Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified into a Category 5 storm yesterday. The center of the monster storm could come ashore Wednesday in the Tampa Bay region, which has not seen a direct hit by a major hurricane in more than a century. Forecasters are warning of the highest storm surge ever predicted for the region.

Ahead of the devastation that is likely tomorrow, I want to think with you about some faith questions as we seek hope in these hard days.

If every wrong chess move can be replayed

The English poet John Keats called our fallen planet a “vale of soul-making.” Yesterday I suggested that God uses natural disasters to show us our need to “seek the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength” (Psalm 105:4) and to grow in holiness as a result.

Inherent in this worldview is the claim that some suffering is necessary for spiritual maturity, much as a kite needs wind to climb higher. When Paul was afflicted with a “thorn in the flesh,” for example, he chose to “boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

It is also true (though not in the case of innocent suffering) that much evil in the world is the consequence of misused free will. As C. S. Lewis notes in The Problem of Pain, “The possibility of pain is inherent in the very existence of a world where souls can meet. When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the sufferings of men.”

God must allow the consequences of freedom or we are not free. If every wrong chess move can be replayed, we have no game. The law of gravity cannot function if it is countermanded every time someone falls.

But why must this be so?

Responding to the “utopia thesis”

Philosophers Antony Flew and J. L. Mackie proposed the “utopia thesis,” claiming that an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God could create a world in which people are free and grow to full spiritual maturity without the presence or necessity of evil and suffering. We cannot understand how he might do so, but we’re not God.

One response is that even God is not obligated to do what is logically impossible, such as making a rock so big he cannot move it or two mountains without a valley in between. It is illogical that even he could create a utopia in which humans are truly free but they never misuse such freedom.

But here’s my problem with this response: such a “utopia” is precisely how the Bible describes heaven.

Revelation 7 pictures “a great multitude that no one could number . . . crying out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (vv. 9–10). Worship, our expression of love and adoration for God, is the central activity of heaven. But love must be a choice, which requires freedom of will even in heaven.

At the same time, we are assured that in heaven, “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4a). Since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), it’s hard to see how there can be sin in heaven without death as a consequence. Or how “there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain” (Revelation 21:4b NASB) while sin is present.

So, if we will experience a “utopia” one day in which we are free but sin and suffering do not exist, why not now?

“I believe; help my unbelief!”

Mystery is part of the Christian faith. We wonder, for example, how God can be three yet one, Jesus could be fully God yet fully man, and the Bible can be divinely inspired yet humanly written.

In the same way, I do not know an explanation for our suffering world that is free from all questions and mystery. But let me ask you this: Do you truly believe that our God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful? Then by definition, he must always know what is best for us, want what is best for us, and therefore do what is best for us.

Now we have a choice: We can view his nature through the prism of events, or view events through the prism of his nature. I choose the latter with the prayer, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). All the while knowing that there are truths in this world God cannot reveal to me because I am unable to comprehend them (1 Corinthians 13:12).

But this world is not all there is.

Max Lucado quotes a friend who says, “Everything will work out in the end. If it’s not working out, it’s not the end.” While the “utopia” of heaven raises questions about earth, it also offers wonderful assurance about life beyond this life. As Paul declared,

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

How can we have the same confidence?

“When we can reach beyond our fears”

Henri Nouwen observed: “We are fearful people. We are afraid of conflict, war, an uncertain future, illness, and most of all, death.” This is problematic because “this fear takes away our freedom and gives society the power to manipulate us with threats and promises.”

However,

When we can reach beyond our fears to the One who loves us with a love that was there before we were born and will be there after we die, then oppression, persecution, and even death will be unable to take our freedom. Once we have come to this deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love, and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood.

Will you “come to this deep inner knowledge” today?

Tuesday news to know:

• Israel marks Oct. 7 anniversary under shadow of escalating war
• Hezbollah missiles hit Israel’s Haifa in escalating conflict
• Antisemitic incidents in US surge to record high—report
• Discovery in tiny worm leads to Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for two scientists
• On this day in 1970: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wins the Nobel Prize in Literature

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Those who understand God’s sovereignty have joy even in the midst of suffering, a joy reflected on their very faces, for they see that their suffering is not without purpose.” —R. C. Sproul

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A reflection on crisis and the power of faith

A year ago today, Hamas launched the worst massacre in Israel’s history, murdering 1,195 people and taking 251 hostages. The last twelve months have been what the Economist calls “the year that shattered the Middle East.”

Despite the horrors of war and the tragic loss of life that have ensued, the past year has seen significant progress for Israel:

• The Israeli people are more unified in fighting their enemies: fully 80 percent support the current offensive against Hezbollah, for example.
• The IDF has largely decapitated Hezbollah and destroyed many of its missiles, significantly degrading what had been Iran’s strongest proxy in the region.
• Israel’s army chief said yesterday that Israeli forces had defeated the military wing of Hamas. The terror group’s hoped-for “axis of resistance” against Israel has not come to its defense.
• Iran has been largely ineffectual in its attacks on Israel, staging two missile launches that caused little damage to the Jewish state.

However, there is also cause for grave concern:

• Nearly forty-two thousand people have been killed in Gaza, and around 70 percent of the area’s housing stock has been destroyed. Over half of Gaza’s population has lost a relative; some three-quarters have been displaced at least three times during the war.
• Palestinians’ support for violence in the West Bank has grown from 35 percent in September 2022 to 56 percent in September this year.
• The ongoing wars are significantly harming Israel’s economy: GDP is shrinking year-on-year; the prolonged absence of so many reservists is harming businesses; and railway stations have been forced to close for lack of security guards.
• The threat of terrorism persists: On October 1, more Israelis were killed by two Palestinians who attacked a commuter rail station in Jaffa than were harmed by 180 Iranian missiles. Hezbollah rockets hit Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, early this morning and launched another attack on Tiberias.
• Israel’s direct conflict with Iran could escalate into a regional war that eventually involves the US on its side and China, Russia, and North Korea with the Iranians. As Israeli forces degrade its proxies, Iran may turn to developing nuclear weapons in response.
• The conflict could spawn terrorism in the US as well: The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning that a “variety of actors” could commit acts of violence here in response to today’s anniversary.

Millions of unexploded bombs

In light of all the challenges in the news and our daily lives, let’s ask: Does God want us to be happy or to be holy?

Today’s terrible anniversary comes as millions in the American Southeast are reeling from one of the deadliest hurricanes of the modern era, with another threatening storm on the way. The World War II bomb that recently exploded in Japan was one of millions of unexploded bombs around the world and serves as a parable for our trying times: There always seems to be another crisis waiting to erupt.

According to Peggy Noonan’s latest Wall Street Journal column, “Americans feel surrounded by crises—inflation, the Mideast, Vladimir Putin, AI’s gonna eat your brain and no one’s gonna stop it, China. You can see this in the right track/wrong track numbers, which continue underwater—the whole country fears we’re on a losing slide in a dangerous world.”

If God primarily wants us to be happy, he doesn’t seem to be doing his job very well. But there’s more to the story.

The word happiness comes from the Old Norse word hap, which means “chance, luck, fortune, or fate.” It is based on happenings and is thus transient. We are happy depending on whether our team won or lost, the current state of the stock market, and a variety of other transient factors.

Paradoxically, pursuing happiness often leads us to make compromises with our character that harm us and others, thus reducing our happiness.

By contrast, holiness (from the German heilig, meaning “whole” or “sacred”) is not transient but transforming. Pursuing holiness often leads us to make changes in our character that mature us and bless others, thus increasing our holiness.

If the world is a “vale of soul-making”

If God intends us to be holy, this world makes much more sense. As I explain in my latest website article, God and Hurricane Helene: Thinking biblically about natural disasters, this is not the world as God originally created it. Rather, we live on a broken planet where natural disasters are an inevitable consequence of the Fall (cf. Genesis 3:17–19; Romans 8:22).

However, the God who redeems all he allows uses even these disasters—not to make us happy, but to help us be holy.

Paul observed: “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4). The second-century theologian Irenaeus accordingly suggested that God uses our fallen world to grow us spiritually. And, as C. S. Lewis noted in The Problem of Pain, “If the world is indeed a ‘vale of soul-making,’ it seems on the whole to be doing its work.”

Now you and I have a choice.

Scripture calls us to “seek the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105:4). When we face the crises of life, God wants us to “remember the wondrous works that he has done” (v. 5) and trust our unchanging and loving Father to do the same today.

But we can also respond to crises by doubling down on self-reliance. Rather than trusting our Lord, we can seek to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), trusting our frailty and finitude over his omnipotent power and omniscient wisdom. We can exchange holiness for happiness—and forfeit both.

The famed missionary Jim Elliot noted,

“God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him.”

Will you experience his best today?

Monday news to know:

• Hurricane Milton gaining strength fast, expected to hit Florida as a major hurricane this week
• Trump makes a dramatic return to Pennsylvania shooting scene
• US added a whopping 254,000 jobs last month
• Biden will allow legal permission to lapse for migrants from 4 countries
• On this day in 2001: US-led attack on Afghanistan begins

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Obedience is the key that opens every door.” —C. S. Lewis

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For the vast majority of modern history, women have outnumbered men when it comes to who shows up most often at church. In fact, many scholars have come to see it as something of a universal truth. However, the latest research for Gen Z men and women shows that pattern has started to change.

As Ruth Graham describes, “For the first time in modern American history, young men are now more religious than their female peers. They attend services more often and are more likely to identify as religious.” And this trend appears to be unique to Gen Z, since men are more likely than women to be religiously unaffiliated in every other generation. Now the question experts are asking is, “Why?”

Part of the explanation is that women are simply leaving the church faster than men. A poll from earlier this year found that Gen Z men are only 11 percent less likely to be religiously affiliated than those in the Baby Boomer generation. However, the gap between women in those generations is nearly two-and-a-half times as large. Consequently, it appears that the issue has at least as much to do with more women leaving the church as it does with more men deciding to stay.

At the same time, Gen Z’s religious affiliation still represents a shift in the right direction from the millennials above them, who are the least religiously affiliated generation alive today.

So what has caused this shift and, more importantly, what can it teach us about sharing the gospel with both men and women in those younger generations?

#ChurchToo’s continued impact

As Graham points out, religious affiliation is one of many ways in which men and women are on different trajectories among young people today. For example, Gen Z women are:

• More educated than Gen Z men
• Earn a higher income in prominent cities like New York and Washington
• Less likely to say they want to become parents, by a margin of 12 percentage points
• More likely to report feeling like they are treated unequally in most churches

And that last part is particularly important in explaining the gender gap in religious affiliation.

Many Gen Z women came of age during the #MeToo movement—and its religiously based cousin #ChurchToo. As such, some of their most formative years were spent hearing about the abuse and scandals perpetrated against women, far too often by leaders in the church. It is understandable that many would find it difficult to separate that kind of abuse from the faith of the abusers, even if drawing such a correlation overlooks the basic realities of who Jesus is and what the gospel is truly about.

