Oppenheimer won five Golden Globes last night, including best drama, while Barbie took the award for cinematic and box office achievement. But everyone who attended the ceremony won something as well: they each received a gift bag worth $500,000. You read that right—thirty-eight different items were included in the bags, among them Colombian emerald earrings valued at $69,000 and six bottles of wine worth $193,500.

Giving such opulent gifts to such wealthy people seems to say something about the materialism of our consumeristic culture. The two movies pointed in the same direction.

Reviewer Simon Western explained the popularity of Barbie, the highest-grossing worldwide movie of 2023: “It reaffirmed the chosen ideology of our times, i.e. America Dream individualism, which makes us feel that we are filled with individual agency and are in control, and we can choose our futures.”

While I refused to see Oppenheimer due to its nudity and sex scenes, I found a New York Times interview with director Christopher Nolan most interesting. The film centers on scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer’s work in building the first atomic weapon, leading to the bombs that were later dropped on Japan and the atomic age that followed. Nolan describes Oppenheimer as “the most important person who ever lived,” explaining: “If my worst fears are true, he’ll be the man who destroyed the world. Who’s more important than that?”

Perhaps the One who created the world?

“The end of godlessness is anarchy”

Several people suffered gunshot wounds when six or seven shooters opened fire late Saturday night in Abbeville, Alabama. There have been six mass shootings so far in 2024, including the one in Perry, Iowa, that killed eleven-year-old Ahmir Jolliff. Ahmir kept a trunk of toys unlocked in his front yard so anyone could play with them, loved soccer, played the tuba, and sang in choir. Because of his joyful spirit, he was known as “Smiley” around his house.

What explains such senseless, horrific tragedy?

John Piper writes in Taste and See:

The root of all injustice in our urban centers, or anywhere else, is the pervasive human injustice against God. When the rights of our Creator and Savior are daily denied, we should not be surprised that the rights of persons created in his image are denied in a cavalier and selfish way. Until God is given his rights, no human rights will have much significance beyond convenience. And when they are no longer convenient, they will be ignored, whether by violent police, traffic violators, looters, or murderers. The end of godlessness is anarchy.

Piper is right. At the beginning of humanity’s story, we read: “The Lᴏʀᴅ saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Our quest to “be like God,” (Genesis 3:5), to be creator rather than creature, to be the hero of history, explains every sin we commit and every evil we face in this broken world (cf. Romans 8:22).

In Jeremiah 17, God describes our fallen condition: “Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lᴏʀᴅ. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land’” (vv. 5–6).

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

Who of us would want to be a “shrub in the desert” when we could be a “tree planted by water”? Obviously, then, we should choose to trust in the Lord rather than in ourselves.

Why don’t we?

My father’s heart condition

The next verse answers our question and explains our predicament: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (v. 9). Heart in the Hebrew refers to “one’s inner self, will, inclination.” Desperately sick translates a word meaning “incurable, disastrous beyond repair.”

Clearly, our problem is “heart” disease. I know something about this illness: my father had a massive heart attack when I was two years old. In the years that followed, he did everything he could to manage his condition, but he could not heal himself. The only solution was a heart transplant, but he was too weak to survive the operation. As a result, he died of a second heart attack when I was in college.

Every human being is in the same condition spiritually that my father was in physically. But there’s good news: God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He promises: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26). Here’s how: “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (v. 27).

If you have asked Jesus to be your Savior and Lord, God has already put his Spirit within you (1 Corinthians 3:16; Romans 8:9). But you must decide every day to submit your life to this indwelling Spirit. Begin your day by surrendering your mind and heart to him (Ephesians 5:18). Pray through the day ahead, inviting him to lead, empower, and use you.

Make your commitment holistic and unconditional. As Elisabeth Elliot observed, “We cannot give our hearts to God and keep our bodies for ourselves.”

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25).

Are you “in step” with him right now?

If not, why not?

Denison Forum

With the third anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot (or attack or protest or insurrection or whichever descriptor you prefer) coming up tomorrow, reactions to the event continue to dominate the news. President Biden plans to address the subject in a speech that uses the events of that day to portray former President Trump as a threat who, in the words of Biden’s communications director Michael Taylor, “will use all his power to systematically dismantle and destroy our democracy.”
Not to be outdone, Trump plans to hold two campaign rallies on Saturday as well in what-if current polls are to be believed-will mark one of many attempts for the two candidates to control the national narrative surrounding the election across the coming months.
My purpose today is not to relitigate what happened at the January 6 Capitol riot three years ago or cast judgment on how the event continues to be used for political ends. Overall, my thoughts on that day have not really changed since I discussed it last year, and Dr. Jim Denison did an excellent job of speaking to why having a productive conversation on the topic can be so challenging in yesterday’s article.
Rather, I would like to look at what I think is the most pertinent and applicable lesson we can take from that event to help us protect our witness and grow in our walk with the Lord.
An indelible part of Trump’s legacy
Debate continues over how much responsibility the former president bears for what happened at the January 6 Capitol riot three years ago. However, it is beyond dispute that the day’s events continue to play an inescapable part in the narrative surrounding Donald Trump’s attempt to regain the Oval Office. It was felt in the red wave that turned into a trickle during the 2022 midterms and the repeated accusations of wanting to destroy democracy that have been part of the Democratic rhetoric whenever Trump is discussed.
And, ultimately, he has no one to blame but himself.
You see, people don’t typically get to choose the consequences of their decisions. For Trump, the consequence of his actions-or inactions-is that his political opponents have all the fodder necessary to repeatedly level accusations that he is a threat to democracy. And while you may or may not find those accusations convincing, enough Americans do that it has greatly clouded his path back to the White House.
And there is nothing the former president or any of his supporters can do to stop it. Those events and his role in them-whether accurately perceived or not-are an indelible part of his legacy.
When people discuss his presidency in fifty years, be it one term or two, January 6 will come up. As we discussed on a recent episode of The Denison Forum Podcast, the nature of what that conversation will look like is yet to be determined, but the odds are good that Trump will be remembered as much for the election he lost as for the four years that preceded it.
And therein lies the lesson for us today.
When Saul faced grave consequences
One of the facets of the Bible that sets it apart from the holy books of many other faiths is that its most important figures are often among its most flawed characters. Take King Saul, for example.
Saul was no stranger to thoughtless actions and the consequences that ensued, but perhaps the most noteworthy instance occurred in 1 Samuel 13. Facing the imposing might of the Philistines and an army that had begun to scatter, Saul took it upon himself to offer sacrifices that only Samuel was supposed to give. It’s important to note that he was not trying to usurp the prophet’s position or claim any special rights for himself. Rather, he was simply trying to keep his army together ahead of battle.
Yet, despite his motivations being reasonable on the surface, they demonstrated a lack of faith in the Lord, and it exhausted God’s patience.
Through Samuel, God told the king “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the L??? your God, with which he commanded you. For then the L??? would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The L??? has sought out a man after his own heart, and the L??? has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the L??? commanded you” (1 Samuel 13:13-14).
When Saul offered those sacrifices, he had no way of knowing that it would cost him his kingdom. Had he understood what the consequences would be, chances are good that he would have acted differently. But, again, we typically don’t get to choose the consequence when we make a mistake, and focusing on whether the result of our sin seems proportionate or fair to us is ultimately pointless.
After all, the purpose of God’s judgment is to bring us back into a right relationship with him and to help us avoid sin in the first place. Far too often, though, we act like a child who is surprised to learn that his choices come with a cost. And while we serve a God who is quick to forgive any sin we confess, that forgiveness does not necessarily remove the natural consequences of our mistakes. Those are still often ours to bear, and the price is rarely what we might expect.
Dr. Jim Denison has frequently stated that sin will always take you further than you want to go, cost you more than you want to pay, and keep you longer than you want to stay.
That statement is just as true for former presidents as it is for you and for me.
Will you heed its warning today?

Denison Forum

As the third anniversary of the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol approaches, attention is being focused on the question: Was it an “insurrection”?

As of October 2022, the approximate losses from the events of that day totaled more than $2,881,360. Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted; more than 1,100 people have been charged in connection with the event, and more than 600 have pleaded guilty to federal charges. Five people died in the riot.

But was it an “insurrection”? The question matters enormously since two states have now barred former President Trump from appearing on their election ballots after claiming that he participated in such an action on January 6. They cited Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which forbids those who previously held office but “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the United States from holding office again.

Section 3 does not specifically include the presidency among its listed offices, leading some to argue that it does not apply to Mr. Trump. Others question whether the January 6 event constitutes an “insurrection”; if it does not, they claim that Section 3 does not apply to the former president.

The latter question is obviously relevant to our national politics, but there’s an even more foundational issue here that speaks to the future of our democracy.

“An attack on democracy that should never be forgotten”?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “insurrection” as “an organized attempt by a group of people to defeat their government and take control of their country, usually by violence.” I have italicized the three elements that make up this definition. 

Some point to the “violence” of January 6 as justifying this description; others claim that the “object” of the riot “was to prevent a legitimate president-elect from assuming office,” thus constituting an “insurrection” by virtue of the second definitional element.

However, others cite the first element—an “organized attempt”—as invalidating the charge of “insurrection.” They note a Reuters report: “The FBI has found scant evidence that the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol was the result of an organized plot to overturn the presidential election result.” The article adds: “The FBI at this point believes the violence was not centrally coordinated by far-right groups or prominent supporters of then-President Donald Trump.” Some even believe that “the riot was instigated by law enforcement to suppress political dissent.”

The partisan nature of this issue is enormously significant. In a poll published this week, 55 percent of US adults agreed that the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 was “an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten.” But note: 89 percent of Biden voters agreed with the statement, contrasted with 17 percent of Trump voters.

The commodification of truth

“Democracy” translates the Greek demokratia, from demos (“the people”) and kratia (“power, rule”). As Abraham Lincoln so memorably proclaimed, the American democratic experiment entails “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

As George Washington and many others have noted, such consensual governance requires shared values derived from shared religious convictions. But these shared values require a shared vocabulary by which to understand and communicate them. Even more foundationally, the exercise of consensual governance itself requires a consensual vocabulary by which people choose leaders, enact jurisprudence, and enforce laws.

