A California State University, Fresno, professor will not be punished for calling Barbara Bush “an amazing racist” and cheering her death.

The university’s president condemned Randa Jarrar’s statements as “insensitive, inappropriate and an embarrassment to the university.” However, he stated that she was acting as a private citizen using her personal Twitter account, so her statements didn’t violate school policies.

In other California news, a former police officer has been identified as the so-called “Golden State Killer.” He is believed to have committed twelve killings and at least fifty rapes across California from 1976 to 1986.

Closer to home, Dallas police officer Rogelio Santander died yesterday. He was one of three victims of a gunman who was caught shoplifting at a Home Depot in our area.

His tragic death reminds us that our police officers are on the front lines every day, willing to die so we can live. They deserve our intercession and encouragement today.

And the husband of the woman killed last week on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 has now spoken to reporters. When Michael Riordan learned that his wife had died, “I immediately thought of the kids and how do you tell your kids their mom was gone.”

A very hard question

Continue reading Denison Forum – Professor who reviled Barbara Bush will not be punished →

Tammie Jo Shults is now famous as the pilot who landed Flight 1380 after an engine exploded in the air. She guided the plane down after a twenty-thousand-foot drop in six minutes, then walked down the aisle hugging passengers. Passengers described her as having “nerves of steel” and being a “true American hero.”

What you may not know is that she is also a committed Christian.

Shults has led the children’s worship program at First Baptist Church of Boerne, Texas. She has also taught Sunday school for children, middle schoolers, high schoolers, and adults. According to Staci Thompson, a longtime friend and church staff member, the congregation was “impressed” but not “shocked” at Shults’s heroics.

Her courage under fire comes from her training: three decades ago, Shults became one of the first female fighter pilots in the US military. But even more, it comes from her Lord. Thompson says her friend “wants people to know that God was there with her” on Flight 1380 and “that he helped her in getting control of that plane and landing that plane.”

“It was because of him, not her,” Thompson said. “She was just a teammate and a co-captain. He was the captain.” God’s grace was the source of her strength.

Why are stories of grace so appealing to us?

Signals of grace

GQ magazine has placed the Bible on its list of “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.” The more our culture rejects biblical truth, the more it needs biblical truth.

The Colson Center’s John Stonestreet has an article I encourage you to read. It’s on AB 2943, a bill passed by the California Assembly that adds “conversion therapy” to its list of “deceptive business practices” prohibited by state law.

Under the bill, a bookstore could sell Hitler’s Mein Kampf but not a book suggesting that same-gender sexual orientation could or should be altered. David French of the National Review correctly calls this legislation “extraordinarily radical.”

The more bad news we see, the more good news we want to see. But I think there’s something more to the popularity of stories of grace.

Sociologist Peter Berger identified “signals of transcendence” that point us from the temporal to the eternal. Perhaps stories of grace in a world of grief and guilt are such “signals.” They remind us that what matters most in life is that which we cannot earn but only receive.

What do you value most today? I would list my family, friends, and the privilege of this ministry. None were earned—all have been given to me.

All are by grace.

The folly of self-sanctification

In John 10, Jesus described himself as “the door of the sheep” (v. 7), demonstrating that he is the only way to eternal life. But he is also the only way to abundant life: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (v. 10).

“Abundant” translates perisson, a word which can be rendered “extraordinary, above all human means.” The abundant life of Christ is available only from Christ. Nothing we do, no matter how well-intentioned, can do what only God can do.

But we try.

Americans embrace the pioneer spirit, the cultural DNA that rewards hard work, initiative, and self-reliance. Add our fallen desire to be our own god (Genesis 3:5) and our desire to impress others with what we do and have, and you have a recipe for self-sanctification.

But we can no more sanctify ourselves than we can save ourselves. Salvation comes in three tenses: we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. All three depend on the grace of God.

Three reasons to spend time with God

If we cannot sanctify ourselves, why does the Bible call us to the spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible study, worship, solitude, meditation, and all the rest?