Conversely, Gen Z men grew up among the same influences, though they often experienced those events differently.

Derek Rishmawy, who leads a ministry at the University of California, Irvine, points out that for some of the young men with whom he works, Christianity is seen as “one institution that isn’t initially and formally skeptical of them as a class.” He goes on to add that “We’re telling them, ‘you are meant to live a meaningful life’” at a time when that is not always the primary message they receive from the world around them.

As a result, many have come to see the church as a place where they can find community when that is not necessarily as available in the other areas of their lives.

But what is true for Gen Z men should be true for all people. To that end, let’s examine some steps we can take as both individual Christians and members of the body of Christ to help make it so.

How to reach Gen Z

While Gen Z men and women may be heading in opposite directions when it comes to religious affiliation, one thing on which they agree is that their mental health is not in a good place. Forty-six percent of them listed mental health as the greatest concern for themselves and for their community. Relatedly, addiction checked in as their second biggest issue at 31 percent.

Considering that the church represents a source of mental health problems for a relatively large portion of Gen Z women, it makes sense that they might be more hesitant to attend and more willing to look outside of the Christian faith for answers. While God’s truth does not change with our experiences, our experiences often provide the lens through which we understand the Lord. As a result, one of the best ways we can reach out to young people regardless of gender is to make our communities of faith a place where they can feel welcome and safe.

Such efforts don’t mean always tailoring our services or beliefs to fit what they want. After all, the gospel needs to remain the gospel, and authenticity is one of the most important values Gen Z is looking for in both people and organizations. Yet there are still things we can do to make them feel wanted, and that’s a great place to start.

If your church has a large Gen Z population or is located in a younger part of your city or town, do you have a plan for reaching out to them? Are there life groups or Sunday School classes where they can feel at home? What ministries exist in your area that are aimed at reaching out to Gen Z and can your church partner with them?

Beyond that, are there avenues for young people to get plugged into your church’s leadership or chances to serve that show you value what they bring to the table? Such efforts are especially important when it comes to reaching out to the young women who often feel as though they are less valued at church than in the other areas of their lives.

One of the reasons Jesus gained such a diverse and devoted following throughout his ministry is that his words and actions demonstrated how much he loved and valued the people who crossed his path. They felt accepted by him, even while he challenged their thoughts and confronted their sins.

As his ambassadors to the world around us, we need to do the same.

Will you?

Friday News to Know:

• Putin gives Russian criminals the option to enlist in the army to avoid prosecution
• Dockworkers’ union suspends strike until January as negotiations continue
• Michael Jordan could bring unprecedented change after suing NASCAR
• Israel continues strike against Hezbollah in Beirut, Lebanon
• On this day in 1957: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day

“We are either in the process of resisting God’s truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.” —Charles Stanley

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A reflection on mortality and morality

Last night’s vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and J. D. Vance had no decisive winner, according to a poll conducted just after the event. Unsurprisingly, Democrats overwhelmingly sided with Walz, while Republicans overwhelmingly picked Vance as the winner.

The debate was widely watched for at least three reasons. One was that one in five Americans said they did not know the candidates before the debate. Another was the obvious desire of viewers to learn more about the two parties and their visions for the future.

And another was the fact that when the presidential inauguration takes place in 110 days, one of these two men will be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

Of the forty-five people who have served as president of the United States, eight died in office. The vice presidents who succeeded them were a varied lot: Andrew Johnson was impeached, avoiding conviction by a single vote, while Theodore Roosevelt became one of our most admired presidents and Harry Truman helped end World War II.

Consequently, what happened last night could shape our national future and invites us to consider two imperatives.

Beware the illusion of immortality

If you were seeking a unifying theme for the day’s news, human mortality and finitude would be high on your list. For example:

• Iran launched a missile attack on Israel yesterday, threatening to escalate the conflict in the Middle East. (For more, see my Daily Article Special Edition.)
• A suspected terror shooting yesterday in the central Israel town of Jaffa murdered seven people and wounded dozens more.
• The flood damage from Hurricane Helene is apocalyptic, according to meteorologists.
• Another major hurricane could strike America later this week.
• An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus (for which there are no vaccines) is raising concern over the possibility of international spread.
• A wave of hoax shooting threats is jolting schools across the country.
• The dockworker strike at US seaports could wreak havoc on global supply chains and the economy.
• A teen suicide crisis is continuing in America.

Nonetheless, we avoid the subject of mortality wherever possible.

We can do so in part because medical advances have pushed death further into the future than ever before. New oncological treatments, for example, have enabled President Carter to live nine years with brain cancer that otherwise would have quickly proven fatal.

In addition, with advances in hospitals and hospice care, few of us actually witness death these days. And video games, movies, and television shows make death more fictional and less real.

But there’s a spiritual factor at work here as well. Satan’s first lie to Adam and Eve is one he repeats to us every day: “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He wants the unsaved to die unsaved and the saved to ignore the fact of their mortality lest they live each day ready for judgment and eternity.

And he uses the illusion of immortality for his nefarious purposes.

Beware the peril of prosperity

Our spiritual enemy employs a second, closely related strategy as well: the peril of prosperity.

Both vice presidential debate candidates did their best last night to convince us that their party would lead Americans to greater flourishing. But we should beware a biblical pattern here.

As the people of Israel prepared to claim their Promised Land, God made this prediction: “When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant” (Deuteronomy 31:20). As a result, Moses warned them: “In the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands” (v. 29).

It was after King David led Israel to peace and prosperity (2 Samuel 10) that he fell into his disastrous sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). The Lord grieved over Israel: “The more they increased, the more they sinned against me” (Hosea 4:7).

By contrast, the psalmist testified: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Psalm 119:71). Now he can say, “The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72).

Wars, crimes, natural disasters, and diseases remind us daily that “we are dust” (Psalm 103:14). One way God redeems them is by using them to turn our hearts from temporal prosperity to eternal realities.

Charles Spurgeon was right: “Time is short. Eternity is long. It is only reasonable that this short life be lived in the light of eternity.”

A resolution that changed history

To experience God’s best today, it is vital that we admit our mortality and choose biblical morality. To this end, as a teenager, Jonathan Edwards resolved:

“Never to do anything which I would be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”

He later became America’s greatest theologian and the leading preacher of the First Great Awakening.

What if you and I made the same resolution today?

Wednesday news to know:

• Hurricane Helene death toll rises as rescuers scramble to reach flooded towns
• US job openings rise to 8 million as labor market remains sturdy
• Democrats sue to block Georgia ballot hand count rule
• Judge blocks Georgia law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy
• On this day in 1967: Thurgood Marshall sworn in as first Black Supreme Court justice

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine will be.” —Charles Spurgeon

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“Our war is with Hezbollah, not the people of Lebanon”

Israeli special forces are engaged in “limited and targeted raids” in southern Lebanon this morning, according to an IDF spokesman. Their purpose is reportedly not to occupy the country but to allow Israelis living in northern Israel to return to their homes.

Israel has been criticized for attacking “civilian” buildings in its latest conflict with Hezbollah, but this is because the terrorists have hidden their weapons and missile launching positions within civilian villages. In fact, the corrupt warlord Hassan Nasrallah and other senior Hezbollah leaders were gathered in a bunker more than sixty feet beneath a working-class neighborhood in southern Beirut when Israel’s air force struck the bunker with a series of timed, chained explosions to penetrate it.

According to the IDF spokesman, Hezbollah had been planning “to invade Israel, attack Israeli communities, and massacre innocent men, women, and children.” By contrast, he stated, “I want to make it clear: our war is with Hezbollah, not with the people of Lebanon. We do not want to harm Lebanese civilians, and we’re taking measures to prevent that.”

Israel has repeatedly warned civilians before staging strikes, using text messages and voice recordings to urge them to leave dangerous areas. It even warned an Iranian plane not to land in Beirut lest it be attacked.

When America stood behind Israel

Unlike Hezbollah and Hamas, who are pledged to the genocidal destruction of the State of Israel and the Jewish people, Israel’s war aim is to enable Lebanon to seize a post-Hezbollah future for its people while restoring stability to the region. In fact, in the wake of Nasrallah’s death, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister said yesterday that his government is ready to fully implement a UN resolution that would end Hezbollah’s armed presence near the Israeli border and replace them with the Lebanese army in the area.

Nonetheless, in a speech to the UN last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Anti-Israel incidents of assault, vandalism, harassment, protests, and divestment resolutions on US college campuses escalated 477 percent across the year following Hamas’s October 7 invasion.

There was a day when the United States stood unequivocally behind the Jewish nation and her people in the face of their enemies. For example, when the United Nations tried in 1975 to condemn Zionism (the belief that the Jewish people need and deserve a homeland) as “a form of racism and racial discrimination,” US Ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan denounced “this infamous act” as a “political lie of a variety well-known to the twentieth century, and scarcely exceeded in all that annal of untruth and outrage.”

That was then—this is now.

Here’s the good news: Condemnations on college campuses and behind UN lecterns are less threatening to Israel since they are coming from outside the country. My Israeli friends tell me the nation is united in its resolve to defeat the terrorists who threaten their lives and their future. After leading more than thirty pilgrimages to the Holy Land, I can tell you that her people, while enormously diverse on a wide range of religious and political issues, are passionately committed to the State of Israel.

By contrast, the “untruth and outrage” condemning America are coming from within our nation and imperil our very future.

Is America “among the greatest countries of the world”?

In 1980, the self-described Marxist socialist Howard Zinn wrote A People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present. His book has sold more than three million copies; scholars claim that “no introductory work of American history has had more influence over the past forty years.”

In Zinn’s telling, a nation’s history is comprised of “the fierce conflicts of interest . . . between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex.” He applies such Marxist thinking to American history with devastating consequences.

He and the critical theory proponents who have popularized this ideology condemn the United States as a racist project built by white supremacists to advance themselves by oppressing others. Unsurprisingly, a cacophony of liberal scholars have been calling in recent years for the US Constitution to be abolished in response.

Such attacks on the moral foundations of our nation are having their effect. In 1998, 70 percent of Americans considered patriotism to be very important; today it’s 38 percent. The younger you are, the less likely you are to believe that the US is “among the greatest countries of the world.”

King David asked:

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).

What, indeed?

“Be worthy of the gospel of Christ”

As Israel seeks to secure peace for itself in the face of virulent terrorist opposition, I am praying for “the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) to be extended to Lebanon and her people. I am praying for an end to Hezbollah’s bloody reign that has victimized so many Lebanese, Americans, Israelis, and Syrians over four decades. And for the same with regard to Hamas and other jihadist groups that threaten the Middle East and beyond.

I am similarly praying for a new regime in Iran, one that would serve the interests of its long-suffering people. And for a new stability in the Middle East that unites Jews and Arabs in building secure homelands for Israelis and Palestinians.

I am also praying for a renewal of American purpose and mission, one aligned with our founding proclamation that all people—from preborn children to racial minorities to the elderly and infirm—are endowed by our Creator with “unalienable” rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I am praying for a return to the consensual religious morality that George Washington and other founders considered so “indispensable” to political prosperity.

