Why “Americans haven’t found a satisfying alternative to religion”

“Credentialed experts, especially those in the fields of epidemiology and public health . . . tied themselves to badly flawed theories, closed their minds to new evidence, and [threw] the mantle of ‘science’ over value judgments for which they had no special competence.” This is how a recent Wall Street Journal article describes the official response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The article reviews two new books on the subject. An Abundance of Caution by journalist David Zweig reports that evidence in March 2020 showed the virus did not pose a serious threat to children, but American public health professionals “remained largely impervious to this fact,” leading to widespread school closures and disastrous consequences.

The other book, In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, by two Princeton political scientists, adds that “elite institutions failed us” by giving in to panic. According to the Journal, they report a “willful suppression of reasonable debate, including the unfortunate tendency to paint critics of lockdowns and mask mandates as racists, quacks, and conspiracy theorists.”

When our water heater stopped working

It’s often necessary for us to trust people whose expertise surpasses our own in the hope they will do what we cannot.

When the water heater in our house stopped working over the weekend, I tried to fix it myself but soon gave up and called the plumber. The days when we could repair our cars and homes are long gone for most of us. We need experts who know what we do not know.

But what is true of mechanical technology is not true of biblical Christianity. Tragically, many people do not know this.

This New York Times article caught my eye: “Americans Haven’t Found a Satisfying Alternative to Religion.” The journalist Lauren Jackson attributes the escalation of secularism in recent years largely to Richard Dawkins and other champions of “new atheism,” so-called “experts” who assured us that Christianity is outdated, irrelevant, and even dangerous to society.

According to Jackson, “an immense social transformation” followed. And the results?

She reports that “people are unhappier than they’ve ever been and the country is in an epidemic of loneliness.” She adds that “those without religious affiliation in particular rank lower on key metrics of well-being. They feel less connected to others, less spiritually at peace, and they experience less awe and gratitude regularly.”

What explains this?

Religion provides the “three B’s”

Jackson cites sociologists who say religion provides the “three B’s”: belief, belonging, and behaviors. Its beliefs supply answers to the hard questions of life; it gives people a place to belong; and it tells us how to behave. All three speak to deep needs in human experience.

As a result, Jackson notes Pew findings that actively religious people tend to say they are happier than irreligious people. We are healthier and significantly less likely to be depressed or to die by suicide, alcoholism, cancer, cardiovascular illness, or other causes.

A long-term Harvard study found that women who attended religious services once a week were 33 percent less likely to die prematurely than women who never attended. An author of the study explained: “They had higher levels of social support, better health behaviors, and greater optimism about the future.”

In addition, religiously affiliated Americans are more likely than irreligious people to feel gratitude (by 23 percentage points), spiritual peace (by 27 points), and “a deep sense of connection with humanity” (by 15 points). Since positive relationships have been proven to be the single most important predictor of well-being, these differences are especially significant.

Jackson’s reporting is obviously good news, showing that the “experts” who rejected religion as irrelevant and dangerous were wrong on the merits. But there is an even more important fact her article omits.

When “your faith is in vain”

Paul testified, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). However, “in fact Christ has been raised from the dead” (v. 20). As a result, God “gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 57) and we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

The living Lord Jesus now prays for us (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25), forgives every sin we confess to him (Romans 8:1; 1 John 1:9), heals us (cf. Acts 3:6), meets us in our most difficult places (cf. Revelation 1:9–20), and gives us eternal life in this world and the next (John 3:16; 14:3).

The benefits of religion cited in the Times article—belief, belonging, behaviors, gratitude, peace, and a “deep sense of connection with humanity”—are most fully experienced as the consequences of a daily, intimate relationship with him.

The good news is that all of this is as available to you and me on this Tuesday after Easter as it was on the first Easter twenty centuries ago.

“We are people of the spring”

The Vatican announced today that the coffin carrying the body of Pope Francis will be carried to St. Peter’s Basilica tomorrow. His funeral Mass will take place Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peter’s Square. (For more on the pope’s passing, see my Daily Article and website article from yesterday.)

But Francis would want us to look forward, not backward, demonstrating our faith in the God who wants only our best. In his latest book, published just two months before his death, the pontiff describes the hope at the heart of the Christian faith:

We believe that resting on the horizon of life is a sun that shines forever. We believe that our most beautiful days are yet to come. We are people of the spring, as opposed to autumn. . . .

A Christian knows that the kingdom of God, the dominion of Love, grows like a vast field of wheat, and that it may well have weeds in its midst. There are always problems: people gossip, there are wars, there is illness . . . But even so, the wheat ripens, and in the end, evil will be eliminated.

We know that the future does not belong to us. We know that Jesus Christ is life’s greatest grace. We know that God’s warm embrace not only awaits us at life’s end but also accompanies us on our journey every day.

The more we embrace the God who embraces us, the more we step past a religion about God into a vital relationship with the living Lord Jesus, and the more others are drawn to “life’s greatest grace.”

Do you believe that your “most beautiful days are yet to come”?

Quote for the day:

“We are all unique, free and alive, called on to live out a love story with God.” —Pope Francis

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Denison Forum

Jeffrey LaFray, a student at Florida State University, told Good Morning America that he and his fellow students used chewing gum to stay safe during last week’s mass shooting on his campus. When gunshots were being fired nearby, his teacher wanted to cover the windows of their classroom with paper so the shooter couldn’t see inside, but they didn’t have tape to use. So the students started chewing gum and then used it to stick the paper to the windows.

The April 17 attack killed two men: Tiru Chabba, a forty-five-year-old father and executive for campus vendor Aramark, who is survived by his wife and two children; and Robert Morales, a beloved high school football coach who worked in the university’s dining services department. Six people, including students, were injured as well and sent to a local hospital.

After the mass shooting, there were many calls for prayer for the victims, their families, and first responders. Despite skeptics who ridicule such responses, the Bible clearly calls us to respond to crisis by seeking God’s help and hope (cf. Philippians 4:6–7; Jeremiah 29:12).

Reading about the tragedy over the weekend, I had this simple thought: Let’s also pray for help and hope before the crisis strikes.

One way I limit God

I must confess that while I have prayed often for victims of school attacks after they happen, I have not often prayed for God to protect our schools from such attacks.

When I was a pastor, I prayed for our members as they faced health challenges, grief over the death of loved ones, and other suffering endemic to life on this fallen planet. But I did not pray often enough for God to protect them from such challenges and suffering.

One of the manifold reasons to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, not just on Easter Sunday but every day, is the fact that our risen and living Lord is just as relevant to our needs today as when he walked our planet twenty centuries ago. As I noted last week, he is praying for us even as Scripture calls us to pray to him. He is still healing the sick (Acts 3:1–10; 9:32–35) and raising the dead (Acts 9:36–43). And he is still proactively holding the world together (Colossians 1:15–17).

However, if we limit his relevance to reacting to pain and problems, we miss much of what he wants to do in and through our lives. If we were to be more proactive, praying for him to protect us from such suffering and to advance his kingdom in our broken world, what would be the results?

“Seek the welfare of the city”

The Bible admonishes us, “Ye have not, because ye ask not” (James 4:2 KJV). Could it be that much of our suffering comes from not asking God to prevent it and to work proactively to make our world better?

I am not suggesting that such prayers are a magical panacea, of course. Human free will still permits us to sin against God, others, and ourselves. And God’s ways are far beyond our finite and fallen understanding (Isaiah 55:8–9).

But any good parent wants their children to flourish positively, not just recover from crisis and calamity when they strike. We want their best, not just their survival.

Scripture calls us to seek the same from our Lord, wherever we are and whatever our circumstances. Even Jewish exiles in Babylon were told to “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lᴏʀᴅ on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).

Paul assured us that we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). It is not health-and-wealth heresy to seek God’s best as proactively as possible. As we pray for God’s will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), this means praying for far more than his help when we hurt.

And as we join him in answering our prayers by seeking the flourishing of our world, we partner with our Creator in redeeming his creation.

“You are more than your frustrations”

As I noted recently, “an abundance mentality that expects and focuses on the positive is demonstrably healthier for us than a scarcity mentality that does not.” This has been shown conclusively both in scientific and anecdotal ways.

Seeking and expecting the positive rather than the negative builds a positive focus that often becomes self-fulfilling. The bestselling author James Clear recently encouraged us:

Focus on the things you are for, not the things you are against.

Many people spend large chunks of their day thinking about what they hate. They are always telling you about something they dislike: this food, that subject, this political party, that coworker.

You are more than your frustrations. Build your identity around what you love.

When we proactively seek God’s best for ourselves and others, we can partner with our Father in answering our prayers. We become the change we wish to see, and the hands of Jesus continue his ministry in our broken world.

And just as the multitudes responded to his compassion in faith (cf. Matthew 4:23–25), so they will respond as our ministry draws them to its Source (Matthew 5:16).

Why I am not more proactive in my prayers

Why, then, am I not more proactive in responding through prayer to the world around and within me?

One reason is that I’m afraid God won’t do what I ask, and then I’ll have the problem and frustration of wondering and explaining why. If I pray for safety on school campuses and there’s another shooting, I’ll be disappointed. If my prayers are public, I’ll be embarrassed for myself and for my Lord.

Pessimists are never disappointed, as they say.

A second factor is that, despite my constant warnings over the years not to segregate religion from the “real world,” I sometimes succumb to cultural pressure to do so.

On my too-frequent bad days, my first impulse when things go wrong is to wonder why God allowed this and then to pray for him to correct his “mistake” and make things right. On my better days, I see obstacles as opportunities to pray and respond redemptively for his glory and our good.

On my best days, I pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) in communion and conversation with Jesus about everything in my world, good and bad. I thank him for the good and pray for his providence and protection to advance his kingdom. Then, when the bad does arise, I respond in faith.

Now I am resolving to have more of my “best days,” and invite you to join me.

In his 2009 song, “Closer to Love,” Mat Kearney sings, “I guess we’re all one phone call from our knees.”

When you get your next “phone call,” I hope you’ll turn to your Father.

But how will you pray today before that call comes?

Denison Forum

I woke up this morning to the news that Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, has died. His passing was announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo. Bells tolled in church towers across Rome after the announcement.

The pope survived a thirty-eight-day stay in Gemelli hospital for a respiratory crisis, emerging yesterday to bless thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for Easter Sunday. He then surprised them by riding in the popemobile through the piazza. Earlier in the day, he met briefly with US Vice President JD Vance.

The passing of a pope is a monumental event for a church numbering 1.4 billion across the world. Francis’ pontificate was especially historic and often controversial. Journalists and historians will be discussing and debating his leadership for many days. His statements and actions with regard to women, LGBTQ people, clergy sexual abuse, migrants, Vatican reform, and the priesthood were applauded by many and opposed by many others.

Of all that could be said about Pope Francis this morning, however, I want to focus on his humility.

His first act as pope

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Argentina on December 17, 1936. A rising star in the Catholic church, he was appointed head of all Jesuits in Argentina and Uruguay at the age of thirty-six, but what he later called “my authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions” led to deep divisions in the Jesuit community. As a result, he was exiled for two years in Argentina, a period Bergoglio later called “a time of great interior crisis.”

The priest who emerged was more humble, servant-hearted, and people-centered. He learned that caring for hurting souls is the Church’s primary responsibility, and leaders must lead with humility and compassion. He began concluding every conversation by asking the other person to pray for him (a practice he continued as pope). Even when he became archbishop of Argentina, he chose to live in simple quarters, ride public transportation, and cook his own meals.

When Cardinal Bergoglio was chosen as pope in 2013, his first act was to receive his fellow cardinals as their peer, standing on their level. For his first public appearance, he wore a white cassock, the ordinary papal dress, rather than the more formal red, ermine-trimmed mozzetta used by previous popes.