One: Spiritual disciplines position us to receive what grace intends to give. Just as you had to open this email or web page to read its content, so you must pray and read Scripture to hear God’s voice.

Two: Spiritual disciplines reinforce our need for God. We pray, read Scripture, and worship because we need what only God can provide. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).

Three: Spiritual disciplines invite other people to join us in following Jesus. Our Lord often prayed in the presence of his disciples as a model for them to follow (cf. Luke 11:1). Our public expressions of faith encourage others to trust in our Father.

Grace in three tenses

You have been saved by grace. You are being saved by grace. You will be saved by grace.

Conversely, you become more like Jesus by spending more time with Jesus. What will you do today to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18)?

John Piper: “Heaven is too great, hell is too horrible, and eternity is too long that we should putter around on the porch of eternity.”

Denison Forum

Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, announced the birth of their third child yesterday. They followed centuries of tradition by notifying the sovereign first, in this case, Queen Elizabeth. Per tradition, they also did not reveal the gender of their child until he was born.

The royal baby will have a first name, then two or three middle names, typically names that have been used in the family for centuries. The latest royal baby might not be named until tomorrow, but betting companies have made “Arthur” the clear favorite for his first name.

Carl Sandburg was right: “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”

The fragility of life: Four examples

The royal baby’s birth was wonderful news on a hard day.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The royal baby: Good news on a hard day →

“On April 23, the sun, moon, and Jupiter will align in the constellation Virgo to bring on the start of the biblical Rapture, according to the latest claims.” So the UK’s Daily Mail headlines, reporting that Planet X, sometimes called Nibiru, will bring about the end of the world.

We’ve been here before. Last September, I discussed a similar prediction that “the world as we know it is ending.” We had a comparable conversation back in 2012, when we survived the purported Mayan prediction that the world would end.

My interest today is not in discussing such speculative theories, but in considering their effect on our culture—and our souls.

We should prepare for eternity today

Let’s begin with a fact: this day could actually be the last day of history.

Jesus was blunt: “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36). Our Lord could come back to our planet today. Or any of us could go to him. Tomorrow is promised to no one.

We need not fear the fictitious Planet X. But we need to admit the reality that we are one day closer to eternity than ever before. And we have only today to be ready.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Will the world end today? How Satan uses end-times speculation →

Time‘s annual list of the world’s one hundred most influential people has been published.

Forty-five women are on the list, more than ever before. As the magazine notes, one of them is New Zealand’s new prime minister, the youngest female head of government on the planet. A wide variety of ethnicities and nationalities are represented as well.

It is encouraging to see this cultural icon honor our national commitment to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” for all people. The news reminds us each day that while we have come a long way, we have a long way to go.

Starbucks, the Olympics, and two universities

Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday. After they were arrested for trespassing last week at a Philadelphia Starbucks, their story made national news. On Monday, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson apologized to the men. The store employee who called 911 is no longer with the company.

Starbucks plans to close its 8,000 company-owned stores in the US for an afternoon in May to teach workers about racial bias. The training will be provided to about 175,000 employees.

In another story making headlines, Olympic gold medalist McKayla Maroney has told Dateline that the USA Gymnastics team doctor used food to manipulate her. She said she was molested by him hundreds of times.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What Time’s 100 “most influential people” says to the American church →

“If anyone has ever had the arms of a Down syndrome child or adult wrapped around your necks, you will know that you have encountered profound love that comes from the heart.” So states a Kentucky legislator in supporting a law banning abortions involving a fetus with Down syndrome if the diagnosis is the reason for ending a pregnancy.

Indiana and Ohio have already passed such bills, though a federal judge has temporarily blocked Ohio’s law from taking effect. Last Monday, the Pennsylvania House passed its own bill to ban such abortions. The bill passed with bipartisan support in a 139–56 vote.

If the bill passes in the Senate, it faces an expected veto from Gov. Tom Wolf.