If words become weaponized for partisan purposes, the fundamental means by which democracy exists and functions is undermined. This is where we find ourselves in America today.

As consumers in a consumption-based society, everything and everyone has become a potential commodity. We purchase those goods and services that we believe are worth more than their cost. In a postmodern, “post-truth” culture, we feel free to do the same with our words, using them in whatever way suits us and advances our agendas.

Consequently, millions of Americans believe their former president, currently leading in polls to become their next president, is an “insurrectionist” who is therefore constitutionally barred from office. Millions of others believe this charge to be yet another illegitimate attempt to deprive Americans of their constitutional right to vote.

The chasm between these two positions is dangerous to our future as a nation.

When we choose to live biblically

The demise of a shared vocabulary and the objective reality it describes is an existential crisis for any democracy. Our response as Christians should be to pray fervently and work redemptively to help our nation turn to the one true God and the objective, authoritative truth of his word. Such a moral and spiritual reformation is vital not only for the spiritual health of Americans but for the future of America.

As we pray for others, however, we must take care to pray for ourselves as well.

I am as tempted as anyone to commodify biblical truth, “buying” those parts that appeal to me and refusing those that do not. Every time you and I do something Scripture forbids or do not do something it requires, we make this choice. We exercise our “will to power” by choosing to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), the foundational sin behind all sins. In so doing, we forfeit God’s best for our lives and for those we influence. And we abandon our calling to be salt and light in a broken culture dying for purity and truth (Matthew 5:13–16).

By contrast, every time we choose to think biblically and act redemptively, we glorify our Lord and advance his kingdom in eternally significant ways. The higher the cost of such obedience, the greater its value in this life and the next.

If you were to live even more biblically than you do now, what would you change first?

Why not today?

Denison Forum

Claudine Gay announced her resignation as Harvard’s president yesterday after a new round of accusations surfaced over plagiarism in her scholarly work. She has been facing mounting criticism over how she responded to antisemitism on campus as well. Her testimony before a House committee on December 5 was excoriated by very influential donors to the university, and student groups have been calling for her resignation over plagiarism allegations.

The story shows that even the president of America’s oldest and most highly endowed institution of higher education is not immune to criticism from the constituents she serves. Theirs is a transactional and symbiotic relationship—if the president leads in ways her students and donors affirm, they will provide the support she needs to lead effectively.

It’s hard to identify a significant relationship in our capitalistic, consumeristic society that does not function on similar lines. If my Daily Articles do not meet your needs, you will stop reading my work and supporting our ministry. If they do, you will enable us to continue, which enables us to serve you, which enables us to continue.

Even most marriages and families have a transactional dimension whereby we serve those we hope will serve us as well. Rare is the relationship based on unconditional, holistic, and unrequited sacrifice by one for the other.

But this is exactly how our Father loves us. Now he is calling us to embrace his love in ways that transform our souls and our society.

As our witness grows bolder

Yesterday, we noted that many Americans have all of God they want. This pleases Satan. He wants us to be inoculated with religion about God so we don’t develop a real relationship with him. The result is lost people who are convinced they’re not lost and Christians who are happy with their spiritual status quo.

Consequently, when believers decide that we want to experience more of God through more holistic obedience, Satan can be expected to respond by raising the cost of such obedience. Unexpected distractions arise when we are trying to be alone with the Lord. New and increasing temptations entice us to turn back from our quest for greater holiness. Painful circumstances provoke us to question the reality and relevance of our deeper faith.

Also, as we grow bolder in our witness, our anti-Christian culture grows more intransigent and condemning. If we will not be silent, those under Satan’s control will try to silence us (cf. Acts 4:18).

Of course, the Enemy would rather we persist in spiritual complacency. But if we are determined to seek deeper intimacy with our Lord, Satan will do all he can to stymie us. If he succeeds, the consequences can be even more fruitful for him—we become discouraged and may abandon our quest for more holistic obedience, and our moral and spiritual defeats dishonor our Lord.

The remedy is to greet temptations and difficulties as the spiritual good news they are. They show that Satan sees us as an enemy worth his time, indicating that our deeper commitment to Christ threatens him on a level that requires his nefarious response. And they provide us with an opportunity to trust our Lord even more fully and thus experience his grace even more powerfully.

The challenge is the opportunity

Of course, Satan knows that this response will defeat his strategy. This is why he sometimes adopts the opposite approach: he maintains his status quo with us, hoping the spiritual disciplines we are practicing become ends instead of means. Over time, our time with God becomes a habit more than an experience. We read the Bible and pray as chores to complete more than invitations to accept. And we fall back into the transactional consumerism we sought to avoid.

Such self-reliance is by definition the enemy of spiritual formation since the latter can be accomplished only by God’s Spirit. Praying, reading Scripture, and all other spiritual disciplines do not earn God’s favor—they position us to experience his grace. When we practice them as tasks to complete more than encounters with the living Christ, we forfeit his transforming presence. And over time, we are likely to abandon them altogether.

So, the challenge is the opportunity. Begin every day by submitting that day to God’s Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Make time to worship, pray, read Scripture, and practice other spiritual disciplines as he leads you. Walk with your Lord through the day as you pray about all you experience, seeking to think biblically and respond redemptively.

But do so in reliance on God’s Spirit to empower you and to use your commitments to form the character of Christ in you. When you meet temptation and opposition, turn them immediately over to your Lord, asking him for the strength to refuse sin and to persist in godliness. See them as evidence that you are proceeding in a way that honors your Father and frustrates your enemy. And know that your quest to know Christ and make him known is making you more like Jesus and continuing his earthly ministry in transforming ways.

“King Jesus comes again to take over”

My friend Dr. Duane Brooks recently noted:

Someday our King will come back to this world. He will not come to take sides in our internecine conflicts. King Jesus comes again to take over. He will not ride a donkey or an elephant.

So the question is not: “Is Jesus King?” but “Will you serve King Jesus today?”

He also quoted in his daily devotional this statement by Alan Redpath: “We can never pray, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ until we are willing to pray, ‘My kingdom go.’”

Whose kingdom will you serve today?

Denison Forum

January is named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god who could look into the past and the future. So far, however, 2024 is a new year only the one true God could have foreseen.

A Japan Airlines jet was engulfed in flames at Tokyo’s Haneda airport this morning after a possible collision with a Coast Guard aircraft. The airline reports that all 379 passengers and crew were safely evacuated. The previous day, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, collapsing buildings and leaving at least forty-eight people dead at this writing.

When the college football season began, Michigan was ranked second and Washington ninth. After yesterday’s playoff game victories, the two will play next week for the national title.

This time last year, who predicted that the US military would engage with Houthi militants again yesterday? Or that Israel would begin withdrawing several thousand troops from Gaza in a war they did not anticipate just three months ago? Who knew that WeWork, once the nation’s most valuable start-up, would go bankrupt in 2023 along with Bed Bath & Beyond, Tuesday Morning, and Party City? Or that Taylor Swift would pass Elvis Presley as the soloist with the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200?

I could go on, but you get the oft-quoted point: We can predict anything except the future. Nonetheless, I am making a prediction today in absolute confidence that you can build your new year upon its truth.

We have all of God we want

I have often said that in our secularized culture, God is a hobby. He is for Sunday, not Monday. He is what we do with our discretionary time, an elective choice we have no right to force on others. I enjoy classical music, but I would be wrong to insist that you agree with me. I trust in Jesus, read his word, pray, and seek to serve him, but I would be wrong to insist that you do the same—or so our relativistic culture insists.

However, I’ve come to believe that for many, God is not just a hobby—he is a commodity. Our consumeristic culture has consumerized our faith.

Those of us who pray, read Scripture, worship, and serve God are convinced that doing so is to our good, while those who do not, are not. Like any other commodity, we pay a transactional price to acquire what we want commensurate with the reward we expect.

When last did it cost you something truly significant to obey God?

Consequently, many Americans have all of God we want. Not all we need, but all we want. Lost people do not seek to be saved because they do not believe they are lost and resent anyone who tells them they are. Many Christians do not tell them because they don’t want to risk rejection if they do.

At the same time, Christians who are not unconditionally submitted to Christ as their Lord cannot experience the fullness of God in Christ. As a result, they are not experiencing enough of his abundant life to be different from the world, so even if they share the gospel in word, their lives do not compel people to believe they are true.

Billy Graham said it well: “Many people are willing to have Jesus as part of their lives—as long as it doesn’t cost them anything. They may even profess faith in Jesus and join a church. But Jesus to them is almost like an insurance policy—something they obtain and then forget about until they die. But Jesus calls us to follow him every day.”

Then he asked, “What keeps you from being his disciple?”

“He will tax the remotest star”

His question leads to my prediction: Your character will determine your destiny this year.

If God’s favor is a commodity you “purchase” with enough spirituality to earn the blessing you seek, your self-centered transaction will fail. The King of kings will not be a means to your ends.

But if you decide that you want God to have all of you there is, you will experience more of your Lord than you have ever known before. Oswald Chambers was right: “When we choose deliberately to obey him, then he will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us.”

His Spirit will manifest the character of Christ in your life: his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). He will make you more like Jesus every day (Romans 8:29) and then continue the earthly ministry of Christ through you as his “body” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

So, make this the year of the Holy Spirit. Begin every day by surrendering your life and day to him (Ephesians 5:18), giving him control of your thoughts, words, and actions. Ask him to manifest the character of Christ in you more fully than ever before. Decide now that you will serve Christ whatever he asks, wherever he leads, whatever the cost, then ask the Spirit to empower you to keep your commitment.

The result will be a life lived fully to the glory of God in the power of God. You will be led where you never thought you would go and do things you never thought you would do. The world will see Christ in you as Jesus advances his kingdom through you.

Settle for nothing less.

Your character will determine your destiny this year.

What destiny do you choose?

