A Maundy Thursday reflection

Yesterday was filled with headline news, including:

• Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to attend oral arguments at the Supreme Court as the justices considered the question of birthright citizenship.
• NASA’s Artemis II mission to circle the moon launched last night at 6:35 p.m. ET. Watching the rocket lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida was awe-inspiring.
• President Trump addressed the nation last night, stating that the United States’ “core strategic objectives” in Iran are “nearing completion” a month after Operation Epic Fury began.

However, I want to focus on this Maundy Thursday on news that isn’t making headlines in our culture but is being celebrated in heaven.

Recent studies show that eighty million Americans believe a spiritual revival is coming to our nation. Of those participating in the survey, young adults (statistically the most unchurched generation in history) are surprisingly the most likely to agree.

A story I read this week shows why.

 “I never knew God loved me”

Jennie Allen is a New York Times bestselling author and founder of IF:Gathering and Gather25, part of what Christian Post describes as a “vision to mobilize the global Church.” According to the article, she has been visiting college campuses with the Unite ministry and was invited to speak at Southeastern University in Florida last month.

The Dallas-based Bible teacher said, “We have been blessed to be on the road on about twenty campuses. And we have seen over and over again a huge response to repentance, to the gospel, to baptism, and it’s just been beautiful and amazing.”

This was especially true at Southeastern. After her message, she said, “The room did confession, which I’ve done in many rooms before. But a girl yelled out ‘abortion’ as loud as she could.” The student then collapsed to the floor. “I think after that, it got real,” Allen said. “Everyone began saying things that were harder to say.”

The gathering continued for hours and eventually days, with students staying for worship and prayer late into the night.

Allen, a mother of four, said she’s personally baptized hundreds of students over the past two and a half years. According to her, the desperation many young people feel is fueling their spiritual openness. She recalled, “A seven-foot athlete stood in front of me with tears falling down his face and said, ‘I never knew God loved me.’”

Gen Z’s faith gives her hope for the future of the church. “They’re so compelled by the love of God that they want to make a difference,” she said. “Jesus changed their life, and they want other people to experience that too.”

“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride”

Maundy Thursday was one of the most pivotal days in history. On this night, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, surrendered to the soldiers, and was illegally tried and condemned by the Sanhedrin. The next day, he would be crucified.

But one part of what transpired then has riveted my attention today. As you know, Jesus shared what we call the “Last Supper” with his disciples on this day (Matthew 26:26–29). This is the phrase that caught my eye: “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant . . .” (vv. 27–28, my emphasis).

Remember who was at the table with Jesus that night: Judas, who would betray him, Peter, who would deny him, and nine other “disciples” who would abandon him. Only John would be present with him at the cross. The rest would fail him in his hour of greatest need.

Yet, astonishingly, he included them all in the Supper that symbolized his body and blood given for them. And, just as astonishingly, he includes us as well. All of us. Any of us who know him as Lord will be with him at his table in paradise.

Isaiah saw a day when “the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food,” a day when “he will swallow up death forever” and “wipe away tears from all faces” (Isaiah 25:6, 8). On that day, Jesus said, “many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11). He compared this event to “a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (Matthew 22:2; cf. Luke 14:16).

Now comes the most amazing part: at “the marriage supper of the Lamb,” the bride is us (Revelation 19:7, 9).

Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Now, as “a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2), we are “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (v. 9; cf. 2 Corinthians 11:2). And “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5).

“The core truth of our existence”

Here’s my point: Your Savior loves you as passionately and unconditionally as a perfect husband would love his wife.

When you said “I do” to him as your Savior and Lord, you became his “bride.” Nothing can change your status as his beloved. Nothing can make him love you any more or any less than he did when he died for you. You are loved as you are, no matter what you do or do not do today.

Unfortunately, everything in our culture conditions us to believe the opposite about ourselves. If you are a student, your progress depends on your grades. If you have a job, your income depends on how well you do it. If you’re an athlete, a musician, a painter, an actor, or a writer (in my case), your success depends on your performance. Even your family is not exempt from transactionalism: your spouse can divorce you, your children can disown you, and your parents can disinherit you.

By contrast, as Henri Nouwen wrote in his marvelous book Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World:

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.”

Nouwen assured us that “being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” And he added:

“That is the spiritual life: the chance to say ‘Yes’ to our inner truth. The spiritual life, thus understood, radically changes everything.”

Will you say yes to your “inner truth” today?

Quote for the day:

“When we keep claiming the light, we will find ourselves becoming more and more radiant.” —Henri Nouwen

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Denison Forum

A Holy Wednesday reflection

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ “conversion therapy” for young people infringes on the free speech rights of a Christian counselor. Their ruling reversed a lower court’s decision that had upheld the law.

According to Associated Press, “The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass.” Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint” and added that the First Amendment “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”

Notably, the Court ruled eight-to-one, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson the lone dissenter.

However, the news is not all positive on the religious liberty front. The Family Research Council has documented 1,384 “acts of hostility toward US churches” occurring between January 2018 and December 2024. Catholic churches have especially come under attack in this country.

In the Middle East, the Hoover Institution reports that Christianity is declining rapidly due to the persecution of believers. In Finland, a member of the Parliament and a Lutheran Church bishop were convicted for writing and publishing a pamphlet twenty years ago defending biblical sexual morality. In India, Christian groups are speaking out against legislation they say could enable the government to seize their properties.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Supreme Court rules against ban on “conversion therapy” →

A Holy Tuesday reflection

My wife and I drove past a “No Kings” rally in our city last Saturday, where we saw a sign that said, “Be kind!” Another announced in rainbow colors, “Love wins!” Next to them, paradoxically, a man was waving his hand-lettered whiteboard, “[expletive deleted] Trump!”

Not to be partisan, but signs using a euphemism for the same expletive abounded when Joe Biden was president.

This bipolarity is reflected and empowered by the media daily. If a new article in the Atlantic is to be believed, America under Donald Trump is now a “rogue superpower.” However, if a recent editorial in Fox News is correct, “Trump is breaking Middle East’s old power structure” in ways that will produce more positive geopolitical alignments in the future.

You can buy a yard sign displaying a MAGA acrostic, “Morons Are Governing America.” Or you can purchase one proclaiming, “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING.”

If you’re somewhere in the middle, you’re out of yard sign luck.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “Morons Are Governing America” vs. “Trump Was Right About Everything” →

A Holy Monday reflection

More than 3,200 “No Kings” rallies were held Saturday across the US. Event organizers estimate more than eight million people attended protests against President Donald Trump’s actions and policies. The name reportedly comes from organizers’ belief that Mr. Trump is acting like a monarch rather than the leader of a democracy.

Whether you joined the protests, are strongly opposed to them, or wish I would write about something else, the demonstrations illustrate this fact about America: our First Amendment “right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances” is alive and well.

Imagine similar rallies being held in Iran, Cuba, or China. Actually, you don’t have to use your imagination: When citizens tried in recent years to protest their government publicly in these countries, they were massacred by the thousands. On my trips to Cuba and China, I was cautioned not to speak against the government even in private conversations due to the likelihood that paid informants would be listening. I was also warned that my hotel room was likely bugged and that what I said, even there, was being monitored by the authorities.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why the “No Kings” rallies are good news for America →

In simple terms, Critical Race Theory (CRT) says America still possesses racism that’s at least partially hidden, but still serious. Some level of racism lurks in how we as Americans define what is “normal” in the criminal justice system, in laws, in all levels of education, etc.

Put another way, CRT says that American institutions (i.e., government, education, media, criminal justice system), social norms (i.e., what clothes to wear, how to speak, etiquette, etc.), and many widely held beliefs (i.e., religion, patriotism, philosophies) are corrupted by obscured yet widespread racism.

