Whom should we blame for the confusing state of American politics?

Christians.

But not for the reasons you might think.

Good news and bad news for the winners

Donald Trump won last night’s New Hampshire Republican primary. This is good news for his campaign in a variety of ways:

• In twelve of the last fourteen elections, the Republican who won the New Hampshire primary went on to become the party’s nominee.
• No Republican candidate has ever won the first two states and then lost the nomination.
• Though Nikki Haley vowed to stay in the race, Mr. Trump leads her nationally, 67 percent to 12 percent.

Does this mean his path to the nomination is secure?

Not exactly:

• He is facing legal battles that threaten his eligibility to run.
• In one poll, 45 percent of Republican respondents said they would not support him if he were convicted of a felony.
• He is one of only a handful of ex-presidents to run for the office again; only Grover Cleveland did so successfully.

On the other side, President Biden wasn’t on the printed ballot, but he still won the Democratic primary. He wanted South Carolina to hold the first primary, but New Hampshire refused to move its election, so Mr. Biden’s campaign chose not to participate. However, his supporters staged a write-in effort that secured his victory.

Does this mean Mr. Biden’s path to the nomination is secure?

Not exactly:

• Two-thirds of Democrat-leaning voters do not want him to be the party’s nominee.
• At eighty-one, he is the oldest person ever to hold the presidency, though Mr. Trump was the second-oldest. (On average, US presidents are fifty-five years old when sworn in.)
• He trails Mr. Trump in the latest polls, 47 percent to 42 percent.

And there’s this: at 43 percent, independents outnumber Republicans and Democrats (at 27 percent each) by a wider collective margin than ever before.

“The rex is always subject to the lex”

Our elections have always been highly contested and correspondingly chaotic, in large part because every eligible American is able to participate. If we don’t like our leaders, we can replace them. We believe, in Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, that ours is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” (my emphasis).

This belief that we are more valuable than the institutions that exist to serve us is a product of the Christian worldview.

I am reading Andrew Wilson’s fascinating Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West. In it, he offers these observations regarding his readers:

You believe in limitations on the power of the state and that the rule of law is essential to a healthy society, whereby the rex (king) is always subject to the lex (law). . . . You think the central truth in human relations is the self, the sovereign individual, rather than the group to which the self belongs. . . .

You see your identity as something you choose and construct for yourself rather than something you are given. The true “you” is not imposed on you from the outside, by your ancestors or your community; it is something internal, and only you get to say exactly what it is.

These beliefs, according to Wilson, are “Christian assumptions about the world” that Americans embrace whether we believe in God or not. The biblical worldview motivated our nation’s founders and undergirds our democratic commitment to the “unalienable rights” of every person still today.

Why our government should serve us

Here’s the problem: Americans have forgotten why we are so valuable.

Our government should serve us not because we are worthy of being served but because we—not our institutions—are the objects of our Creator’s passionate love. And we are the objects of his love not because we deserve his love but because he is love (1 John 4:8).

How are we to respond?

Jesus answered our question: “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). In this divisive political season, remember that he added: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (v. 35).

Mother Teresa observed:

“When you know how much God is in love with you, then you can only live your life radiating that love.”

Do you know how much God is in love with you today?

Wednesday news to know

• “Oppenheimer” dominates Oscar nominations, Gerwig passed over for best director
• Beltré, Helton, Mauer a trio of legends headed to Hall of Fame
• Turkey approves Sweden’s NATO bid, leaving Orbán as final holdout
• Offer of two-month ceasefire for release of all hostages rejected by Hamas, source says
• The 50 best cities in the world for 2024

Quote for the day

“Here’s the paradox. We can fully embrace God’s love only when we recognize how completely unworthy of it we are.” —Ann Tatlock

Denison Forum

Only seven countries in the world—Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Brunei, Afghanistan, and the Vatican—do not claim to be democratic.

However, as Winston Churchill famously noted, democracy is “the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Just ask the folks shivering in the cold to vote in New Hampshire’s presidential primaries tonight.

Every state in the Union will hold a primary election or caucus to help nominate candidates for president of the United States. Then comes the political conventions, followed by more campaigning, followed by the elections. More than $10 billion will be spent on political ads this year.

And that’s just for the White House. In 2020, 2,371 people ran for the US Congress. Not to mention the multiplied thousands who ran for state and local offices and all the money they raised and spent.

Why do we do our governance this way?

There’s a right answer and a wrong answer. Choosing correctly is critical to our future as a nation.

The wrong answer to our question

Many who run for office believe they are the best candidate for the position, that in a sense they “deserve” to win. Many who vote in elections believe that their views should prevail and their wishes should be championed by their government, that in a sense they “deserve” for their candidates to win.

In other words, many of us are political consumers who “purchase” what we want by running for office or voting in elections. Our nation’s governance is a means to our personal ends.

This is the wrong answer to our question.

In his essay “Equality,” C. S. Lewis wrote that he believed in democracy “because I believe in the Fall of Man.” He continued:

I think most people [believe in democracy] for the opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who believed in democracy because they thought mankind so wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the government. The danger of defending democracy on these grounds is that they’re not true.

Why not?

Lewis explained: “I find that they’re not true without looking further than myself. I don’t deserve a share in governing a hen-roost, much less a nation.”

The right answer to our question

Consequently, Lewis noted, “Mankind is so fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power over his fellows.”

Here we find the right answer to our question.

• We should run for office as fallen people who recognize that we desperately need the leadership, wisdom, and strength only God can provide.
• We should run because God has called us into public service by his grace and because we wish to serve him gratefully by serving our nation and our constituents.
• We should serve in dependence on his Spirit because only then can we partner with God in fulfilling his plans for our people (Jeremiah 29:11).

The more leaders think they deserve their office, the less they do.

The same is true for the rest of us.

• We should pray before we vote and then vote as God directs us.
• We should discuss political candidates in ways that do not demean them (Proverbs 10:18) or dishonor our Lord (1 Corinthians 10:31).
• When our leaders fall short of God’s intention, we should remember Oswald Chambers’ maxim: “God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.”

Here’s a fact we must never forget:

“Kingship belongs to the Lᴏʀᴅ, and he rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28).

To whom does the “kingship” of your life belong today?

Tuesday news to know

• 21 Israeli troops are killed in the deadliest attack on the military since the Gaza offensive began
• Israel proposes 2-month fighting pause in Gaza for release of all hostages
• Dexter Scott King, younger son of Martin Luther King Jr., dies at 62
• Supreme Court rules border agents can remove razor wire erected by Texas
• Hologram lecturers thrill students at trailblazing UK university

Quote for the day

“A vote is like a rifle—its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” —Theodore Roosevelt

Denison Forum

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign yesterday and endorsed former President Donald Trump. His decision leaves Mr. Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley as the last major candidates remaining in the race ahead of tomorrow’s New Hampshire Republican primary.

His announcement is making headlines not just because it could change the race for the White House but because that race will change our lives. Whatever your partisan position, I’m certain you’ll agree that America will be a profoundly different nation if President Biden is reelected than if Mr. Trump or Mrs. Haley win the election.

And yet, in a very real and foundational sense, the ultimate destiny of our nation is less in their hands than in yours and mine.

A government “unbridled by morality and religion”

Today is the fifty-first anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the tragic Supreme Court ruling that permitted babies to be aborted legally in this country. Though it was finally overturned due to its flawed legal reasoning, many states continue to permit this gruesome practice. And chemical abortions, which are difficult to regulate, are now used more than half of the time.

Human laws reflect the preferences of fallen citizens as enacted by fallen legislators and adjudicated by fallen judges. Accordingly, they cannot produce a just and moral society. At best, they restrain our worst impulses (though twenty-two mass shootings in the first twenty-one days of the new year belie this hope).

From abortion to adultery, pornography, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and a host of other legal sins, America’s secular governance gives us the right to do things that are profoundly wrong.

What, then, is the path to our best future?

President John Adams observed: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.” President Calvin Coolidge similarly warned:

The government of a country never gets ahead of the religion of a country. There is no way by which we can substitute the authority of law for the virtue of man. . . . Peace, justice, humanity, charity; these cannot be legislated into being. They are the result of a Divine Grace.

Consequently:

We need a Power beyond ourselves to enable us to be who we should be.

“The first duty of every soul”

In his daily devotional last Friday, Dr. Duane Brooks quoted P. T. Forsythe: “Unless there is within us that which is above us, we shall soon yield to that which is about us. The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master.”

C. S. Lewis agreed. In The Problem of Pain, he wrote:

We are only creatures; our role must always be that of patient to agent . . . mirror to light, echo to voice. Our highest activity must be response, not initiative. To experience the love of God in a true, but not an illusory form, is therefore to experience it as our surrender to his demand, our conformity to his desire.

Both were reflecting Paul’s observation: “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17). The apostle elaborated with a description that could be taken from today’s news:

The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these (vv. 19–21).

To avoid them, we must “keep in step with the Spirit” (v. 25), submitting every day to his cleansing, leading, and empowering (Ephesians 5:18). When we do, we manifest the “fruit of the Spirit,” his “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23).