He chose to wear the same iron pectoral cross he had worn as archbishop of Buenos Aires, rather than the gold one used by his papal predecessors. In his first public act as pope, before he blessed the pilgrims standing en masse in St. Peter’s Square, he asked them to pray for his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, and for himself.

He then chose to remain in the Vatican guesthouse rather than moving to the official papal residence in the Apostolic Palace. He was the first pope since Pius X (who died in 1914) not to live in the spacious papal apartments. He wore his old orthotic shoes rather than the red loafers of the papacy and rode in compact cars.

Washing the feet of juvenile offenders

On his first Holy Thursday following his election, Francis participated in the traditional Maundy Thursday foot-washing service, choosing twelve people (symbolizing the twelve disciples). However, the twelve he chose were not wealthy or notable people of significance in the church—they were juvenile offenders from Rome’s Casal del Marmo detention facility.

After he washed and kissed their feet, he said to them, “Washing your feet means I am at your service.” Two of the twelve were female, making Francis the first pope ever to wash the feet of a woman. In addition, two of the juvenile offenders were Muslim.

His first trip as pope was to the island of Lampedusa, then central to Europe’s migrant crisis. He consistently visited poor countries where Christians were persecuted minorities.

Camerlengo Farrell said of Pope Francis at his death this morning: “He taught us to live the values of the gospel with faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized.”

What Spurgeon, Moody, and Billy Graham had in common

Humility—the decision to place the Lord and others before ourselves—is not just an important principle for Christians who wish to be used by God: it is the foundation of all the others.

Jesus began his Sermon on the Mount with the proclamation, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Poor” translates ptochos, which means to be so impoverished as to beg for food from others. The beatitude can be rendered, “Blessed are those who know their desperate need of God, for they make him their king and advance his kingdom.” All that follows in Jesus’ sermon and the Christian life is based on this.

• The commission of the church to preach the gospel to “the end of the earth” can be fulfilled only in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), and that power can be given only to those who are yielded to the Lord (cf. Acts 1:14; 2:4).
• The courage of the church in fulfilling its commission is fueled by the Spirit when we are surrendered to him and “filled” by him (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 13:9).
• The character of the church as exemplified by the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22–23) can be manifested by the Spirit only in those who are humbled and submitted before him (Ephesians 5:18).
• The compassion of the church for the least, the last, and the lost—a commitment so exemplified by Pope Francis—is fueled by the compassion of Christ (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; Luke 7:13) when we humble ourselves before his Spirit.

If you were to ask evangelicals to identify the three greatest preachers of recent generations, many would include Charles Spurgeon, Dwight Moody, and Billy Graham. What did they have in common?

Spurgeon said of himself: “Without the Spirit of God I feel I am utterly unable to speak to you. I have not those gifts and talents which qualify me to speak; I need an afflatus from on high; otherwise, I stand like other men, and have naught to say. May that be given to me, for without it I am dumb!” And God used him to preach to ten million people across his ministry.

1. L. Moody was the son of an alcoholic who died when Moody was four years old. He completed seven grades of school. He said of himself: “I know that other men can preach better than I can. All I can say is that when I preach, God uses me.” And God did—more than a million came to Christ through Moody’s ministry.

Billy Graham said of himself: “I have often said that the first thing I am going to do when I get to heaven is to ask, ‘Why me, Lord? Why did you choose a farm boy from North Carolina to preach to so many people, to have such a wonderful team of associates, and to have a part in what you were doing in the latter half of the twentieth century?’ I have thought about that question a great deal, but I know also that only God knows the answer.” And he preached to more people than anyone in Christian history.

Why did God use them? Because they submitted themselves to the Lord in humility.

Who will be next?

Quote for the day:

“It is the possession of a joyful and genuine humility that alone enables us to receive grace.” —Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153)

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Denison Forum

Harvard is America’s wealthiest and oldest university. Long viewed as an icon of higher education, it is in the news these days for a very different reason. Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that it would withhold $2.26 billion in federal support for the university. The next day, the administration threatened to withdraw the university’s tax-exempt status as well.

This after the university stated it would not acquiesce to a list of demands regarding antisemitism, diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus and in admissions and faculty hiring.

According to Harvard President Alan Garber, the administration’s demands amount to “direct governmental regulation of the ‘intellectual conditions’ at Harvard.” Critics point out that, because Harvard is a private university, the government has no obligation to provide funding for it and a right to fund only those programs and initiatives it considers to be in the public’s best interest.

How do Americans view Ivy League schools?

My purpose in responding today is to focus less on this debate than on the cultural context in which it is occurring.

Ten years ago, 57 percent of Americans said they had a “great deal/quite a lot” of confidence in higher education in the US. Today that number has fallen precipitously to 36 percent. Over the same decade, the number who said they had “very little/none” has more than tripled, from 10 percent to 32 percent.

Within the spectrum of US colleges and universities, community colleges are viewed the most favorably at 79 percent, followed by trade and technical colleges at 78 percent. Public colleges and universities are viewed favorably by 68 percent of Americans, and liberal arts colleges by 54 percent.

At the bottom of the list stands Ivy League colleges and universities, with a mere 48 percent favorability rating.

The ideology at the heart of the issue

Of all the factors that contribute to this trend, the issues confronting Harvard are especially foundational. Since Hamas’s murderous October 7 invasion of Israel, Americans have witnessed pro-Hamas student demonstrations on campuses around the country, but especially in the Ivy League. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs have also been highly prominent and controversial on the same campuses.

These demonstrations and programs are fueled by an ideology that is opaque to most people but has become foundational for elite higher education.

In the 1970s, a movement called Critical Theory (CT) began gaining a foothold in academic circles. Its origins go back to Karl Marx, who believed everything is based on sociology and economics.

Marx argued that workers are oppressed by the companies for which they work and the ruling class that owns and operates these companies. He claimed that the way forward was for the workers (whom he called the “proletariat”) to overthrow their rulers (whom he called the “bourgeoisie”) to establish a “classless” society.

CT advocates in the US have applied this worldview to class distinctions within our democracy. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives intended to favor minority groups are a significant consequence of such thinking.

In addition, CT in geopolitics views people as either colonizers (oppressors) or those who are colonized (the oppressed). Applied to Israel and Hamas, it claims that Israel is the oppressor and that Hamas is defending the oppressed Palestinians. Whatever we might think of Hamas’s violence on October 7, its advocates claim, we should see it as a response to Israel’s violence against Palestinians over the years.

If all of this seems highly abstract, speculative, and irrelevant to your daily life, you’re making my point.

My experience with Harvard students

When I was considering options for my PhD in philosophy of religion, Harvard was on my list. Like many in the academic world, I was impressed by its history and intellectual vigor. The university was known as a community in search of unfettered truth.

In fact, its motto, Veritas, is Latin for “truth.”

I chose not to consider Harvard primarily so I could study with Dr. John Newport, one of the finest evangelical philosophers in America. My time with him at Southwestern Seminary was all I hoped for and more. But I often wondered what I would have experienced if I had pursued my degree at Harvard. A few years later, I was privileged to deliver a lecture series at a church that is part of the larger Harvard community, where I had fascinating discussions with students who welcomed my evangelical perspective.

If that was then, this is now.

In a recent survey taken by the Harvard Crimson (the university’s newspaper), more than three-quarters of the faculty surveyed identified as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 20 percent considered themselves to be “moderate,” while only 3 percent identified as “conservative.” Among students graduating from the university in 2023, only 15.4 percent of men and 8.7 percent of women considered themselves to be conservative.

This at a time when self-identified “liberals” comprise only a fourth of Americans, while 37 percent identify as conservative and 36 percent as moderate. It’s easy to see why many people consider schools like Harvard to be out of touch with the rest of us.

“He reasoned with them from the Scriptures”

My purpose during this Holy Week is not to prescribe a solution to the controversies surrounding Harvard today but to learn from them.

Like advocates of ideologies driving the culture on many elite campuses, followers of Jesus can seem irrelevant to the rest of our secularized society. We believe that a Jewish rabbi who was executed by Rome twenty centuries ago came back to life and is relevant to every dimension of our lives today. We further believe that everyone we know needs to know our risen Lord.

Having grown up in a family that never attended church, I remember how outlandish such claims seemed to me when I first heard them. If the Christians I met had refused to engage with me on my terms—answering my questions and helping me understand their beliefs—I would have remained lost.

Here we can learn from the example of Paul who, when he came to the Greek city of Thessalonica, “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ’” (Acts 17:2–3).

Note his strategy: he reasoned with them (translating the Greek dialegomai, to dialogue or converse) in a spirit of genuine conversation and inquiry. He did so by explaining (“opening up for understanding”) and proving (“persuading through evidence of truth”) the message of the gospel.

As a result, “Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women” (v. 4).

“Run to and fro everywhere, holy fires”

Now it’s our turn. Across this Holy Week and all the weeks that follow, let’s not assume that people know what we know or care about what we care about. Rather, let’s look for opportunities to help people understand God’s love in Christ. Let’s make clear the truth of the gospel and demonstrate its relevance through our compassion and integrity.

We can stand for veritas because the One we worship and serve is “the” truth (John 14:6).

St. Augustine encouraged us:

“Run to and fro everywhere, holy fires, beautiful fires; for you are the light of the world, nor are you put under a bushel. He whom you cleave unto is exalted and has exalted you. Run to and fro and be known unto all nations.”

How will you spread your “holy fire” today?

Denison Forum

Maundy Thursday and my doubts about grace

Two-thirds of all US adults now say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today, marking a 12 percent increase in the last four years. Barna researchers say this “may be the clearest indication of meaningful spiritual renewal in the United States.” In similar news, new data from the Bible Society in the UK reports that two million more people in Great Britain attended church in 2024 than in 2018.

Here’s an especially encouraging fact: Young adults in both countries are fueling the increase. Perhaps this is in part the result of the anxiety and depression so many of them are feeling as they grow increasingly pessimistic about their future. The greater our challenges, the more we recognize our need for a Power greater than ourselves.

But what God does, Satan corrupts. In this case, he wants to use our frustrations and failures to turn us from our Father rather than toward him. He whispers in our souls that we are not worthy of God’s favor, that our sins have cost us his best.

I have certainly been a victim of this deception over the years. In fact, I can hear his subtle doubts about grace in my heart even now. Perhaps you can hear them in yours as well.

An event on Maundy Thursday exposes this lie and invites us to consider an astounding dimension of Jesus’ love for us.

“What is there of Judas in our hearts?”

If Jesus could forgive Judas Iscariot, would you agree that he can forgive anyone?

Frederick Buechner writes of our Lord’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane:

There can be no doubt in Jesus’ mind what the kiss of Judas means, but it is Judas that he is blessing, and Judas that he is prepared to go out and die for now. Judas is only the first in a procession of betrayers two thousand years long. If Jesus were to exclude him from his love and forgiveness, to one degree or another he would have to exclude mankind.

Br. Geoffrey Tristam of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston makes his point by asking, “What is there of Judas in our hearts? When have we turned away from the light and betrayed Jesus in our words and through our actions?”

I can unfortunately answer his questions easily. I assume you can as well.

Here’s the amazing rest of the story: The Savior who chose to die for Judas and all the Judases to follow prayed that same night for Judas and all the Judases to follow.

Including you and me.

The night I met Billy Graham

I’ll never forget meeting Billy Graham. I was part of a team sent from Dallas to invite the greatest evangelist since Paul to conduct an evangelistic mission in our city. When we spoke with Mr. Graham, he asked for our names as he shook our hands and welcomed us with gracious warmth. Then, as I began our presentation, he looked into my eyes and, it seemed, into my soul. I’ll always remember the depth and holiness of those blue eyes and the heart they revealed.

Knowing his personal “connection” with God, if I could have asked Billy Graham to pray for my personal needs, I would have felt immeasurably relieved and blessed. I presume that any of us would feel the same.