In Iceland, nearly 100 percent of women who discover their unborn child has Down syndrome choose to abort their baby. In Denmark, the abortion rate for unborn babies with Down syndrome is 98 percent. The abortion rate in the US for such babies is 67 percent.

Famous people with inherited challenges Continue reading Denison Forum – Should babies with Down syndrome be aborted? →

Barbara Bush died last night. Newsweek is describing her this morning as “the no-nonsense first lady who ran the family that ran the country.”

Public figures from around the world are paying tribute to this remarkable woman. President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump said they “join the nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush.” They noted that “she will be long remembered for her strong devotion to country and family.”

Former president Obama and his wife, Michelle, issued a statement calling her “the rock of a family dedicated to public service” and “an example of the humility and decency that reflects the very best of the American spirit.”

When her failing health was announced earlier this week, I wrote a tribute to this remarkable lady you can read here.

Mortality is a fact for us all

Mrs. Bush’s passing is not the only death making headlines this morning.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Barbara Bush “ran the family that ran the country” →

Today is “Tax Day.” Why was it not April 15 as usual? April 15 fell on a Sunday this year, which would push Tax Day to Monday, April 16.

However, that date is when Washington, DC, observes Emancipation Day.

The holiday honors the 1862 passage of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, which ended slavery in the nation’s capital by paying slaveowners to pledge loyalty to the Union and free their slaves.

Thus, Tax Day was pushed to today. But “Tax Freedom Day” is Thursday.

You will have worked until April 19 to earn enough money to pay your total tax bill. In other words, everything you earn until Thursday belongs to the government. What you earn beginning on Friday, you can keep.

Americans will pay $3.19 trillion in federal taxes and $1.80 trillion in state and local taxes this year. The total of $5.19 trillion is more than we spend on food, clothing, and housing—combined.

“Seek his presence continually!” Continue reading Denison Forum – Its “Tax Day,” but “Tax Freedom Day” is coming →

“It will not surprise those who know her that Barbara Bush has been a rock in the face of her failing health, worrying not for herself—thanks to her abiding faith—but for others. She is surrounded by a family she adores, and appreciates the many kind messages and especially the prayers she is receiving.”

With these words, a family spokesman announced yesterday that Mrs. Bush has decided to end medical treatment and will focus on comfort care.

Tributes to the former first lady have already begun.

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called her “a woman of great faith, great strength, and an unwavering love of country.” On the other side of the political spectrum, Chelsea Clinton tweeted, “I will never forget how kind she was to me on every occasion we met, and how fondly the White House staff always spoke of her.”

I know of no more universally admired person in American politics than Barbara Bush. Conversely, I know of no more polarizing person than the other political figure making headlines today.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Barbara Bush in failing health, declines medical treatment →

Welcome to the first Friday the 13th this year. (You can look forward to another one in July.) If you’re afraid of today, you might have “paraskevidekatriaphobia” (from the Greek words for “Friday” and “thirteen”).

If so, you’re not alone.

The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates that seventeen to twenty-one million people in the US are afraid of this day. Some avoid doing business, taking flights, or even getting out of bed. As much as $900 million is lost in productivity as a result.

Here’s the good news: studies seem to indicate that fewer calamities occur on this day, perhaps because people are more careful or choose to stay home.

“Unease and fears of misfortune”

I can see why people would feel afraid today.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron says he has “proof” that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to attack the town of Douma last weekend. According to today’s BBC News, Russia is warning the US that retaliatory air strikes in Syria could spark a war between the two countries.

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that the White House plans to escalate trade pressure against China. In response, the Chinese are aligning countries against the US, especially in Europe.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Do you have paraskevidekatriaphobia? →

House Speaker Paul Ryan announced yesterday that he would not run for reelection this fall and would retire in January. He has three teenage children; the oldest just turned sixteen, the age Ryan was when his father died.

“My kids aren’t getting any younger,” Ryan said, “and if I stay, they’ll only know me as a weekend dad. That’s it right there.”