And I am praying for Christians to be submitted to the sanctifying Spirit of God so fully that we can be among the “righteous” to whom David referred (cf. Ephesians 5:18). Paul exhorted his readers to “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Philippians 1:27). America has never needed America’s Christians to live such lives more urgently than today.

Will you join me?

Tuesday news to know:

• Jimmy Carter turns 100: Long legacy of giving celebrated with new homes, benefit concert
• Death toll triples in Asheville area after Hurricane Helene guts North Carolina: “There were bodies in the trees”
• Dikembe Mutombo, a towering NBA presence, dies at 58
• Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hit king, has died at 83
• On this day in 1988: Mikhail Gorbachev becomes head of Soviet Union

Quote for the day:

“To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian” (George Washington).

Denison Forum

How Benjamin Netanyahu tricked “the” terrorist

Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on the group’s central command headquarters Friday. An Iranian general was killed in the same strike. Israel’s military says it has now eliminated eight of Hezbollah’s nine most senior military commanders. As of this morning, Israel has also killed Hamas leaders in Lebanon and Syria and bombed Houthi targets in Yemen.

However, the killing of Nasrallah is making headlines not just for its political significance but also for the way it was conducted.

According to a senior Israeli official, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Friday address to the United Nations was part of a “diversionary plan” intended to make Nasrallah believe Israel would not take drastic action with the prime minister out of the country. The terrorist leader was believed to be watching Mr. Netanyahu’s speech at the UN “and was then attacked by Israeli Air Force planes.” The prime minister approved the strike before delivering his speech, the official added.

A “measure of justice”

To Hezbollah and its jihadist allies, Nasrallah is being mourned today as a hero. To US President Joe Biden, his killing was a “measure of justice” for his many victims, including “hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror” and thousands of Israeli and Lebanese civilians.

To Mr. Netanyahu, Nasrallah “was not just another terrorist—he was the terrorist” (his emphasis).

As a reminder, Israel’s current conflict with Hezbollah started when the terrorist group began bombing northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas’s genocidal invasion on October 7. Nearly eighty thousand Israelis living near the Lebanese border have been forced to flee. Israel’s goal is to enable them to return to their homes in peace.

As I watched the news regarding Nasrallah’s death unfold over the weekend, the biblical admonition echoed in my mind: “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

“The soul who sins shall die”

I am not saying that all suffering is the consequence of sin. To the contrary, I am praying fervently for the many innocent victims of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern US and for the brave Ukrainians as they stand up to Vladimir Putin’s murderous invasion.

I am not saying that Israel’s leaders can do no wrong or that their every action is an expression of God’s will. Nor am I claiming that the State of Israel founded in 1948 is a direct fulfillment of biblical prophecy, a question that is much debated (see my extensive article here).

But I am saying that sins have consequences for sinners.

• Some are apparent in the moment, as with God’s judgment on Ananias and Sapphira for their deception (Acts 5:1–11) and on King Herod for his idolatrous pride (Acts 12:20–23).
• Some take longer to unfold, as with God’s eventual judgment on Egypt (Exodus 15) and the execution of the genocidal Haman in Persia (Esther 7:7–10).
• Some must be “discerned” through the eyes of faith as we trust the justice and timing of God (Psalm 73:17).

But all unconfessed and unrepented sin leads to the same ultimate result: “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). For the lost, their “death” is eternity in hell (Revelation 20:15). For the Christian, their “death” is the forfeit of God’s blessing in this life and reward in the next (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:10–15).

I have often quoted the maxim,

“Sin will always take you further than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay.”

If you are thinking that this statement doesn’t apply to you, you’re being deceived right now.

Three personal steps

How should we respond today?

One: Confess personal sins immediately.

Since none of us knows when we will stand before God’s judgment (Matthew 24:36; Hebrews 9:27), we must be ready to meet him today. Ask his Spirit to show you anything that is wrong between you and your Lord, then confess what comes to your mind and claim your Father’s forgiving grace (1 John 1:9). Do it now.

Two: Seek reconciliation with others.

Jesus taught us to “first be reconciled to your brother” even before offering worship to the Lord (Matthew 5:24). The only day we have to make our relationships right with others is today.

Three: View temptation as spiritual poison leading to death.

God will enable us to defeat all temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), but we must turn immediately to him, seeking the power and victory that can be ours.

A surprising thank-you card

In one of my pastorates, I preached a sermon emphasizing our need to be ready for the judgment of God. Following our evening service, an older couple thanked me for my message that morning. They told me they had taken my sermon to heart, praying together that afternoon as they confessed their sins and asked God to make them right with him and others.

On Monday, the wife died of a heart attack. On Tuesday, I received a thank-you card from her in the mail. She had written and posted it on Sunday in case she did not see me that night. I read it in her memorial service on Wednesday.

You and I are one day closer to eternity than ever before.

Are you ready?

Monday news to know:

• Helene flooding strands hundreds of North Carolina residents as storm’s death toll reaches 95
• Kris Kristofferson death: Country music legend and Blade star dies, aged 88
• Maggie Smith is remembered by “Harry Potter” co-stars, peers, and fans in moving tributes
• Austrian far right projected to register historic election win
• On this day in 1954: USS Nautilus—world’s first nuclear submarine—is commissioned

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Let us stop the progress of sin in our soul at the first stage, for the farther it goes the faster it will increase.” —Thomas Fuller

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The relationship between private virtue and public flourishing

In our ever-more connected world, what happens anywhere can affect us everywhere. For example, what implications could the recent exploding pager attacks against Hezbollah have for air travel in America? Could terrorists do to us what Israel was able to do to Hezbollah terrorists? Could our personal electronics explode mid-flight, bringing our planes crashing to the ground?

The answer is actually good news: US officials say TSA screening is able to detect such explosives, so they have no current plans to ban such devices from air travel. However, the issue reminds us that actions in one part of the world have direct consequences on the other side of the world.

Another example is President Biden’s recent announcement that the US is donating one million mpox vaccine doses and at least $500 million to African countries to support their response to the outbreak. This is good global citizenship, but it is also a way to counter the spread of the virus to our country.

Now let’s consider another illustration of our topic, one that affects every one of us in truly vital ways.

Do you trust the government to tell you the truth?

More than 60 percent of Americans admit to “self-silencing”—keeping their true feelings on sensitive topics to themselves. For example:

• Only 22 percent of Americans say publicly that they trust the government to tell them the truth. (Consider for a moment the implications of this response.) However, when asked in a way that preserves their anonymity, it turns out only 4 percent actually feel this way.
• 24 percent say publicly that they trust the media to tell them the truth, but only 7 percent say the same in private.
• 37 percent say publicly that we live in a “mostly fair society,” but only 7 percent say the same privately.

These numbers are deeply troubling on two levels: the degree of distrust we feel toward our government, media, and society, and the degree of distrust we feel even to share our true feelings in public.

This news reveals an issue foundational to our democracy, one identified early in our history by John Adams. (In what follows, the founding father means “Republican” to refer to the American democratic republic, not the political party that arose nearly a century later. Also, I preserved the capitalizations and spellings he used.) In 1772, Adams wrote that “the preservation of Liberty depends upon the intellectual and moral Character of the People.” Four years later, he stated:

There must be a positive Passion for the public good, the public Interest, Honour, Power, and Glory, established in the Minds of the People, or there can be no Republican Government, nor any real liberty. And this public Passion must be Superiour to all private Passions. Men must be ready, they must pride themselves, and be happy to sacrifice their private Pleasures, Passions, and Interests, nay their private Friendships and dearest Connections, when they Stand in Competition with the Rights of society.

In 1795, Adams warned: “When Ambition and Avarice are predominant Passions and Virtue is lost, Republican Governments are in danger.” In 1798, he famously stated:

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

In 1807, he claimed, “Without national Morality, a Republican Government cannot be maintained.” And in 1819, he stated, “Without Virtue, there can be no political Liberty.”

“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom”

According to John Adams, the personal morality of some of us affects the national experience of all of us. Private virtue is vital to public government.

The reason is simple: If we cannot govern ourselves, we cannot govern each other.

We cannot give others what we do not possess. We cannot ensure that, in Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” if “the people” are incapable of such government.

What is the pathway to personal character? Consider this biblical command:

Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lᴏʀᴅ who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth (Jeremiah 9:23–24).

Jesus prayed: “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). Paul therefore testified: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Oswald Chambers observed: “The summing up of our Lord’s teaching is that the relationship which he demands is an impossible one unless he has done a supernatural work in us.”

“Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one”

If you want our nation to experience God’s best today, strive for personal morality that strengthens public democracy. To do this, “seek the Lᴏʀᴅ and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105:4). Settle for nothing less than a transforming, intimate daily relationship with your Father. Experience his love in prayer, Bible study, and worship. Practice his presence as you walk consciously with him through your day.

God calls us to “seek my face” (Psalm 27:8), knowing that one day we will “see his face” (Revelation 22:4). In the meantime, let’s make the medieval Irish hymn our prayer:

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
Be all else but naught to me, save that thou art;
Thou my best thought in the day and the night,
Waking and sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, thou my true word,
Thou ever with me, and I with thee, Lord;
Thou my great Father, and I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.

Are you “one” with your “great Father” today?

If not, why not?

Thursday news to know:

• Hurricane Helene could bring “catastrophic and deadly storm surge” to parts of Florida Gulf Coast
• US leads new effort to end hostilities in Lebanon and Gaza, sources say
• Eric Adams is indicted after federal corruption investigation
• Congress passes temporary bill to avoid shutdown as lawmakers punt spending decisions to December
• On this day in 1960: Kennedy and Nixon square off in first televised presidential debate

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“There are far too many people who settle for practicing a sterile religion rather than enjoying a growing, vibrant, personal relationship with the living God.” —Henry Blackaby

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Choosing the God who has chosen you

If you’ve never heard of Apollo Quiboloy before, you’re not alone. His name was unfamiliar to me as well before reading a recent article in Christianity Today that chronicled his legacy and arrest on charges of rape, sex trafficking, fraud, and smuggling. What makes his arrest particularly troubling, however, is the legacy he leaves behind as the leader of a cult in which he claimed to be the “Appointed Son of God.”

Quiboloy started his movement, called the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC), in 1985. Prior to that, he was a pastor in the United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI). His departure was, perhaps, expedited by the fact that the UPCI was already investigating him for false teachings by the time he left.

His church began with fifteen followers but eventually grew to as many as seven million, as his claims of being a messianic figure and bridge to God proved attractive to the people around him.

He states that he earned his title as God’s Appointed Son because “he was the first man to have endured all the fiery trials of persecution and hardship and to have overcome them all without breaking his covenant with the Father.” Moreover, he claimed to have broken “the chain of sin by his absolute obedience to the Father’s will.”

As such, he represented the firstborn and start of Christ’s second coming, which he taught would occur “in millions of sons and daughters of the Father in the Kingdom Nation of God on earth.”

As with many cults, however, his false teachings were not the only way in which he misled and abused his followers.

