There are an estimated 115,000 weddings per day around the world, but one that occurred yesterday is making global headlines this morning. Here’s why: the bride wore fatigues, the groom wore a helmet, and the wedding party carried rifles and RPGs. Their wedding took place next to a military checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Kyiv’s mayor attended the ceremony and noted that a week ago, the couple were “normal people” with no plans to carry weapons. Now “they want to defend our city together.” 

This courageous couple is simply following their president’s example. 

Andriy Yermak is head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine. He recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he stated, “I am writing this appeal from a bunker in the capital, with President Volodymyr Zelensky by my side. For a week, Russian bombs have fallen overhead. Despite the constant barrage of Russian fire, we stand firm and united in our resolve to defeat the invaders. We will fight to the last breath to protect our country.” 

Rep. John Garamendi, a senior member of the House of Representatives armed services committee, spoke with Mr. Zelensky on Saturday and said later, “He knows that he is at the top of the kill list, and he knows that his life is in jeopardy, but he has pushed that aside to lead this nation.” Rep. Garamendi called him “an incredible man of courage and leadership.” 

“The face of Ukrainian resilience” 

An article in the New Yorker by David Remnick is headlined, “Volodymyr Zelensky leads the defense of Ukraine with his voice.” Remnick describes Mr. Zelensky as having “assumed the role of Winston Churchill.” 

Michael Blake, a political philosopher at the University of Washington, notes that “whatever happens in the coming weeks,” the president “will go down as the face of Ukrainian resilience during the Russian invasion of his country.” He contrasts Mr. Zelensky’s everyman story with Vladimir Putin’s carefully cultivated “strongman” persona. In his opinion, Mr. Zelensky’s appeal resides largely in “the most central lesson of democratic politics—that our leaders are no better, morally speaking, than those they lead.” 

In a Western secular sense, Dr. Blake is absolutely correct. America’s founding document, for example, rejects the monarchy of our mother country for the assertion that “all men are created equal.” There’s a reason our presidential candidates appear at state fairs and town hall gatherings across the country. 

When they succeed, we feel that we have all succeeded. If someone can do something, Americans think we can do it. This Western focus on the individual stands in contrast to the stratified cultural classes of Europe, the class-centric ideology of Marxism, the caste system that still exists in many ways in India, and the tsarist and emperor-driven historical narratives of Russia and China. 

Mr. Zelensky is especially emblematic of this anyone-can-be-someone ethos. I wrote a biography of him for our website last Friday in which I chronicled his unlikely rise from improvisational comedy, television, and movie roles to president of his nation. 

“Struggling with all his energy” 

Offering the world a transformational example they can follow is a biblical model as well, but with an important caveat. 

Paul encouraged the Philippians, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9, my emphasis). It was not enough for the apostle to have taught them what they should practice—he showed them by his personal example that they could do so. 

But here’s what makes the biblical leadership-by-example ethos different from the secular modeling Dr. Blake and others are celebrating with regard to Volodymyr Zelensky’s courageous leadership: Christians know that the most powerful source of character and courage does not lie within us. 

Paul testified, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:29, my emphasis). He embraced his Father’s assurance, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9) and could therefore state, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV). 

As we work, God works. As God works, we work. 

“The founder and perfecter of our faith” 

The writer of Hebrews 12 captured this balance perfectly. 

First, he reminded us that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” and encouraged us to emulate them: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (v. 1). 

Second, he showed us the power to run our race: “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (v. 2). 

When we remember what others have done in the power of Christ, we are encouraged to emulate them by making their Source ours and finding in Jesus the strength and hope we need. Then others will follow our example by trusting our Lord as theirs. 

“The thing that tells in the long run” 

As we intercede for Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Yermak, and other courageous Ukrainians, let’s pray not only for their courage, protection, and perseverance. Let’s also pray for God to redeem their suffering by leading them to Jesus and the source of strength they need most. 

Then let’s pray the same for ourselves. I often warn myself and others that self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. Our greatest need as Christians is to be empowered and transformed every day by Christ (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 5:18). 

Oswald Chambers was right: “The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen, and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Risen Christ.” 

Are your eyes open to him today?

Denison Forum

Buckingham Palace announced yesterday that Queen Elizabeth II has tested positive for coronavirus. The ninety-five-year-old monarch is reportedly experiencing mild cold-like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week.

One fact the pandemic has made emphatically clear is that we are each mortal. We enter this world with nothing and we leave it with nothing. One day, the queen will stand alone before the King, as will we all: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

If we could all remember that fact, our world would be dramatically transformed. My friend John Stonestreet is right: “Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.”

“The biggest war in Europe since 1945”

CBS News reported yesterday that Russian commanders have received orders to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine and commanders on the ground are now making specific battlefield plans. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said all signs suggest that we are on the brink of an invasion. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC that Russia is planning “the biggest war in Europe since 1945.”

Meanwhile, the Winter Olympics came to a close in China yesterday, ending what the New York Times is calling “a games marked by triumph, heartbreak, and scandal.” China’s horrific treatment of the Uyghur people has been in the headlines since 2014, with more than a million Turkic Muslims in this northwestern region of China incarcerated. This is being called “the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II” with forced abortions, forced sterilization, forced birth control, forced labor, torture, and brainwashing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in such complete control of his government and military that the Moscow Times called him “a modern-day Tsar.” China is ruled by the seven members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo but led in actuality by Xi Jinping, who is general secretary, president, and head of the military.

Both men reflect the cultural narratives of their cultures. Russia has historically been governed by a single strong leader, whether a tsar, a General Secretary of the Communist Party, or a president. China has functioned in a similar fashion across its history, whether its leaders were emperors or Communist officials.

When we usurp God’s throne

By contrast, America’s founding ideal is captured in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This ethic is itself founded on the Judeo-Christian worldview and its claims that every human is equally created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) but also equally fallen and sinful (Romans 3:23).

Here we find the two catalytic reasons for our republic: we are each equally deserving of life, liberty, and happiness, but we are each so finite and fallen that none of us can be trusted with unaccountable power and authority. For both reasons, there should be no kings, tsars, despots, or otherwise unelected leaders among us.

In Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, our founders created a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

My purpose is not to extol my country in contrast with others. Admittedly, our nation, as it is led by fallen people, has not fully lived up to our constitutional values. The man who wrote the Declaration was a slave owner who fathered children by one of his slaves. It took a civil war and another century of civil rights advances to eradicate governmentally sanctioned racism and Jim Crow laws. We still have far to go to realize fully our ideals.

But my point is this: the equality of all people is our ideal. Like Queen Elizabeth II, we are all mortal: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). When we usurp God’s throne and seek to be our own gods (Genesis 3:15), tragedy soon ensues, whether in the garden of Eden, Ukraine, China, or our own backyards.

“Christianity is a power religion”

Imagine a world in which every person valued every other person equally as made in God’s image. Imagine a world in which our leaders saw themselves as servants of those they led (cf. John 13:14–15). These ideas would have monumental and transformative consequences for our entire world. By contrast, rejecting them leads to victims of every kind, including adultery in marriage, child abuse in families, crime in our cities, and wars against nations.

So, it turns out, John Stonestreet is right about the power of ideas. John F. Kennedy noted, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” This fact shows us a powerful way Christians can respond to the crisis in Ukraine, with the Uyghurs, or anywhere people are oppressing people: we can and should pray for God to change the minds and hearts of the oppressors.

Christians as disparate as David French and Franklin Graham are praying that God “turns Vladimir Putin’s heart from war,” as French states. We should join them, and we should do the same for Xi Jinping. If you doubt God’s ability to change the heart of someone who seems so far from his word and will, remember what the risen Christ did with Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–22).

As we pray for the Holy Spirit to convict people who are sinning against people, let’s remember to pray the same for ourselves. Peter Marshall was right: “Christianity is a power religion. Christ has the power to recreate men from the inside out.”

R. C. Sproul asserted: “The Spirit brings order out of chaos and beauty out of ugliness. He can transform a sin-blistered man into a paragon of virtue. The Spirit changes people. The Author of life is also the Transformer of life.”

Is he transforming you today?

Denison Forum

 “Nordic combined skiing” is so named because it combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing. The sport has been dominated in recent years by Norwegian athlete Jarl Magnus Riiber, considered by NBC analyst Johnny Spillane to be “the best Nordic combined skier ever.” As Riiber prepared to compete in this year’s Olympics, Spillane predicted, “If he has a good day, he’s pretty much unstoppable.”

He didn’t have a good day.

Riiber tested positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival at the Games, missing his first event and every training session. He cleared isolation on Monday in time to ski cross-country for ten kilometers on Tuesday. As he entered the first of four 2.5-kilometer loops on the course, he came to a fork. To the left was the cross-country circuit; to the right was the path to the finish line. He had not had a chance to practice on the track, so he had to guess and picked the lane on the right.

He chose poorly. 

After skiing around fifty yards, he realized he was going the wrong way and turned around. It was too late, however—he’d frittered away his lead and finished in eighth place. “It’s a silly mistake,” Riiber said later, “and it’s not fun to show the world that I’m maybe wasting a gold medal on that.”

Let’s consider his mishap as a cultural parable.

What George Clooney thinks about heaven and hell

There are many reasons to believe that we’re skiing in the wrong direction these days, but unlike Jarl Magnus Riiber, it’s not too late to turn around.

Let’s begin by identifying the wrong lane. From surging inflation to rising sea levels to religious persecution to continuing tensions in Ukraine, it’s harder to find good news than bad news in the news.

Harvard history professor Tiya Miles writes for the New York Times: “Everyone around me seems to be talking about the end. The end of nearly a million American lives in the Covid pandemic; the end of American democracy; the end of a public bulwark against racism and blatant antisemitism; the end of the post-Cold War peace in Europe; the end of the stable climate; and the end of our children’s best futures, to name a few undeniable possibilities. A condition of apocalyptic anxiety has overtaken us, raising our collective blood pressure, and sending us deeper into a maelstrom of suspicion, conspiracy thinking, and pessimism.”

Filmmaker Woody Allen complained ironically, “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering—and it’s all over much too soon.” Actor George Clooney added, “I don’t believe in heaven and hell. All I know is that as an individual, I won’t allow this life—the only thing I know to exist—to be wasted.”

They and the multitudes who share their skepticism obviously do not believe that Jesus died and rose again, offering each of us eternal life through his grace and “abundant” life every day (John 10:10). They don’t agree that Christians can now “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) because we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

In short, they do not believe that Jesus is who he claims to be, and their unbelief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is a wrong path Christians must beware, for it is open to us as well.

A girl and boy I will never forget

Mark 6 tells us that when Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, the people were skeptical and “took offense at him” (v. 3). As a result, “he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief” (vv. 5–6).