Denison Forum

Around a million people packed into New York City’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve to watch the “ball drop” usher in 2024, while an estimated audience of one billion (my wife and I included) watched from home. The ball, which was twelve feet in diameter and weighed twelve tons, featured a new design this year based on the bow tie shape of the actual Times Square.

This was not the only such event around the country, however. Mobile, Alabama, dropped a six-hundred-pound electric MoonPie as onlookers ate the world’s largest MoonPie cake. Boise, Idaho, dropped a giant potato, while Las Cruces, New Mexico, dropped a nineteen-foot chrome chile and Raleigh, North Carolina, dropped a ten-foot-tall copper and steel acorn.

My favorite such event took place in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where a ball of bologna was used to celebrate the new year. My least favorite was in Key West, Florida, where a drag queen was lowered inside a supersized red high heel shoe.

“Where I am you may be also”

It seems safe to predict that these or similar events will occur at the end of 2024 to ring in 2025. The ball drop in Times Square has been employed for more than a century, and many of the others are now longstanding traditions.

One year, however, will be our last year. One New Year’s Day will be our last New Year’s Day. I cannot say that today will be that day, but I cannot say that it will not.

Even if Jesus doesn’t return to our planet this year, he may come back for you or for me. Sixty-seven million people died in 2022; if a third of them were Christians (as befits our percentage of the global population), he came for more than twenty million believers that year and likely a similar number in 2023.

Each time, he keeps his promise: “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). And he will return one day to our planet just as surely as he left it: “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

“Bethlehem, Act 2”

Just as Jesus entered our world physically at Christmas, so he enters our lives spiritually when we trust him as our Savior and Lord (1 Corinthians 3:16; Colossians 1:27). He remains in us and with us throughout our lives (Matthew 28:20). And when he returns for us in death or his Second Coming, we are united with him for all eternity.

This is why he could promise the thief dying with him at Calvary, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). It is why he could state, “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26). And it is why Paul could testify, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Charles Spurgeon connected Jesus’ first coming to his second coming this way: “Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor” (his emphasis).

Max Lucado made the same connection with his usual artistic brilliance:

Bethlehem was just the beginning. Jesus has promised a repeat performance. Bethlehem, Act 2. No silent night this time, however. The skies will open and trumpets will blast and a new kingdom will begin. He will empty the tombs and melt the winter of death. Death, you die! Life, you reign! The manger dares us to believe the best is yet to be.

One reason we don’t know when Jesus will return

To summarize: Jesus’ first advent was no more real or historical than his second advent will be. If you believe in his birth, you must believe in his return. Here’s the difference: the former asks only that we celebrate him as a baby, while the latter requires us to be ready to meet him as our King.

If the thought of Jesus’ return fills us not with joy but with trepidation, we should ask ourselves why. St. Augustine spoke to this sentiment:

We love him, yet we fear his coming. Are we really certain that we love him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins and love him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because he is not coming just now, he will not come at all. He will come, you know not when.

Since none of us knows when we will meet the Lord, the best way to live this new year is to be ready every day for that day. But this is not only so we are prepared for that day, whenever it comes.

It is also because being ready to meet Jesus today is the best way to live today.

If you knew you would meet your Lord through your death or his return next week, what would you change in your life this week? What sins would you confess? What would you stop doing or start doing? Whom would you forgive? Whose forgiveness would you seek?

Doing each of these things is best for us even if we were guaranteed another fifty years of life on this planet. I believe this to be one reason we do not know the timing of our Lord’s return—so we can live our best life every day by living in expectation of the day we meet him (Matthew 24:44).

David Jeremiah connected the first advent to the second this way: “When Christ returns, and only then, will the angel’s message to the shepherds be totally fulfilled: Peace on earth, goodwill toward men.”

What if it were today?

Denison Forum

US officials met yesterday with Mexico’s president, seeking measures to limit a surge of migrants reaching the US southwestern border. Meanwhile, a caravan with an estimated 7,500 members is making its way toward the border this morning. While they are drawing international attention, this is actually a smaller number than the daily migrant encounters this month, which have been averaging more than 9,600 a day.

More than two million people were apprehended at the border in this fiscal year. The surge is creating chaos in parts of southern Texas and Arizona and straining resources as far away as New York, Denver, and Chicago.

In the Del Rio sector of the Texas border, which includes Eagle Pass, as many as four thousand migrants have been processed a day. “Illegal border crossings have always happened,” said Eagle Pass fire chief Manuel Mello. “Groups of ten, twelve—that was a large group. But now you see three thousand and four thousand in one day. I never thought something like this could happen.”

What is causing this crisis? How should we think biblically and act redemptively in response?

Explaining the surge

This is a massively complex and emotionally fraught issue. However, the crisis can be framed in terms of “push” and “pull” factors.

“Push” factors include war, famine, or economic challenges that cause people to leave their home countries and seek a new home. For example, leaders of the caravan coming to the US are calling the movement an “exodus from poverty.” Venezuela has descended into disarray in recent years, while Nicaragua’s government has become more repressive. The Congressional Research Service also cites natural disasters fueled by climate change and a general lack of security.

However, the New York Times notes that there have been no recent wars in Latin America and the region’s poverty rate has been flat. Accordingly, the article states that push factors don’t explain the entire surge “and maybe not even most of it.”

“Pull” factors, by contrast, encourage migrants to come in response to an economic boom or a more lax immigration policy. During Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, the Times notes, “he spoke in much more welcoming tones than not only Donald Trump but also Barack Obama.” President Biden in turn blames Congress for failing to respond to his immigration reform proposals and requests for additional funds to address the crisis.

The result of these complex and interrelated factors is that, according to the Times, the number of people apprehended at the border has risen more than fourfold since 2020 compared with the average level in the 2010s.

Reconciling two biblical themes

In my book, The State of Our Nation: 7 Critical Issues, I devoted an entire chapter to the issue of illegal immigration. There I discuss a number of biblical texts relevant to today’s topic. We can summarize them today in two categories.

One: Scripture affirms the importance of borders (Deuteronomy 32:8; Numbers 34:1–15; Ezekiel 47:13–23), the rule of law (Romans 13:1–2; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13–14; 1 Timothy 1:8–10), and self-defense (Luke 11:21; Exodus 22:2; Proverbs 25:26; Nehemiah 4:17–18).

Two: Immigrants are not to be mistreated (Exodus 22:21) but loved (Leviticus 19:33–34; Deuteronomy 10:18–19) and helped (Deuteronomy 24:19–22; Ezekiel 47:21–23; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5; Hebrews 13:2). At-risk children are to be especially valued (Matthew 18:10; 19:14) and protected (James 1:27).

Our problem comes in reconciling these two themes. Without secure borders and the rule of law, a nation cannot thrive for the sake of its present and future populations. However, without immigrants, most nations cannot flourish; this is especially true for America, a nation comprised almost entirely of immigrants and their descendants.

Children who enter the US illegally or are born to parents who did are an example of our challenge. On one hand, should they be forced to pay for the illegal actions of their parents (Exodus 18:19–20)? On the other, is it fair for them to benefit from these actions (cf. Matthew 22:21)?

Your hands and your heart

My purpose in this brief Daily Article is obviously not to explore in detail the complexities of this deeply divisive issue. Persistent, unresolved societal challenges are seldom resolved by simple intellectual solutions. Whether the issue is opioid and drug abuse, alcoholism, homelessness, poverty, systemic injustice, crime, or any other ongoing crisis, you and I are likely not going to solve the problem today.

Policy debates are vital, of course. We should pray for our legislators, hold them accountable to their constituents, and vote our conscience. But we should also do what we can do personally to be part of the solution.

As we have discussed this week, you and I are called to continue Jesus’ earthly ministry today. Our spiritual gifts, talents, education, opportunities, and experiences are the uniquely crafted way he is advancing his kingdom through us. This is how we can do “greater” works than he did (John 14:12)—billions of people can fulfill his kingdom mission more fully than he could in a single body.

Will you ask God to help you respond redemptively to the needs you can meet today? Will you offer Jesus your hands and your heart as the “body of Christ” for our hurting world (1 Corinthians 12:27)?

When we do, God’s kingdom comes as his will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

“Wyoming is supposedly a state. Wyoming does not in fact exist. It is a distortion of space-time that only appears to exist.” Or so we are informed by the Urban Dictionary, a crowdsourced English-language online dictionary for slang words and phrases. (Think Wikipedia for urban expressions.)

If you were to prove the article wrong, how would you do so?

You could point to maps delineating the state, but maps, being lines drawn on pages (or digital images) can deceive us. You could remind us that Wyoming has two senators, a member of Congress, and an entire state governance apparatus, but they would obviously profit personally from participating in the scam.

You could meet people like me who claim to have been there, but how would we really know? When you drive past a roadside sign telling you that you’ve entered Wyoming (or any other state), what empirical evidence exists to prove this assertion?

When you think about it, there are few “realities” we can prove beyond all doubt. For example, mathematical axioms—such as the sum of a triangle being two right angles—are unprovable “statements taken to be true.” To prove that parallel lines never intersect, you’d have to draw them forever.

I had two great-aunts who were convinced that astronauts never went to the moon. The entire thing was filmed in the Arizona desert, they claimed. When I asked about moon rocks I’d seen in a museum, they replied, “How do you know they’re from the moon?” It was a good question.

Reasons for “post-Christmas depression”

On this day after the day after Christmas, we have entered the season of the “post-holiday” blues. In one survey, 64 percent of participants responded that they were affected by “post-Christmas depression.” A clinical study discovered “a decrease in the overall utilization of psychiatric emergency services and admissions, self-harm behavior, and suicide attempts/completions during the holiday. But they found an increase, or a rebound, following the Christmas holiday.”

Contributing factors include returning to work or school, financial challenges from gift-giving, parting ways with relatives and loved ones, grief or loss, and conflicts among family and friends that emerged during the holidays.

Loneliness is especially a problem for many.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy explains that loneliness occurs when the connections a person needs in life are greater than the connections they have. When people return from holiday gatherings to their “normal” lives, many lose or lack such connections.