CRT’s goal is equitable outcomes between races and comprehensive liberation for all minorities.

Interestingly, what this liberation should look like and other fundamental questions, are often left unanswered by CRT. As a theory, CRT primarily critiques other theories while offering few positive values or beliefs. It prioritizes action and results over ideals.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, a CRT legal scholar and the one who coined the term CRT, once remarked that CRT is like a verb in nature, since it is dynamic and action-oriented. According to CRT, there is no such thing as “neutral” scholarship or “neutral” theories; scholarship always includes social influences, motivations, and biases.

Continue reading Denison Forum – What is Critical Race Theory and is it biblical? →

Why the latest court case in California could bring big changes for Facebook, YouTube, and other platforms

Earlier this week, a court in California ruled that Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and Google’s YouTube were liable for damages of $4.2 million and $1.8 million respectively after the companies were sued by a 20-year-old woman—known as KGM during the trial—for creating products that she claims led to anxiety, depression, and a host of other problems in her life. Snapchat and TikTok were also named in the original suit but settled before it went to trial.

When I first read the headlines about the California case, it sounded like the latest in the long line of frivolous lawsuits that make the news from time to time. And to be honest, that’s still where I land to an extent. However, the details of the case are interesting, and the verdict could provide a framework for the thousands of similar lawsuits currently pending.

To this point, social media companies have largely claimed immunity from any damage their products have caused by citing their First Amendment rights. Courts have regularly held that they are, for the most part, not liable for the content posted by other users on their sites, and the Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of a similar defense for major internet providers.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Is social media the new tobacco? →

Today’s headlines continue to center on Iran, a country some six thousand miles from the US. Meanwhile, I’m focusing on a location approximately 231,000 miles (the distance varies throughout the year) from us: NASA has announced plans to construct a $20 billion base on the moon’s surface.

Humans were last on the moon in 1972. Why go back now?

Joseph Silk, a Johns Hopkins and Oxford astrophysicist, explains that telescopes constructed there could see much further into space, adding immeasurably to our knowledge of the universe. He adds that rare earth elements critical for modern technologies are “a thousand times more abundant” on the moon than on earth.

And there’s the residual benefit of space exploration. Over the decades, CAT scans, baby formula, home insulation, camera phones, and portable computers and mice were all derived from technology first developed for space travel.

But there’s more. In his 1962 speech announcing the goal of traveling to the moon that decade, President John F. Kennedy cited the great British explorer George Mallory, who died on Mount Everest. When asked why he wanted to climb it, Mallory said simply, “Because it is there.”

President Kennedy added: “Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it.”

There is something in us that wants to make an impact in life that surpasses and outlives us. This is a “signal of transcendence” (to use sociologist Peter Berger’s phrase), a desire that points to a dimension for which this transitory world is a means to an eternal end.

You and I are unlikely to seek such significance through space travel, but we can nonetheless live this day for its highest purpose.

How?

“The last of the human freedoms”

A traditional Jewish response to someone grieving the death of a loved one is to say, “May their memory be a blessing.” This sentiment has ancient roots.

Wise King Solomon observed, “The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot” (Proverbs 10:7). Righteous translates the Hebrew for someone who is “upright” and “devout,” while wicked describes the opposite, a person who is unrighteous, criminal, and impious. When the former are remembered, people thank God for them and are blessed by their memory, while the reputation and memory of the latter will “rot” and decay over time.

I think of Adolf Hitler, who was hailed as a national savior when he rose to power in Germany but whose name is now synonymous with the absolute worst of humanity. By contrast, Harry Truman was one of the most unpopular politicians in the United States when he left office in January 1953, but historians today rank him among our greatest presidents.

I say all of that to say this: Our character is more important to our impact on the world than our circumstances. We cannot always control or predict the latter. However, as Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote in Man’s Search for Meaning, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

The famed psychiatrist added: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

But there’s a catch.

“The young man who rings the bell at the brothel”

The theologian and novelist Frederick Buechner observed, “Lust is the craving for salt of a person who is dying of thirst.” The French philosopher Simone Weil would have agreed, asserting that “all sins are attempts to fill voids.”

However, the “voids” we attempt to fill are ultimately symptoms of a single source. As the Scottish novelist Bruce Marshall had one of his characters say, “The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.”

You and I possess a “God-shaped emptiness” because we were created for intimacy with our Creator. The psalmist therefore spoke for us all: “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Psalm 84:2).

Accordingly, he prayed, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise!” (v. 4). When we experience such intimacy with the Almighty, though we travel through the deserts of the “Valley of Baca,” we “make it a place of springs” (v. 6). This is why the psalmist could say to God, “A day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere” (v. 10).

But there’s a catch.

“It was character that got us out of bed”

The key to the spiritual life is being yielded daily to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). However, our spiritual enemy wants us to do anything more than he wants us to do this. Accordingly, Oswald Chambers warned, “Christian work may be a means of evading the soul’s concentration on Christ.”

We can focus on working for God in his “courts” so fully that we do not walk with him through the day. Consequently, as Chambers noted in today’s My Utmost for His Highest reading, “If we are going to retain personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ, it will mean there are some things we must scorn to do or think, some legitimate things we must scorn to touch.”

The good in this world can be the enemy of the best in the next. This is because, as Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36), and our Father now “calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12).

One day “the kingdom of the world” will “become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). The best way for our lives to be significant on that day is to make him our King today.

Whatever it takes, whatever he asks, whatever the cost.

Zig Ziglar noted,

“It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”

Will you partner with the Spirit in choosing all three today, to the glory of God?

Quote for the day:

“Your commitments can develop you or destroy you, but either way, they will define you.” —Rick Warren

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Denison Forum

March 24, 2026

The Dow surged 631 points yesterday after President Trump said the US and Iran have held “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.” In response, the president postponed strikes on Iranian power plants for a five-day period.

However, I’m following a different story today that I believe to be enormously significant as well. I have not seen it widely reported, which points to my point.

According to the Los Angeles Times, West Hollywood’s city council has unanimously approved advancing what the article calls a “registry of multi-partner domestic relationships.” The writer explains that West Hollywood is now “the latest of a few cities in the US to pursue legal protection for groups of more than two adults living in a single household who are romantically or otherwise committed to each other.”

Advocates claim that such protections are needed for a broad group of people, such as immigrant households that depend on extended family members for child care and support. Multigenerational families living together would be another example.

And of course, the ordinance is intended to “protect” polyamorous households where multiple sexual partners live together.

Would today’s article be illegal?

Even though I strongly disagree with polyamory on biblical, moral, and practical grounds, I understand that our secularized culture does not typically legislate morality with regard to such consensual behavior. For example, though 90 percent of Americans consider “married people having an affair” to be “morally wrong,” adultery is not illegal in the US.

But here’s the part of the article that could easily be overlooked: the West Hollywood city council also “outlawed discrimination against polyamorous people and others in nontraditional family structures” and has added “family or relationship structure as a protected class in the city alongside race, religion, gender, and other categories.” The anti-discrimination law will go into effect in mid-April.

Will it mean a church or ministry would be forced to hire someone in a polyamorous relationship? What about Christians operating a business? What about believers who use their influence to defend biblical morality in this context?

Would today’s article be illegal in West Hollywood?

“The greatest danger to our future”

For several years, I have spotlighted the four-stage strategy employed by LGBTQ advocates in our society: normalize immoral behavior through popular media, legalize such behavior, stigmatize those who disagree as “homophobic” and otherwise dangerous, and criminalize such opposition. Today’s discussion is one example of the fourth stage.

Jane Goodall, the famed British primatologist and animal rights activist, once warned:

“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”

However, as a strong advocate for LGBTQ causes, she meant her warning in precisely the opposite way that I am endorsing it today.