God created us in his image (Genesis 1:27) with free will and a capacity for choice that he chooses to honor. He therefore will “stand at the door and knock,” waiting for us to open our hearts to him (Revelation 3:20). If we do not believe he is omnipotent, we are unlikely to seek his power for our problems. If we do not believe he is omniscient, we are unlikely to seek his guidance for our decisions. If we do not believe he is omnibenevolent, we are unlikely to trust that his will is best for us.

As a result, we will not experience his power, wisdom, or love. The less we experience of God, the less we believe in him, and the less we believe in him, the less we experience of him. Taking this wrong path inevitably leads us further down the wrong path.

By contrast, I have seen what happens when people take the right path, choosing to believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do. I have seen Cuban Christians who have no medicines turn to the Great Physician and then experience miraculous healings. I have seen Muslim-background believers facing enormous oppression turn to Jesus for strength and then stand courageously for their Lord.

I will always remember the teenage girl I met in East Malaysia decades ago. Her father told her that if she was baptized as a Christian she could never go home again, so she brought her luggage to the church. And the young Christian I met in Singapore who faced abuse from his father every time he went to church but continued living at home because, as he explained, his father “needed to know about Jesus.”

“God does not give us overcoming life”

A relationship with God, like a relationship with anyone else, requires a commitment that transcends the evidence and becomes self-validating. You cannot prove that a job is the right job until you take it. You examine the evidence, but then you must step beyond the evidence into a relationship. It is the same with being married, or having children, or even reading this article. All relationships require a step of faith that becomes self-validating once we take it.

Oswald Chambers was right: “God does not give us overcoming life; he gives us life as we overcome” (his emphasis). He illustrates: “Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand—’Stretch forth thy hand,’ and as soon as the man did so, his hand was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God because he gives life immediately.”

What “overcoming” path is God asking you to choose today?

Denison Forum

Actor and comedian Bob Saget died from accidental head trauma, a Florida medical examiner declared yesterday. “His injuries were most likely incurred from an unwitnessed fall,” according to Dr. Joshua Stephany, who added that no illicit drugs or toxins were found in his system. Mr. Saget was found in his Orlando hotel room by hotel security on January 9 and pronounced dead at the scene.

We also learned yesterday that Prince Charles has tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time. Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II and Spain’s King Felipe VI announced this week that they also tested positive for the virus.

This news is relevant to Sunday’s Super Bowl in ways that might not be obvious but are deeply significant for our lives today.

Why do we care?

Front row seats at the big game can be yours for $62,095 each. You could buy a thirty-second ad for $6.5 to $7 million. You could star in one of these commercials, but apparently you have to be a superstar celebrity first.

Or you can be one of the one hundred million people who are expected to watch the game in the US. According to the Athletic, only two non-Super Bowl programs—the February 1983 MASH finale and the 1978 Leon Spinks–Muhammad Ali rematch—rank among the all-time top thirty US broadcasts for audience size.

On one level, this is merely a football game. Nothing that happens Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles will resolve the crisis in Ukraine, the truck blockade at the US–Canadian border, or the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. On another level, it is an opportunity for football immortality for the winners.

America is a celebrity-driven culture in ways that have only been exacerbated by pandemic quarantines, the explosion of social media, and the proliferation of streaming entertainment. Mr. Saget’s death was tragic, but only one of the 7,708 deaths that occur on average each day in the US. The monarchs who tested positive for COVID-19 are three of the more than 2.5 million confirmed cases each day.

We care about athletes who win championships, celebrities who fall ill or die, actors who are nominated for Oscars, and singers who win music awards because many of us live vicariously through them.

Why is this?

How to “live peaceably with all”

This week, I’ve been discussing the significance and implications of Christians’ status as the “children of God.” We have noted that we are loved passionately and unconditionally by our Father and thus called and privileged to love our fellow Christians and those outside the faith as our Father loves us.

Let’s close with this fact: When we truly believe that we are who God says we are, we find peace the world can neither give nor take and significance that lasts forever.

Many of us fixate on athletes and celebrities because our secularized culture has conditioned us to measure success by popularity, performance, and possessions. But all three are fleeting. Just ask any former celebrity, retired athlete, or now-bankrupt former billionaire. Then consider the presidents and kings, athletes and tycoons who now own the same six feet of dirt that will be yours and mine one day (if the Lord tarries).

Now decide that you want to define yourself as God defines you. Decide that your status and identity as the child of God is the foundational fact about you. Decide that there is nothing you can do to make God love you any more or less than he already does. Decide that you therefore need nothing the world can give or take, that you are a child of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Now you are free to love others whether they love you or not. You are free to serve Jesus whether the world rewards you or punishes you for your service.

You can “bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them” (Romans 12:14). You can “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (v. 15). You can “live in harmony with one another” and “associate with the lowly” (v. 16). You can “repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all” (v. 17). And, “If possible, so far as it depends on you,” you can “live peaceably with all” (v. 18).

Imagine a world where everyone did this. Or a country, a state, a city, a community, or a family. Or a single Christian.

Why not you? Why not today?

Galaxies in the eye of a needle

Philip Yancey writes: “Scientists now believe that if you had unlimited vision, you could hold a sewing needle at arm’s length toward the night sky and see ten thousand galaxies in the eye of the needle. Move it an inch to the left and you’d find ten thousand more. Same to the right, or no matter where else you moved it. There are approximately a trillion galaxies out there, each encompassing an average of one hundred to two hundred billion stars.”

If Jesus is your Lord, you are the child of the God who made all of that.

Now, what’s your problem?

Denison Forum

As football fans and the culture at large gear up for the biggest sports event of the year as the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals face off in the Super Bowl this Sunday, I find myself in the unfortunate position of not really caring who wins. 

My Dallas Cowboys lost in heartbreaking—and rage-inducing—fashion a few weeks ago, but I’m still looking forward to the game and everything that surrounds it. That said, sports tend to be more fun when you have someone to root for.

With that in mind, I’ve enjoyed getting to know a bit more about the faith of several athletes who will be playing this weekend. 

Cooper Kupp

Cooper Kupp, for example, has become one of the most valuable wide receivers in the league and has consistently been the focal point of the Rams offense all season. He’s also among the most vocal and open Christians in the sport. 

Whether it’s reflecting on the lessons he learned while recovering from a torn ACL a few seasons ago or when he’s asked about his growing stardom in the league, Kupp consistently points people back to God as the reason for his success and the secret to staying grounded amidst his rise in prominence. 

For example, when asked earlier this season if he felt like the NFL fully appreciated his abilities, he simply paraphrased Proverbs 16:9, telling the reporter “Today, the verse that was on my mind was, ‘The heart of man chooses his path but the Lord establishes his steps. It just gave me so much freedom to go out there and play free, give everything I had [and] know the results rested in him.” 

When discussing the violence inherent to the sport, he notes that “it’s the nature of the game. In the same way, it’s also sporadic and oftentimes out of your control. I couldn’t imagine stepping onto a football field and not having a full body-mind-spirit belief that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, and doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. My faith in God and His plan for me allows me to play freely without doubt or fear.”

Evan McPherson

However, Kupp is far from the only participant to have made the news recently as a result of his faith. The Cincinnati Bengals are playing for the championship in large part because rookie kicker Evan McPherson ended the last two weeks with game-winning field goals. After his kick that sent the Bengals to the AFC Championship game, he attended the press conference wearing a black shirt with “God is good” printed across the top. 

He also regularly quotes Scripture on social media and responded to being named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Month for December by posting on Instagram: “Glory to God! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.” Paul’s instruction in that passage is to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you,” which seems to sum up McPherson’s approach to the game quite well. 

Sony Michel

And Rams running back Sony Michel would agree with him. He told reporters during a previous trip to the Super Bowl—ironically when he was playing against the Rams—that “without Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, there is none of this. We get all this glory, but the glory is not for us. It’s for Him. We do this for Him. That’s kind of my purpose. So really, none of this matters to me.”

Akeem Davis-Gaither

Bengals linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither hasn’t been a Christian for as long as the others listed above, but he speaks of his faith with a wisdom and perspective that would surely resonate with the others in this article. 

After being baptized last summer, Davis-Gaither posted that “after 23 years I am so proud to have given my life to Christ and Received the gift of new life! God has done wonderful things in my life, picked me up from my lows and humbled me at my highs. Every step of my life, God has blessed me in so many ways. I’m blessed that I’m able to share his love and let my life be a testimony of his unwavering love for us all.”

The impact of Christians in Super Bowl LVI

Regardless of whom you choose to cheer for this Sunday night—or even if you choose to ignore the game altogether—having Christians publicly stand for their faith while the world is watching should be an encouragement to all of us. 

It should also be a reminder to pray for those willing to take that step because doing so puts a target on their back that Satan would love nothing more than to exploit. None of these men are perfect, and they will surely make decisions from time to time that our Lord would not approve of. After all, they’re still just as fallen and human as the rest of us. 

So please take some time today to pray for each of these players by name. 

Pray that God would continue to use their courage and their witness in ways that expand the kingdom. 

Pray that God would protect them from temptation and help them to remain faithful to his will. 

And pray that God will use their example to spark the desire to be used in similar ways in your own life as well. 

We may never have the same reach or audience as professional football players on the sport’s biggest stage, but that’s not an excuse to take the opportunities that the Lord does give us any less seriously than if we did. 

What opportunities will God bring your way today? 

Will you be ready when he does?

Denison Forum

The recent volcanic eruption in the South Pacific island kingdom of Tonga was hundreds of times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, according to NASA scientists.

As Morgan Lee reports in Christianity Today, the blast generated waves that reached estimated heights of fifty feet. Coastline villages and resorts were swept away. Rushing water buried roads under boulders and debris.

Yet only three people died and, despite the ash that covers large parts of the islands, life is returning to normal.

Fe’ilaokitau Kaho Tevi, the former general secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches, is grateful: “We feel that we have been the subject of the prayers of the worldwide Christian community.” Tongan Christians also point to King Tupou I (1797–1893), who dedicated the islands to God. The only remaining monarchy in the Pacific is overwhelmingly Christian today; Protestants make up 64.9 percent of the population, while the rest are evenly divided between Catholics and Mormons.

These believers approach Christian solidarity in a unique way: “The nuclear family in the context of the West does not define nor exist in the Pasifika Island family structure,” as a pastor of Tongan congregations in Seattle explains. “Similarly, Jesus viewed others as his brothers and sisters, particularly those who followed God’s way, as told in Matthew 12. We all belong to God’s family. We all belong to the body, as the apostle Paul would describe in 1 Corinthians 12.”

A unified response to unprecedented challenges

This week I’ve been focusing on the transformational fact that Christians are “children of God” whose worth is found in our Father’s unshakable love and who can experience every day the forgiveness, freedom, and joy of his unconditional grace.

Today, let’s consider another aspect of our theme: if we are all children of one Father, we are all members of one family. Every believer across twenty centuries of Christian faith is our sister or brother.