Dr. Murthy warns that loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 26 percent. In terms of your lifespan, living in loneliness is equivalent to smoking up to fifteen cigarettes a day.

Harvard professor Dr. Jeremy Nobel identifies three types of loneliness:

1. Psychological: feeling that we don’t have anyone to confide in or trust.
2. Societal: feeling systematically excluded because of characteristics such as gender, race, or disability.
3. Existential: loneliness from feeling disconnected from oneself.

All three are invitations to the reality and abiding relevance of Christmas.

When Christmas comes to Wyoming

Yesterday we discussed the fact that the Christ of Christmas now lives in every Christian as fully as he lived in his earthly body (1 Corinthians 3:16). As a result, you and I exist to continue his earthly ministry as the hands and feet of Jesus at work in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Here’s the problem: many in our secularized culture are as skeptical of Jesus’ present-tense reality as the Urban Dictionary seems to be of Wyoming. They will believe that Christ is relevant to their loneliness and other challenges to the degree that Christians are. But we cannot give what we don’t have. If the person of Jesus is not working in us, he cannot work through us.

So, let’s return to Dr. Nobel’s three types of loneliness:

• Are you confiding and trusting in the living Lord Jesus? When last did you spend time talking with him and listening to him? When last did you trust him with your challenges and needs? When last did reading his word encourage and redirect your life?
• Do you feel excluded from his miraculous grace today? Are there sins you need to confess? Guilt and failures you need to entrust to his compassion? When last did you feel yourself to be his “beloved”? Do you deeply believe that Jesus would be born and die all over again just for you? If not, why not?
• Do you feel estranged from yourself? Are you disappointed with your life or discouraged by your challenges? Do you love yourself as unconditionally as your Father loves you? If not, why not?

As you experience the transforming grace of your living Lord today, will you share his compassion with someone who needs to see the reality of his love in yours? Every day you do, Christmas comes again.

And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

Santa Claus delivered 7,883,693,263 gifts around the world yesterday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has been tracking his movements each year since 1955. But Christmas isn’t over in Rovaniemi, Finland, where the holiday is celebrated 365 days a year and you can visit Mrs. Claus any time you wish. Towns in Iceland, Alaska, Norway, Sweden, Michigan, and Canada similarly participate in Christmas all year long.

Things were far different in the home of the first Christmas, where streets in Bethlehem were deserted and stores were shuttered after churches canceled celebrations due to the war between Hamas and Israel. Presiding at Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis said, “Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world.”

The most notable Christmas decoration in Bethlehem was a large Nativity scene in ruins, with shepherds climbing piles of rubble and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph huddled in the midst of destruction.

While I understand the pope’s sentiment, I think the Nativity scene in Bethlehem is more correct. Nothing humans do can prevent Jesus from “finding room in the world.” To the contrary, he is just as present on this day after Christmas as he was on that first Christmas two millennia ago.

Even more so, in fact, in ways that are deeply hopeful and urgent for our world and our souls.

Crossing the Delaware, changing the world

George Washington, along with 2,400 soldiers, successfully crossed the icy and freezing Delaware River on Christmas Day in 1776. The next morning, he won the first major US victory in the War for Independence.

Many believe Christmas is still relevant in the same way—an historic event we remember with gratitude for the One who was born into our world to die for our sins. 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?”

Others who do not recognize the saving purpose of Christmas nonetheless might seek spiritual lessons in its story. They see it as a religious tradition or myth which, as psychologist Carl Jung suggested, “channels some great truth beyond itself.” And still others celebrate Christmas for its secular traditions that bring them together as families and friends.

Whether you see yesterday’s celebration as a holy day or a holiday, if you’re like most people, when the decorations go back into their boxes over the next few days and we return to the “real world,” Christmas will be over.

How can we do “greater works” than Jesus?

But consider this: When you made Christ your Lord, the Holy Spirit of God came to live in your body just as fully as Jesus came to live in his earthly body (1 Corinthians 3:16). Now Jesus is continuing his earthly life and ministry through you:

• As he was born in Bethlehem, you were “born again” at your salvation (John 3:3). Now “Christ [is] in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
• As he prayed to his Father when he was on earth, now his Spirit prays through us (Romans 8:26).
• As he healed bodies through his hands, he heals now through ours (cf. Acts 3:7).
• As he preached the gospel, now he sends us to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17).
• As he returned to heaven, he will one day take us to heaven (John 14:3).
• As he will return to our planet one day (Acts 1:11), so “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (v. 17).
• In the meantime, as Jesus was present with his first followers, so he is present with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

In short, you and I are literally “the body of Christ” continuing Jesus’ ministry as his hands and feet in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

But there’s even more: Jesus promised that after he returned to his Father, we would do “greater works” than he did (John 14:12). He did not mean “greater” in power but in extent—he was limited to a single body when he walked on our planet, but today he is living in billions of Christians around the globe.

Imagine a world in which every Christian thought with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), spoke with the wisdom of Christ (Colossians 2:3), lived with the character of Christ (Romans 8:29), and loved with the compassion of Christ (John 13:14–15).

This is the world Jesus wants to create through you and me today.

“God manifest in the flesh”

In his Christmas Day meditation, Oswald Chambers observed:

The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, his nature begins to work through me. God manifest in the flesh—that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

Will you “yield yourself so completely to God that Christ is formed” in you? Every day you do, Christmas comes again.

And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

It’s been a season of improbable quarterback stories in the NFL. Drew Lock led the Seahawks to a last-minute game-winning drive over the Eagles Monday night after losing the starting job last year and playing sparingly this season. Tommy DeVito, undrafted out of college, has become the starter for the Giants and generated headlines after he “classily handled” a free appearance at a New Jersey restaurant Tuesday.

But the story of stories has to be Brock Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft (for which he was dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant”). He is playing so well for the 49ers that, according to the Wall Street Journal,  many consider him the frontrunner to win league MVP this year.

However, I’m leading today’s Daily Article with him because of who he is, not what he’s doing. Before the season began, he told a reporter, “God has me where he needs me.” He testifies clearly, “The bottom line, my identity is in Jesus.”

If more Americans had the same “bottom line,” our democracy would be secured and empowered in paradoxical ways we urgently need to embrace today.

A republic “if you can keep it”

The Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that bars former President Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot continues to reverberate this morning. In my Daily Article Special Edition response yesterday, I noted that divisive partisan reactions to this issue spotlight the deep level of distrust many have for our democracy, our institutions, and our leaders.

For cultural context, let’s note with Joseph Nye, former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, that American exceptionalism has stemmed from three factors: our geopolitical size, location, and resources; our commitment to humanity’s quest for freedom; and our moral virtues.

Today, however, the world is smaller than ever, as Houthi rebels in Yemen demonstrated yesterday by threatening to strike US warships if the Iranian-backed militia is targeted by Washington. Humanity’s quest for freedom seems less global or attractive in a world increasingly dominated by autocratic regimes in China, Russia, and elsewhere. And postmodern relativism has redefined morality as personal and subjective while castigating those who defend biblical morality as intolerant and dangerous.

Unsurprisingly, when the Wall Street Journal asked Americans, “Do you think the American Dream—that if you work hard you’ll get ahead—still holds true,” just 36 percent said it does. Eighteen percent said it never did; 45 percent said it “once held true but not anymore.”

According to James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, “A lady asked Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

How do we “keep it”?

“We must live through all time, or die by suicide”

On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln offered an address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, on “the perpetuation of our political institutions.” He was twenty-eight years old at the time.

He began by referencing the same three advantages Dr. Nye catalogued: “the fairest portion of the earth,” a government conducted “to the ends of civil and religious liberty,” and “hardy, brave, and patriotic” virtues received from our forefathers.

Lincoln then asked, “At what point should we expect the approach of danger?” After discounting enemies from abroad, he answered: “If it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Accordingly, he summoned Americans to “general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.” Lincoln then concluded his remarks: “Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, ‘The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”

“The joy of the Lᴏʀᴅ is your strength”

The best way for America to rebuild such moral and spiritual foundations is for Americans to build our lives on the lordship of Christ and the authority of his word.

Jesus promised that when we hear and obey his teachings, we are “like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). When the storms came, his house did not fall “because it had been founded on the rock” (v. 25). If, however, we refuse to think and live biblically, we are like foolish men who built their house on the sand (v. 26): when the inevitable storms of life came, “it fell, and great was the fall of it” (v. 27).

In light of Jesus’ wisdom, we can judge the foundation we cannot see by the effects of storms on the structure we can. Is America’s “house” standing or falling today?

When ancient Israel repented in obedient response to God’s word, Nehemiah assured them, “The joy of the Lᴏʀᴅ is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). During this Advent week of joy, if we will do the former, we will experience the latter.

To this end, let’s remember Brock Purdy’s testimony: “The bottom line, my identity is in Jesus.”

What is your “bottom line” today?

Denison Forum

I must begin with a confession: I’m not a big fan of Christmas movies. I’d rather watch football over the holidays and catch up on novels. In fact, I had not seen Elf, consistently ranked among the best Christmas movies, until our grandkids recently asked to watch it with us. I now understand why it’s so popular. But I’m not changing my mind about the predictability and “cheese” factor of many holiday movies.

It turns out, that’s why they’re so popular.

Dr. Pamela Rutledge, a media psychologist and director of the Media Psychology Research Center, explains: “You would almost be disappointed if they weren’t a little cheesy and predictable, because that’s why you’re there. You’re there to have a feel-good movie. This lowers stress, and it reinforces feelings of hope and renewal and all of those things that Christmas is supposed to bring.”

The good news that can be bad news

Dr. Rutledge is obviously right about our need for “hope and renewal” these days.

North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile this week that has the range to strike anywhere in the mainland United States. The CDC is warning that hospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month as COVID-19 hospitalizations rise while influenza and RSV cases remain high.

The volcanic eruption in Iceland, the deadly earthquake in China, and the powerful storm in the northeastern US are reminders of our finitude and frailty. The ongoing Houthi attacks on international commerce illustrate the susceptibility of the global economy to terrorists.

