Over the weekend, I read an article that I found deeply significant. In it, cultural commentator David Brooks focuses on finding meaning in older life, though I found his reflections relevant to all of us at any age.

He reports that Stanford, Harvard, and Notre Dame are among a number of universities now offering programs intended to help adults in their sixties transition into their next season of life. As he notes, if you’re sixty years old, there’s a 50 percent chance that you’ll live to be ninety. What will you do with what he calls the “Encore Years”?

Brooks assures us that we don’t have to enroll in such year-long programs to benefit from the research they convey. He reports: “People at all income levels derive some of their identity from how they contribute to the world and provide for those they love, and people at all income levels feel a sense of identity, and get thrown back on existential questions, when those roles change or fade away.”

At such a stage, he writes:

People will either achieve generativity—a way of serving others—or sink into stagnation. At an age when you think they’d be old enough to know the answers, they find themselves thrown back into fundamental questions: Who am I? What’s my purpose? What do I really want? Do I matter? (his italics).

Why are such questions so urgent? Brooks explains:

I’m fascinated by these programs because, among other reasons, I’m hoping they can serve as an antidote to the cultural malady that The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson calls workism. This is the modern way of thinking that, he writes, “valorizes work, career, and achievement above all else.” Many Americans, he continues, have come to assume that work can provide everything that humans once got from their religion—meaning, community, self-actualization, a sense of high calling (my italics).

Here we find the key to the issue.

 “Their core self, their visible self, and their best self”

God often uses people in their Encore Years to change history:

• Abraham was seventy-five when he left his home to follow God (Genesis 12:4).
• Moses was eighty when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 7:7).
• Caleb was eighty-five when he claimed his part of the Promised Land (Joshua 14:10–12).
• Zechariah and Elizabeth were “advanced in years” when they became the parents of John the Baptist (Luke 1:7).
• Anna was eighty-four when she met the infant Jesus (Luke 2:36–38).

The key is knowing and doing God’s will for our lives in every dimension of our lives. Otherwise, we are subject to the vagaries of personal subjectivity.

To illustrate: Brooks quotes Carl Jung’s observation, “What was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.” He also reports that Harry Davis, a longtime management professor at the University of Chicago, “asks his students to identify their core self, their visible self, and their best self.”

For Jesus, every moment of his life was “true” and not a “lie.” This is because his “visible self” was his “core self,” which was always his “best self.” Now he wants the same to be true for us.

How does this work?

Brooks notes: “Most of us don’t just want simple happiness; we want intensity. We want to feel that sense of existential urgency you get when you are engrossed in some meaningful project, when you know you are doing something important and good.”

Jesus was “engrossed” in the most “meaningful project” of all, the redemption of the entire human race. When our highest purpose is to know him and make him known, we join him in lives of true “intensity” and joy.

“See that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself”

I spent many years as a Christian not understanding what we’re discussing today, and fear that many believers are where I was.

Because I prayed a salvation prayer at the age of fifteen, I knew that I would go to heaven rather than hell when I died. Beyond what our youth minister called our “fire insurance,” I understood that reading the Bible and praying could be beneficial ways to find God’s wisdom and help for the challenges I faced.

In that context, I would have encouraged us to live for Jesus as the “meaningful project” of our lives. What I missed completely was the notion that the living Lord Jesus wants to live through us, that “Christ in you” is the “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), that our living Lord is continuing his earthly ministry through us as his “body” in the world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Accordingly, our “line of service,” as Oswald Chambers put it, is “to see that there is nothing between Jesus and yourself.” This is not so that he can then empower us to serve our purpose, as I used to think, but so that he can then serve his purpose in and through us.

This is a 24/7 lifestyle and a foundational reason Satan tempts committed Christians with so-called “private” sins that seem to have no public consequences. The Enemy knows that the Son of God who defeated him so thoroughly in the first century can do the same in the twenty-first century. He will therefore do whatever he can to impede our intimacy with Jesus. And we must do whatever we must to maintain it.

Would you ask Jesus if there is anything between yourself and him today?

Quote for the day:

“Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection” (Mike Yaconelli).

Denison Forum

One of the occupational hazards of my work is that I spend much of my day engaging with news and cultural issues, much of which is more discouraging than encouraging. Such “doomscrolling” is so common that it was one of the Oxford English Dictionary’s words of the year in 2020.

But constantly consuming bad news causes the amygdala in our brain to sense danger, alerting our hypothalamus to tell our sympathetic nervous system to activate our fight-or-flight response. This causes our body’s adrenal glands to release stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which contribute to high blood pressure and impair cognitive abilities such as concentration, decision-making, and emotional regulation.

This reaction reinforces negative thoughts and feelings, increases anxiety and depression, leads to mental fatigue, impairs concentration, and reduces productivity. Nausea, headaches, muscle tension, neck and shoulder pain, and difficulty sleeping often result as well.

In other words, doomscrolling is bad.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Are you “doomscrolling” or “bloomscrolling”? →

The co-pilot of a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv on Wednesday tried to crash the plane after stabbing the pilot, according to Israeli officials. He sent the jet plunging nearly fourteen thousand feet in less than thirty seconds, but the pilot fought off the attack and opened the cockpit door; his bravery “managed to prevent a 9/11 disaster,” according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A passenger identified as Yaniv Hayun said he then “grabbed the terrorist, put him in a hold, and first of all pulled him outside.” He called for other passengers to restrain the co-pilot, then “grabbed the controls” before another pilot onboard took over and landed the plane. The airplane had more than 170 Israelis on board.