More than at any time in my lifetime, you and I need this empowering encouragement today, for this simple reason: the unprecedented challenges we face require the unified response of God’s people.

In The Coming Tsunami, I explain why and how Christians are castigated today as outdated, intolerant, oppressive, and even dangerous. Biblical morality is branded as homophobic and bigoted. Followers of Jesus are increasingly facing antagonism and oppression on a level we have never experienced in America. Our founders believed that our Constitution was “made only for a moral and religious people” and would not recognize our culture.

But the good news is, we do not have to face our battles alone.

“People need embodied community”

Every image of the church in the New Testament is collective—we are members of one body (1 Corinthians 12:12–27) and branches of one vine (John 15:1–2). The apostle John was given a vision of our future in heaven: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).

I can find no solos in the book of Revelation.

As Covenant College theologian Kelly M. Kapic observes, “It takes the entire church to be the one body of Christ.” Our existentialist, isolated culture desperately needs this “body,” as Anglican priest and New York Times columnist Tish Harrison Warren notes: “People need physical touch and interaction. We need to connect with other human beings through our bodies, through the ordinary vulnerability of looking into their eyes, hearing their voice, sharing their space, their smells, their presence. . . . People need embodied community.”

As a result, she claims, “A chief thing that the church has to offer the world now is to remind us all how to be human creatures, with all the embodiment and physical limits that implies. We need to embrace that countercultural call.”

“Thank you for the fiery sermon”

One consequence of the pandemic has been a significant decline in church attendance even as restrictions have eased. Going to church online is apparently becoming more permanent for many who could attend in person. This trend reflects the growing consumerism of American Christianity in my lifetime as many go to church for what they can “get out of it” more than what they can give in worship to God and service to others.

But the time to prepare for a tsunami is before it strikes. The time to engage personally and passionately with fellow believers is before we need what only the body of Christ can provide.

It’s been said that every Christian needs a Paul (a mentor), a Barnabas (an encourager), and a Timothy (someone to mentor). Who are yours? Who would name you as one of theirs?

A pastor went to visit a church member who had stopped coming to worship. The man expected the pastor to scold him for his laxity and to urge him to return. Instead, the pastor stepped into the den and took a seat before the fire roaring in the fireplace. The puzzled church member took a seat next to him.

The two watched the fire in silence. Then the pastor stood up, took the fireplace tongs, picked up a blazing ember, set it to the side of the fire, and then sat back down. The two watched as it sputtered, smoked, and eventually went out and grew cold. Then the pastor retrieved the tongs, picked up the dead coal, and placed it back into the fire. Instantly, it leapt back to flaming life.

As the pastor stood up to leave, the church member said, “Thank you for the fiery sermon. I will be back in worship this Sunday.”

How close to God’s fire are you today?

Denison Forum

Kyle Mullen was a football star at his New Jersey high school and for Yale (where he was a second-team All-Ivy League selection) and Monmouth University. He was also an honor society student described by a former coach as a “great athlete but a better person.” The coach added that Mullen was “probably one of the best kids I ever had. Great, great kid on the field but even better off the field.”

Mullen, age twenty-four, died last Friday during Navy SEAL “Hell Week” training. The commander of Naval Special Warfare Command said, “We are extending every form of support we can to the Mullen family.”

That same day, five-year-old Rayan Oram died after being extricated from a Moroccan well. He fell one hundred feet into the well the previous Tuesday; the rescue attempt captured global attention. Moroccan King Mohammed VI called his parents after he died; French President Emmanuel Macron added on a Facebook post, “Tonight, I want to tell the family of little Rayan and the Moroccan people that we share their pain.”

Leaders are right to extend every possible support to these families. Society’s attention will soon shift from these two tragedies, but their parents and families will be marked by them forever. This is how it is with families and how it should be.

As Queen Elizabeth II noted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, “Grief is the price we pay for love.”

A story I will not forget

Yesterday, we began a week-long focus on the transformational implications of the biblical declaration that Christians are the “children of God.” I wrote that “this changes everything. Knowing that we are now and forever the beloved children of the God of the universe gives us status and significance the world can neither bestow on us nor take from us. It fills the deep hunger of our souls for meaning and worth.”

Here’s the story behind this metaphor’s recent impact on my life.

Last week, Dr. Mark Turman and I were honored to speak to a group of ministers in the Houston area about my new book, The Coming Tsunami, and the larger topic of cultural apologetics. At one point, several of the men described ways they are engaging their culture with redemptive truth. One of them told a story I will not forget.

I would guess that this man is in his fifties or sixties. He is a minister and a professional building inspector who shares Christ wherever he can with whomever he can. He told us that his starting point is usually to tell people that he was adopted by his parents.

He makes this point: “They knew nothing about me when they chose me. Unlike biological children who inherited their genetics from their parents, my parents did not know my parents or anything about my story. They chose me as I was, where I was.” He notes that such unconditional love obviously changed his life, then explains how God’s unconditional love has been even more transformative for him.

He had tears in his eyes when he finished his story. I had tears in mine as I heard it.

Why being adopted by God is so empowering

Upon reflection, I realized that there is another way to tell his story. Unlike his adoptive parents, his heavenly Father knew everything about him. He knew everything about his parents, his genetics, and his background. He knew everything about what he had done before coming to Christ and who he was when he became a Christian. He knew everything that this man would do for the rest of his life, including every sin he would commit.

And yet, the God of the universe chose him and adopted him as his child.

Paul described this miraculous reality: “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Romans 8:15). There was no Jewish process of adoption: if a man died, his brother immediately became the head of his family and the father of his children. In Roman context and thus for Paul’s readers, however, the concept of adoption took on a powerful meaning.

Patria potestas (“the power of the father”) extended to a father’s children from their birth to his death. He could disown them, sell them as slaves, and even have them killed if he saw fit. However, if he adopted a child, that child could never be disowned, sold, or executed. They would be a permanent part of the family.

When the Spirit inspired Paul to use adoption in describing our status with our heavenly Father, he meant us to understand that nothing can cause God to disown us. To the contrary, as Paul declared later in Romans 8, “Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 38–39).

The biblical answer to the “human condition”

In a culture that measures us by our appearance, possessions, performance, and popularity, it is terrifying to be known as we truly are. In Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am?, psychologist John Powell writes of “the imprisoning fears and self-doubt which cripple most of us and keep us from forward movement on the road to maturity, happiness, and true love.”

He adds: “None of us wants to be a fraud or to live a lie; none of us wants to be a sham, a phony. But the fears that we experience and the risks that honest self-communication would involve seem so intense to us that seeking refuge in our roles, masks, and games becomes an almost natural reflex action.

“After a while, it may even be quite difficult for us to distinguish between what we really are, at any given moment in our development as persons, and what we pose as being. It is such a universally human problem that we might justifiably call it ‘the human condition.’”

Here’s the biblical answer to this “condition”: the God who is love (1 John 4:8) loves you more deeply, passionately, and unconditionally than an earthly father can love his children. He grieves your struggles and suffering even more than parents grieving the death of a child. He stands ready to guide your path with omniscient wisdom no human father can match. He will empower your obedience with omnipotence the strongest father cannot begin to offer.

What hidden pain, shame, or grief do you need to entrust to his loving grace today?

What temptation, challenge, or decision do you need to entrust to his omnipotent providence?

Denison Forum

When King George VI of Great Britain died on February 6, 1952, his oldest child, Princess Elizabeth, succeeded him to the throne. Yesterday, the queen became the first British monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee “marking seventy years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms, and the Commonwealth.”

However, this celebration has been eclipsed by remarks she made in time for yesterday morning’s front pages: she expressed a “sincere wish” that Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, should be known as “Queen Consort” when Charles succeeds his mother to the throne.

Elizabeth is a “Queen Regnant” in that she inherited the throne following the death of the previous monarch. By contrast, a “Queen Consort” is the spouse of a ruling king, though, as the BBC explains, “Queen Camilla” would be her future title. Since the monarch is the only person who can define royal titles, this is seen as a “hugely significant intervention” by the queen.

I have long admired the queen’s personal faith and steadfast commitment to her people. Her declaration is completely in keeping with her power as a constitutional monarch.

However, it also points to a foundational temptation that lies at the heart of our fallen humanity.

$30 drawing valued at $10 million

A drawing by Albrecht Dürer purchased at a yard sale in 2017 for $30 has been valued by experts in excess of $10 million. A cube made from $11.7 million worth of gold was recently placed in Central Park for a day and protected by its own security detail. And NBCUniversal announced that it has sold out all its ad inventory for next Sunday’s Super Bowl LVI, with multiple thirty-second spots bringing a record $7 million each.

There is no logical argument for such valuations on their intrinsic merits. The Dürer drawing is merely ink (or pencil; the article did not specify) on paper. The value of the golden cube depends on the valuation of gold “set by several banks, an oversight committee, and a panel of internal and external chair members.” Super Bowl ads are worth what advertisers will pay for them.

We could go on: at current metal prices, Olympic gold medals are valued at $750, but the world assigns them a worth beyond financial estimation. Ukraine’s population is .056 percent of the world’s population, but the country’s current geopolitical significance is making global headlines.

China’s Politburo Standing Committee currently has seven members, but they function as the “epicenter” of the nation’s power and leadership. In practical terms, however, the country is led by a single man, President Xi Jinping. The same is true for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Apart from their political offices, neither man would be a threat to the world by himself, but each wields power by virtue of positional economic and military authority that can change the world overnight.

“I wanted to be president of the world!”

Here’s my point: our ultimate value is not ours to determine, though we are tempted every day to live as though it is. We each want to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), kings of our own kingdom. But we are unable by ourselves to become what we most want to become. 

In The Preaching Event, esteemed preacher John Claypool records an admission he once made to an audience at Yale University: “People used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I was shrewd enough to fashion my answer according to what I thought they wanted to hear. For some it was a policeman, for others a fireman or a preacher. However, in my own heart of hearts, I had my own private fantasy that I never dared to share with anyone. Do you know what it was? I am telling you the gospel truth: I wanted to be president of the world!”

And yet, Claypool never achieved his childhood aspiration. Nor have I become what my egotistical heart wishes to be. Nor have you, I would guess.

But we try. We seek the admiration of those whose opinion we respect, the success valued by those we strive to impress, the authority conferred by governments on their leaders. As a counselor astutely told me, “I am not who I think I am. I am not who you think I am. I am who I think you think I am.” Many people live for such approval from those whose opinion they believe will validate their lives and ensure their significance.

This changes everything

Here’s the good news: our actual value has already been determined by One whose opinion is the only opinion that truly matters.

Camilla Parker Bowles will one day become “Queen Camilla” because the present queen deemed it so. If Christ is your Lord, you are already the “child of God” because the King of the universe deemed it so.

My high school youth minister gave me advice I have repeated often over the years: Always remember the source of your personal worth. Here it is: “To all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13).

Why did God confer such status on us? “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).