God’s word promises: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

The choice is ours.

“There are five Gospels”

Rodney Smith was born in a tent and raised in a Gypsy camp. He never attended school, not even for a single day. He became a Christian in 1876 and the next year was invited by General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, to join him in his evangelistic work.

Known as “Gypsy” Smith, he became one of the most effective evangelists in history. He was based in Great Britain but made more than forty trips to the US, Australia, South Africa, and other countries. His powerful preaching influenced the lives of millions.

Smith claimed, “There are five Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Christian—but most people never read the first four.”

When people read your “Gospel” today, what—and whom—will they find?

NOTE: Did you know that Easter Sunday falls on March 31 this year? That also means Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day. Since the Lent season begins so soon, I encourage you to request Awaken My Heart, our new Lenten devotional, today.

Monday news you need to know

• Here’s how the NFL playoff bracket looks after divisional round games
• US sees over 90 weather-related deaths as dangerous cold continues
• Tara VanDerveer is now the winningest coach in college basketball history
• Is Kim Jong-un really planning an attack this time?
• The world hasn’t seen cicadas like this since 1803

Quote for the day

“What we need is not more learning, not more eloquence, not more persuasion, not more organization, but more power from the Holy Spirit.” —John Stott

Denison Forum

Since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in America, more than sixty-three million babies have been aborted in our country.

This is a population four times the size of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston—combined.

And yet, more Americans than ever before think abortion should be legal under any circumstances. More than two-thirds also believe it should be legal in the first three months of pregnancy.

If you believe as I do that life begins at conception, you might be asking yourself: How can so many people be so wrong on this crucial issue?

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“The real question today”

It’s not because pro-life supporters are not vocal and visible.

The National March for Life is tomorrow in Washington, DC. It will be followed by Sanctity of Life Sunday, both of which are timed to coincide with January 22, 1973, when the Supreme Court issued its ruling that discovered a “right” to abortion in the US Constitution.

It’s no longer because of Roe v. Wade. After the Supreme Court overturned this horrendous ruling in 2022, returning the issue to the states, abortions increased nationwide.

It’s not because the science is unclear. The Supreme Court claimed in its 1973 ruling:

We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.

But resolving “the difficult question of when life begins” is precisely the issue. If life begins at conception, our founding declaration that “all men are created equal” and endowed with the “unalienable” right to “life” should clearly apply to preborn babies. As should every legal protection that currently applies to babies from the moment they are born.

The science is clearer than ever. As Jan Langman writes in Medical Embryology, “The development of a human being begins with fertilization.” (For Princeton University’s large collection of scientific statements concurring with this assessment, click here.)

On the tenth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Ronald Reagan wrote the only book ever published by a sitting US president. In Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation, he states:

The real question today is not when human life begins, but, What is the value of human life? The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mother’s body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being. The real question for him and for all of us is whether the tiny human life has a God-given right to be protected by the law—the same right we have (his emphasis).

The foundational issue

Why, then, do so many Americans support the abortion of preborn children?

Some claim that abortion must be legal as an alternative for women who are victims of rape or incest. However, while such crimes are unspeakably horrific, only 1 percent of women who choose abortion do so for this reason.

Others cite the need to protect the health of the mother. However, only 3 percent of abortions are chosen for this reason.

In fact, the most popular motives for abortion are:

• Unready for responsibility (21 percent)
• Can’t afford baby now (21 percent)
• Concerned about how having baby would change her life (16 percent)
• Is too immature or young to have child (11 percent)
• Has all the children she wanted or all children are grown (8 percent).

Here’s the foundational issue: most Americans want the right to determine what is right for themselves.

This is a major reason the majority of men in America want abortion to be legal under any circumstances: they want the state to have no authority over their personal decisions as well. And they want a woman who becomes pregnant with their unwanted child to be able to abort it.

This quest for personal autonomy extends to other moral issues. It helps explain LGBTQ advocacy by those who are not LGBTQ, for example. They not only see this as a civil right for others—they also want the right to live their lives however they wish.

How does God see America?

My purpose today is not to inflict guilt on those who have chosen abortion in the past. Nor is it to offer simple answers to such a divisive and complex issue.

Rather, it is to make this point:

Our democracy can function effectively only if it is practiced within the consensual morality its founders embraced.

As Benjamin Franklin noted, “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.”

When American culture decided that all truth is personal and all morality is subjective, our collective future became imperiled.

If we will not extend justice to the most innocent and vulnerable among us—our preborn babies—how can we claim to be a just society?

How does the God who cherishes children (Matthew 19:14), who fashioned us in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13–16; Jeremiah 1:5) and forbids the taking of innocent life (Proverbs 6:17), see our nation?

How is he calling you to love life as he does?

More resources on this topic from Denison Forum

• What does the Bible say about abortion?
• Abortion and the mercy of God
• Six vital questions about abortion
• Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade: My immediate response
• Voters supported abortion in yesterday’s elections: What is the path forward for life?
• Why the pro-life movement seems to be losing
• Living pro-life: Serving the voiceless and their parents in a partisan world: A conversation with Holly and Aaron Snell and Lisa Freeman

Thursday news you need to know

• US redesignates Houthis as a terrorist organization
• Pakistan launches retaliatory airstrikes in Iran after an earlier attack by Tehran, killing 9 people
• King Charles III will have a prostate operation next week while Kate recovers from abdominal surgery
• Electric car owners confront a harsh foe: cold weather
• Around 4 in 10 Americans have become more spiritual over time; fewer have become more religious

Quotes for the day

• “You shall not murder a child by abortion, nor again shalt thou kill it when it is born.” — Epistle of Barnabas 19:5, written between AD 70 and AD 132
• “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.” — the original Hippocratic Oath

Denison Forum

What do Elton John, Jonathan Tunick, Mike Nichols, Scott Rudin, Robert Lopez, and Alan Menken have in common? They’re all EGOTs—winners of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award.

Elton John joined their club Monday night when he received an Emmy for his Disney+ live performance from Dodger Stadium. Some of its members are icons: Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Jennifer Hudson, and Viola Davis. Others among the nineteen EGOTs are much less known to the public, however.

As a result, a Telegraph headline announced that the singer “has joined the elite club of EGOTs—but that’s no sign of greatness.”

“Preparing for Disease X”

Here’s another story that could warrant a similar headline: world leaders gathering in Davos this week for the World Economic Forum will discuss the potential for a future pandemic that could cause twenty times more casualties than COVID-19. The session, titled “Preparing for Disease X,” will focus on efforts needed to “prepare healthcare systems for the multiple challenges ahead.”

Davos attendees this year include French President Emmanuel Macron, China’s second-in-command Li Qiang, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, along with other global leaders and some of the world’s wealthiest people.

But none of them knows if—or when—Disease X will strike and how many it will kill. When it comes to forecasting the future, “greatness” is available to no one.

How to defeat the devil

This week, we’ve been exploring reasons God allows our world to be so chaotic. Today we’ll add another fact:

Admitting we cannot predict the challenges we face is the best way to prepare for them.

Why is this?

James, the half-brother of Jesus, asked: “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1).

I think we would all agree. What is the answer?

[God] gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you (vv. 6–8, my emphases).

Note the three imperatives in our text. In the original Greek they mean:

• Submit: voluntarily subordinate ourselves to our superior.
• Resist: stand up against our enemy.
• Draw near: continually strive to be close to God.

Now note their order: when we submit to God, we are then empowered to defeat our Enemy so that we can experience transformational intimacy with Jesus.

The next time you face temptations or challenges, take these steps in this order. Don’t try to defeat your Enemy before you first submit to your Lord. Then resist temptation as a means to experiencing intimacy with Christ. Only when you draw close to Jesus are you safe from the snares of the Evil One.

“Have you had your ‘white funeral’”?

This is one reason God allows our world to be so chaotic and unpredictable: so we will learn to depend on his Spirit to prepare, lead, and empower us. He knows that the “will to power” is within us all, that we struggle constantly against the temptation to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5) as the king of our own kingdom.

As a result, Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Such a death to self is the indispensable first step into the abundant life of Christ. Our hands must be empty before he can fill them with his best for us.

In describing a daughter’s decision to leave her mother for her spouse, Tennyson wrote of “that white funeral of the single life.” This is to choose the death of what was so we can step into the life of what is.

Oswald Chambers used this image in spiritual context: “No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a ‘white funeral’—the burial of the old life.” Then he asked:

Do you agree with God that you stop being the striving, earnest kind of Christian you have been? We skirt the cemetery and all the time refuse to go to death. It is not striving to go to death, it is dying—”baptized into his death.”

He added: “Have you had your ‘white funeral,’ or are you sacredly playing the fool with your soul?”

If not, why not today?

“Christ Jesus, bend me to thy will”

The poet Donogh Mór O’Daly died in 1244 and was buried in the abbey at Boyle, Ireland. The Gaelic scholar Eleanor H. Hull translated this poem from his inspired pen, giving us a prayer I encourage you to offer to your Father today:

How great the tale, that there should be,
In God’s Son’s heart, a place for me!
That on a sinner’s lips like mine
The cross of Jesus Christ should shine!