One of many

In 2021, Quiboloy was indicted by a federal grand jury in California after he was accused of forcing the girls he used as personal assistants—some as young as twelve—to have sex with him or risk “eternal damnation.” He also relied upon a network of followers to solicit donations that were used to finance “the lavish lifestyle of KOJC leaders.” Such allegations were hardly unique to the United States, however.

His crimes were well-known back home, but he was allowed to continue unhindered, largely because he enjoyed the protection of the nation’s former president, Rodrigo Duterte. As such, even after being placed on the FBI’s most wanted list, he continued to preach and build up followers.

It was not until Duterte stepped down in 2022 that the path was cleared for Quiboloy’s arrest. Yet, even then, it required 2,000 security officers to storm his complex and get past the thousands of followers who had amassed in order to protest his arrest; followers who have not exactly abandoned their leader in the days since.

And even with Quiboloy in jail, it remains unlikely that circumstances will change in the Philippines anytime soon.

You see, as Beng Alba-Jones notes in the article referenced above, the KOJC is one of many such cults that continues to play an outsized role in Filipino society. And the reason why should serve as a warning to all of us, regardless of where we call home.

What drives your devotion?

The common thread running through most of the Filipino cults Alba-Jones described is the idea that the best way to relate to God is to go through those who claim to be closer to him than we are. And that impulse is hardly limited to the Philippines.

We see it in the Old Testament when the people wanted to go through Moses rather than relate to God directly (Exodus 20:18–19). We see it in the way priests and rabbis became the undisputed mouthpiece for the Lord by the time of Jesus. And we see it today with the following garnered by many pastors and religious leaders.

Even in the secular parts of our culture, there are countless examples of musicians, politicians, athletes, and others who garner an almost religious level of devotion among their fans.

But why is that the case? Why do we seem to insist on following humans rather than God when Jesus came to enable us to go directly to the Father?

I think at least part of the explanation is that, on some level, most of us recognize that the very idea that we should be able to interact with the omnipotent God of the universe is pretty ridiculous. After all, there is zero reason that you or I should deserve an audience with our perfect creator. As a result, when someone else comes along and offers to serve as the mediator we know we should need, it just makes more sense.

The problem with that line of thinking is that we don’t get to be the ones to decide who is and isn’t worthy of experiencing a personal relationship with God. Only he gets to make that choice, and he has chosen to extend that invitation to all of us.

However, accepting that invitation means recognizing that we don’t deserve it. It means making peace with the fact that we have done nothing to earn his favor and can never repay the debt Jesus covered on our behalf.

In short, it means moving beyond our desire to be God when that impulse has been at the core of our fallen natures from the start (Genesis 3).

So, the next time you see people fawning over pop stars, politicians, or pastors, remember that the same impulse driving their devotion lives in you as well. It may not manifest in the same way, but our need for God’s help in making sure that he remains the focus of our worship is just as great as theirs.

Have you sought that help yet today?

Friday news to know:

• Pentagon concerned Israel will soon send troops into Lebanon after the latest bombing
• Kentucky sheriff arrested after shooting judge inside the courthouse
• Shohei Ohtani becomes first MLB player with 50 HR and 50 SB in a season after “greatest baseball game of all time”
• US overdose deaths drop by more than 10 percent over the last year
• On this day in 1973: Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in “Battle of the Sexes”

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Religion operates on the principle of ‘I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.’ The basic operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ—therefore I obey.’” —Tim Keller

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Israel bombed Lebanon’s Hezbollah targets and a weapons storage facility in southern Lebanon this morning. Yesterday, the terrorist group was hit by a second wave of exploding devices as walkie-talkies blew up in homes, cars, and operatives’ hands across Lebanon. The explosions came a day after thousands of pagers carried by Hezbollah members blew up at roughly the same time, killing twelve and injuring more than 2,800 people.

Reports indicate that Israel intended to explode these devices just before a full-scale war but chose to proceed due to concerns that Hezbollah might have discovered their plan. The use of exploding personal devices is apparently intended to show Hezbollah leaders that they are personally vulnerable in a war with the Jewish nation.

Such intent frames my point today.

Why “we must hang together”

Reading the news through the lens of personal relevance is an understandable way to filter the cataract of content that would otherwise overwhelm us daily. For instance, you and I would obviously care more about the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah if we lived in Lebanon or northern Israel.

Consider Instagram’s new Teen Accounts safety feature, California’s new laws protecting actors against unauthorized use of AI, political developments in Canada, new deep-sea footage of the doomed Titan submersible wreckage, and a new study revealing changes in the human brain throughout pregnancy—such stories impact us to the degree to which they affect us personally.

There was a day when American culture focused more on the collective than the individual. At the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin reportedly quipped, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” As Yuval Levin reminds us, the first words of the US Constitution are: “We the People of the United States . . .”

In those days, colonial Americans needed each other if their infant nation was to win its war for independence against the mightiest military power the world had ever seen. Participatory governance and an agrarian economy also required the engagement of all thirteen colonies. That’s why our Constitution created three co-equal branches of governance with foundational checks and balances to ensure the participation and representation of all citizens, a fact Levin demonstrates powerfully in his new book American Covenant: How the Constitution Unified Our Nation—and Could Again.

But our collectivism ran even deeper than these pragmatic necessities.

How’s this working for us?

The prevailing moral worldview in Europe at the time was deontological, a rules-based ethical framework especially promoted by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. “Duty for duty’s sake” was his maxim. If you knew the right thing to do, it was only right to attempt to do it.

It was conventional wisdom for many—and especially for America’s founders—that such duties are most fully expressed in biblical morality. This is why so many of them insisted that religion and morality are “indispensable supports” of democracy (to quote George Washington’s famed Farewell Address).

That was then—this is now. Some signposts along the way:

• Darwinian evolution persuaded many that the Bible is more myth than science.
• Freud popularized the notion that faith in God is a neurotic attempt to control the external world.
• Wilhelm Reich claimed that humans should be free to express themselves sexually however they wish.
• Herbert Marcuse argued that speech must be censored if it contradicts society’s new norms.

The result is a culture that has jettisoned objective truth and biblical morality for a “post-truth” subjectivism that embraces sexual and personal “freedom” at all costs. Anyone who disagrees is considered dangerous to society.

We have therefore replaced deontological morality (based on objective rules) with teleological ethics (the desired ends justify the means). In this world, your society exists to enable your personal desires and happiness, however you define them.

In light of our escalating suicide rate and ongoing epidemic of loneliness, depression, and anxiety, we might ask: How’s this working for us?

“Sir, we would see Jesus”

You and I were made for the One who made us. This is why embracing and sharing biblical truth is so vital to our souls and our society. It is why, on the pulpit of every church I pastored, I inscribed the words,

“Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21 KJV).

And it is why Denison Ministries exists—to give God’s word to the world by speaking biblical truth to the vital issues of our day. It is also why your financial support on North Texas Giving Day and across the year is so vital—so we can offer biblical truth free of charge.

God is blessing our work because he always blesses his word (Isaiah 55:10–11). Last year, our biblical content was read, heard, or seen more than ninety-two million times. We are excited about new ways of reaching even more people in the months and years to come.

In his personal journal, UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–61) noted:

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

Will this Source illumine your life today?

NOTE: Today is North Texas Giving Day — the most important day of the year for Denison Forum. This is our BIGGEST opportunity to make a lasting impact, and we need your help to seize it. By giving today, you’ll support the creation of biblically grounded, civil content that inspires, informs, and transforms lives for Christ. Great news as well: We’ve just received an additional $25,000 Matching Grant! That means your gift will be DOUBLED. So don’t wait. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact to guide more Christians through these challenging times with a steady, nonpartisan voice.

Thursday news to know:

• Fed slashes interest rates by a half point, an aggressive start to its first easing campaign in four years
• Teamsters union declines to endorse in presidential election, breaking decades of precedent
• Body found amid Kentucky manhunt believed to be gunman in highway mass shooting
• Boeing furloughs thousands as it hunkers down for extended strike
• On this day in 1957: Nevada is site of first-ever underground nuclear explosion

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Christ is the key which unlocks the golden doors into the temple of divine truth.” —A. W. Pink

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Research shows that we react more strongly to negative than to positive information, which explains why there’s more bad news than good news in the news. Let’s test this theory. Note your visceral response to these stories:

• The Fed is expected to cut interest rates today.
• New technology can produce drinking water from seawater using solar power.
• Rescuers freed an eleven-year-old boy who was trapped between two boulders for more than nine hours.
• China freed an American pastor after nearly twenty years in prison.
• Research shows that people like us more than we think.

By contrast, what’s your emotional response to these stories?

• AI pioneers are calling for protections against “catastrophic risks.”
• A recent report warns that the US is facing the “most serious and most challenging” threats since 1945, including the real risk of “near-term major war.”
• Infections that are resistant to medications could kill nearly forty million people in the coming years.
• Mosquito-borne diseases are surging in Europe.
• High parental stress is now an urgent public health issue.
• Nearly two in five Americans are at peak stress levels for the year.

Our “fight or flight” instincts may attune us to threats in the news, but new research shows that being “hopeful and forward-looking” is especially effective in combating stress and anxiety.

Philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin observed: “The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.” Similarly, the present belongs to those who give the present generation the same.

How can we be people of hope in a hurting world?

Bridging the “moral empathy gap”

In a fascinating recent experiment, researchers from Stanford and the University of Toronto studied ways we try to persuade others to change their minds. They found that the vast majority of us employ arguments evoking values we favor rather than those favored by the people we seek to influence.

For example, political liberals typically argue for same-sex marriage by pointing to fairness and equality rather than appealing to conservative values such as loyalty and unity. The vast majority of conservatives make the same mistake, appealing to their values while ignoring or denigrating those of their opponents. A better approach is to speak to the values that matter most to those we seek to persuade, thus bridging the “moral empathy gap.”

Here’s the good news: Our Lord faces no such gap in dealing with us. He understands us better than anyone else can. In fact, he understands us better than we understand ourselves:

• “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5).
• “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lᴏʀᴅ, you know it altogether” (Psalm 139:4).
• “God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20).

This is not only because our Lord is fully omniscient, but also because his Spirit lives in every believer (1 Corinthians 3:16), feeling all that we feel and knowing all that we know. As a result, he can empathize with us as no one else can.

When you are feeling pain or stress, know that your Father is feeling it as well. Tell him what is burdening your heart and mind. You might consider using the “psalms of lament” (cf. Psalms 6, 10, 38, 42–43, and 130) to make their words your own.

Trust the empathy of God and you will experience its life-giving hope for yourself.

Why “love cures people”

One of the best ways to experience the hope of Christ is to share that hope with others. The famed psychologist Karl Menninger observed:

“Love cures people, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”

Here again, the good news is that God can do through us what we cannot do by ourselves.

If Jesus is your Lord, he is living in you today. As Oswald Chambers noted, “By regeneration the Son of God is formed in us, and in our physical life he has the same setting that he had on earth.” You are literally part of the “body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:27) as Jesus continues his earthly ministry through you.