There is much about the world that is not in our power to change. Which of these stories can you impact through your personal influence and capacities?

The good news—which can be bad news as well—is that the resources most foundational to American democracy are as much within our grasp as when our nation was founded.

“We must not sink into pagan materialism”

Speaking in 1926 to commemorate the 150^th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, President Calvin Coolidge concluded:

[The Declaration] is the product of the spiritual insight of the people. We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp. If we are to maintain the great heritage which has been bequeathed to us, we must be like-minded as the fathers who created it. We must not sink into a pagan materialism. We must cultivate the reverence which they had for the things that are holy. We must follow the spiritual and moral leadership which they showed. We must keep replenished, that they may glow with a more compelling flame, the altar fires before which they worshiped.

As one example of these “altar fires,” consider our first president’s warning: “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. . . . Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

The “father of our country” also believed that “the foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality.” And he asked, “Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?”

“Though the fig tree should not blossom”

Both presidents were echoing biblical principles proclaimed twenty-five centuries earlier when God warned the sinful Babylonians: “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and founds a city on iniquity!” (Habakkuk 2:12). In response, he announced his ultimate purpose: “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lᴏʀᴅ as the waters cover the sea” (v. 14). Everything God did then and everything he does now is a means to this end.

This is not because the Lord is a divine egotist. To the contrary, for God to seek the glory of anyone above his own would be for him to commit idolatry. Similarly, for us to glorify anyone above the Lord commits the same sin and forfeits all God can do in lives that are fully yielded to his purposes.

Now you and I have the privilege and the responsibility of choosing to think biblically and act redemptively. We can “cultivate the reverence” for “the things which are holy” that is foundational to our national virtue and thus to our “permanent felicity” under God. During this Advent week of joy, no matter how challenging our circumstances, we can then say with the prophet of old:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17–18).

In what—or whom—will you “take joy” today?

Denison Forum

When I saw this New York Times headline yesterday, my first thought was that the pope has endorsed homosexual relationships. Judging from the media reaction, many are making the same assumption. When I read the actual Vatican announcement, I learned that the truth is much more complicated. Nonetheless, my first impression is, I fear, the lasting impression this news will leave with our secularized culture.

At the outset, I want you to know that my response does not express an anti-Catholic bias on my part. I have been privileged to know and serve alongside many Catholic priests across my ministry and am grateful for the many Catholic readers of The Daily Article. Catholic writers and theologians continue to inform and enhance my personal spiritual life. And I deeply appreciate the church’s continued support for the sanctity of life.

Nonetheless, I believe the Vatican’s announcement to be a foundational mistake with massive cultural ramifications we need to understand through the lens of biblical truth.

“When people ask for a blessing”

Titled “Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,” the declaration was submitted to Pope Francis for his review and approved with his signature. It “remains firm on the traditional doctrine of the Church about marriage, not allowing any type of liturgical rite or blessing similar to a liturgical rite that can create confusion.” In this way, it is not “changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage.”

In fact, the document quotes Francis’ definition of marriage as the “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.” The declaration adds, “It is only in this context that sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning” and states that “the Church’s doctrine on this point remains firm.”

What is new here, however, pertains to the “blessing” of individuals by the church, an act separate from the sacrament of marriage. In short, the declaration extends to Catholic clergy the authority for “blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples.”

The document then spells out in detail the practice of “blessing” in Scripture. It notes that biblical blessings are often conveyed by God to people and by people to others without moral preconditions. It therefore advises: “When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. . . . those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”

To summarize: Fiducia Supplicans authorizes Catholic clergy to pray for God’s blessing on those in “irregular” and same-sex relationships, so long as this is not confused with the liturgical sacrament of marriage, which remains available only to a man and a woman.

“If the trumpet makes an uncertain sound”

Fiducia Supplicans states that “the Church does not have the power to confer its liturgical blessing when that would somehow offer a form of moral legitimacy to a union that presumes to be a marriage or to an extra-marital sexual practice” (my emphasis) and adds that “there is no intention to legitimize anything.” But this is already how the document is being interpreted by LGBTQ advocates and the mainstream media.

This is because to “bless” someone in non-theological Catholic terms means precisely to “legitimize” them. When I asked my then-girlfriend’s father for his “blessing” on our engagement, his affirmation was obviously his endorsement of our marriage. As Merriam-Webster makes clear, to “bless” someone means to “approve” of them.

Rev. James Martin, a prominent Catholic LGBTQ advocate, responded to the Vatican’s declaration: “Along with many priests, I will now be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions.” Anyone reading his words would assume that they “offer a form of moral legitimacy” to such unions.

This is a significant step toward normalizing LGBTQ relationships, now with the “blessing” of the leader of the largest Christian denomination in the world. Such normalizing is unbiblical since Scripture clearly forbids “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality” and all sexual activity outside marriage (Galatians 5:19). Rather than give such an “uncertain sound” (1 Corinthians 14:8 NKJV), we are to “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18) and encourage everyone else to do the same (cf. James 4:17).

“We must obey God rather than men”

Fiducia Supplicans offers the Church’s blessing not only to same-sex couples but also to those in “irregular situations.” The document nowhere defines the term, but it does refer to those who are engaged in “extra-marital sexual practice.” I assume that the two phrases are meant to be equivalent.

Would they include those in polygamous and polyamorous relationships, a growing movement in our culture? What about adulterous relationships? Sexual relationships between adults and minors? Between humans and animals?

Once we start blessing what God forbids, where do we stop? This is why the apostles’ testimony should be ours: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). And it is why Scripture warns: “Desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15).

“There is no freedom without truth”

It seems that Pope Francis wants the Catholic church to be more loving toward all people regardless of the sins they commit. I commend such inclusive grace. God loved us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8) and calls us to love others in the same way (cf. Matthew 22:39).

But in a culture that understands “blessing” not in the technical terms of the Vatican declaration but in the general dictionary sense of approving, the document will mislead many into believing that God condones what he in fact forbids. It will therefore encourage people to commit sexual sins—homosexual and heterosexual—that are harmful to them. And it will be used to marginalize and stigmatize further those of us who declare and defend biblical morality.

Pope St. John Paul II observed, “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” How do we know what we “ought” to do? He added: “Man’s free creative forces will only develop to the full if they are based on the truth. . . . There is no freedom without truth.”

Where do we find such “truth”?

Jesus said to his Father, “Your word is truth” (John 17:17) and promised his followers that the Spirit would “guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). Accordingly, during this Advent week of joy, we can say to God, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).

Will you walk God’s “path of life” into the “fullness of joy” today?

Denison Forum

This headline caught my eye over the weekend: “If Hamas is allowed to survive, their web of terror will threaten us all.” The subtitle warns: “It’s not just Jews who are in grave danger when terror groups like Hamas grow in strength and number.”

The writer is responding to reports that seven people were arrested in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands last week on suspicion of planning attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe. Four of the seven were suspected Hamas members. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded: “In recent years, and even more so after the murderous attack on October 7, Hamas strives to expand its operational capabilities around the world—and in Europe in particular—in order to realize its ambitions to hit Israeli, Jewish, and Western targets at any cost.”

A British columnist, citing the rise of antisemitism after the October 7 invasion, warns: “If recent protests are anything to go by, then we may be uniquely vulnerable to this terrorist threat. If calls for ‘jihad’ are taken literally, with young men believing they should fight a holy war on our streets, then we may face the worst terrorist threat since al-Qaeda or ISIS.”

Hamas is ramping up its propaganda war to inculcate antisemitism among young people in the larger Muslim world; for example, #freepalestine is now found on thirty-nine times more Facebook posts than #standwithisrael. If the terrorist group’s hatred of Jews spreads across the West, the October 7 atrocities may be the beginning of a larger genocidal movement against the Jewish people and everyone who supports them.

A terrorist tunnel beneath a baby’s crib

“War is hell,” as Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman said after the Civil War. His description is especially proving true in Gaza, where the Israeli army’s death toll is already almost twice as high as during a ground offensive in 2014, more than seventeen thousand Palestinians have died, and more than one hundred hostages are still being held by Hamas.

The IDF’s killing of three Israeli hostages they mistakenly identified as a threat sparked massive rallies over the weekend calling for a pause in the fighting to allow more hostages to be released. However, as Israel mourns the three young men and grieves for the rest of the hostages, Hamas continues to use them—and Palestinian civilians in Gaza—as human shields and leverage.

For example, IDF soldiers uncovered a Hamas tunnel hidden beneath a baby’s crib in Gaza yesterday.

The terrorists have made clear their intentions to eradicate all Jews, whom they consider to be the enemies of humankind. Such dehumanizing is always the first step toward the genocide of a people. For Islamic jihadists, it is born in a worldview that sees Jews as “enemies of Allah” and subhuman descendants of “apes” and “swine.”

But antisemitism also has roots in the Western world that are less obvious but no less dangerous to us all.

Did we come from “primitive slime”?

On this day in 1912, the “Piltdown Man” fossil was discovered. Originally claimed to be a “missing link” ancestor of humans, the remains were later found to be a hoax. However, the view that humans are the product of chance rather than creation persists across our culture. Forbes recently announced, for example, that scientists have a new theory for how life’s “building blocks” arrived on our planet, claiming that comets could have delivered amino acids and proteins to Earth and other planets as well.

One researcher writes in Smithsonian magazine: “Scientists agree on the basics of how life began, perhaps four billion years ago. Inorganic materials in the depths of the sea—subjected to favorable chemical conditions—most likely came to form a primitive slime over a long period of time. That slime eventually gave rise to bacteria, or perhaps blue-green algae” that led to life as we know it.

If humans are no different from anything else that evolved in this way, a utilitarian pragmatism that uses people as a means to larger ends is inevitable. If we commercialize and trade swine, why not hostages viewed as their descendants by their captors—or so Hamas might say.

