Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called courage “the power of the mind to overcome fear.” Courage by definition requires adversity. Where there are no challenges, there is no need for courage.

Seen in this light, we have many opportunities for courage in today’s news.

We could focus on the economy: The Dow Jones closed yesterday up thirty-six points but down nearly twenty percent for the year. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is predicting that the US economy will fall into a recession in the next six to nine months. The World Bank is warning of the threat of a global recession next year. There’s even bad news in the good news: Online holiday discounts could reach record highs, but inflation will cut into spending.

We could talk about geopolitics: North Korea confirmed that its recent barrage of missile launches was the simulated use of nuclear weapons to “hit and wipe out” potential South Korean and US targets. As Russia continued missile strikes against Ukrainian civilians, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea for increased military assistance yesterday at an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations.

This comes after pro-Russian hackers attacked the websites of several major airports in the US this week, another reminder that cybersecurity threats are an urgent security issue for our nation and the world.

And yesterday was National Coming Out Day, which was launched in 1988 as part of a strategy to normalize LGBTQ activity so it could be legalized, opponents could be stigmatized, and opposition could ultimately be criminalized.

Teacher fired for raising concerns over a book

As we noted yesterday, this strategy is working well in Australia, where a CEO was forced to resign after one day because of his membership in a church that affirms biblical sexuality. Closer to home, a substitute teacher in Georgia was fired from her job after she expressed her concern as a parent over the content of a book in the school library.

The book depicts same-sex couples taking their children to school and two lesbian mothers, one of whom is pregnant. The mother spoke with her six-year-old son’s teacher and asked that he not be part of the story time where the book was to be read. The teacher said that would not be a problem.

The next day, she expressed her concerns over the book with the school’s principal, explaining that she and her husband would like to be the ones to talk with their children about issues such as same-sex marriage, rather than the school. She made clear that she was not asking for the book to be removed, only that her children not be exposed to its content. The principal agreed.

Soon thereafter, the teacher learned that she would no longer be allowed to teach in the school district, as the principal was concerned about her bias “against same-sex couples.” Even though she explained that she expressed her concerns as a mother, not as an employee of the school district, her employment was terminated.

“The stronger the emphasis, the fewer the Christians”

We have focused this week on positive factors inherent in our status as the children of God. Today we need to consider the other side: Those who oppose our Father will oppose his children. Anyone who rejects God’s word will reject those who embrace God’s word.

Jesus warned us: “If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). Scripture is clear: “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12, my emphasis).

The cost of following Jesus has always made it hard for the masses to follow Jesus.

The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard observed: “The imitation of Christ is really the point at which the human race shrinks. The main difficulty lies here; here is where it is really decided whether or not one is willing to accept Christianity. If there is emphasis on this point, the stronger the emphasis, the fewer the Christians. If there is scaling down at this point (so that Christianity becomes, intellectually, a doctrine), more people enter into Christianity.

“If it is abolished completely (so that Christianity becomes, existentially, as easy as mythology and poetry and imitation an exaggeration, a ludicrous exaggeration), then Christianity spreads to such a degree that Christendom and the world are almost indistinguishable; or all become Christians; Christianity has complete conquered—that is, it is abolished!”

“By the power of the Spirit of God”

The good news is that the Holy Spirit who resides in every true child of God will give us the courage and perseverance we need to imitate Jesus as a true disciple of our Lord. He will empower us to be witnesses for our Lord where we live and around the world (Acts 1:8). We will be able to say with Paul, “by the power of the Spirit of God . . . I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19).

In fact, if we are not living “abundantly” (John 10:10) as “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37), we should ask why.

Oswald Chambers warned us: “We can remain powerless forever . . . by trying to do God’s work without concentrating on his power, and by following instead the ideas that we draw from our own nature. We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve him without knowing him.”

Asked negatively: Is something keeping you from experiencing his supernatural power? A temptation or sin with which you are struggling? A person you need to forgive or someone from whom you need to seek forgiveness? A difficult next step of obedience?

Asked positively: Are you serving Jesus “with all his energy that he powerfully works” in you (Colossians 1:29)? As a result, are you sharing your faith confidently and courageously? Do others know that you know Jesus?

When the Sanhedrin “saw the boldness of Peter and John . . . they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Let’s astonish our lost culture today, to the glory of God.