Consequently, if we yield our minds and hearts to the Spirit each day (Ephesians 5:18), he will give us God’s mind and heart for those we seek to influence. We will sense insights that are not our own and hear ourselves say words we did not plan to say. We will be led to meet needs we did not know existed and to love with God’s unconditional grace.

Some of us will serve as foreign missionaries. Others will serve as “secret missionaries” in places where Christians are not wanted or welcome. And all of us will serve as cultural missionaries who meet felt needs to meet spiritual needs, earning the right to demonstrate God’s empathy in our compassion.

But note: Our ministry is only transforming if we share the transforming message of the gospel. Otherwise, we meet the needs of the moment while neglecting the needs of eternal souls. Paul asked, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” (Romans 10:14).

In a world of bad news, we have the best news of all. But good news is only good if it is news.

With whom will you share it today?

Wednesday news to know:

• Exploding pagers targeting Hezbollah kill 11 and wound thousands

• Sean “Diddy” Combs pleads not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges
• White House’s economic adviser says US inflation at turning point, focus should shift to jobs
• Palestinian poll finds big drop in support for Oct 7 attack
• On this day in 1793: George Washington lays the Capitol cornerstone

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” —John Bunyan

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We’re learning more about Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt against Donald Trump:

• The suspected gunman hid near Mr. Trump’s golf course for roughly twelve hours before a Secret Service agent spotted him and opened fire.
• He had a long history of criminal convictions that would have barred him from owning a gun.
• His firearm’s serial number was wiped out, making it difficult for law enforcement to determine how he acquired the weapon.
• The license plate on the SUV he was driving was registered to a truck that had been reported stolen.

Here’s reporting I haven’t seen in the news: the lack of reporting in the news when the event happened. I was watching football at the time and don’t remember on-screen alerts, much less reporters breaking into the telecast. When Dr. Mark Turman and I were discussing this fact, he wondered if we have become so hardened to political violence that such events don’t affect us as they once did.

I’m afraid he’s right.

As our broken culture turns down the moral “lights,” we must not allow our spiritual eyes to become adjusted to the dark. We must not allow falsehood to become normalized in our minds and hearts. If we do, we will no longer respond to it biblically and redemptively. Our “salt” will lose its “taste” and thus its transforming effect on our culture (Matthew 5:13).

Consider a case in point with eternal consequences.

“Different languages in order to arrive at God”?

Pope Francis was recently speaking to an interreligious group of young people in Singapore, where he left his prepared remarks to offer some general reflections about religion. In his extemporaneous comments, he stated: “[Religions] are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all. Since God is God for all, then we are all children of God.”

He then added:

If you start to fight, “My religion is more important than yours, mine is true and yours isn’t,” where will that lead us? There’s only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].

There was a day when the pope’s statement would have made headlines as faith leaders voiced their disagreement. Jesus was very clear, stating of himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). He also said of himself, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:18).

After teaching world religions for three decades with four seminaries, I can tell you that Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Orthodox Judaism are similarly convinced that theirs is the right path to salvation, however they understand it. Furthermore, the various religions do not teach the same truth.

For example, while the pope rightly claimed that “there’s only one God,” Hindus recognize millions of deities. While Jews, Muslims, and Christians believe humans live forever as individuals, Buddhists and Hindus believe we ultimately become one with reality. And none but Christians believe Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross to atone for our sins.

Why, then, did the pope’s statement not receive more attention? Because it aligned with the “tolerance” ethic our secularized society so fully embraces. His words were not at all counter-cultural; to the contrary, he would likely have drawn more scrutiny if he had restated the orthodox Christian doctrine that faith in Christ is essential for salvation.

“He came to make dead people live”

My purpose in addressing this issue is not to criticize the pope or Roman Catholicism; in fact, many Catholics have responded to the pope’s statement by affirming the biblical necessity of faith in Christ. Rather, it is to make a countercultural argument for this countercultural doctrine.

While it may seem tolerant to believe that there are “many roads up the same mountain to God,” those who believe the Bible to be God’s Word do not have this option. We know that Jesus is the only sinless person who has ever lived (Hebrews 4:15) and thus the only person who could die to pay for our sins since he had none of his own for which to atone (Romans 5:8). We know that the God who “is” love (1 John 4:8) needed to provide only one way of salvation since this way is open to everyone who chooses it (cf. Revelation 22:17). (For more, see my website article, Why Jesus?)

So, here’s my question:

If we choose tolerance over truth, are we helping or harming those we influence?

If your doctor discovers a malignancy in your body, which do you want her to choose? If your mechanic finds a defect that will cause your brakes to fail at high speed, which do you want him to choose?

Telling people that salvation requires faith in Jesus requires courage on our part. But compassion often does. So, let us pray for the lost people we know to experience the joy of eternal life in Christ. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to open doors to our witness and give us the words and courage we need to share with them.

And let us bear in mind that their eternal destiny is at stake. My friend, Dr. Duane Brooks, is right: “Jesus Christ did not come into the world, die on the cross, and rise again to make bad people good. He came to make dead people live. Praise God, he is still doing it.”

Whom do you know who needs his saving power today?

Tuesday news to know:

• PM meets with Biden envoy, as chances of Hezbollah escalation grow
• New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s administration is in chaos as federal probes target his inner circle
• How to watch Tuesday’s harvest moon and partial lunar eclipse
• A pipeline explosion sends a towering pillar of flame over Houston’s suburbs
• On this day in 1978: Camp David Accords signed

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Sin is the second most powerful force in the universe, for it sent Jesus to the cross. Only one force is greater—the love of God.” —Billy Graham

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Why our culture ignores biblical morality

In his debate with Kamala Harris last week, former President Donald Trump stated that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were abducting and eating pets. The comment provoked a furor that continues unabated this morning. It’s easy to find opinions siding with Mr. Trump or against him and focusing on immigration as a threat or a benefit to America.

Are all religions “a path to arrive at God”?

Here’s what’s harder to do: Find objective reporting about the religious context behind the controversy. After some effort, here’s what I was able to discover online:

• A 2004 National Geographic article states that voodoo is the “dominant religion” in Haiti.
• A 2011 article explaining voodoo reports that “food is one of the many offerings ceremoniously given to the Lwa (Spirits) and is usually shared afterward as a communal meal.”
• An article opposing animal abuse notes that “animal sacrifice” in voodoo is “a central part of this faith,” while a 2013 report claims that animal sacrifice “isn’t embraced by all” practitioners.

To be clear: Reports that some voodoo adherents employ animal sacrifices does not mean Haitian immigrants in Ohio are doing so. My purpose is not to take sides in the partisan conflict over Mr. Trump’s comments. Rather, it is to ask why the religious worldview that should be vital to the debate is largely absent from the discussion.

In other news, Pope Francis made headlines with his statement that both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are “against life.” He added that American Catholics must choose the “lesser of two evils” because of Mr. Trump’s position on immigrants and Ms. Harris’s support for abortion.

Now consider another statement by the pope: In Singapore, he declared, “All religions are a path to arrive at God.” He added, “They are like different languages to arrive there. But God is God for all.” With all due respect to the pontiff, this claim contradicts clear, historic Christian orthodoxy regarding the necessity of faith in Christ. (I plan to address this fact in tomorrow’s Daily Article.) But it is receiving far less coverage than his statement regarding the American presidential election.

Why is this?

“Self-evident” or “sacred and undeniable”?

Most of us can recite Thomas Jefferson’s famous statement in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” However, in reading David M. Rubenstein’s The Highest Calling: Conversations on the American Presidency over the weekend, I discovered a fascinating fact: Mr. Jefferson actually wrote the words “sacred and undeniable,” but Benjamin Franklin substituted “self-evident” in their place.

As a result, our founding creed embraces “truths” that are “evident” to the “self” rather than “sacred” and thus “undeniable.” Here we see the early seeds of what became the postmodern rejection of objective truth based on biblical revelation. In its place we privilege materialism and scientific secularism as “factual” and view objective morality and religion as subjective speculation. And we give far less cultural attention to the latter than to the former.

Why does this rejection of objective truth and morality matter to our national future?

In his latest book, Democracy and Solidarity: On the Cultural Roots of America’s Political Crisis, noted evangelical sociologist James Davison Hunter states that American democracy depends on cultural solidarity, “a framework of cohesion within which legitimate political debate, discourse, and action take place.” However, because we have jettisoned objective truth and morality, “we no longer have the cultural resources to work through what divides us.”

He therefore predicts that “the legitimation crisis will continue to harden: confidence in the range of governing institutions will continue to weaken, cynicism toward the leadership class will deepen, and the alienation of ordinary citizens from their nation will worsen.”

Then he asks, “What is there to impede or reverse this course?”

“Unite my heart to fear your name”

There’s a simple reason our insistence on “tolerance” is so appealing: It permits us to engage in unbiblical immorality while at the same time claiming the moral high ground by rejecting those who disagree as “intolerant.” Our cultural demise is the consequence of our cultural worldview.

As a result, we should look for the answer to Dr. Hunter’s question not from within our fallen society but from outside it.

In Psalm 86, David prayed: “All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God” (vv. 9–10).

Thus he prayed, “Teach me your way, O Lᴏʀᴅ, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name” (v. 11). God answered his prayer, so that he testified next: “I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever” (v. 12, my emphasis). All of this is on the basis of God’s grace, not David’s merit: “For great is your steadfast love toward me” (v. 13).

When we see God as he is, we see ourselves as we are. Then:

• In light of his omnipotence, we see our finitude and frailty.
• We respond to his “steadfast love” by worshiping him with our “whole heart.”
• Such holistic worship leads us to “walk in your truth” as we “fear your name.”
• Consequently, we “glorify your name forever.”

Imagine the impact we would make on our broken culture if all of God’s people experienced him in such a transforming way.

When last did you see God as he is?

NOTE: North Texas Giving Day is coming up this Thursday, and we hope you’ll be a part of this pivotal event! Through your generous donation, you’ll help provide biblically grounded and civil content that inspires, informs, and transforms lives for Christ. And remember, you don’t have to live in North Texas to make a difference. So don’t miss this chance to help reclaim our culture for Christ. Make your donation today!

Monday news to know:

• Houthi missile hits central Israel for first time, no injuries reported
• SpaceX capsule splashes down after history-making Polaris Dawn mission
• Ukraine would have military reason for striking deeper into Russia, NATO official says
• Floods claim more lives as torrential rain pounds central Europe
• On this day in 1620: Mayflower departs England

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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There are days that change our lives: the day we are married, the day a child is born, the day a loved one dies. And there are days that change history.

“Ground Zero” refers to the site where the two tallest towers of New York City’s World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, 2001. I remember vividly my visit to this somber and sobering site some years ago.

Yesterday, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, Vice President Kamala Harris, and vice presidential nominee J. D. Vance stood there together as the names of the victims were read. The gathering gave testimony to the deep pain all Americans still share on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history.