Once we abandon the biblical truth that all people are created in God’s image and thus sacred from the moment of conception (Genesis 1:27), any human can be the subject of those strong enough to subjugate them in an evolutionary “survival of the fittest” contest for supremacy. We see such dehumanizing when preborn babies are aborted for financial reasons and the elderly infirm are euthanatized, girls and boys are sex trafficked and forced into prostitution, and racial prejudice fuels systemic injustice.

And we see it when Jews are villainized for their race and religion.

Decorating 22 homes and creating 400 snowmen

This is the Advent week of joy. Paradoxically, biblical joy is a consequence, not a goal. It is a “fruit” of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) that we experience when we seek the Lord with intimacy and can pray with David, “In your presence there is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11). And it is a gift we experience most fully when we share it with others.

My first pastor used to say that JOY is an acronym for Jesus, Others, and Yourself. When we love others in response to God’s love for us, we want to pay forward the grace we have received and their joy enhances our own.

I’m thinking of an Oklahoma man who decorated twenty-two homes on his street for Christmas and the Wyoming woman who created nearly four hundred personalized snowmen for the people of her town. My guess is that they are experiencing a more joyful Christmas along with those whose holidays they enriched.

Henri Nouwen is right:

When you know yourself as fully loved, you will be able to give according to the other’s capacity to receive, and you will be able to receive according to the other’s capacity to give. You will be grateful for what is given to you without clinging to it, and joyful for what you can give without bragging about it. You will be a free person, free to love.

Will you be “free to love” today?

Denison Forum

While it’s not unusual for nativity scenes to make the news around Christmastime, a different form of public display inside the Iowa state capitol building has made headlines in recent days. The Satanic Temple placed a statue of the pagan idol Baphomet and other satanic paraphernalia in the building’s rotunda near the capitol’s annual nativity scene.

While the scene has generated quite a bit of controversy from many of the state’s citizens, responses from the community have varied.

Governor Kim Reynolds called it “absolutely objectionable” while asking for prayer over the building. Rep. Jon Dunwell pointed out, “I don’t want the state evaluating and making determinations about religions.” Considering history has shown that when the government attempts to regulate religion, religion usually loses, he has a point.

Conversely, Michael Cassidy—who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in Mississippi last year—responded by tearing the idol down yesterday. He’s since been charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief.

What has largely gotten lost in the controversy, however, is that equal representation for satanic groups isn’t really the point they’re trying to make by placing their idol on capitol grounds.

As Russell Moore described, “These gaudy goats exist to make a point in the culture war—namely, that public places shouldn’t allow Christmas crèches or Hanukkah menorahs and so forth. The devil displays are just a means to an end. It’s not so much about whom the followers love as about whom they hate, which is religious people—especially the kind that would be outraged by a devil in the capitol.”

As he goes on to conclude, “Shock and repulsion from religious people aren’t merely unintentional byproducts; they’re the whole point.”

Consequently, when Christians like Cassidy react to such displays with anger and violence rather than prayer or dialogue, we play right into the hands of those who are hoping for just such a response.

Fortunately, there is positive news when it comes to Christmas displays that honor God as well.

Why are nativity displays still popular in post-Christian England?

While nativity displays are common throughout many regions of America, it may surprise you to learn that public displays of Christ’s birth play an equally—if not more—significant role across the Atlantic.

In England, roughly 25 percent of parents of kids under the age of eighteen go to church with any semblance of consistency. Yet, as Madeleine Davies describes, 78 percent of the population support their children’s schools putting on nativity plays every Christmas. Considering that 94 percent of all kids in the UK go to state-funded schools, the gap between those who look forward to attending a nativity play and those who would go to church to hear a sermon on the same subject is quite vast.

For most, the reason has less to do with religion than it does nostalgia. As Rob Barward-Symmons, the impact and evaluation manager at the Bible Society, notes, these plays function as “a valued rite of passage for parents to share with their children.” A Hindu mother who attended a Church of England school as a child added that she wants her children to “have the same memories” and to know the same story that she “learned as a kid.”

And even if the story of Christ’s birth will remain just a story for many of these children, we should not underestimate the power of nostalgia and what God can do with even those small seeds later in life.

In a way, connecting people personally with the Christmas story has been the purpose of such plays since the Middle Ages. And the similarities between their purpose then and now extend in some interesting and noteworthy ways.

Nativity scenes tell the story that many won’t read

Tradition holds that Saint Francis of Assisi set up the first live nativity scene in 1223 as a backdrop for his Christmas Eve sermon. Within a century, they’d grown in popularity and began to be featured at churches throughout Europe.

As Eleanor Parker, a lecturer in medieval English literature at Oxford, describes, the plays eventually evolved into standalone productions that told the entire story of the Bible from creation to Revelation. Such performances served an important purpose within medieval society because back then both the Bible and the sermons at Mass were in Latin at a time when few outside the clergy could understand that language. As a result, paintings, sculptures, and plays were often the only way they could learn the biblical stories.

In a similar way, our culture is increasingly illiterate when it comes to the Bible. Few outside the church—and, unfortunately, far too few inside the church as well—are likely to pick up a Bible and read it for themselves. As such, nativity plays and other traditions like Christmas carols can serve an important role in translating the truth of God’s word in a way that often slips past the barriers that people raise against the faith at other times of the year.

The question for us then becomes whether we will position ourselves to take advantage of those opportunities when they arise.

This Christmas, give the gift of faith

While I haven’t seen it as much this year as in the past, the notion that the culture is waging a war on Christmas remains far too common a refrain among many in the church. That’s not to say the accusations do not, at times, have some merit. However, seeing aspects of Christmas appropriated in ways that leave much of the message behind still presents us with unique opportunities to share the gospel with those who desperately need to hear it.

For many, Christmas carols, nativity scenes, and other Christian traditions carry a degree of nostalgia and fondness for reasons that have little to do with celebrating the birth of our Lord. But that doesn’t mean the path to turning those traditions back to Christ isn’t much shorter now than at other times of the year.

If you hear a neighbor or coworker remark that they love a particular carol, take a second to ask them what they like about it. If you see a nativity scene or Christian decoration in their yard or office, ask what it means to them. These simple questions can present the chance to have truly meaningful conversations, and the same can be true with family and friends as well.

After all, given that a large percentage of kids who grow up in at least nominally Christian homes leave the faith later in life, many devout followers of Jesus have family members who do not share that faith. Yet even among those who have rejected Christ, Christmas often holds fond memories, and family traditions rooted in the gospel can persist even after interest in the gospel has waned.

So as December 25 draws closer, let’s look for opportunities to celebrate and redeem the culture’s approach to Christmas. Their approach to the holiday may not always mirror our own, but that doesn’t mean God can’t still use it in some truly remarkable ways. The question for us is whether we will be ready to help when those opportunities arise.

Will you?

Denison Forum

The latest Godzilla movie is getting rave reviews and shattering box office records after a massive opening weekend. Alex Fitzpatrick reports in Axios that the film is “set in postwar Japan . . . to explore the country’s struggles in grappling with its actions and the incredible devastation levied upon it.” In other words, it’s a sign of our war-torn times.

Here’s another: “Peach Fuzz” is the Pantone Color Institute’s “color of the year,” chosen because it conjures peace and serenity. A company spokesperson explained: “We’re going through a lot of turmoil in our lives, and we have a need for a color that’s nurturing.”

In a day some are calling the “Age of Unhingement,” perhaps we should not be surprised by such news. According to columnist Rick Newman, “If America had a national mood, it would be gloom.” Responding to surveys cataloging dismal consumer attitudes, he hypothesizes that “Americans are so overwhelmed with negative news that they’re more inclined than ever to think things are terrible.”

It’s not just the seasonal depression that often comes with winter; the CDC reports that our suicide rate is the highest ever recorded. It has been consistently climbing since 2001, up nearly 50 percent over the last two decades. Unsurprisingly, just 21 percent of us are confident that life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us.

If we’re so spiritual, why are we unhappy?

At the same time, Pew Research Center reports that seven in ten US adults describe themselves as spiritual in some way. If we’re so spiritual, why are we so unhappy?

Perhaps a clue is found in this part of the report: 22 percent of us say we are spiritual but not religious. Of this group, 71 percent believe that “parts of nature, like mountains, rivers, or trees can have spirits or spiritual energies.” Nearly half say the same about “certain objects, like crystals, jewels, or stones.”

While only 2 percent of spiritual but not religious people say they attend religious worship services weekly or more often, 78 percent say they spend time “looking inward or centering” themselves at least a few times a month.

Such self-centered, self-defining spirituality is the hallmark of our times. According to George Barna’s latest inventory, only 4 percent of Americans embrace a “biblical worldview,” meaning that “people’s ideas about all dimensions of life and eternity are based on biblical principles and commands.”

“Nearly all that we call human history”

If humans are created by a holy God for personal relationship with him, the fact that we are living in the “age of unhingement” should not surprise our secularized, post-Christian culture. C. S. Lewis observed in Mere Christianity:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could “be like gods”—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

He then explained why our independence from God doesn’t work:

God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.

When Lewis wrote his book in 1952, these were the binary options: “religion” (meaning biblical Christianity) or irreligion “apart from God.” As we have seen today, however, millions of Americans are embracing a “spiritual but not religious” third option where they choose the parts they like and refuse the rest.

Beware the “most intimate souvenirs of hell”

At this point I am tempted to congratulate all of us who do embrace a biblical worldview, who attend church services regularly, study our Bibles and pray daily, and read (or write) resources like this Daily Article. But I sense the Spirit issuing this warning: you and I are just as tempted by cafeteria-style spirituality as the rest of our post-Christian culture.

Every time we choose to sin, we reject God’s word and will and grieve and quench his Spirit (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). To quote Lewis, we “invent some sort of happiness for [ourselves] outside of God.” But a holy God cannot bless unholiness and remain true to his holy character. To the contrary, he must withdraw his favor and, if we persist in unrepentance, invoke his judgment.

This is why this Advent week of peace is so relevant to our times. Scripture declares, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33). As a result, the prophet could testify to him, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you” (Isaiah 26:3). The psalmist prayed, “Great peace have those who love your law” (Psalm 119:165). Because “peace” is a “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22), “to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

Do you have such peace?