It is human nature to focus on issues that seem most relevant to us personally. This “fight-or-flight response” is our natural, automatic reaction to stress or danger. Whether you attribute it to evolutionary development or God’s design (I choose the latter), you can understand the need to evaluate all experiences, including this article, through a prism of personal relevance.

Consequently, unless you live in West Hollywood or in the few cities in Massachusetts or on the West Coast where polyamory “protections” have been enacted, this threat to religious liberty can seem remote and thus less relevant to you.

But that’s only because we tend to overlook how this strategy works. Statutes deemed legal in small towns can then be advanced to major cities. What starts in one part of the country can advance to others. And when such actions rise to the level of federal civil rights, they can supersede states’ rights (as occurred in 1973 when Roe v. Wade overturned abortion prohibitions in at least thirty-one states).

Three reasons to reject moral apathy

Consequently, moral apathy is indeed “the greatest danger to our future.” Consider three reasons.

The first is legal, as we have seen.

When Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, the response by evangelicals would likely have been much stronger if we had foreseen that the US Supreme Court would discover this “right” in the Constitution a decade later and impose it on the entire country. Why should we think the same cannot happen with polyamory?

The second is personal.

Because Satan hates us, he will never tempt us to commit sin that will pay more than it costs us. He loves to turn down the moral lights in our cultural room so gradually that our eyes adjust and we find ourselves in the dark without complaint. And he knows that sin we tolerate in others often metastasizes into sin we commit personally.

This is why God’s word warns: “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). Because Satan always seeks to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10), “death” and nothing less is his ultimate goal. And moral apathy is one of his most effective means to this end.

The third is collective.

Because God is holy (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8), he must judge unconfessed sin. His word is clear: “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity” (Isaiah 13:11). He therefore warns us, “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin” (Ezekiel 18:30).

Our Father deals with us as gently as he can or as harshly as he must. The more society chooses moral apathy, the more we force him to choose the latter. This is why “righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

“Conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observed:

Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it popular?” But conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.

Where do you need to take such a position today?

Quote for the day:

“The world won’t be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” —Albert Einstein

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We’re learning this morning that the US has sent Iran a fifteen-point plan to end the war in the Middle East. The plan was delivered by way of Pakistan, but it is unclear how widely it has been shared among Iranian officials.

However, Israeli journalist Amit Segal reports that Israeli leaders fear the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) will undermine any agreement with the West. Yesterday’s announcement that Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a former IRGC commander, will replace the slain Ali Larijani as head of the country’s security council reinforces their fears.

Why would the IRGC want to continue fighting a war that is so devastating to their nation?

Winning by not losing

According to an extensive report by the Middle East Institute, the IRGC has developed in recent years from a militia into a “parallel state” within Iran. Its leaders and members understand the world through the prism of Mahdism: the return of the twelfth divinely ordained Imam Mahdi, who will rid the world of evil and injustice through “one final apocalyptic battle” between the dar al-Islam (land of Muslims) and dar al-Kufr (land of infidels).

They believe that the 1979 Islamic Revolution marked the first stage in the Mahdi’s return. The IRGC now exists to “prepare the world for the emergence of Imam of the Age” by fighting the “enemies” of Islam.

In such a conflict, they win by not losing. The survival of the IRGC and the Islamic regime constitutes success, enabling them to continue their aggression against Israel and the West until they are defeated and/or the Mahdi returns. In this sense, the US and Israel are fighting a military battle against an ideological foe.

For anyone who doubts whether the spiritual is real or relevant, this conflict should be proof enough.

“The wind blows where it wishes”

A bench beside a pond in our neighborhood is my favorite place to visit. When I spend time there in the early morning, it often seems that the veil between the physical and the spiritual lifts just a bit. I sense the Creator in his creation and feel more than hear his voice in my spirit.

Sitting by the pond yesterday, my attention was drawn to a fish jumping in the water. By the time I heard the splash it made, it was too late to see it, but the ripples it created cascaded to the shoreline.

The thought came to me: like the world beneath the surface of the pond, the world of the Spirit is often most evident through the effects it produces in our fallen world.

Consider wind as an example. I’ve experienced it all my life, but never wondered why. It turns out, wind is primarily caused by the uneven heating of our planet’s surface by the sun. As air moves from areas of cooler air to warmer air, wind is produced. The earth’s rotation (known as the Coriolis force) also deflects air movement, and friction with the earth’s surface causes diverging winds as well.

All that to say, we don’t see the forces that produce the wind, but we feel what they produce. Jesus made this point to Nicodemus: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8a).

Then our Lord added, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (v. 8b).

This is as it must be. The God who is Spirit must work in nonmaterial ways in our material world. He leads us through his inner voice, the truth of Scripture, and the circumstances of our days into obedience that manifests itself in tangible, material ways. We see what he does by the results in and through our lives.

When “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), we see the effects of our faith on our walk. And so does the world.

The faith to have faith

This fact relates first to our salvation.

When a brilliant friend and I were talking the other day, he asked me how I knew with certainty that I was a child of God and that I would go to heaven when I die. I told him that I had learned over the years this fact: it takes faith today to believe God saved me, just as it did when I asked him to do so.

I still cannot prove through scientific means that God exists, much less that he loves me, his Son died to pay the penalty for my sins, and now his Spirit lives in me as his temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). These are all relational truth claims. And while objective evidence from archaeology, history, ancient manuscripts, fulfilled prophecy, and changed lives is strongly compelling, relationships cannot be proven—only experienced.

Just as I cannot prove to you that my wife loves me, I cannot prove to you that God loves you. But I can invite you to experience your Father’s love for yourself by faith.

“Though I was blind, now I see”

This conversation points to a second reality: our changed lives are often our most compelling apologetic for Christ.

I can show you through the ancient writings of Tacitus, Suetonius, Mara bar Serapion, Pliny the Younger, and Josephus that Jesus existed and was crucified, and that his early followers believed him to be raised from the dead and worshiped him as God. But you can say they were all wrong. Or you could make a postmodern move and say that’s just “their truth.”

What a skeptic cannot so easily dismiss is the change Christ makes in a life fully surrendered to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Like the man born blind, we can say to the world, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). Others may dismiss our theology, but they cannot say that our experience is not our experience.

And when they see the difference Jesus is making in our lives (cf. John 10:10), they may be drawn to seek that difference in their lives as well.

Church baptizes four hundred in one weekend

Lead Pastor Jason Britt of Bethlehem Church in Georgia was recently teaching a series on Acts 2 and the Day of Pentecost. He felt prompted to call for spontaneous baptisms, and four hundred people were baptized across the church’s three campuses during one weekend.

He explained: “A Spirit-filled church is full of Spirit-sensitive people, and Spirit-sensitive people obey.”

How sensitive to the Spirit are you today?

Quote for the day:

“Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless.” —Charles Spurgeon

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• Why gas prices are rising, prediction markets exposed, Talarico’s theology, Oscars recap & March Madness

Denison Forum

An Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late last night. Both pilots were killed, dozens of people were injured, and the airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. ET today.

Earlier in the day, I received news that my spiritual mother had passed away.

In August 1973, two men knocked on my apartment door in Houston, Texas, inviting my brother and me to ride their bus to church. When we did, I was assigned to the tenth-grade Sunday school class taught by Sharon Sewell, the pastor’s wife.

She made me her project, inviting me to youth ministry events and calling me each Saturday to encourage me to come to church the next morning. On September 9, 1973, she led me to faith in Christ. I will be grateful for her forever, literally.

Mrs. Sewell had been declining rapidly in recent weeks. Her son told me yesterday that her last words to him were, “I want to go to heaven.” She is now reunited with her husband, my first pastor, and we are celebrating her homegoing.

Some deaths, like those that occurred in NYC last night, are tragic. Others are cause for gratitude.