Israel’s defense minister described the incident as a “jihadist terror attack,” though Mr. Netanyahu told Fox News Wednesday night that it was “too early to say” whether there was any indication of Iranian involvement. But if this was a terrorist attack against Israelis and Israel, it would join a long list of such attacks over the years. Each was motivated by a belief that attacking Jews is a defense of Islam required by the Qur’an.

Such attacks illustrate John Stonestreet’s observation that ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims. Let’s explore this fact in light of what has been called “the single most consequential invention in human history.”

“Some shared notion of goodness”

In an important recent article for the New York Times, national religion correspondent Elizabeth Dias reports that AI developer Anthropic has been hosting a variety of meetings with religious leaders to seek their help with Claude, their cutting-edge AI model. Christopher Olah, who leads the company’s team responsible for understanding why AI systems like Claude act the way they do, wants to persuade the models to abide by a moral code that will protect humanity.

Consequently, he has met with a wide range of religious scholars and leaders, from Pope Leo XIV and other Catholics to Jewish, Sikh, Mormon, and evangelical thinkers. Halfway through her extensive article, Dias asks the key question: “Even if AI models can be taught to behave morally, whose morals should they reflect?”

In response, she quotes Olah: “We do think that there’s some shared notion of goodness that cuts across society in some very broad way, and it seems like these models understand a lot of virtues. So I think there’s something there that is a shared thing that we can all engage with.”

Without such a “shared thing,” Pope Leo warned in his encyclical on the subject, “Those who control AI will impose their own moral vision, which will become the invisible infrastructure of these systems.” And this “vision” will be as subjective as the people who frame it.

Here we find the central problem of our secularized society: by abandoning biblical morality, we are left with the “morality” of our own choosing. With no true north on our compass, we will go wherever our personal “will to power” takes us.

Every day, crimes and tragedies in the headlines show us how that’s going for us.

Playing tennis with a professional tennis player

I played tennis for many years, won some intramural matches in college, and thought I was pretty good. Then a friend in the church I was pastoring invited me to play with him. He had competed professionally years earlier, but he had not played in a long time and was just starting to get back into the game.

As we warmed up, it seemed to me that he was in fact rusty, so I resolved to go easy on him lest I discourage him. Then he asked if we wanted to play a few games. I agreed and graciously suggested that he serve first. When he hit his first serve, I watched him toss the ball in the air, heard his racket hit it, and saw a blur streak past me. There was no way I could respond quickly enough to get my racket on it.

In that moment, I learned the difference between an amateur and a professional—at least in regard to tennis.

I say that to say this: we don’t really know how good we are at something until we compare ourselves to someone better than us. Of all the people with whom we can make such a comparison, God is obviously at the top of the list.

“I fell at his feet as though dead”

Isaiah was a priest in Israel and a good friend and counselor to King Uzziah. By any human measure, he was a success at what he did. But when he met God on his throne, he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

Peter had a similar experience in Luke 5. He had been a successful fisherman and businessman and a faithful follower of Jesus. But when he encountered the full divinity and omnipotence of Christ on the Sea of Galilee, “he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’” (v. 8).

John was Jesus’ “beloved” disciple and best friend. But when he met the risen Christ on the prison island of Patmos, he wrote that “I fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17).

Louie Giglio is right: God is the great I Am, and I am the little I Am Not.

“The one sovereign remedy against temptation”

The English novelist Dorothy L. Sayers remarked, “Hell is the enjoyment of one’s way forever.” The French theologian François Fénelon (1651–1715) was therefore right: “To realize God’s presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation.”

How do we “realize” his presence today?

Dwight Moody said of the Bible, “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” This is because the Bible is intended to lead us into a personal encounter with its Author (John 20:31). And, as John Calvin noted, “All God’s promises depend upon Christ alone.”

So I’ll ask: When last did you meet the living Lord Jesus in a transforming way?

Asked differently: When last were you awed by God?

Quote for the day:

“Jesus, the very thought of Thee, with sweetness fills my breast; but sweeter far Thy face to see, and in Thy presence rest.” —Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

Our latest website resources:

• Tim Tebow steps back from Life Surge as controversy grows: A hard lesson on the danger of unwise associations
• Leverage suffering for greater good: Hope for an uncertain future—Part 7
• How Christians should approach the midterm elections
• Were American soldiers targeted outside an English airbase?
• Can unsafe questions lead the broken to God? A review of “Can I Say That” by Brenna Blain

Denison Forum

A hard lesson on the danger of unwise associations

Life Surge, a traveling conference series focused on faith-centered financial stewardship, is under fire following allegations of running a scam-like operation and pressuring Christians into extreme debt. Its alleged predatory practices were outlined by investigative reporter Kiera Butler in her recent appearance on the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.

Butler detailed the history of Life Surge and spoke with both people who have been harmed and with concerned employees. At the center of Butler and Torre’s interest in this case is Life Surge’s association with ESPN personality and former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow, who they deem “one of the most trusted voices in America.”