Christ Jesus, bend me to thy will,
My feet to urge, my griefs to still;
That e’en my flesh and blood may be
A temple sanctified to thee. 

No rest, no calm my soul may win,
Because my body craves to sin;
Till thou, dear Lord, thyself impart
Peace on my head, light in my heart. 

May consecration come from far,
Soft shining like the evening star;
My toilsome path make plain to me,
Until I come to rest in thee.

Can Jesus “bend” you to his will today?

Wednesday news you need to know

• US says it seized Iran missile parts bound for the Houthis after SEALs went overboard
• Israel unearths more of a subterranean fortress under Gaza
• The second trial between Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll began Tuesday
• Tax breaks for parents, businesses possible in last-minute deal
• Photographer captures moon, mountain, and basilica in one incredible photo

Quote for the day

“Jesus is not our life coach. He is our Lord.” —Michael Koulianos

Denison Forum

Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses last night, with Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley coming in second and third. Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Mr. Trump.

However, it’s too soon to know what this means for the larger presidential campaign.

Iowa Republicans selected Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012, and Ted Cruz in 2016—none of whom went on to win the presidential nomination. By contrast, Ronald Reagan lost Iowa in 1980 but won the election; George H. W. Bush did the same in 1988 and Donald Trump in 2016.

The larger state of US politics is in question as well. According to Pew Research Center:

• Just 4 percent of Americans say the political system is working extremely or very well.
• Just 16 percent say they trust the federal government always or most of the time.
• Sixty-five percent say they always or often feel “exhausted” when thinking about politics; just 10 percent say they always or often feel “hopeful.”

While Iowans were braving the cold, the 75^th annual Emmy Awards aired last night as Succession and The Bear each took home six awards. At least, we think they did. Since we now know that ESPN employed a fraudulent scheme in recent years to acquire more than thirty Emmys for sportscasters who were ineligible to receive them, we’re left to wonder.

How fully do you trust our political system, institutions, and leaders?

How much do you trust what you see reported by the media?

I often say that God redeems all he allows. How could he redeem our crisis in cultural confidence?

The Taj Mahal and a balsa wood outhouse

Commentator Jonah Goldberg described our “post-truth” society:

Certainty is impossible folly. Knowledge isn’t about facts, but perspective. What we think are truths—or Truths with a capital T—are really plot points in stories we tell to ourselves. Ideals are really just instruments for attaining or maintaining power. Morality is made, not discovered. . . .

All truth is contextual, all ideals are instruments. The only thing that is real—i.e. real enough—is what you accomplish with will.

(Goldberg disagrees with what he describes, but I consider his cultural depiction to be tragically accurate.)

It is an absolute (and ironically contradictory) truth claim of our postmodern society that all truth claims are subjective. Goldberg refutes this “claim” well:

Slavery is bad. Rape is bad. Cruelty for its own sake is evil. Liberty and the rule of law are good. Now, I believe these and similar things as matters of both capital T and lowercase t truth. But even if these are only lowercase truths, or even “personal truths,” they can be defended with reason, facts, data, and appeals to rightly formed consciences.

In other words, even if all standards and ideals are in some sense “socially constructed,” that doesn’t mean that all social constructions are morally or empirically equal. The Taj Mahal is constructed and so is a balsa wood outhouse. We can value one more than the other. The right to a fair trial is a social construct and so is child sacrifice. I’m happy to privilege the former over the latter.

Here’s the problem: however persuasive you and I find his reasoning, many for whom it is intended will not. Many secular people want truth to be personal so they can have their personal truth. They want morality to be subjective so they can do what they want to do.

How, then, can we help people experience the One who is the Truth?

State trooper saves girl in frigid pond

Dan Marburger, the high school principal in Perry, Iowa, died Sunday. He was critically injured earlier this month when he put himself in harm’s way to protect his students from a shooter.

In much better news, a Vermont state trooper named Michelle Archer recently plunged into a frigid pond, swam to an eight-year-old girl who had fallen through the ice, then swam back to shore with her. The girl has since made a complete recovery.

No student whose life was saved by their principal will ever doubt his love for them. Nor will the girl saved by Michelle Archer wonder if the state trooper is committed to her calling.

Similarly, a powerful way we can persuade skeptics to turn to Christ as their truth is when they see the difference he makes when we make him our truth. When we experience his incarnational love, the fact that he came to us when we could not come to him, the grace with which he pursues us and the mercy with which he forgives and cares for us, we become the change we want our world to encounter.

Experiencing God’s grace should change our lives in ways that demonstrate the transformation of our hearts. We do not earn grace, but we do exhibit its results.

God’s word assures us:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).

At the same time, we are told:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (v. 10).

Tim Keller expressed it this way: “Religion says, ‘I obey—therefore I’m accepted.’ The gospel says, ‘I’m accepted—therefore I obey.’”

“God has been trying to find me”

How can we persuade a “post-truth” culture that Jesus is the Truth we all need most?

By experiencing his grace and then responding with grateful service to our Lord and our neighbor.

God’s word teaches: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Because translates a Greek word meaning “since” or “as a result.” Here we discover a simple fact that changes our lives and our culture:

Stay faithful to the last word you heard from God and open to the next. The more we experience the love of Jesus, the more our love for others will lead them to our Lord.

So, here’s the question: When last did the love of Christ change your life? When last did you encounter the living Lord Jesus in a transforming way? If it’s been a while, know that the fault is not his.

Henri Nouwen observed:

For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life—pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures—and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?”

And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by  God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.

Will you let him find you today?

Denison Forum

The Book of Clarence, a new film from writer/director Jeymes Samuel, takes place in Jerusalem across the weeks leading up to Christ’s crucifixion.

However, it’s not really a story about Jesus.

As Samuel described, “If they tell you a Bible story, you wouldn’t get the story of the guy around the corner. Or the person who sold Jesus his sandals.” And that’s where the movie’s main character—Clarence (LaKeith Stanfield)—steps in.

What is The Book of Clarence about?

You see, Clarence is the fictionalized twin brother of the apostle Thomas, a detail based in Scripture—Thomas was called “the Twin” three times in John’s gospel—but the film takes a great deal of license from there.

Consequently, Clarence is well acquainted with the work of Jesus.

Yet Clarence is also, as Alissa Wilkinson described, “an atheist stoner who sells first-century weed.” As such, when he looks at Christ’s ministry, he sees a false messiah getting paid by a duped populace and thinks he can do the same. After all, in his view Jesus is a con man as well.

Clarence’s ruse works, for a time.

However, he eventually learns the hard way that the Romans don’t take kindly to would-be messiahs and his story turns from there.

Ultimately, The Book of Clarence is a solid film that tells an interesting story while pulling from the biblical account without feeling beholden to it. There are certainly times when those creative liberties stand out more than others. But, when it comes to his portrayal of the true messiah, Samuel does not cross the line into blasphemy, staying pretty faithful to the Jesus of Scripture.

If you can get past those differences and accept the film for the story it’s trying to tell, Clarence has a lot to offer.

Multiple messiahs?

Take one of the film’s central premises, for example.

While Samuel certainly took liberties with some aspects of the gospel story, the proliferation of false messiahs was not one of them.

Jesus was not the only person who claimed to be God’s anointed one in the first century. He was just the only one for whom that claim was true.

The Jews in ancient Rome were desperate for someone to save them and restore the nation of Israel to prominence. And like those who trusted the false prophets in the time leading up to the exile, when those false messiahs filled the heads and hearts of first-century Jews with promises that satisfied their most sincere longings, they were prone to believe the lies.

That this was the case is demonstrated best by how quickly they turned on Jesus once it became clear that he would not be that kind of messiah. And even after he spent more than a month with his disciples following his death and resurrection, they still struggled to see the truth, asking if he would now restore the kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6).

Who is your messiah?

The very human impulse to create a God in our own image rather than to serve the God who made us in his has been around since the Garden of Eden, and it would be naïve to think it’s going to go away anytime soon. We are just as likely to turn on our heavenly Father today when it doesn’t seem like he meets our expectations as messiah-seekers were two thousand years ago.

I don’t know if that’s the message Jeymes Samuel intended to convey, but it’s a truth God reminded me of through his film. And it’s a message I needed to hear.

• So who or what are the false messiahs in your life today?
• Is there a person or cause that you’ve turned to as a greater source of hope and security than the Lord?

Few things will hinder your relationship with God as quickly as attempting to place someone else on his throne. So take some time right now to pray and ask the Lord to reveal the false messiahs limiting your walk with him.

They may not look like a con man seeking to get rich or powerful off of false faith—though those certainly still exist. But chances are good that something or someone is vying for Christ’s role in your life, and it’s ultimately up to you to decide whether or not they will have it.

Who will be your messiah today?

Denison Forum

Israel announced recently that it intends to kill every Hamas leader behind the October 7 massacre, wherever they are in the world. The IDF knows precisely where Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 terror attacks, is hiding in Gaza.