“I’m on an airplane that’s been hijacked”

The memory of that tragedy still haunts many of us. The following may be emotionally difficult to read, but Lawrence Wright does an excellent job in The Looming Tower describing what happened that morning in New York City:

The cloudless sky filled with coiling black smoke and a blizzard of paper—memos, photographs, stock transactions, insurance policies—which fluttered for miles on a gentle southeasterly breeze, across the East River into Brooklyn. Debris spewed onto the streets of lower Manhattan, which were already covered with bodies. Some of them had been exploded out of the building when the planes hit. A man walked out of the towers carrying someone else’s leg. Jumpers landed on several firemen, killing them instantly.

The air pulsed with sirens as firehouses and police stations all over the city emptied, sending the rescuers, many of them to their deaths.

A man named Brian Sweeney left this message on his wife’s answering machine:

Jules, this is Brian—listen, I’m on an airplane that’s been hijacked. If things don’t go well, and it’s not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you. I want you to do good, go have good times, same to my parents and everybody, and I just totally love you, and I’ll see you when you get there. Bye, babe. I hope I call you.

The remains of roughly 40 percent of the 9/11 victims have not yet been identified. Over twenty-five thousand people were injured in the aftermath of the attacks, many suffering long-term health consequences from toxic contaminants and personal trauma.

The attacks led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; roughly fifteen thousand US troops and contractors were killed in post-9/11 missions. Estimates project a total combined cost of the wars exceeding $3 trillion, with interest on the debt used to finance operations reaching $6.5 trillion by 2050.

“I have forgotten what happiness is”

If you’re like me, you struggle to know what you can do to respond. You want to make a difference, to serve your nation, to change your world for the better. You want your life to matter when it is over.

However, as 9/11 proved, no one knows when that day will come.

The poet Christopher Morley claimed, “There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.” But you know in your heart that this is not true, that the truest success is to spend your life in the service of a cause greater than yourself. You agree with the late Sen. John McCain: “The richest men and women possess nothing of real value if their lives have no greater object than themselves.”

What should this “greater object” be?

The writer of Lamentations bemoans: “My soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is” (3:17). But then he remembers the answer to his despair: “This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lᴏʀᴅ never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (vv. 21–23).

He then testifies:

“’The Lᴏʀᴅ is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him’” (v. 24).

Why should we “hope in him” today?

“Hopeful in the dark hours”

Commenting on Jesus’ parable about the tiny mustard seed that grows into a large tree (Matthew 13:31–32), pastor Paul Powell wrote:

Jesus told this little parable to suggest that there is a silent, unseen power that works in nature that makes a seed grow. You cannot see it, you cannot hear it. But that silent, unseen power begins to work in a seed to make it sprout and grow into a large plant that can produce much fruit.

Operating in the world today is the silent, unseen power of God. And when you go about your work, you must remember always that God is at work at the same time. You need to remember that there are powers in our world that cannot be seen and cannot be heard. We are so awed and impressed by the things we can see that we are apt to forget that there is a greater power that is silent and unseen. . . .

With this understanding of faith and confidence, the Christian can be an optimist even in light of today’s headlines. With this kind of faith a Christian can be hopeful in the dark hours.

Is “this kind of faith” yours today?

Thursday news to know:

• Tropical Storm Francine moves across Mississippi with drenching rains, damaging winds
• 3 massive Los Angeles-area wildfires have scorched more than 100,000 acres in a week
• Polaris Dawn astronauts reach record high orbit above Earth
• US House Republicans’ spending fight delays stopgap funding bill
• On this day in 1940: Lascaux cave paintings discovered

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.” —Thomas Brooks (1608–80)

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A reflection on the abiding significance of 9/11

Last night’s presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump began with a handshake “but descended into acrimony as the candidates traded barbs,” as the Wall Street Journal reports. In an Instagram post to her 283 million followers after the debate, Taylor Swift endorsed Ms. Harris for president. After the debate, the Democrat’s campaign announced their desire for a second meeting with Mr. Trump.

Whatever your thoughts on the debate in Philadelphia, we can agree that it demonstrated democracy at work. By contrast, the supreme leader of Iran, the “world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” is unaccountable to the nation he supposedly serves. And no such debates occur in Saudi Arabia, where fifteen of the 9/11 terrorists originated.

September 11 is appropriately known as “Patriot Day” in memory of those who were killed on 9/11. Flags will fly at half-staff today at the White House and all US government buildings and establishments throughout the world. We are encouraged to display flags inside and outside our homes today as well. And a moment of silence will be observed beginning at 8:45 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time), the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

On this very somber anniversary, as we remember the 2,977 innocent victims of the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, we are reminded that our nation still faces enemies at war with democracy. From jihadists who would attack us at home and abroad, to cyberterrorists who would imperil our national infrastructures, to autocratic nuclear powers that would threaten our very future, none of us can be certain that there will never be another 9/11.

In this light, I’d like to share some observations from a recent experience that left a deep impression on me.

“Freedom is a fragile thing”

I have visited many veteran memorials over the years. Since my father served in World War II and his father in World War I, such places have always been deeply meaningful to me.

Recently, my wife and I visited the Red River Valley Veterans Memorial Museum in Paris, Texas. Here we encountered a display provided by a family whose ancestors served in the Continental Army that liberated America from England, the Texas Army that liberated our state from Mexico, the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the Coast Guard during the Korean War.

Beneath their names are emblazoned the words: “Freedom is not inherited. It must be earned one generation at a time.”

Their sentiment echoes that of Ronald Reagan in his inaugural address as governor of California on January 5, 1967:

Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation from extinction. It is not ours by way of inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.

Millions of brave men and women are engaged today in defending our freedom at home and abroad. What can you and I do to join them?

“No better than the builders of Babel”

Benjamin Franklin, not typically known for personal piety or orthodox theology, nonetheless issued a memorable spiritual call to the president of the United States on June 28, 1787. He and his colleagues were gathered in Philadelphia to write a new constitution for their infant nation. In this context, he asked that prayers “imploring the assistance of heaven” be held “in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.”

His reasoning:

I believe that without [God’s] concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel: we shall be divided by our little partial local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future age.

Mr. Franklin’s request was not granted because the convention did not have funds to pay ministers to deliver such invocations. However, his sentiment could not have been more biblical. The Lord warned his people:

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (Jeremiah 17:5–6).

By contrast, the Lord continued:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ, whose trust is in the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit (vv. 7–8).

“Those who build it labor in vain”

On this solemn day, let us pray for a spiritual and moral awakening that would make America “a tree planted by water” that “does not fear when heat comes.” And let us remember:

“Unless the Lᴏʀᴅ builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

Who is building your “house” today?

Wednesday news to know:

• Hurricane Francine expected to strengthen to a Category 2
• SpaceX Polaris program launches on historic mission with private crew
• Ukraine targets Moscow in biggest drone attack yet
• Apple’s iPhone 16 faces rising challenges with AI delay and growing Huawei competition
• On this day in 1971: Nikita Khrushchev dies

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what he likes, and the true, where he is free to do what he ought.” —Charles Kingsley

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A reflection on the privilege and urgency of sharing God’s love

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, announced yesterday that she has completed chemotherapy for her cancer. However, she added, “My path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

In other news, the widow of hockey star Johnny Gaudreau announced her pregnancy with their third child at yesterday’s memorial service for Johnny and his brother, Matthew Gaudreau. Matthew’s widow is pregnant with their first child. The brothers were killed while riding their bikes the day before their sister was to be married.

These stories remind us that life is fragile and unpredictable for us all. Royalty and celebrity are no guarantee that the hardest parts of our broken world will not find us.

But in those hard places, God will.

How?

“To meet people where they are”

The Baltimore Orioles recently held their first-ever Faith Night event. Six players shared the story of their commitment to Christ and a band led thousands of fans in worship. At least eighteen Major League Baseball teams hosted similar nights last year.

The media campaign “He Gets Us” is working with many of these events and advertises at various games as well. A spokesman explains that their goal is “to reintroduce people to the Jesus of the Bible and his confounding love and forgiveness.” He adds: “The best way to do that is to meet people where they are. That is why you see our ads at a variety of events, including sporting events.”

Christian filmmakers are following a similar strategy. The Wall Street Journal reports that “religious movies are sweeping Hollywood,” surprising the world with “a series of box office hits.” From The Chosen, one of the most popular series in the world, to a variety of films about various aspects of faith, such content is becoming so popular that “rich investors are pouring in millions.”

And, as Ryan Denison reports in a recent Denison Forum article, Christian music is also growing in remarkable ways at a time when many in secular radio are struggling. He notes that when Christians record music with excellence, this “earns the chance for [their] message to be heard.”

When the church will change the culture

Yesterday, we discussed the privilege of using our personal influence to take the gospel to our broken culture. The urgency of doing so is highlighted by this day in history.

On September 10, 2001, nineteen jihadists were making final preparations for launching the deadliest terrorist attack in US history. Obviously, none of their victims had any idea on this day that they would die in such a horrific manner.

This fact should cause us to ask: What about tomorrow don’t we know today?

The answer: everything.

One day will be the last day for each of us, either because of our death or our Lord’s return. None of us knows when that day will come. But all of us can know that we are one day closer than ever before.

The best way to prepare for eternity tomorrow is to live for eternity today. It is to love our Lord so fully that his love transforms and empowers us to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39). Such transforming love is vitally urgent for this simple reason:

The church will change the culture to the degree that Christ changes the church.

Why is this?

When “missions will be no more”

Noted pastor and author John Piper famously wrote: “Missions exist because worship doesn’t.” He explained:

Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.

Piper is right, as any reading of Revelation 7 and other biblical glimpses of heaven will demonstrate. But I think his oft-quoted words can be taken another way as well: If we truly worship Jesus, we will love him so deeply that we will share him with the world out of the natural overflow of our lives. The programs and strategies we call “missions” will then be less needed because billions of Christians will be missionaries where they live, as they live.

As a result, we will become the change we need to see. Our lives will be the powerful and persuasive proof of our message, drawing others to Christ through his magnetic and magnificent work in and through us (cf. Colossians 1:27).

And we will be empowered to share the gospel sacrificially. When we truly love Jesus, we love everyone he loves—and he loves everyone. We then pay any price to share his grace with those we love.

A closing question

How can we love Jesus in such a transforming way? When we submit fully to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), he manifests “love” in our lives as the first of his “fruit” (Galatians 5:22). And this love is not only for our neighbor—it is also for our Lord.

So, when last did you invite the Holy Spirit to help you love Jesus more deeply than ever before?

Why not today?

NOTE: The countdown is on! North Texas Giving Day is September 19, and through your generous donation, you’ll help provide biblically grounded and civil content that inspires, informs, and transforms lives for Christ. And remember, you don’t have to live in North Texas to make a difference! Your generous donation will be DOUBLED by a $75,000 Matching Grant to guide more Christians through these challenging times with a steady, nonpartisan voice. Don’t miss this chance to double your impact and help reclaim our culture for Christ!