Pablo Torre’s platform was amplified after his recent investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers salary cap scandal led the NBA to issue the largest team punishment in its history this Summer. Torre’s award-winning work certainly brought extra eyes and ears to his channel for this Life Surge debacle.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Tim Tebow steps back from Life Surge as controversy grows →

President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday creating America.gov, an AI-powered government portal that can enable users to access public services and search federal databases. He then gathered with top administration officials and AI executives at a lunch meeting in the White House, where they signed a voluntary accord including internal and external AI reviews. The president also directed government agencies to use the term “super intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence” when referring to the technology.

In related news, OpenAI says it is scrapping the release of its next-generation AI model over safety concerns raised by researchers during internal testing. And when the AI developer Anthropic becomes a publicly traded company in a few weeks, it plans to caution potential investors that advanced AI could pose “catastrophic or existential risks to humanity,” including attempts to “resist shutdown,” “conceal or manipulate information,” and exhibit behavior “resembling blackmail.”

Apparently, some AI “doomers” (those warning of the technology’s risk to humanity) are taking such threats personally. They are considering buying remote islands on which to live, stockpiling iodine pills, moving to electromagnetically shielded bunkers in the desert, or buying land in remote regions of the country.

So far, this article is probably not helping you very much. You may disagree that AI poses such existential threats to you and the rest of us. You may believe that the US government, world leaders, and/or AI companies will find ways to mitigate the threat before it goes too far. And whatever you think about such danger, you likely don’t have the means to buy a remote island.

You may also be facing challenges that are more present-tense and real than such perceived future threats, wishing I would help you face them. I’m in the same camp this morning.

In response, I’d like to offer us both hope from a surprising source.

Swinging on the pendulum of life

In The World as Will and Representation, German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) claims that the world we believe to exist is just a mental projection of this belief. We think the physical universe exists, so it exists for us. What is really behind what we think we see is the “Will,” an irrational, blind, and unceasing urge that drives all things. It powers gravity, animal instincts, plant growth, and human desires.

Because the Will is both blind and insatiable, we can never permanently satisfy it. Getting what we want leads only to temporary relief, which is followed by boredom and the quest for something new. We therefore swing back and forth on a pendulum between the pain of unmet desire and the boredom of having what we want.

Now aren’t you glad you’re reading today’s article?

Because I believe Genesis 1:1, I don’t agree with Schopenhauer that the physical universe is merely the projection of my personal experience. But I do agree that I too often live in the tension between the pain of what I want and the boredom of what I have.

And I agree with Schopenhauer’s “solution,” which is to find something to occupy my mind that does not lead either to idleness or to unsatisfiable desires. However, the atheistic philosopher would very much disagree with my solution to his solution.

Following a map we drew ourselves

Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin claimed, “It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

At first, I agreed with her. I know that the Christian faith is a journey, a “race” to keep (2 Timothy 4:7) and to “run with endurance” (Hebrews 12:1). But then I realized: Without the proper end, how do we know what journey to take?

If I’m a Daoist like Le Guin, someone who focuses on the present world without the need for a supreme deity, I would agree that “it is the journey that matters” because, in my view, that’s all there is. But all journeys are not the same.

Osama bin Laden’s journey was driven by his belief that the West has been attacking Islam since the Crusades and that attacking the West would unify the Muslim world and establish a global caliphate. Adolf Hitler’s journey in building the Third Reich led to the murder of six million Jews, a fourth of them children. Vladimir Putin’s journey in Ukraine seeks a world in which Ukraine has no journey of its own.

Seeking to live without purpose is its own purpose. And choosing our purpose without seeking the wisdom of an authority beyond ourselves is pure subjectivism. It’s like following a map we drew ourselves with no reference to true north or objective fact.

“The race that is set before us”

By contrast, Hebrews 12 exhorts us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (v. 1). The syntax indicates that this is not a race we choose but one that is chosen for us.

How do we find it?

The writer continues: “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (v. 2). “Looking” could be translated as “continually focusing as a daily lifestyle.” Our focus is to be on Jesus himself, the living Lord who is with us always (Matthew 28:20) and who abides in us by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). The more we seek him in prayer, Scripture, and worship, the more he leads us in the way that is best for us (John 10:10).

In Alice in Wonderland, Alice says to the Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” The Cat replies, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Alice answers, “I don’t much care where,” to which the Cat responds, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

Do you care “which way you go” today?

Quote for the day:

“Success demands singleness of purpose.” —Vince Lombardi

Our latest website resources:

• Were American soldiers targeted outside an English airbase?
• Prepare today for disaster tomorrow: Hope for an uncertain future—Part 6
• Can unsafe questions lead the broken to God? A review of “Can I Say That” by Brenna Blain
• A trip to the zoo that changed eternity: The life, faith, and legacy of CS Lewis
• Scottie Scheffler and the power of doing the right thing

Denison Forum

When I can, I prefer to begin the week by highlighting good news from recent days. So, we’ll start with such news from three unlikely sources:

• A spiritual revival is making headlines in Sweden, long considered one of the most secular nations on earth. Swedish youth even named Jesus “influencer of the year” for 2025.
• A three-fold surge in adult baptisms in France is sparking hope of revival in the highly secular country. Pope Leo discussed this phenomenon during his weekend visit to the country, where he received what the Wall Street Journal is calling a “rockstar welcome.”
• Philosophy students at Princeton made headlines by reasoning their way from atheism to Christian faith. We should be unsurprised: even AI agrees that Christianity is the most reasonable religion.

Any movement toward Christian faith is good news for any secular nation, including ours, for reasons that might surprise many of us.

“Out of many, one”?