Chadwick Boseman’s widow on “the weight of grief”

When acclaimed actor Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of forty-three, many were shocked to hear that he had cancer. His widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, told Today last Friday that his symptoms began just weeks before his diagnosis and that he chose to fight the disease privately.

When asked if grieving gets easier over time, her response was poignant and profound.

“The edges get less sharp, I think, is the best way to put it,” she said. “There are still edges and there are still a lot of painful moments. But I think it becomes easier to find the love in those moments as well. You become more accustomed to carrying the weight of grief. But it doesn’t go away.”

Most of us who have experienced significant loss would agree with her, I think.

My father died in 1979 at the age of fifty-five. To this day, my greatest grief is that he never met my sons. He would have been a wonderful grandfather. Over these many years, I have “become more accustomed to carrying the weight of grief,” but it is still there.

“People are shoved to the left side of their brains”

In the years since, however, I have come to believe that God redeems all he allows and to look for such redemption with my father’s passing. In this regard, Arthur Brooks’s latest article for the Free Press is insightful.

He writes that many of the young people he has taught at Harvard and met in other settings are “undeniably, desperately, incorrigibly unhappy.” When he started asking their stories, he discovered a common thread: their lives are busy but not meaningful.

Wealth and achievement are insufficient in this regard. In fact, Brooks reports that the wealthier and more technologically advanced the country, the greater the percentage of the population that answers “no” to the question, “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?”

He explains this paradox in a way I had not seen. Most of us are familiar with the hypothesis that the left side of our brain is logical while the right side is creative. Brooks notes that this is not accurate: both hemispheres deal with just about everything our brains do. But they do so in consistently different ways.

Brooks cites the work of the British neuroscientist and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, who shows that the right side of our brain is the “master,” asking big, transcendent questions such as “Why am I alive?” The left side, which McGilchrist calls the “emissary,” addresses such practical questions as “How do I get food so I can keep being alive?”

Here’s the problem, as Brooks explains:

In our increasingly complicated, technology-dominated, and endlessly distracting world, people are shoved to the left side of their brains. They are stuck in a complicated simulation where there is a lot going on, but which is bereft of mystery and meaning.

A gateway into a life of purpose

With regard to “carrying the weight of grief”: Our left-side, secularized culture processes death in practical, present-tense terms. We make arrangements for the funeral, manage the financial and practical aftermath, and seek ways to move on with our daily lives.

But the right-side, transcendent questions remain: What does my grief say about God? About me? About my purpose in life?

In my case, God has used my father’s early death to lead me into what has become my lifelong vocation: to engage the ultimate questions of life with biblical truth. I have focused on innocent suffering and other deep issues as a philosophy professor, a pastor, and now as a cultural apologist. My father’s death has become my gateway into a life of purpose as I seek to help others find purpose in their questions and challenges.

None of this makes my father’s early death any less painful. I still miss him and still wish he could know my children and now my grandchildren. But I find peace in the purpose his death has forged for me.

And I am grateful beyond words for the presence of my Father as he has grieved with me over these many years and we have walked together through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4).

Why God “comforts us in all our affliction”

If you’re “carrying the weight of grief” today, could I encourage you to seek God’s purpose in your pain? To ask him to show you how you can partner with him in redeeming your loss? To look for ways to be what Henri Nouwen called a “wounded healer,” someone whose pain enables you to help others with theirs?

If you’re not carrying such weight today, do you know someone who is? Will you pray for them to find meaning in their grief and walk with them toward hope?

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to suffering (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:23–29), but he testified that our Lord is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). And he discovered a purpose in such grace, adding that God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (v. 4).

How will you pay forward such grace today?

Quote for the day:

“Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s love glitters all the more brightly.” —Charles Spurgeon

Our latest website resources:

• Why Christian unity matters for the global church today
• Why March Madness is for everyone: How to enjoy the NCAA tournament
• Why gas prices are rising, prediction markets exposed, Talarico’s theology, Oscars recap & March Madness
• Should filmmakers politicize the Academy Awards?
• Should we be culture warriors or cultural missionaries?

Denison Forum

An Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late last night. Both pilots were killed, dozens of people were injured, and the airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. ET today.

Earlier in the day, I received news that my spiritual mother had passed away.

In August 1973, two men knocked on my apartment door in Houston, Texas, inviting my brother and me to ride their bus to church. When we did, I was assigned to the tenth-grade Sunday school class taught by Sharon Sewell, the pastor’s wife.

She made me her project, inviting me to youth ministry events and calling me each Saturday to encourage me to come to church the next morning. On September 9, 1973, she led me to faith in Christ. I will be grateful for her forever, literally.

Mrs. Sewell had been declining rapidly in recent weeks. Her son told me yesterday that her last words to him were, “I want to go to heaven.” She is now reunited with her husband, my first pastor, and we are celebrating her homegoing.

Some deaths, like those that occurred in NYC last night, are tragic. Others are cause for gratitude.

Chadwick Boseman’s widow on “the weight of grief”

When acclaimed actor Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer in August 2020 at the age of forty-three, many were shocked to hear that he had cancer. His widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, told Today last Friday that his symptoms began just weeks before his diagnosis and that he chose to fight the disease privately.

When asked if grieving gets easier over time, her response was poignant and profound.

“The edges get less sharp, I think, is the best way to put it,” she said. “There are still edges and there are still a lot of painful moments. But I think it becomes easier to find the love in those moments as well. You become more accustomed to carrying the weight of grief. But it doesn’t go away.”

Most of us who have experienced significant loss would agree with her, I think.

My father died in 1979 at the age of fifty-five. To this day, my greatest grief is that he never met my sons. He would have been a wonderful grandfather. Over these many years, I have “become more accustomed to carrying the weight of grief,” but it is still there.

“People are shoved to the left side of their brains”

In the years since, however, I have come to believe that God redeems all he allows and to look for such redemption with my father’s passing. In this regard, Arthur Brooks’s latest article for the Free Press is insightful.

He writes that many of the young people he has taught at Harvard and met in other settings are “undeniably, desperately, incorrigibly unhappy.” When he started asking their stories, he discovered a common thread: their lives are busy but not meaningful.

Wealth and achievement are insufficient in this regard. In fact, Brooks reports that the wealthier and more technologically advanced the country, the greater the percentage of the population that answers “no” to the question, “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?”

He explains this paradox in a way I had not seen. Most of us are familiar with the hypothesis that the left side of our brain is logical while the right side is creative. Brooks notes that this is not accurate: both hemispheres deal with just about everything our brains do. But they do so in consistently different ways.

Brooks cites the work of the British neuroscientist and psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, who shows that the right side of our brain is the “master,” asking big, transcendent questions such as “Why am I alive?” The left side, which McGilchrist calls the “emissary,” addresses such practical questions as “How do I get food so I can keep being alive?”

Here’s the problem, as Brooks explains:

In our increasingly complicated, technology-dominated, and endlessly distracting world, people are shoved to the left side of their brains. They are stuck in a complicated simulation where there is a lot going on, but which is bereft of mystery and meaning.

A gateway into a life of purpose

With regard to “carrying the weight of grief”: Our left-side, secularized culture processes death in practical, present-tense terms. We make arrangements for the funeral, manage the financial and practical aftermath, and seek ways to move on with our daily lives.

But the right-side, transcendent questions remain: What does my grief say about God? About me? About my purpose in life?

In my case, God has used my father’s early death to lead me into what has become my lifelong vocation: to engage the ultimate questions of life with biblical truth. I have focused on innocent suffering and other deep issues as a philosophy professor, a pastor, and now as a cultural apologist. My father’s death has become my gateway into a life of purpose as I seek to help others find purpose in their questions and challenges.

None of this makes my father’s early death any less painful. I still miss him and still wish he could know my children and now my grandchildren. But I find peace in the purpose his death has forged for me.