Why haven’t they taken him out?

Because he is hiding behind a large number of Israeli hostages.

What should we think of a God who allows people to suffer for sins they didn’t commit?

When a nonsmoker gets lung cancer

We understand when choices affect those who commit them. When a smoker develops lung cancer, we grieve for them but we don’t wonder why they are sick.

The Roman Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus’s observation is true to life:

If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labor passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.

However, it is unfair for choices to harm those who don’t make them. When a nonsmoker gets lung cancer from secondhand smoke, we ask how God can be holy when the world he created is so unjust.

David asked our question: “Why, O Lᴏʀᴅ, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1). He then listed the many ways “the wicked hotly pursue the poor” (v. 2) while saying to themselves, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it” (v. 11).

But the “wicked” are wrong.

David prayed: “You do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless” (v. 14).

He doesn’t tell us how or when God will “do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed” (v. 18), but he assures us that he will.

This is because “the Lᴏʀᴅ is king forever and ever” (v. 16). Our doubts do not threaten his sovereignty.

Why “God wants my whole life”

Yesterday I wrote: When you don’t understand God, you should still trust him. Today, let’s take a step further:

The less you understand God, the more you should trust him.

None of us fully understands why God allows innocent suffering. The greater the pain, the less we understand.

However, the worse the pain, the more we need the Great Physician.

Satan wants to use this issue to drive us from God when we need him the most. But when you are sick is when you especially need a physician. You may have lung cancer from secondhand smoke, but you still need an oncologist to treat the malignancy.

Let’s add this fact: the more you trust your life to God, the more he can give you his best. Henri Nouwen was right:

I am growing in the awareness that God wants my whole life, not just part of it. It is not enough to give just so much time and attention to God and keep the rest for myself. It is not enough to pray often and deeply and then move from there to my own projects. . . .

To return to God means to return to God with all that I am and all that I have. I cannot return to God with just half of my being. As I reflected this morning again on the story of the prodigal son and tried to experience myself in the embrace of the father, I suddenly felt a certain resistance to being embraced so fully and totally. I experienced not only a desire to be embraced, but also a fear of losing my independence. I realized that God’s love is a jealous love.

God wants not just part of me, but all of me. Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the voice of love, and able to recognize my own unique call.

Have you surrendered yourself “completely to God’s love” yet today?

Going deeper

“Joy in a Jail Cell” is my exposition of 2 Timothy 3–4, one of the most encouraging sections in Scripture. Here Paul looks back at God’s providential grace and trusts him for a brighter future. I pray it will help you find hope where you need it most today.

Morning news you should know

• Alabama football coach Nick Saban announces retirement
• Chris Christie ends his Republican presidential bid, criticizing his rivals on his way out
• Iowa GOP debate takeaways: Haley, DeSantis pummel each other
• Yemen’s Houthis launch their largest Red Sea drone and missile attack, though no damage is reported
• More teens who use marijuana are suffering from psychosis
• He sings a cappella. Then he destroys quarterbacks.

Quote for the day

The Scottish pastor and theologian Samuel Rutherford (1600–61) observed: “If your Lord calls you to suffering, do not be dismayed, for he will provide a deeper portion of Christ in your suffering. The softest pillow will be placed under your head though you must set your bare feet among thorns.”

Denison Forum

When part of an Alaska Airlines fuselage blew out last Friday, no one was sitting next to it.

Was this a miracle?

If so, why did God allow the near-disaster?

More to the point: Will he protect you the next time you travel?

Why Flight 1282’s accident could have been worse

An NTSB official says the accident could have been “much more tragic.” Here’s why:

• The flight was nearly full, but the seats next to the faulty door plug were unoccupied.
• The aircraft was still climbing, so passengers were seated with seat belts.
• If it had been at cruising altitude, people could have been walking around and injured or even sucked out of the hole.
• A blowout at altitude could have led to oxygen starvation, causing loss of consciousness and even permanent brain damage.

Then there’s the door plug, which could have struck someone on the ground but landed in a Portland science teacher’s backyard instead.

My first thought is to thank God that no one was killed. But my next thought is: If God did in fact save lives on that plane, couldn’t he have prevented the accident?

Because he is omniscient and omnipotent, the answer is clearly yes.

This leads to my big question: Why does God sometimes do what seems best, but not always?

I’ve been praying for a dear friend undergoing cancer surgery. I know God can bring him through and spare his life, but will he? I pray daily for God to protect my family members. I know he can, but will he?

I could go on. So could you.

What you can do now

This is the most difficult issue Christianity faces, so I’ll not attempt a simple “solution” here. Rather, I want to highlight this biblical fact:

When you don’t understand God, you should still trust him.

I know this runs counter to most of life. Would you eat a meal if you don’t trust the chef? Or get in a car if you don’t trust the driver? But God is different:

• He is omniscient, so we shouldn’t always expect to understand his thoughts (Isaiah 55:8–9).
• He sees the end from the beginning, so we shouldn’t always expect to understand his plans (Isaiah 46:10).
• Fallen people misuse our free will, so the consequences of our sins are not God’s fault but ours (James 1:13–15).
• But “God is love” (1 John 4:8), so we can always know that everything he does is for our ultimate best.

Here’s the bottom line: “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). The Greek means, “Ask and keep on asking.”

Your prayers don’t inform an omniscient God—they position you to receive what you ask or whatever is best.

What do you need God to do today?

 Going deeper

For more, read “An honest approach to the mystery of suffering” and my book, Making Sense of Suffering, which explores seven biblical and practical responses.

 More news you should know

• MIT Technology Review reveals 10 breakthrough technologies for 2024
• Gaza hostage talks inch closer to a restart as Blinken meets with Israeli leaders
• Sprawling storms wallop US with tornado reports, damage and heavy snow, closing roads and schools
• Austin kept prostate cancer, surgery complications a secret from everyone, even Biden
• Today in history: Gusher signals new era of US oil industry

 Quote for the day

“Suffering is at the very heart of the Christian faith. It is not the only way Christ became like us and redeemed us, but it is one of the main ways we become like him and experience his redemption. And that means that our suffering, despite its painfulness, is also filled with purpose and usefulness.” —Timothy Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

Denison Forum

The Michigan Wolverines defeated the Washington Huskies decisively last night to win this year’s NCAA football national championship. The annual title game has become the biggest sporting event outside the National Football League; since ninety-three of the top one hundred television broadcasts in 2023 were NFL games, we don’t have to wonder how popular football has become in American culture. Now that the NFL playoffs are ramping up, even more attention will be drawn to the game.

I was discussing the popularity of spectator sports with my son, Dr. Ryan Denison, and he noted, “The best part of sports is the chance to be irrationally hopeful with little consequence for doing so.” He’s right: not much that can happen to an athlete during a game is likely to happen to a fan watching the game. We get to “play” the game with little risk to ourselves.

If only life worked that way.

“We literally thought we were going to die”

Imagine you’re in an airplane that has just departed from Portland, Oregon. It is dark in the cabin as the plane’s lights have been dimmed for takeoff. Ten to fifteen minutes into your ascent, traveling roughly 440 miles an hour at sixteen thousand feet, a chunk of your plane blows out.

Gasps of shock fill the plane as a cellphone, a teddy bear, and a passenger’s shirt are sucked out of the hole. Oxygen masks drop from overhead compartments. “We literally thought we were going to die,” one of the passengers says later. The Alaska Airlines flight carrying 171 passengers and six crew members circles back to Portland where it lands safely.

The Boeing 737 Max 9 involved in Friday’s accident was essentially brand new. After the FAA grounded all such aircraft for inspections, hundreds of flights were canceled. United Airlines announced yesterday that it found loose bolts and other parts on the plug doors of at least five other 737 Max 9 aircraft. Alaska Airlines technicians also reported that “loose hardware was visible on some aircraft.”

If you have ever flown on an airplane, you might respond to this story with the realization, “That could have been me.” If you don’t, you should.

Hurtling through space at 67,000 mph

Life is not a spectator sport. Even those attending sporting events are not entirely safe: hundreds of people have been injured by foul balls at baseball games; NBA players have collided with spectators; fans have fought with fans at football and soccer games; hockey pucks have turned into sometimes-deadly projectiles.

We are all passengers on a tiny planet spinning at about a thousand miles per hour while hurtling at 67,000 miles per hour through space. We don’t feel this motion because it’s a constant, like traveling in a car at the same speed.

But when things slow down or speed up, we take notice.

Now is the time to prepare for then. To this end, I want to invite you to reflect on a text that has meant much to me this week. It begins: “Trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness” (Psalm 37:3).

• Trust in the Hebrew means to “rely on.”
• Do good means to “produce that which is desirable.”
• As you do your best while trusting God for his best, wherever you dwell in the land, you will befriend faithfulness—the Hebrew is translated literally, “nourish honesty and trustworthiness.”

Once you have made these commitments in your lifestyle, you can claim God’s promise: “Delight yourself in the Lᴏʀᴅ, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (v. 4).

