The illusion of control and the power of grace

If you were to stack one trillion dollar bills together, the column would measure 67,866 miles high, more than a fourth of the way from Earth to the moon. That’s how much of the stock market’s value was wiped out Monday. Nearly $600 billion was lost by just one company, the biggest one-day fall in US history. While the markets largely recovered yesterday, the reverberations are continuing. At the heart of the crisis: Chinese AI model DeepSeek was released last week.

DeepSeek appeared to perform on par with counterparts from OpenAI, the US firm at the heart of the AI boom, but with far less computing power or money invested. This means AI models of the future might not need as many high-end chips from leading producer Nvidia. As the Wall Street Journal reported, this “turned tech and Wall Street upside down,” causing Nvidia’s stock to plunge more than $590 billion and tech stocks across the board to plummet.

In other scary news, the “Doomsday Clock” moved closer to midnight yesterday than ever before. This means atomic scientists think humanity is closer than we have ever been to destroying ourselves, whether through nuclear war, climate change, biological threats, and/or advances in disruptive technologies.

A culture built on the illusion of control is understandably shaken by events beyond our ability to forecast or manage. So much of what we are enticed to buy offers to help us control our appearance, health, finances, relationships, and happiness. The current Burger King ads end accordingly: “Have it your way. You rule!”

But we don’t.

And that’s the good news of the day.

When the world was magical

From Monday’s earthquake off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, to the private bathhouse discovered recently in Pompeii that was destroyed along with the city by the Vesuvius eruption, to yesterday’s somber anniversary of the Challenger explosion, the news reminds us daily of our finitude.

There was a time when we would not have been shocked.

Humans used to live in a world where most was outside our agency, and we knew it. Devastating storms could not be predicted. Criminals and animals of prey threatened our daily lives. A broken bone could lead to a fatal infection.

So we prayed to God or the gods who could do what we could not, then we tried to live in ways that they would bless and protect. From Christianity’s invitation to “ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7), to Islam’s five pillars, to Buddhism’s Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path, to Hindu rituals of purification such as the massive festival happening this week in India, to the worship of the various gods of the Greek and Roman pantheon, human experience was rife with supernaturalism in hopes of protection and prosperity.

In a way, this is magical thinking: Whatever the religion, the practitioner asks their deity to do what they are unable to do. We can neither understand nor duplicate their work on our behalf. But their miraculous “magic” was vital to our flourishing and thus became part of the fabric of our lives.

That was then—this is now.

Praying to our cell phones

Darwin debunked the “myth” of divine creation for millions; Marx derided religion as an “opiate” used to enslave the masses; Freud explained our faith in God as “wish fulfillment”; postmodern thinkers convinced us that all truth (including that of the Bible) is personal and subjective; the sexual revolution “liberated” us from the constraints of outdated biblical morality.

As a consequence, the triumph of secularism and decline of religion are now established facts in the minds of millions in our culture.

In a way, the science of our day is magic for most of us. When we ask our cell phones to make calls, give directions, or answer questions, the slab of glass in our hand responds in ways that previous generations would have considered magical if not miraculous. It’s almost as if we were praying to our devices and they were answering as gods. It is the same with airplanes, cars, and much of the technology we experience every day.

Along the way, we persuade ourselves that since these are our possessions, we possess the “magic” they produce, making us masters of the universe we inhabit. But in fact, we are not.

In truth, “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). What is the solution? “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that’” (v. 15).

Why should we make this wise choice each day?

The baptism of Lola Sheen

Humanity is a tale of two gardens.

• In the garden of Eden, our first parents sought to “be like God” (Genesis 3:5).
• In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

Now we must choose which example to follow. If we understand that the God who “is” love can only want our best (1 John 4:8; Romans 12:2), we no longer need to ask for anything other than that his will be done. As missionary Jim Elliot said,

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

Let’s close with an example.

Lola Sheen is the daughter of actors Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards. The nineteen-year-old recently shared a video of her January 3 baptism, then explained the reasons behind her decision:

When I was in my deepest depression, there was a moment where I realized I hit rock bottom. I felt so lost and hopeless, and was just doing my best to make it to the next day. I just accepted my life was going to be like that forever and thought I would genuinely never laugh again. Until I met not only my Savior but my best friend, Jesus.

I can’t really explain it other than it was supernatural, but Jesus met me exactly where I was, and he forever became my sun. I began to trust Jesus with my life, when he chose me when no one else did and loved me when I didn’t feel worthy of love. He gave me a light when I couldn’t find my own and rescued me from the darkness. . . .

Jesus is the only reason why I’m here today and made my life worth living. I chose to get baptized at the beginning of this year because I made it through this year only by the strength of Jesus, and I am so happy to go into this next year after publicly declaring Jesus as my Savior. I am forever saved by his grace, through faith.

Lola testified, “I began to trust Jesus with my life,” and that made all the difference.

It always does.

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Quote for the day:

“There is no failure in God’s will, and no future outside of God’s will.” —George W. Truett

Denison Forum

“When you don’t have faith, pray for the faith to have faith”

Teresa Regula arrived at Auschwitz as a sixteen-year-old. Once a healthy child, she contracted chickenpox, measles, and scarlet fever in the horrific Nazi concentration camp.

Speaking ahead of yesterday’s eightieth anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation by Soviet troops, she said: “When I returned (from the camp), I thought, ‘I’m never going to have children—ever.’ If they had to go through even a fraction of what I went through, I didn’t want that.”

Though she later married, she has remained childless all her life.

Having visited the Holocaust museum in Israel and several in US cities over the years, I know that I cannot begin to understand the horror of the atrocities inflicted on the Jewish people by the Nazis. A million of them were murdered in Auschwitz, six million in total. A fourth of the victims were children.

 “I cry by day, but you do not answer”

I would imagine that many of Hitler’s Jewish victims knew Psalm 22, David’s famous prayer of lament. They of all people would have the right to pray its opening words:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest (vv. 1–2).

David goes on to describe his suffering in detail:

• “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; ‘He trusts in the Lᴏʀᴅ; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!’” (vv. 7–8).
• “They have pierced my hands and feet” (v. 16).
• “I can count all my bones—they stare and gloat over me” (v. 17).
• “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing, they cast lots” (v. 18).

And yet, he refuses to abandon his belief in the goodness of his God: “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them” (vv. 3–4).

Now comes the hard question: What do we do when God does not deliver us?

What would David say to the victims of Auschwitz?

Psalm 22 on the cross

One Jew in particular especially had the right to ask our question.

Jesus made David’s initial lament his own cry from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). His death on Calvary fulfilled Psalm 22’s descriptions in stunning detail:

• His enemies mocked him with the exact words of Psalm 22:8 (Matthew 27:43).

• “They have pierced my hands and feet” (Psalm 22:16) is a graphic depiction of crucifixion, though the Persians did not invent this horrific form of execution until four centuries after the time of David.
• “I can count all my bones” (Psalm 22:17): before Jesus’ executioners could break his legs to hasten his death, as was typical, he “gave up his spirit” (John 19:30, 33).
• “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots” (Psalm 22:18): this was precisely how Jesus’ executioners stole his clothing (John 19:23–24).

Crucifixion was one of the worst forms of torture ever devised. And yet Jesus refused to drink even wine mixed with gall to dull his senses, choosing to experience the cross in all its excruciating pain (Matthew 27:34).

What’s more, his sinless soul was made to bear the sins of all of humanity across all time (Isaiah 53:6; 2 Corinthians 5:21). You and I have no possible way to imagine the horror, disgust, and grief this must have caused him. Even worse, the holy Father was forced in that moment to turn from his sin-bearing Son, causing Jesus to cry out in agony at having been “forsaken” by him.

In total, Jesus suffered physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual pain on a level no other human has ever experienced. And yet, somehow, he found the faith to pray at the end, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

How can we do the same?

I have no simple formulas to offer Holocaust survivors, or those devastated by the wildfires and now the floods and mudslides in California, or Ukrainians continuing to suffer from Russia’s immoral and illegal invasion, or anyone else facing the tragedy and pain of our fallen world.

However, I’ve made two discoveries over the years that I find deeply encouraging in my hardest days.

One: Faith in God is most needed when it is hardest.

When all is well, it is easy to trust in the God we credit for our success. When he answers our prayers in the ways we want him to, it’s easy to have faith in him. But when our days are painful beyond despair, when our suffering knows no release and our grieved questions have no answers, those are the times when we need an omnipotent Father the most.

But he cannot give what we do not have faith to receive. And so, it is when we find it hardest to trust him that we most need to trust him. It is when we are sickest that we most need a doctor.

Of course, it is in such times that faith can be hardest to choose, which leads to my second observation.

Two: My lack of faith is God’s invitation to seek the faith he alone can give.

One reason God allows us to come to the end of ourselves is so we can turn to him for the faith we cannot muster up ourselves, a faith that our circumstances can neither warrant nor produce. Then we can cry with the demoniac’s desperate father, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).

I once heard a pastor say, “When you don’t have faith, pray for the faith to have faith.”

We can ask our Lord to help us believe that his omniscient ways are higher and better than ours (Isaiah 55:9); that the God who “is” love can only want our best (1 John 4:8); that the Father who redeems all he allows will redeem even this, whether we understand his redemption in this life or the next (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:12).

Carolyn Custis James observed,

“Joy isn’t grounded in our circumstances; it is grounded in the unchanging character of God.”

Will you choose joy today?

Our latest website articles:

• “Why did Emilia Peréz actually receive 13 Oscar nominations? What the film about a transgender cartel leader could reveal about our culture”
• “Court rules that elephants are not persons: A reflection on your deepest purpose and highest joy”
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• “Four reflections on Bishop Budde’s message to Donald Trump”
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Quote for the day:

“You don’t really know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.” —Tim Keller

Denison Forum

Circumstances cannot change God’s character: Is this a good thing?

Hamas released four female Israeli soldiers on Saturday under the Gaza ceasefire deal. As part of the agreement, Israel freed two hundred Palestinian prisoners. The hostages were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross before meeting Israeli forces who transported them into Israel. “Fifteen months we haven’t stopped crying, but now it’s from happiness,” said an aunt of one of the women.

According to Israeli officials, eighty-nine hostages—both living and dead—remain in Gaza. The Telegraph has an article with pictures and stories of the captives. They range from infants to the elderly. Assuming they know that some of their fellow hostages have been freed, what must those still imprisoned be feeling this morning?

Would you be encouraged for your future or in despair that you were not chosen?

Would you risk believing you will be freed, or does it hurt too much to hope?

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Such questions are relevant to all who are suffering. And they can lead us to the hope our hearts need most today.

God cannot be less than God

The Bible makes three claims about the character of God relevant to our conversation.

First, it consistently states that he is all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing. For example:

• “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
• “All things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27).
• “[God] knows everything” (1 John 3:20).

Second, it claims that he is all three at the same time. He does not sometimes act in power at the expense of love, or the reverse. The psalmist testified: “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure” (Psalm 147:5; note the present tenses).