And I am grateful beyond words for the presence of my Father as he has grieved with me over these many years and we have walked together through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4).

Why God “comforts us in all our affliction”

If you’re “carrying the weight of grief” today, could I encourage you to seek God’s purpose in your pain? To ask him to show you how you can partner with him in redeeming your loss? To look for ways to be what Henri Nouwen called a “wounded healer,” someone whose pain enables you to help others with theirs?

If you’re not carrying such weight today, do you know someone who is? Will you pray for them to find meaning in their grief and walk with them toward hope?

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to suffering (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:23–29), but he testified that our Lord is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3). And he discovered a purpose in such grace, adding that God “comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (v. 4).

How will you pay forward such grace today?

Quote for the day:

“Our infirmities become the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s love glitters all the more brightly.” —Charles Spurgeon

Our latest website resources:

• Why Christian unity matters for the global church today
• Why March Madness is for everyone: How to enjoy the NCAA tournament
• Why gas prices are rising, prediction markets exposed, Talarico’s theology, Oscars recap & March Madness
• Should filmmakers politicize the Academy Awards?
• Should we be culture warriors or cultural missionaries?

Denison Forum

The problem with Peter Thiel’s take on the end times

Peter Thiel is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who made his mark with PayPal, Facebook, and Palantir before becoming one of the largest donors to the Republican Party and an early advocate for President Trump. However, he’s in the news this week for an entirely different reason.

Thiel helped organize an exclusive conference in Rome, where he led four days of discussions on the Antichrist and his view that modern society is hurtling toward an inflection point that could pave the way for the end times. He claims that the Antichrist will use issues like nuclear war, climate change, and—perhaps most importantly—artificial intelligence to promise security in exchange for devotion and lead people to submit willingly to the sort of one-world, totalitarian government depicted in Revelation.

But while the lectures in Rome are not the first time he has taught on this subject (he gave similar talks in San Francisco and Paris), this week’s event has generated far more attention in religious circles. Part of the reason is that the meetings were arranged by Catholic organizations and located on the Vatican’s doorstep, both of which raised the ire of the Pope and others who have condemned Thiel’s message.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Is AI a tool for the Antichrist? →

The legendary actor and comedian Dick Van Dyke recently became a centenarian. He explains his longevity simply: he keeps a positive outlook and never gets angry.

Scientists agree with his theory.

In one study, people who were optimistic lived between 11 and 15 percent longer than their pessimistic counterparts. In another, those who were more optimistic were more likely to live into their nineties than pessimists.

Research shows that chronic stress and anger are linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, diseases that account for roughly 75 percent of early deaths. Stress is also linked to cellular aging. And researchers studying stroke survivors have found that optimism lowers chronic inflammation, leading to less severe strokes and less physical disability.

However, you and I didn’t need scientists to tell us what we innately understood, that happier people are typically healthier people.

If only knowing and doing God’s will were so obvious and intuitive.

“Yet your footprints were unseen”

I was reading Psalm 77 recently and was struck by verse 16: “When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; indeed, the deep trembled.” Some scholars believe Asaph was referring to the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14), while others point to Israel’s miraculous crossing of the flooded Jordan River (Joshua 3).

Whatever the specific reference, what God did was stupendous: “The clouds poured out water; the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world; the earth trembled and shook” (Psalm 77:17–18).

Now to my point: Asaph then prays, “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen” (v. 19, my emphasis).

It is one thing to follow someone whose “footprints” are obvious to us. It is another to follow someone we cannot see, trusting that their word is true and their will is best, before we can verify either.

“The people passed over in haste”

When the Israelites passed through the parted Red Sea, its waters were “a wall to them on their right hand and on their left” (Exodus 14:22). Imagine what it must have felt like to risk your life and your family in this way, knowing that any moment the waters could come crashing down on you as they later did on the Egyptian army (v. 28).

Forty years later, the people found themselves on the bank of the flooded Jordan River. Again they crossed in peril of their lives, knowing that the flood waters could return at any moment to sweep them away (cf. Joshua 4:18).

No wonder “the people passed over in haste” (v. 10).

God similarly called Abraham to leave his family and homeland, “not knowing where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). And the Lord called Paul to leave where he had been to go to a place he had never gone (Acts 16:6–10).

Solomon famously advised us: “Trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). There are times when the first requires the second, when our “own understanding” is insufficient for understanding the ways of God, and we must trust what we do not see.

As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). Accordingly, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).

“I will remember your wonders of old”

As a longtime pastor and theologian, I am familiar with the texts I just cited. But that doesn’t mean I like them better than anyone else. I don’t want God’s footprints to be “unseen.” I don’t want to have to go out “not knowing” where I’m going. I want to walk by faith but also by sight.

It seems that God requires unseeing faith as though it is a precondition to knowing his will, a bill we must pay or work we must perform. But we are saved by faith, not by works (Ephesians 2:8–9). There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more or any less than he does right now, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8, my emphasis).

Why, then, must we so often trust his will before we understand it? Because this is so often the only way we can understand it.

How could God prove to the Jews while they crossed the Red Sea or the Jordan River that the waters would not return to drown them? How could he prove to Abraham before he went out “not knowing” that he would become the father of the Jewish nation as a result of his obedience (cf. Galatians 3:6)? How could he prove to Paul before he followed his Macedonian vision that the apostle would take the gospel to the Western world?

Relationships typically require a commitment that transcends the evidence and becomes self-validating. This is true of choosing to be married, having children, taking a job, or even reading this article—you can’t prove my words are worth your time today until you spend your time reading them.

As a result, when I want God to explain his will to me before I choose it, I am asking him to do the logically impossible, like making a square circle or naming the color of the number 7. At such times, I do well to follow Asaph’s example: “I will remember the deeds of the Lᴏʀᴅ; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:11–12).

When I do, I will testify with the psalmist, “Your way, O God, is holy” (v. 13). And I will find the courage to choose this “way” myself.

“The secret of spiritual knowledge”

In Catholic tradition, today is “St. Joseph’s Day.” A ninth-century calendar mentions March 19 and Joseph, implying that this was the day he died. In 1621, Pope Gregory XV made the commemoration of this day official.

For Jesus’ adoptive father, God’s footprints were truly “unseen.” Joseph was told that his fiancée was pregnant with the Messiah and instructed to marry her anyway. He was told to flee Israel for Egypt and later to return. He was directed to settle in Nazareth, a town so small it is not mentioned even once in the Old Testament.

And his obedience changed both history and eternity.

The famed missionary Eric Liddell noted,

“Obedience to God’s will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight.”

Will you learn this “secret” today?

Quote for the day:

“The Christian man must aim at that complete obedience to God in which life finds its highest happiness, its greatest good, its perfect consummation, its peace.” —William Barclay

Our latest website resources:

• Why Christian unity matters for the global church today
• Why March Madness is for everyone: How to enjoy the NCAA tournament
• Should filmmakers politicize the Academy Awards?
• Iran war update, Kristi Noem out, Warner Bros. sold, Oscar predictions & Selection Sunday
• Should we be culture warriors or cultural missionaries?

Denison Forum

How to enjoy the NCAA Tournament

The NCAA Tournament tips off tonight with the first two play-in games. You’ll still have a couple more days to get your bracket in, though, before the first round starts on Thursday. And while there may be fewer Cinderellas now than in the past, the best teams have seldom been better. And there’s a lesson in that truth that goes well beyond the basketball court.

Why it matters: I usually dedicate this space to an extended look at some issue in the world or our culture, with the hope of helping us understand how to navigate it in ways that honor God and draw us closer to him. I think most of us would agree that the NCAA Tournament does not quite rise to that level. However, few things unite this country like the chance to compete with friends, family, and coworkers in trying (and often failing) to predict how the Tournament will play out. And given everything else going on in our world, it would be a shame if we failed to take a moment to stop and appreciate that opportunity.