• Delight yourself means to “find pleasure and joy.”
• When you do this in the Lᴏʀᴅ, in his presence while seeking and serving him, he will give you the desires of your heart.

This can mean that he will give you what your heart should desire, or that he will give you the desires you now feel in your heart.

Either way, you will experience God’s best by giving him your best. As a mantra classically attributed to St. Augustine advises, “Love God and do what you will.”

“Don’t cheat yourself out of spiritual victory”

The greatest need in America today is for America’s Christians to follow Jesus fully. If we do, our lives will be the change the culture needs to see, the light in the dark that leads to the Light of the world (Matthew 5:14; John 1:9; 8:12).

Billy Graham wrote: “If Christianity is important at all, then it is all-important. If it is anything at all, then it is everything. It is either the most vital thing in your life, or it isn’t worth bothering with.”

Consequently, he urged us: “Don’t give the lie to the Christian faith by professing Christ without possessing him. . . . Don’t hinder revival by your unbelief and prayerlessness. Don’t cheat yourself out of spiritual victory by allowing sin to imprison you. Seek God’s face and turn from your wicked ways. Then you will hear from heaven and true revival will begin—starting with you.”

He added: “The Church holds the key to revival. It is within our grasp. Will we rise to the challenge? Will we dare pay the price? The supply of heaven is adequate for the demands of our spiritually starved world. Will we offer that supply to the hungry masses? May the revival that the world needs begin in you—starting today.”

Why not you?

Why not now?

Denison Forum

Oppenheimer won five Golden Globes last night, including best drama, while Barbie took the award for cinematic and box office achievement. But everyone who attended the ceremony won something as well: they each received a gift bag worth $500,000. You read that right—thirty-eight different items were included in the bags, among them Colombian emerald earrings valued at $69,000 and six bottles of wine worth $193,500.

Giving such opulent gifts to such wealthy people seems to say something about the materialism of our consumeristic culture. The two movies pointed in the same direction.

Reviewer Simon Western explained the popularity of Barbie, the highest-grossing worldwide movie of 2023: “It reaffirmed the chosen ideology of our times, i.e. America Dream individualism, which makes us feel that we are filled with individual agency and are in control, and we can choose our futures.”

While I refused to see Oppenheimer due to its nudity and sex scenes, I found a New York Times interview with director Christopher Nolan most interesting. The film centers on scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s work in building the first atomic weapon, leading to the bombs that were later dropped on Japan and the atomic age that followed. Nolan describes Oppenheimer as “the most important person who ever lived,” explaining: “If my worst fears are true, he’ll be the man who destroyed the world. Who’s more important than that?”

Perhaps the One who created the world?

“The end of godlessness is anarchy”

Several people suffered gunshot wounds when six or seven shooters opened fire late Saturday night in Abbeville, Alabama. There have been six mass shootings so far in 2024, including the one in Perry, Iowa, that killed eleven-year-old Ahmir Jolliff. Ahmir kept a trunk of toys unlocked in his front yard so anyone could play with them, loved soccer, played the tuba, and sang in choir. Because of his joyful spirit, he was known as “Smiley” around his house.

What explains such senseless, horrific tragedy?

John Piper writes in Taste and See:

The root of all injustice in our urban centers, or anywhere else, is the pervasive human injustice against God. When the rights of our Creator and Savior are daily denied, we should not be surprised that the rights of persons created in his image are denied in a cavalier and selfish way. Until God is given his rights, no human rights will have much significance beyond convenience. And when they are no longer convenient, they will be ignored, whether by violent police, traffic violators, looters, or murderers. The end of godlessness is anarchy.

Piper is right. At the beginning of humanity’s story, we read: “The Lᴏʀᴅ saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Our quest to “be like God,” (Genesis 3:5), to be creator rather than creature, to be the hero of history, explains every sin we commit and every evil we face in this broken world (cf. Romans 8:22).

In Jeremiah 17, God describes our fallen condition: “Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land’” (vv. 5–6).

By contrast, the text continues: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ, whose trust is the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (vv. 7–8).

Who of us would want to be a “shrub in the desert” when we could be a “tree planted by water”? Obviously, then, we should choose to trust in the Lord rather than in ourselves.

Why don’t we?

My father’s heart condition

The next verse answers our question and explains our predicament: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (v. 9). Heart in the Hebrew refers to “one’s inner self, will, inclination.” Desperately sick translates a word meaning “incurable, disastrous beyond repair.”

Clearly, our problem is “heart” disease. I know something about this illness: my father had a massive heart attack when I was two years old. In the years that followed, he did everything he could to manage his condition, but he could not heal himself. The only solution was a heart transplant, but he was too weak to survive the operation. As a result, he died of a second heart attack when I was in college.

Every human being is in the same condition spiritually that my father was in physically. But there’s good news: God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He promises: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Here’s how: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (v. 27).

If you have asked Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, God has already put his Spirit within you (1 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:9). But you must decide every day to submit your life to this indwelling Spirit. Begin your day by surrendering your mind and heart to him (Ephesians 5:18). Pray through the day ahead, inviting him to lead, empower, and use you.

Make your commitment holistic and unconditional. As Elisabeth Elliot observed, “We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves.”

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Are you “in step” with him right now?

If not, why not?

Denison Forum

With the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot (or attack or protest or insurrection or whichever descriptor you prefer) coming up tomorrow, reactions to the event continue to dominate the news. President Biden plans to address the subject in a speech that uses the events of that day to portray former President Trump as a threat who, in the words of Biden’s communications director Michael Taylor, “will use all his power to systematically dismantle and destroy our democracy.”
Not to be outdone, Trump plans to hold two campaign rallies on Saturday as well in what-if current polls are to be believed-will mark one of many attempts for the two candidates to control the national narrative surrounding the election across the coming months.
My purpose today is not to relitigate what happened at the January 6 Capitol riot three years ago or cast judgment on how the event continues to be used for political ends. Overall, my thoughts on that day have not really changed since I discussed it last year, and Dr. Jim Denison did an excellent job of speaking to why having a productive conversation on the topic can be so challenging in yesterday’s article.
Rather, I would like to look at what I think is the most pertinent and applicable lesson we can take from that event to help us protect our witness and grow in our walk with the Lord.
An indelible part of Trump’s legacy
Debate continues over how much responsibility the former president bears for what happened at the January 6 Capitol riot three years ago. However, it is beyond dispute that the day’s events continue to play an inescapable part in the narrative surrounding Donald Trump’s attempt to regain the Oval Office. It was felt in the red wave that turned into a trickle during the 2022 midterms and the repeated accusations of wanting to destroy democracy that have been part of the Democratic rhetoric whenever Trump is discussed.
And, ultimately, he has no one to blame but himself.
You see, people don’t typically get to choose the consequences of their decisions. For Trump, the consequence of his actions-or inactions-is that his political opponents have all the fodder necessary to repeatedly level accusations that he is a threat to democracy. And while you may or may not find those accusations convincing, enough Americans do that it has greatly clouded his path back to the White House.
And there is nothing the former president or any of his supporters can do to stop it. Those events and his role in them-whether accurately perceived or not-are an indelible part of his legacy.
When people discuss his presidency in fifty years, be it one term or two, January 6 will come up. As we discussed on a recent episode of The Denison Forum Podcast, the nature of what that conversation will look like is yet to be determined, but the odds are good that Trump will be remembered as much for the election he lost as for the four years that preceded it.
And therein lies the lesson for us today.
When Saul faced grave consequences
One of the facets of the Bible that sets it apart from the holy books of many other faiths is that its most important figures are often among its most flawed characters. Take King Saul, for example.
Saul was no stranger to thoughtless actions and the consequences that ensued, but perhaps the most noteworthy instance occurred in 1 Samuel 13. Facing the imposing might of the Philistines and an army that had begun to scatter, Saul took it upon himself to offer sacrifices that only Samuel was supposed to give. It’s important to note that he was not trying to usurp the prophet’s position or claim any special rights for himself. Rather, he was simply trying to keep his army together ahead of battle.
Yet, despite his motivations being reasonable on the surface, they demonstrated a lack of faith in the Lord, and it exhausted God’s patience.
Through Samuel, God told the king “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the L??? your God, with which he commanded you. For then the L??? would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The L??? has sought out a man after his own heart, and the L??? has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the L??? commanded you” (1 Samuel 13:13-14).
When Saul offered those sacrifices, he had no way of knowing that it would cost him his kingdom. Had he understood what the consequences would be, chances are good that he would have acted differently. But, again, we typically don’t get to choose the consequence when we make a mistake, and focusing on whether the result of our sin seems proportionate or fair to us is ultimately pointless.
After all, the purpose of God’s judgment is to bring us back into a right relationship with him and to help us avoid sin in the first place. Far too often, though, we act like a child who is surprised to learn that his choices come with a cost. And while we serve a God who is quick to forgive any sin we confess, that forgiveness does not necessarily remove the natural consequences of our mistakes. Those are still often ours to bear, and the price is rarely what we might expect.
Dr. Jim Denison has frequently stated that sin will always take you further than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.
That statement is just as true for former presidents as it is for you and for me.
Will you heed its warning today?