Tuesday news to know:

• Trump and Harris prepare to face off in tomorrow’s debate
• Tropical Storm Francine forecast to strengthen into hurricane aiming for US Gulf Coast
• Biden expected to meet top advisers to discuss Gaza ceasefire efforts
• Apple debuts iPhone 16 with AI software in American English coming next month
• On this day in 1919: New York City parade honors World War I veterans

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.” —Corrie ten Boom

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“A platform and opportunity to put God on display”

The National Football League has begun its 105th season. If you’re looking for a player to follow this year, allow me to nominate Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Not because he makes $55 million a year, which was tied for the highest in the league until the Dallas Cowboys signed Dak Prescott yesterday for $60 million a year. Or because the Jaguars have a good shot at making the playoffs even though they lost to Miami yesterday.

Not even because he is very public about his commitment to Christ, telling a reporter recently, “It’s something I really want to be known about me.” Several other high-profile quarterbacks, including Lamar Jackson, Patrick Mahomes, Brock Purdy, and C. J. Stroud, are also deeply committed to Christ.

Rather, it is because of something his wife, Marissa, said regarding the visibility of their lives:

Knowing that this life and fame is something [God] has trusted us with makes it seem like such an honor. It’s something we fail at a lot, but ultimately all we want is to be able to be a light and glorify God with the things he’s given us, and fame is one of those platforms for us to do that.

I’d say we navigate fame by choosing not to see it as fame but as a platform and opportunity to put God on display.

Mother of Georgia suspect called school before shooting

Several stories in today’s news highlight the significance of sharing God’s word as urgently as we can.

• According to reporting by the Washington Post, the mother of the suspected Apalachee High School gunman called the school on the morning of the shooting and warned a counselor about an “extreme emergency” involving her fourteen-year-old son.
• Authorities are still searching this morning for a gunman in rural Kentucky who shot five people Saturday afternoon on Interstate 75.
• A Jordanian terrorist killed three Israelis yesterday morning at the Allenby crossing between Jordan and Israel.

What happened in Georgia and Kentucky is happening across the country. I have been through the Allenby crossing several times over the years and continue to grieve for my Israeli friends as attacks on their nation continue.

In a world as broken as ours, we might think that people would naturally understand their need for help beyond themselves. But we have been conditioned by our society to think just the opposite.

Science has solved so many of our problems that we think it will solve them all. Medicine has cured so many diseases that we think it will cure them all. We can add clergy abuse scandals, denominational conflicts, and the escalating claim that biblical morality is “dangerous” to society.

If we want people to think biblically and live redemptively, we cannot wait for society to take the lead. Like Trevor and Marissa Lawrence, we will need to see our lives and work as “a platform and opportunity to put God on display.”

This is obviously true given the secularized, post-Christian state of our nation today. But it is also true of all societies, even those whose ethical standards are relatively high.

Why we are in “continuous conflict” with society

The Nobel Prize-winning humanitarian Albert Schweitzer noted in The Philosophy of Civilization that “the system established by society for its prosperous existence” will always transcend the individual, regulate behavior for its own ends, and adjust to the times. Consequently, he warned, “the ethical personality cannot surrender to it, but lives always in continuous conflict with it.”

His observation is especially true for evangelical Christians. In contrast to the state, we believe that society exists to serve individuals made in God’s image. We believe behavior should be regulated ultimately in obedience to God’s word and will. And we believe biblical morality to be absolute, not relative.

Consequently, we will need to be “fishers of men” who go to those who need to come to Christ (Matthew 4:19). Like Jesus, we will meet felt needs to meet spiritual needs. We will earn the right to be heard by those we influence through our personal character and public compassion.

Then we will share the good news of God’s saving grace, “speaking the truth in love” as the Spirit leads us (Ephesians 5:18). This is not, as skeptics claim, an imposition of our subjective beliefs on others. Rather, it is the offer of eternal life shared in the knowledge that “whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death” (James 5:20).

The power of Ronald Reagan’s faith

Using our influence to help our nation turn to God is vital not just for Americans but for America.

Ronald Reagan is in the public eye again with the release of the biographical movie Reagan in theaters. The film focuses especially on our fortieth president’s faith journey, beginning with his mother’s influence and continuing through his historic career.

Mr. Reagan was convinced that such faith is vital to our national character and future. For example, in 1982, he stated in a message to Congress, “Our liberty springs from and depends upon an abiding faith in God.” Two years later, speaking at Eureka College, he quoted from the autobiography of Time magazine editor Whittaker Chambers:

“The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God.”

How will you meet this crisis today?

Monday news to know:

• Webb telescope detects what looks like a giant question mark in space
• Venezuelan leader who challenged strongman in vote flees to Spain
• Navy commander relieved of duty after photo showed him firing rifle with scope backwards
• Titanic expedition yields lost bronze statue, high-resolution photos and other discoveries
• On this day in 1776: Congress renames the nation “United States of America”

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Without absolutes revealed from without by God himself, we are left rudderless in a sea of conflicting ideas about matters, justice, and right and wrong, issued from a multitude of self-opinionated thinkers.” —John Owen (1616–83)

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How to love God by loving others

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DoJ) issued an indictment against the Russian state news broadcaster RT, claiming that it paid nearly $10 million to several conservative pundits in the hopes of promoting a pro-Russian agenda. Since launching last fall, the company in question—since identified as Tennessee-based Tenet Media—has published almost 2,000 videos through social media outlets like YouTube and X (formerly Twitter). Yet, the content creators in question insist—and the DoJ affirms—that they were unaware of the company’s link to Russia.

To help hide the origins of their financing, Tenet claimed that the company was founded by a fictitious individual named Eduard Grigoriann. Yet, despite lucrative contracts that paid the creators upwards of $400 thousand a month, the Russian agents in charge of Tenet eventually grew frustrated that the commentators were not sharing more of the company’s videos. Ultimately, it appears that encouraging them to do so was the extent of the influence they wielded over many of the pundits, with each stating that they maintained both editorial and content control over what they produced.

Still, the indictment claims that “While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine.”

Moreover, FBI Director Chris Wray warns that China and Iran have also attempted to do the same.

And while the notion of foreign interference in our elections is far from new, “amplifying U.S. domestic divisions” is, sadly, not an effort limited to those outside the country.

Our bargain with the media

The notion that a media company would be incentivized to purposely convey the news in a way that fosters division and distrust should not come as a surprise. Increasingly, we see the same effort from domestic outlets, regardless of their political persuasions. Even Amazon’s Alexa appears to be in on the game, giving drastically different answers for why people should vote for Vice President Kamala Harris than with former president Donald Trump.

Still, the idea of a foreign government funding such efforts rather than the general greed of media moguls feels like a different order of threat. But why is that the case? After all, in both cases, individuals’ beliefs are manipulated for the benefit of those creating the agendas.

The key distinction is that we understand greed and the dangers it poses in a way that is not necessarily true for threats from foreign powers.

While domestic news companies may want us living in echo chambers—a concept discussed in greater depth on the latest Denison Forum podcast—by and large, they do so because that’s how they can make the most money from advertisements and partnerships. By contrast, Russia’s efforts to undermine support for the war in Ukraine, influence who will occupy the White House in January, and sway Americans on a host of other issues represent an entirely different type of threat.

To put it another way, most of us understand that we need to approach the media we consume with a rather large grain of salt, but we begrudgingly accept that they’re trying to manipulate us—so long as we understand that that’s what’s going on. In many ways, it’s a necessary bargain for us to make in order to stay connected to the events of the day, and there are some basic steps we can take to protect ourselves from the worst of the effects.

However, when it comes to how we relate to those we encounter in other walks of life,  many take the same approach of viewing people as a means to our end—and that’s a far greater issue facing our culture today.

A dog’s last lesson on love

While Scripture is clear that a person only becomes the child of God when they are adopted into his family through faith in Jesus (Romans 8:14–17), God’s word is equally clear that he loves and cherishes every person that he has created (John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9). As such, how we see and treat those that God brings across our path will have a direct influence on how closely we can walk with the Lord.

And this basic truth is something God impressed upon me in an unexpected way a few days ago.

Earlier this week, my family and I had to put down the dog we’ve had for more than fourteen years. We knew the time was coming for a while, but things took a turn in a way that reinforced the necessity of that decision. I’d been dreading that moment for a while now, but more because of the grief I knew it would bring to my wife and kids than for myself.

I’m not really an animal person, and, while I loved the dog, my role was primarily to take care of him so that the rest of the family could enjoy him. As a result, the degree to which his death got to me caught me by surprise. And it wasn’t until reflecting and praying about it that I began to understand why.

You see, what God showed me was that my love for our dog stemmed from the fact that he was amazing at loving the people that I loved. He brought a level of joy and comfort into their lives that can only be described as a gift from the Lord. And I will be forever grateful to him for that.

And when we do the same with the people around us—when we love them as God loves them—I believe our heavenly Father feels the same kind of gratitude toward us.

His love is not conditional upon our love for others, but when we treat people well and see them as individuals made in his image rather than as a potential means to our end, it opens new levels to how deep our relationship with God can go. And, fortunately, that’s something each of us can do by simply paying attention to the opportunities he brings us and then making the choice to love people as he does.

Who can you love like that today?

Friday news to know:

• Hunter Biden pleads guilty to federal tax charges
• Chiefs win season-opening matchup with the Ravens on last-second review
• Purported painting by Rembrandt found in Maine attic; sells for $1.4 million
• Trump promises to establish a government efficiency commission if elected; taps Elon Musk to lead it
• On this day in 1997: 2.5 billion people tune in to watch the funeral of Princess Diana

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote of the day:

“The world does not understand theology or dogma, but it understands love and sympathy.” —D. L. Moody

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The power of ideology to change the world

“I think the fact that they were alive and murdered right before they could have been saved—that broke it. That’s a breaking point for a lot of people—[they] are on the edge of their seat, and they realize that sitting at home is not going to do anything.” This is how one protester explained the mass demonstrations that have filled streets in Israel this week.

The crowds have been the largest since October 7 and included a general strike on Monday that brought much of the country to a halt. Many blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for refusing to make a cease-fire deal that would bring the hostages home.

For his part, Mr. Netanyahu continues to insist on a long-term military presence along Gaza’s border with Egypt, even as this reportedly is holding up a hostage deal that many analysts consider vital to Israel’s interests. When asked whether the prime minister is doing enough to secure a deal, President Joe Biden responded, “No.”

Whatever our views regarding Mr. Netanyahu, we must not forget that Hamas created this crisis when it invaded Israel on October 7 and massacred some twelve hundred people, committing war crimes too horrific for description here. Hamas also abducted 251 children, women, men, and elderly people.

Then they recently murdered six hostages, shooting them multiple times at close range before Israeli troops could rescue them. They threaten to kill more hostages if Israel attempts further rescues. The group’s political leader, Yahya Sinwar, was charged yesterday by federal prosecutors with planning and carrying out years of terrorist attacks in Israel, including the atrocities of October 7.

If the terrorists could travel back in time, they say they would do it all again. They vow to repeat the horrors of October 7 “again and again” until Israel is completely destroyed. The group’s founding document clearly calls for the genocide of the Jews and the destruction of Israel to “liberate” Palestine.