This changes everything. Knowing that we are now and forever the beloved children of the God of the universe gives us status and significance the world can neither bestow on us nor take from us. It fills the deep hunger of our souls for meaning and worth. It is a transformative gift we are now called and privileged to pay forward to everyone we can, however we can.

“Why do I keep leaving home?”

Our status as God’s children has so gripped me in recent days that I want to explore it with you in Daily Articles across this week. For today, we’ll close with these questions:

One: Have you become the child of God through faith in Christ? If not, why not? (For answers to frequent questions about Christ and salvation, please see my website article, “Why Jesus?“)

Two: If you know you are a child of God, how is this fact most relevant to your aspirations and needs today?

Philosopher J. P. Moreland noted: “I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Why do I keep ignoring the place of true love and persist in looking for it elsewhere? Why do I keep leaving home where I am called a child of God, the Beloved of the Father?”

Why, indeed?

Denison Forum

Greetings from the Arctic tundra known as Dallas, Texas.

A major winter storm brought rain, freezing rain, ice, and snow to the middle section of the US yesterday. More than one hundred million people in twenty-five states have been under winter weather alerts. Thousands of flights have been canceled, schools and businesses are closed, and officials are urging us to stay off roads. I am writing this article inside a house covered in snow surrounded by roads covered in ice.

In my current circumstances, I found this story interesting: a homeowner in Connecticut accidentally set their house ablaze while trying to thaw their property with a flamethrower. The owner was attempting to melt ice and snow and “accidentally ignited” the side of the home, according to fire officials. Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames and save the house.

Let’s consider this story as a cultural metaphor.

Why trust God when trusting God doesn’t seem to help?

The social scientist Julian Rappaport defined “empowerment” as “the mechanism by which people, organizations, and communities gain mastery over their lives.” It is empowering to take proactive steps in dealing with a threat.

For example, the leader of the Islamic State was killed yesterday in Syria. He blew himself up along with members of his family as US special operations forces targeted his location. This news comes as evidence of a resurgence of ISIS in Syria and Iraq grows by the day. (For more, see “Should we fear radical Islam?”)

By contrast, when we face challenges for which we can find no solutions or take no apparent action, we feel impotent and frustrated. Like the Connecticut flamethrowing homeowner, we might take steps to solve the problem that only make it worse. Or we might retreat from the “storms” we face and abandon the struggle.

We are all facing such storms, from the ongoing pandemic to geopolitical threats to chasmic political divisions to ever more aggressive immorality. When you’re “stuck inside” as I am today, how is biblical hope relevant? If you’ve prayed for God to change your circumstances but your circumstances do not seem to change, what difference did praying make? If you feel trapped by your world, why should you keep trusting the God who made your world?

If my car broke down constantly, I wouldn’t keep buying cars from that manufacturer. If a restaurant’s food repeatedly gave me food poisoning, I wouldn’t keep eating in that restaurant. If my doctor’s advice and prescriptions were not helping my condition, I wouldn’t keep going back to that doctor.

It’s not surprising when skeptics ask, “Why trust God when trusting God doesn’t seem to help?” It’s only human for Christians to ask the same question.

Let’s consider two biblical responses.

One: Ask and keep on asking

For the first several years of my Christian life, I thought doubts were sins. I believed that if I had enough faith, I wouldn’t have faith questions. Then I found Jesus’ cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). I realized that if the sinless Son of God could ask hard questions, so could I.

I was also encouraged by God’s invitation in Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lᴏʀᴅ.” I learned that the Hebrew can be translated literally, “Come now, let us argue it out.” Asking hard faith questions is not just not sinful—it is encouraged by God.

So, let’s begin by defining our problem and asking our questions as specifically as possible. Name your suffering, disappointment, fear, guilt, or discouragement. Ask God to heal your pain, respond to your problem, or encourage your mind and heart.

Then take Jesus at his word: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7–8, my emphasis).

But know this: Jesus’ invitation in the original Greek should be translated, “Ask and keep on asking . . . seek and keep on seeking . . . knock and keep on knocking.” Persist in prayer, not because your prayers change God but because they position you to be changed by his Spirit. They connect you to his presence and power. And they submit your spirit to his Spirit as he works in your life and circumstances according to his perfect will (Romans 12:2).

I believe many “unanswered” prayers were actually prayers we stopped praying before they could be answered. It is always too soon to give up on God.

Two: Be willing to do whatever God says in response

The New York Times reports that nasal vaccines may be the best way to prevent coronavirus infections long term because “they provide protection exactly where it is needed to fend off the virus: the mucosal linings of the airways, where the coronavirus first lands.” However, such vaccines will obviously need to be used to be effective.

We are often the answer to our prayers. If we are praying for spiritual awakening in our immoral culture, we should ask for that awakening to begin with us (2 Chronicles 7:13–14). If we are praying for God’s protection for the homeless in winter, we should ask him how we can help meet their needs (Matthew 25:35–36). If we are praying for reconciliation in a relationship, we should ask how we can take the first step (Matthew 18:15).

A skeptic once asked God, “Why don’t you do more about the suffering in your world?” 

God replied, “I was just about to ask you the same question.”

I believe many “unanswered” prayers were answered by God in ways that required our obedience in response. However, God cannot give what we will not receive or lead where we will not follow.

My decades of “wrestling with God”

I do not mean to suggest that these two factors explain all our apparently unanswered prayers or answer all our faith questions. I still do not understand my father’s early death or have complete explanations for much of the suffering of our fallen world.

But after decades of “wrestling with God” (cf. Genesis 32:22–32), I have learned that if I will “ask and keep on asking” from a heart that is willing to do whatever my Father asks and go wherever he leads, I often experience his presence, power, and peace in ways that respond to and even transcend my questions and struggles.

Biblical scholar William Barclay observed, “If a man fights his way through his doubts to the conviction that Jesus Christ is Lord, he has attained to a certainty that the man who unthinkingly accepts things can never reach.”

Why do you need such certainty today?

Denison Forum

Dr. Tony Evans, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, and his family went through a terrible ordeal. Over a period of two years, they experienced one tragedy after another.

His thirty-eight-year-old niece died unexpectedly. He also lost his brother, sister, brother-in-law, father, and wife. Finally, one of his daughters had part of a lung removed because of cancer, and the world went into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But out of that dark time emerged a book full of spiritual lessons and practical advice Divine Disruption: Holding on to Faith When Life Breaks Your Heart.

Evans, who has written more than one hundred books, booklets, and Bible studies, collaborated with his children on Divine Disruption. All four of them—Chrystal Evans Hurst, Priscilla Shirer, Anthony Evans, and Jonathan Evans—work in ministry, and they took turns with their father in narrating the book.

“We have all been through hard seasons, times in life when it seems like the hits keep coming and you can barely catch your breath,” Priscilla wrote. “Sometimes we look at Christians in the spotlight of public ministry and think they have some secret measure of faith, like they’ve figured out how to stay above the struggles of life. But no one is above them.”

The death of her cousin Wynter Pitts, a wife and mother of four girls, because of a heart-related ailment in July 2018 came as a shock. (Note: Wynter’s husband, Jonathan Pitts, shares more in his podcast, The Journey with Jonathan Pitts).

The Evans family shared their grief with their church at its Wednesday night service.

Jonathan Evans asked, “Dad, how do you keep going?”

“Because I believe what I preach,” he responded. “Where would I be in a situation like this without an anchor? I believe Wynter is in a better place. I believe in the sovereignty and goodness of God. And because I believe, I keep going.”

“The Bible is full of questions, people asking why,” he explained in Divine Disruption. “Why do the righteous suffer? That’s the theme of the entire book of Job. How do I make sense of this? How could this happen? Why?

“I cannot answer that. Deuteronomy 29:29 says God has secret things, that He does not have to answer our every question. That is His prerogative. But I would tell Wynter’s children this: Your mother loved the Lord. And the Lord loved your mother. So, in some way beyond our understanding, He determined it was her time. I don’t like it, and you don’t like it. We pray, Let this cup pass from me. But we have to believe that God knows what He is doing when He’s not doing what we want Him to do.”

Dr. Evans also believes that it is OK to be angry.

“We can be angry but still respectful,” he wrote. “It’s okay to feel the pain of God disappointing us. God already knows how we feel. Hiding it doesn’t help. We can take our anger to Him.”

But an even greater test awaited. In March 2019, he had to tell his children that his wife, Lois, had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.

“We are still believing God for healing,” he said. “But medically, there’s nothing they can do.”

Everyone in the room was crying—except Lois. She asked everyone to gather around her.

“You do know what this is, don’t you?” she asked. “It’s called spiritual warfare. So much death and sickness has attacked our family lately.”

She urged her family to continue to serve God during her illness. “If you’re called to preach, you will preach,” she said. “If you’re called to write, you will write. If you’re called to sing, you will sing. Now, I have every expectation that you will love and care and pray for me and be there when I need you. But God has an expectation too.”

Jonathan asked her, “Mom, how can you be talking about ministry at a time like this?”

“Because that’s why you’re here, son,” she said. “It’s the reason you exist.”

She died in late December 2019. Her husband of forty-nine years, now a widower, preached the next day.

“Anyone who has answered God’s call knows that ministry does not stop when life gets hard,” he wrote. “People still need hope and help, and honestly, that calling kept me moving forward. In fact, it helped me stay afloat. I firmly believe that serving others is a key to enduring in difficult times. When we minister to the hurting and lost, God ministers to us. By blessing, we are blessed.”

A week after her mother’s memorial service, Priscilla underwent successful lung surgery. And then came other trials, including the pandemic.

Looking back on this difficult time, Dr. Evans acknowledged that God can be hard to understand. But he also wrote, “My passion is to see God in the things that I am able to understand. That’s where my comfort comes from in the midst of loss.”

That sort of wisdom makes Divine Disruption a blessing to any Christian dealing with grief.

Denison Forum

“Every technology is both a burden and a blessing; not either-or, but this-and-that.” 

That’s media theorist Neil Postman in his book Technopoly.

For example, a mother in Oregon is suing Meta (Facebook’s parent company) and Snap, arguing that their respective applications have caused her fourteen-year-old daughter to become so addicted to her phone that “she would get very physical, violent, verbal with me” when the mother attempted to take her daughter’s phone away.

And yet the team behind the YouVersion Bible app reported that 55.8 billion chapters of the Bible were read by its users over the course of 2021.

Our technology is a burden. 

Our technology is a blessing.

How do we ensure it’s more the latter than the former?

Denison Forum would like to thank pureHOPE for the following helpful, practical guidance.

Technology, in and of itself is a very good gift and resource we have been given. But, like many other good gifts, we can easily misuse it and even make an idol of it. I would make the argument that our greatest challenge, or danger, technology presents to us is the assault it makes on our time, our attention, and our relationships.