Denison Forum

As the third anniversary of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol approaches, attention is being focused on the question: Was it an “insurrection”?

As of October 2022, the approximate losses from the events of that day totaled more than $2,881,360. Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted; more than 1,100 people have been charged in connection with the event, and more than 600 have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Five people died in the riot.

But was it an “insurrection”? The question matters enormously since two states have now barred former President Trump from appearing on their election ballots after claiming that he participated in such an action on January 6. They cited Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids those who previously held office but “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States from holding office again.

Section 3 does not specifically include the presidency among its listed offices, leading some to argue that it does not apply to Mr. Trump. Others question whether the January 6 event constitutes an “insurrection”; if it does not, they claim that Section 3 does not apply to the former president.

The latter question is obviously relevant to our national politics, but there’s an even more foundational issue here that speaks to the future of our democracy.

“An attack on democracy that should never be forgotten”?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “insurrection” as “an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence.” I have italicized the three elements that make up this definition. 

Some point to the “violence” of January 6 as justifying this description; others claim that the “object” of the riot “was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office,” thus constituting an “insurrection” by virtue of the second definitional element.

However, others cite the first element—an “organized attempt”—as invalidating the charge of “insurrection.” They note a Reuters report: “The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result.” The article adds: “The FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump.” Some even believe that “the riot was instigated by law enforcement to suppress political dissent.”

The partisan nature of this issue is enormously significant. In a poll published this week, 55 percent of US adults agreed that the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 was “an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten.” But note: 89 percent of Biden voters agreed with the statement, contrasted with 17 percent of Trump voters.

The commodification of truth

“Democracy” translates the Greek demokratia, from demos (“the people”) and kratia (“power, rule”). As Abraham Lincoln so memorably proclaimed, the American democratic experiment entails “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

As George Washington and many others have noted, such consensual governance requires shared values derived from shared religious convictions. But these shared values require a shared vocabulary by which to understand and communicate them. Even more foundationally, the exercise of consensual governance itself requires a consensual vocabulary by which people choose leaders, enact jurisprudence, and enforce laws.

If words become weaponized for partisan purposes, the fundamental means by which democracy exists and functions is undermined. This is where we find ourselves in America today.

As consumers in a consumption-based society, everything and everyone has become a potential commodity. We purchase those goods and services that we believe are worth more than their cost. In a postmodern, “post-truth” culture, we feel free to do the same with our words, using them in whatever way suits us and advances our agendas.

Consequently, millions of Americans believe their former president, currently leading in polls to become their next president, is an “insurrectionist” who is therefore constitutionally barred from office. Millions of others believe this charge to be yet another illegitimate attempt to deprive Americans of their constitutional right to vote.

The chasm between these two positions is dangerous to our future as a nation.

When we choose to live biblically

The demise of a shared vocabulary and the objective reality it describes is an existential crisis for any democracy. Our response as Christians should be to pray fervently and work redemptively to help our nation turn to the one true God and the objective, authoritative truth of his word. Such a moral and spiritual reformation is vital not only for the spiritual health of Americans but for the future of America.

As we pray for others, however, we must take care to pray for ourselves as well.

I am as tempted as anyone to commodify biblical truth, “buying” those parts that appeal to me and refusing those that do not. Every time you and I do something Scripture forbids or do not do something it requires, we make this choice. We exercise our “will to power” by choosing to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), the foundational sin behind all sins. In so doing, we forfeit God’s best for our lives and for those we influence. And we abandon our calling to be salt and light in a broken culture dying for purity and truth (Matthew 5:13–16).

By contrast, every time we choose to think biblically and act redemptively, we glorify our Lord and advance his kingdom in eternally significant ways. The higher the cost of such obedience, the greater its value in this life and the next.

If you were to live even more biblically than you do now, what would you change first?

Why not today?

Denison Forum

Claudine Gay announced her resignation as Harvard’s president yesterday after a new round of accusations surfaced over plagiarism in her scholarly work. She has been facing mounting criticism over how she responded to antisemitism on campus as well. Her testimony before a House committee on December 5 was excoriated by very influential donors to the university, and student groups have been calling for her resignation over plagiarism allegations.

The story shows that even the president of America’s oldest and most highly endowed institution of higher education is not immune to criticism from the constituents she serves. Theirs is a transactional and symbiotic relationship—if the president leads in ways her students and donors affirm, they will provide the support she needs to lead effectively.

It’s hard to identify a significant relationship in our capitalistic, consumeristic society that does not function on similar lines. If my Daily Articles do not meet your needs, you will stop reading my work and supporting our ministry. If they do, you will enable us to continue, which enables us to serve you, which enables us to continue.

Even most marriages and families have a transactional dimension whereby we serve those we hope will serve us as well. Rare is the relationship based on unconditional, holistic, and unrequited sacrifice by one for the other.

But this is exactly how our Father loves us. Now he is calling us to embrace his love in ways that transform our souls and our society.

As our witness grows bolder

Yesterday, we noted that many Americans have all of God they want. This pleases Satan. He wants us to be inoculated with religion about God so we don’t develop a real relationship with him. The result is lost people who are convinced they’re not lost and Christians who are happy with their spiritual status quo.

Consequently, when believers decide that we want to experience more of God through more holistic obedience, Satan can be expected to respond by raising the cost of such obedience. Unexpected distractions arise when we are trying to be alone with the Lord. New and increasing temptations entice us to turn back from our quest for greater holiness. Painful circumstances provoke us to question the reality and relevance of our deeper faith.

Also, as we grow bolder in our witness, our anti-Christian culture grows more intransigent and condemning. If we will not be silent, those under Satan’s control will try to silence us (cf. Acts 4:18).

Of course, the Enemy would rather we persist in spiritual complacency. But if we are determined to seek deeper intimacy with our Lord, Satan will do all he can to stymie us. If he succeeds, the consequences can be even more fruitful for him—we become discouraged and may abandon our quest for more holistic obedience, and our moral and spiritual defeats dishonor our Lord.

The remedy is to greet temptations and difficulties as the spiritual good news they are. They show that Satan sees us as an enemy worth his time, indicating that our deeper commitment to Christ threatens him on a level that requires his nefarious response. And they provide us with an opportunity to trust our Lord even more fully and thus experience his grace even more powerfully.

The challenge is the opportunity

Of course, Satan knows that this response will defeat his strategy. This is why he sometimes adopts the opposite approach: he maintains his status quo with us, hoping the spiritual disciplines we are practicing become ends instead of means. Over time, our time with God becomes a habit more than an experience. We read the Bible and pray as chores to complete more than invitations to accept. And we fall back into the transactional consumerism we sought to avoid.

Such self-reliance is by definition the enemy of spiritual formation since the latter can be accomplished only by God’s Spirit. Praying, reading Scripture, and all other spiritual disciplines do not earn God’s favor—they position us to experience his grace. When we practice them as tasks to complete more than encounters with the living Christ, we forfeit his transforming presence. And over time, we are likely to abandon them altogether.

So, the challenge is the opportunity. Begin every day by submitting that day to God’s Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Make time to worship, pray, read Scripture, and practice other spiritual disciplines as he leads you. Walk with your Lord through the day as you pray about all you experience, seeking to think biblically and respond redemptively.

But do so in reliance on God’s Spirit to empower you and to use your commitments to form the character of Christ in you. When you meet temptation and opposition, turn them immediately over to your Lord, asking him for the strength to refuse sin and to persist in godliness. See them as evidence that you are proceeding in a way that honors your Father and frustrates your enemy. And know that your quest to know Christ and make him known is making you more like Jesus and continuing his earthly ministry in transforming ways.

“King Jesus comes again to take over”

My friend Dr. Duane Brooks recently noted:

Someday our King will come back to this world. He will not come to take sides in our internecine conflicts. King Jesus comes again to take over. He will not ride a donkey or an elephant.

So the question is not: “Is Jesus King?” but “Will you serve King Jesus today?”

He also quoted in his daily devotional this statement by Alan Redpath: “We can never pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ until we are willing to pray, ‘My kingdom go.’”

Whose kingdom will you serve today?

Denison Forum

January is named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god who could look into the past and the future. So far, however, 2024 is a new year only the one true God could have foreseen.

A Japan Airlines jet was engulfed in flames at Tokyo’s Haneda airport this morning after a possible collision with a Coast Guard aircraft. The airline reports that all 379 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. The previous day, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, collapsing buildings and leaving at least forty-eight people dead at this writing.

When the college football season began, Michigan was ranked second and Washington ninth. After yesterday’s playoff game victories, the two will play next week for the national title.

This time last year, who predicted that the US military would engage with Houthi militants again yesterday? Or that Israel would begin withdrawing several thousand troops from Gaza in a war they did not anticipate just three months ago? Who knew that WeWork, once the nation’s most valuable start-up, would go bankrupt in 2023 along with Bed Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning, and Party City? Or that Taylor Swift would pass Elvis Presley as the soloist with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200?