Now consider that Someone infinitely more connected with God is doing just that on our behalf today.

After his last supper with his disciples, Jesus spent significant time teaching them before his impending death (John 14–16). Then he “lifted up his eyes to heaven” and began to pray (John 17:1). He interceded for his apostolic disciples (vv. 6–19), then he prayed “for those who will believe in me through their word” (v. 20).

This phrase includes you and me.

What’s more, Jesus is continuing his intercession for us today. He is “at the right hand of God,” where he is “interceding for us” (Romans 8:34). “Interceding” could be translated “continually pleading on our behalf.” Hebrews 7 adds: “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (v. 25, my emphasis).

Think of it: The divine Son of God is praying for you right now.

“When God prefers to remain anonymous”

We will not know until we are in heaven the degree to which Jesus’ intercession marked and changed our lives. But we do know that the Father “always” hears his Son (John 11:42). And we know that Jesus only prays for his “perfect” will for us to be done (Romans 12:2).

I can imagine Jesus praying for the men who knocked on my apartment door in August of 1973 to invite my brother and me to their church. I learned later that we were the last people they visited that day. If we had not been home, they would not have come back. If our father had not happened to overhear our conversation, he would not have put us on their bus the next morning, a day that led to our eventual response to the gospel.

If “coincidence is when God prefers to remain anonymous,” I wonder how many such “chance” encounters are the direct result of Jesus’ intercession on our behalf.

And there’s more: As the Son of God prays for us, the Spirit of God who indwells every believer (1 Corinthians 3:16) prays within us: “We do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). With this promise: “The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (v. 27).

“You have taken up my cause, O Lord”

In the hard places of life, we may be moved to ask,

Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? (Psalm 77:7–9).

But the greater our pain, the more we need the One who can heal us. The deeper our grief, the more we need his grace. When we pray to the One who is praying for us, we can testify:

I called on your name, O Lᴏʀᴅ, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, “Do not close your ear to my cry for help!” You came near when I called on you; you said, “Do not fear!” You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life (Lamentations 3:55–58; cf. Psalm 31:22).

Where does Judas live in your heart? That’s the very place Jesus is praying for you now.

Will you join him?

Quote for the day:

“Grace, like water, flows to the lowest part.” —Philip Yancey

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• Gen Z turns to Jesus, trade war with China, Harvard conflict & Rory McIlroy

Denison Forum

A powerful and surprising reminder of God’s amazing love

The King of Kings—Angel Studios’ new film about the life of Christ—set a record for animated faith-based films at the box office, bringing in an estimated $19 million in its opening weekend. It joins The Chosen and House of David as recent success stories in sharing the Bible with a broad audience.

But where those live-action shows stress making Scripture come to life in a way that is both engaging and relatable, The King of Kings opts for a different approach, and the film is better for it.

Now, I have nothing against The Chosen or House of David and genuinely enjoy watching both shows. But there was something about the simplicity of The King of Kings that resonated with both me and my kids in a way I really needed this Easter season.

While that simplicity has been a source of derision among many critics, that critique misses the beauty and purpose of the film. And that fact becomes clear when you take an honest look at what the film was created to be rather than judging it by what so many have become accustomed to seeing.

Experiencing the gospel for the first time

The King of Kings doesn’t start with the story of Jesus. Rather, it starts with Charles Dickens.

That may seem like a strange place to begin, but the film is loosely based on a version of Christ’s story called The Life of Our Lord that he would read to his children every Christmas. But whereas Dickens’ version focused more on Jesus as a moral example worth following, The King of Kings rightly emphasizes his role as the Son of God and the importance of faith.

To that end, the film opens with Dickens performing a telling of A Christmas Carol in front of an audience when he is interrupted by his youngest son Walter’s antics backstage. After order is belatedly restored and he’s able to finish the show, he returns home to find that his wife has promised Walter that Charles will tell him a story about the greatest king once he arrives.

You see, Walter is obsessed with the story of King Arthur, and his parents use that interest to introduce the King of all kings, Jesus. What follows is a largely accurate, if simple, version of the Gospels that culminates in Christ’s death and resurrection.

Throughout the story, Charles and Walter become part of it. Walter even interrupts at times to ask questions about the Passover, what a manger is, and several others meant to remind the audience that he has never heard the gospel before.

And that perspective is really what makes this movie both unique and powerful.

There is little about the details of Christ’s life, the way the film is animated, or even the voicework—though well done—that stands out from the many other Jesus films that have been released over the years. Instead, what makes this movie special is the joy and amazement evidenced by Walter as he hears the story for the first time.

Walter’s reactions throughout the film are a reminder of the fact that, far too often, our familiarity with the story of Christ robs us of its wonder. And, especially during the Easter season, most of us could probably benefit from regaining a bit of that wonder.

A powerful reminder of God’s love

Ultimately, if you go into The King of Kings expecting a story of comparable depth and nuance to The Chosen, you will leave disappointed. If you buy a ticket hoping to be entertained with spectacle or breathtaking animation, the film will probably fall short as well.

However, if you can set aside those preconceived notions and simply accept the movie for what it is—a simple retelling intended to convey the essentials of the gospel message—then you will be better equipped to experience it as Walter does and to share in his amazement at the love God has for each of us.

So this Easter season, please don’t take the gospel for granted just because it’s a story you’ve heard before. The truth of God’s grace and mercy is as relevant and needed today as when you first heard it. The King of Kings reminded me of that fact, and I’m grateful for it. I pray that you will be as well.

Denison Forum

Holy Tuesday and my spiritual blindness

In these financially stressful times, if your home often doubles as an office, workout gym, movie theater, and restaurant, you’re not alone. Now let’s add another space you may not know you need: “wellness rooms.”

According to a Dallas designer, “Spaces for wellness, retreat, and recharging are all really popular right now.” You can create “soundbathing” spaces to immerse yourself in soothing instrumental and natural sounds. You can sleep on a bed that uses low-frequency sounds and vibrations. You can even shower using technology that customizes water, steam, lighting, and music options.

A New York designer says, “Having a private space is essential. A wellness room should be a space where the outside world dissolves; no background noise, no movement beyond your own. This is where you go to let go; to drop into something quieter, something deeper.”

Then there’s the other side of the spectrum: “panic” rooms are booming as well. One home near Dallas is being outfitted with an underground tunnel connecting a bunker to the client’s home. The trend is no longer just for the wealthy: one company makes $20,000 bunkers for people who “drive Chevy pickup trucks, not Ferraris.”

Storage buildings in South Dakota have been converted into leasable bunkers for the same purpose. People are installing secret gun closets, panic rooms, and moving fireplaces that lead to escape tunnels. In one home, the fireplace opens while the James Bond theme is played on a nearby piano.

According to a 2023 survey, one-third of American adults are preparing for a doomsday scenario, spending a collective $11 billion over twelve months to do so.

When “everything bitter is sweet”

We can make all the preparations we can make, but they may not be enough. As today’s anniversary of the Titanic disaster reminds us, the ship was “unsinkable” until it wasn’t. (For more, see my website article, New images show Titanic crew gave their lives to save others.)

Bunkers cannot protect us from pancreatic cancer or panic rooms from traffic accidents. In fact, placing our security in buildings built by humans can blind us to the most significant and urgent issues our souls face today.

On Tuesday of Holy Week, Jesus spent much of the day teaching the people in the temple precincts. When a group was “speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings” (Luke 21:5), he warned them: “The days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (v. 6). In AD 70, the Romans fulfilled his prediction. I have stood many times beside the first-century pavement cratered by massive blocks from the temple “thrown down” by Titus and his soldiers.

A thousand years earlier, King Solomon warned the people, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring” (Proverbs 27:1). However, he also observed, “To one who is hungry everything bitter is sweet” (Proverbs 27:7).

The problem is, we don’t know it at the time.

I was so lost I had no idea I was lost

Imagine that you and everyone you know have been blind for your entire lives. You would not know what you do not know. You would assume that the world can be known only by touch, smell, taste, and sound. You wouldn’t ask someone to heal your blind eyes because you wouldn’t know that you need to be healed.

The Bible warns soberly, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). I can testify personally to the effectiveness of Satan’s work. Growing up in Houston, Texas, I was so lost that I had no idea I was lost. I was not searching for the gospel because I did not know it existed to be sought.

I thought church was what church members chose to do with their Sunday mornings just like golf was what golfers did with their weekends, neither of which seemed relevant to me. If Christians had not left the church building to bring the church to me, I would never have come to them.

This is why God’s word commands us: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter” (Proverbs 24:11). If you saw a child who was about to step in front of an oncoming car, would you do all you could to save them? If your doctor discovers that you have life-threatening cancer, do you want her to avoid telling you so as not to hurt your feelings, or do you want her to do all she can to save your life?

“His energy that he powerfully works within me”

Holy Week is a wonderful time for spiritual conversations with people who might not otherwise seem interested. According to researcher Dr. Thom Rainer, 82 percent of unchurched people are at least somewhat likely to attend church if invited; the number is even higher for significant holidays like Easter.

However, if offering such an invitation and sharing the gospel seems daunting, let’s close with this good news: the One who came to open blind eyes through his incarnate body now wants to do the same through ours.

Oswald Chambers explained: “Eternal life is not a gift from God. It is the gift of God—the gift God makes of himself to his children. This same life, not a copy of it, is manifested in us when we are born of God” (his emphasis).

Consequently, he added:

The weakest among us can experience the power of Jesus Christ if we are willing to let go. If instead we cling to our own power, we will blur the life of Jesus inside us. We have to keep letting go, keep identifying with him. Slowly and surely, the great full life of God will invade us in every part of our being, and those we meet will sense that we have been with Jesus.

“Christ in you” is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Jesus entered our broken world in his incarnate body and again in ours. Now we are called to “tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ” (v. 28 NLT).

When this is our purpose, we can say with Paul,

“For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (v. 29).

For what purpose will you “toil” today?

Quote for the day:

“Our high and privileged calling is to do the will of God in the power of God for the glory of God.” —J. I. Packer

Our latest website resources:

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• Rory McIlroy’s Masters win and a transforming life principle
• Is “The King of Kings” worth seeing? A powerful and surprising reminder of God’s amazing love
• Why I miss Moses this Passover
• Dire wolves: A Christian ethic on de-extinction and cloning

Denison Forum

The latest World Happiness Report was recently released, and Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden remain in the top four spots. Their high ranking should not come as much of a surprise given that all four nations are generally considered solid places to live with relatively few threats to their way of life. That is not the case, however, for one nation that few likely suspected would make the top ten: Israel.

Israel came in at number five in the 2023 report and has ranked toward the top of the list for several years. Between then and now, the war with Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and even Iran itself has served as a constant reminder of all that its people risk by simply choosing to live in Israel. It would be understandable if the happiness and general well-being of the Israeli citizens began to weaken in the face of such danger and death.

And its resilience in the face of these trials is relatively rare.

As Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy describe, “At No. 8, Israel contrasts sharply with other war-torn countries that are quite reasonably miserable: Ukraine sits at 111, and Lebanon, which opened a second front against Israel in October 2023, is third from the bottom, at 145.” What separates Israel from those other nations is the degree to which social factors like high social support, generosity, and a sense of equality drive the happiness and identity of its people.

And, if anything, the war has only brought them closer together as a culture.

Do our differences define us?

In a recent article on Denison Forum, Reuben Nevo wrote of how Israelis’ response to the repeated bombings by the Houthis illustrates the resilience that has allowed the nation to withstand the onslaught from various terrorist organizations without losing their identity and happiness. As Reuben describes, “The drills and practices here in Israel are always the same. We run/walk to the shelter, wait for ten minutes, and then go back to normal life. It’s amazing how fast we continue with our daily life.”