It didn’t take long for critics to respond.

One of the Democrats running for Ryan’s House seat immediately posted a fundraising message: “We repealed Paul Ryan—now it’s time to replace him with Randy Bryce.” Another Democrat called him “the first casualty of the 2018 midterm election.” While a Democrat who disagreed with Ryan on policy issues “found him to be a good man with a kind heart,” a scathing article called him “the biggest fraud in American politics.”

For what will you be criticized?

Continue reading Denison Forum – Paul Ryan’s retirement: The price and power of holiness →

“It was my mistake, and I’m sorry. I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here.” So stated Mark Zuckerberg when he testified before Congress yesterday on data breaches that have made global headlines in recent weeks.

The Wall Street Journal explains that Facebook’s business model is at the heart of the problem. The company makes money by developing tools that allow advertisers to tailor content for specific Facebook users. Then a developer accessed personal data from up to eighty-seven million users and shared it with the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica.

Last week, Zuckerberg admitted he made a “huge mistake” in not focusing more on potential abuse of user data. He also said he had been “too flippant” when dismissing the threat of fake news after the 2016 presidential election.

A tone of “practiced and patient contrition”

Yesterday, Facebook’s CEO spent nearly five hours testifying before a joint session of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary committees. He will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Zuckerberg testifies before Congress: “Practiced and patient contrition” →

Syria is one of the oldest countries in the world, with cultural artifacts in the region dating to 10,000 BC. It is also one of the newest countries in the world, achieving autonomy from occupying French troops in 1946.

This war-torn country is making headlines again with reports of a horrific chemical attack against civilians. According to this morning’s New York Times, President Trump could order airstrikes in retaliation as soon as today.

What do you need to know about Syria? How can you pray in response?

Who is fighting? Why?

Hafez al-Assad became the Syrian ruler in a 1970 coup. After his death in 2000, his son Bashar al-Assad was elected president (he ran unopposed).

Peaceful protests, as part of the 2011 Arab Spring, were repressed by the Syrian army. The ensuing civil war has involved the Syrian Arab Republic (Assad’s government), the North Syria Federation (primarily the Kurds), the Free Syrian Army (supported by Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, and Germany), Tahrir al-Sham (composed of al-Qaeda supporters and other jihadists), and the Islamic State.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The crisis in Syria: What to know and how to pray →

It was nearly a Masters for the ages. Jordan Spieth began yesterday’s final round trailing by nine shots. No one in the history of the tournament has ever won from such a large deficit. Spieth actually tied for the lead late in the day, but Patrick Reed held on to win his first major title.

I have been privileged to attend the tournament several times over the years. Television cannot do justice to the difficulty of Augusta National—the narrow rolling fairways, the glass-like greens, the extraordinary precision required to navigate the course.

Patrick Reed survived the pressure yesterday. His victory showed that shutting out the massive crowds, the television cameras, and the burden of winning the most prestigious tournament in golf is essential to success. The Masters demands the best of its champions, as it should.

A troubling New York Times article

Meanwhile, police arrested six people yesterday who are suspected of planning to attack spectators at a half-marathon in Germany. The lead suspect reportedly wanted revenge for the death of Anis Amri, the terrorist who drove a truck into a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing twelve people.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Patrick Reed wins the Masters: How focus changes everything →

Many of our longtime readers know that Rev. Jeff Byrd has been my ministry partner for thirty years. He and I served three churches together before co-founding the Denison Forum nearly ten years ago.

Jeff and his wife, Billie, have two sons and a daughter named Morgan. Janet and I have known her since she was born. We rejoiced with their family when she married a fantastic young man named Caleb Scott nearly two years ago (I was privileged to conduct their wedding ceremony). Caleb was a firefighter with a true servant heart and deep love for Jesus.

