to be dangerous to our society.

Christians should not be surprised that we are where we are as a result. Consequently, rather than abandon hope in our democracy, this is time to redouble our efforts as Christians to redeem it.

This means that we pray fervently for a fifth great awakening that would transform our nation morally and spiritually. We pray for our leaders as Scripture commands us (1 Timothy 2:1–2), asking God to help them know and follow his will in serving our nation. We participate in our governance as godly citizens (cf. Romans 13:1–7). And we model the Christian civility we want others to exhibit (cf. Galatians 5:22–23).

Evangelist Myles Munroe was right: “Democracy without God is man’s worship and elevation of himself and his own intelligence or humanism, where man becomes his own measure of morality, judgment, and justice.”

Let’s pray and work for a democracy where God’s word becomes our measure of morality, judgment, and justice. If you believe this is impossible, you’re right in human terms. But remember Jesus’ words: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

It is always too soon to give up on God.

Denison Forum