Over the weekend, I read This Land is Your Land, a creative and engaging history of America by the Pulitzer Prize-winning Yale historian Beverly Gage. In it, she quotes Theodore Roosevelt’s admonition to “do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are,” a maxim that could be America’s definitional motto.

Concerning our nation’s founding creed, Dr. Gage writes, “the Declaration was not self-executing. It required generations of conflict to turn the tools and ideas it provided into new realities.” In fact, as she reports, not even half of the colonial residents actively supported the rebellion against England that birthed our nation. When George Washington took the oath of office as our first president, two states—Rhode Island and North Carolina—had not yet approved the Constitution that created his office.

From then until now, America has been on a quest to invent itself, to create one nation out of widely disparate peoples and cultures. E pluribus unum, it says on our money—“Out of many, one.”

But I’m not sure we agree with what our currency says. In truth, Americans are more “many” than we have ever been.

A melting pot, a salad bowl, or chocolate fondue?

Electoral maps we’ll see in the run-up to the midterm elections feature only two colors: red for Republicans and blue for Democrats. But these colors became identified with the two parties by the media for purely arbitrary reasons.

And they are largely a fiction: Americans are far more diverse politically than two colors can represent. As Dr. Ryan Denison reported in the Daily Article last Friday, three-fourths of Americans are neither conservative nor liberal but hold a wide variety of positions across the ideological spectrum.

Clearly, politics are not making one—or even two—out of many. Nor are languages: the Census Bureau reports that at least 350 languages are spoken in American homes, more than ever before. Nor are ethnicities: the Census Bureau estimates that there are nearly 1,500 different race and ethnicity groups in our nation, also more than ever before.

Some would say that America is or should be a “melting pot” in which our differences meld together to make a sum greater than its parts. Others believe us to be a “salad bowl” where we retain our individual differences but work together for the common good. Still others compare us to chocolate fondue, a culture in which we are individually strawberries, pineapple, and so on, all “coated” with the “chocolate” of our commonality as Americans.

I would suggest a fourth metaphor, one I believe to be critical to our cultural flourishing.

A fourth metaphor for our nation

From the beginning, the creation of our nation was not an end but a means. Thirteen very disparate colonies united to cast off the oppressive yoke of Britain, cooperating out of necessity more than out of design. As soon as independence was won, our pluribus became more important than our unum.

Voters elected leaders based on what those leaders could do for their supporters. Slave states sought to remain slave states; new states joined the nation less to benefit the nation than to benefit themselves. Even today, personal issues such as the cost of living, data centers, and gas prices are expected to dominate the midterm elections more than national or international concerns.

This is unsurprising: humans typically seek unity when we do as a means to personal ends. Here we find yet another reason the Christian worldview is so vital to our national future.

Rather than seeing America as a melting pot, a salad bowl, or chocolate fondue, I suggest a room with a throne in the middle. The closer we draw to the throne, the closer we draw to each other.

When the risen Lord Jesus is our personal King, his Spirit molds us into the character of Christ, manifesting a selfless commitment to God and neighbor that motivates true altruism and unconditional love. The closer we draw to his throne in worship and service, the closer we draw to our fellow worshipers and servants.

“From all tribes and peoples and languages”

In his vision of heaven, John saw “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9). Like them, when we center our lives on Jesus, what unites us becomes greater than what divides us. We function as a holistic “body” with Christ as our head (1 Corinthians 12:27; Colossians 1:18) and serve as the salt and light that transforms our broken culture into a family of faith (Matthew 5:13–16).

What is true of our nation is true of our souls as well. The more we center our lives on Jesus, the more holistic and unified our lives become. The more we are empowered by a single purpose that gives direction and significance to our days. And the more our culture will want the Christ they see in us.

Are you closer to Jesus’ throne today than you were yesterday?

If not, why not?

Quote for the day:

“The man who walks with God always gets to his destination.” —Henrietta Mears

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Denison Forum

Have you tried assembling a puzzle without looking at the picture on the box? An individual piece might be colorful, but it’s not meant to stand on its own. Corner and edge pieces give you clues about their location, but others require study and comparison to get them into the right spot.

Individual stories from Scripture are like these single puzzle pieces. They look interesting, but their purpose may not be immediately clear. Only when we see them in their rightful place can we better see and understand God’s big picture.

The Bible tells a unified story

While working as the kids’ curriculum coordinator at a church in Dallas, I led the team in creating a Bible timeline to help kids see how the smaller stories fit into God’s one big, true story. It also helped us, as teachers, to remember how the whole story fits together and point those we taught to the main character of even the smallest stories: God.

Scripture is not an anthology of disjointed myths. Rather, as the Bible Project says, the Bible is “a unified story that leads to Jesus.”

God set each story in its place for a particular reason: the fun, exciting ones, like the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus 14, as well as the tragic ones, like David’s sin involving Bathsheba and Uriah in 2 Samuel 11. Skipping over stories just because they might be difficult for us to teach leaves kids with an incomplete picture of the Bible, like a puzzle with a missing piece.

God’s Word is not PG-rated, but that does not mean we must give kids every gory detail in adult-rated stories. When teaching complicated passages, the level of detail given to different age groups will vary. You can share Scripture with kids in a way that is simple but not watered down. Core truths can still be taught to any audience.

Teaching kids an idealized version of David’s life, that he killed Goliath as a boy who went on to rule as Israel’s favorite king, makes him sound like a superhero. However, he was a sinner like the rest of us and needed God just as much. God is the hero of David’s story, not David.