We only get one life and all of us have a limited amount of time and attention. Although the Bible doesn’t specifically mention social media and the gadgets that invade our modern lives, it does give us much instruction and guidance about making the most of the resources that God has given us and not squandering or misusing them.

Are you “making the most of your time”?

In the book of Ephesians, Chapter 5 there is a great passage that we can apply to so many areas of our lives. As we think about our devices and the devices that are occupying so much of our lives, this passage is extremely helpful!

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:15–17 NASB).

Paul is encouraging the people of Ephesus, and for you and me today, to live as God desires us to live. That is to live carefully, wisely and making the most of our time or as another translation says, “redeeming the time.”

When we’re on our devices, so often we are doing the expedient or convenient thing rather than the wonderous or fulfilling thing. We don’t get to ponder and think and take quiet moments of reflection as we once did before the onslaught of technology. We don’t have to wait for anything. It is often in those moments of quiet reflection and stillness where God reveals His glory, and that revelation is what fuels our hope and our trust and our faith in Him.

Often, when we’re on our devices, we are mindlessly wasting our time in an effort to avoid unwanted feelings of boredom or loneliness. It’s what some call Digital Distraction. The average iPhone user touches their phone 2,617 times a day. The average 8-year-old spends 7 hours per day in front of screens. How often are we mindlessly scrolling when we could be engaging with others, engaging with God or simply enjoying a minute of solitude and stillness?

The Psalmist in Psalm 46 encourages us with words that I think can be so helpful for us when it comes to digital distraction. He says, “Be still and know that I am God.” That is so countercultural and so opposed to the natural pull of technology on our time and attention.

You and I gain a deeper awareness of God when we are still. His glory and majesty are best revealed to us in stillness, in silence and in solitude. Our devices, or better said, our tendency to turn to our devices, to avoid the feelings of loneliness and boredom, all too often robs us of that stillness that helps us know God. The ancient discipline of silence and solitude is so foreign to many of us as Christ Followers in the digital age. I truly believe that this lost discipline is one of the biggest barriers to knowing God and the feeling of being known by God in the 21st Century.

Dallas Willard once wrote, “The first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds.”

Is our use of technology helping us or hurting us from doing that?

Facetime vs. face-to-face time

But, it is not only our time and attention that is vulnerable to our use of technology, it is also our relationships. Primarily, I mean our key relationships. Those relationships like family and close friends where our character and compassion are fostered. The community of people God has given us to grow our faith and our joy with one another.

“I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12 NIV).

The technology that existed over two thousand years ago, that was available to the Apostle John, was paper and ink—or papyrus for you scholars out there. I am so thankful for that technology! Because of paper and ink, we have the Bible. Paul uses very similar language in his writings as well. However, John gives us a golden nugget of wisdom when it comes to how we are to live wisely and as God desires for us when it comes to technology. You see, the technology of John’s day also created challenges with relationships. He and other writers of the New Testament like Paul could have chosen to hole-up in some upper room in Jerusalem and spend all their time writing letters of instruction and encouragement to Christ Followers.

John’s words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, teach us technology is to be a supplement, it is to be secondary to human relationships and is never to be our primary way of interacting with one another. You and I were created by God for relationship, and the primary way for us to be in relationship with one another is face to face. Why face-to-face? So “that our joy may be complete.” While every one of us reading this are more connected than anyone else in the history of mankind, we are losing the intimacy, the joy, and the compassion that only a face-to-face conversation can cultivate.

God desires for us to live carefully, wisely, and to make the most of our time. He desires for us to seek out face-to-face conversation and connection. Because he created us and knows what is best for us.

What will your digital stewardship look like going forward?

The Bible tells us to think on things above (Colossians 3:2). Things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. Am I using technology and all of my gadgets and devices to think on these things or are they detracting me from doing so? Is social media fostering these thoughts for me?

This year, let’s put a plan in place that allows us to be better stewards of the technology we have. Let’s model good stewardship for our family and friends. Let’s equip those in our lives we lead to thrive in the digital age so that our joy too may be complete!

---

Dan Martin is the Director of Partnerships & Training for pureHOPE. His primary role is overseeing partnerships and training opportunities with churches, organizations, and both domestic and international leaders. He frequently speaks on topics addressing family, parenting, marriage, Christian leadership, and technology. Dan lives in the Dallas area with his wife, Kathie. They have three adult children and have now reached grandparent status.

Website: purehope.net
Facebook: facebook.com/findpurehope
Instagram: @findpurehope
Podcast: purehope.net/aworldfreepodcast/
Resources: resources.purehope.net

Denison Forum

Cheslie Kryst was a Division I athlete. She earned a law degree and an MBA at Wake Forest University, then became a civil litigation attorney doing pro bono work to reduce sentences for inmates. She won the Miss USA pageant in 2019 and earned a spot in the top ten at the Miss Universe competition. She then became a correspondent for the entertainment news program Extra.

Last Sunday, according to police, she jumped from a Manhattan building and was pronounced dead at the scene. Yesterday, the medical examiner said she died by suicide. She was thirty years old.

Before she jumped, Cheslie posted a cryptic message on her Instagram page: “May this day bring you rest and peace.” However, in March 2021 she wrote a transparent and lengthy essay in which she said, “I discovered that the world’s most important question, especially when asked repeatedly and answered frankly, is: why?” She added: “Why work so hard to capture the dreams I’ve been taught by society to want when I continue to only find emptiness?”

“Do not work for the food that perishes”

I could not find information online about Cheslie Kryst’s faith or whether she suffered from depression. I do understand that many people who trust in Jesus suffer from this debilitating disease. And I also know from personal and pastoral experience that followers of Jesus sometimes die by suicide.

At the same time, it seems that Cheslie’s article spoke for people across our society today when she described finding only “emptiness” in her life.

According to new data from the General Social Survey, Americans are more unhappy than we’ve been in half a century. In 1972, people who said they were “very happy” outnumbered those who said they were “not too happy” by about three-to-one. In 2021, that all changed: now the latter outnumber the former by 5 percent.

One of the keys to finding fulfillment in a society that produces emptiness is to look to its one true source. Jesus urged us: “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you” (John 6:27). This is a binary choice. He then identified this “food”: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (v. 35).

What Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his diary

Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote in his journal as if recording an unusual event, “I have been to church today, and am not depressed.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a member of the US Supreme Court for thirty years, once explained his career choice: “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”

If Jesus came to give us “life in all its fullness” (John 10:10 NCV), why are more Christians not more known for our joy?

As I noted in yesterday’s Daily Article, the Bible describes the “fruit of the Spirit” as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). It calls us to “walk by the Spirit” (v. 16) so that we might experience and manifest his “fruit,” including his “joy.”

In describing ways we can do this, I wrote that we must “refuse all temptations to stray from him even if Christian leaders and churches do so” and added, “This is such an important point that we will devote tomorrow’s article to it.”

I believe that one of the reasons more Christians do not experience more of the joy of the Spirit lies here. As Yuval Levin notes in his brilliant book, A Time to Build, institutions that once molded the character of their members in line with their mission and values have now become platforms for personal advancement and status. Many political, business, educational, and media leaders leverage the institutions they serve to advance their personal “brands.”

Pastors and other religious leaders are not immune.

“For me it is good to be near God”

In a day filled with historic challenges and rising opposition to the Christian faith, as confidence in our governmental leaders continues to erode, we are looking for people we can trust. This is especially alluring with faith leaders since they are presumably people of high character who are committed to serving our Lord and his people.

In addition, such leaders typically have educational and life experience most do not. It is natural to turn to them to help us interpret and apply the Bible, seek and follow God’s direction for our lives, and otherwise navigate the whitewater rapids of our rapidly changing culture.

However, people—even faith leaders—cannot give us lasting joy. Neither can possessions or popularity. You and I were created by God for intimacy with God. He designed us in such a way that we can be ultimately satisfied with nothing less than such intimacy with him.

The psalmist testified, “For me it is good to be near God” (Psalm 73:28a). Consequently, he continued, “I have made the Lord Gᴏᴅ my refuge” (v. 28b). With the result “that I may tell of all your works” (v. 28c). Knowledge led to experience led to proclamation, not the reverse.

“God always has more to reveal to us”

Two results follow.

One: Decide which faith leaders to trust based on the degree to which they follow Jesus and lead you to him. Seek to discern whether they are “near God” in their personal lives and whether he is their “refuge” and the source of what they say and do.

Two: Depend on the Spirit to do what no human can. Meet daily with your Lord in worship and his word. Ask his Spirit to “fill” and control your mind and life (Ephesians 5:18). Focus less on the “milk” (digested food) available to you through others and more on the “meat” of meeting personally and directly with your Father (1 Corinthians 3:2).

Br. Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston writes: “God always has more to reveal to us, and this will be in harmony with what God has already revealed. Pay attention to life. The greatness, glory, and wonder of God’s essence is beyond description, because God is always more: more than we can describe, understand, and experience.”

Will you seek “more” of God today than ever before?

NOTE: If you are having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here. If you know someone who is battling severe depression, you might consult this advice from experts on ways to help.

Denison Forum

With his victory yesterday at the Australian Open, Rafael Nadal has now won more Grand Slam titles than any man in tennis history. By any measure, he is one of the “Greatest Of All Time” and thus by acronym a “GOAT.”

Of course, when sports fans speak of GOATs these days, they’re most likely referring to Tom Brady. By virtue of his seven Super Bowl rings, he is widely considered the GOAT of his sport.

As a result, the internet was abuzz over the weekend with reports that Brady is going to retire, counterclaims that he has not made up his mind, and assertions that he is “expected” to retire but has not made his decision known, perhaps for financial reasons.

While scores of recent headlines have been devoted to Brady and his future, my wife and I have been especially following a story that deserves more attention than it has received. New York City police officer Jason Rivera was gunned down with his partner last week when they responded to a family dispute. Rivera, age twenty-two, was memorialized in St. Patrick’s Cathedral last Friday.

As ABC News reports, police filled the pews and “a sea of blue uniforms stretched for blocks as snow drifted outside the city’s iconic church.” Mayor Eric Adams, a retired NYPD captain, told the assembled crowds, “He did it for the right reasons—he wanted to make a difference.”

What makes someone great?

Greatness in our culture is typically measured by personal achievement and public acclaim.

An athlete who wins Grand Slams or Super Bowls is “great.” CEOs and politicians are measured by the “Three P’s”: performance, popularity, and possessions. For pastors, the standards are similarly alliterated: buildings, budgets, and baptisms.

Sacrificial service is seldom considered. I know pastors who are serving in smaller congregations and towns but whose ministries are remarkably effective. Police officers risk their lives for us every day, but we seem not to recognize their service unless one of them makes the sacrifice all are willing to make.

In our confused and broken culture, it is as if we must decide between public excellence and personal service. This is a choice Jesus did not need to make.