A big part of why they can get on with life so quickly is the recognition that they are not doing life alone.

Sharansky and Troy illustrate this point well when they note that “Despite searing political divisions, Israelis remain united culturally. Cherishing family, community, country, and history shapes their faith in the future.” They don’t ignore their differences, but they also don’t allow those differences to define themselves or others. And, in that, there is a great deal from which we can learn.

What is “good tribalism?”

To quote Sharansky and Troy one more time, “The West needs good tribalism: A healthy commitment to community, connectedness, and history anchors us.”

America has not had much trouble with generating tribalism over the last few decades. However, I don’t think many would describe it as good.

While there are a number of reasons why that is the case, perhaps the most important is that we lack the kind of cohesive foundation seen in Israel and other nations. And, for the most part, we don’t seem terribly interested in finding it.

After all, America was founded largely upon the ideals of individual liberty. While certain events like 9/11 or the Olympics can bring us together for a time around a common cause, there is always a basic understanding that it’s not going to last. And that’s alright.

The solution to why the US rates as a less happy place than Israel is not to adopt a more communal lifestyle or try to mirror what makes Israel unique. At the same time, we shouldn’t give up on the idea of community either.

God designed us to need other people. It’s why he said man being alone was the only part of his original creation that was not good (Genesis 2:18). Now, what that community looks like can vary from person to person, but we should not be surprised if we struggle to experience the fullness of God’s joy when attempting to go through life by ourselves (and I say that as someone very much inclined to try and do just that).

A life God can bless

Ultimately, recognizing our need for others is a sign of humility rather than weakness. And while we should never entrust our happiness to the fickle nature of fallen people, embracing the notion that God designed us to need relationships with other people is a necessary step toward experiencing the abundant life that he offers us.

Just as importantly, community—especially a community of believers—can be essential to resisting temptation and growing in our relationship with the Lord as well (Ecclesiastes 4:9–12).

While other people can never be a substitute for God’s presence in our lives, they can be a gift from him to help us experience greater joy, happiness, and purpose on this side of heaven. Such community can also provide a small glimpse of what awaits us once that veil is lifted and we step into eternity, where we will stand among “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9).

Living in community with other believers and with whomever else God brings along our path is a key part of what the Lord has called each of us to do. And it can be one of the best ways to experience a little slice of what awaits us once this world fades.

So what communities are you invested in today? Are there any relationships you’ve allowed to fade prematurely? Do you see other people more as a potential gift from the Lord or as a burden to bear?

There are times when the same person can feel like both a blessing and a burden—and that’s true of each of us—but don’t give up on living in community with others just because it’s hard. God did not intend to give us that option, so we should not be surprised when he refuses to bless it.

Instead, embrace his call to community and prayerfully seek ways that he can use it as a blessing to you while also using you as a blessing to others.

Do that, and you will begin to understand just a bit of what allows Israelis to face their trials without losing their joy.

Where do you need that joy today?

Quote of the day:

“When we have a choice, people usually choose privacy, control, and comfort—and then we’re shocked when we wind up lonely. We put up ‘privacy fences,’ and then complain about how nobody knows their neighbors anymore. But communal bonds have always been tightened by necessity.” —Eve Tushnet

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• American tourist arrested for trying to contact lost tribe
• What does the Bible say about identity? – Part 2

Denison Forum

I have never felt more conflicted as a sports fan than I was last night as I watched Luka Dončić demolish my Dallas Mavericks. On one hand, I wanted the Mavs to win as they continue their quest to make the 2025 playoffs. On the other, I wanted “Luka magic” to show up at the American Airlines Center as it has over the years since the Slovenian teenager was drafted by the team.

I was so shocked by his trade to the Lakers two months ago that I assumed it must be “fake news” even after reports were confirmed. Watching last night’s pregame video tribute to him, I was moved by the way he was moved to tears. When the game began, it didn’t take long for Dallas fans to see in person what we are now missing.

Luke scored forty-five points in a Lakers win, becoming only the second player (after Wilt Chamberlain) to score that many both for and against the same team in the same season.

In other news, The Great Gatsby turns one hundred today. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel tells the story of its title character through the eyes of his neighbor, Nick Carraway, described by the New York Times as “a Yale grad with a philosophical streak.” The Times summarizes the plot: “Gatsby winds up dead, shot by the wrong jealous husband, and Nick is left to ruminate on the meaning of his friend’s sad, perplexing, and somehow quintessentially American life.”

Centennial celebrations will include a Library of Congress reading and the Empire State Building being illuminated in green (Gatsby’s symbol of hope).

“Americans Want to Be Rich”

By now you’re wondering what these stories have in common and why a cultural apologist would choose to write about them. Here’s a point they both make, one I need to remember: this world is not enough because it cannot be enough.

But Jesus is.

My thoughts are inspired by an Atlantic article published yesterday that helps explain the recent furor over tariffs and stock market volatility. Titled “Americans Want to Be Rich,” it reports:

• Roughly 79 percent of Americans describe money as “extremely” or “very” important to them.
• Eighty-four percent say there’s “nothing wrong” with trying to make as much money as they can.
• Sixty percent believe that “most rich people earned their wealth.”
• American parents put much more weight on their children being “financially independent” and having an enjoyable career than they do on those children getting married or having children themselves.

As a result, when Washington or anyone else threatens our finances, we react with predictable anger and angst.

However, our wealth (or lack thereof) is as impermanent as a basketball game. Whether our team (or favorite player) wins or loses, the game is soon over and there’s always another one to play, this season or the next. All wealthy people eventually go the way of the “great Gatsby,” whatever the means of their demise, along with the rest of us mortals.

This world cannot be enough because it was never intended to fill the God-shaped emptiness with which we are all made. As I noted in today’s Daily Article, trying to understand and use the creation apart from the perspective and purpose of the Creator is a “category mistake” fallacy akin to asking the weight of a circle or the color of the number 7. Using the material to replace the spiritual negates both.

How to “take hold of that which is truly life”

Paul counseled young Timothy:

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life (1 Timothy 6:17–19).

The key is to use our material means as the tools they are intended to be. A screwdriver works for driving screws better than for hammering nails. This temporal world is intended to be enjoyed in the moment (v. 17) but employed as a means to eternal ends (v. 19).

The best way I know to do this is to live as “vertically” as possible, walking through each day in conversation and communion with the living Lord Jesus. Whatever I do and wherever I go, he wants me to consciously and intentionally practice his presence. Separating life into the “secular” and the “sacred” does violence to both.

I am obviously (and gratefully) married to my wife every moment of every day. If I were to segment my life into “Janet” days and “non-Janet” days, how strong would my marriage be? The Bible likens my relationship with Jesus to my relationship with my wife, calling the church the “Bride” of Christ (Revelation 19:7; cf. 21:2).

During this Easter season, remembering all that Jesus did to secure my salvation and union with himself especially moves me to respond in gratitude for such grace.

“Crowned with victory at thy feet”

To this end, I’ll close with three readings I discovered recently that are helping me draw closer to my living Lord. The first comes from the Patristic theologian Tertullian (AD 160–240) in his treatise On Prayer:

Prayer is an offering that belongs to God and is acceptable to him: it is the offering he has asked for, the offering he planned as his own.

We must dedicate this offering with our whole heart, we must fatten it on faith, tend it by truth, keep it unblemished through innocence and clean through chastity, and crown it with love. We must escort it to the altar of God in a procession of good works to the sound of psalms and hymns. Then it will gain for us all that we ask of God. . . .

Prayer cleanses from sin, drives away temptations, stamps out persecutions, comforts the fainthearted, gives new strength to the courageous, brings travelers safely home, calms the waves, confounds robbers, feeds the poor, overrules the rich, lifts up the fallen, supports those who are falling, sustains those who stand firm.

In this light, the biblical command to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) takes on new meaning as a way to redeem the challenges of this fallen world.

The second comes from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

When God helps me “love what you command and desire what you promise,” my heart is united with him in “true joy” and I use this world for the next.

The third comes from the English minister Philip Doddridge (1702–51), who wrote a hymn that inspires us to eternal purpose:

Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve,
And press with vigor on;
A heavenly race demands thy zeal,
And an immortal crown.
A cloud of witnesses around,
Hold thee in full survey;
Forget the steps already trod,
And onward urge thy way.
‘Tis God’s all-animating voice
That calls thee from on high;
‘Tis his own hand presents the prize
To thine aspiring eye. . . .
Blest Savior, introduced by thee,
Have I my race begun;
And crowned with victory at thy feet
I’ll lay my honors down.

What “honors” will you lay at the feet of your Lord today?

Denison Forum

President Trump announced yesterday a ninety-day pause on higher tariffs for dozens of countries while hiking levies on China to 125 percent. The Dow Jones surged nearly three thousand points on the news for its largest rally in five years. The Nasdaq Composite jumped more than 12 percent as well, its second-best day ever. The S&P 500 had its biggest one-day gain in seventeen years.

About thirty billion shares traded hands, comprising the heaviest volume day on Wall Street in history. World markets soared this morning as well, with Japan’s benchmark jumping more than 9 percent.

If the world made your life an island

The recent volatility of an economy most of us have no way to influence highlights the degree to which you and I are “catching and not pitching” in the modern world. Think about it: How much of your life is under your direct control? Do you personally determine your income? Do you grow your own food and chop your own firewood for heat? Can you fix your car if it breaks down? Can you treat yourself if you get really sick?

If the world made your life an island, how long and how well would you live on it?

We all want to believe we are in charge of our lives, a “will to power” impulse that goes back to the garden of Eden and the temptation to be our own god (Genesis 3:5). Advertisers know this, which is why they pitch us products and services that claim to help us control our finances, circumstances, health, and happiness. But the next downturn, disaster, illness, or disappointment will pull back the curtain on our illusion.

The roof collapse at a Dominican Republic nightclub that killed at least 184 people, including two former major league baseball players, is a tragic metaphor for our times. None of us knows when we will be next.

This is where you’d expect me to recommend faith as an antidote to our fears. A sign I recently saw comes to mind: “Accept what is, let go of what was, have faith in what will be.”

But in a broken and chaotic world, having faith is not enough.

It can make things worse rather than better, in fact.

What Einstein got wrong about the universe

You and I have a binary choice today: We can define our identity with reference to ourselves and/or other people, or we can do so with reference to God. If we decide that our secularist society is right in rejecting God from consideration, we are left with some version of humanity defining humanity and the cosmos.

Even Albert Einstein fell prey to this “category mistake” fallacy by claiming that physical laws are the universe’s own form of self-expression. If we refuse to interpret creation through the lens of the Creator and his revealed truth, we are forced to interpret it through itself. This is what we do with our own quest for identity as well when we eliminate God from the equation.

How did this work for Einstein? The great scientist was known for being unfaithful to both his wives and for his failures as a father. How is it working for our broken society today?

By contrast, David could testify: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust” (Psalm 18:2 NKJV). Why should we do the same?

It is a fact that “the Lᴏʀᴅ reigns” and “is exalted over all the peoples” (Psalm 99:1, 2), whether “all the peoples” acknowledge this fact or not. Charles III is king of the United Kingdom whether every person in his kingdom recognizes his rule or not. Those who reject his authority only exempt themselves from what he could do in and for their lives.

In the same way, sacrificial obedience to the King of the universe positions us to experience his transforming and sanctifying power (cf. Romans 12:1–2). Being our own king limits us to our finite, fallen capacities.

Bonhoeffer on “the wisest course for the disciple”

So, having faith helps us respond to our challenges only if the object of that faith is able to respond to our challenges. Otherwise, misplaced faith does more harm than good. We can take the wrong medicine in sincere faith, but it can still poison and kill us.