Seeing God’s heart through flawed people

As we teach the full story of Scripture to kids, they get to know the God of the Bible, his character, and his unconditional love. Imperfect people fill the pages of the biblical narrative, like Abraham, Judah, Rahab, Jeremiah, and Esther, but God chose to include them in his unfolding story. Jesus’ own disciples repeatedly misunderstood him, but he still used them to start his church and spread the gospel.

God’s interactions with these men and women reveal his heart for us, too. Grounding kids in this truth at a young age gives them a foundation to stand on when their lives hit storms and their own flesh fights against them. No one is too far gone for God to use.

Moses killed a man and struggled with anger, but God used him to shepherd Israel. Despite Samson’s womanizing and irreverence, God gave him the strength to destroy his enemies and preserved his name in the “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11. Mary Magdalene was possessed by demons, but she became the first witness to Jesus’ resurrection and was given the task of telling the others.

If we shy away from the dark parts of these people’s stories, we risk giving kids the impression that people who follow God never make mistakes. It might cause them to question if God loves them or if he will reject them because of something they did.

However, the big, true story we see in Scripture highlights God’s mercy and grace while not shying away from the severity of sin. Learning how God moves through flawed humans offers kids the freedom to rest in his works rather than their own. Obedience becomes a response to his love, not a way to try and earn it.

Equipping kids for future trials

The God revealed in the Bible is the very same God active in world events today. Teaching kids the full story of Scripture shows how he works in and through the events that seem chaotic to us but are really part of his plan. He is bigger than anything that happens and remains securely in charge of it all.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 states that there is nothing new under the sun… and that was written over 2,500 years ago! Injustice, ungodly leaders, wars, natural disasters, cultural conflicts, and interpersonal strife run throughout human history.

The story of Scripture shows how God remains sovereign over poor leadership, like Saul and Caesar. He used international conflicts, such as the Babylonian conquest, for his purposes.

We may not understand his reasons for current events, but we can trust the God of the Bible who remains forever faithful to his people.

The biblical narrative also reveals God’s longing for his people to stand out and be a light to the world that opposes them. Jesus promised his followers they would experience suffering in this world, but reminded them that he had overcome it (John 16:33). The leaders, parents, and culture creators of tomorrow are looking up to you today, and Scripture offers stories that speak to what they might encounter in the future.

The Lord comforted Elijah when he thought he was the only faithful follower of God left in Israel. The Holy Spirit empowered Peter and John to speak truth to an antagonistic audience and strengthened Paul in prison. That very same Spirit remains alive and active in believers today!

When God says “Remember”

Throughout his story, God repeatedly tells his people to remember:

• “Remember how God redeemed you from slavery” (Deut 24:18).
• “Remember the wonders he has done” (1 Chron 16:12).
• “Remember what I told you” (John 15:20).
• “Remember who you were before Christ” (Eph 2:11-13).

Teaching the full story of Scripture reminds us who God is, what he has done, what he is doing, and what he will do, while passing those truths on to the next generation. Ask the Lord for discernment to know how you might help put the puzzle pieces together for the kids under your care so they can better see God and his one big, true story.

Denison Forum

If you’ve ever stared at your ballot on election day and come away thinking, “None of these people represent me,” you’re not alone. It turns out that more than three-quarters of Americans do not fit neatly under either the conservative or the liberal label. As a recent study from Searchlight found, “Only 14 percent of the electorate can be classified as completely ideologically conservative and 10 percent as ideologically liberal.”

They’re quick to add, “This doesn’t mean the rest of the electorate doesn’t care about the issues. Quite the opposite. It’s just that the vast majority of voters hold a heterodox collection of beliefs that range across the ideological spectrum.”

Most of those who run for office, though, fit far more neatly into one of those two ideological poles. And the same is often true for the most vocal parts of their base. As a result, it’s easy for the national discussion to paint a much more homogeneous picture of the nation than reality represents.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Three-quarters of Americans are not conservative or liberal →

A District of Columbia judge has ordered the Trump administration to immediately reinstate access to the White House for three news outlets banned from the building last week by the president. The temporary restraining order means CNN, MS NOW, and Politico must have their access restored for fourteen days as the legal process over this issue continues.

However, according to the Washington Post, it remains unclear when the reporters will have their access restored. Reporters from all three outlets were still blocked from entering the White House at this writing.

President Trump is only the latest in a string of presidents who were frustrated by the media. Thomas Jefferson complained, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.” Bill Clinton condemned “purveyors of hatred and division” on the public airwaves. The Obama administration tried to block Fox News from a joint interview in 2009.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Judge temporarily blocks White House media ban →

The landscape of youth sports has changed dramatically over the last three to four decades. Youth sports once revolved around neighborhood teams, school programs, and local leagues. Today, it is a $40 billion industry. And it’s rapid growth is attracting increasing attention from private equity.

A growing scholarship and elite-development mindset has helped fuel travel teams, sport specialization, and private coaching at younger ages and with greater intensity. No sport seems immune. And for better or worse, the big business of youth sports is changing our society and appears here to stay.

So how should a Christian respond? What should we be aware of as our world changes in this area?