We’ll close with one more reflection from C. S. Lewis, this time in The Great Divorce: “If we accept heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of hell.”

Do you need to abandon such “souvenirs” today?

Denison Forum

A threat is rising to the US and global commerce from a group you’ve probably heard little about: two missiles fired from territory held by Houthi rebels in Yemen missed a commercial tanker loaded with jet fuel today. An American warship also shot down a suspected Houthi drone that was flying in its direction. This after a missile fired by Houthis struck a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea yesterday.

Such attacks have been targeting commercial vessels for several days. US Navy ships have shot down an array of drones headed their way believed to have been launched by the militant group. Last month, the jihadists seized a transport in the Red Sea linked to Israel and are still holding the vessel.

So, who are the Houthis? How much of a threat are they to Israel and the US? The answers are troubling for the region and are contributing to the growing prospect of global war.

A worst-case scenario for the US

Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation, is a country of twenty-eight million people on the southern end of the Arabian peninsula. In the 1990s, the Houthi movement emerged in the northern part of the country in reaction to rising Saudi financial and religious influence. Their name comes from the surname of the movement’s early leader, Hussein al-Houthi, who died in 2004.

The Shiite group, backed by Iran, has been fighting Yemen’s Sunni-majority government for two decades. They control the capital city of Sanaa and much of the western part of the country. They have been protesting the IDF’s post-October 7 incursion into Gaza by targeting ships headed toward Israel as well as US forces in the area.

It is not difficult to imagine a scenario by which Houthis in the south combine with Hezbollah in the north, Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, and Hamas in Gaza to form a four-front assault against Israel. All four are proxies of Iran, which has long sought Israel’s destruction. They could not realistically defeat the IDF, but their incessant attacks could discourage Israelis and prompt them to abandon their nation.

In such a scenario, the US would likely need to escalate its military support for Israel. This at a time when Ukraine is seeking additional support for its ongoing war with Russia. If China were to invade Taiwan, the US would find itself on the other side of yet a third global conflict.

According to A. Wess Mitchell, senior advisor for the United States Institute of Peace and a former assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, this is the worst-case scenario for the US. He writes in Foreign Policy that our military is not designed to fight wars against two major rivals simultaneously, much less three. We would fight such a world war as “a thinly stretched US military alongside ill-equipped allies that are mostly unable to defend themselves against large industrial powers with the resolve, resources, and ruthlessness to sustain a long conflict.”

Mitchell believes that waging such a global war “would require a scale of national unity, resource mobilization, and willingness to sacrifice that Americans and their allies have not seen in generations.”

“A situation without obvious historical parallel”

Is Mitchell correct in his assessment? A recent poll asked Americans about values they consider “very important,” contrasting responses made in 1998 with today. The results:

• Patriotism: 70 percent vs. 38 percent today
• Religion: 62 percent vs. 39 percent today
• Having children: 59 percent vs. 30 percent today

What explains this radical shift?

Carl Trueman writes in his book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, “The modern self is one where authenticity is achieved by acting outwardly in accordance with one’s inward feelings.” Such a worldview privileges the individual over commitments to patriotism, religion, children, or community. Trueman calls this “a situation without obvious historical parallel.”

These reflections give us even greater reason for concern regarding our nation and her future. The internal “crisis of despair” we are facing, alongside potentially the greatest external threats we have seen in decades, combine to make this Advent week of peace even more relevant for our society and for our souls.

“Not as the world gives do I give to you”

Paradoxically, the peace we need is found not in seeking it but in resolving the foundational issue that robs it from us. Yesterday, I shared Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s most famous quote from his classic, The Cost of Discipleship. Here is his statement in its context:

The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.

We were created to love God and each other unconditionally and sacrificially (Matthew 22:37–39). Consequently, self-centered people acting “in accordance with one’s inward feelings” are at war with God, others, and themselves.

However, when we surrender our lives, ambitions, and challenges to the Prince of Peace, his omniscience guides us, his omnipotence empowers us, and his omnibenevolence encourages us. We can claim Jesus’ promise, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27a). And we can answer his invitation, “Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (v. 27b).

Is your heart “troubled” or “afraid” today?

Denison Forum

President Biden hosted the annual White House Hanukkah Party last night; invitees included Holocaust survivors and leaders from across Jewish religious denominations. However, I’m thinking today of different ceremonies held recently in dark places: some eight hundred menorahs from Israeli children who were evacuated from the area around Gaza were delivered to IDF soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip. As they lit these candles on the front lines, families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas held their own Hanukkah observance in Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, in another moving act of solidarity, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lit the first candle on a huge menorah in front of Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate. “I wish that the candle of Hanukkah will shine far beyond this square and much longer than just for the eight days of Hanukkah,” he said while wearing a black velvet skullcap.

As Jews around the world grieve the atrocities of Hamas’s October 7 invasion, global solidarity with them both as a people and as a nation is vitally significant.

However, there’s a problem with conflating the two, one we urgently need to understand in our conflicted day.

When one day of oil lasted eight days

Hanukkah originated in the second century BC when Greco-Syrian rulers took over the Jewish temple and outlawed Judaism. Judah the Maccabee led his fellow Jews to defeat one of the mightiest armies on the earth, drive them from the land, and reclaim the temple. However, when they sought to light its menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), they could find only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks.

Miraculously, when they lit the menorah, the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity. To commemorate and publicize this miracle, Jewish leaders instituted the festival of Hanukkah (meaning “dedication” and pointing to the rededication of the temple).

Jews around the world are observing that miracle this week. Some are deeply devout, living daily by the 613 laws of Judaism. Others are less so. Still others are secular, identifying with Judaism as their race rather than their religion. But all are united in their commitment to their people and to the tiny nation that was founded to ensure their survival.

This conflation of race and religion is typical for other religions as well. Most Muslims were born into Islam. The same holds true for Buddhists and Hindus. Their religion is a component of their family origin and, likely, their racial demographic.

Unfortunately, many think the same is true for Christianity—including many Christians.

What people don’t understand about Christianity

Do you ever wonder why so many wars are fought in the name of religion?

The present conflict in the Middle East is one example: Hamas is convinced that Allah intends them to have the same land Jews are convinced Yahweh promised to them. Skeptics often point to religious wars waged across human history as evidence that religion does more harm than good.

Here’s what they’re missing: true Christianity is not a religion about God but a deeply personal, transformational relationship with him.

Jesus was adamant: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). When a person places their personal faith in him as their personal Redeemer, they become a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Peter said of this experience: “According to [God’s] great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). When we ask Christ to forgive our sin and become our Lord, he makes us into the “children of God” (John 1:12).

Now, when we submit our lives to his indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 5:18), the Spirit makes us more like Christ (Romans 8:29) by manifesting his character in and through our lives (cf. Galatians 5:22–23). As we worship, pray, study Scripture, and live biblically, we grow in grace as the new people of God (2 Peter 3:18).

Such people love their enemies and pray for their persecutors (Matthew 5:44). If they are walking in the Spirit, they do not initiate conflict but seek to advance justice and peace (Micah 6:8; Matthew 5:6, 9).

What “hinders our spiritual life more than anything else”?

You knew these theological truths before I recounted them. However, we must beware the same temptation that adherents of religion face.

I define religion as the human attempt to please and secure the blessing of God (or the gods). We choose to attend services at a church, synagogue, temple, mosque, or shrine and to invest money and time in religious activities. All of this is on our terms, done as we wish. All the while, we hope that God (or the gods) will reward our religiosity with benefits that outweigh its costs.

Since 85 percent of the planet’s population identifies as “religious,” I just described nearly seven billion people. How is transactional religion working for the world?

Oswald Chambers observed, “The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else.” This is why, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted in The Cost of Discipleship, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

During this Advent week of peace, if you would know true peace, trade a transactional religion about Jesus for a transforming relationship with him. Submit all that you have and are to him as a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). Ask him to take away anything that is not his best for you and add anything that is. Ask his Spirit to make you more like Jesus than you have ever been before. And know that he delights to answer your prayer, to the glory of God.

Watchman Nee said, “A born-again person ought to possess unspeakable peace in the spirit.”

Do you?

If not, why not?

Denison Forum

With the continuing wars in Ukraine and Israel, political unrest, and a seemingly endless supply of reminders that we live in a fallen, broken world, it’s understandable that many have begun to wonder more openly if we are living in the end times. But while those questions are worth asking, we shouldn’t let them distract us from the fact that God is still moving in ways that often resemble Acts far more than Revelation.

I needed that reminder this week and found it in a recent profile of pastor Somphon Sriwichai’s work in Thailand.

Sriwichai’s story starts when, as a baby, he got sick and both the local shaman and traditional healers failed to help him get better. In desperation, his father took him to a Buddhist temple and made a vow to the statue of Buddha that if his child was healed, he would dedicate him to the temple’s service. Sriwichai began to get better shortly thereafter and, when he turned eight, went to live at the temple, later joining as a novice monk.

Life as a novice was difficult for a child, however, and when he turned nineteen Sriwichai left and moved back home with his father. Shortly thereafter, he began to hang out with criminals, drug dealers, and murderers, eventually joining one of the local gangs.

His life took a dramatic turn, however, when at twenty-nine he had an unlikely encounter with a group of local Christians.

“What kind of party is that?”

As Sriwichai describes it, “I was drinking heavily and using drugs with a friend when we heard people singing. ‘What kind of party is that?’ I asked. He answered, ‘That’s not a party, those are Christians.’ Curious, I decided to check it out.”

Sriwichai goes on to tell of how he wandered into the meeting drunk, high, and looking more like a threat than a potential convert. But despite his state, the group’s leader welcomed him in and shared the gospel with him. What struck him most was the grace and forgiveness that stood in such stark contrast to the karmic understanding of the world he’d grown up with.