Tuesday morning, Caleb was found unresponsive in his North Richland Hills fire station. Paramedics were able to revive his heart and rushed him to the hospital, but he died around 5:30 that afternoon. We have no idea what caused Caleb’s death and are in shock over this tragedy. He and Morgan both turned twenty-nine last month.

Please pray for Morgan and her wonderful family, and for our ministry team, as we grieve this sudden and tragic loss.

Tomorrow is promised to no one Continue reading Denison Forum – Finding faith, hope, and love in a very personal loss →

Fifty years ago today, at 6:01 p.m. EST, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.

Redemption: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last 31 Hours is a riveting narrative of the events that led to Dr. King’s tragic death. Written by veteran journalist Joseph Rosenbloom, the book chronicles the last thirty-one hours and twenty-eight minutes of Dr. King’s life.

Rosenbloom explains why the great civil rights leader was in Memphis and paints an extraordinary picture of his commitment and courage.

Why he came to Memphis

In 1968, Dr. King was working to mobilize what he called the “Poor People’s Campaign” in Washington, DC. His goal was to gather thousands of impoverished people of all races from all across the country. They would stage protests at our nation’s capital until lawmakers enacted reforms to eradicate poverty in this country.

In the midst of this massive effort, he was asked to divert his attention to Memphis to support a garbage collectors’ strike that had been ongoing in that city for weeks. Dr. King felt he owed these men and their families his support, so he and his leadership team made their way to join them.

Continue reading Denison Forum – How Martin Luther King Jr.’s courage challenges us today →

The experts were right: favored Villanova defeated Michigan last night to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship. But they were wrong about how the Wildcats won their second title in three years.

Their best player wasn’t the best player in college basketball. Jalen Brunson has been named AP’s Player of the Year, the Oscar Robertson Player of the Year, and the Naismith Men’s Player of the Year. But he scored only nine points in last night’s game.

It turned out, a player who didn’t start the game dominated it. Donte DiVincenzo scored thirty-one points and was named Most Outstanding Player.

Market predictions were “pathetically wrong”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Villanova beats Michigan: what the experts got wrong →

Lottie Williams is still the only person known to have been hit by falling space debris. She was struck but not injured by a falling piece of a US Delta II rocket while exercising in an Oklahoma park in 1997.

More famously, America’s seventy-seven-ton Skylab crashed to Earth in 1979. It spread wreckage near the Australian city of Perth, which fined the US $400 for littering.

Now we can add China’s Tiangong-1 space station to the growing list of spacecraft that have returned unceremoniously to our planet.

As Space.com headlines, it met its “fiery doom” last night, breaking apart and burning up in our atmosphere at 8:16 p.m. EDT. Some pieces of the school-bus-size craft “almost certainly survived the fall,” but they landed harmlessly in the South Pacific.

The Chinese space station’s demise points to the fact of mortality—ours and everything we make. No matter how sophisticated our technology, it has an expiration date. How many cell phones have you owned in your life?

Nothing on our fallen planet lasts forever. But the good news is that the worst thing is never the last thing: “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).

We know this to be true because of Easter Monday.

“A European revival has started” Continue reading Denison Forum – Chinese space station has met its “fiery doom” →

Cade Brenchley serves as a sergeant with the Utah Highway Patrol. He has delivered twins on the side of the interstate and helped save a victim from a burning car. He serves as a soccer coach in the community, where the Utah DPS says he is “well respected and known.”

Now he’s known around the world.

Last Sunday, Sgt. Brenchley was responding to multiple car accidents in northern Utah’s Sardine Canyon. He was wearing a yellow safety vest and walking toward what appears to be a disabled car when a dark sedan came skidding by. It threw him into the air so violently that he struck the disabled car in front of him before landing on the snow-covered ground.

The video of the accident has been played and replayed on television and across the internet. The sedan continued skidding forward before finally coming to a stop facing backward. Several bystanders rushed to Sgt. Brenchley’s aid. He suffered broken ribs and a broken scapula but is expected to make a full recovery.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Trooper forgives driver who struck him on side of road →