See your community (Matthew 22:39)

Sports were once a great vehicle for creating connections within your local neighborhood. Practices and games were a chance to build shared history with families whose lives you already had some overlap with. For the believer, it gave us opportunities to see how other families were doing and what their needs were. It also gave us natural opportunities to model our faith and serve as salt and light among people already woven into our lives.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Youth sports and the things that matter most →

What happened: President Trump addressed the United Nations annual summit this morning. The meetings are scheduled to go until Monday, but the first few days are by far the most important.

Why it matters: The official theme of this year’s summit is “Restoring trust, managing transformation.” The UN’s approach has many doubtful about whether it can reach that goal. Let’s take a closer look at why that is, and how their concerns compare with the more pressing conflicts around the world.

The backstory: What did President Trump tell the UN?

President Trump spoke earlier this morning at the annual UN summit in New York. The meetings will run through next Monday, though this morning’s speech was the only time he is expected to appear before the gathering of world leaders. I’ve included a brief overview of the president’s main points, and will follow that up in the next section by taking a look at how they compare with the UN’s stated priorities and what’s going on in the world:

• The president’s address began by outlining the accomplishments of his administration in immigration, the economy, and the military before pivoting to the peace agreements he’s helped negotiate. It didn’t take long, though, for his talk to turn to Iran, which he called “the bully of the Middle East” before noting that “they are the bully no more.”

Continue reading Denison Forum – Trump’s UN speech questions where the world’s focus belongs →

We could start the week with bad news from the weekend, such as North Korea’s ballistic missile tests or the Houthis’ missile attack that targeted the capital of Saudi Arabia. But I’d rather not.

Instead, let’s begin the week with some good news in the news:

• New FBI data shows that violent crime fell 9.3 percent in 2025, marking the largest year-to-year decline since the bureau began estimating such trends in 1936.
• According to new Census Bureau data, the nation’s poverty rate fell in 2025 to a historic low and inflation-adjusted median household income reached a record high. Harvard University economist and professor Daniel Shoag said the data “represents continued economic growth.”
• Reuters reports that the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell, “with the underlying trend pointing to continued labor market stability.”
• Surveying all the good news of late, Wall Street Journal opinion writer James Freeman asked, “Has there ever been a better time and a better place to be alive?”

But there’s a but. The Washington Post headlines, “Retail sales rebound strongly in August, even as people are wary over economy.” Why are they “wary”? Consumers were less optimistic in August than in July about future business conditions, the labor market outlook, and their income prospects. Only 24 percent of Americans rate the economy “excellent or good,” while 76 percent say it is “only fair or poor.”

Such negativity can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the Post noted: “Consumer spending is a main economic driver, making up about two-thirds of the US economy. If consumers pull back, it can spell danger for economic growth.” I’m reminded of the toilet paper shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic: people became afraid that there would be such a shortage, so they bought up all they could find, which created the shortage they feared.

This pattern is especially relevant for those of us who follow Jesus, for reasons worth exploring today.

Do half of all marriages end in divorce?

You’ve probably heard that “half of all marriages end in divorce.” This is categorically false. That erroneous number is derived by dividing the number of marriages in a given year by the number of divorces. For example, in 2003, 7.5 people got married per 1,000 people, while 3.8 got divorced, so the “divorce rate” was 50 percent.

However, if you (properly) compare the number of divorces in a year to the total number of marriages (not just those in a particular year), the percentage is far lower. The actual number peaked in the 1970s around 40 percent and has been declining ever since.

Years ago, I was discussing this issue with the counseling minister at the church I pastored, and he explained why the falsehood is more damaging than I realized: if people believe that half of all marriages end in divorce, they are far more likely to believe that divorce is more likely and acceptable for their own marriage.

The same pattern pertains to claims over recent years that Americans are abandoning the church to become “nones” (those who have no religious affiliation). As scholars Byron R. Johnson and Thomas S. Kidd write in the Washington Post, there’s no question that the decline in mainline denominations is real: Episcopalians dropped from about 3.4 million members in the late 1950s to about 1.6 million in 2022, for example.

However, they report that young men are attending church more than they did in previous generations; high-profile intellectuals such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali have publicly announced their conversion to Christianity; and the “nones” have plateaued at less than 30 percent of respondents. The total number of congregations in metropolitan Boston doubled between the 1960s and the early 2000s. Johnson and Kidd also note that millions of people, most of whom are nondenominational, evangelical, or Pentecostal, attend church faithfully but never appear on the media’s radar.

Becoming who Jesus would be if he were you

Here’s my point: Jesus is conducting his ministry in the world today just as he conducted it when he visited our planet twenty centuries ago.

Christians are now the “body” of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). In and through us, Jesus goes where he’s wanted, meets felt needs to meet spiritual needs, and works by the power of his Spirit to build followers who manifest his character wherever they go.

Our problem in the West is that many have turned his movement into an institution and his lordship into a hobby. If we make Jesus our adviser rather than our king and serve him so he will serve us, we turn Christianity into a religion and ourselves into consumers rather than disciples.

We should therefore not be surprised that the Lord is leading many in places that were once America’s mission fields to become missionaries to us. As Dr. Ryan Denison noted in his Friday Daily Article, the West is now “the world’s newest mission field.” Jesus is as much at work today as he has ever been; the key is joining him by becoming like him.

The great philosopher and theologian Dallas Willard taught that discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you. He suggested that we should imagine how Jesus would do your job. How would he be a pastor, or lawyer, or doctor, or plumber? The good news is that we don’t have to wonder and then try to do what we presume he would—he wants to do our job in and through us today.