Having faith in ourselves, others, or our world builds our house on sand. When the inevitable storms strike, our house will inevitably fall (Matthew 7:26–27). Building the same house on the rock of Jesus’ word, by contrast, enables it to stand firm (vv. 24–25). Our Lord was adamant: “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63).

Yesterday was the anniversary of the 1945 martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In a website paper I wrote for the occasion, I quoted the great theologian’s statement in The Cost of Discipleship: “It will always be true that the wisest course for the disciple” is “to abide solely by the Word of God in all simplicity.”

Bonhoeffer staked his life and his eternity on this fact. When he was led away to his death just a week before the Allies liberated his prison camp, he told another prisoner, “This is the end—but for me, the beginning—of life.”

How can we make his empowering faith in God our own?

How to be “powerful in his power”

The English poet Ralph Hodgson noted, “Some things have to be believed to be seen.” St. Augustine similarly observed, “Faith is to believe what we do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”

So, name the reason you need faith in God today. Decide that you want to trust in his power and wisdom over your own. Now ask him to help you “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:17), and he will (Mark 9:24).

The British essayist Joseph Addison (1672–1719) assured us:

“The person who has a firm trust in the Supreme Being is powerful in his power, wise by his wisdom, happy by his happiness.”

How firm is your trust in your Father today?

Quote for the day:

“Yet, in the maddening maze of things / And tossed by storm and flood / To one fixed trust my spirit clings / I know that God is good!” —John Greenleaf Whittier

Our latest website resources:

• The anniversary of the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The cost of discipleship and the path to liberating joy
• American tourist arrested for trying to contact lost tribe: Why our motivations matter

• An Israeli’s perspective on the Houthis: Who are the Houthis and why are they the world’s problem?
• What does the Bible say about identity?—Part 2
• Trump’s tariffs, financial anxieties, a Masters preview & hot take, plus more trending news / Ep. 14

Denison Forum

Alex Ovechkin’s record goal and Scottie Scheffler’s third green jacket

I am not much of a hockey fan, but even I was impressed by Alex Ovechkin’s record goal, passing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time record in NHL history last Sunday. Earlier in the day, I watched the Texas Rangers defeat Tampa Bay on a ninth-inning walk-off hit.

The previous day, the Houston Cougars (my hometown team) came from behind to defeat the favored Duke Blue Devils and reach the NCAA men’s final. This weekend, I am looking forward to watching the Masters, where I hope Scottie Scheffler wins his third green jacket.

All told, I have spent numerous hours in recent days watching sports and plan to spend numerous hours this week doing the same.

Why?

I’m not betting on any of this (an activity fraught with danger to finances and health). Nor have I ever participated in a fantasy sports league of any kind. I’ve also never played hockey (of any kind) or baseball, basketball, or golf beyond church leagues and with friends.

Watching sports in person or on television is not a universally human phenomenon. It holds little allure for my wife, for example, who typically joins me to watch a baseball game only if it’s the seventh game of the World Series (and usually only the end of the game at that). She will watch football, but that’s because it’s fast-paced enough to be interesting to her. She is baffled when I watch golf on TV, comparing it to observing someone fishing or watching the grass grow.

She’s such a gracious person that she is happy for me to do what makes me happy. But that’s only so long as my happiness does not require her boredom.

“We won” but “they lost”

One obvious answer to my question is that watching our teams and favorite athletes compete affords us a vicarious opportunity to do the same. I’ll never have the chance to play the Masters, but I can watch Scottie Scheffler and others while imagining myself competing with them.

There is something to this. Psychologists say “team affiliation” can advance social connectedness, leading to lower levels of alienation and loneliness while promoting collective self-esteem and positive emotion. This helps explain why fans like to wear apparel that supports their team—it also connects them with others who do the same.

But the experts tell us this only works if we value belonging over winning.

If we support our teams only when they win, we forfeit social connections with them and other fans when they lose. Here’s a telltale sign: When the Rangers win, I often say, “We won;” if they lose, I sometimes say, “They lost.”

In other words, I enjoy watching them play, but I identify with them far more easily when they are successful than when they are not.

And therein lies my point.

What God’s nature requires him to do

Even the deepest relationships we foster with each other can be broken if we sin against them on a tragic enough level. Our families can hurt us in such horrific ways that they break our bond with them beyond repair. And we can do the same to them.

But there is literally nothing we can do to cause God to respond to us in the same way.

This is not because God is God and therefore more capable of forgiveness than we are, though that is true. It is not because he is so gracious and merciful that he forces his grace and mercy upon us, because this is not true. Grace and mercy must be received to become operative. If we refuse such gifts, he honors the free will he gives us and allows us the consequences of our rejection.

But even this does not change how he feels about us. The reason has nothing to do with us and everything to do with him.

The simple fact is, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The Greek word for “love” means “unconditional commitment to seek the best for another.” This is not just what God does—it is who he is.

As a result, to put it bluntly, God loves us because his nature requires him to do so. There is by logic nothing we can do to make him love us any more or less than he already does.

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God”

Now, I assume you already know this and are wondering why I’m belaboring the point. Here’s the reason: if you’re like me, you often don’t really believe that it’s true, even if you say you do.

If we really believed God loves us without condition or qualification:

• We wouldn’t try to earn his forgiveness by punishing ourselves through guilt. We would believe that our Father forgives all we confess (1 John 1:9), forgets all he forgives (Isaiah 43:25), and then separates our sins from us as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12) and buries them in the depths of the sea forever (Micah 7:19). As it is, we often punish ourselves for sins God will not punish through the self-inflicted penance of guilt, discouragement, and even self-harm.
• We wouldn’t try to excuse our failures so as to minimize our need for forgiveness. As CS Lewis notes, the better our excuses, the less necessary they are. By contrast, the worse they are, the more they contribute to the problem by adding deceit to our other failures.
• We wouldn’t be tempted by transactional religion that seeks to earn God’s favor through religious activities and good deeds. Rather, we would serve because we are loved, not so we will be loved. We would give because we have received, not so we will.
• We would love and serve others whether they love and serve us or not since we are secure in the fact that we are loved by the omnipotent God of the universe and served unconditionally by his grace.

The result would be solidarity with God and humanity that makes all team affiliations pale by comparison. Rather than living vicariously through the successes of others, we would join them on the field of kingdom endeavor. And what we do in this temporal world would echo in eternity for God’s glory and our inestimable good.

Brennan Manning was right:

“We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that he would bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.”

Are you astonished at God’s goodness today?

Denison Forum

Kamala Harris was “completely shocked” by her election night loss to Donald Trump, while her running mate, Tim Walz, was so “stunned” by their defeat that he had “no words.” This is according to The Hill correspondent Amie Parnes, co-author of FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.

Reading the book, I noted the degree to which their campaign team “bought the hype” that they were doing better than they were based on crowd sizes and fundraising. They are not the first, of course; Mitt Romney’s internal polls persuaded him that he would defeat Barack Obama in 2012, for example.

Our “post-truth” culture is absolutely convinced that there is no such thing as absolute truth, despite the illogic of this claim. In this view, reality is what we believe it to be. But believing something doesn’t necessarily make it true, as any politician who lost a race they thought they would win can tell you.

Duke was convinced they would defeat Houston Saturday night up to the last seconds of the game when they didn’t. Now I’m convinced my hometown Cougars will defeat Florida tonight to win the NCAA men’s championship (unless they don’t).

Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer

However, believing something to be true can make it true if the consequence of our choice depends upon our choice. For example, if I believe I am capable of being a good writer and therefore write this article, I then have the opportunity to make my belief a reality.

By contrast, some realities become true for us because we refuse to believe that they are true. If I believe I am unworthy of writing this article and therefore refuse to finish it, my belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

My dermatologist recently diagnosed a spot on my jawline that needed to be removed before it became cancerous. If I had chosen to believe that she was wrong, my rejection of her prediction would have made it a reality.

These reflections were spurred by Tom Cruise’s comments at a film event in Las Vegas last week. Paying tribute to his Top Gun costar Val Kilmer, he asked attendees to join him in a moment of silence. Afterward, speaking to the late actor, he said, “I wish you well on the next journey.”

Cruise’s tribute has generated stories praising him for his kind words. None that I have seen questioned whether his “wish” is based in reality.

“I don’t believe in heaven and hell”

According to Jesus, our “next journey” after death is binary. Speaking of himself, he testified: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

Rejecting Jesus’ clear statement about heaven and hell does not invalidate it—it means we reject the only way we can experience the first and avoid the second. The apostles testified about our Lord: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

By contrast, George Clooney famously declared, “I don’t believe in heaven and hell,” as though his opinion changes their existence. This is an example of Nietzsche’s “acoustic illusion,” the fallacy that what we do not hear does not exist to be heard. Clooney’s disbelief does not change the reality of heaven and hell any more than disbelieving in Australia changes its existence.

As a result, the best way to wish someone “well on the next journey” is to help them prepare for that journey before it begins.

Woman fights an alligator to save her dog

The first step is to believe that lost people are truly lost. That, despite the tolerance-based relativism of our culture, Jesus was right when he said of himself, “No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Then, like the Florida woman who risked her life by prying a six-foot alligator’s jaws open to save her dog, we will do whatever it takes to help the people we know come to know our Lord.

The next is to share our story with them, telling them how we met Jesus and how they can do the same. This is to be our lifestyle, not just our occasional effort: “Sing to the Lᴏʀᴅ; bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day” (Psalm 96:2; cf. Acts 1:8).

Our job is not to convict people of sins or lead them to faith—this is the work of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 16:8–11). Our job is to be a witness who goes to the stand when the Spirit calls us to testify and then tells what we know. If the “jury” rejects the One on whose behalf we testify, that is their fault rather than ours (cf. Acts 7:54–60). If they choose for him, that will be their eternal joy and ours (cf. Luke 15:7).

If, however, we do not tell what we know, that is our fault: “If anyone sins in that he hears a public adjuration to testify, and though he is a witness, whether he has seen or come to know the matter, yet does not speak, he shall bear his iniquity” (Leviticus 5:1).

“The truth that can fuel this transformation”

Easter is that season above all seasons when people are open to spiritual conversations about our risen Lord. Over the next two weeks, as we serve God in the “great might” that the Spirit “worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (Ephesians 1:19-20), his resurrection power can work through us to raise the spiritually dead to eternal life.

Commenting on this text, Billy Graham wrote:

Did you know that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to you and me today? The moment we receive Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts. He gives us supernatural power to overcome temptations, to smile through tears, to experience joy despite life’s burdens and trials. The Holy Spirit will raise you from the mundane, the monotonous, the hopeless; he will raise you out of your spiritual lifelessness and transform you.

In fact, imagine what a difference it would make if people understood that Christ is risen and the Holy Spirit has been given! What a transformation would take place in our families! What a reversal there would be in our culture’s deteriorating morals! What a lessening of tensions we would see between individuals, groups, and even nations! And a new purpose and power we would experience if we caught the wonder of the biblical truth that Jesus is alive!

He concluded:

“Believe and share the truth that can fuel this transformation: Jesus is alive!”

If we truly believe this “truth,” we also believe that every person we know desperately needs to believe it as well. Therefore, we believe this truth to the degree that we share it.

Will you “believe” it today?

Quote for the day:

“Catch on fire and others will love to come watch you burn.” —John Wesley

Our latest website resources:

• Will an iPhone cost $2,300? The power of biblical faith in an age of uncertainty
• White House spiritual advisor offers “supernatural blessings”
• The problem of grandiosity
• Val Kilmer, Top Gun and Batman actor, dies at 65
• A book review of Jefferson Fisher’s “The Next Conversation”: Say it to connect, not win the argument

Denison Forum

Palestinian murdered for protesting terrorists in Gaza

On March 29, Hamas murdered twenty-two-year-old Uday Nassar Saadi al-Rabbay, according to his family. They tortured him and mutilated his body, then threw his body off a tall building.