The backstory: One of 80 million

The NCAA Tournament—also known as March Madness—kicks off tonight with the first two play-in games. If you’re one of the estimated 80 million people who plan to fill out a bracket for this year’s festivities, though, don’t worry. The games tonight and tomorrow don’t usually count toward your score.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why March Madness is for everyone →

The law of unintended consequences and the wisdom of St. Patrick

Israel’s defense minister announced this morning that its military killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in an overnight strike. In other news, the US embassy in Baghdad has been targeted by explosive drones, British Airways says it is suspending some flights to the Middle East until the end of May, and US gas prices are continuing to rise as a result of the war.

However, much of the focus today is on a narrow waterway that is central to the global economy.

A quarter of the world’s liquified natural gas and seaborne trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean. Iran has effectively closed it by attacking ships and reportedly laying mines in the strait. More than a thousand cargo ships have been blocked so far.

According to Stanford and Harvard historian Niall Ferguson, however, the Strait of Hormuz is potentially less significant to the world than the Strait of Taiwan. He notes that more than 90 percent of the world’s most advanced semiconductors and 99 percent of the chips used for cutting-edge AI training are manufactured in Taiwan. The island also imports 97 percent of its energy supply in the form of oil, LNG, and coal.

Continue reading Denison Forum – How could the Iran war go global? →

What do movies tell us about ourselves?

One Battle After Another won the Academy Award for Best Picture last night, along with five other Oscars. Michael B. Jordan, Sean Penn, Jessie Buckley, and Amy Madigan won acting Oscars.

The awards show prompted some reflections for me, which have less to do with the films themselves than with the experience of watching them.

My wife and I took two of our grandkids to a movie the other day. We seldom go to the theater except with them, it seems. However, hardly a week goes by without us watching at least one movie at home, usually on a streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.

We are apparently not unusual: only half of Americans went to a movie theater in 2025, while 75 percent told surveyors that they had recently opted to stream a movie at home instead of watching it in the theater. The movie-watching experience, wherever it takes place, is ubiquitous. While 7 percent of Americans told Pew Research Center they had never seen a movie in theaters, I cannot find data indicating that a significant percentage of Americans have never seen a movie at all.

So-called “moving pictures” were first developed in 1891; the first time projected moving pictures were presented to a paying audience was in December 1895 in Paris, France. Over the generations since, they have become a pervasive and indelible part of our lives.

Why is this?

“What distinguishes us from the beasts in the fields”

Clinical psychologist Ana Nogales explains in Psychology Today that movies can be cathartic, as they express the emotions we feel. They help us escape from our own world for a couple of hours as well, offering entertainment that distracts us from our challenges.

She writes that they can be therapeutic when they “help us view things from a different perspective and become more understanding of other people.” And they inspire us with stories of achievement that encourage us to be our best selves.

I would add that the best movies are often the most surprising, the ones with a plot twist we did not foresee, films that convey an unanticipated message that nonetheless resonates with life. In The Future of Truth, acclaimed filmmaker Warner Herzog writes:

I don’t think truth is some kind of polestar in the sky that we will one day get to. It’s more like an incessant striving. A movement, an uncertain journey, a seeking full of futile endeavor. But it is this journey into the unknown, into a vast twilit forest, that gives our lives meaning and purpose; it is what distinguishes us from the beasts in the fields.

“On purpose for a purpose”

Obviously, I disagree with his postmodern rejection of objective truth. As I often note, to claim there are no absolute truths is to make an absolute truth claim. Our Father has a mission for each of our lives, a kingdom assignment by which we are to know and glorify him and lead others to know and glorify him. As Max Lucado notes, we were created “on purpose for a purpose.”

But I do agree with Herzog that our pursuit of this purpose is a “journey into the unknown.”

Every significant junction of my life has been a surprise to me. I thought when I went to seminary that I would earn a PhD and return to my alma mater to teach philosophy. When my seminary offered me a faculty position, I thought I would stay there for my career. I resigned from the small church we had been pastoring during doctoral work, expressing my gratitude for all they meant to us and telling them that they were the only church we would ever pastor.

Our call from the seminary back into the pastorate was therefore a surprise to us, as were our subsequent calls to churches in Atlanta and Dallas. When two very gracious friends came to my wife and me in 2008 with the idea of launching what became Denison Ministries, we were shocked. But this ministry, which began in February 2009, has grown to a size and scope I could never have imagined. We began with a daily article and seven thousand subscribers; last year, our ministry’s content was read, heard, or seen more than 110 million times around the world.

Please believe me when I say that none of this was our doing. The vision came from God; the content our team and I produce is led by him; the growth of the ministry has come as we have followed his direction. We have worked hard, but even the capacity to do so is his gift to us.

And our Lord continues to use our team to deliver his word to the world, not because we are worthy but because “the word of God is living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and always accomplishes the purpose for which God intends it (Isaiah 55:10–11).

“The power at work within us”

I tell you our story only to say this: God has a plan for your life that transcends anything you can plan for yourself. Because his ways are “higher than your ways” (Isaiah 55:9), he is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

When you pursue your Father’s purpose, your life becomes a “motion picture” in which the scenes you “film” today are part of a story you are telling the world. The key, as a wise mentor once taught me, is to stay faithful to the last word you heard from God and open to the next.

And the key to this key is knowing the living Lord Jesus so personally and intimately that you can hear his voice and follow his lead.

Plato famously likened humans to prisoners chained in a cave in such a way that they cannot see the fire behind them but only the shadows it projects onto the wall before them. The purpose of philosophy, he believed, was to break these chains so we can turn from the “shadow” of the physical world to the “fire” of the world of ideas. The job of philosophers is to help others break their chains so they can join us in this quest for true knowledge.

Plato was wrong about the power of philosophy: only the Spirit can break the chains of sin and free us to experience the Light that defeats all darkness (John 1:5). But he was right that, once our chains are broken, we are to help others with theirs.

With whom will you share your story today?

Quote for the day:

“We need storytelling. Otherwise, life just goes on and on like the number Pi.” —Ang Lee, Academy Award-winning director

Our latest website resources:

• Why do people fear Friday the 13^th? Is the Christian faith superstition or truth?
• Cyberattacks, “sleeper assets,” and oil above $100 a barrel: The latest on the Iran war and the path from fear to faith
• Iran war update, Kristi Noem out, Warner Bros. sold, Oscar predictions & Selection Sunday
• Should we be culture warriors or cultural missionaries?
• The slippery slope of Canada’s fall toward 100,000 assisted deaths

Denison Forum

Is the Christian faith superstition or truth?

March 13, 2026, falls on a Friday. So did February 13 of this year. So will November 13.

Most years produce one or two Friday the 13ths. Having three such Fridays in one year is relatively rare, occurring forty-four times per four-hundred-year cycle and only when the year begins on a Thursday. In such years, Friday the 13ths always fall in February, March, and November.

The fear of such days is called “paraskevidekatriaphobia,” derived from the Greek for Friday (Paraskevi), thirteen (dekatreis), and fear (phobia). According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in Asheville, North Carolina, an estimated seventeen to twenty-one million people in the US are afflicted with this phobia.

This makes Friday the 13^th the most feared day and date in history. Some people avoid following their normal routines, taking flights, or even getting out of bed. Some estimate that $800 to $900 million in business is lost on the day.

Some speculate that such fear originated in the Bible: thirteen guests attended the Last Supper, including Jesus and his twelve disciples. The next day, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified.

Patrick Mahomes’ underwear

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes wears the same pair of red underwear on every NFL game day. He first wore the undergarment during a successful first season in 2017 and continues to do so, believing it brings him good luck.