“No man ever spoke like this man”

Our Lord achieved astounding popularity during his public ministry. The gospels report that “great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan” (Matthew 4:25). They were “astonished at his teaching” (Matthew 7:28) and said of his ministry, “Never was anything like this seen in Israel” (Matthew 9:33).

When the authorities sent soldiers to arrest him, they reported, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46). His private character was as exemplary as his public ministry (cf. Hebrews 4:15).

Near the end of his life, Napoleon Bonaparte stated, “There is between Christianity and other religions the distance of infinity.” He then explained: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men will die for him.”

Now Jesus is ready to inspire and empower us to achieve the kind of public excellence and personal character that empowers our witness and transforms our culture. But there is a simple yet transforming decision we must make first.

A binary choice that changes everything

Galatians 5 exhorts us: “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (v. 16–17).

This is a binary choice. As fallen human beings, if we are not submitted to the Spirit, we are by default submitted to the “flesh.” If we are not empowered by the Spirit, we are empowered by the “flesh.” How can we tell the difference?

“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). Do you see any of these in your life? Does the world see any of these in your life?

By contrast, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (vv. 22–23). Do you see any of these in your life? Does the world see any of these in your life?

Four steps to true greatness

How do we “walk by the Spirit”? The same way we walk with anyone else.

1. Decide that we want to walk with him. I urge you to make this choice right now.
2. Begin to walk with him. You can do so at this moment. Stop reading this article and turn to God in prayer. Ask the Spirit to take control of your mind and life (Ephesians 5:18). Pray through your day, submitting it to his authority. Trust that he is answering your prayer and will lead if you follow and bless as you trust.
3. Stay close to him, listening to him and speaking with him. Oswald Chambers offers some simple but profound advice: “Get into the habit of saying, ‘Speak, Lord,’ and life will become a romance. Every time circumstances press, say, ‘Speak, Lord’; make time to listen.” He assures us, “As we listen, our ear gets acute, and, like Jesus, we shall hear God all the time.”
4. Refuse all temptations to stray from him even if Christian leaders and churches do so. This is such an important point that we will devote tomorrow’s article to it.

“Be sure to taste the moment to the full”

If we “walk by the Spirit,” Jesus will make our lives great in every way that truly matters. He will mold our character to be more like his every day (Romans 8:29). He will lead us to places and people where we can serve eternity most fully and effectively. He will use us in ways the world may or may not recognize but that his Father will reward forever (Matthew 25:21).

Let’s begin or renew our journey to true excellence today. Henri Nouwen wrote: “Be sure to taste the moment to the full. The Lord always reveals himself to you where you are most fully present. In your prayer, try to present your anxieties, struggles, and fears to him, and let him show you the way to follow him.

“More important than anything else is to follow the Lord. The rest is secondary. If you follow him, you can follow him as a priest, a lay minister, as a single person, or as a married person, but what really counts is that he is the center.”

Who or what is your “center” today?

Denison Forum

According to CNN, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to announce as early as today that he will retire at the end of the Court’s term. This will provide President Biden with his first opportunity to nominate a justice to the high court. The justice is only one person, but one vote on the court upheld the right to abortion in 1992, decided Bush v. Gore in 2000, and legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, all of which were five-to-four decisions.

One person can achieve surprising significance in our world. For example, if you’re not selected to serve on the Supreme Court, you could become the “king” of your own island off the English coast or own a sixteenth-century castle in Scotland that was visited by Mary, Queen of Scots.

But you don’t have to own an island or a castle to have personal influence unimagined in previous generations. This is both good news and bad news.

Redefining tolerance

I remember a day when publishing a book or an article required approval by a book, newspaper, or magazine publisher, editorial oversight, and significant accountability. Being known through video or audio required being on television or radio or producing and marketing a studio recording.

But today, anyone with a cell phone can publish their thoughts and record themselves on video or audio that goes viral.

This is good news in that our individualism mirrors the biblical declaration that each human is created in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26). It also empowers our ability to use our personal platforms to share God’s truth and love with everyone we influence.

But this is bad news in that the radical individualism of our culture has empowered an ethic of personal “authenticity” that now threatens biblical morality and religious liberty in unprecedented ways. Our culture has exchanged truth for tolerance and redefined tolerance from the right to be wrong to the claim that there is no objective right or wrong.

Why Christians are on trial in Finland

Our cultural “evolution” with regard to sexual ethics is a case in point.

Decades ago, a concerted strategy began normalizing same-sex relationships through popular culture and media. Next came legalizing same-sex relationships through the courts, culminating with the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in 2015. Next came stigmatizing those who disagree as “homophobic” and “dangerous.”

Now we are witnessing the stage of criminalizing those who object.

France adopted a new law yesterday that bans so-called conversion therapies and authorizes jail time and fines for those who attempt to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ persons. Canada approved a similar law earlier this month, with jail terms of up to five years for offenders. Two Christian leaders have been on trial this week in Finland for publishing a pamphlet explaining biblical teachings about sex and marriage.

And the so-called Equality Act is being called “the most invasive threat to religious liberty ever proposed in America.”

“Is there any hope?”

My new book, The Coming Tsunami, explains the forces leading to this unprecedented attack on biblical truth and morality. In media interviews this week, I have often been asked why Christians should try to engage a culture that is so opposed to biblical faith. Why shouldn’t we withdraw from our fallen society into safer havens of shared community?

My first response is that I’m glad the questioner is taking the threat seriously. But we cannot withdraw from culture and remain biblical. Jesus called us to attack the gates of hell (Matthew 16:18) by taking his word and grace to every nation on earth (Matthew 28:19; Acts 1:8). To do otherwise leaves the salt in the saltshaker and the light under a basket (Matthew 5:13–16).

The questioner then typically asks, “Is there any hope that such engagement still works in our secularized and hostile culture?” My answer is to focus on ways God is using his people with transformative power today.

Consider some examples.

A Bible in the foundation of a Chick-fil-A

The owners of a Chick-fil-A restaurant opening soon in Marshall, Texas, placed a Bible in the foundation of the building. Their action made headlines along with its explanation: “Our purpose here is simple—to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

Nakobe Dean, the 2021 Butkus Award winner as the nation’s top college linebacker, helped lead Georgia to the NCAA Championship earlier this month. An engineering student with a 4.0 GPA, he is a projected first-round NFL draft pick. After the game, he knelt and bowed his head on the field. As he told his postgame press conference, “I had to thank God. Without him, none of this would have been possible. Every step of the way, I thanked him for putting me in this position, putting my team in this position, and I just thank him for everything.”

Bryce Young, the Alabama quarterback whose team lost to Georgia, won this year’s Heisman Trophy, college football’s highest individual honor. In his acceptance speech, he began, “First and foremost, I’d like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Without him I couldn’t be here. And through him all things are possible.”

When Sen. Raphael Warnock tweeted, “As a pro-choice pastor, I’ve always believed that a patient’s room is way too small for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government,” former Super Bowl champion Benjamin Watson replied, “Is a patient’s room too small for a child as well?” His response made national headlines.

“Held safe in an everlasting embrace”

If you never serve on the Supreme Court or own your own island or castle, you can still use your gifts and abilities to stand publicly for biblical truth in ways that are uniquely yours.

Such influence begins with embracing your unique status as the child of God (John 1:12). Henri Nouwen is right: “You have to keep unmasking the world about you for what it is: manipulative, controlling, power-hungry, and, in the long run, destructive. The world tells you many lies about who you are, and you simply have to be realistic enough to remind yourself of this.

“Every time you feel hurt, offended, or rejected, you have to dare to say to yourself: ‘These feelings, strong as they may be, are not telling me the truth about myself. The truth, even though I cannot feel it right now, is that I am the chosen child of God, precious in God’s eyes, called the Beloved from all eternity, and held safe in an everlasting embrace.’”

Claim God’s “everlasting embrace,” then invite those you influence to experience the same grace that is holding you safe today. Ten thousand millennia after the Supreme Court issues its final ruling, someone will be glad you did.

Denison Forum

NATO’s chief stated yesterday that the Western military alliance will send a written proposal to Moscow later this week to “try to find a way forward” amid growing tensions over Russia’s troop build-up on Ukraine’s border. He added that there is “still a diplomatic way out” of the growing crisis, but some NATO member countries are already putting forces on standby and sending additional ships and fighter jets to Eastern Europe.

The second-largest nation on the European continent after Russia, Ukraine is roughly the size of Texas. It is surrounded by the Black Sea to the south, Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland to the northwest, and Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova to the west. The territory has been ruled by various powers across its history, including Poland, Lithuania, the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia.

After World War II, the entire country became part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 after the dissolution of the USSR.

I have never been to Ukraine and don’t know anyone who has. The country is the second poorest in Europe and is only our sixty-seventh largest trading partner. According to the Department of Commerce, US exports to Ukraine support only an estimated five thousand jobs.

Why, then, should the US care what happens there? 

I am old enough to remember the Vietnam War; many Americans still do not understand why we defended a small nation on the other side of the world at the cost of more than fifty-eight thousand American lives. The US has put 8,500 troops on alert for possible deployment to Europe amid this crisis; what if one of them was your child or grandchild?

Why Ukraine matters to the US

At a press conference early this month, President Joe Biden stated that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would be “the most consequential thing that’s happened in the world, in terms of war and peace, since World War II.” Analysts list these reasons why the US should be concerned:

One: An invasion could affect the global order. 

If Russia is allowed to invade, occupy, and annex its neighbor, “that’s an inherently very unstable international system, which will affect America’s security and its prosperity,” according to one geopolitical expert. Gas prices could spike and global commerce could be disrupted in significant ways.

Two: An invasion could spark a wider war. 

One foreign policy expert warns, “If the Russians succeed in reestablishing a sphere of influence or of dominating Ukraine, they won’t stop there. They will continue.” He believes Poland, Romania, and Slovakia could be next, all of which are NATO allies the US is sworn to defend. A successful invasion could also embolden Russia to be more aggressive in cyberattacks, election meddling, and influence campaigns designed to undermine Western democracies.

Three: Western credibility is on the line. 

The US has spent billions of dollars to help Ukraine build up its military defenses. NATO has warned that a Russian invasion would lead to devastating economic sanctions and additional shipments of weapons to Ukraine and other eastern European countries. If Russia successfully invades Ukraine, China and other adversaries will likely believe that the West is unwilling to defend its interests.

Four: Western security could be threatened. 

One of Vladimir Putin’s demands is that all nuclear weapons be removed from Europe, claiming that they constitute an offensive threat against his nation. If the US refuses, Russian officials indicate that he could counter by placing nuclear weapons in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba, within easy, short reach of American cities. A New York Times headline asks if this is a “Cuban Missile Crisis Redux?“

Why Ukraine matters to Christians

We noted yesterday that 78 percent of Ukrainian adults, some thirty-five million people, are Orthodox Christians. Followers of Jesus everywhere should obviously be concerned about and praying for our sisters and brothers in this endangered country.