As he remembers it, “I knew that, according to my own religion, I was destined to be reborn into one of the levels of hell because of the bad things I had done. I began to wonder about this grace and to hope for this forgiveness.” The leader went on to pray with him and Sriwichai “began to weep” and “sensed that my many sins had been forgiven. I had been changed but did not know what to do next.”

It was not until he came across another group of Christians three months later in Chiang Mai that the seeds of faith planted that night began to grow into a real relationship with the Lord.

Sriwichai eventually went through three months of Bible training before embarking upon a life of gospel work that more resembles those very first generations of believers nearly two thousand years ago than what most of us in the West experience today.

Whether it’s receiving visions from God that guided him to the city where he still serves, gaining credibility with the lost by praying for and healing a local shaman, or serving his community by caring for the refugees and children at risk of human trafficking, Sriwichai’s life testifies to the continued power of the gospel to transform lives and cultures today just as it did in the first century.

The entire profile is worth reading, and I encourage you to take the time to do so. But in reflecting on his story, there’s one point in particular that I’d like to focus on today.

Embrace hope

This week we have been discussing the advent theme of hope. In a day where suicide continues to rise as one of the leading causes of death and each day brings new reasons for despair, when we respond with hope rather than anger or fear it stands out. However, for hope to work it must be more than a naïve ignorance of the world around us.

The early Christians harbored no illusions as to the depravity and difficulty they would face as they lived out the gospel in a culture that showed little interest in abiding by God’s standards. Yet they did not let that opposition rob them of the hope they found in Christ. And the same should be true for us today.

So on the days when it feels like we’re living in Revelation, choose to embrace the hope of Acts. Then approach each day with the knowledge that you have the same Holy Spirit in you that has helped believers from Paul and Peter to Somphon Sriwichai change their world with the gospel.

How can you follow their example today?

Denison Forum

Since Time magazine first began selecting a Person of the Year in 1927, it reports that “the person chosen has typically been a ruler over traditional domains of power.” Fourteen US presidents, five leaders of Russia or the Soviet Union, and three popes have been recognized, for example. And yet, as Time notes, “The person whose singular influence was revealed throughout 2023 has held none of these roles—or anything remotely similar.” Singer–songwriter Taylor Swift was chosen because “in a divided world, where too many institutions are failing, [she] found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light.”

Time magazine explains that in her music, Taylor Swift is “committed to validating the dreams, feelings, and experiences of people, especially women, who felt overlooked and regularly underestimated.” As a result, “So many have turned to [her] tales because they’ve been so disappointed by the storylines that emerge elsewhere in society.”

“The battle of the Red Sea” is intensifying

Let’s consider some of the storylines emerging today.

Swift’s selection was announced a day before the eighty-second anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. It comes as Europe is facing what one authority called a “huge risk” of terrorist attacks over the Christmas period. As one example, a tourist was killed and two others were injured Saturday in a terrorist assault near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The killer had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

Closer to home, a gunman killed three people and wounded a fourth yesterday on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The gunman was shot dead by police; a motive has not yet been established. This after a Texas man killed six people, including his parents, in separate attacks earlier this week.

Meanwhile, what the Telegraph calls “the battle of the Red Sea” is intensifying daily. Ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels struck three commercial ships Sunday, while a US warship shot down three drones in self-defense. According to US Central Command, “These attacks represent a direct threat to international commerce and maritime security.” Yesterday, Israel intercepted a missile over the Red Sea targeting Eilat, a southern coastal city I have visited often over the years. The US Navy also shot down a drone originating from a part of Yemen controlled by the Houthis.

All this while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are continuing their fight against Hamas in Gaza, seeking to remove what the Telegraph calls “a terrorist organization bent on killing civilians, taking hostages, using civilians to shield its own fighters, and doing its best to wipe Israel off the map.”

According to the writer, the IDF is “the most moral army on earth” for this reason: “The terrorists have surrounded themselves with innocent civilians inside hospitals. Knowing that, Israel risks the lives of its soldiers to infiltrate these structures, take down Hamas fighters, one by one, and destroy their terror tunnels underneath. Put bluntly, Israel risks the lives of its own soldiers to spare the lives of innocent Palestinians. Their terrorist enemy does the exact opposite. It uses innocent civilians to protect its soldiers.”

“The anarchy and slaughter of great-power warfare”

Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead was a student and friend of Henry Kissinger. In a retrospective on the statesman’s recent death, Mead writes:

Kissinger understood something that too many Americans, on the left and the right, find difficult to grasp: Power and morality aren’t opposites. Rather, power is the platform that makes moral action possible for a state. And morality isn’t a set of rules and laws that states are expected to obey. Rather, in international relations, morality involves creating an order that prevents the anarchy and slaughter of great-power warfare. Such an order gains legitimacy not by its perfect adherence to a religious or secular moral code, but by its ability to preserve values and conditions that allow civilizations, and the human beings who inhabit them, to flourish.

As a teenage refugee from Nazi Germany who later fought the Germans and helped liberate one of their concentration camps, Kissinger experienced human depravity firsthand. He understood the brutality of humans against humans we are witnessing today. In his view, the purpose of political power is to create an order that mitigates this depravity as fully as possible.

However, despite the combined efforts of leaders and nations across eight decades, conflict in the Middle East continues. As does terrorism and other violence escalating around the globe.

This is why, as the Advent week of hope reminds us, our broken world desperately needs the transformational hope found only in Christ. Like the shepherds who “made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child” (Luke 2:17), you and I are commissioned by God to give the Christmas gift of transforming hope to everyone we can.

How to measure our love for God

Our willingness to share our hope in Christ is based not only on the fallenness of our world but especially on our love for our Lord.

We can measure our love for someone by our love for those they love. If you truly love me, you will love my family. We love our Lord to the degree that we love those he loves—and he loves everyone (John 3:16). And we love those he loves to the degree that we share what is best with them, whatever the cost to ourselves.

Would you take a moment to ask Jesus if there is someone you know who especially needs to experience his hope in your compassion today?

Denison Forum

Israel accused the United Nations on Monday of failing to respond adequately to accounts that Hamas carried out widespread sexual violence against women when it attacked Israel on October 7. According to Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, “Sadly, the very international bodies that are supposedly the defenders of all women showed that when it comes to Israelis, indifference is acceptable.”

About one hundred and fifty activists also marched in front of the UN headquarters. One speaker said, “When the institutions that are globally mandated to protect women stay silent—not only international law loses meaning; humanity’s shared values lose meaning.” Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu similarly voiced his anger that the international community is ignoring atrocities against Israeli women.

Their statements highlight one of the great travesties resulting from Hamas’s slaughter of Israelis on October 7: despite overwhelming evidence of Hamas’s brutal crimes against women, their brutality has been ignored, described as morally equivalent to Israel’s response in Gaza, or even defended in the West.

“Reminiscent of a dark time in history”

Some of this silence and even support for Hamas can be explained simply as antisemitism. For example, protesters targeted a Jewish-owned kosher falafel shop in Philadelphia with chants of “genocide,” moving Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) to call the demonstration “a blatant act of antisemitism” and to warn, “This hate and bigotry is reminiscent of a dark time in history.”

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Lance Morrow describes the rising antisemitism after October 7 as “the return of pure hatred of the Jews.” However, as Morrow notes, “The new Jew-haters—especially young people on campuses—think of themselves as perfectly virtuous. What is a thousand times worse, they think of their Jew-hatred as righteous. It’s morally fashionable among them.”

The reasons have been well documented: many in this generation have been taught that Israel stole, occupied, and colonized its land from its rightful Palestinian owners. Viewed through the prism of Critical Theory, the Jews are seen as majority oppressors of the oppressed Palestinian minority.

In a recent poll, 48 percent of college-age students said they sided with Hamas in its war with Israel. One college student was adamant: “Gaza is not a two-sided war. What is happening is the resistance of the oppressed against their oppressor.”

But many who are supporting Hamas have also been vocal in fighting for gender equality. Why, then, are they ignoring or justifying the Hamas terrorists’ violence against women?

Beware the “licensing effect”

For decades, many in academia have embraced the postmodern claim that all truth claims are relative and subjective, a worldview that has produced generations of moral confusion. As a result, when faced with conflicting truth claims, many think they are free to accept only those that align with their personal beliefs.

For example, many claim that Israel is a genocidal “occupier” of Palestine and therefore believe that the crimes of its “victims” can be justifiably ignored or justified. But not just the Jews are in jeopardy: anyone whose beliefs run counter to the ideologies of the cultural elite and the universities that produce them are in similar danger. As I have warned often in recent years, this danger especially includes those of us who defend biblical truth in the face of escalating sexual immorality.

Paradoxically (and nonsensically), the champions of tolerance insist that those they judge “intolerant” must not be tolerated. This is an example of the “licensing effect” by which people who believe they are virtuous worry less about their own behavior, making them more susceptible to immorality.

As a result, those who have biblical answers to the moral issues of our time are rejected before these answers can be shared with those who need them most. If you are convinced that all doctors are dangerous to society, you won’t listen to their medical advice, no matter how sick you become. This is one of the ways Satan has “blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Ben Franklin’s advice on persuasion

During this Advent week of hope, how can we share the hope of Christ with people who do not believe they need such hope?

As we continue to reflect on the shepherds in the Christmas story, consider their motivation in leaving their flocks to worship the Christ: they were told that “a Savior” had been born “unto you” and that he would bring “peace” to those who believe in him (Luke 2:11, 14).

As Ben Franklin advised: “If you would persuade, appeal to interest, not to reason.”

Every human, even the most postmodern among us, is created for intimacy with our Creator. It is in their innate interest to place their hope for the present and the future in his transforming love and grace. However, for the reasons we have discussed today, they are unlikely to consider logical appeals for the gospel.

What they cannot ignore, however, is its results in our lives.

The more intimately we know Jesus, the more persuasively we can make him known. As Christ lives “in” us (Colossians 1:27), the Spirit makes us more like Jesus (Romans 8:29). As a result, we love those who do not love us (1 Peter 4:8). We serve those who reject us (cf. John 13:14). We pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).

And, as the hymn suggests, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Who will know that you’re a Christian today?

Denison Forum