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This is a story from Australia, but it has direct implications for Americans and anywhere else people embrace biblical truth and morality.

Andrew Thorburn was chief executive of the Australian Football League club Essendon only a day before reports emerged that he was also the lay board chairman of an Anglican church called City on a Hill. In 2013, the church published an article urging people with “same-sex attraction” to seek help from senior Christians to “survive these temptations.” A 2013 sermon also stated that while we “look back [with] sadness and disgust over concentration camps, future generations will look back with sadness at the legal murder of hundreds of thousands [of] human beings every day through medicine and in the name of freedom.”

Daniel Andrews, premier of the Australian state of Victoria, told reporters, “Those views are absolutely appalling. I don’t support those views, that kind of intolerance, that kind of hatred, bigotry. It is just wrong.” Essendon President Dave Barham quickly issued a statement: “We acted immediately to clarify the publicly espoused views on the organization’s official website, which are in direct contradiction to our values as a club.”

Thorburn resigned his position as a result, stating, “Today it became clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many. I was being required to compromise beyond a level that my conscience allowed.”

Dr. Albert Mohler is right: “This story tells us a very great deal about the velocity of social and moral change and the challenges that will face Christians, if not immediately, then very quickly.” If we want job security, he suggests that we join a church that celebrates LGBTQ ideology and all other progressive agendas. But if we do, we will find ourselves in direct contradiction to the word of God.

He concludes: “This is how the issue in our world is now shaping up, and it will be a huge test of Christian faithfulness. Your church may cost you your job, but your job may demand your soul.”

“He must labor to make us lovable”

When our faith is tested, whether by public opposition or by private temptation, how do we pass the test?

Yesterday we celebrated the fact that when we place our faith in the Son of God, he makes us the children of God (cf. John 1:12). As a result, we are free to love and serve others whether they love and serve us or not, secure in the fact that we are loved absolutely and unconditionally by the God of the universe.

Today, let’s take our status as God’s children a step further.

C.S. Lewis notes in The Problem of Pain: “We were not made primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest ‘well pleased.’” However, “to ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because he is what he is, his love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because he already loves us he must labor to make us lovable.”

Lewis adds: “What we would here and now call our ‘happiness’ is not the end God chiefly has in view, but when we are such as he can love without impediment, we shall in fact be happy.”

Here’s how the process works. In the moment of our salvation, we are spiritually “born again” (John 3:3). We exchange the sinful nature we inherited from the “first Adam” (Romans 5:12–14) for the spiritual nature we receive from the “second Adam,” our Savior and Lord (1 Corinthians 15:45; Romans 8:29).

In that moment, the Holy Spirit who comes to live in us when we trust in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16) begins working to transform us into people God can “love without impediment.”

“Rebels who must lay down our arms”

However, you and I have a choice to make.

We can strive in our own strength to stand publicly for Christ against the rising tide of secular animosity and to defeat the private temptations brought against us by Satan. Or we can yield our lives completely to the will and power of the Holy Spirit, trusting him to make of us what we could never make of ourselves.

Returning to C. S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain: “We are not merely imperfect creatures who must be improved; we are, as Newman said, rebels who must lay down our arms.” Lewis admits that this is hard for us: “To render back the will which we have so long claimed for our own, is in itself, wherever and however it is done, a grievous pain, . . . to surrender a self-will inflamed and swollen with years of usurpation is a kind of death.”

This is why Paul described himself as being “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and called us to present our lives to God as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). It is why Jesus declared, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23, my emphasis).

“The resources to do what God requires”

What is already true in Communist China, North Korea, Cuba, and many parts of the Muslim world is becoming true in the secularized West as well: to follow Christ faithfully, we need courage and perseverance beyond ourselves. Consequently, we need to begin every day by submitting that day to the lordship of Christ in the power of the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). And we need to practice consistently and passionately the various spiritual disciplines—prayer, Bible study, worship, solitude, fasting, and so on—to position ourselves to be transformed daily by the One we worship.

I have warned for many years that “self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide.” Never has that fact been more true for American Christians than today.

Erwin Lutzer was right: “You become stronger only when you become weaker. When you surrender your will to God, you discover the resources to do what God requires.”

Will you make this transforming discovery today?

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Two terms that were new to me were in the weekend news. Each is a window into our cultural soul.