Christianity Today quotes the leader of one Ukrainian evangelical group: “Prayer is our spiritual weapon. God can undo what the politicians are planning.” Let’s make their “weapon” ours as well (cf. Ephesians 6:12).

In addition, Christians are called to care for hurting people anywhere and everywhere in the world. Unlike any other world religion, we worship a God who literally entered the human race and thus faced and felt every temptation, pain, and challenge we face (Hebrews 4:15).

He sent his followers to “heal every disease and every affliction” they encountered as they advanced his kingdom (Matthew 10:1). He then commissioned them to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19); nations translates ethnos, literally “people groups.” As a result, Christianity is the most global religion in human history. And it grows on the strength of its compassion for hurting people, remembering that what we do for those in need, we do for Jesus himself (Matthew 25:40).

What is true in Ukraine is true wherever you live today. Any problem or pain that is relevant to our Lord is relevant to his followers. Anyone he loves is someone we should love. And Jesus loves each of us as if there were only one of us (St. Augustine) and is praying for each of us right now with compassion and solidarity (cf. Romans 8:34).

“God’s solution for the ills of society”

Recent surveys show that millennials are “leading the shift away from organized religion” as they seek truth that seems more relevant to their personal lives and challenges. At the same time, studies demonstrate that young people value giving back to their communities in practical and relevant ways.

As a result, every problem Christians meet through intercession and personal engagement is an opportunity to show others the relevance of Jesus’ love and grace to our broken world.

Max Lucado writes: “When crowds of people came to Christ for healing, ‘One by one he placed his hands on them and healed them’ (Luke 4:40). Jesus could have proclaimed a cloud of healing blessings to fall upon the crowd. But he is not a one-size-fits-all Savior. He placed his hands on each one, individually, personally. Perceiving unique needs, he issued unique blessings.”

As a result, according to Lucado, “God’s solution for the ills of society is a quorum of unselfish, life-giving, God-loving folks who flow through the neighborhoods and businesses like cleansing agents, bringing in the good and flushing out the bad. They hail from all corners of the globe, reflect all hues of skin. Liberal, conservative, rural, metropolitan, young, old. Yet they are bound together by this amazing discovery: happiness is found by giving it away.”

How much happiness will you find today?

Denison Forum

Tensions soared yesterday between Russia and the West over concerns that Moscow is planning to invade Ukraine. The US Defense Department announced that up to 8,500 American forces have been placed on “heightened alert” for potential deployment to eastern Europe. The State Department has ordered families of US Embassy personnel in Kyiv, Ukraine, to begin evacuating. The British Embassy in Ukraine will withdraw some staff members as well.

What is happening in Ukraine? Why? What difference can the Christian faith make in this conflict?

Russian demands and Western response

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly views Ukraine as part of Russia’s “sphere of influence” rather than an independent state. Consequently, Russia has amassed an estimated one hundred thousand troops near Ukraine’s border. It is demanding that NATO promise to never allow Ukraine to join its alliance and wants alliance troops currently stationed in former Soviet bloc countries to be curtailed. 

The Associated Press reports that since Russia’s demands are “nonstarters for NATO,” a deadlock has been created that “many fear can only end in war.” NATO is increasing its military presence in the region, with member countries sending warplanes and ships and promising to send more troops. The European Union has also committed to increased financial support for Ukraine.

For its part, Russia denies that it is planning an invasion and claims Western accusations are a cover for NATO’s own planned provocations. Though it has surrounded Ukraine with forces from the north, east, and south, Moscow is now citing the Western response as evidence that Russia is the target, not the instigator, of aggression.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last Friday and said the US would give Russia written responses to Moscow’s proposals this week. Observers say this might delay any invasion for a few more days.

“They go from strength to strength”

Seventy-eight percent of adults in Ukraine identify as Orthodox Christians. (By contrast, only 63 percent of American adults identify as Christians.) This constitutes some thirty-five million Ukrainian Christians. 

If you were one of them today, what difference would your faith make? How would following Jesus differentiate you from those who do not follow your Lord? We could ask the same question of American Christians facing growing animosity against biblical morality and of believers facing persecution around the world.

We know that one day God “shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

But skeptics are likely to ask: What difference does our faith make in the meantime?

The Bible is filled with promises of God’s presence and provision for those who trust in him. For example, Psalm 91:3 states: “He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler.” Charles Haddon Spurgeon said of this text, “No bird of paradise shall die in the fowler’s net.” The psalmist wrote: “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion” (Psalm 84:5–7).

But these promises come with a condition.

“Good reason to be anxious about everything”

God’s word instructs us, “Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6a). Frederick Buechner writes that Paul “was evidently in prison at the time and with good reason to be anxious about everything.” However, the apostle continued: “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (v. 6b).

Buechner comments: “He does not deny that the worst things will happen finally to all of us, as indeed he must have had a strong suspicion they were soon to happen to him. He does not try to minimize them. He does not try to explain them away as God’s will or God’s judgment or God’s method of testing our spiritual fiber. He simply tells the Philippians that in spite of them—even in the thick of them—they are to keep in constant touch with the One who unimaginably transcends the worst things as he also unimaginably transcends the best.”

Buechner continues: “Come hell or high water, they are to keep on asking, keep on thanking, above all keep on making themselves known. He does not promise them that as a result they will be delivered from the worst things any more than Jesus himself was delivered from them. What he promises them instead is that ‘the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’

“The worst things will surely happen no matter what—that is to be understood—but beyond all our power to understand, he writes, we will have peace both in heart and in mind. We are as sure to be in trouble as the sparks fly upward, but we will also be ‘in Christ,’ as he puts it. Ultimately not even sorrow, loss, death can get at us there.”

“Let me use danger as material for courage”

Let us pray today for war to be averted in Ukraine and for peace to rule. Let us pray for wisdom for our leaders and for those with whom they are negotiating. Let us pray for protection for our soldiers, embassy personnel, and others who are potentially in harm’s way.

And let us pray for our Ukrainian sisters and brothers in Christ to turn their anxiety into intercession and to confront their fears with faith. When they do, they will “shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life” (Philippians 2:15–16). Skeptics will see the powerful difference Jesus makes in those who trust him not just when their lives are easy but especially when they are not.

And let us join them by asking God to redeem our present challenges in ways that deepen our faith and glorify our Lord. The Scottish minister John Baillie prayed:

Let me use disappointment as material for patience;
Let me use success as material for thankfulness;
Let me use anxiety as material for perseverance;
Let me use danger as material for courage;
Let me use criticism as material for learning;
Let me use praise as material for humility;
Let me use pleasures as material for self-control;
Let me use pain as material for endurance.

Why do you need to make his prayer your own today?

Denison Forum

Harrison Bader, a Gold Glove Award-winning centerfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, learned that Meramec Elementary School in Clayton, Missouri, was dealing with staff shortages and needed some help, so he volunteered to cover a Physical Education class. However, he told reporters later, “Being a substitute science or math teacher, even at that level, would be above my pay grade.”

In other news, drivers on a Tennessee highway recently encountered a cast-iron skillet said to be the world’s largest. It was being hauled on the back of a flatbed truck to the Lodge Cast Iron store, which is building a Lodge Cast Iron Museum. UPI is also reporting on a 225.13-pound ball of human hair that has broken the Guinness World Record. (Click on the link to see the picture at your own risk . . .)

Then there is this bit of good news / bad news in the news: scientists say the sun will one day explode and kill us all, but not for another five billion years. However, some scientists also say our planet’s oceans will be vaporized by energy from the sun a mere billion years from now. Other experts disagree, claiming that our planet could host life for at least another 1.75 billion years.

So far I’ve not helped you solve any practical problems you might be facing today, but I enjoyed sharing news I found interesting in the hope that you agree. My friends know that I am just as ready to talk about a good book I read or a movie I enjoyed. And don’t get me started on my grandkids . . .

“Pleasure has no relish unless we share it”

A study by the University of Pennsylvania tracked the circulation of almost seven thousand articles from the New York Times over a three-month period. They found that positive articles were shared more often than negative ones. Another study reported that “we share our positive daily experiences 70 percent of the time.”

Virginia Wolff was right: “Pleasure has no relish unless we share it.” Albert Schweitzer agreed: “Happiness is the only thing that multiplies when you share it.”

This week, we’ve focused on ways to respond redemptively to a culture that is “falling apart at the seams,” according to New York Times columnist David Brooks. We have noted the importance of humility in sharing God’s word with our lost friends and family members, and we have focused both on the urgency of compassion and the compassion of urgency in doing so.

Let’s close our series by centering on the well-known fact that the Christian “gospel” is literally “good news” (from the Old English god spel, translating the Greek euangelion, meaning “good news”). But let’s add this less-known fact: the Old English spel means not only “news” but also “story.” The gospel is a “good story” that has changed our personal story. Now we have the privilege of sharing that story with others so it can become their story as well.

“I have the most amazing job on the planet”

In John 4, Jesus met a woman who came to Jacob’s well to draw water. However, as he told her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again” (v. 13). Then he offered her the opportunity to experience “a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (v. 14). Given the choice, she understandably wanted the latter (v. 15).

It’s our job and privilege to give everyone we know the same choice.

Don Mansfield became Albania’s national director for Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) in 1991. The country had been officially atheistic for decades and had been entirely closed to missionaries until the borders opened that year. When he made his first visit to the country, three young men approached him, asking questions: “Where do you come from?” “What do you do?”

Mansfield told them, “I have the most amazing job on the planet. I get to tell people how they can know Jesus Christ.”

The leader turned to look at his friends. “Wasn’t it five minutes ago, we were talking, and we said, ‘We have got to find someone to tell us about Jesus?’” he asked them. Turning to Mansfield, he said, “Will you tell me about Jesus?”

Your truth will become their truth

Christians living in our postmodern, relativistic society are often warned that sharing their faith is the intolerant “imposing” of their values on others. Since being branded “intolerant” is the cardinal sin in our culture, it’s tempting to keep our salt in the saltshaker and our light under a basket (Matthew 5:13–16).

In addition, many Christians are unsure whether they know enough to be able to explain and defend their faith with skeptics. They know the basics of salvation but fear being embarrassed by questions they might not be able to answer.

The answer is to return to the “gospel” as a “good story.”

In a culture that measures truth by relevance, your experience with Jesus will be relevant to others to the degree that it is relevant to you. If you met Jesus this morning in his word and worship, surrendering your day to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and asking that his “fruit” be manifested in your life, your prayer will be answered. Others will see the difference Christ makes in your life and will be drawn to that difference for themselves.

Your truth will then become their truth as they experience the truth.

The compelling question

Knowing Jesus and then making him known has never been more vital for the future of American Christianity than it is today.

My dear friend Kerby Anderson’s outstanding call for us to “equip the next generation with biblical truth” makes the compelling case that young people today know less about the Bible than previous generations. They are more likely to believe that other religious beliefs lead to heaven and are less likely to share their faith as a result. 