In The Spirit of the Disciplines, Dr. Willard writes,

“True Christlikeness, true companionship with Christ, comes at the point where it is hard not to respond as he would.”

Will you seek “true Christlikeness” today?

Quote for the day:

“‘That Christ be formed in you’ is the eternal watchword of Christian spiritual formation.” —Dallas Willard

Our latest website resources:

• A weird week for Ed Sheeran, LeBron James, and Sam Altman
• Is Warren Buffett your God?
• The controversy over Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, and Israel
• Will AI destroy humanity? Plus: Netflix’s “Death of a Pastor’s Wife” & Hollywood’s massive summer
• Trust what you don’t understand: Hope for an uncertain future—Part 3

Denison Forum

How the West became the world’s newest mission field

For most of Christian history, missionaries have gone from the West to share the gospel with other parts of the world. But what happens when the West begins to turn its back on that same faith? As I discussed in the “God is good” section of this week’s Focus, the thousands of missionaries being sent from Africa, Asia, and other parts of the developing world to Europe, Canada, and the United States are providing the answer.

In 1900, over 80 percent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and North America. That number is now down to 25 percent. The rest reside in the Global South, namely, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

Interestingly, though, the percentage of the world’s population who are Christians hasn’t really changed, falling roughly 2 percent from 34.5 percent in 1900 to 32.3 percent today. So, while Christianity has increasingly left the West, it hasn’t diminished. God has simply gone where he’s wanted.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “They preached God to us” →

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, the $1 trillion conglomerate that he led for more than six decades.” He announced the news to investors on Friday, stating that he will remain on the board and become chairman emeritus. His son Howard will succeed him as chairman per a previous arrangement.

Buffett stepped down as CEO at the end of last year. He explained his latest move to shareholders:

Serving as your Chairman has been the privilege of a lifetime, and I have never taken your trust for granted. Father Time always wins. He has, however, been generous with me. The company is in excellent hands, and I look forward to remaining a shareholder alongside you.

It’s easy to understand the esteem in which many hold him: his company’s shares have appreciated by 3,999,494 percent since he took over the company. If you had invested $1,000 with him in 1970, it would be worth roughly $19.6 million today.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Is Warren Buffett your God? →

How the West became the world’s newest mission field

For most of Christian history, missionaries have gone from the West to share the gospel with other parts of the world. But what happens when the West begins to turn its back on that same faith? As I discussed in the “God is good” section of this week’s Focus, the thousands of missionaries being sent from Africa, Asia, and other parts of the developing world to Europe, Canada, and the United States are providing the answer.

In 1900, over 80 percent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe and North America. That number is now down to 25 percent. The rest reside in the Global South, namely, Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “They preached God to us” →

The English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is one of the most popular performers of our day, with more than two hundred million records sold worldwide. As of September 2026, he is the fourth-most-followed artist on Spotify. In 2025, Time listed him as one of the world’s one hundred most influential people.

He has been in the news recently, however, for less positive reasons.

The American rapper Macklemore opened for Sheeran at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4. He said, “A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine.’” He then performed his song “Hind’s Hall” about student protests at Columbia University. The song was named for Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in 2024.

He said the next day that he was not criticizing all Jewish people: “Criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide in no way is a criticism of you. My message is for peace, love, for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.” Ten days later, the promoters behind Sheeran’s tour announced that Macklemore would no longer be a part of it. This after they were notified by venues on the tour that they would not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore in the lineup.

Continue reading Denison Forum – The controversy over Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, and Israel →

How past experience frames present faith

The Federal Reserve has raised rates for the first time since 2023, voting unanimously to increase the benchmark federal funds rate by a quarter point to a 3.75–4 percent range. The increase is intended to “deliver price stability” and return inflation to the Fed’s 2 percent target.

The decision comes despite President Trump’s insistence that the Fed should lower borrowing costs. It was announced just months before the midterm elections, in which affordability will be a major issue among voters.

If you’re like me, you know little about national economics and the complex factors that affect prices. You’re therefore likely to trust the sources you trusted before this news broke. Your past experiences frame your present decisions.

This is a pattern true to life, one that is especially relevant to our souls today.

“David and his men went to Keilah”

In 1 Samuel 23, we find David and his band of four hundred men continuing to evade murderous King Saul. Despite the Israelite king’s desire to kill him, David still cared for the Israelite people. And so, when “they told David, ‘Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floor’” (v. 1), he became concerned for them.

As a result, “David inquired of the Lᴏʀᴅ, ‘Shall I go and attack these Philistines?’” (v. 2a). Back came the answer: “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah” (v. 2b). When he announced the planned attack, however, “David’s men said to him, ‘Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?’” (v. 3).

David could have insisted that they follow his lead or face his wrath, or he could have abdicated leadership and acceded to their fears. Instead, “David inquired of the Lᴏʀᴅ again. And the Lᴏʀᴅ answered him, ‘Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand’” (v. 4).

This time, David’s testimony regarding God’s will was enough for his men: “And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah” (v. 5).

When I read the narrative today, this question emerged immediately: Do those I lead trust my leadership enough to risk their well-being to follow me?

“A vision appeared to Paul in the night”

As a pastor and now a ministry founder, I don’t do anything that would cost my team their lives. I’m not a military leader of soldiers on the battlefield or a police captain asking officers to endanger themselves in the line of duty.