His crime? He took part in recent protests against the terrorists who rule Gaza.

As a result, according to his mother, “They caught him, tortured him, slashed his arms with knives, stabbed him with screwdrivers. They stabbed him 170 times. His whole body was stabbed and pierced.” A note was pinned to his body: “This is the price for all who criticize Hamas.”

“The most appalling act of racism”

The most detailed Western investigation into the atrocities of October 7 has now been released. The UK’s October 7 Parliamentary Commission Report runs to 318 pages. Chaired by Lord Andrew Roberts, one of Britain’s leading historians, it documents the deaths of 1,182 people in a forty-eight-hour period. The report describes the assault as “a meticulously planned operation designed not only to kill but to terrorize through extreme brutality, looting, and humiliation.”

Some examples in the report:

• A baby was murdered just fourteen hours after it was born.
• A Holocaust survivor was killed at the age of ninety-one.
• Infants were shot in strollers or burned alive.
• Women and girls were gang raped.
• Sexual violence was committed against corpses.
• Terrorists used victims’ phones to send images to their families, booby-trapped corpses with grenades, and dragged bodies through Gaza.

When asked how democracies should respond, Roberts answered: “The first is properly to memorialize the victims. The second . . . is to see this appalling act of barbarism for what it is, which is a complete denial of democracy, a blow struck deliberately against civilization, and . . . the most appalling act of racism.”

(For more on this “appalling act of racism,” please see my friend Reuben Nevo’s firsthand account of growing up where Hamas invaded and the path forward for Israel.)

The immorality of “moral equivalence”

I reference Uday al-Rabbay’s murder and the UK report to counter the “moral equivalence” claims that have tragically dominated much of Western response to October 7. From college campuses to media outlets to halls of government, we continually hear the assertion that “both sides are wrong” and that Israel is as complicit in this tragedy as Hamas.

Some go even further, caricaturing Israel as a “colonialist” whose “oppression” of Gaza forced Hamas to respond as it did and blaming Jews for the massacre of Jews. As Israel continues its efforts to keep Hamas from mounting another such invasion (something the terrorist group repeatedly claims it wants to do), much of the world blames the IDF for all civilian casualties despite the fact that Hamas hides behind Palestinian human shields, mosques, hospitals, and schools.

If Israel’s critics want the Jewish state to defend itself at all, they want it to do so while engaging a highly challenging urban environment in ways that do not harm the very civilians Hamas hides behind and whose subsequent deaths Hamas uses to bolster itself in the court of world opinion.

I do not mean to suggest that Israel is by any means a perfect nation or that the IDF has responded flawlessly to October 7 in Gaza. Like America, they are a nation made of fallen sinners who sometimes fail their values just as we do.

The difference between Israel and Hamas is that the former has values the latter does not.

If Israel laid down its arms

As I have explained repeatedly since Oct. 7, Hamas’ atrocities express their founding charter and commitment to the annihilation of Israel. This is why Israel must not allow Hamas to rearm itself, or it will stage another October 7.

Dennis Prager, a cultural commentator who studied at the Middle East Institute at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, explains the conflict this way:

Israel wants to exist as a Jewish state and to live in peace. Israel also recognizes the right of Palestinians to have their own state and to live in peace. The problem, however, is that most Palestinians and many other Muslims and Arabs do not recognize the right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist. . . .

Think about these two questions: If, tomorrow, Israel laid down its arms and announced, “We will fight no more,” what would happen? And if the Arab countries around Israel laid down their arms and announced, “We will fight no more,” what would happen?

In the first case, there would be an immediate destruction of the state of Israel and the mass murder of its Jewish population. In the second case, there would be peace the next day.

October 7 made Prager’s point brutally clear.

“We fall down, and we get up”

Let’s close by making the issue of moral relativism personal.

We live in a postmodern culture where such relativism reigns supreme. Many illogically believe it to be absolutely true that there are no absolute truths. Add Critical Theory’s Marxist division of the entire human race into oppressors and oppressed, and you have a recipe for immorality in the name of morality.

This issue is as real for you and me as it is for Hamas’s most virulent supporters. Like you, I am tempted to view uncomfortable truths through the prism of personal preferences, making Jesus my Lord only in those places where his lordship does not demand changes I do not want to make.

Here’s the good news: God will help anyone to be holy who wants his help.

Solomon noted: “The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lᴏʀᴅ, but he loves him who pursues righteousness” (Proverbs 15:9, my emphasis). Since we are finite and fallen people, the “pursuit” of righteousness is what God seeks.

Our secularized culture measures success by the destination, since its destinations are within human reach. God measures success by the journey, since the destination is not achievable in this life.

Someone once asked a monk living in a mountain monastery high above the village below, “What do you do up there so close to God?” He smiled and replied, “We fall down, and we get up. We fall down, and we get up. We fall down, and we get up.”

Let’s do the same today, to the glory of God.

Quote for the day:

“Because truth is unpopular does not mean that it should not be proclaimed.” —Billy Graham

Our latest website resources:

• Criminal calls 911 after injuring himself during break-in: An April Fools’ Day story and the health of our souls
• A biblical alternative to toxic empathy
• The latest on the Myanmar earthquake and Hamas hostages: An article I did not intend to write and a quote that changed my heart
• Is the new “Snow White” worth seeing? Why the new film is so controversial
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home

Denison Forum

President Trump recently told NBC News that he does not rule out seeking a third term in the White House, saying there are methods for doing so and that he is “not joking.”

“A lot of people want me to do it,” he said. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, it’s very early in the administration.” When asked whether he had been presented with plans to allow him to seek a third term, he said, “There are methods by which you could do it.”

What are such methods?

Why this question is complicated

At issue is the 22^nd Amendment to the US Constitution, which states:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

Since Mr. Trump has been “elected to the office of the President” twice, it would seem that the question is a moot point. Some might argue that since his terms were nonconsecutive, the amendment doesn’t apply to him. However, it makes no distinction between consecutive and nonconsecutive terms in office.

Here’s where the story gets complicated: The amendment only prohibits a person from being “elected” to office more than twice but says nothing about a person becoming president in other ways.

Here’s one possibility: Someone could run for president in 2028 with Mr. Trump as their running mate, be elected, and then resign from office, returning Mr. Trump to the White House.

The 12^th Amendment states that “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States,” but it does not specify that such a person is “ineligible to be elected Vice-President.” Perhaps this simply imposes the Constitution’s stated criteria for presidential eligibility: that they be a natural-born citizen of the US, at least thirty-five years of age, and have lived in the US for at least fourteen years. The US Supreme Court would have to decide this issue.

A second option would be for Mr. Trump to be elected vice president in 2028, then the elected president to be declared “unable to discharge the powers and duties of the office,” in which case Mr. Trump would become Acting President via the 25^th Amendment.

A third option would be for a person to be elected vice president in 2028 and then resign. The newly elected president could then nominate Mr. Trump for the position and Congress could approve the nomination (as occurred via the 25^th Amendment with Gerald Ford in 1973), the president could resign, and Mr. Trump could take his place.

A fourth option would be for the Constitution to be amended to allow a person to serve three non-consecutive terms as president. A member of Congress proposed such an amendment in January, but it is highly unlikely in our era of intense political polarization.

A fifth approach would be for Mr. Trump to be appointed by the next president as an unofficial adviser, allowing him to continue to exercise the power of the presidency without the actual title.

“What I have written I have written”

In these weeks leading to Easter, I am continuing on occasion to spotlight aspects of the story that are often overlooked. Here’s another: when the Romans crucified our Lord,

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” . . . So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written” (John 19:19, 21–22).

Pontius Pilate was much more right than he knew.

Jesus was born a king, as the Magi acknowledged by their words (Matthew 2:2) and worship (v. 11). He lived as a king (Isaiah 9:6–7; John 18:36), died as a king (as Pilate acknowledged), was raised as a king (Ephesians 1:20a), ascended to heaven as a king (vv. 20b–21), rules there now as a king (v. 22; Hebrews 1:3–4; Revelation 1:5–6), and will return as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16; cf. Daniel 7:13–14).

Here’s the problem: Americans like our leaders to be elected by us and thus responsible to us.

President Trump’s comments about a third term have been widely reported in part because some are concerned he might return to office in ways they believe the Constitution does not intend and voters did not choose. The current controversy over unelected “activist judges” who have issued orders blocking parts of the president’s agenda illustrates this concern from the other side of the aisle.

Americans view our leaders as extensions of ourselves who are accountable to us as they serve “we the people.”

It is therefore natural, though tragic, that many of us view Christ in the same way.

“Able to do far more abundantly”

Even though Jesus is the king of the universe who rules beyond our election or opinions, he limits his omnipotence to our free will. He knocks at the door of our hearts, waiting for admission into our lives (cf. Revelation 3:20). He forces neither his salvation nor his abundant life on us. Only when we elect him our “president” and king can we fully experience the best his omniscient, omnibenevolent omnipotence can do in and through our lives.

We often blame God for the suffering in our world, but how much of our pain would be alleviated if we lived by his word and will? If, for instance, we refused lust (Matthew 5:28–30), what would become of the plague of pornography, adultery, and sex trafficking in our society? If we reserved sex for marriage (Genesis 2:24–25; Hebrews 13:4), what would become of abortion, adultery, and divorce? If we venerated life as sacred as does our Lord (cf. Genesis 1:27), what would happen to crime, abortion, and euthanasia?

Clearly, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

Unfortunately, as fallen people, our default position is to rule on the throne of our own lives. Unless we consciously dethrone ourselves each day, enthrone Jesus as our king, and then keep him there through our worship and obedience, we are our own kings.

By this measure, who is your king right now?

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:20–21).

Amen?

Quote for the day:

“No single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” —Abraham Kuyper

Our latest website resources:

• The latest on the Myanmar earthquake and Hamas hostages: An article I did not intend to write and a quote that changed my heart
• Is the new “Snow White” worth seeing? Why the new film is so controversial
• Why “Anora” and “The White Lotus” are making headlines: A biblical response to a broken culture
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home
• Artificial Intelligence: Tool or threat?

Denison Forum

Some years ago, my wife and I visited Assisi, Italy, joining massive crowds who came to see the tomb of the town’s most famous saint. Now crowds are pouring into this medieval hilltop town to celebrate another celebrity: a teenager named Carlo Acutis.

The Catholic church’s first millennial saint will be canonized on April 27 in St. Peter’s Square. Carlo was born on May 3, 1991, to a wealthy Italian family. He received First Communion at the young age of seven, then began attending daily Mass, teaching catechism, and serving the homeless. He also used his computer skills to create an online exhibit of more than one hundred miracles he hoped would encourage faith in Christ.

At the age of fifteen, he fell ill. Ten days later, he died of acute leukemia. His remains were later transferred to an Assisi cemetery as he had asked because of his devotion to St. Francis. His body is on view there, wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and sneakers.

Over the last year, a million pilgrims made their way to his shrine. The teenager is so popular in large part because his story is so accessible. And because his faith was so compelling.

• Carlo urged us to fulfill God’s unique purpose for our lives: “All people are born as originals, but many die as photocopies.” His own purpose was clear: “To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan.”
• Accordingly, he taught us to seek holiness in all things: “The only thing we have to ask God for, in prayer, is the desire to be holy.”
• When we do, Carlo assured us that we can face death in faith: “Do not be afraid because with the Incarnation of Jesus, death becomes life, and there’s no need to escape. In eternal life, something extraordinary awaits us.”

“Not me, but God”

The greater our challenges, the more we need a power greater than ourselves.

A powerful earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday; the death count stands at more than 1,700 this morning, with nearly 300 others missing. More than eleven thousand acres have burned in North and South Carolina as wildfires continue to rage through the region. The Dow closed down seven hundred points on Friday as inflation fears escalate. Astronomers continue to warn that extinction-level asteroids are out there and could strike us one day.