The first is “sleep tourism,” which is trending since sleep deprivation is such a problem for so many Americans. For example, hotels in New York City and London now feature rooms with sleep-enhancing amenities and soundproofing. One hotel offers a sleep-inducing meditation recording, a pillow menu with options that cater to guests who prefer to sleep on their side or back, the option of a weighted blanket, a special bedtime tea, and a scented pillow mist.

And no wonder: In a recent study, 40 percent of participants reported a reduction in their sleep quality since the start of the pandemic.

The second is “hang-xiety,” which the New York Times describes as “the emotional plunge [people] feel after drinking that doesn’t quite constitute a proper hangover.” The article notes that one effect of drinking alcohol is sleep disruption due to elevated blood sugar and excess glutamate.

So, it turns out, the second term exacerbates the first.

Amazon accused of selling suicide kits to teenagers

Human technology is advancing by the day, but human nature is not.

After an explosion Saturday on a bridge linking Russia with Crimea, Russia apparently sought revenge by striking major Ukrainian cities this morning. A series of blasts rocked Kyiv, with some strikes landing in the heart of the Ukrainian capital’s downtown during rush hour. At least five people were killed and at least a dozen were injured, according to the Kyiv police department.

The previous day, a Russian missile attack struck an apartment building, according to Ukrainian officials. At least thirteen people were killed and eighty-seven others were injured. According to the Associated Press, Ukrainian officials further allege that the Russian invasion of their nation is “being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historical sites and treasures on an industrial scale.” And North Korea fired two ballistic missiles yesterday, the latest in a recent barrage of weapons tests.

Closer to home, a parents’ lawsuit accuses Amazon of selling suicide kits to teenagers. The lawsuit is being brought by the families of two teenagers who bought a deadly chemical on the company’s website and later used it to take their own lives. And the mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is apologizing after he was arrested Saturday evening for allegedly driving while intoxicated and causing an accident.

However, one more news story illustrates the hope we can claim today: A bargain hunter went to an estate sale in Maine, where he found a framed document with elaborate Latin script on sale for seventy-five dollars. He bought it, then discovered it was used about seven hundred years ago in Roman Catholic worship and could be worth as much as ten thousand dollars.

What no Jew had done before

The best single piece of advice I’ve ever received is one I’ve shared often: My high school youth minister told me, “Always remember the source of your personal worth.” You possess a value far transcending what our secularized culture may have assigned to you. In fact, your true worth is beyond all human estimation.

Let’s discover your worth by remembering a familiar story with an astounding element.

When Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, Matthew reports: “Immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him” (3:16). This was visual evidence of Jesus’ calling to be Messiah (Isaiah 42:1), an office which was familiar to the Jews and a deliverer for whom they had prayed for centuries.

But then something happened that was truly unprecedented: “And behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17). God has a “Son”! This was a radical thought to the Jews, whose focus on the oneness and singularity of God was central to their faith (cf. Deuteronomy 6:4).

If God has a Son, this Son must be as divine as his Father. And so he was and is.

The Jewish people thought of God as the “Father” of the nation, but none had ever dared claim him as their personal father. Not only did the Son of God frequently make this assertion, he also called him “Abba,” Aramaic for “Daddy” (cf. Mark 14:36). As German theologian Joachim Jeremias noted in The Prayers of Jesus, “There is not a single example of the use of Abba . . . as an address to God in the whole of Jewish literature.”

Not, that is, until Jesus.

Claiming the truth about yourself

Here’s my point: Because Jesus is the Son of God, you can be the child of God: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1; cf. John 1:12; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 3:26). In the moment you make Christ your Savior and Lord, you are “born again” into a new family—the family of God (John 3:3).

What does this mean in practical terms?

You can love and serve people whether they love and serve you or not because you are already loved absolutely and unconditionally by your Father. And you can pay any price in this world to glorify God because this world is no longer your home and your inheritance with your eternal family is secure (John 14:1–3).

In Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, Henri Nouwen makes this point better than I can: “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 belief.’”

Will you remember today the source of your personal worth?

NOTE: Has America left God? Or is he being patient with us? I answer that question and more in the updated edition of How Does God See America? And as we’re heading into another politically charged voting cycle, we’re also including an ebook edition of Respectfully, I Disagree for your donation of $50 or more. Please request the “Let’s be civil” book bundle today.

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