But the team members with whom I serve have aligned their careers and the support of their families with me and our calling. They have chosen to serve God by serving him with me. Readers similarly choose to trust what I write enough to read it.

When I invite others to follow me because I claim to be following God, why should they pay a significant price to believe me?

Paul’s ministry team faced the same decision: When “a vision appeared to Paul in the night” calling him to “come over to Macedonia and help us,” none of his associates saw the vision (Acts 16:9). Nonetheless, they immediately “sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (v. 10). Like David’s men, they followed Paul because they believed that he followed God.

In both cases, they illustrated a maxim I have often repeated over the years: all relationships require a commitment that transcends the evidence and becomes self-validating.

From evidence into relationship

David’s men examined the evidence: they knew he had been anointed by Samuel as the next king of Israel (1 Samuel 16:13). His victory over Goliath was further proof of his divine calling (1 Samuel 17), as were his successes in battle (1 Samuel 18:7).

Jesus’ followers could similarly point to evidence regarding his authority. By Matthew 4, John had identified him as the Messiah (John 1:29–34), he had turned water into wine at Cana (John 2:1–11), he had cleansed the temple (John 2:13–22), and he had led the Samaritan woman and their village to himself (John 4:1–42) before returning to Galilee (vv. 43–45).

However, David’s men could not know what we know—that Saul would be killed in battle, David would ascend to the throne, and he would go on to become Israel’s most beloved king. Jesus’ followers similarly could not know that he would one day die an atoning death for their sins and rise in triumph from the grave.

In both cases, they stepped beyond the evidence into a relationship that became self-validating, and their lives and our world would never be the same.

“Every moment, thank God”

You and I face a similar dilemma in trusting our challenges to Jesus today. We know all he has done in the past, but we cannot be certain he will do the same in the present. He often healed the sick in the Gospels, but not always: Paul pleaded three times with the Lord to remove his “thorn in the flesh,” but God chose to redeem his suffering rather than end it (2 Corinthians 12:7–10).

When our older son was diagnosed with cancer, God did not answer my prayers for his miraculous healing. As a result, he had to go through surgery and radiation and still undergoes an annual MRI even today. When our youngest grandson was diagnosed with leukemia, again God did not answer my prayers for his miraculous healing. He and his family had to endure three years of chemotherapy and all that went with it.

Both are cancer-free today, for which I am beyond grateful, but neither was healed in the way I prayed for their healing to come. And I can recite a long list of friends and church members over the years who were not miraculously or medically healed. While I know God healed them eternally by taking them from their diseased bodies into his perfect presence, their physical deaths came despite our prayers for their physical healing.

So, in trusting our lives and challenges to the Lord, this is all I know to do: identify what he has done in the past, claim the fact that his character does not change (Malachi 3:6), and ask him to do what he has done before or whatever is best today.

If he does not heal your body or your loved one as he has healed others, this does not mean that he is incapable of doing so or that he loves you any less than those he has healed miraculously. It simply means that his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8–9) and that he is acting according to a plan we cannot understand in this world but will in the next (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12).

Rick Warren encouraged us:

In happy moments, praise God, In difficult moments, seek God. In quiet moments, worship God. In painful moments, trust God. Every moment, thank God.

Which “moment” is yours today?

Denison Forum

Michael J. Fox received the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at last night’s Emmy Awards, and the late Dolly Parton was honored as well. However, I haven’t seen any of the actual shows that received awards, so I’ve got nothing to offer there.

But I can update you on the phenomenon that may transform or even replace television content as we know it. Then we’ll pivot to some biblical responses that point the way to courageous hope.

Vandalizing robots and human extinction

According to the dean of Harvard College, students are using artificial intelligence “all the time for everything,” a development that is dividing scholars. People have been creating AI companions for the last two years; one man used a chatbot to build a holographic version of his deceased father.

Continue reading Denison Forum – “AIpocalypse Now”: How to handle fear with faith →

“There is no subject now but artificial intelligence. Nothing else is as crucial, nothing carries dangers so imminent or implications so great for the human future.” This is how Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and one of the most even-handed commentators I know, begins her latest article.

She closes it: “The stakes are high, couldn’t be higher.”

Artificial intelligence has been in the news for years. Why all the fervor in recent days?

“America’s Great AI Freakout”

On September 9, AI engineer Jacob Coxon posted on X: “I resigned from Anthropic today.” He warned that AI developers “are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.” His post sparked headlines across the week and has generated more than 170 million views as of this morning. It is notable that Coxon gave up equity in the company when he resigned, demonstrating the urgency of the crisis in his view.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Why is everyone suddenly worried about an AI apocalypse? →

I was a sophomore in high school when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. I remember sitting in math class when the rumors started to spread that something had happened and just not believing it was true. We spent the rest of the day alternating between teachers who attempted to continue their lessons as planned and those who just turned on the TV to watch the news.

I imagine my experience is pretty similar to a lot of people in my generation. It wasn’t until recently, though, that I realized how different that experience—as well as my understanding of the twenty-five years since—was from the generations above me.

You see, I have vague memories of the world before 9/11, but they’re mostly of basketball games, birthday parties, and other childhood events that seemed consequential to me but far less so to anyone else. I knew the world existed beyond my little bubble, but I understood very little about it. As a result, my view of how the larger world works is almost exclusively born from experiences that came after the terrorists attacked.

Continue reading Denison Forum – Looking back on a world I don’t remember →