How do we respond to such news with faith rather than fear?

According to Carlo Acutis, the key is to focus on the Lord rather than our circumstances: “Sadness is looking at ourselves; happiness is looking toward God.” His life motto was simple: “Not me, but God.”

“This was to fulfill the word”

To this end, let’s consider an element of the Easter story that is pivotal to the rest. When Jesus was on trial before Pontius Pilate, the governor tried to evade responsibility, telling the Jewish authorities, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law” (John 18:31a). However, they responded, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death” (v. 31b).

This was true. According to the Babylonian Talmud, the Romans had earlier revoked the Sanhedrin’s power to impose capital punishment. Had they executed Jesus, he would have died by stoning (cf. the mob action that murdered Stephen, Acts 7:58–60). But because they were afraid of the crowds (cf. Mark 12:12), they wanted Pilate to execute Jesus for them, which would be done by crucifixion.

John adds: “This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die” (John 18:32). Our Lord had earlier predicted that he would be “lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32), forecasting the manner of his death (v. 33).

Jesus’ death by crucifixion fulfilled remarkable Old Testament prophecies (cf. Psalm 22:7–8, 16–18; Isaiah 53:7–12), each of which would be worthy of an entire article and more. My point today is that the Holy Spirit revealed our Savior’s manner of death more than a thousand years before it took place. His betrayal, trial, execution, burial, and resurrection followed specific prophecy as part of God’s astounding plan for our salvation.

“Pray hardest when it is hardest to pray”

Our Father’s perfect providence extends not just to Jesus but to you and me today. He loves us as much as he loved his Son (John 17:23, 26) because “God is love” (1 John 4:8, my emphasis). His perfect nature allows him to want nothing less than our best, always (Romans 12:2).

The key is this: The less we understand his will, the more we need to trust it.

Oswald Chambers observed, “Faith is not intelligent understanding; faith is deliberate commitment to a Person where I see no way.” Bishop Charles Henry Brent agreed: “Pray hardest when it is hardest to pray.”

Here’s the theological logic behind this advice: When our circumstances are most difficult, we are most likely to question the love and power of God in our lives. But it is just then that we require his love and power the most. When our need is the greatest, his providential redemption is the most visible and triumphant. The doctor who stitches up a cut makes less an impression than the surgeon whose intricate skill saves our lives.

Carlo Acutis’ death at the age of fifteen is an example. Skeptics could ask how a trustworthy God could allow such a devoted Christian to die so young. Think of all he could have accomplished if he had lived to old age, they might say.

But in fact, God is redeeming his teenage death as part of his continuing allure and ministry, inviting millions to remember his story and draw closer to his Lord. You and I are in their number today.

We might consider Carlos’ early death a tragedy, but he did not. To the contrary, he testified:

“I am happy to die because I have lived my life without wasting a minute on those things which do not please God.”

Can you say the same today?

If not, why not?

Quote for the day:

“Our goal must be infinite, not the finite. The infinite is our homeland. Heaven has been waiting for us forever.” —Carlo Acutis

Our latest website resources:

• Is the new “Snow White” worth seeing? Why the new film is so controversial
• Why “Anora” and “The White Lotus” are making headlines: A biblical response to a broken culture
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home
• Artificial Intelligence: Tool or threat?
• Is Amazon’s “House of David” worth the watch?

Denison Forum

Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award winner and licensed minister, was named the “greatest actor of the 21^st century” by the New York Times. But don’t call him a “Hollywood” actor.

Washington and fellow actor Jake Gyllenhaal were interviewed by CBS News recently. The two are starring in a production of Shakespeare’s Othello, which has become the highest-grossing Broadway play ever. During the conversation, Washington said, “What’s the definition of a Hollywood actor? Myself, I’m from Mt. Vernon, so I’m a ‘Mt. Vernon actor.’ I don’t know what ‘Hollywood’ means. Someone who’s famous on film? A film actor, great success on film?”

He continued: “I’m a stage actor who does film; it’s not the other way around. I did stage first. I learned how to act on stage, not on film.”

Then he made a distinction I find significant: “Movies are a filmmaker’s medium. You shoot it, and then you’re gone and they cut together and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, nobody can help you.”

Employing his contrast, let’s ask ourselves: Are we in a play or in a movie today? Are we on our own on the stage, or are we part of a larger project being produced by an unseen filmmaker?

Our answer determines the direction and significance of our lives.

Why did Jesus wait so long?

Today let’s return to John 5 and the pool of Bethesda. As we noted yesterday, Jesus healed an invalid here because the man was willing to be healed and chose to partner with Jesus in this remarkable miracle (vv. 1–9).

This morning, let’s focus on a fact we bypassed yesterday: this man “had been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (v. 5).

Assuming he had been placed by the pool across these years hoping for healing and seeking alms from the religious people on their way to the temple, it is likely that Jesus had encountered him many times in the past. Every observant Jew was required to come to the Jerusalem temple at least three times a year. The pathway from the Sheep Gate past this ritual cleansing pool to the temple was frequently used by worshipers.

It would therefore seem that Jesus could have healed this man many years before he did. Why did he wait so long?

The text doesn’t say. But we do know that if Jesus had healed this man before our Lord launched his public ministry, this miracle would have begun that ministry before the timing was right. Or, if he had done so during the “anonymous” earlier years of his earthly life, the miracle would not have had the public and redemptive impact it possessed then and still today.

So we can conclude that God’s timing had to do with the kingdom significance of this event occurring—not just where and how it did, but when it did.

The providential producer of every scene in Scripture

Now let’s connect this story with Denzel Washington’s observation. Across the Bible, God is the director of every “movie” we encounter, the providential producer of every scene. At times he enters the scene personally, as when he parted the Red Sea to liberate the Jews and joined the human race through his incarnate Son at Christmas.

Consequently, the first question to ask of every text we find in Scripture is this: What does this say about God? At the pool of Bethesda, we learn:

• Jesus knows us and our challenges today.
• He wants to meet our needs.
• He honors our free will and thus invites us to partner with him in accomplishing his will.
• We can trust his timing and purposes. In fact, the less we understand him, the more we need to trust him.
• When we do what he calls us to do, he does what we cannot do.

Now, imagine that the invalid had insisted on being a self-reliant actor on the stage rather than playing his role as directed in the film. We can envision him rejecting Jesus’ compassion since it was not offered earlier on the man’s preferred timeline. We can see him refusing to “get up” until Jesus healed him rather than acting in faith that he would. And since “that day was the Sabbath” (v. 9), we can see him rejecting Jesus’ command to “take up your bed” since this violated the religious traditions of their day (v. 10).

Would he then have been healed? As Denzel Washington said, if you’re an actor on the stage, “nobody can help you.”

The lure and danger of “radical individualism”

In Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, the famed American sociologist Dr. Robert Bellah writes that the biblical tradition “teaches concern for the intrinsic value of individuals because of their relationship to the transcendent.”

He adds that because this tradition “asserts the obligation to respect and acknowledge the dignity of all,” it has “played a crucial political role since the beginning of the republic.” This is because it “guided the nation’s founders . . . to insist that the American experiment is a project of common moral purpose, one which places upon citizens a responsibility for the welfare of their fellows and for the common good.”

By contrast, Dr. Bellah references “radical individualism” ten times in his book and notes that it “tends to elevate the self to a cosmic principle.” While it clearly defines our existentialist, postmodern, “post-truth” secularized culture, he notes that it is incapable of sustaining our society. In prosperity, we congratulate ourselves for our self-reliant success. In adversity, we tell individuals that they must look after their own interests.

At all times, when you’re an actor on the stage, “nobody can help you.”

“You lead. I follow.”

The story of the man healed beside the pool of Bethesda is in the Bible because it is as relevant to us as it was to him. We are all spiritual invalids. No sinner is capable of forgiving his own sins or saving his own soul. Like a swimmer drowning in an undertow, no amount of “radical individualism” can rescue us.

If we insist on being the lead actor in our own play, we forfeit what an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving Director can do for us and through us. Conversely, if we submit to the One who is directing the eternal movie of the cosmos, play our role, and trust him with the outcome, we experience his omnipotent best in our lives.

Said differently, we say to God every day and all through every day, “You lead. I follow.”

Who is directing your life right now?

Quote for the day:

“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Our latest website resources:

• Why “Anora” and “The White Lotus” are making headlines: A biblical response to a broken culture
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home
• Artificial Intelligence: Tool or threat?
• The troubled youth and surprising legacy of George Foreman
• Is Amazon’s House of David worth the watch?

Denison Forum

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the Atlantic, wrote an article Monday titled, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” In summary, he reports that he was inadvertently included in a group chat with high-ranking Trump administration officials via the messaging app Signal. Their discussion regarded military strikes in Yemen that took place on March 15, among other geopolitical issues.

In an interview last night, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz assumed “full responsibility” for the leaked group chat. “It’s embarrassing. We’re going to get to the bottom of it,” he said.

“Politics is downstream from culture”

Response to Mr. Goldberg’s report was immediate and continues this morning.

Democrats castigated the administration as “complete amateurs” who “texted out war plans like invites to a frat party.” Several called for Mr. Waltz and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign.

Many Republicans, by contrast, were less concerned. One called it a “mistake” that “is not going to lead to the apocalypse.” Another said, “This is what the leftist media is reduced to . . . now we’re griping about who’s on a text message and who’s not.” In an interview yesterday, President Trump said he still had confidence in Mr. Waltz, stating that his inclusion of Mr. Goldberg had “no impact” on the military strikes in Yemen.

We should not be surprised by these partisan responses. In a pragmatic society, truth is what works for us. Capitalistic consumerism defines truth as what we want it to be. In the case of partisan politics (is there any other kind today?) our party is our “tribe” and the other party is evil. We don’t shoot at our friends, only our enemies.

Since “politics is downstream from culture,” we should expect a similar approach to truth in our relativistic society. With no true north on our moral compass, secular people go where their fallen nature takes them. (For examples drawn from the immorality of popular culture, see my latest website article, “Why ‘Anora’ and ‘The White Lotus’ are making headlines.”)

There is a better way. You and I can actually partner with the God of the universe in finding the healing we need for our hurting souls and broken society.

To do so, we need to answer one of the most overlooked questions in Scripture.

“Do you want to be healed?”

John 5 tells us about a man lying beside the pool of Bethesda who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years before Jesus healed him. When speaking to tour groups at this site over the years, I focused on a subtle question embedded in the story: “When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be healed?’” (v. 6).

We might wonder why Jesus asked such a question. Of course a paralyzed man would want to be healed, we think.

But, as the verse states, this man had “already been there a long time.” Invalids often congregated around public places like this pool to seek alms from religious people passing by (cf. Acts 3:2). Historians believe that the pool of Bethesda served as a mikveh, a place of ritual cleansing for worshipers on their way into the temple. Since almsgiving (tzedakah in Hebrew) was a core duty in Judaism, this man likely lived off such generosity.

If Jesus healed him, he would then have to get a job to support himself. But he was at least thirty-eight years old, which was longer than many people lived in his day. Due to his infirmity, he likely had not learned a trade. At his age, what employment could he find? How would he survive?

As a result, Jesus would not force the man to accept the gift of healing against his will. The man made clear his desire to be made well (v. 7), but our Lord still required his permission and engagement in his healing: “Jesus said to him, ‘Get up, take up your bed, and walk’” (v. 8).

Two stages were involved: the man was to “get up” for the first time in four decades, then he was to pick up his bed and walk. Verse 9 tells us, “At once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.” It seems that he was healed “at once” when he tried by faith to “get up,” then he subsequently “took up his bed and walked.”

“Let down your nets for a catch”

From this discussion, it is clear that Jesus honors the free will he gives us, inviting us to partner with him in his redemptive work. When we do what we can do, he does what only he can do.