I could go on, but you get the oft-quoted point: We can predict anything except the future. Nonetheless, I am making a prediction today in absolute confidence that you can build your new year upon its truth.

We have all of God we want

I have often said that in our secularized culture, God is a hobby. He is for Sunday, not Monday. He is what we do with our discretionary time, an elective choice we have no right to force on others. I enjoy classical music, but I would be wrong to insist that you agree with me. I trust in Jesus, read his word, pray, and seek to serve him, but I would be wrong to insist that you do the same—or so our relativistic culture insists.

However, I’ve come to believe that for many, God is not just a hobby—he is a commodity. Our consumeristic culture has consumerized our faith.

Those of us who pray, read Scripture, worship, and serve God are convinced that doing so is to our good, while those who do not, are not. Like any other commodity, we pay a transactional price to acquire what we want commensurate with the reward we expect.

When last did it cost you something truly significant to obey God?

Consequently, many Americans have all of God we want. Not all we need, but all we want. Lost people do not seek to be saved because they do not believe they are lost and resent anyone who tells them they are. Many Christians do not tell them because they don’t want to risk rejection if they do.

At the same time, Christians who are not unconditionally submitted to Christ as their Lord cannot experience the fullness of God in Christ. As a result, they are not experiencing enough of his abundant life to be different from the world, so even if they share the gospel in word, their lives do not compel people to believe they are true.

Billy Graham said it well: “Many people are willing to have Jesus as part of their lives—as long as it doesn’t cost them anything. They may even profess faith in Jesus and join a church. But Jesus to them is almost like an insurance policy—something they obtain and then forget about until they die. But Jesus calls us to follow him every day.”

Then he asked, “What keeps you from being his disciple?”

“He will tax the remotest star”

His question leads to my prediction: Your character will determine your destiny this year.

If God’s favor is a commodity you “purchase” with enough spirituality to earn the blessing you seek, your self-centered transaction will fail. The King of kings will not be a means to your ends.

But if you decide that you want God to have all of you there is, you will experience more of your Lord than you have ever known before. Oswald Chambers was right: “When we choose deliberately to obey him, then he will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us.”

His Spirit will manifest the character of Christ in your life: his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). He will make you more like Jesus every day (Romans 8:29) and then continue the earthly ministry of Christ through you as his “body” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

So, make this the year of the Holy Spirit. Begin every day by surrendering your life and day to him (Ephesians 5:18), giving him control of your thoughts, words, and actions. Ask him to manifest the character of Christ in you more fully than ever before. Decide now that you will serve Christ whatever he asks, wherever he leads, whatever the cost, then ask the Spirit to empower you to keep your commitment.

The result will be a life lived fully to the glory of God in the power of God. You will be led where you never thought you would go and do things you never thought you would do. The world will see Christ in you as Jesus advances his kingdom through you.

Settle for nothing less.

Your character will determine your destiny this year.

What destiny do you choose?

Denison Forum

Around a million people packed into New York City’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve to watch the “ball drop” usher in 2024, while an estimated audience of one billion (my wife and I included) watched from home. The ball, which was twelve feet in diameter and weighed twelve tons, featured a new design this year based on the bow tie shape of the actual Times Square.

This was not the only such event around the country, however. Mobile, Alabama, dropped a six-hundred-pound electric MoonPie as onlookers ate the world’s largest MoonPie cake. Boise, Idaho, dropped a giant potato, while Las Cruces, New Mexico, dropped a nineteen-foot chrome chile and Raleigh, North Carolina, dropped a ten-foot-tall copper and steel acorn.

My favorite such event took place in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where a ball of bologna was used to celebrate the new year. My least favorite was in Key West, Florida, where a drag queen was lowered inside a supersized red high heel shoe.

“Where I am you may be also”

It seems safe to predict that these or similar events will occur at the end of 2024 to ring in 2025. The ball drop in Times Square has been employed for more than a century, and many of the others are now longstanding traditions.

One year, however, will be our last year. One New Year’s Day will be our last New Year’s Day. I cannot say that today will be that day, but I cannot say that it will not.

Even if Jesus doesn’t return to our planet this year, he may come back for you or for me. Sixty-seven million people died in 2022; if a third of them were Christians (as befits our percentage of the global population), he came for more than twenty million believers that year and likely a similar number in 2023.

Each time, he keeps his promise: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). And he will return one day to our planet just as surely as he left it: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

“Bethlehem, Act 2”

Just as Jesus entered our world physically at Christmas, so he enters our lives spiritually when we trust him as our Savior and Lord (1 Corinthians 3:16; Colossians 1:27). He remains in us and with us throughout our lives (Matthew 28:20). And when he returns for us in death or his Second Coming, we are united with him for all eternity.

This is why he could promise the thief dying with him at Calvary, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). It is why he could state, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26). And it is why Paul could testify, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Charles Spurgeon connected Jesus’ first coming to his second coming this way: “Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor” (his emphasis).

Max Lucado made the same connection with his usual artistic brilliance:

Bethlehem was just the beginning. Jesus has promised a repeat performance. Bethlehem, Act 2. No silent night this time, however. The skies will open and trumpets will blast and a new kingdom will begin. He will empty the tombs and melt the winter of death. Death, you die! Life, you reign! The manger dares us to believe the best is yet to be.

One reason we don’t know when Jesus will return

To summarize: Jesus’ first advent was no more real or historical than his second advent will be. If you believe in his birth, you must believe in his return. Here’s the difference: the former asks only that we celebrate him as a baby, while the latter requires us to be ready to meet him as our King.

If the thought of Jesus’ return fills us not with joy but with trepidation, we should ask ourselves why. St. Augustine spoke to this sentiment:

We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when.

Since none of us knows when we will meet the Lord, the best way to live this new year is to be ready every day for that day. But this is not only so we are prepared for that day, whenever it comes.

It is also because being ready to meet Jesus today is the best way to live today.

If you knew you would meet your Lord through your death or his return next week, what would you change in your life this week? What sins would you confess? What would you stop doing or start doing? Whom would you forgive? Whose forgiveness would you seek?

Doing each of these things is best for us even if we were guaranteed another fifty years of life on this planet. I believe this to be one reason we do not know the timing of our Lord’s return—so we can live our best life every day by living in expectation of the day we meet him (Matthew 24:44).

David Jeremiah connected the first advent to the second this way: “When Christ returns, and only then, will the angel’s message to the shepherds be totally fulfilled: Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”

What if it were today?

Denison Forum

US officials met yesterday with Mexico’s president, seeking measures to limit a surge of migrants reaching the US southwestern border. Meanwhile, a caravan with an estimated 7,500 members is making its way toward the border this morning. While they are drawing international attention, this is actually a smaller number than the daily migrant encounters this month, which have been averaging more than 9,600 a day.

More than two million people were apprehended at the border in this fiscal year. The surge is creating chaos in parts of southern Texas and Arizona and straining resources as far away as New York, Denver, and Chicago.

In the Del Rio sector of the Texas border, which includes Eagle Pass, as many as four thousand migrants have been processed a day. “Illegal border crossings have always happened,” said Eagle Pass fire chief Manuel Mello. “Groups of ten, twelve—that was a large group. But now you see three thousand and four thousand in one day. I never thought something like this could happen.”

What is causing this crisis? How should we think biblically and act redemptively in response?

Explaining the surge

This is a massively complex and emotionally fraught issue. However, the crisis can be framed in terms of “push” and “pull” factors.

“Push” factors include war, famine, or economic challenges that cause people to leave their home countries and seek a new home. For example, leaders of the caravan coming to the US are calling the movement an “exodus from poverty.” Venezuela has descended into disarray in recent years, while Nicaragua’s government has become more repressive. The Congressional Research Service also cites natural disasters fueled by climate change and a general lack of security.

However, the New York Times notes that there have been no recent wars in Latin America and the region’s poverty rate has been flat. Accordingly, the article states that push factors don’t explain the entire surge “and maybe not even most of it.”

“Pull” factors, by contrast, encourage migrants to come in response to an economic boom or a more lax immigration policy. During Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, the Times notes, “he spoke in much more welcoming tones than not only Donald Trump but also Barack Obama.” President Biden in turn blames Congress for failing to respond to his immigration reform proposals and requests for additional funds to address the crisis.

The result of these complex and interrelated factors is that, according to the Times, the number of people apprehended at the border has risen more than fourfold since 2020 compared with the average level in the 2010s.

Reconciling two biblical themes

In my book, The State of Our Nation: 7 Critical Issues, I devoted an entire chapter to the issue of illegal immigration. There I discuss a number of biblical texts relevant to today’s topic. We can summarize them today in two categories.

One: Scripture affirms the importance of borders (Deuteronomy 32:8; Numbers 34:1–15; Ezekiel 47:13–23), the rule of law (Romans 13:1–2; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13–14; 1 Timothy 1:8–10), and self-defense (Luke 11:21; Exodus 22:2; Proverbs 25:26; Nehemiah 4:17–18).