Some baseball players refuse to step on the out-of-bounds line when running on or off the field. Some basketball players dribble the ball a set number of times before shooting free throws. They are not unusual in this regard.

According to a 2024 study, “very few people show a complete lack of belief in superstitions and practice none.” Psychologists explain that superstitions persist in our scientifically advanced age because they can alleviate stress, bring emotional comfort, and reinforce themselves if we believe they are true and act accordingly.

In this sense, superstitions can be like horoscopes: when we believe what they claim, we then act in ways that become self-fulfilling prophecies. If your horoscope tells you that you’ll meet an interesting person today, for example, you may be more likely to be interested in people and thus fulfill its prediction. If it warns you against making major decisions, you take its advice, and nothing untoward happens to you, you might assume that your horoscope was correct.

But correlation is not necessarily causation unless we confuse the two.

Driving around the donut shop

A similar phenomenon can be observed with regard to religious faith.

For example, we can pray for God to act in specific ways and then interpret what happens as his answers (the so-called “Gideon’s fleece” strategy of Judges 6). A rather pejorative illustration tells of the man who asked God to open a parking spot in front of the donut shop if he was to stop there on his way to work. Sure enough, on the man’s eighth trip around the shop, one “miraculously” appeared.

Some skeptics claim that all faith functions in a similar way.

The philosopher Antony Flew popularized a principle called “falsification”: if a truth claim cannot be proven wrong, it cannot be proven right. If nothing can dissuade us from our beliefs, they are just that—mere beliefs. To be considered actual truth claims, they must be capable of being proven false.

It is just here that Christianity can claim an advantage over other world religions.

Hindus believe in reincarnation, but they have no way to prove that their belief is based in fact. Muslims claim that the Qur’an was given by Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, but they have no empirical way to test their thesis.

Christianity, however, stands or falls on an actual event in history that can be empirically tested. Paul was specific and clear: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Accordingly, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (v. 17).

In other words, if it could be proven beyond all doubt that Jesus was not raised from the grave on Easter Sunday, our faith would be falsified, and our preaching would be useless. The good news is that the evidence from history, archaeology, ancient manuscripts, and logic is clear and conclusive: “He has risen, as he said” (Matthew 28:6).

Our faith is therefore not superstition but truth. And sharing it with others is not imposing our subjective opinions but giving the world the hope it needs most.

“By it I see everything else”

Friday the 13^th has long been special to my family because my father was born on Friday, July 13, 1924. If he had not been born, I would obviously not have been born.

In a similar fashion, if Jesus had not been raised from the dead, I would have no reason to believe that I will one day be raised from the dead. When I die, I will have no agency by which to determine what happens next. My life beyond this life is entirely dependent on forces beyond my capacity or control.

When I wonder about that day or otherwise question the beliefs of my faith, my mind returns to the empty tomb. The fact of the resurrection means that Jesus was and is the divine Son of God, his words conveyed in Scripture are the word of God, and his promises are sure.

CS Lewis, the former atheist turned brilliant Oxford apologist, testified:

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

When we “see everything else” in our world in light of Easter, we find peace that transcends our pain and hope that heals our hearts.

This is the promise, and the invitation, of God.

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While the Trump Administration’s focus remains largely on the war in Iran, the president took some time earlier this week to address the situation with Cuba as well. Hinting that they may be next in line for regime change, he stated, “It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly takeover. It wouldn’t matter because they’re really, they’re down to, as I say, fumes.”

Trump went on to add, “They have no energy. They have no money. They’re in deep trouble on a humanitarian basis.” As I discussed in the News Worth Knowing section of this week’s Focus, those comments came after he’d previously mused, “They want to make a deal, and so I’m going to put Marco [Rubio] over there, and we’ll see how that works out.”

As we’ve seen with Iran, Russia and Ukraine, Venezuela, and in a host of other conflicts, wanting to make a deal and being willing to give up what it would take to get a deal are rarely the same. And while the president is correct that Cuba is struggling in almost every way, it’s still unclear what any such negotiations would entail.

Cuba does not have a clear successor who could take over, like in Venezuela. They also don’t have the same kind of economic or natural resources that could prove appealing. Instead, it’s likely that any concessions of interest to the administration would center around the country’s relationships with Russia and China.

A report from the Center for Strategic & International Studies found that there are likely multiple sites on the island that China is currently using to spy on the United States. Russia is also thought to utilize Cuba and other Latin American countries like Nicaragua for similar purposes. Reducing our neighbor nation’s ties to these countries would be difficult, but it would also fit well within the administration’s foreign policy focus on the Western hemisphere.

Yet, until a deal is reached, it’s the people in Cuba who will continue to suffer, and it’s crucial that we don’t lose sight of their plight as we consider the broader negotiations between governments.

“You can tell something isn’t right”

While the toppling of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro—and, more specifically, the cessation of free oil to Cuba—was, in many ways, the tipping point for the Cuban people, many were in dire straits well before then.

Cuba is one of only two Latin American nations currently in a recession, with Haiti the other. 89 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty, and even their government admits that most live on one meal a day, if that. Moreover, a mosquito-borne illness—easily treated with acetaminophen like Tylenol—has proved difficult to contain and has led to 55 deaths since November due to a shortage of medicine.

A nationwide blackout was triggered recently after the Antonio Guitera thermoelectric plant, the island’s largest power station, failed. Even when the plant was functioning, though, the aforementioned fuel shortages meant many went without power. Power cuts of up to twenty hours are common, while the lack of fuel makes getting to work, transporting food, or simply getting around too great a struggle for most.

And, as Jaob Lesniewski, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) regional codirector for Cuba, described, it gets worse the farther you get from the capital:

When you arrive in Havana, you can tell something isn’t right. But it’s nothing compared to what you begin to see as you travel farther east. Entire cities look like ghost towns. There are factories, schools, and hospitals that once functioned but now stand empty and severely deteriorated.

As is often the case, however, God is already at work through his people in ways that are making a genuine difference in the lives of those in need.

“Christian churches have become essential spaces”

Hernán Restrepo has an excellent article in Christianity Today about the work believers are doing in Cuba. In it, he describes how Christians are using whatever means are at their disposal to help those around them. Whether it’s providing food, clothing, hygiene products, or simply comfort, God’s people are giving from what little they have to be his hands and feet to the people the Lord has placed around them.

Moreover, even the government has started to recognize the value of getting help from believers. Ministries like MCC have met remarkably little resistance as they’ve brought in shipping containers of humanitarian relief. Instead, their greatest problems have come from getting that aid to the people once it arrives.

The oil embargo has made it difficult to use trucks to distribute the supplies, and the churches with whom they work are often forced to rely on “underfed horses” and carts instead. Still, they’re doing what they can, and it’s still often far more than the people receive from the government.

As Mayra Espino, a sociologist and researcher in Cuba, points out:

In a country where the state can no longer provide basic services like health care and education, Christian churches have become essential spaces for society—not only to receive humanitarian aid or spiritual comfort, but also to build community.

And it’s been that way for quite a while.

In 2008, for example, Cuba was devastated by four hurricanes in a single year. Espino notes that Christians earned a newfound respect after local churches helped repair the roofs of their non-Christian neighbors before fixing their own. It was a gesture of care that was not soon forgotten, in part because Cuban believers have continued to demonstrate that kind of concern in the years since.

And, in so doing, they offer an important example for believers everywhere.

“The gospel is relational”

Sometimes it can be easy to look at the gravity of the needs around us and feel overwhelmed. And that’s alright. Many of those needs are truly overwhelming and, to put it a bit cynically, there’s a reason Jesus told his disciples that they would always have the poor with them (Matthew 26:11).

But the lesson we should learn from our brothers and sisters in Cuba is that we don’t have to meet every need in order to make a tangible difference. Moreover, seldom will you be called to meet those needs alone.