As we work, God works.

We find this divine-human partnership all through Scripture:

• The Lord commanded Noah and his family to go into the ark Noah built, and when they did, “the Lᴏʀᴅ shut him in” (Genesis 7:1, 16).
• God called the Jewish priests to step into the flooded Jordan river, and when they did, the waters “were completely cut off” (Joshua 3:13, 16).
• He instructed the Jewish people to march seven times around Jericho, and when they did, the city’s fortified walls came down (Joshua 6:15–16, 20).
• Jesus told a man with a “withered hand” to “stretch out your hand,” and when he did, he was healed (Mark 3:5).
• He told Peter and his fellow fishermen to “let down your nets for a catch,” and when they did, “they enclosed a large number of fish” (Luke 5:4, 6).

Do you see the pattern?

Do you want to be healed?

“Covered in the dust of your rabbi”

When we choose to live by biblical truth, rejecting the consumerism and immorality of our broken society and staking our lives on God’s word and will, we position ourselves to experience what he can give only to those who trust him for his best. Like a patient who trusts her surgeon or a client his lawyer, we place ourselves unconditionally in his hands and at his disposal.

Then, as we do what we can do in prayer, Bible study, worship, and biblical obedience, God does what only he can do.

The key is to follow the living Lord Jesus so closely that, as the Jews said, we are “covered in the dust of your rabbi.” As John Mark Comer explains, this meant to sit at his feet or to walk closely by him on the path. Either way, the dust produced by his feet covers us.

I’ll ask again: Do you want to be healed?

The author Chris Cruz summarizes our theme:

“If we’re not intentionally choosing to be discipled by Jesus, we’re being unintentionally discipled by the world.”

Which will be true for you today?

Quote for the day:

“Let your house be a meeting place for the rabbis, and cover yourself in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.” —attributed to Yose ben Yoezer, second century BC, quoted by John Mark Comer in Practicing the Way

Our latest website resources:

• Why “Anora” and “The White Lotus” are making headlines: A biblical response to a broken culture
• Growing up on the Gaza border: My view on the war in Israel and why there can be no peace until the hostages come home
• Artificial Intelligence: Tool or threat?
• The troubled youth and surprising legacy of George Foreman
• Is Amazon’s House of David worth the watch?

Denison Forum

“Someone will read somewhere that George Foreman put God first”

George Foreman, the two-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, died Friday night at the age of seventy-six. If this was all you knew about him, you didn’t know what mattered most to him.

Note the priorities of his life as described by his family at his death:

A devout preacher, a devoted husband, a loving father and a proud grand- and great-grandfather, he lived a life marked by unwavering faith, humility, and purpose. A humanitarian, an Olympian and two-time heavyweight champion of the world, he was deeply respected.

However, few would have imagined such a life and legacy when he was growing up in my hometown of Houston.

“I don’t want your money, I want you”

By his own admission, Foreman was a troubled youth. He dropped out of school at the age of fifteen and spent time as a mugger. The next year, he had a change of heart and convinced his mother to sign him up for Job Corps after seeing an ad for the Corps on television. He earned his GED and tried to become a carpenter and bricklayer before finding boxing.

Foreman won a gold medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and said later this was the achievement of which he was most proud in his boxing career. He went on to defeat Joe Frazier to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.

I was one of millions who watched his shocking loss to Muhammad Ali on television the next year. Most people thought he would win easily, but the aging Ali’s now-famous “rope-a-dope” strategy depleted Foreman’s formidable power and led to his defeat. Many assumed his boxing career was effectively over.

After a few more fights, Foreman lost a bout in Puerto Rico. Suffering from exhaustion and heatstroke, he stated later that he had a near-death experience.

He spoke of being in a terrifying place of nothingness and despair and pled with God to help him. He said he heard a voice in his dressing room that asked, “Do you believe in God? Why are you ready to die?”

He responded, “Look, I am George Foreman. I can give money to charity and for cancer.” But the voice answered, “I don’t want your money; I want you.” In that moment, Foreman gave his life to Christ and said, “I never was the same man. My life changed.”

Foreman left boxing to become a minister. He went to prisons and hospitals to tell his story, then started a youth center.

Ten years later, in need of money for his ministry, he returned to boxing. Seven years later, he shocked the boxing world by knocking out Michael Moorer, nineteen years his junior, and regaining his world title. Foreman’s twenty years between titles is easily the longest gap in boxing history.

“George Foreman put God first”

Foreman started a church in Houston he led for three decades. He made millions from the George Foreman Grill, but said he was especially proud of the way it helped people lose weight and improve their health: “Success cannot be measured with money when you’re talking about this.”

He starred briefly in a sitcom called “George” in the 1990s and even appeared on the reality singing competition The Masked Singer in 2022. A biographical movie based on his life was released the next year.

He was especially grateful for his wife Mary. “When I speak, they ask me what I consider my most crowning achievement,” he said. “I raise up my left hand and show them my wedding band.”

When a reporter asked him what aspect of his life he hoped would stand out most, he replied:

Most importantly, that someone will read somewhere that George Foreman put God first. I had that experience in Puerto Rico all those years back and it is just as real and fresh as if it happened to me yesterday. People know if you sit down long enough with me, “Oh, he’s going to start talking religion.” And that’s what I really want people to know about me, that I was a church member, and I give my life to Jesus Christ.

“The world is full of people who want to play it safe”

When I “start talking religion,” secular people can easily dismiss my words as coming from a “paid Christian” who is simply doing his job. When you start sharing your faith, however, they have no such recourse. If you use your cultural influence for Christ, others “see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

George Foreman touched millions of people who will never know my name. But I have the privilege of knowing people who don’t know his.

So do you.

The Holy Spirit is at work today preparing the heart of someone he intends you to influence tomorrow. The key, in the words of my wise mentor, is to stay obedient to the last word we heard from God and open to the next. We cannot measure the eternal significance of present faithfulness.

When George Foreman met Jesus in a dressing room in Puerto Rico, he could not know I would be writing about his experience decades later or that you would be reading my words. You cannot know how God will use your obedience tomorrow to touch souls for decades to come (if the Lord tarries).

Here’s the key: If we have a genuine, daily relationship with the living Lord Jesus, we cannot be the same. Nor can the lives we touch.

Our secularized culture sees Jesus as a figure of the past akin to Buddha, Muhammad, and Confucius. But Foreman experienced Jesus as a living, present-tense reality. His life was transformed not by religion but by a personal experience with our transforming Lord. He spent the rest of his life encouraging others to meet the One who changed his life.

Now you and I are invited to follow his example.

In his book Knockout Entrepreneur, George Foreman wrote:

The world is full of people who want to play it safe, people who have tremendous potential but never use it. Somewhere deep inside them, they know that they could do more in life, be more, and have more—if only they were willing to take a few risks.

What risks will you take for Jesus today?

Denison Forum

Why you are alive at this moment in history

If you’re among the millions who are afraid of flying these days, here’s fodder for your fears: the shutdown of London’s Heathrow Airport last Friday not only exposed issues with “creaking infrastructure” at Britain’s airports, but British reporters are now speculating about the dire consequences if Russia was behind it.

The fire that engulfed a nearby substation Thursday evening caused Europe’s busiest airport to shut down the next day, disrupting more than 1,300 flights and 200,000 passengers. A British official said Friday that there is “no indication of Russian involvement” in the fire, but intelligence experts state that the inferno had “all the hallmarks” of Russian sabotage.

The shutdown came as Russia’s disruption and sabotage operations in the West are continuing to escalate. A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed that transportation and critical infrastructure are some of the primary targets of Russian attacks, which have often utilized explosives.

Whether Russia or another actor was behind the power outage, the fact remains that such a crisis could be the work of terrorists in the future. In a world as interconnected as ours, a single act of sabotage could affect millions or more.

Add China’s deep-sea cable cutter that “could reset the world order” and renewed fighting in Lebanon and Gaza over the weekend (more on both in tomorrow’s Daily Article), and we could be forgiven for wishing we had been born in a different century. However, when confronting massive challenges, we can find hope in this fact: if God could not use us effectively at this moment in history, we would not be alive at this moment in history.

Vetting before I went to East Malaysia

Despite what secularists say, you are not here by chance. You are alive today by the creative act of your Creator. It is by his providence that you were not alive a hundred years ago or a hundred years from now (if the Lord tarries).

And God makes no mistakes.

I spent the summer before my senior year of college serving as a missionary in East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. Before I was selected for this assignment, mission officials put me through rigorous vetting to be sure I had the requisite capacities for the assignment. They did not want to send me where I could not be effective, and they knew much more about the position than I did.

Our omniscient Father is far better at employing his children than humans could ever be. If you did not have the requisite capacities to be assigned this moment in history, you would not be living in this moment of history.

Of course, this fact can feel like a compliment we’d rather not receive. Mother Teresa admitted: “I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish that he didn’t trust me so much.” You might feel the same way today.

“If you had been here, my brother would not have died”

If so, let’s consider a familiar story with a surprising insight.

In John 11 we read that Lazarus had fallen sick and his sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (v. 3). Verse 5 emphasizes the depth of their relationship: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”

Then comes the surprise: “So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was” (v. 6, my emphasis). So translates a Greek word meaning “therefore” or “consequently.”

How can it be that Jesus stayed where he was because he loved Lazarus and his sisters?

Martha had the same question when he eventually arrived: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21). As did her sister Mary, who repeated the assertion verbatim (v. 32), perhaps indicating that they had discussed their confusion.

“The reason why the crowd went to meet him”

Jesus’ delay ensured that he would arrive in Bethany four days after Lazarus’ death (v. 17). Here’s why this matters: Rabbis taught that the soul hovers over the body of the deceased person for the first three days. If Jesus had raised Lazarus earlier than he did, this could have been seen as a resuscitation rather than a resurrection.

By delaying, Jesus showed himself to be not just a miraculous healer of the sick (cf. v. 37) but one with the power over death itself (vv. 43–44).

As a result, “Many of the Jews” who saw what he did “believed in him” (v. 45). Later we read that a “large crowd of the Jews” came to Jerusalem “not only on account of [Jesus] but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead” (John 12:9).

In fact, “on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus” (v. 11). The next day, they met Jesus as he came into Jerusalem on what we now call Palm Sunday, greeting him with “branches of palm trees” and shouting hosannas of praise (v. 13). John adds: “The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to bear witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign” (vv. 17–18, my emphasis).

Here’s the point: Jesus’ delay in responding to Lazarus’ sickness, which made no sense to Lazarus’ sisters at the time, led to a providential miracle that changed history and demonstrated his divine status for all time.

It is always too soon to give up on God

This story is preserved in the Bible because it is as relevant today as when it first occurred. Our secularized society views Jesus as a figure of the past, but he is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Anything he has ever done, he can still do.

Our broken culture desperately needs the witness of lives transformed by the living Lord Jesus. So, where do you need his life-giving power today? If you name your need, give it to your Lord, and trust his timing, you’ll experience his providence in ways that will mark your life and empower your influence.

It is always too soon to give up on God. Max Lucado reminded us:

“Peter was in a storm before he walked on water. Lazarus was in a grave before he came out of it. The demoniac was possessed before he was a preacher, and the paralytic was on a stretcher before he was in your Bible.”

What “grave” will you trust to your Lord today?

Quote for the day:

“Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence.” —St. Augustine

Our latest website resources:

• Is Shakespeare’s birthplace being canceled? Researchers want to “decolonize” his museum in England
• A review of Mark McCormack’s “The 110% Solution”
• Astronauts return, Democrat party turmoil, JFK files, & March Madness
• Redemptive love and healing after abortion
• Your odds of predicting a perfect March Madness bracket: A reflection on divine providence and sustaining hope

Denison Forum