Third, it states that his character is unchanging. He is not more loving, powerful, or omniscient today than tomorrow: “I the Lᴏʀᴅ do not change” (Malachi 3:6; cf. Hebrews 13:8). This is only logical: If God is truly the Supreme Being, he must be a God “than which nothing greater can be conceived,” as St. Anselm described him. He can only change by becoming less than God, making himself something other than God.

So we are assured that God knows our suffering, loves us enough to want to prevent it, and is powerful enough to do so. This, of course, is why we have such a problem reconciling the character of God with the suffering in our world. Consider just three events that occurred on this day in history:

• The siege of Leningrad was lifted on this day in 1944. During the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, 650,000 citizens died from starvation and injuries from German artillery bombardment.
• Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz on this day in 1945, showing the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there.
• Three American astronauts were killed in a launch pad fire on this day in 1967.

Anyone who has ever prayed a prayer that God did not seem to answer understands this hard question: If circumstances cannot change the character of God, what does the suffering of life reveal about his nature?

A Zeus or a Father?

If calming the storm reflects Jesus’ character (Matthew 8:23–27), does the existence of the storm also reflect it? If he had the power to raise Lazarus (John 11:43–44), he clearly had the power to prevent his death, as his sister so painfully noted (v. 21). Which circumstance more reveals his character?

Here we are forced to make a binary choice. As we noted, a Supreme Being cannot change and remain supreme. He is either a mean and arbitrary deity whose nature is revealed by the tragedies our world experiences daily, or he is a God who “is” love. He is either a prideful Zeus, whose capricious nature displays occasional fits of generosity as they fulfill his selfish aims, or he is a loving Father, who redeems all he must allow (cf. Romans 8:28) as a consequence of our sinful nature (cf. Romans 7:14–23) and fallen world (Romans 8:22).

Which is it?

Many people see the character of God in ways akin to the famous “Schrödinger’s cat” thought experiment: a cat in a box may or may not have been subjected to deadly poison. It must therefore be considered both alive and dead until it can be observed. In the same way, God must be considered both good and evil until his actions reveal his character.

If we have experienced more good than evil in our lives, we might justifiably believe that God is good rather than evil. If the reverse is true, we might come to the opposite conclusion.

But this will not do. There is too much evil in the world for observation alone to compel us to believe that God is truly good. But there is too much good in the world for observation alone to compel us to believe that God is truly evil. Therefore, we must make a decision through which we interpret the facts as we have them.

How should we do this?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

The best way to determine the character of any person is to view them in their moments of greatest suffering, those times when any veneer is stripped away and they are nakedly revealed for who they truly are.

To view God in this way, go to Calvary. Watch the Son of God writhe in the grip of the worst form of torture ever devised. Hear the sinless Savior bear the sins of all humanity and therefore cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Feel the agony of the Father as he allows his precious Son to die so we can be forgiven and live eternally.

Then hear that Son exclaim with his last dying breath, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

Would you make his prayer yours today?

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• “Why would ministers ‘bless’ abortion clinics? How to counter popular abortion arguments”
• “Is the Equal Rights Amendment ‘the law of the land’? A reflection on presidential power and spiritual flourishing”

Quote for the day:

“The character of God is today, and always will be, exactly what it was in Bible times.” —J. I. Packer

Denison Forum

On Thursday morning, President Donald Trump appeared via video conference in front of a packed crowd at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Trump’s statements leading up to his inauguration and in the days that followed were the talk of the conference, despite the fact that he was unable to attend in person. So when given the chance to hear from him directly, the audience of diplomats, human rights advocates, academics, and business leaders from around the globe were eager to see what he had to say.

Among the points most emphasized were:

• The promise that companies who choose to make their products in America will pay among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth while those who don’t should expect to pay a premium in tariffs. He made it clear that America’s allies would not necessarily be exempt from any such premiums.
• His belief that “After four long years, the United States is strong and sovereign and a beautiful nation once again. It’s a strong, sovereign nation.” (His emphasis)
• The need for the war in Ukraine to end and end quickly. Trump brought up Ukraine on several occasions and in a variety of contexts, but the thread that tied each mention together was his belief that the cost in human lives—which he claimed was much higher on both sides than has been reported—was too great to allow the conflict to continue any longer.
• His belief that America was being taken advantage of by both its allies and other nations around the world; an imbalance that he promised to correct through tariffs and other means.

Much of Trump’s speech touched on familiar grounds to any who listened to his inaugural address or the interviews that followed (for more on the president’s executive orders and first days back in office, see this week’s episode of Culture Brief). Yet, the context at the World Economic Forum makes quite a difference in how those thoughts were received.

Is America treated unfairly?

Instead of speaking directly to the people he was elected to lead, as has been the case for most of this week, the majority of those in attendance at Davos stand outside of the president’s direct influence. As such, when he spoke as though America could do what it wants, with the implication that the rest of the world would have to either fall in line or deal with the consequences, it struck a nerve with some in attendance.

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Agnes Callamard, secretary general for Amnesty International, spoke for many when she described Trump’s speech as conveying an “absolute determination to ‘make America great again’ at the expense of the rest of the world . . . It’s favoring American workers at the expense of workers everywhere . . . There’s nothing, nothing about the rest of the world.”

Of course, the implication behind Callamard’s critique is that Trump should be concerned about the rest of the world, and that belief highlights the disconnect between the president and many who view the world through a much different lens.

Trump is not president of every nation and he should be focused on America first. At the same time, every world leader should say the same about the countries they represent. Trump should not be surprised when his America First policies don’t find universal acceptance among the world leaders whose countries do not benefit from those policies.

That said, the stated goal of this year’s World Economic Forum is “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age,” so Trump’s message of America first was not quite in line with much of what the conference’s attendees had been hearing all week. However, collaboration is typically built upon the principle of a mutually beneficial relationship, and Trump clearly feels that America’s relationships with much of the world fail to meet that standard.

As the president reiterated Thursday, he believes that even the nation’s European allies “treat the United States very, very unfairly.”

The problem with that line of thinking is that “fair” can be a rather nebulous concept. And, while there are a number of lessons we can take from the president’s speech and the global response, that understanding of fairness is, perhaps, the most relevant to each of our lives today.

Witness or justice?

Dennis Wholey once quipped “Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack because you are a vegetarian.”

Yet, despite the recognition that fair treatment is not always an option in this life, there’s something in us that gets angry when we’re denied the treatment we think we deserve. It’s tempting to even see that lack of fairness as a mark against the goodness of God.

From Job to David and a host of other biblical characters, anger toward the Lord is a common response when people are treated in ways that don’t seem just. And that’s alright. We should be angry when sin and the realities of living in this fallen world inflict injustices upon ourselves or others. Such instances remind us that this world is not what God intended it to be and that those who inhabit it are in desperate need of his salvation.

But this issue gets really tricky when we recognize that there will be times when God not only warns us that the world will treat us unfairly but also calls us to volunteer for that fate.

In the Sermon on the Mount, for example, Christ’s call to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile is intended to teach us that there will be times when prioritizing what we deem to be fair treatment will come at the expense of helping others to know Jesus (Matthew 5:38–42). In such moments, preserving our witness needs to be our highest priority, even if it comes at the cost of being treated unfairly.

And if we need help understanding what such a sacrifice looks like, we need only turn our eyes to the sinless Son of God who died on the cross to pay a debt that was not his own. Now he calls us to follow his example.

Will you be a “little Christ?”

Ultimately, none of what we’ve discussed today means that Trump is inherently wrong for pursuing a more aggressive approach to America’s trade agreements. The governance of a country will not always mirror the calling or responsibility of individual Christians.

However, the moment we begin to treat Trump—or any other person for that matter—as our example of what it means to live a moral and Christ-centered life, we’ve strayed from the standard to which God holds each of us. After all, the definition of a Christian is quite literally a “little Christ,” and we are meant to live out that identity every day.

So whose example will you follow today? And how will you react the next time this world or the fallen people in it decide to treat you in a manner you don’t deem fair?

Scripture is clear as to what our answers to those questions should be.

Will you listen?

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Quote of the day:

“The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose.” —C.S. Lewis

Denison Forum

Yesterday was a busy day. Ohio State withstood a second-half comeback by Notre Dame last night to win the NCAA football championship. Nearly three thousand of the world’s wealthiest people gathered in Davos for the World Economic Forum. And retrospectives and remembrances related to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were shared widely as the nation remembered the great civil rights leader. But, of course, the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as our forty-seventh president occupied center stage.

A New York Times analysis of the 2024 election concluded that voters “were itching for change” and “wanted someone to acknowledge that the status quo was not working for them.” Accordingly, the Times reported that the incoming president “wants to seize momentum” as he begins his administration.

That he did.

“A tide of change is sweeping the country”

Mr. Trump began his inaugural address by declaring, “The golden age of America begins right now.” He announced, “We are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country.” As part of that change, he signed a large number of executive actions described by Fox News as “a massive, first wave of policy priorities” on a variety of issues. Among them was renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

Unsurprisingly, criticism of his leadership has already begun. One commentator bemoaned “the takeover of the United States by a base mentality of greed and corruption.” Our politics may seem chaotic and divisive, but consider this: over the last decade, the UK has seen six prime ministers, four general elections, two referendums, and the death of the world’s longest-serving monarch. South Korea’s president has been impeached, formally arrested, and faces possible imprisonment.

By contrast, Mr. Trump began his Inauguration Day with a worship service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, followed by a cup of tea with the departing Bidens. Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump then shared a ride to the Capitol, where all four former presidents attended the inauguration. For the first time in US history, foreign leaders attended the event as well.

The day ended with inaugural balls representing “the peaceful transfer of power, a fundamental principle of American democracy.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness”

Mr. Trump was blunt about the challenges and problems he believes we are facing as a nation. But he also stated, “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.”

To this end, consider a simple fact proclaimed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a 1957 sermon:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Let’s reflect on the logic of his observation: A room is dark precisely because it lacks light. More darkness will not remedy the situation. Only light can defeat the dark. But the good news is that light always defeats the dark. Every time you turn on a light switch, the darkness is banished.

Similarly, “Hate cannot drive out hate.” If you have hatred in your heart for a person, more animosity will only make things worse. Tolerating the person may prevent hurtful actions, but it does not banish feelings of hatred or ameliorate their cause. As Dr. King noted, “Only love can do that.”

What makes us “good citizens”?

Here’s the problem: Unconditional love that puts the other person first, choosing to pardon their sins and seeking to restore what is broken, is a “fruit” of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22), not human effort. No matter how hard you try, you cannot manufacture it.

This is why “wars and rumors of wars” will continue to the end of human history (Matthew 24:6). It is why past ceasefires in the Middle East have not brought lasting peace to the Middle East. And it is why America’s greatest need is for Americans to experience and share the transforming love of God in Christ.