Cuban believers, at their best, make a difference in their communities by working together. They try to model the kind of fellowship Luke describes at the end of Acts 2, where the believers devoted themselves to the study of God’s word, to sharing meals, to prayer, and to providing for the needs of those around to the extent that it was within their capacity to do so (Acts 2:42–46).

And the result is often the same today as it was two thousand years ago: “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

As Pastor Carlos Alamino of Proclaim Cuba described when he and his son were guests on the Denison Forum Podcast, “The gospel is relational . . . So if we are able to provide for a person, if we’re able to meet their needs, their hearts are going to be ready to receive the gospel.”

And the key is that they are not doing it alone. Carlos went on to describe how “if I close my eyes and I touch any part of the island, we have somebody there that we can call and do ministry with.”

Can you imagine how much more we could accomplish for God’s kingdom in America if we could say the same? Can you imagine how much more you could accomplish just in your city or your town if you could point to any part of your community and know that your finger would fall on someone you could “do ministry with”?

The best place to start toward that goal is to make sure you are willing to be that someone in your community.

While your role in the Body of Christ is essential, you can’t play that role well if you’re trying to do it by yourself. So don’t try. Instead, take some time today to ask God where he would like you to serve, then pray for people to serve with you in that capacity.

Let’s start right now.

• Note: If you would like to find out more about what God is doing in Cuba and how you can help, I encourage you to visit ProclaimCuba.org. There are a number of organizations doing God’s work on the island, and they’re a great place to start learning more.

Quote of the day: 

“If God only used perfect people, nothing would get done. God will use anybody if you’re available.”—Rick Warren

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A reflection on cultural engagement and personal transformation

NOTE: Iran has apparently conducted a significant cyberattack against a US company, a first since the war began. As more is known, I will provide an update on the war and a biblical response in an article on our website later this morning.

If you live where I live, you waited for the rain to end yesterday for hours on end. But it could be worse: people in the Northern Territory of Australia are being warned to stay out of rain-fueled rivers in their area because, as one official put it, “There are crocs absolutely everywhere.”

Social media in the region is filled with images and videos of crocodiles floating down streets and galloping across roads. Residents are being told to “assume any waterway may contain a crocodile.”

There’s your devotional thought for the day.

If you pay much attention to secular culture, you might feel the same way about the moral issues of our time. It seems you cannot watch a television show without meeting LGBTQ characters normalizing LGBTQ ideology. Advocates for “reproductive healthcare” (abortion) are active on every platform. Non-evangelicals view evangelicals in decidedly negative ways.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “There are crocs absolutely everywhere” →

A surprising discovery about doubt and fear

A potent storm system is bringing a multi-day threat of tornadoes, damaging winds, and large hail to the Plains, Midwest, and the Ohio Valley. This after a tornado with maximum wind speeds up to 130 mph ripped through Michigan last week, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. The mayor of Three Rivers, Michigan, told FOX Weather that the storm damage is so extensive that she does not recognize parts of her city.

I can understand on a logical level the suffering that results from human sin: God honors the free will with which we are made in his image, so the consequences of our moral failures are not his fault but ours. I can even stretch this logic to include the suffering our sins cause others; if God removed all such consequences, we would not have moral agency.

But this is easy for me to say when I am not the innocent victim of such sin. I would be horrified if someone used this logic to explain the Holocaust to the Jewish people or the horrors of 9/11 to those still grieving those who died on that tragic day.

And it is even harder to understand suffering when it has no moral cause. I know that natural disasters and diseases are the result of the Fall (Romans 8:22); in the Garden of Eden, there were no tornadoes or cancers. But God often intervenes in the Bible and across history to prevent such disasters. When he does not, we can easily question his decision and even his character.

A maxim I have heard over the years advises us to “doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs.” That’s fine until our doubts truly threaten our beliefs.

What then?

“First world” problems

I have been dealing with a series of “first-world” problems lately.

I skipped walking outside this morning because of the rain our local meteorologists forecast that never fell. A repair person is coming by later today to replace our modem because our internet provider couldn’t get the existing one to work, through no fault of the existing modem. I am placing my third call to a repair person who keeps promising to fix our back gate but never shows up. Later today, I will place my third call to an insurance representative who keeps promising to look into a missing rebate but never calls us back.

The other day, my wife and I were talking with an older man on our walking trail who told us about the illness their daughter continues to face. He made a statement that has stayed with me: “Everyone has a million problems until they get sick.”

It’s then, in those crises where we most need God, that we sometimes feel that he is least present. This struggle is not sinful: if the sinless Son of God could cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), so can we.

“But they had no child”

Part of our problem is that our minds are finite and fallen and thus cannot possibly comprehend the character and ways of an infinite and perfect Being. As Elihu noted, God “does things that we cannot comprehend” (Job 37:5). If we could truly understand God, either we would be God, or he would not be.

Another part of our challenge is that we can experience reality only in this moment and thus are incapable of seeing the larger perspective within which God operates.

For example, I read this week that Zechariah and Elizabeth “were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (Luke 1:6–7). Then came the miracle by which Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, promising that he and his wife would have a son (vv. 8–23). We know him as John the Baptist.

They could not possibly have understood that God’s delay was so that Mary could become old enough to bear the Son of God, for whom their son would serve as a forerunner. We can seldom understand God’s timing at the time, but his omniscience is not limited by our limitations.

However, even acknowledging the finitude of my mind and temporality, I still want to understand why God permits such suffering in his creation. I would like to believe that such doubts are motivated solely by my mind and quest for rationality.

But a sermon I read this week has convinced me otherwise.

“In these times of doubt, look to your fears”

I subscribe to a daily devotional from the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston. These brief paragraphs are excerpts from longer sermons the brothers have preached over the years. A devotional I received earlier this week caught my eye, so I opened the sermon it came from.

It was preached by Br. Jack Crowley in January 2025. His message was based on the flight of the holy family to Egypt (Matthew 2:13–15), focusing on the doubts and stress that Joseph and Mary must have felt as they left all they knew for an unknown future as King Herod sought to murder their baby boy.

Br. Crowley noted that we all have similar “flights” and the fears they engender: “In our flight to Egypt there will be times of doubt. Times when we doubt if we have done the right things, times when we will doubt the quality of our own selves, times when we will doubt our ability to find God in any of it, and times when we will doubt humanity at large.”

Then he advised:

In these times of doubt, look to your fears. Ask yourself what fear is fueling your doubt? Do you fear that you are not good enough? Do you fear that you are not worthy of love? Do you fear that you have not done enough with your life?

These fears can drown us in doubt. These fears can make our lives impossible. These fears can paralyze our days. We need God’s help. We can admit it, we are not strong enough on our own, we need God’s help.

We need to bring to God our fears, our doubt, our stress and all the other things that keep us up at night. We need God’s help in our journey into Egypt. There is no shame in praying out of desperation and great need.

When we get to the other side of this thing we will be stronger, we will know ourselves better, and we will be closer to God. Our journey into Egypt may take a long time, but it is worth it. May God help us all.

“Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

Br. Crowley is right: My doubts are sometimes birthed by my fears. What if God is not the loving Father I want him to be? What if his omnipotence or omniscience is limited? What if he doesn’t hear my prayers or care about my problems?

Then I realize these fears are less about him than they are about me. I fear that I am not worthy of his love and care. I fear that I am not able to pray effectively or to trust fully. I fear less that he is not enough than that I am not enough.

At such times, I need to remember the cross, where the Father considered my salvation worth the death of his Son. I need to remember all the sins he has forgiven, all the needs he has met, and to believe that he does not change (Malachi 3:6) and that all of God there is, is in this moment.

And then, if this is not enough, I can pray with the beleaguered father, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

And he will.

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