By contrast, the more we truly experience Jesus, the more we will want to share him with others. The more the gospel becomes our “good story,” the more our lives and our words will tell that story.

So, here’s the question: When last did Jesus change your life?

NOTE: There are just four days left to reserve your seat at the virtual book launch Q&A celebrating the release of my latest and most pivotal book, The Coming Tsunami. During the Q&A we’ll look at Critical Race Theory, one of the four major “earthquakes” I talk about in The Coming Tsunami that are seismically shifting our world. So I hope you’ll join us for the Q&A. Please pre-order your copy of The Coming Tsunami to reserve your seat. Thank you.

P.S. Amazon has dropped the pre-order price to $22.50. Amazon also offers a pre-order price guarantee, meaning that you’ll pay the lowest pre-order price offered before the book releases (even if you’ve already pre-ordered). If you pre-order through Amazon, be sure to visit TheComingTsunami.com afterward to register for the Q&A event.

Denison Forum

Voddie T. Baucham Jr.’s Fault Lines: The Social Justice Movement and Evangelicalism’s Looming Catastropheprovides an in-depth perspective on how social justice has divided our culture, our country, and the church, and how the tenets of modern social justice employ narratives that do not match with evidence. 

To describe this ideology, he uses his own term, “Critical Social Justice” (CSJ). While he supports social justice, he believes that Critical Theory has taken hold in today’s culture. In this context, Baucham certainly does the job of critiquing and engaging culture. 

Most of the work is aptly summarized in Proverbs 18:17, which he quotes, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.”

In examining the evidence for and against the idea of systemic, structural racism, Baucham does not deny racial disparity in America. Rather, he challenges the CSJ narrative, which argues that the inequality is due entirely to the racist “DNA” of America. 

While Baucham offers some alternative explanations to the disparity, though not much, he mostly attacks one prominent fallacy in CSJ thinking: “There is unequal outcome, therefore, the structure is to blame.”

He claims, to help us get a broader perspective, that America is objectively less racist than almost any other country. His perspective, as he has lived in Zambia for the past six years, is one of an insider and an outsider.

He is frank, forthright, and defends the gospel. Furthermore, while he masterfully shows that the narrative of CSJ is downright dishonest, misleading, and extremely dangerous to the church and our culture, sometimes I think he doesn’t capture the full scale of the evidence. 

Critical reflections

With full respect and admiration for Baucham’s life, work, intentions, and thought, here are some critical reflections on Fault Lines. 

He addresses some of the evidence but often leaves out the other side. For example, he uses Harvard Economics professor Roland G. Fryer’s paper, “An Empirical Analysis of Racial Differences in Police Use of Force,” which shows that, when external factors are controlled, unarmed black and white Americans are shot at relatively equal rates. He cites this to disprove the 2.5 to 1 ratio that is often cited, which states that unarmed black men are killed at 2.5 times the rate of white men. 

However, that same paper also shows that police disproportionately use force against black Americans (even when outside factors are controlled and the offenders comply with officers’ requests). He doesn’t acknowledge the latter point. 

He sometimes uses unscholarly or difficult-to-confirm sources, like a tweet with a video compilation or an obscure YouTube video. One footnote led me through a difficult search, and I ended up listening to an entire podcast because Baucham didn’t cite the original content or timestamp. This, and other references, sometimes lacked context or only gave one side of the picture. 

As another reviewer notes, when Baucham compares the CSJ movement to a “new religion,” complete with its own “creation story” and cosmology, he stretches the comparison. Undoubtedly, the CSJ movement with Critical Race Theory often has religious fervor and generally provides a worldview. Regardless, this comparison seemed forced. 

Additionally, readers must remember that Baucham believes that there is a deep divide on this issue. When we look around, it’s hard to disagree. But, one will notice when reading that this division defines the work, and his charge is to “pick a side.” While he may be completely correct in his analysis, Baucham’s tendency to harp on the division is sometimes tough to swallow. This, compounded with the fact that he spends little time on positive solutions, makes the book sometimes feel partial and unnecessarily divisive.   

Why Christians should read this book

Suffice to say, while those complaints are important, on the whole, Baucham excellently addresses the spreading destruction of CSJ in evangelicalism. For example, he demonstrates that Be the Bridgeand other Christian works on the subject are often rifewith “Ethnic Gnosticism,” whereby the truth can only be heard from people of color and people of color are always to be believed. While humility is important, as Christians we shouldn’t abandon the belief in objective truth. 

He addresses the danger of accepting CSJ, as it can contaminate the gospel with legalism and distracting goals that tend toward disunity rather than unity. Additionally, he provides insider insight into the events of the SBC controversy and its resolution on Critical Race Theory. 

Baucham affirms the importance of ethnic diversity. He values his African heritage highly as an important part of his identity. And, indeed, he affirms that Christians must “do justice.” However, he believes that CSJ can blind us to true justice and avoid the real problems that lead to racial disparity. Insofar as this book is a critique of the movement and its danger to Evangelical Christianity, it does its job excellently. 

If you don’t pick up this work, I would at least recommend that you read and wrestle with the “Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel,” even if you disagree with it. Baucham refers to this document frequently and was a prominent signature on it. 

All in all, Voddie Baucham’s work is a helpful source of argumentation and a fresh perspective very much needed in the CRT debate that rages in our culture. 

In their own words

“I wish I could say this book is meant to help us avoid the impending catastrophe. However, it is not. This catastrophe is unavoidable. These fault lines are so deeply entrenched, and the rules of engagement are so perilously complex, the question is not if but when the catastrophe will strike.”

“In the end, the answer to everything is racism [in the CSJ movement]. Not only is this kind of reasoning logically flawed, but it also flies in the face of a substantial body of sociological research and the historic preaching and understanding of the black church.” 

“The black family matters. Education matters. Decisions and choices matter. And above all, God’s Word matters.” 

“Racism is real. Injustice is real. No matter how many times I say those things, I will still be accused of turning a blind eye to them—not because I deny them, but because I deny the CRT/I view that they are “normal” and at the basis of everything.” 

“Pastors…I believe the church—your church—is under attack. As shepherds, we must defend the sheep. We must repel the wolves. And yes, the wolves are many. However, this one is within the gates and has the worst intentions. He desires to use your genuine love for the brethren as leverage.” 

“Living in Africa for the past five years has broadened my perspective on social justice in two major ways.

1) I have come to understand that the Critical Social Justice movement is global… 

2) I have come to realize that culture does matter, that not all cultures are equal, that Christian culture has produced the highest levels of freedom and prosperity and the lowest levels of corruption and oppression in the world, and that transforming culture is a laudable and worthwhile goal.”

Denison Forum

William Cronnon was eating lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in April 2014. His waitress accidentally refilled his glass with a mixture of water and Eco-San, a commercial-grade bleach.

According to his attorney, Cronnon went to the emergency room for treatment and developed gastrointestinal issues I won’t describe here. The attorney stated that Cronnon’s injuries were “severe and persistent enough” that he could no longer work. The case went to trial, where a jury awarded Cronnon compensatory damages totaling $4.3 million and punitive damages of $5 million.

I can find no evidence that the waitress intended to harm him or that he intended to be harmed. She sincerely thought she was refilling his glass with water. He sincerely thought he was drinking water. 

But both were sincerely wrong.

Former policeman indicted in death of his mother

This week we’re exploring ways to relate redemptively to our broken society. On Monday, we discussed New York Times columnist David Brooks’ compelling description of America as “falling apart at the seams.” Yesterday, we identified three reasons to choose compassion in responding to those who reject biblical truth and morality.

Today, let’s take an additional step into such solidarity.

Some sins are obviously intentional and deserve the opprobrium of society. An example is the former New York police officer who has been indicted in the death of his mother, who was found nearly decapitated in her Queens home last year. 

At other times, those who suffer are not at fault and deserve our full sympathy and support. An example is the disaster in Tonga caused by the largest volcanic eruption in more than thirty years and the resulting tsunami waves it sent crashing across the Pacific. Clearly, no one on the island could have caused or prevented the destruction they experienced.

Two compelling calls for compassion

Most who reject biblical truth and morality fall in the latter category for two reasons, both of which relate directly to followers of Jesus today.

One: They need our help in understanding spiritual truth.

Scripture teaches: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). This is why non-Christians need Christians to teach and model biblical truth in ways that are accessible and relevant to them.

Much of our Christian vocabulary is foreign to those outside our faith; words like sin and lost feel pejorative to those who have no context for understanding their true meaning. Evangelism feels to them like the unfair imposition of our opinions on them. They view attending our churches in the same way you and I would view attending a Muslim mosque or a Buddhist temple.

They need precisely what you and I needed before others helped us understand and accept the truth of God’s word. They are sincerely lost, but they don’t know they’re lost. They need and deserve someone to show them the path to life in a spirit of compassion and grace.

Two: They are the victims of the true enemy.

Yesterday, I referred to 2 Corinthians 4:4. Here is the full verse: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” This is why “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

As a result, the first step in influencing the lost is interceding for the lost. It is praying for the Spirit to defeat the work of Satan in their minds and hearts. It is asking God to lead them to himself, to guide and use us to that end, and to protect them from the deceptions and antagonism of our fallen culture.

While some people clearly understand and yet reject biblical truth and are willing accomplices in Satan’s work of deception, the vast majority do not know what they do not know. They do not understand that they are lost and in need of salvation. They do not understand that they are the victims of the enemy of their souls and that they desperately need our intercession and compassion.

A hymn I encourage you to pray

Millions of people in our lost culture are sincerely drinking “water” that leads to death rather than “living water” that leads to life (John 4:14). This is because they need Christians to explain and model biblical truth in relevant and empowering ways while interceding for the lost to hear and respond to the gospel in the power of the Spirit.

If I am holding the only flashlight in a dark room, whose fault is the darkness?

Rather than condemning those who need my witness and intercession, should I not renew my commitment to both?

To have God’s heart for the lost, however, I must first experience God’s heart for myself. I must encounter his loving grace, his transforming mercy, his empowering presence and peace. To that end, I’ll close with a hymn I came across recently that greatly encouraged me. It was written by Charles Wesley, the brother of John and co-leader of the Methodist movement.

Charles wrote the words for more than 6,500 hymns, including “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” He could make such a profound impact on his culture and on Christian history because Jesus was so real in his heart, a fact he expressed in words I encourage you to pray slowly to God right now:

Jesus, my all in all thou art;
My rest in toil, my ease in pain,
The medicine of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain,
My smile beneath the tyrant’s frown,
In shame my glory and my crown:

In want my plentiful supply,
In weakness my almighty pow’r,
In bonds my perfect liberty,
My light in Satan’s darkest hour,
My help and stay whene’er I call,
My life in death, my heav’n, my all. Amen.

Amen?

Denison Forum