Daniel Webster observed, “Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.” And what “makes men good Christians” is imitating Christ as he “came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). We do this by loving God in response to his love for us (Matthew 22:37; 1 John 4:19) so fully that we are then empowered to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

Imagine a nation filled with “citizens” who loved their Lord and their neighbor like that.

Couple celebrates 82^nd wedding anniversary

Henri Nouwen wrote:

The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God’s word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human love (my emphasis).

Here’s an example: Betty and Elton Denner recently celebrated their eighty-second wedding anniversary. A video of the couple went viral, amassing more than eight million views. In it, Elton bought a dancing walker so he could dance with his wife on her one-hundredth birthday. The couple dressed up as Cinderella and Prince Charming for the celebration.

Their daughter explained the longevity of her parents’ marriage: “They credit their faith in Jesus as the strength in their marriage, guiding them each and every day. The love of their Lord has blessed and sustained them through these eighty-two years together.”

What Jesus is doing for them, he will do for you.

Why do you need his sustaining love today?

Our latest website articles:

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Quote for the day:

“Seek unity and you will find neither unity nor truth. Seek the light of truth, and you will find unity and truth.” —C. S. Lewis

Denison Forum

We live in a culture that is permeated with sexual messaging. We are immersed in sexual temptation through TV shows, movies, advertisements, and online pornography.  So much of it is laced with underlying messages about “freedom” and “be yourself.” But, nothing could be further from truth. Sin enslaves and takes captive those who succumb.

Let’s find ways to defeat temptation before it leads to sin and guilt. Jesus said that the devil is a “murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44) who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). He assaults God’s people physically. But he also attacks us spiritually.

Expect to face temptation

Scripture tells us we are to expect temptation: “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

You will never face a unique temptation. Human nature doesn’t change, so Satan’s strategies don’t change. What worked against our ancestors works against us. We should expect to be tempted, because this fact is common to the entire human race.

But while we should expect to face temptation, we should also expect to defeat temptation: “He will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Notice the definite article: “the way of escape.” There is always a way out, no matter what temptation we are facing.

“Endure it” means “bear up under it.” The temptation will not go away, but we will be able to withstand it. This was true even for Jesus: after he defeated the enemy’s temptations in the wilderness, the devil “departed from him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).

Here we find one of Satan’s most subtle strategies: if we defeat temptation, he will bring it against us again. He wants us to think we did not or could not defeat this temptation if it recurs. But this is a lie. If you’re in a war and win a battle, the fact that you must keep fighting makes your victory no less real.

The bottom line: expect to be tempted. You’re not doing something wrong if Satan finds you and tries to lead you into sin. As Rick Warren notes, “It is not a sin to be tempted.” In fact, you’re doing something right. The more he sees you as a threat to his strategies, the more he will try to destroy your witness and ministry.

Expect to defeat temptation in the power of your Lord

Satan hates our Father. He cannot attack the sovereign Lord directly, however, so he attacks his children. The closer you are to God, the more of a threat you are to him. The greater his temptations, therefore, the greater your ministry must be. And the greater your Father’s protections and power when you need them most.

Thomas Watson, a seventeenth-century Puritan, observed: “Satan doth not tempt God’s children because they have sin in them, but because they have grace in them. Had they no grace, the devil would not disturb them. Though to be tempted is a trouble, yet to think why you are tempted is a comfort.”

Expect to face temptation, but expect to defeat temptation in the power of your Lord.

What do we do when temptation finds us? “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape.” “Faithful” translates the Greek word for “trustworthy, dependable, reliable.” We can always count on our Father to be all he promises to be:

• “The Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
• “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
• “Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
• “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness” (Revelation 1:5).

Because he is faithful to us, he will always give us what we need to obey his word and will. In this case, “he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.” If there is a temptation you cannot defeat in his strength, you will not face it. This means that every temptation you face is one you can defeat in his strength.

Ask for help from God and from God’s people

However, you must ask for what you need. Jesus counseled his followers to “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). He promised us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). But we must ask, seek, and knock. God honors the freedom he gives us and will not force his help upon us.

We can ask for help from God and from God’s people: “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16). We are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

If you ask, your Father may lead you to people who can help you defeat the temptations you face. There may be fellow believers who have been where you are and can offer wisdom born of experience. And they can pray for you and with you. As a member of the family of faith, you are never alone unless you choose to be.

When we expect to face and defeat temptation by seeking the help of God and his people, we position ourselves to receive all that we need for spiritual victory. But we’re not done. We must then take “the way of escape” our Father offers us. We must choose to “endure” the temptations we face.

In other words, we must choose to obey God as he works in and through our lives:

• Scripture teaches us to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). But we must choose to flee.
• We are told to “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). But we must choose to resist.
• We are warned that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Timothy 6:10). But we must choose not to love money.

Billy Sunday: “Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.” Rick Warren noted that “every temptation is an opportunity to do good.” But we must want to do good.

If you don’t have the strength to choose to obey God, you can ask for that strength. If you don’t have the faith to believe that his will is best, you can ask for such faith. Whatever you need, you can ask God to provide. But then you must choose to use his help.

As we work, God works. Your Father knows you far better than you can ever know yourself. And he will give you all that you need to defeat the temptations you face whenever you face them. If you will expect to face and defeat temptation by asking for the help of God and his people with an obedient heart, his victory can be yours.

How is this fact relevant to your soul today?

Denison Forum

“A leader is a dealer in hope”

TikTok went offline Saturday night after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law requiring its Chinese owner to sell the app by Sunday or face a ban. Then, after President-elect Trump said he would issue an executive order today to delay the ban, the company began restoring service.

This is just one example of the power to be conferred on Mr. Trump when he takes the oath of office at noon today (EST) as our nation’s forty-seventh president.

Other stories in this morning’s news:

• The first three hostages released from Gaza arrived in Israel yesterday after a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold. “An entire nation embraces you,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Negotiators from both President Biden and President-elect Trump helped secure the agreement.
• A California father of two who lost his home to wildfires on January 8 is calling for significant changes in leadership that “absolutely failed us.”
• Detroit Lions Head Coach Dan Campbell is taking the blame for his team’s stunning loss to the Washington Commanders Saturday night. “It’s my fault,” he told reporters after the loss. “At the end of the day, I didn’t have them ready.”

Each story illustrates the crucial power of leadership. What is at the heart of that power? According to Napoleon Bonaparte, “A leader is a dealer in hope.”

As Mr. Trump returns to the White House today, let’s consider Napoleon’s assertion and its implications for our nation and our future.

“Everyone needs to feel we can come back”

Acclaimed Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan spoke for many when she wrote:

People need hope. Five years of the pandemic, its aftermath and angers, of cultural furies, of inflation and endless politics—people feel beat, like they were through something bad and still aren’t sure what it was. Young men and women need to feel, as they enter American history, that they’re part of something rising, not falling. The latent optimism the young always feel—they need to know it’s grounded in something real. Everyone needs to feel we can come back, turn it around, light the world, be the beacon again.

Psychologist Dan J. Tomasulo reports that hope is vital to better physical and mental well-being, noting that hopeful people tend to live longer and happier lives with “passion and zest that fuels their energy.” His article advises that the secret to hope is “focusing on what you can control.”

In his 1993 inaugural address, Bill Clinton similarly asserted, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

However, Albert Einstein reportedly said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

Which is right?

What we need “more than anything else in the world”

In The Sacred Journey, Frederick Buechner observed:

When it comes to putting broken lives back together—when it comes, in religious terms, to the saving of souls—the human best tends to be at odds with the holy best. To do for yourself the best that you have it in you to do—to grit your teeth and clench your fists in order to survive the world at its harshest and worst—is, by that very act, to be unable to let something be done for you and in you that is more wonderful still.

The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed also secures your life against being opened up and transformed by the holy power that life comes from.

He adds:

Surely that is why, in Jesus’ sad joke, the rich man has as hard a time getting into Paradise as that camel through the needle’s eye, because with his credit card in his pocket, the rich man is so effective at getting for himself everything he needs that he does not see that what he needs more than anything else in the world can be had only as a gift. He does not see that the one thing a clenched fist cannot do is accept, even from [God] himself, a helping hand.

In light of the unprecedented challenges we face, our nation’s ultimate hope is in the God whose help we need most. You and I can therefore love America best by praying and working for Americans to love and trust our Lord and thus be empowered to love and serve each other (Matthew 22:37–39).

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, many of his brilliant quotes will be cited by writers such as myself. Here’s one of my favorites: In his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Dr. King stated,

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.”

But he knew what we need to remember: “unarmed truth” and “unconditional love” must come from the only One who is “the truth” (John 14:6) and whose very nature “is love” (1 John 4:8).

The president of three meters

Only one American is president of the nation. Few of us have the power to guide our cultural future. How can you and I be conveyors of the hope our country needs?

Meik Wiking, who leads the Happiness Research Institute in Denmark, cites the importance of trusting employees as vital to workers’ happiness. He uses the example of staff at the Tivoli Gardens amusement park in Copenhagen, where they follow the three-meter rule: you are CEO of everything within a radius of three meters. If you see trash within your three-meter radius, you pick it up. If you see a guest looking for something, you stop and ask if you can help.

You and I are president of the three meters around us.

Will you serve well today?

Our latest website articles:

• “Biden will commute sentences of nearly 2,500 drug offenders: How can we experience the peace of true forgiveness?”
• “How to be Jesus’ apprentice, not just a Christian: A review of ‘Practicing the Way’ by John Mark Comer”
• “Carrie Underwood to perform at Trump inauguration: What the backlash to her announcement says about our national future”
• “The death of legendary baseball broadcaster Bob Uecker: A reflection on legacy and empowering mission”
• “Book read by NFL receiver on the sideline goes viral: What does God think about our doubts?”

Quote for the day:

“This is Christian hope, that the future is in God’s hands.” —Pope Francis

Denison Forum

Adversarial politics and the “steadfast love” of God

The confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, began yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Democrats grilled him, while Republicans largely seemed to indicate their support. This is unsurprising, of course—if Kamala Harris had won the White House, the politics would have been reversed.

The adversarial nature of our governmental system must be frustrating to those who experience it. However, the Founders intended a system of checks and balances in their belief that, because we are flawed and fallen, none of us can be trusted with unaccountable power over others.

As a result, we have prosecutors and defense attorneys in our courts. Our capitalistic economic system thrives on competition that benefits consumers. Competition improves students and athletes as well. Not to mention our never-ending battle with nature for physical survival, from gravity that can break our bodies to diseases, predators, and disasters that can kill us.

It seems that adversity is a foundational fact in every dimension of our world. It is therefore understandable that we would see the Creator of our world in the same way.

This was certainly my experience for many years, even after I became a Christian. I’d like to tell you that story in the hope that it can encourage you in your story today.

Zeus with a scale?

I grew up not going to church, but I always had a sense that God is real. However, I thought of him as a kind of Zeus atop Mt. Olympus, a judge with a giant set of scales—the good went on one side and the bad on the other, and the way the scales tipped determined where you went, either to heaven or to hell.

Even when I became a Christian at the age of fifteen, I pictured God in his holiness and omnipotence more than in his mercy and love. I know that he loves me because “God is love” (1 John 4:8), but I also know that he is “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8) and that I am a sinner by virtue of my inherited sinful nature (Romans 3:23; 5:12; Psalm 51:5).

In my fallenness, I am less a good person who sometimes does bad things than a bad person who tries to do good things. David observed, “There is none who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3). Paul’s admission is mine: “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18–19).

I am grateful that God forgives all I confess to him (1 John 1:9), but my default subliminal picture of him has typically been of a holy Lord who is consistently displeased with my failures and shortcomings.

But this is not so.

“They all ate and were satisfied”

The psalmist said of God, “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15). Here we learn that God wants to bless us and therefore takes the initiative to give us his best.

This is why David exhorted us, “Oh give thanks to the Lᴏʀᴅ; for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!” (1 Chronicles 16:34). It is why God can say to his people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3, my emphasis). It is why we read that nothing “in all creation” is “able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

This is not because we deserve his grace, but because this is the kind of Father he is: “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4–5). Paul asked, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:31–32).

Our Father wants only the best for his children. Accordingly, when Jesus fed the multitude, he didn’t just give them enough to survive another day: “They all ate and were satisfied” (Matthew 14:20, my emphasis), something that I would imagine seldom happened for many of these impoverished people. He turned water not just into wine but into “good” wine, far exceeding the expectations even of the “master of the feast” (John 2:9–10).

And what we experience from his hand in this broken world cannot compare to what is waiting for us in paradise: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). In the meantime, our Lord is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).

As “the bridegroom rejoices over the bride”

I say all of that to say this: I am learning to see God as a Father who loves me so unconditionally that he rejoices over me as “the bridegroom rejoices over the bride” (Isaiah 62:5) and “takes pleasure” in me as his child (Psalm 149:4).

If I love my children and grandchildren so deeply that they bring delight to my heart, how much more does my Father delight in me (Psalm 18:19)?

If I want only their best, how much more does he want only my best (cf. Psalm 37:4)?

If I find joy in blessing them, how much more does he find joy in blessing me (cf. Psalm 16:11)?

However, our Lord honors the freedom with which he created us and thus can give us only what we choose to receive. A longtime friend who has experienced much of God’s blessings summarizes his faith this way: “He leads, I follow.”

Can you say the same today?

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• “Catherine confirms she is in remission from cancer: Why do we want to know more about celebrities than we do?”
• “Carrie Underwood to perform at Trump inauguration: What the backlash to her announcement says about our national future”

• “Why does Donald Trump want Greenland? A reflection on creation, possessions, and the glory of God”
• “The Laken Riley Act to be discussed by the Senate: A reflection on sin, forgiveness, justice, and grace”
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Quote for the day:

“My brethren, it is in proportion as you get near to God that you enter into the full enjoyment of life—that life which Jesus Christ gives you, and which Jesus Christ preserves in you.” —Charles Spurgeon

Denison Forum

One way God redeems suffering for greater peace

President Joe Biden delivered his final foreign policy address yesterday, stating that a deal to end war in Gaza through a ceasefire and hostage release deal was “on the brink” of being finalized. Israel and Hamas have reportedly been presented with a “final” draft of such an agreement after a “breakthrough” was reached Sunday evening following talks between Qatar’s prime minister, Israel’s intelligence chiefs, and envoys for President Biden and President-elect Trump. A Palestinian source said he expected the deal to be finalized today if “all goes well.”

According to the terms:

• Hamas would release thirty-four hostages during the first of three phases in the ceasefire, while Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
• Women, children, the elderly, and the ill would be among the hostages released in the first phase, though Hamas has not so far publicly confirmed how many of them are alive.
• Israeli troops would eventually withdraw from Gaza, though Israel has reportedly proposed the establishment of a new buffer zone in the strip to prevent future terror attacks.
• Humanitarian aid would be significantly increased to Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire.
• Discussions about a new governing body and reconstruction of Gaza would be held in the final phase.

Whatever happens with these negotiations, they obviously cannot undo eighteen months of suffering caused by Hamas’s horrific invasion on October 7, 2023. None of us can imagine the pain and suffering of these hostages and their families, or the grief of those who lost loved ones on that day and in the conflict it triggered.

But there is good news amid the bad: we have a God who not only understands our suffering—he feels it personally.

“No other god has wounds”

An elderly seminary professor once advised me, “Be kind to everyone, because everyone’s having a hard time.” The pastor and theologian Joseph Parker agreed: “Preach to the suffering and you will never lack a congregation. There is a broken heart in every pew.”

One way God redeems all he allows is by using our pain to draw us closer to the Great Physician. You don’t usually go to your doctor when you’re well, but when you’re sick. John Piper explained, “This is God’s universal purpose for all Christian suffering: more contentment in God and less satisfaction in the world.”

Why should we believe that our Lord can help us as no one else can?

God understands our suffering because he has experienced it with us. I know this is a commonplace observation for Christians, but no other religion in human history has made such a claim. The Greeks would never have suggested that Zeus feels our pain. Muslims view Allah as distant and impervious to our fallenness. Buddhists and Hindus view ultimate reality as impersonal and cannot imagine this Reality being born in a cave, laid in a feed trough, and dying on a cross.

As Os Guinness noted, “No other god has wounds.”

But the One we worship today knows our pain because he has experienced it personally and still does so today. Jesus was “in every respect . . . tempted as we are” (Hebrews 4:15) and is interceding for us this very moment (Romans 8:34). In addition, the Holy Spirit lives in us (1 Corinthians 3:16) and thus experiences all that we experience. And our Father is holding us in his hand (John 10:29), so nothing can come to us without first passing through him.

No doctor can pretend to possess our Lord’s omniscience, omnipotence, or omnipresence. Nor can any earthly physician truly feel what we feel and suffer as we suffer. But our Great Physician can and does.

“Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance”

However, as with any doctor, this one can treat only the patients who will come to him for help. But it’s not enough to consult him: we must also obey him.

If your doctor tells you that you need to lose weight, exercise more, change your diet, or otherwise modify your life, you can always ignore her advice. So it is with your Lord. Even though he is the King of the universe, he honors the free will he has given you (cf. Revelation 3:20). He can give only what you will receive and lead only where you will follow.

So allow me to ask: What is your next step into obedience with your Lord? If it were easy, you would already have taken it. Such obedience requires us to believe that our Physician knows and wants only what is best for us (1 John 4:8) and that his will always and ultimately results in our good (Romans 8:28).

Blaise Pascal observed:

Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

“To multiplied trials he multiplies peace”

The Lord called David “a man after my heart” (Acts 13:22), but even he had to walk through “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4a). However, in the hardest places of life, he could pray with triumphant confidence, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (v. 4b).

So can we.

Through a life filled with physical suffering, Annie Johnson Flint could testify personally:

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions he addeth his mercy,
To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, his grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of his infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

For what “burdens” do you need such measureless grace today?

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• “Why does Donald Trump want Greenland? A reflection on creation, possessions, and the glory of God”
• “The Laken Riley Act to be discussed by the Senate: A reflection on sin, forgiveness, justice, and grace”
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Quote for the day:

“Peace comes not from the absence of trouble, but from the presence of God.” —Alexander MacLaren

Denison Forum

“The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created.” That is how Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described his company’s efforts to curtail the spread of misinformation for the better part of a decade. So, instead of an army of third-party Meta fact-checkers, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will move to an X-style community notes form of moderation for most of their content.

Illegal activity, hate speech, pornography, and other clear violations of their content rules will still be taken down, but they are largely trying to move away from policing political and cultural views that are simply matters of free speech.

The news came as a welcome sign of sanity to many on the right, while those on the left tended to view it as a capitulation to the incoming Trump administration and harbinger of hate speech, conspiracy theories, and a host of other perceived ills. However, like most of the overly politicized trends in our culture today, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Zuckerberg went on to acknowledge as much, noting that there will be a “tradeoff” where “we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.” He’s decided that tradeoff is worth it, and those close to him say it reflects “an evolved return to his political origins.”

While that sentiment may sound unlikely to those who have watched Facebook grow increasingly restrictive toward views that don’t align with the mainstream or political left, Zuckerberg’s reasons ultimately matter less than the new reality they will usher in. And, in a sign that Meta’s CEO is serious about these changes, that new reality will be guided by a host of new faces as well.

What are Meta’s motivations?

The most famous of those faces is likely UFC President and CEO Dana White, who joined the Board of Directors earlier this week. White is also a close ally to Trump, and introduced the President before his speech at last year’s Republican National Convention.

However, of those Zuckerberg has brought into the fold to guide this transition, Joel Kaplan—a longtime Republican lobbyist and President George W. Bush’s former chief of staff—is likely to play the most prominent role. Kaplan was named Chief of Global Affairs and replaced Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister from Britain who’d been in charge of Meta’s policy and regulatory stances since 2018.

In an interview with Fox earlier this week, Kaplan stated that the third-party fact-checkers Meta employed were “well-intentioned at the outset but there’s just been too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check and how.” He also noted that much of that change has occurred over the last four years, arguing that “We saw a lot of societal and political pressure, all in the direction of more content moderation, more censorship, and we’ve got a real opportunity.”

These moves have led many to claim that Meta is simply trying to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration. If that’s the case, it seems to be working. Following Kaplan’s interview, Trump said that Meta has “come a long way.”

Meta’s ability to be an ally rather than an enemy of the government will be essential going forward given that another of Zuckerberg’s stated goals is to combat the even greater levels of censorship found in Europe, Latin America, and China. And as Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella discussed on the inaugural episode of Culture Brief—Denison Forum’s newest podcast—large parts of the world could be primed to join that fight.

Ultimately, time will tell to what extent these changes are effective and how seriously Meta’s platforms are taking the notion of letting their users moderate one another rather than doing it for them. However, this news is yet another example of how the need for discernment has seldom been higher. And that represents an important opportunity for Christians today.

Opportunities we can’t afford to waste

The desire to go back to a time when you could trust what you saw on the news and when people believed their politicians were telling them the truth remains a common refrain among many. To be sure, there was (relatively) less division in our society when people were unable to anonymously yell at strangers from around the world.

However, much of the rise in consternation over the state of public discourse today is due to our ability to know how much of what is said is either incomplete or simply not true. That we’re more aware of the lies we’re told today doesn’t mean that people lied less in previous eras. The lies were simply harder to spot because the implicit trust in media, politicians, and other authority figures was higher.

While the current state of media and social discourse is certainly filled with its pitfalls and problems, it also gives us the ability to test what we’re told to see if it’s true to a level that, in many ways, really is unique to this point in human history. Doing so takes more work, but the potential rewards are much greater as well.

As Christians empowered by the Holy Spirit, we should be better positioned than most to practice such discernment. And just think of the difference it would make if we became known as a group of people others could trust and look to for guidance.

As people who worship the God who is Truth and are tasked with sharing a message that Paul warned would be considered “folly” by those who haven’t believed (1 Corinthians 1:18), discernment is among the most essential traits for us to master. Thankfully, each day presents us with endless opportunities to do just that; opportunities we can’t afford to waste.

So the next time you get ready to open Facebook, Instagram, X, or whatever social media platform you favor, start by asking God to help you discern the truth from the lies. And be sure to say that prayer again before liking, sharing, or otherwise engaging with the content you find.

The Holy Spirit is ready and waiting to help you do just that.

Will you let him?

The latest from Denison Forum:

• Joe Rogan interviews Wesley Huff, a Christian apologist
• Reflecting on the funeral of Jimmy Carter
• Celebrities losing their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires
• Making Jesus king of our new year
• More life vs the afterlife

Quote of the day:

“Truth will ultimately prevail where pains is taken to bring it to light.” — George Washington

Denison Forum

President-elect Donald Trump has been in the news a lot in recent days.

He asked the US Supreme Court to block his New York hush money sentencing scheduled for tomorrow. Since winning the election, he has repeatedly raised the idea of taking over the Panama Canal from Panama and taking control of Greenland from Denmark. He has also said that Canada should become the 51^st US state.

Meanwhile, the remains of former President Jimmy Carter were brought into the US Capitol on Tuesday, where the public has paid their respects ahead of his funeral at the Washington National Cathedral later today. The service begins at 10 a.m. EST; his remains will later be transported to Plains, Georgia, for a private interment this evening at 5:20 p.m.

How to know your neighbors’ politics

Reactions to all of the above have been as partisan as you might expect. Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters believe in his legal innocence and applaud his desire to expand America’s geopolitical reach. Many of his critics have written and said just the opposite. Mr. Carter’s supporters and critics have likewise been vocal in their responses regarding his death and larger legacy.

The rancor of the political Left and Right against each other has seldom been so vividly on display at one time.

Our partisan divisions are clearly reflected in a new Gallup report that shows a record-low percentage of Americans are satisfied with the way democracy is working in the US. In 1984, 60 percent of us said we were satisfied with our democracy; the number currently stands at 28 percent, fewer than ever before.

A new real estate platform now allows homebuyers to access their neighbors’ political affiliations. Customers can view block-by-block political data pulled from election results, campaign contributions, and licensable commercial reports. This will make it even easier for us to live in community with only those with whom we agree on political and cultural issues.

These trends are symptomatic of a larger issue at work in our society, a factor that should evoke both grave concern and empowering spiritual hope for us today.

“Bound together in a common fate”

Longtime readers know of my great appreciation for the work of University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter. His magnum opus, To Change the World, explains cultural transformation better than any resource I have yet seen. I have commented on it and recommended it widely over the years.

In a recent article, Hunter takes his analysis further. He references the “culture wars” of recent decades (he actually coined the term in a 1991 book by that title), noting “the apparent polarization” and “seemingly incommensurable differences” of our society.

However, he states, “We increasingly inhabit a common culture.”

In his view, this culture is “chillingly nihilistic,” a fundamental belief that our cultural opponents are the enemies of all that is good and that we are their victims. Our shared beliefs and community (what he calls “tribal affiliations”) are fashioned in large part in reaction to the perceived injuries inflicted on us by other “tribes.”

Hunter illustrates: “For evangelical Christians, all that was wrong with the world could be traced back to ‘secular humanism.’ Or, to take a different example, for those on the left, all that impeded progress and social justice could be laid at the feet of capitalism and racism.”

Our “politicized identity” is therefore “formed and sustained by way of negation.” As a result, we seek “revenge that renders forgiveness or even democratic compromise impossible” out of a “desire for a purity that cannot abide the existence of the other.” In Hunter’s view, it is vital that we respond by “refusing to see our political opponents as enemies but instead choosing to see them as fellow citizens with whom we are bound together in a common fate” (his emphasis).

“Beggars helping beggars find bread”

This is where Christianity can play a crucial role in our national future. Here’s why:

• We believe that all people, whatever their political persuasions, are created by God in his image (Genesis 1:27) and individuals for whom Jesus died (Romans 5:8). As St. Augustine famously noted, God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.
• We believe that all people, whatever their beliefs or challenges, are capable of being transformed by God’s grace into his children (John 1:12) as a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). For any individual, it is always too soon to give up on God.
• We also believe that we are just as sinful as any sinner (Romans 3:23), that we are just as much in need of God’s saving grace (Ephesians 2:8–9), and that we are therefore “beggars helping beggars find bread.”
• And we believe that loving our neighbors as ourselves is both our mandate as followers of Christ (Matthew 22:39; John 13:34–35) and our appropriate response to his love for us (1 John 4:19). Such compassion demonstrates the reality and relevance of our faith and draws a skeptical world closer to our Lord. (For more, see my latest website article, “Firefighters battling ‘unprecedented’ fires in California: The urgency and power of true compassion.”

“To solve man’s basic problem”

Jesus identified the source of our struggles: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:19–20). In response, pastor and author Paul Powell noted:

“To solve man’s basic problem we must give him a new heart. We must change the seat of his moral, spiritual, and intellectual being. He must be made right on the inside.”

This is what Jesus—and only Jesus—can do. No other person, religion, political party, or worldview can give us a “new birth” (John 3:3).

In First15, our ministry’s daily devotional, we read:

We were created with an insatiable thirst for relationship with God. We were made to experience true rest and satisfaction in one place and from one relationship: intimacy with the Father. In Jesus we find what our hearts have been looking for from our first breath. In Jesus we find a pathway to the Father not formed by our exploration or wandering, but by his steadfast love and unceasing pursuit.

Will you “experience true rest and satisfaction” today?

NOTE: The first episode of Denison Forum’s new podcast, Culture Brief, is out now on all podcast platforms! Join Conner Jones and Micah Tomasella as they unpack the week’s biggest cultural stories, exploring the latest trends and topics through a Christian lens. I believe they will be helpful in guiding you through politics, sports, technology, and other culture-dominating topics. Listen to the first episode now on your favorite podcast platform. New episodes will be released every Thursday. Make sure to follow the show so you never miss an episode.

Thursday news to know:

• Palisades Fire torches 1,000 structures, most destructive in Los Angeles history
• Israel, Hezbollah fighting stretches a cease-fire deal to the limit
• Iran releases Italian journalist Cecilia Sala
• The polar vortex readies to dump snow on Texas and its neighbors
• On this day in 2007: Steve Jobs debuts the iPhone

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

Quote for the day:

“The greatest conversion called for by Jesus is to move from belonging to the world to belonging to God.” —Henri Nouwen

Denison Forum

What the growing interest in reincarnation says about our culture

In a recent article for the New York Times, Saskia Solomon profiled the Division of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), a parapsychology research unit that is part of the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. DOPS was started in 1967 by Dr. Ian Stevenson and has spent the better part of sixty years investigating the stories of children who claim to remember a past life. The team has logged hundreds of cases from “all continents except Antarctica,” and Dr. Jim Tucker, who led DOPS until his retirement in 2015, said the frozen locale’s exclusion is “only because we haven’t looked for cases there.”

The eight-person team at DOPS is one of a few labs around the world investigating such phenomena, with the Koestler Parapsychology Unit at the University of Edinburgh the most notable of their peers. Yet despite its affiliation with the University of Virginia’s medical school, DOPS’s research has been something of a behind-the-scenes pursuit since its inception, and that’s largely to the benefit of both the school and DOPS.

When Dr. Stevenson started the group, he was wary of their work becoming more of a carnival show than science. As such, they meet a couple of miles away from the school in a series of would-be condominiums inside a residential building. But while their work was—and, to an extent, still is—largely maligned within the scientific community, the notion of reincarnation and the remembrance of past lives is having something of a revival in the larger culture.

“This is not just a pointless existence”

A 2023 Pew Research Study found that “About one-quarter of adults say it is definitely or probably true that the dead can be reincarnated (i.e., reborn again and again in this world).” So while Solomon reports that the most frequently reported cases of a remembered past life come from South Asia, where the belief in reincarnation is more culturally and religiously prevalent, the notion is growing here as well.

Every year, parents send the group more than 100 emails asking about strange or troubling things their child has said that they believe could be tied to a past life. Dr. Tucker says that “very few” of these reports yield enough evidence to think the child’s statements could really point to reincarnation and, to their credit, they try to maintain a fairly high bar for legitimizing such claims.

The team at DOPS also understands that there’s probably not “going to be one finding or one study that suddenly convinces everyone that we need to change how we understand reality.” Yet they hope that “a greater acceptance of life being a continuous cycle could have a positive effect on the way we live” by helping people to value the lives of those around them to a greater degree.

As Dr. Tucker put it, “There would be a stronger sense that we’re all kind of in this together, this is not just a pointless existence.”

Our hope for a better life

While the Bible does not leave room for the idea of reincarnation—the author of Hebrews, among others, is clear that “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27)—the sentiment that life is not “just a pointless existence” should be a truth Christians can get behind. However, the differences in how we view that existence say a lot about the kind of hope sought by proponents of reincarnation.

In both systems, people persist long after death. However, reincarnation offers more of this life, whereas the Christian version of eternity offers the prospect of a better life—one in which we experience the kind of existence God intended for us to have before sin got in the way. That so many in our culture would rather entertain the idea of another shot at this life is telling and speaks to the fundamental flaw in our fallen nature.

The desire to live life on our terms rather than God’s drove Adam and Eve to sin in the Garden and continues to drive people to sin today. Most recognize that this world is flawed and that there are problems woven into the fabric of our existence this side of heaven. But the idea that we can do better, be better, and overcome those mistakes if we can just get another chance is among the most human beliefs we find in religion.

By contrast, Christian teaching is that it doesn’t matter how many lives we get. The problem of sin will always be a problem.

Only one being was ever able to live a sinless existence, and, by the grace of God, that’s enough if we’re simply willing to put our faith in him rather than in ourselves.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to be better, kinder, and pursue a sinless life. The Bible is clear that God’s call is to be perfect as he is perfect (Matthew 5:48), and Jesus offers us the best example of what that looks like. But failure to live up to that standard is inevitable, and if our hope for a better eternity was contingent upon being the exception to that fact, we would be truly hopeless.

Praise God that doesn’t have to be the case.

Denison Forum

Facing an unknown future with joyous faith

“I’m young, pretty, and friendly—all very good, positive qualities that you have too.” This is how Sister Inah Canabarro, the world’s oldest living person at nearly 117, greets visitors to her retirement home in the southern Brazilian city of Porto Alegre.

In a video shot, the smiling Canabarro can be seen cracking jokes, sharing miniature paintings she made of wildflowers, and reciting the Hail Mary prayer. The nun is a fan of the local soccer club, which celebrates her birthday every year by decorating her room with gifts in the team’s colors.

The secret to her longevity? Her faith, she says.

Wildfires threaten thousands in California

We can all use such faith in challenging times like these.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency yesterday as wildfires forced the evacuation of thirty thousand people in the Los Angeles area. A polar vortex has prompted school closures and caused power outages and flight cancellations across the US. Dozens of hostages in Gaza are enduring another winter as their families plead for their release.

Despite all our scientific advances and technological prowess, anticipating the future is as challenging as ever. Consider these predictions made by “experts” at the beginning of 2024:

• “Biden will beat Trump and Kamala Harris will play a huge role”
• “If Trump wins, he will still lose the popular vote”
• “Iowa poll: Kamala Harris leapfrogs Donald Trump to take lead near Election Day”
• “Netanyahu will be unseated as Israeli prime minister”
• “The US now has an 85% chance of recession in 2024”.

Famed management consultant Peter Drucker noted, “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”

Since the future is inherently unknowable, we should obviously turn to the One whose omniscience is unbounded by time (Psalm 90:4), seeking his “plans to prosper you” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV) as we follow his “perfect” will (Romans 12:2).

What keeps us from seeking and following his will for our lives?

How can we experience his best every day of this new year?

Watching the NFL on Netflix

My wife and I watched the 1954 movie White Christmas again this year on Christmas evening. In one scene, a popular TV show is about to begin, so a group gathers on chairs around a console television to watch. The image struck me because I remember doing exactly the same thing with my parents as a child. We had three channels available through the “rabbit ears” antenna that sprouted from the back of the massive wooden box sitting on the floor.

That was then; this is now.

Earlier in the day, we joined fans from over two hundred countries who watched two NFL games on television via Netflix. Across the year, viewers streamed over one billion hours of content daily to their televisions via YouTube. Not to mention all the content getting downloaded on laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Meanwhile, cable television is declining as fast as streaming services are accelerating.

Marshall McLuhan famously asserted, “The medium is the message.” He was right: When we can watch nearly anything we choose whenever we choose on nearly any technology we choose, it seems that the outside world is subject to our command. And when content producers vie for our attention, we become the customer in control of the encounter.

But this is just what they want us to think. The more they appeal to our “will to power,” the more likely we are to buy their products, watch their shows, or do whatever else they want us to do.

“The most reliable way to predict the future”

Abraham Lincoln claimed, “The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.” However, since only a timeless being is able to see and create the future, our wisest decision is to trust him rather than ourselves.

But the more prosperous we become, the more tempted by self-reliance we are.

In Revelation 3, Jesus states, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (v. 20). This verse is often used for evangelistic purposes, but it is actually directed to the prosperous church at Laodicea (v. 17). If their self-reliance could keep them from experiencing the presence of Jesus, the same can happen to us.

By contrast, the Magi who saw the star at Jesus’ birth journeyed hundreds of miles to honor him as their king (Matthew 2:1–2). They were obviously prosperous, judging by their gifts for the Christ, yet “they fell down and worshiped him” (v. 11).

We are wise to call them “wise men.” And even wiser to emulate them.

“Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace”

To be people who reject self-reliance for God-dependence, let’s take three steps today.

1. Spend significant time with our Lord. The more we are with him, the more we become like him. Louie Giglio was right: “Humility is not a character trait to develop, it’s the natural by-product of being with Jesus.”
2. Focus on our Lord and our neighbor, seeking practical ways to serve both. C. S. Lewis noted, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
3. Remember that we are who and what we are by God’s grace. Charles Spurgeon advised us, “Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace.”

St. Augustine asked: “What greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become a son of God?” Then he added: “Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace.”

How will you respond to “sheer grace” today?

My latest website articles:

• “First US patient dies of bird flu: How to fight fear with faith”
• “Winter storms are closing schools and canceling flights: Remembering ‘Icemageddon’ and grappling with mortality”
• “Dutch online archive identifies suspected Nazi collaborators: Why does justice take so long?”
• “Why young men are joining a more ‘muscular’ church: Lions on Noah’s ark and the power of unconditional obedience”

Quote for the day:

“When thinking about life, remember this: no amount of guilt can solve the past, and no amount of anxiety will change the future.” —Ruth Graham

Denison Forum

Why does God allow death?

Nothing lasts forever, as they say.

• The US Congress certified Donald Trump as our nation’s 47^th president yesterday, but he cannot run again per the 22^nd Amendment to the US Constitution.
• Justin Trudeau stepped down as party leader and prime minister in Canada.
• The 134-year-old sanctuary of First Baptist Church in Dallas is being demolished after a devastating fire last July. This is especially nostalgic for me; I once preached in this historic worship center and attended numerous services and events there.
• A Washington Post writer, commenting on “an unimaginable AI future,” notes: “It’s no longer clear how much of ordinary life will survive the next twenty-five years.”
• Louisiana reported yesterday the first bird flu-related human death in the US. Officials are watching the escalation of H5N1 cases with concern.
• The killing of fourteen people on New Year’s Day in New Orleans is the latest sign of a resurgence in radical Islamist terrorism around the world.

Despite the obvious reality of human finitude and mortality, tech millionaire Bryan Johnson says he spends upwards of $2 million a year on an anti-aging regimen he believes is enabling his body to “achieve the lowest possible biological age.” Netflix’s new documentary, “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants To Live Forever,” was released on January 1 and tells his story.

Johnson takes over one hundred supplements and pills a day and engages in daily medical scans, blood draws, a rigorous and restrictive diet, an exercise regimen, and various experimental medical procedures.

I hope he doesn’t die in a car wreck.

Why is this world vital to the world to come?

Johnson’s story, coupled with the other news of the morning, raises a question for me: Why does an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God allow death?

If the Lord could take Enoch (Genesis 5:24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11) directly to heaven without passing through physical death, why not the rest of us? In fact, why did God even create this temporal world and require us to inhabit it? Why did he not create us in heaven to spend eternity with him there? What is it about this world that is vital to the world to come?

God made us to love him and each other (Matthew 22:37–39), but love is a choice, and choice requires options. As a result, God created a world in which we could choose to be our own god (Genesis 3:5) rather than obey and worship him. Our decision to enthrone ourselves explains all the tragedy in this broken world, from the natural disasters resulting from the Fall (Genesis 3:17–19; 6:11–12; Romans 8:22) to the suffering we inflict on others and ourselves (cf. 1 John 2:16).

If the Fall had never happened, you and I would live in a world where we have the freedom to choose to worship and serve God without any of the horrific consequences of choosing against him. But our loving Father redeems even the tragedy of our misused freedom by using its consequences to grow us spiritually (James 1:2–4) when we submit to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

He uses the reality of physical death to remind us of the finitude of life (James 4:13–17) and the urgency of turning to him as Lord today (2 Corinthians 6:2). If people simply disappeared or their ascent to heaven was known only to those who happened to witness it, the compelling power of death and the appeal of life beyond it would be diminished.

Why there will be no atheists in heaven

But there’s a problem: If worshiping God requires that we have the option to sin by refusing such worship, how is it that we will worship and love God perfectly in a perfect heaven where there is no sin (Revelation 21:4)?

The Lord gives us the choice in this world to trust him as our Lord, a decision that transforms us into his children for eternity (John 1:12). My sons cannot go back before their birth and no longer be my sons. In the same way, once we choose to be “born again” in this world of options (John 3:3), we become permanently the children of God and need no such options to be who we are in heaven.

Anyone who sees God on his throne in paradise will be compelled to worship him as king (cf. Revelation 7:9–12). It’s impossible for a sighted person to deny the sun once the clouds move away. There will be no atheists in heaven.

This is why God brings us into this world where we can choose for or against him, intending us to choose for him in this life (2 Peter 3:9) so we can “glorify God and enjoy him forever” in the life to come (Westminster Shorter Catechism).

“The continuation of our Savior’s life in us”

One last question: Why does God leave us in this fallen world once we have chosen to trust him as Lord and received eternal life by his grace?

One reason is so we can share that grace with as many as possible so they can experience eternal life with us. John Wesley encouraged us:

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

The other is that this life affords us the opportunity to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18) as we seek to become ever more like our Lord (Romans 8:29). Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774–1821), the first person born in America to be canonized by the Catholic Church, explained her spiritual life this way:

I once read or heard that an interior life means but the continuation of our Savior’s life in us; that the great object of all his mysteries is to merit for us the grace of his interior life and communicate it to us, it being the end of his mission to lead us into the sweet land of promise, a life of constant union with himself. And what was the first rule of our dear Savior’s life? You know it was to do his Father’s will. Well, then, the first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills; and thirdly, to do it because it is his will.

Will you choose “a life of constant union” with your Lord today?

NOTE: For more on the power and privilege of personal worship, I encourage you to experience our ministry’s First15 devotional for today: “What Is Worship?”

Tuesday news to know:

• Powerful earthquake kills nearly 100 in Tibet, rattles Nepal
• Hamas and Israel wrangle over talks as Israeli strikes in Gaza intensify
• Biden bans offshore drilling across vast area of US
• US Steel and Nippon Steel sue Biden over move to block merger
• On this day in 1789: first US presidential electors chosen

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

Quote for the day:

“I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.” —Max Lucado

Denison Forum

Does religion do more harm than good?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to resign as early as this morning. A major winter storm moved across multiple states over the weekend. The Golden Globes kicked off the awards season last night. The NFL playoffs are set after the Lions defeated the Vikings. Normally, any of these stories would be my focus for today’s Daily Article. I would much rather not write on the New Orleans terrorist attack again this morning. But that’s the nature of tragedy—it consumes us long after it strikes.

“100 percent inspired by ISIS”

President Biden will visit New Orleans today to “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack” that occurred there New Year’s morning. Tributes are pouring in for the victims even as US agencies worry about copycat attacks in the coming days.

Amid fears of the Islamic State’s resurgence in Syria, many are calling for the terrorist group to be dismantled before it can inspire more terrorism in the US. Meanwhile, officials are studying the “secret radicalization” of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the alleged New Orleans attacker. One stated that Jabbar was “100 percent inspired by ISIS.”

How was this former Army soldier radicalized? The Telegraph reports that Jabbar was “visited by IS in his dreams.” He apparently made a series of video recordings prior to the attack. In one, he said he had several dreams telling him to join the Islamic State.

That Jabbar would take such a drastic step on the basis of dreams should not surprise us. Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad received the Qur’an from the angel Gabriel through dreams and visions. They believe that Allah continues to guide his people in this way today (Qur’an 30:23).

Jabbar’s attack in New Orleans is consistent with a radicalized corruption of Islam claiming that America is part of an attack on the Muslim world and that Muslims are therefore required to attack Americans to defend Islam. This is not the view of the vast majority of Muslims, but it does motivate the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and other jihadist groups around the world.

When I read the Telegraph story on the religious motives behind the New Orleans atrocity, I imagined many people asking, Does religion do more harm than good in the world?

My dinner with imams in Bangladesh

It’s an understandable question. The conflict in the Middle East centers primarily on religion: Jews believe God gave them their land, while Muslims see the existence of the modern state of Israel as an attack on the Muslims who lived there previously and thus on Islam. Iran’s leaders are reportedly seeking nuclear weapons in the belief that using them to attack Israel would speed the return of the Mahdi, their messiah.

The Crusades were the most horrific chapter in Christian history, leading to the death of at least a million people. Clergy abuse scandals continue to make the news. Violence against others has long been a part of Buddhist and Hindu history as well.

So, does religion cause more harm than good?

Let’s begin with the fact that there is no such reality as “religion,” only particular religions, just as there is no such reality as “medicine,” only particular medicines. If I asked you if “medicine” does more harm than good, you would see the point.

So, we’re really asking about particular religions. And, of course, different people at different times can practice a particular religion in very different ways, just as doctors prescribe different medicines in different ways. Some commit atrocities against Americans in the name of Allah, but in my travels, I have experienced wonderful hospitality from Muslim hosts in the name of Allah. I will always remember a dinner with village imams in Bangladesh that could not have been more gracious, for example.

Religion contributes $1.2 trillion to the US economy

To focus our question more specifically on Christianity: While some have done horrible things in the name of our faith, they were adamantly not representing Christians or our Lord. Jesus clearly taught us to forgive and even love and pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44), an example he set on the cross (Luke 23:34). Just as the crimes of one American do not represent all Americans, so the sins of one so-called Christian do not represent all Christians.

To the contrary: Christianity has clearly and emphatically done enormous practical good in our fallen world. For example, the acclaimed historian Tom Holland notes that the Christian themes of humility and inclusivity changed the Western world by inspiring benevolence and valuing individuals over the state.

In his book Jesus Skeptic: A Journalist Explores the Credibility and Impact of Christianity, John S. Dickerson shows that followers of Jesus created the university and college systems, advanced literacy through public education, founded modern science, began the fight for women’s rights, ended open slavery, drove racial reconciliation, and fought for justice and progress in a multitude of arenas.

Christian teachings led to the establishment of the first hospitals and influenced the development of modern medicine. Many of the best-ranked hospitals in the US were founded by Christians. And more than 90 percent of universities founded in the US prior to the Civil War were created by Christian denominations. According to the World Economic Forum, religion annually contributes $1.2 trillion dollars of socio-economic value to the US economy.

“The grace that invites all men to find Christ”

Of course, the most significant contribution Christianity makes is personal: changed people change the world.

When we walk with the living Lord Jesus each day, we are transformed by his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) as we manifest his character (Romans 8:29). Then we love as he loved (1 John 4:19) and serve those in need as he serves us (Matthew 25:35–40).

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrating the visit of the Magi to Bethlehem to worship the Christ. We often think of the wise men and their journey and gifts, but Pope St. Leo the Great (c. 400–91) encouraged us to consider the star that guided them as well:

The star beckoned the three wise men out of their distant country and led them to recognize and adore the King of heaven and earth. The obedience of the star calls us to imitate its humble service: to be servants, as best we can, of the grace that invites all men to find Christ.

Who will find Jesus because of “the obedience of the star” in your life today?

NOTE: For more on the veracity and credibility of biblical faith, see my new website article, “Surgeon General warns of link between alcohol and cancer: What do we do when science seems to contradict Scripture?”

Monday news to know:

• Jimmy Carter’s final trip begins with procession through rural Georgia
• Biden awards Medal of Freedom to Hillary Clinton, George Soros and others
• What to expect at CES 2025
• US plans $8 billion sale of arms, including bombs, to Israel
• On this day in 2021: US Capitol riot

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

Quote for the day:

“Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.” —Helen Keller

Denison Forum

Christianity is once again the most persecuted religion in the world according to the latest report from the International Christian Concern (ICC), a non-profit based in Washington DC that has tracked the statistic for nearly three decades. Persecution against Christians has long been a fixture of the faith in places dominated by Islamic extremism, such as in parts of the Middle East and Africa. North Korea, China, and India are other locales where the government is known to be hostile toward Christianity.

Yet the report found that persecution has also increased in Latin American countries like Nicaragua and Venezuela—both traditionally Christian.

As ICC president Jeff King notes, these nations have begun “the targeting of religious citizens and suppression of dissenting voices.” And they have done so largely through the advanced surveillance technology that China has provided to the countries’ authoritarian leaders.

In India and Pakistan, social media has also played a role, with groups using the platforms to “incite mob violence and spread disinformation about Christian communities, leading to targeted attacks.”

Ultimately, the majority of places where the church seems to have escaped direct persecution are the countries in the West where their governments and culture have increasingly grown disinterested in the faith. And that is, perhaps, the most alarming trend of all.

The slow atrophy of neglect

Christians in America are fortunate to be able to practice our faith, for the most part, without fear of imprisonment or violence. However, it would be a mistake to read about the persecution of other believers around the world and think our faith is safe because we do not face the same threats as our brothers and sisters in those foreign lands.

In nations where Christianity is less established, it appears that Satan still hopes he can stamp out the faith before it takes root and flourishes. That belief seems questionable, given that Iran has one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world, the underground church continues to flourish in China, and the faith is also spreading in many of the other nations where it is most dangerous to practice.

But in much of the West—and America in particular—it’s unlikely the government or society will ever turn to persecution in the same way. Christianity is simply too entrenched in the broader culture and history to be overcome so directly, and the value placed on religious liberty is enshrined to a degree that would be difficult to overcome. As such, Satan has adopted a much different strategy here.

While persecution certainly exists and is, in some ways, increasing, threats to our sense of comfort and cultural security are still accomplishing his goals quite well.

As such, if Christianity is going to die here, it will have to be through the slow atrophy of neglect rather than the swift attack of persecution. So what can we do to avoid that fate?

What is required of us to be good?

A recent article for Christianity Today describes a lesson gathered from the personal correspondence of the great Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. While the article applied that lesson to the field of parenting—and it’s worth reading for that context as well—the basic point is also relevant to our current conversation.

In the story, Dostoevsky is asked by a reader for advice on how to teach her eight-year-old to know right from wrong. His answer is to simply model what it means to be good by loving the truth. As the article goes on to describe, Dostoevsky essentially defines a love of truth as “the personal commitment to moral goodness in everyday life and opposition to any form of a lie, both lies to ourselves and lies to others.”

Dostoevsky’s understanding of what it means to be good—one that starts with the development of personal character rather than outward action—is also the key to fighting against the slow atrophy of our faith that we see in so much of America today.

A faith God can bless

A Christianity more focused on doing good than being good will eventually become so useless to the advancement of God’s kingdom that, for all practical purposes, it might as well be dead.

Such a religion was quite similar to what Jesus encountered from the religious leaders in the Gospels, and he was quick to denounce that form of faith. Instead, he called his followers to remember that their responsibility to the Lord starts with their hearts, and it was only when they were right with God personally that they could expect to glorify him with their actions.

After all, our private thoughts, words, and actions shape our character in ways that cannot help but manifest themselves in public. And, chances are, you don’t have to look too far into your own history to see how that’s true.

If you nurse vengeful or angry thoughts about those who have hurt you in the past, you will not be able to extend God’s love to them in the present. If you curse in the relative privacy of your own home, a time will come when those same words slip out for others to hear. And if you fail to pour into your marriage and kids at home, don’t be surprised when the façade of the perfect family begins to crack on your way into church on Sundays.

God has never been interested in the kind of performative religion that prioritizes outward actions over inner character. So of course he’s not going to bless a faith that accepts such hypocrisy as its foundation.

The primary reason that the church continues to grow in the places where it is persecuted the most is that the believers there understand that truth and have embraced their relationship with God on his terms. That doesn’t mean they live perfect lives or have flawless theology, but their faith is genuine in a way that can be difficult for us to replicate. They can’t afford to be cultural Christians, and the gospel is thriving as a result.

Fortunately, what God is doing in Iran, China, and throughout so much of the rest of the world, he can still do here. But if awakening is going to come, it has to start with individual Christians deciding that Jesus will be their Lord when only he is watching, rather than just when their faith is on display for the world to see.

Will that be you today?

Friday news to know:

• Update on the New Orleans terror attack and the man who perpetrated it
• Suspect identified in the explosion outside of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas
• Guidance for embracing a sacred approach to your schedule
• Notre Dame defeated Georgia after the game was delayed by Wednesday’s attack in New Orleans
• On this day in 1521: Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther

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

Quote of the day:

“So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to develop God-centered devotion. We try to please God without taking the time to walk with Him and develop a relationship with Him. This is impossible to do.” —Jerry Bridges

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If you want good luck in the new year, consider these new year’s traditions:

• In Brazil, jump over seven waves while surfing.
• In the Philippines, wear clothing with polka dots. (I’m out of luck here.)
• In Greece, hang onions outside your door.
• In Puerto Rico, throw a bucket of water out your window.
• In Ireland, put mistletoe under your pillow.
• In Canada, go ice fishing.
• In the US, watch the ball drop in New York City’s Times Square.

Speaking of dropping things to bring in the new year: Manhattan, Kansas, dropped a giant apple last night. Not to be outdone, St. George’s, Bermuda, dropped a giant onion, while Boise, Idaho, dropped a giant illuminated potato (of course).

If you step back and look at such strange practices objectively, you’ll admit that they are indeed strange. Why would presumably sane people do such bizarre things?

“A Diet Writer’s Regrets”

One answer is that New Year’s traditions give us a way to feel more in control of what is ultimately uncontrollable—the future. When we do what we know to do, we hope, however naively, that we are doing something to influence the unknowable.

And, of course, millions are making resolutions to begin 2025 as well. Here we believe we are acting in a more practical way, choosing behaviors we can influence to improve our lives and our world. However, only 9 percent of those who make such resolutions keep them through the year.

In this context, an Atlantic headline caught my eye: “A Diet Writer’s Regrets.” The author has written on diet and health for thirty years and struggled mightily with her weight before finally taking weight-loss drugs. Her story shows that resolutions and good intentions often are not enough.

I’m reminded of the story of Baron Munchausen, who tried to pull himself out of a swamp by his own hair. Without solid ground on which to stand, no amount of such effort is enough.

Here’s the good news: “ground” for living our best lives this year is available to each of us. We just have to know where—or to Whom—to look.

“His manhood was of the same clay as our own”

St. Hippolytus of Rome (died AD 236) said regarding the incarnation of Jesus:

We know that his manhood was of the same clay as our own; if this were not so, he would hardly have been a teacher who could expect to be imitated. If he were of a different substance from me, he would surely not have ordered me to do as he did, when by my very nature I am so weak. Such a demand could not be reconciled with his goodness and justice.

No. He wanted us to consider him as no different from ourselves, and so he worked, he was hungry and thirsty, he slept. Without protest he endured his passion, he submitted to death and revealed his resurrection. In all these ways he offered his own manhood as the first fruits of our race to keep us from losing heart when suffering comes our way, and to make us look forward to receiving the same reward as he did, since we know that we possess the same humanity.

Consider the fact that your body is no more flawed and fallen than was the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Your temptations are no different from his (Hebrews 4:15). And the same Spirit who empowered and enabled him to defeat temptation and fulfill his earthly calling resides in us (1 Corinthians 3:16) and can do the same in us.

The difference is that Jesus knew he needed the power of the Spirit (cf. Matthew 12:28; Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38). This is why he so often began his days in prayer (Mark 1:35) and concluded them the same way (cf. Luke 6:12–13). It’s why he spent so much time alone with his Father (Luke 5:16) and why he turned to his word first when temptation struck (cf. Matthew 4:1–11).

It’s why he called on his Father when facing the cross, trusting his will even when it meant his crucified death (Matthew 26:36–46). It’s why his last words before he died were, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).

It’s why he taught us to “ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking, and you will find; knock and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7, my literal translation from the Greek). It’s why we are told to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), staying connected with our Lord as we walk in his presence each day.

The best way to begin the year

I am convinced that cultural Christianity is the greatest threat to the abundant, victorious life Jesus intends for us (cf. Romans 8:37). It is the amputated “faith” that separates Sunday from Monday and the spiritual from the secular, the pridefulness that makes God a means to our ends, the self-reliance that calls on him only when we have nowhere else to turn.

In response, I pray these words from the Anglican Book of Prayer each morning because I need their reminder:

To my humble supplication
Lord, give ear and acceptation.
Save thy servant, that hath none
Help nor hope but thee alone (my emphasis).

I know of no better way to begin this day and this year than with such “humble supplication” before our omnipotent Lord.

Do you?

Wednesday news to know:

• US to hold national day of mourning for Jimmy Carter
• Jimmy Carter made eradicating Guinea worm disease a top mission
• Holding the “title of citizen,” Carter carved a new mold for ex-presidents
• 2 survivors recovering as South Korean officials probe Jeju Air plane crash
• On this day in 1863: Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation

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

Quote for the day:

“God is not just one thing we add to the mix called life. He wants an invitation from us to permeate everything in every part of us.” —Francis Chan

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“He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away” (Micah 4:3)

As a year filled with conflicts draws to a close, our hearts yearn for lasting peace in the new year. To this end, let’s look to the unlikeliest of places for the hope we need.

In the Middle East, 2024 began with Hamas’s leadership seemingly entrenched as the conflict in Gaza continued. Hezbollah bristled with tens of thousands of missiles capable of devastating all of Israel. Iran was escalating its seven-front assault on the Jewish state through its proxies surrounding the Jewish state.

So much changed across the year: Israel assassinated the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah, neutered the latter’s missile threat against the nation, defeated two air attacks from Iran, and dismantled Iran’s air defenses in response. Iran’s hardline president was killed in a helicopter crash and replaced by a more moderate leader. Rebels toppled the Assad regime in Syria, further weaking Iran’s “Shiite crescent” across the region.

There was a time when many, including former President Jimmy Carter, believed Hamas to be a legitimate political player in the quest for peace in the Middle East. Mr. Carter also called Israel an “apartheid state” and spoke for many in opposing its posture with the Palestinians. At the same time, as his former speechwriter James Fallows noted following his death last Sunday, “Jimmy Carter did more than anyone else, before or since, to bring peace to the Middle East, with his Camp David accords.”

Mr. Fallows may be correct in political terms. But Scripture tells of another leader who resolved a conflict in the Middle East in a way that points to lasting peace in 2025 and beyond.

Three responses to Sennacherib

2 Chronicles 32 begins: “Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself” (v. 1). Judah’s King Hezekiah responded in three ways.

First, he did what he could.

Jerusalem’s greatest military weakness was its water supply, which came from the Gihon Spring outside the city. The Assyrians could block, divert, or even poison it, which would force the Jews to surrender.

So the king created a massive tunnel to bring water from the spring into the Pool of Siloam inside the city, then he camouflaged the source so the Assyrians could not use or pollute it (vv. 2–4, 30). This tunnel was 1,750 feet long, the length of six football fields. It was completed in 701 BC but still functions today; I have walked through it several times over the years. In addition, the king strengthened the fortifications of the city and “made weapons and shields in abundance” (v. 5).

Second, he encouraged his people to trust in God.

His message to them: “Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lᴏʀᴅ our God, to help us and to fight our battles” (vv. 7–8).

Third, he turned to God himself.

When the Assyrians threatened the city (vv. 9–19), “Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven” (v. 20). “Prayed” translates a typical Hebrew word for interceding; “cried” adds a deeply personal note, meaning to “call out in agony.”

Here was the astounding result: “The Lᴏʀᴅ sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land” (v. 21a). When he then “came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down with the sword” (v. 21b).

In this way, “the Lᴏʀᴅ saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side” (v. 22).

“Righteousness exalts a nation”

I cannot know what conflicts you are facing in the days ahead. But I know this: Hezekiah’s story is in Scripture so it can become our story.

Because God assures us that “I the Lᴏʀᴅ do not change” (Malachi 3:6), we can know that he possesses the same power, knowledge, and compassion that led to a miraculous peace in the Middle East twenty-seven centuries ago. If we are not seeing his hand similarly at work in our world today, could it be that we are not looking closely enough?

Perhaps, for example, we should view events involving Israel over this last year through the lens of providence.

Theologians differ over whether the modern State of Israel should be seen as equivalent to the Israel of Scripture. But we know that God still judges the kinds of atrocities perpetrated by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Assad regime, and the terrorism-sponsoring state of Iran. His word assures us, “He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away” (Micah 4:3). All he has ever done, he can still do today.

And we know that what is true of others is true of America as well: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). The prophet said to God, “The nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste” (Isaiah 60:12). Accordingly, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Psalm 33:12).

So name your Sennacherib, do what you can in response, and encourage those who are in the battle with you to trust God for his best. Then turn to him yourself, asking him to do what only he can. And pray urgently for our nation to do the same.

The best way to prepare for the new year is to make Jesus our king by submitting our lives fully to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) as we live biblically and act redemptively in our world (Matthew 5:13–16). It is then to treat every new year and every new day as if it is our last, knowing that one day we will be right.

Jimmy Carter famously stated,

“We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.”

Will you?

Tuesday news to know:

• Jimmy Carter’s extraordinary life in pictures, from peanut farm to White House to Nobel Prize
• Jimmy Carter will have funeral services in Plains, Ga., Atlanta and Washington, DC
• US announces $5.9 billion in military and budget aid to Ukraine
• “Mayday, Mayday”: the final six minutes before the deadly South Korean plane crash
• On this day in 1999: Putin becomes acting president of Russia, following Yeltsin’s resignation

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

Quote for the day:

“God works all things together for your good. If the waves roll against you, it only speeds your ship towards the port.” —Charles Spurgeon

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When you read the words, “All I want for Christmas is you,” does the song by that title immediately spring to mind? If so, you’re not alone: the song by Mariah Carey, recorded in 1994, is one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time. And it earns her an estimated $3.5 to $4 million every year.

Why is it so successful? The answer in part is Carey’s amazing vocals. But another is the theme of the song. In an interview with Good Morning America, she recounted its origin: “I was working on it by myself . . . on this little Casio keyboard and writing down words and thinking about, ‘What do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? What do I dream of?’” She added, “My goal was to do something timeless, so it didn’t feel like the ’90s, which is when I wrote it.”

Her lyrics, whimsical as they are, do express something timeless: “Santa Claus won’t make me happy with a toy on Christmas Day,” because “all I want for Christmas is you.”

“The Western world has turned officially crazy”

We are created to want more than the “toys” this world can offer, because we were created for the eternal world to come. That’s why possessions must not possess us, since nothing we can make can fill the “God-shaped emptiness” with which God made us.

Sinners can no more save themselves from sin than drowning people can save themselves from drowning. And our fallen world is far too unpredictable to be a reliable source of stability.

There was a day when people viewed the future as a time of progress and even glamour. Radios and record players brought music into homes that could not afford pianos. Movies offered inexpensive theater tickets. The Model T and its successors afforded ordinary people the kind of personal transportation once reserved for the coach-owning elite. The material abundance of the post-war era brought new suburban homes, televisions, and kitchen gadgets.

That was then, this is now.

Looking ahead to 2050, Pew Research Center found that:

• 66 percent of Americans think the US economy will be weaker.
• 71 percent say the US will be less important in the world.
• 77 percent believe our country will be more divided politically.
• 81 percent say the gap between the rich and the poor will grow.

From avian flu in California to drought in the Southwest to declining American air superiority in the world to an emerging military threat in Pakistan, today’s news offers no shortage of reasons to fear the future. As one geopolitical analyst wrote recently, “One would be forgiven” for thinking “the Western world has turned officially crazy.”

“A pessimist is never disappointed”

We fear the future in large part because it is, by definition, unknown and unknowable, and we fear what we do not know. Why?

In part, such fear is a primordial survival response—if we anticipate the worst, we think we are better prepared if it happens. “A pessimist is never disappointed,” as the saying goes.

But such fear also says something about our view of God. Most of us believe that he is so omniscient that he knows the future and so omnipotent that he can do what he chooses to do. We’re just not always sure his choices for us are what we would choose for ourselves.

The ancient Greeks and Romans depicted Zeus and their other gods as capricious and unkind, reflecting the world these deities supposedly ruled. Our world is just as fallen and chaotic as theirs, which leads us to wonder if our God is just as capricious and unkind.

This is why Christmas is such good and essential news.

“Perfect love expels all fear”

The next time you wonder if God loves you, remember his decision to send his Son to die for you. Remember his Son’s decision to give up his glory in heaven to take on human flesh so he could die for human sins. Remember the humility of his birth, illustrating the unconditional compassion of his grace.

Scripture declares, “Perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love” (1 John 4:18 NLT). A. W. Tozer commented:

“Love casts out fear, for when we know we are loved, we are not afraid. Whoever has God’s perfect love, fear is gone out of the universe for him.”

In this light, consider some wisdom from the esteemed Wall Street Journal opinion writer Peggy Noonan. On her recent book tour, she was asked, “Are you an optimist?” Her response:

Optimists tend to think the right, nice thing will happen, and I don’t necessarily. But I have faith and I have hope. Life takes guts. Don’t let all the bad news enter you and steal your peace. Keep the large things in your head. Two millennia ago a baby was born and the whole ridiculous story—the virgin, the husband, the stable, the star—is true, and changed the world. Compared to which our current concerns are nothing.

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take”

The English poet William Cowper, who struggled mightily with depression and despair, nonetheless pointed the way to the hope we need:

Deep in unsearchable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

What “clouds” will you trust to your loving Lord today?

Tuesday news to know:

• Former President Bill Clinton is in the hospital after developing a fever, spokesperson says
• Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates before Trump can resume executions
• House Ethics report says Matt Gaetz paid for sex, possessed drugs
• Man faces murder charges in death of a woman who was lit on fire in New York City subway
• On this day in 1923: President Coolidge lights first national Christmas tree

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

Quote for the day:

“The great God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them.” —Jerry Bridges

Denison Forum