This ongoing tragedy illustrates the deep and pervasive power of ideology to change the world, for evil or for good.

“Progress, infinite progress!”

I spent a year in my PhD seminars studying the thoughts of the philosophical theologian Paul Tillich. I find his sermon “The Shaking of the Foundations” to be among the most powerful of all his works.

Published three years after the atomic bomb brought an end to World War II, Tillich noted that there was a time when science persuaded us “to believe in our earth as the place for the establishment of the kingdom of God” and “to believe in ourselves as those through whom this was to be achieved.” These false prophets cried, “Progress, infinite progress! Peace, universal peace! Happiness, happiness for everyone!”

But then science gave man the power “to annihilate himself and his world.” Now, according to Tillich, we know that we are not achieving “infinite progress” and “universal peace.”

He was right: Israel is facing the greatest existential crisis in its modern history. Iran is closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. Nuclear powers China, Russia, and North Korea are aligned with Iran in opposition to the West.

The COVID-19 pandemic is unlikely to be the last. Genomics could lead to genetic manipulation that alters the essence of what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence could threaten our very existence.

Tillich’s warning is still valid and urgent:

Man is not God; and whenever he has claimed to be like God, he has been rebuked and brought to self-destruction and despair. When he has rested complacently on his cultural creativity or on his technical progress, on his political institutions or on his religious systems, he has been thrown into disintegration and chaos; all the foundations of his personal, natural, and cultural life have been shaken.

As long as there has been human history, this is what has happened; in our period it has happened on a larger scale than ever before. Man’s claim to be like God has been rejected once more; not one foundation of the life of our civilization has remained unshaken.

Fishing with a shoe or a hammer

In response, let’s exchange the secularist ideology of our day for the foundational ideology espoused by our Savior. Jesus taught us that the greatest commandments in Scripture are to love our Lord and to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39), explaining that “on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (v. 40).

Why are they so foundational?

Other laws seek to prevent sin by regulating behavior, but we cannot sin against God when we are in love with him. Nor can we sin against our neighbors when we are in love with them. Instead, when you “delight yourself in the Lᴏʀᴅ,” then we all position ourselves to experience his best such that “he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

What, then, are we to do?

One: Since “love” is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), we need to submit every day to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), then pray through the day for him to empower us to love our Lord and those we meet.

Two: Make love the heart of our service to others. We are commanded, “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14, my emphasis).

I recently saw two people fishing at a pond and thought of Jesus’ assurance that he would make us “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). I couldn’t see the bait they were using, but I assume it wasn’t a shoe or a hammer. It would have been something that would attract the fish they sought to catch.

What do humans want more than to be loved? Thus, when we love our neighbors as unconditionally and sacrificially as we love ourselves, we draw them to the One who is love (1 John 4:8). They respond to our love by turning to its Source.

“The salvation which has no end”

Tillich closed his famous sermon:

“In these days the foundations of the earth do shake. May we not turn our eyes away; may we not close our ears and our mouths! But may we rather see, through the crumbling of a world, the rock of eternity and the salvation which has no end!”

And may others be drawn to such salvation through us, to the glory of God.

Wednesday news to know:

• Russian missile strike kills more than 50 people and wounds over 200 in  Ukrainian city of Poltava, officials say
• Ukraine’s foreign minister resigns in largest shake-up since war began
• Attempted jailbreak at a Congo prison kills 129 people as chaos erupts with a stampede and gunshots
• Suspected Boko Haram militants kill at least 37 in Nigeria attack
• On this day in 1951: President Truman makes first transcontinental television broadcast

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Why “character is destiny” for those we influence

Whether you follow golf or not, you probably know of Scottie Scheffler, the world No. 1 who just finished one of the greatest seasons in history. I have long admired his steadfast commitment to Christ and to his family as values transcending the game he plays so magnificently. However, you may not know the name Sahith Theegala. He was born in California to Indian immigrants and has become a dominant player on the PGA Tour. However, he made headlines last Saturday not for his talent but for his character.

He was playing a shot from a sand trap when he noticed a small amount of sand move on his backswing. (Touching the sand in this way is a violation of the rules.) No one else saw the sand move, but Theegala immediately notified his playing partner and a rules official. He was assessed a two-stroke penalty, which ended up costing him $2.5 million in prize money.

Now I am a Sahith Theegala fan as well.

Five centuries before Christ, the Greek philosopher Heraclitus observed that “character is destiny.”

If it were easy for us to have greater character, we would do so. Our next steps will therefore come at a cost. The higher the mountain, the harder the climb, but the more worthy the destination.

How, then, can we live with sacrificial integrity today?

See sin as endangering everyone we influence

Paul spoke of “the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). In a day when thatched roofs were common, such a dart lodged in your house could easily ignite a fire that would spread to surrounding homes. What started with just you then endangered everyone around you.

I spoke recently with a Christianity Today reporter who is writing an article on the consequences of ministerial moral failure for members of their churches. She is right to be concerned: sin affects the innocent as well as the guilty.

1. S. Lewis warned in Mere Christianity:

When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world. The war-time posters told us that Careless Talk Costs Lives. It is equally true that Careless Lives Cost Talk. Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we give them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity itself.

I am convinced the clergy abuse scandal and other integrity issues are at the heart of the ongoing cultural shift away from Christianity. When Christians fail to live what we proclaim, why would non-Christians believe what we preach?

See integrity as blessing everyone we influence

I was drawn to Christ through the character of the Christians I met. I sensed in them a peace, purpose, and joy I lacked and came to faith because I was so impressed with the difference their faith made in their lives.

John Donne famously observed:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were:
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were.

Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Lord Byron was therefore right:

“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.”

As was Oswald Chambers:

The main thing about Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the atmosphere produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to look after, and it is the one thing that is being continually assailed (my emphasis).

“Give us a love for what you command”

To manifest the character of Christ to the world, spend time with Christ. Experience his presence in worship; hear his voice in Scripture; make time to be still and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10).

As you do, pray for his Spirit to empower you to choose sacrificial character today. Remember that your integrity shapes for good everyone you influence.

The Anglican Book of Common Prayer includes this supplication I invite you to pray with me:

Give us a love for what you command
and a loving for what you promise,
so that, amid this world’s changes,
our hearts may be set on the world of lasting joy.

Will you choose “the world of lasting joy” today?

Tuesday news to know:

• Rare strike disrupts Israel while Biden says Netanyahu isn’t doing enough to reach Gaza deal
• Russian missile attack rocks Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine
• Brazil’s Supreme Court upholds X ban
• He spent the summer coaching little league. Now he’s baseball’s oldest player
• On this day in 1783: Treaty of Paris signed

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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This is the headline of an analysis by Oxford professor Samuel Ramani warning that the weapons technology of our enemies is surging ahead of our own. His article comes in response to recent reports that President Biden ordered US forces last March to prepare for possible nuclear war with Russia, China, and North Korea. In Dr. Ramani’s view, the US must urgently modernize our nuclear capacities to deter these unprecedented threats.

In related news:

• Chinese government hackers have penetrated deep into US internet service providers to spy on us. A cybersecurity expert calls the latest attacks “an order of magnitude worse” than previous hacks.
• Russia and China are escalating their diplomatic relations with the global south, infringing on America’s influence in this vital region.
• Russia is claiming that America’s support for Ukraine risks World War III, which it warns would not be confined to Europe.

Meanwhile, Israel launched its biggest West Bank raid in two decades yesterday, killing at least ten Hamas militants. The move comes as the region on Israel’s eastern border is rapidly developing into a third battlefront alongside Hamas to the west and Hezbollah to the north.

Yesterday we discussed a paradoxical response to the anxiety of our age. Today, we’ll identify a second source of personal peace in a place most overlook.

Beware spiritual poison

On a recent walk, I noticed a dead tree surrounded by thriving trees. Nothing I could see could explain its demise. The nearby trees did not seem to crowd out its access to the sun. It was as close to the lake as other trees that were thriving. Since I am the farthest thing from an arborist, nothing I could see could explain this.

I therefore assume that the tree’s problem is what I cannot see—its roots. My observation illustrates a theological fact: you and I were made for a personal, intimate relationship with our unseen Lord (John 15:1–11). Nothing less or else will nourish our spiritual lives.

So, of course, this is where Satan attacks, for two reasons.

First, his strategy works. If you want to kill a tree or stunt its growth, poison its roots.

Second, we often don’t see the danger in time. No one will know or be hurt by our unseen sins, or so Satan whispers to us. But “the father of lies” is lying to us (John 8:44). And we end up committing public sins we would never have imagined when they were private transgressions.

This is why God warns us: “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15).

So, allow me to ask: Do you find yourself facing temptations in private that you do not face in public? Learn to see them as poison your enemy wants to pour on the roots of your soul. They will corrupt your “tree” and stunt your growth.

And since the Holy Spirit must have a holy “branch” on which to manifest his “fruit” (Galatians 5:22–23), we forfeit God’s best by choosing what we want now over what we want most.

Three steps to spiritual victory

Our enemy is a defeated foe. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). As a result, “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). You and I can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

How can we experience this victory today?

First, see temptation for the threat it is. If you wouldn’t pour poison on the roots of a tree, you shouldn’t pour spiritual poison on the roots of your soul.

Henri Nouwen testified:

I am discovering the importance of naming the darkness in me. By no longer calling the darkness anything else but darkness, the temptation to keep using it for my own selfish purposes gradually becomes less. . . .

A hard task is given to me—to call the darkness darkness, evil evil, and the demon demon. By remaining vague I can avoid commitment and drift along with the mainstream of our society. But Jesus does not allow me to stay there. He requires a clear choice for truth, light, and life. When I recognize my countless inner compromises, I may feel guilty and ashamed at first. But when this leads to repentance and a contrite heart, I will soon discover the immense love of God, who came to lead me out of the darkness into the light and who wants to make me into a transparent witness of his love.

Second, give temptation immediately to God. Seek his power and victory. In this way, you will use Satan’s attacks against him. And you will experience that peace which is a fruit of the Spirit in the hearts of all who are right with him (Galatians 5:22).

Third, if you fall to sin, return to your Father. Confess your failure and claim his forgiveness and restoration in grace. You can still have his peace, but it comes at the cost of repentance.

Watchman Nee made today’s point simply but powerfully:

“If you would test the character of anything, you only need to enquire whether that thing leads you to God or away from God.”

Your soul is a bike on a hill: you are either advancing upwards or you are sliding backward.

Which is true for you today?

Thursday news to know:

• Supreme Court refuses to revive Biden’s latest student loan debt relief plan
• US consumer confidence rises in August as Americans’ optimism about future improves
• Parental stress is an urgent public health issue, US surgeon general says in new advisory
• Ancient 3,500-year-old Bronze Age jar shattered by young boy at Israeli museum
• On this day in 2005: Hurricane Katrina slams into Gulf Coast

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“I know of no other way to triumph over sin long term than to gain a distaste for it because of a superior satisfaction in God.” —John Piper

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