Two: Immigrants are not to be mistreated (Exodus 22:21) but loved (Leviticus 19:33–34; Deuteronomy 10:18–19) and helped (Deuteronomy 24:19–22; Ezekiel 47:21–23; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5; Hebrews 13:2). At-risk children are to be especially valued (Matthew 18:10; 19:14) and protected (James 1:27).

Our problem comes in reconciling these two themes. Without secure borders and the rule of law, a nation cannot thrive for the sake of its present and future populations. However, without immigrants, most nations cannot flourish; this is especially true for America, a nation comprised almost entirely of immigrants and their descendants.

Children who enter the US illegally or are born to parents who did are an example of our challenge. On one hand, should they be forced to pay for the illegal actions of their parents (Exodus 18:19–20)? On the other, is it fair for them to benefit from these actions (cf. Matthew 22:21)?

Your hands and your heart

My purpose in this brief Daily Article is obviously not to explore in detail the complexities of this deeply divisive issue. Persistent, unresolved societal challenges are seldom resolved by simple intellectual solutions. Whether the issue is opioid and drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, systemic injustice, crime, or any other ongoing crisis, you and I are likely not going to solve the problem today.

Policy debates are vital, of course. We should pray for our legislators, hold them accountable to their constituents, and vote our conscience. But we should also do what we can do personally to be part of the solution.

As we have discussed this week, you and I are called to continue Jesus’ earthly ministry today. Our spiritual gifts, talents, education, opportunities, and experiences are the uniquely crafted way he is advancing his kingdom through us. This is how we can do “greater” works than he did (John 14:12)—billions of people can fulfill his kingdom mission more fully than he could in a single body.

Will you ask God to help you respond redemptively to the needs you can meet today? Will you offer Jesus your hands and your heart as the “body of Christ” for our hurting world (1 Corinthians 12:27)?

When we do, God’s kingdom comes as his will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

“Wyoming is supposedly a state. Wyoming does not in fact exist. It is a distortion of space-time that only appears to exist.” Or so we are informed by the Urban Dictionary, a crowdsourced English-language online dictionary for slang words and phrases. (Think Wikipedia for urban expressions.)

If you were to prove the article wrong, how would you do so?

You could point to maps delineating the state, but maps, being lines drawn on pages (or digital images) can deceive us. You could remind us that Wyoming has two senators, a member of Congress, and an entire state governance apparatus, but they would obviously profit personally from participating in the scam.

You could meet people like me who claim to have been there, but how would we really know? When you drive past a roadside sign telling you that you’ve entered Wyoming (or any other state), what empirical evidence exists to prove this assertion?

When you think about it, there are few “realities” we can prove beyond all doubt. For example, mathematical axioms—such as the sum of a triangle being two right angles—are unprovable “statements taken to be true.” To prove that parallel lines never intersect, you’d have to draw them forever.

I had two great-aunts who were convinced that astronauts never went to the moon. The entire thing was filmed in the Arizona desert, they claimed. When I asked about moon rocks I’d seen in a museum, they replied, “How do you know they’re from the moon?” It was a good question.

Reasons for “post-Christmas depression”

On this day after the day after Christmas, we have entered the season of the “post-holiday” blues. In one survey, 64 percent of participants responded that they were affected by “post-Christmas depression.” A clinical study discovered “a decrease in the overall utilization of psychiatric emergency services and admissions, self-harm behavior, and suicide attempts/completions during the holiday. But they found an increase, or a rebound, following the Christmas holiday.”

Contributing factors include returning to work or school, financial challenges from gift-giving, parting ways with relatives and loved ones, grief or loss, and conflicts among family and friends that emerged during the holidays.

Loneliness is especially a problem for many.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy explains that loneliness occurs when the connections a person needs in life are greater than the connections they have. When people return from holiday gatherings to their “normal” lives, many lose or lack such connections.

Dr. Murthy warns that loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 26 percent. In terms of your lifespan, living in loneliness is equivalent to smoking up to fifteen cigarettes a day.

Harvard professor Dr. Jeremy Nobel identifies three types of loneliness:

1. Psychological: feeling that we don’t have anyone to confide in or trust.
2. Societal: feeling systematically excluded because of characteristics such as gender, race, or disability.
3. Existential: loneliness from feeling disconnected from oneself.

All three are invitations to the reality and abiding relevance of Christmas.

When Christmas comes to Wyoming

Yesterday we discussed the fact that the Christ of Christmas now lives in every Christian as fully as he lived in his earthly body (1 Corinthians 3:16). As a result, you and I exist to continue his earthly ministry as the hands and feet of Jesus at work in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Here’s the problem: many in our secularized culture are as skeptical of Jesus’ present-tense reality as the Urban Dictionary seems to be of Wyoming. They will believe that Christ is relevant to their loneliness and other challenges to the degree that Christians are. But we cannot give what we don’t have. If the person of Jesus is not working in us, he cannot work through us.

So, let’s return to Dr. Nobel’s three types of loneliness:

• Are you confiding and trusting in the living Lord Jesus? When last did you spend time talking with him and listening to him? When last did you trust him with your challenges and needs? When last did reading his word encourage and redirect your life?
• Do you feel excluded from his miraculous grace today? Are there sins you need to confess? Guilt and failures you need to entrust to his compassion? When last did you feel yourself to be his “beloved”? Do you deeply believe that Jesus would be born and die all over again just for you? If not, why not?
• Do you feel estranged from yourself? Are you disappointed with your life or discouraged by your challenges? Do you love yourself as unconditionally as your Father loves you? If not, why not?

As you experience the transforming grace of your living Lord today, will you share his compassion with someone who needs to see the reality of his love in yours? Every day you do, Christmas comes again.

And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

Santa Claus delivered 7,883,693,263 gifts around the world yesterday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has been tracking his movements each year since 1955. But Christmas isn’t over in Rovaniemi, Finland, where the holiday is celebrated 365 days a year and you can visit Mrs. Claus any time you wish. Towns in Iceland, Alaska, Norway, Sweden, Michigan, and Canada similarly participate in Christmas all year long.

Things were far different in the home of the first Christmas, where streets in Bethlehem were deserted and stores were shuttered after churches canceled celebrations due to the war between Hamas and Israel. Presiding at Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis said, “Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world.”

The most notable Christmas decoration in Bethlehem was a large Nativity scene in ruins, with shepherds climbing piles of rubble and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph huddled in the midst of destruction.

While I understand the pope’s sentiment, I think the Nativity scene in Bethlehem is more correct. Nothing humans do can prevent Jesus from “finding room in the world.” To the contrary, he is just as present on this day after Christmas as he was on that first Christmas two millennia ago.

Even more so, in fact, in ways that are deeply hopeful and urgent for our world and our souls.

Crossing the Delaware, changing the world

George Washington, along with 2,400 soldiers, successfully crossed the icy and freezing Delaware River on Christmas Day in 1776. The next morning, he won the first major US victory in the War for Independence.

Many believe Christmas is still relevant in the same way—an historic event we remember with gratitude for the One who was born into our world to die for our sins. St. Augustine asked, “What greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become a son of God?”

Others who do not recognize the saving purpose of Christmas nonetheless might seek spiritual lessons in its story. They see it as a religious tradition or myth which, as psychologist Carl Jung suggested, “channels some great truth beyond itself.” And still others celebrate Christmas for its secular traditions that bring them together as families and friends.

Whether you see yesterday’s celebration as a holy day or a holiday, if you’re like most people, when the decorations go back into their boxes over the next few days and we return to the “real world,” Christmas will be over.

How can we do “greater works” than Jesus?

But consider this: When you made Christ your Lord, the Holy Spirit of God came to live in your body just as fully as Jesus came to live in his earthly body (1 Corinthians 3:16). Now Jesus is continuing his earthly life and ministry through you:

• As he was born in Bethlehem, you were “born again” at your salvation (John 3:3). Now “Christ [is] in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
• As he prayed to his Father when he was on earth, now his Spirit prays through us (Romans 8:26).
• As he healed bodies through his hands, he heals now through ours (cf. Acts 3:7).
• As he preached the gospel, now he sends us to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17).
• As he returned to heaven, he will one day take us to heaven (John 14:3).
• As he will return to our planet one day (Acts 1:11), so “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (v. 17).
• In the meantime, as Jesus was present with his first followers, so he is present with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

In short, you and I are literally “the body of Christ” continuing Jesus’ ministry as his hands and feet in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

But there’s even more: Jesus promised that after he returned to his Father, we would do “greater works” than he did (John 14:12). He did not mean “greater” in power but in extent—he was limited to a single body when he walked on our planet, but today he is living in billions of Christians around the globe.

Imagine a world in which every Christian thought with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), spoke with the wisdom of Christ (Colossians 2:3), lived with the character of Christ (Romans 8:29), and loved with the compassion of Christ (John 13:14–15).

This is the world Jesus wants to create through you and me today.

“God manifest in the flesh”

In his Christmas Day meditation, Oswald Chambers observed:

The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, his nature begins to work through me. God manifest in the flesh—that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

Will you “yield yourself so completely to God that Christ is formed” in you? Every day you do, Christmas comes again.

And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum