When President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met yesterday morning in South Korea, it marked the first time the two had sat down together in six years. While their advisors and negotiators had spent countless hours laying the groundwork for what took place, and improving markets revealed high hopes that the meeting would be productive, there were also reasons for concern.

Earlier this month, China announced plans to limit access to rare-earth minerals. Given that they control roughly 92 percent of the global output, it’s difficult to overstate the degree of control they have over one of the world’s most important resources.

Micah Tomasella provided an excellent summary of why rare-earth minerals are so important in a recent episode of Culture Brief, but the short version is that they are essential for most of the modern technology we’ve come to rely on.

While those resources can be mined in numerous locations around the world, processing them into something usable is so expensive and toxic that few countries outside of China can do it well. The US is trying to develop its own production facilities, but it will still be years—if not decades—before we can match China’s capacities.

The US enjoys a similar advantage when it comes to the advanced microchips that many of those metals end up becoming. However, Trump’s rhetoric leading up to yesterday’s negotiations left many concerned that he would cede that advantage in exchange for short-term gains.

Fortunately, those fears appear to have been unwarranted—at least for the moment.

Details continue to emerge about the finer points of the deal, but the principal components include China’s agreement to buy “massive amounts” of soybeans and pause its implementation of most rare-earth restrictions. In return, the US reduced its tariff rate on the country by 10 percent, while both nations will pause further tariff escalations for one year. Most importantly, while microchips were discussed, the most advanced remain off the table.

The back-and-forth between Trump, Xi, and their respective advisors demonstrates the difficulty and importance of knowing where to draw the line between what’s negotiable and what needs to remain off-limits. And that principle is relevant to far more than global politics.

Can Christians celebrate Halloween?

Few cultural events tend to divide Christians like the holiday celebrated today. For many, Halloween is an innocent opportunity to watch kids dress up as their favorite characters and meet neighbors you may only see in passing at other times of the year. However, far too often, there’s a darker side to the festivities as well.

As I described in What does the Bible say about Halloween?, the pagan origins of the holiday have led many to conclude that it should be off-limits for Christians today. While they’re not wrong about where Halloween comes from, the full truth of how we got to the modern version of the holiday is a bit more complicated, and illustrates the importance of knowing where to draw boundaries.

The oldest version of Halloween is typically considered to be the Celtic festival of Samhain—pronounced “SAH–win”—that began more than two thousand years ago.

It originated as a pagan celebration marking the end of the harvest season and the start of winter. The ancient Celts believed that it was also a time when the dead could walk among the living. They would light bonfires and wear costumes to either blend in or ward off the ghosts, depending on which accounts you read.

The celebration took on a Christian flair in the eighth century after Pope Gregory III moved the celebration of All Saints’ Day—a time to celebrate the memory and legacy of the saints—to November 1. When the holy day reached the Celtic lands shortly thereafter, it served the important purpose of helping guide the people there to a greater understanding of Jesus.

By this point, St. Patrick, Columba, and others had already led large swaths of Celtic culture to embrace Christianity, often doing so by Christianizing elements of pagan worship to make the transition to the faith simpler. As such, it was largely par for the course to incorporate aspects of Samhain into All Saints’ Day as well. Thus, October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, which was eventually shortened to Halloween.

While it can be easy to misuse that kind of contextualization as a license to incorporate unchristian ideas into our Christian walk, seeking opportunities to apply culturally significant concepts or moments to help people meet Jesus is a very biblical practice. The difficulty has often come in knowing when we’ve gone too far.

Why people stray into heresy

Across this week, The Daily Article has examined the various ways in which Satan typically attempts to thwart God’s people and the advancement of God’s kingdom. Throughout Christian history, one of his favorite tactics has been twisting the genuinely good motivations of believers to lead them further away from the truth.

Very few heretics wake up one morning and decide they want to lead people away from the Lord. Rather, the vast majority of heresies that have assaulted the church came from the desire to make the faith more understandable or more acceptable. There’s nothing wrong with either motivation—unless it comes at the expense of helping people understand what is biblical.

When Paul charged Timothy to preach the word of God, he warned that “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

Even though that word of caution is nearly two thousand years old, it’s as relevant today as it’s ever been. The best solution remains to ensure that, regardless of the subject, the Bible functions as the lens through which we evaluate every aspect of our lives.

So, as we finish for today, take some time to pray and ask the Lord to help you identify any beliefs or areas of your life where you’ve strayed from Scripture. Pay particular attention to those subjects where you feel like you’re on the right side of history, the culture wars, or any of the other divisive forces in our society today.

Whether it’s concerning holidays like Halloween or issues like sexuality, the treatment of the poor and immigrants, or a host of other cultural hot topics, only the Bible is capable of helping us know where to draw the boundaries around how far we can go in our efforts to help people understand and accept God’s truth without it ceasing to be the truth.

Are there any boundaries you need to redraw today?

Quote of the day:

“Nothing less than the whole Bible can make a whole Christian.” —A. W. Tozer

Our latest website resources:

• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps |CB Ep. 43
• What does the Bible say about Halloween?
• How can Christians navigate anxiety and negative thoughts?
• When I’m attacked for being a Christian, how should I respond?

Denison Forum

All eyes are on President Trump’s “landmark” meeting with Chinese President Xi, but we must not look past the crisis in our own backyard: Hurricane Melissa has left dozens dead and widespread devastation across Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica. Power outages and dangerous conditions persist today. It is vital that we intercede for the victims and look for practical ways to help.

I recommend Texans on Mission as they share the gospel and meet needs in Jamaica. And I strongly encourage you to support Proclaim Cuba, our ministry’s longtime partner on the island. I have worked with them for many years and love them deeply. They are providing critical aid and sharing the gospel across the island nation.

The contrast with this unfolding tragedy could not be greater: Americans are expected to spend a record $13.1 billion on Halloween this year. Songs, TV shows, and movies dedicated to Halloween abound. There are even “haunted” Halloween car washes.

Such popularity is unsurprising: more than three in five Americans say they believe in ghosts, though I am not in their number. Over the years, I happen to have visited several sites believed to be especially haunted, from hotels in Texas and Colorado to the battlefields of Gettysburg. I have found Franklin Roosevelt’s observation to be true: “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”

A recent Popular Science article explains the popularity of the paranormal, citing settings such as prisons and battlefields where we are “primed” to expect ghosts; the psychological effects of black mold, carbon monoxide, and other contaminants; and cultural influences and the power of suggestion that precondition us for paranormal beliefs.

But I think there’s another dimension to the story, one that intends to distract us from the good we could do in our broken world by focusing us on evil.

A submarine that sank itself

Across this Halloween week, we’re discussing Satan and his strategies. We’ve looked at temptation, persecution, and deprivation; today, let’s consider deceit.

Jesus warned us that Satan is “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). As “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), he “blinds the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

He delights in fostering lies and deceptions that we embrace to our loss and grief.

To illustrate: I read recently the incredible story of the USS Tang, which destroyed more enemy ships than any other US submarine in World War II. Its captain and crew were among the greatest heroes of the war. However, the vessel met its demise not at the hands of the Japanese but when its own torpedo misfired, circled back, and sank the vessel.

This illustrates metaphorically an observation I often quote from my friend John Stonestreet: Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.

Some are less dangerous than others: Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio play was broadcast on this day in 1938, causing panic among those who believed a Martian invasion of Earth was real. But some are horrific, such as the murderous ideology of the Islamic State now rising again in Syria.

Israeli soldiers recently found a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and other antisemitic literature in the offices of a charity linked to Hamas. After the US Supreme Court fallaciously stated in 1973 that it “need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins” and tragically legalized elective abortion, more than sixty-three million babies have died as a result.

“The first effect of not believing in God”

The pastor and author Paul Powell noticed this statement on a bumper sticker: “With God, all things are possible. Without God, all things are permissible.” The warning applies especially to our thoughts, as the Belgian poet Émile Cammaerts noted: “The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything.”

How can we defeat the deceptions of the devil so we can make a positive impact on our fallen world?

One: Submit our minds every day to the Holy Spirit.

We are assured: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). When we begin the day by surrendering our thoughts to the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), we position ourselves to be empowered by his omnipotence and led by his omniscience.

Two: Defeat ungodly thoughts by focusing on godly truth.

Immoral thoughts are sinful in themselves (cf. Matthew 5:28) and inevitably lead to immoral actions (James 1:13–15). The best way to refuse them is to focus instead on godly truth that replaces ungodly lies. We are therefore commanded: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8, my emphasis).

Three: Advocate for biblical truth.

The best way to learn is to teach. The best way to develop godly minds is to use our minds for God. To this end, we are to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). We do this when we “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

“Fill my lamp with your light”

Most of all, we love God and others with our “mind” (Matthew 22:37) when we manifest the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). When we submit our thoughts to him, Jesus works through us to continue his ministry in the world.

He was—and is—the most brilliant person in all of history (cf. Matthew 12:42). As scholar Jonathan T. Pennington demonstrates conclusively, Jesus was the greatest philosopher and wisest teacher of all time. The Irish missionary St. Columbanus (AD 543–615) was therefore wise to pray:

I beg you, my Jesus, fill my lamp with your light. By its light let me see the holiest of holy places, your own temple where you enter as the eternal High Priest of the eternal mysteries. Let me see you, watch you, desire you. Let me love you as I see you, and before you let my lamp always shine, always burn. . . .

Let us know you, let us love you, let us love only you, let us desire you alone, let us spend our days and nights meditating on you alone, let us always be thinking of you.

Will you make his prayer yours today?

Note: For positive ways to respond to Halloween, see Dr. Ryan Denison’s new article, “What does the Bible say about Halloween? Can Christians celebrate this controversial holiday?”

Quote for the day:

“[Christ] wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.” —C. S. Lewis

Our latest website resources:

• How can Christians navigate anxiety and negative thoughts?
• When I’m attacked for being a Christian, how should I respond?
• In “Nobody’s Mother,” Sandra L. Glahn seeks God’s truth on women’s giftings
• Rare earth minerals, Louvre jewelry heist, “No Kings” protests & a World Series preview!
• What is cultural apologetics and why is it critical for today’s culture?

Denison Forum

The ongoing US government shutdown is the longest full shutdown in US history and the second-longest of any kind. Among its consequences:

• At Hollywood Burbank Airport in California, the air traffic control tower was recently left unstaffed for six hours, forcing pilots to communicate among themselves to avoid incidents when taxiing to and from the runway.
• More than eight thousand US flights have been delayed as shutdown-related air traffic control absences persist.
• Forty-two million Americans who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) will go without their SNAP benefits beginning this Saturday.
• Federal funding will also stop flowing to programs that fund education, health, and nutrition services for more than eight hundred thousand children under the age of six.

In other financial news, Amazon is preparing to lay off up to thirty thousand corporate workers as the company plans mass automation. UPS disclosed yesterday that it has cut forty-eight thousand management and operations positions. And Axios reports that employers are already scaling back hiring because of AI.

October 29 is an annual reminder that financial prosperity is promised to no one. This day in 1929 will forever be known as Black Tuesday, the collapse of the stock market that helped produce the Great Depression.

However, financial uncertainty need not steal our joy. Happiness is based on happenings; joy is a “fruit” of the Spirit regardless of conditions (Galatians 5:22). And the harsher the conditions, the greater our joy can be.

Here’s how.

How money can make you happier

In And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, historian Jon Meacham describes in detail the poverty in which our nation’s greatest president grew up. Lincoln’s father struggled to provide for their family; his mother died when he was nine years old. He worked as a farmer, a ferryman, and a store clerk. His time in a school classroom was limited to less than a year.

Lincoln said of himself, “I was born and have ever remained in the most humble walks of life.”

His background helps explain his passionate commitment to Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that “all men are created equal.” A year after Lincoln was elected president, he praised this assertion as “giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time.” He knew that, with his humble origins, in no country but America could he have become the leader of that country.

But while the Founders declared and defended our equal and “inalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” they couched them in secular terms in a secular Constitution. The word “God” nowhere appears in the document; it mentions “religion” only to prohibit religious tests for office, prevent the establishment of a national religion, and defend religious liberty.

Here’s the problem: the “pursuit of happiness” as an end rather than a means turns out to be a self-defeating exercise.

Social scientist Arthur C. Brooks cites research in his latest Atlantic article that shows how materialistic values are negatively correlated with overall life satisfaction, mood, self-appraisal, and physical health. However, they are positively associated with depression, anxiety, compulsive buying, and risky behaviors. He summarizes: “Money can make you happier, but only if you don’t care about it.”

Pursuing happiness makes us unhappy; pursuing service makes us significant.

Four practical responses

This Halloween week, we’re considering Satan and his strategies. In response to financial need, the devil wants us to doubt God, prioritize the temporal, choose greed over character, and thus damage our witness to the world (cf. Acts 5:1–11).

Our Father wants us to do just the opposite:

Trust God. One way the Lord redeems our needs is by using them to show us the depth of our need for his provision. Only when I admit that “I am weak” can I say “I am strong” in Christ (2 Corinthians 12:10). When we seek and follow his lead, then work as he works, he is “able to make all grace abound to you” (2 Corinthians 9:8; cf. Philippians 4:19).

Prioritize the eternal. I once heard a pastor say he had never seen a U-Haul attached to a hearse. Life is like the game of Monopoly: when it is over, the pieces go back into the box. As C. T. Studd noted, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Randy Alcorn would agree: “What you do with your resources in this life is your autobiography.”

Choose character over greed. We don’t know the strength of our faith until it is tested. We can say we would never cheat on our taxes or steal from our employer, but if we truly need the money that such sins would produce, we discover the depth of our commitment. When temptation comes, turn it immediately to your Lord and claim his victorious grace (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Elevate your witness. The prophet Habakkuk authored one of my favorite declarations in Scripture:

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).

He could therefore testify: “Gᴏᴅ, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places” (v. 19). Such a testimony in times of plenty is unremarkable; in times of need, it is transformative.

My grocery store friend

I have become friends with a man who works at our local grocery store. When I first met him, I could sense the joy of the Lord in his countenance and the peace of God in his heart. When we see each other, we bump fists (he has to keep his hands sanitary to do his work) and tell each other we’re praying for each other.

Not long ago, he shared with me that he and his wife were going through a time of great financial struggle and asked me to pray for him. I did and I have. I saw him again this week, and his smiling spirit spoke again to my spirit. I asked how things were going. Not better, he confided. But then he grinned and quoted Job:

“Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15).

In whom will you “hope” today?

Quote for the day:

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.” —Martin Luther

Our latest website resources:

• When I’m attacked for being a Christian, how should I respond?
• In “Nobody’s Mother,” Sandra L. Glahn seeks God’s truth on women’s giftings
• Rare earth minerals, Louvre jewelry heist, “No Kings” protests & a World Series preview!
• What is cultural apologetics and why is it critical for today’s culture?
• Ask Jim: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What happens when we die? Does demon possession still happen today?

Denison Forum

Some records are fun to watch, such as the Dodgers’ eighteen-inning win last night (actually early this morning) that tied for the longest game in World Series history. Others are horrific, such as the hurricane striking Jamaica today that could be the most powerful storm ever to make landfall anywhere.

Hurricane Melissa is now the strongest storm on the planet this year. The Category 5 storm is expected to devastate Jamaica, an island of more than 2.7 million people, before continuing across eastern Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas. However, a strong cold front tracking into the eastern part of the US will act as an atmospheric brick wall along our coastline, forcing the hurricane out into the Atlantic and away from us.

The fact that America will be spared the wrath of the storm may cause you to be less concerned about it. That would only make you human—our fight-or-flight instinct innately prioritizes direct threats over those more incidental to us.

However, if you had been with me on my ten trips to Cuba and met the incredible Christians I know there, you would feel differently about this story. One of their pastors is one of my dearest friends. I pray for him by name every day; he does the same for me. I love him as my brother because he truly is. I am already grieving what he and his people are facing and urge you to join me in intercession for all those being devastated by this unfolding tragedy.

Why 380 million Christians are being persecuted

Whenever stories of innocent suffering make headlines, I wonder if I should once again write on the perennial issue they raise: How can an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God allow such evil to exist? Even though I have done so often in books and articles, the question persists because the issue persists.

And the closer to home it strikes, the deeper the doubts it raises.

Today, let’s take a different tack. As I noted yesterday, Halloween week seems an appropriate time to discuss Satan and his strategies. And causing innocent suffering is one of his most nefarious activities.

Jesus called him “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), one who comes “only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). Note the word “only”—everything the devil does expresses one or more of these three actions.

He can cause natural disasters (cf. Job 1:12–19) and disease (Job 2:7) and inspire sinful acts against God’s people (cf. Luke 22:3–6). Because he cannot attack our Father, he attacks his children (1 Peter 5:8–9). Consequently, according to Open Doors, more than 380 million Christians are suffering persecution and discrimination around the world today. As my friend John Stonestreet notes, such persecution affects one in five Christians in Africa and two in five in Asia.

As you can see, much innocent suffering in the world is caused by Satan. But you may be asking: Why, then, does an omnipotent God allow the devil to act in such horrific ways?

Here’s one factor: the deeper our suffering, the greater our transformation when we trust it to our Lord.

Surviving the Bataan Death March

Our Bible study teacher last Sunday recommended Bill Keith’s Days of Anguish, Days of Hope, which tells the incredible story of Chaplain Robert Preston Taylor’s experience as a POW in World War II. Reading it was a deeply moving experience, especially since my father experienced the horrors of war in the South Pacific as well.

Rev. Taylor, with an earned doctorate from Southwestern Seminary, was an established pastor in Fort Worth, Texas, when he sensed God’s call to devote a year to military chaplaincy on behalf of American soldiers in the South Pacific.

He was serving in Manila when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. They soon assaulted the Philippines as well, taking Taylor and more than twenty thousand other Americans captive. He was subjected to the Bataan Death March, three and a half years of horrific imprisonment, and unspeakable torture and deprivation. When he was finally liberated at the end of the war, he learned that his wife had thought he was dead and remarried.

Early in his captivity, Colonel Alfred Oliver, chief of the Philippine chaplains, said to Dr. Taylor and the other chaplains imprisoned with him, “Men, I want us to pray and thank God for the confidence he has placed in us by letting us be in this place at this time.” The wisdom of such confidence was soon revealed: God used them to spark a spiritual revival in their prison camp that touched thousands of lives and became known across the region. Soldiers who began the war with no spiritual interest became deeply devoted believers in the midst of their suffering.

Colonel Oliver said to his fellow prisoners,

“Men, I’ve learned never to doubt in the darkness what I believed in the light.”

Because he and his fellow chaplains experienced such deep darkness, the light of their faith was transforming for thousands. And God continued to use Dr. Taylor: he was ultimately promoted to Air Force Chief of Chaplains with the rank of Major General.

“Thank God I’m not the one in charge”

What Joseph said to his brothers, every Christian can say to Satan when he does his worst: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). The greater our suffering, the greater our impact when we trust our pain to our redeeming Lord.

The old hymn therefore rightly declares:

The powers of darkness fear,
When this sweet chant they hear,
May Jesus Christ be praised! . . .
The night becomes as day,
When from the heart we say,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

I heard a song on the radio recently that makes my point in more contemporary terms. Ben Fuller and Carrie Underwood sang:

If it was up to me, there’d be no gravel roads
No wounds, no blisters on my soul
Pain might come, but it wouldn’t come for me
If it was up to me, I’d take the easy ride
But I’d miss the grace that changed my life
Thank God I’m not the one in charge of things
I’d never know how good your plans could be
If it was up to me.

What “blisters” on your “soul” will you trust to your Father’s grace today?

Quote for the day:

“Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering.” —R. C. Sproul

Our latest website resources:

• When I’m attacked for being a Christian, how should I respond?
• In “Nobody’s Mother,” Sandra L. Glahn seeks God’s truth on women’s giftings
• Rare earth minerals, Louvre jewelry heist, “No Kings” protests & a World Series preview!
• What is cultural apologetics and why is it critical for today’s culture?
• Ask Jim: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What happens when we die? Does demon possession still happen today?

Denison Forum

Do Christians still suffer persecution today? When last were you attacked for being a Christian? And I’m not just talking about being “attacked” online for holding to your beliefs. Rather, I’m asking whether you’ve experienced face-to-face attacks on your Christian beliefs or character.

If you have, remember what Jesus told his disciples: “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (Matthew 10:22). In other words, if you are clinging fast to Jesus and his teachings, you will inevitably experience an attack.

Such attacks can vary in severity, from verbal arguments that seem to cut to the core of your identity to actual physical attacks that harm your body.

This is persecution, and it has been going on since the dawn of Christianity.

In The Global War on Christians, John Allen calls the worldwide persecution of Christians “the most dramatic religion story of the early twenty-first century, yet one that most people in the West have little idea is even happening.” The respected journalist describes this persecution as “the most compelling Christian narrative of the early twenty-first century.” According to him, “Christians today indisputably are the most persecuted religious body on the planet.”

While 30 percent of the world’s population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination around the world are directed at Christians. One scholar estimates that 90 percent of all people killed based on their religious beliefs are Christians.

Now, a majority of Christians in the US do not face such devastating persecution. Few of us are interrogated, arrested, tortured, or killed for our faith. And for the millions of believers in America who know nothing about such persecution, we ought to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ across the globe who must endure these horrific acts against our faith.

However, as Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines persecute, we may be harassed or punished “in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict specifically . . . because of belief.”

When you were attacked for being a Christian, did you acquiesce to cultural pressure?

Or did you stand on the promises of God?

If the former, know that you are forgiven, and know that the biblical story I’m about to relate will encourage your faith.

If the latter, I applaud your efforts to be a culture-changing Christian in your sphere of influence.

But I also know—from personal experience—that none of us always makes the right choice when it comes to following God.

And when someone attacks your beliefs, it can be very challenging indeed to respond well and respond biblically.

An epic battleground

Mount Carmel is a mountain range in northern Israel. Today, Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa, is located on its northern slope. To the range’s east and southeast sits the Valley of Megiddo, which you may know as the place called Armageddon in the book of Revelation. Between the range and the valley sits a spring of water that was the likely setting for one of the most impressive displays of God’s work and one lone prophet’s immense faith.

By the time of this epic battle, the pagan religion of Baal worship had swept the nation of Israel. “Baal” was the Canaanite word for “master” or “lord.” The name described one of the chief male deities of Canaanite religion. He was seen as lord of the weather and storms, so that his voice was heard in the thunder, his spear was the lightning bolt, and his steed the storms.

The Canaanites worshiped Baal in a variety of ways, usually on hilltops called “high places” (so they could be as close to him as possible). They sacrificed animals (and sometimes children) and performed sexual dances on his behalf.

The wife of Baal was Ashtoreth. She was seen as the evening star and the goddess of war and fertility. She was worshiped through temple prostitution (involving both men and women). Sacred pillars (perhaps phallic symbols) were placed near the temples of Baal as altars to her. The Greeks worshiped her as Aphrodite, the Romans as Venus.

These deities were enticing to the Israelites as they entered the land of Canaan, and they remained enticing to them for centuries.

But one would have to imagine that, had the ancient Israelites had access to the kind of immediate news we do today, they would have turned to God after having witnessed what he did for the prophet Elijah in 853 BC at Mount Carmel.

“Lord, answer me”

The full story of Elijah versus the prophets of Baal and Ashtoreth is told in 1 Kings 18:20–40. I recommend reading it, but the condensed version is that Elijah requests 450 of Baal’s prophets and 400 of Ashtoreth’s prophets to meet him at Mount Carmel. Once there, he challenges the prophets to have their god set fire to a sacrificed bull on an altar.

From morning until noon, the prophets cry, limp, and even cut themselves so that their god will hear them. Nothing happens—aside from Elijah mocking their “sleeping” god in verse 27. Then Elijah, full of confidence that God will show his power, douses the bull with water—three times! Realize that, if God doesn’t come through, Elijah’s career as a prophet is over, and his life might be too. In fact, the future of the nation of Israel may have even been in jeopardy at this moment.

Yet Elijah chooses to believe God against 850 other religious zealots.

The conclusion of the story is worth reading in full:

And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” (1 Kings 18:36–39).

Is God truly your king?

So, what does Elijah’s inspiring story tell us about living for Christ today?

If you say and believe that God is your king, then you must trust him whether you want to or not, whether it’s popular or not, whether it’s easy or not, whether you’re persecuted or not. The next time you face persecution for being a Christian, ask yourself these simple questions:

• Who comes first: Jesus or me?
• Do my actions truly reveal what I say I believe?
• Remembering the price he paid for me, do I love Jesus enough to pay this price for him?

You will know if God is actually the king of your life by the degree to which you obey him even when—and maybe especially when—you must make a sacrifice to follow his leading.

The millionaire’s sacrifice

When I consider the word sacrifice, I recall the inspiring story of William Borden.

In late nineteenth-century Chicago, Borden was heir to an immense family fortune his father had accrued from mining silver. Upon William’s graduation from boarding school at age sixteen, his parents gifted him a chaperoned trip around the globe. While in London, Borden surrendered his life to Christian service as a missionary.

After graduating from Yale and Princeton Theological Seminary, Borden planned to become a missionary in China so as to reach the Muslims there. However, he contracted meningitis while studying in Egypt and never recovered. Borden died at the age of twenty-five.

According to an Our Daily Bread devotional from 1988, Borden wrote two words in the back of his Bible after having accepted his call to be a missionary: “No Reserves.”

After turning down lucrative job offers after graduating from Yale, he wrote two more words: “No Retreats.”

Prior to his impending death, he added two final words: “No Regrets.”

When that story was made public, thousands of people reportedly gave themselves to foreign mission work. The end of Borden’s earthly story became the beginning for thousands of spiritual stories—maybe even millions.

Out of gratitude for the grace of God, your opportunity today, in the face of any and all attacks, is to say the same as Borden did: No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.

This article originally appeared in Biblical Insight to Tough Questions Vol. 4, currently available in the Denison Forum store.

Denison Forum

Last July, the Trump administration announced plans to construct the White House State Ballroom, explaining that President Trump and other “patriot donors” would supply the $200 million needed to build the structure. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump raised the estimated cost to $300 million. Demolition of the East Wing was finished yesterday to make way for the new ballroom.

As always seems to be the case with political stories these days, what you thought before you heard the news likely governs what you think of it now. You can applaud Mr. Trump for funding this addition entirely with private donors, or you can claim that the money is coming from “companies chasing favors.” You can agree with an administration spokesman’s prediction that Mr. Trump’s “long-needed upgrades will benefit future generations of future presidents,” or you can  complain that the White House is “not his house.”

In a recent poll, 92 percent of Democrats said the US is going in the wrong direction, but only 24 percent of Republicans agreed. This sixty-eight-point partisan gap is the widest recorded in the history of such polling. Unsurprisingly, two-thirds of Americans believe our political system is too politically divided to solve our nation’s problems.

Here’s a solution you may not have considered: reading.

 “Print changed how people thought”

Cultural commentator James Marriott reports that by the beginning of the eighteenth century, the expansion of education and an explosion of cheap books sparked what became known as the “reading revolution.” Reading was described as a “fever,” an “epidemic,” or a “craze,” resulting in what Marriott calls “an unprecedented democratization of information; the greatest transfer of knowledge into the hands of ordinary men and women in history.”

People read newspapers, journals, history, philosophy, science, theology, and literature. Books, periodicals, and pamphlets abounded. And, as Marriott notes, “print changed how people thought.” He explains:

The world of print is orderly, logical, and rational. In books, knowledge is classified, comprehended, connected, and put in its place. Books make arguments, propose theses, develop ideas. “To engage with the written word,” the media theorist Neil Postman wrote, “means to follow a line of thought, which requires considerable powers of classifying, inference-making, and reasoning.”

Historians have linked this explosion of literacy to the Enlightenment, the birth of human rights, the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, and, notably, the arrival of democracy.

For example, Thomas Jefferson was convinced that only educated citizens could make the American experiment in self-government succeed. This is why he proposed a system of broad, free, public education that was radical for the day and founded the University of Virginia.

For citizens to elect leaders effectively, they must understand the issues of the day, assess potential leaders appropriately, and hold them accountable upon election. Leaders must concurrently understand the times and be able to lead and communicate with clarity and reason.

“Politics in the age of short-form video”

Today, however, reading is in free-fall.

Marriott notes that reading for pleasure has fallen by 40 percent in the last twenty years. In the UK, more than a third of adults say they have given up reading altogether. Literacy levels are declining or stagnating in most developed countries.

What happened was the smartphone, which delivers content you hear and/or see but seldom read. This content appeals to our emotions much more than to our minds.

Historians have observed that pre-literate “oral” societies are mystical, emotional, and antagonistic in their communications. Our post-literate society is returning to the same; according to Marriott, “our discourse is collapsing into panic, hatred, and tribal warfare.”

As a result, he writes, “Politics in the age of short form video favors heightened emotion, ignorance, and unevidenced assertions.” He warns that “the rational, dispassionate print-based liberal democratic order may not survive this revolution.”

“The chief authority on which our faith is built”

We have focused this week on the urgency and power of seeking a daily, transforming relationship with the living Lord Jesus. As we seek him in prayer, accept and share his passionate love for us, and reject the private sin that impoverishes our souls, the Spirit restores us to the “image” of the Creator in which we were made (Genesis 1:27). In this way, our Father molds us to “become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29 NLT).

A key factor in this process is the word of God, which is “living and active” (Hebrews 4:12) and thus “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

Tragically, the decline in literacy that is afflicting our culture is afflicting our churches as well. Biblical literacy has been declining for years. A recent American Bible Society report found that only 39 percent of Americans read the Bible even three or four times a year.

Wheaton College New Testament professor Gary M. Burge warns:

To disregard this resource—to neglect the Bible—is to remove the chief authority on which our faith is built. We are left vulnerable, unable to check the teachings of those who invite us to follow, incapable of charting a true course past siren voices calling from treacherous islands such as TV programs, popular books, and enchanting prophecies displayed on colorful Web sites.

“Did not our hearts burn within us”

So, here’s a simple invitation: seek to meet Jesus in his word every day. Not just to read the Bible, but to hear the voice of its Author as he speaks to your soul. Not just to have a “quiet time,” but to be changed by the Spirit.

We are not finished reading the Bible until we read ourselves in its light and align in a new way with its truth.

Jesus wants to teach his word to our minds and use it to change our hearts. When he encountered two people on the road to Emmaus, he “interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). They said later, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (v. 32).

When last did your heart “burn” within you?

Quote for the day:

“My conscience is captive to the Word of God.” —Martin Luther

Our latest website resources:

• Rare earth minerals, Louvre jewelry heist, “No Kings” protests & a World Series preview!
• What is cultural apologetics and why is it critical for today’s culture?
• Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back!
• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech
• Ask Jim: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What happens when we die? Does demon possession still happen today?

Denison Forum

A group of new children’s storybook Bibles is being published to reflect a progressive focus on diversity, inclusion, and social justice. One is The Just Love Story Bible, a “justice-oriented” storybook for children ages four to ten. Authored by Rev. Jacqui Lewis and Rev. Shannon Daley-Harris, it features fifty-two Bible stories and illustrations portraying characters in black, brown, and tan skin tones.

The authors said they hope to prompt children to ask questions and challenge traditional beliefs about God, Jesus, and the biblical narrative. For example, Lewis describes her storybook’s presentation of Jesus’ resurrection: “Did that happen? For me, it matters more that children know that love never dies, so that’s where I landed.”

Rev. Lewis’s bio on her church’s website describes her congregation as “a Christian universalist, multicultural, multiethnic rainbow coalition” that “understands what Jacqui preaches: Love liberates. Love. Period.”

This focus is not new, of course. Rob Bell generated controversy with his book a few years ago, Love Wins, in which he argues for a universalist theology that rejects the existence of hell. When people debate same-sex relationships and marriage, an LGBTQ advocate will inevitably proclaim the mantra “love is love,” as though this wins the argument and ends the discussion.

But does it?

Love is a verb

Yesterday we focused on the power of love to change the world. But not just any love from any source expressed in any way: God’s love manifested by God’s Spirit when we make God’s Son our Lord.

Let’s think about this for a moment.

A philosopher would say that love has no ontological status, meaning that it has no independent existence. We say that we “feel love” for someone, but we do not feel love unless it is for someone. Try this yourself: attempt to “feel love” right now in the abstract, apart from a particular object of that love.

Similarly, we say we “act in love,” but we cannot do so unless our action is directed at someone. Try to “act in love” right now in the abstract, apart from a particular object.

As Stephen Covey observed, love is a verb rather than a noun. So if someone says that “love liberates” or “love wins” or “love is love,” we need to know more. Who is the one loving? Who is the one being loved? What is the nature of this love?

Consider:

• David’s love affair with Bathsheba led to deceit and murder (2 Samuel 11).
• Solomon’s love for “many foreign women” turned him to idolatry and led to the division of his kingdom (1 Kings 11).
• German boys and girls who joined the Hitler Youth swore “always to do my duty with love and loyalty, for the Führer and our flag” (my emphasis)

• The ACLU is backing a drive to challenge bigamy laws, part of a larger move to normalize and legalize polyamorous and polygamous “love.”
• Wikipedia lists a large number of pedophile groups advocating for sexual “love” between adults and children.

“The gospel is bad news before it is good news”

Our problem with love is its source: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). Jesus described our “heart condition” this way: “from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21–22).

As a result, we need a spiritual heart transplant. We need the “new heart” only God can give us (Ezekiel 36:26) when we are “born again” as his children through faith in his Son (John 1:12; 3:3). Frederick Buechner said of this reality:

The gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy.

According to Tim Keller, “The gospel is this: we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”

Here’s the catch: We must experience the risen Lord Jesus personally to experience the transformation he can make in our lives. He alone can forgive our sins, save our souls, transform our character, and manifest himself in and through us.

“Love wins” when it is his love.

God’s word assures us: “The Lᴏʀᴅ your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs” (Zephaniah 3:17 NLT). Commenting on this promise, First15, our devotional ministry, quotes Brennan Manning:

“My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.”

Will you make his “awareness” yours today?

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

• What is cultural apologetics and why is it critical for today’s culture?
• Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back!
• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech
• Ask Jim: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What happens when we die? Does demon possession still happen today?
• What does the Bible say about pornography? Can you break free from sexual temptation?

Denison Forum

The Louvre museum in Paris was closed again yesterday after four thieves broke into a gallery containing the French Crown Jewels on Sunday morning, stealing eight pieces of Napoleonic jewelry. Disguised as museum workers, they rode a truck-mounted basket lift up the famed museum’s exterior and forcibly entered through a window thirty minutes after the Louve had opened for the day. After smashing display cases, they fled the scene on motorbikes.

One of the stolen pieces was an emerald necklace containing 1,138 diamonds gifted by Napoleon to his second wife. According to art detective Arthur Brand, the authorities have a week before the thieves will likely melt the silver and gold down and dismantle the diamonds, causing the priceless items to “disappear forever.”

So far, no suspects have been identified publicly. A manhunt for them is continuing at this writing.

I remember standing in line some years ago to see the British crown jewels at the Tower of London. I finally made it into the Jewel House and onto a moving walkway that carried me past St. Edward’s Crown (worn when the monarch is crowned), the Imperial State Crown (worn by the monarch at the end of the coronation), and a variety of other regalia. I was permitted only a momentary look at them through bombproof glass while surrounded by armed guards.

I have never felt more like a commoner and less like royalty.

If life has you feeling the same way today, I have some very good news.

“That all men are created equal”

In John 11, Lazarus’s sisters sent word to him regarding their sick brother: “Lord, he whom you love is ill” (v. 3). But as John makes clear, “Jesus loved Martha and her sister” as well (v. 5).

Here’s what’s amazing: he loves you and me as much as he loved them, because God “is” love (1 John 4:8). In fact, as St. Augustine noted, he loves each of us as if there were only one of us.

This astounding fact underlies our nation’s democratic republic. As we noted yesterday, historian Elaine Pagels has shown that the founders’ belief that “all men are created equal” was virtually unprecedented in human history. Their belief in human equality drove their Declaration of Independence and its commitment to build a nation that would secure our “inalienable rights” to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Here’s the problem: the equality of humans is, in the Declaration’s view, a “self-evident” right. And what is evident to you may not be evident to me.

If the “pursuit of happiness” means that a mother chooses an elective abortion, what about the “life” of the unborn child? If someone transitions their gender, marries someone of the same sex, or seeks euthanasia, what about the religious “liberty” of those who disagree?

How are we to manage, much less “secure,” our equality when our post-truth culture no longer embraces the consensual morality presumed by the Founders?

“That they are endowed by their Creator”

The right way to interpret the fact that we are “equal” is to focus on the word in the Declaration preceding it: “created.” Not by evolutionary chance or chaotic coincidence: as Thomas Jefferson wrote, we are “created” by our “Creator.” Note the present tense: he wrote not that we “were created” (at the beginning of history) but we “are created” still today.

What does the Creator say about his creation?

• He creates us male and female (Genesis 1:27).
• He creates us to need a “helper” of the opposite sex with whom we are to be married in a lifelong covenant (Genesis 2:18, 24; Matthew 19:4–6).
• He creates us at the moment of our conception (Psalm 139:13–16), endowing us with the sanctity of life until natural death (Job 14:5).

As Jefferson added, we are created with “inalienable” rights to:

• “Life,” which God intends to be physical, relational, spiritual, and eternal (cf. Luke 2:52; John 10:10).
• “Liberty,” which God intends to include freedom from sin and death through salvation in Christ (Galatians 5:1; John 8:36).
• “And the pursuit of happiness,” which God intends to lead to the blessedness that transcends circumstances (Jeremiah 17:7; Luke 11:28).

All of this is what we were designed and intended by God to experience. But none of it is possible apart from the transforming work of Christ in our hearts and lives.

Why is this?

“This is the summit of pure love”

The good news is also the bad news: part of being created in God’s image is being endowed with the freedom our democratic republic is intended to defend.

Rejecting our racial equality led to four million enslaved people in the US, around 700,000 deaths in the Civil War, and the plague of systemic racism today. Rejecting our equality at conception has led to more than sixty-three million deaths in the womb. Rejecting our equality in governance has led to nearly two billion people oppressed under Communism.

But when Jesus is our Lord, his Spirit manifests the “fruit” of his unconditional love in our hearts and we love all people as he loves us (Galatians 5:22). Such love turned the early church into the mightiest spiritual movement the world had ever seen, breaking down barriers of race, gender, culture, and religion (cf. Acts 10:34). Such love so impressed the pagans that, according to the second-century apologist Tertullian, they marveled: “See how they love one another.”

Such love “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6) then, and does so still today.

To this end, let’s consider an observation from St. Paul of the Cross, the Italian preacher and theologian who died 250 years ago last Sunday. I invite you to read his reflection slowly:

Love is a unifying virtue which takes upon itself the torments of its beloved Lord. It is a fire reaching through to the inmost soul. It transforms the lover into the one loved. More deeply, love intermingles with grief, and grief with love, and a certain blending of love and grief occurs. They become so united that we can no longer distinguish love from grief nor grief from love. Thus the loving heart rejoices in its sorrow and exults in its grieving love.

Therefore, be constant in practicing every virtue, and especially in imitating the patience of our dear Jesus, for this is the summit of pure love.

The finale of the marvelous musical Les Misérables claims, “To love another person is to see the face of God.” The Italian St. Paul would amend this famous line to say,

To love another person is to show the face of God.

Who will see your Father’s face in yours today?

Quote for the day:

“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.” —St. Clare of Assisi

Our latest website resources:

• Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back!
• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech
• Ask Jim: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What happens when we die? Does demon possession still happen today?
• What does the Bible say about pornography? Can you break free from sexual temptation?
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour

Denison Forum

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

When Winston Churchill made this statement in 1947, he had led England to victory in World War II as its prime minister, lost his bid for reelection in a landslide, and returned to Parliament as one of its 640 members. He had experienced personally the vagaries of democracy.

If he were writing today’s article, he might make the same observation (though far more eloquently than I can). Consider:

• “No Kings” rallies held across the country over the weekend gave the “anti-Trump movement its biggest moment so far,” according to The Hill. Participants warned that the president threatens democracy; some Republicans blame the demonstrations for prolonging the US government shutdown.
• The shutdown is now the third-longest in history, with no apparent end in sight.
• France has seen five (or six, depending on how you count) prime ministers in the last two years.
• The UK has been led by six prime ministers in the last ten years.
• After Hamas and Fatah took control of Gaza and the West Bank, respectively, following the 2006 elections, there have been no more Palestinian elections.
• The US and other countries believe Nicolás Maduro lost the election in Venezuela last year, but the official electoral commission aligned with his government declared him the winner, and he remains in office.

The “sacred inheritance of every human being”

My thoughts today are motivated by the historian Elaine Pagels’s fascinating recent essay in The Atlantic. She notes that democracy was unknown to humanity for thousands of years: ancient empires were ruled by emperors; Hindu societies enshrined the ruler as one who embodied the divine order of the gods; Greek philosophers argued that rulers were innately different and thus capable of ruling others.

By contrast, America’s founders believed that “all men are created equal,” an assertion that formed the foundation for the democratic republic they built.

I have witnessed personally the alternatives in Cuba, China, and Russia. My father and grandfather fought in world wars to defend our democracy. Today, millions of women and men are defending our freedom in military posts around the world and deserve our undying gratitude.

But as the news demonstrates daily, the key to the success of a democracy lies not with its system but with the people it serves and those they elect to serve them. Thomas Jefferson observed, “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” This is because living in a democracy doesn’t change people—people change democracy.

Some of the godliest people I have ever known live in the oppression of autocracies in Cuba and China. I have witnessed personally the courage of Russian evangelicals who meet for worship despite the opposition of their government. Conversely, the ongoing clergy crisis in America shows that our democracy cannot ensure the character even of religious leaders, much less irreligious ones.

Elaine Pagels observes that our “inalienable” human rights are the “sacred inheritance of every human being, grounded in a transcendent reality.” But these rights must be grounded in that reality if they are to prevail.

How to “rejoice and be glad” today

Psalm 118 is one of the most remarkable songs of worship in Scripture. It was sung at the Feast of Tabernacles and at Passover. The crowds recited it when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (v. 26; Matthew 21:9); it will be sung again at his second coming (Matthew 23:39).

The psalmist declares, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is on my side; I will not fear,” and then asks, “What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6). If you had Secret Service protection, would you fear a street mugging?

He then makes my point today: “It is better to take refuge in the Lᴏʀᴅ than to trust in man” (v. 8). “Man” translates the Hebrew adam, referring here to “mankind.” This encompasses every human being, including ourselves.

Solomon warned us: “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26). James explained why: “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14), which leads to sin and eventual death (v. 15).

By contrast, the psalmist testifies, “The Lᴏʀᴅ is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (Psalm 118:14). He could therefore declare, “This is the day that the Lᴏʀᴅ has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (v. 24). If we see today as a gift we have received rather than a possession we deserve, we will use it to love and serve our Father and our neighbor (Mark 12:30–31).

“All earthly cities are vulnerable”

The future of America’s democracy depends on the character of America’s people. However, only Jesus can transform our fallen nature into the divine likeness for which we are designed and intended (Genesis 1:27). Only he can impart to us his holiness (cf. 1 Peter 1:16).

Think of a democracy composed of Christlike citizens and leaders. Imagine the good it could do for its people and the world.

Our part is to “take refuge in the Lᴏʀᴅ” (Psalm 118:8). A refuge only helps those who stay within its shelter. The Spirit can sanctify only those who stay connected to him in worship, prayer, and obedience.

This is why we are commanded to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Not to live with our eyes closed and our hands folded, but to consciously practice the presence of Jesus through the day: to talk with him along the way, to listen to his Spirit as he guides us, to experience his power as he strengthens us, to seek and receive his pardon as he forgives our failures, to manifest the first glimmers of that miraculous day when “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

When Rome was sacked in AD 410, St. Augustine told his flock,

All earthly cities are vulnerable. Men build them and men destroy them. At the same time there is the City of God which men did not build and cannot destroy and which is everlasting.

Which “city” will you serve today?

Quote for the day:

“One prominent spiritual leader insists, ‘The only way to have genuine spiritual revival is to have legislative reform.’ Could he have that backwards?” —Philip Yancey

Our latest website resources:

• Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back!
• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech
• Ask Jim: Should Christians celebrate Halloween? What happens when we die? Does demon possession still happen today?
• What does the Bible say about pornography? Can you break free from sexual temptation?
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour

Denison Forum

The path to hope for a better future

What do these stories have in common?

• Last week, China imposed restrictions on the export of rare-earth minerals vital to consumer electronics and the technology industry. President Trump responded by threatening additional 100 percent tariffs on China starting November 1.
• Al Qaeda is on the rise in nuclear-armed Pakistan, part of a growing terrorism hub that it is organizing in South and Central Asia.
• Hamas is pursuing what the New York Times calls a “bloody crackdown” on its rivals in Gaza as it seeks to assert its dominance in the territory.
• Russia is intensifying its strikes on Ukraine’s trains in a “battle for the railways.”
• Sarah Mullally was recently appointed as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican Church’s history.

The answer: each is acting morally as they define morality.

• Xi Jinping and Donald Trump both want their country to be the global leader in high-tech and manufacturing and are acting in their nation’s perceived self-interest.
• Al Qaeda sees itself as the true vanguard of Islamist insurgents and seeks to unite foreign fighters into a global movement.
• According to the Palestinian political analyst John Aziz, Hamas views the cease-fire in Gaza as hudna, “a temporary truce with non-Muslim adversaries that can be discarded as soon as the balance of power shifts.”
• Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, chief executive of Ukraine’s national rail operator, explains Russia’s recent attacks as “part of a war tactic meant to cause panic among civilians, destroy our economy, and make the country unlivable.” This, in Vladimir Putin’s mind, would hasten Ukraine’s capitulation and thus “secure” Mother Russia from European and Western aggression.
• Sarah Mullally’s appointment not only endorses women; she led the Anglican Church’s move two years ago to bless same-sex couples, a position her ascension endorses as well.

I often quote my friend John Stonestreet’s maxim: Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. But when “bad” by definition is what the other side believes and “good” is what I believe, when there is no north on the compass because no one believes in compasses, where is there hope for a better future?

“On the soul thick midnight lies”

The British hymnwriter Francis Turner Palgrave spoke for our confused culture:

Whilst Thy will we would pursue
Oft what we would we cannot do.
The sun may stand in zenith skies
But on the soul thick midnight lies.

Where, then, is our hope? He continued:

O Lord of lights, tis Thou alone
Canst make our darkened hearts Thine own.

When we make Christ our Lord and choose to live by his word and will, we not only understand the truth—we experience “the Truth” (John 14:6). God’s Spirit dwells in us and will “guide [us] into all the truth” (John 16:13, my emphasis).

This is one of the many ways Christianity is unlike the various world religions. Buddhists do not believe Buddha lives within them, nor do Muslims believe Allah indwells their bodies. But Christians know that the Spirit of the living God lives in us as his temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). When we yield to his direction, he uses God’s word to transform our minds and empower our obedience (Romans 12:1–2).

We then become the change we need to see as others are drawn to the truth we live.

St. Augustine noted, “Offer a handful of grass to a sheep and you draw it after you. Show a boy nuts and he is enticed.” He then asked,

What does the mind desire more eagerly than truth? For what does it have an insatiable appetite, why is it anxious that its taste for judging the truth should be as healthy as possible, unless it is that it may eat and drink wisdom, righteousness, truth, and eternal life?

The closer we are to Jesus, the more we manifest his character as his Father answers his Son’s prayer for us: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). Then, like Jesus, we will “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). And we will pay any price to proclaim, defend, and obey that truth in a broken world deceived by the enemy (1 Peter 3:15–16; 2 Corinthians 4:4).

“Your job is not to be successful”

St. Ignatius of Antioch was a disciple of the Apostle John. According to early tradition, it was the Apostle Peter who appointed Ignatius bishop of Antioch, the “home church” of the Apostle Paul (cf. Acts 13:1–4). In AD 107, the Roman Emperor Trajan forced Christians in Antioch to choose death or apostasy; Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to die.

Along his journey to Rome and martyrdom, he wrote seven letters to his fellow Christians urging them to stay faithful to their Lord. One of them was to the church at Rome, where he asked them not to intervene on his behalf:

The time for my birth is close at hand. Forgive me, my brothers. Do not stand in the way of my birth to real life; do not wish me stillborn. My desire is to belong to God. Do not, then, hand me back to the world. Do not try to tempt me with material things. Let me attain pure light. Only on my arrival there can I be fully a human being.

And so it was. On this day, according to tradition, he was thrown into the arena and devoured by two fierce lions. And his faith became sight (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:7).

You and I are likely not called to sacrifice our lives for our Lord today. But we are called to obey him sacrificially and unconditionally. So know this: all that he asks, he empowers. As my hometown pastor taught me, God’s will never leads where his grace cannot sustain.

To this end, let’s close with this hopeful reminder from Br. David Vryhof of the Society of St. John the Evangelist in Boston:

Whatever this season of life is bringing you, whatever challenges it puts before you, whatever God is asking of you now—God is with you. God’s power is available to you; God has promised to do God’s work in and through you. Keep in mind that the work is God’s. Your job is not to be successful, but to be faithful.

Will you do your “job” today?

Quote for the day:

“Obedience to God’s will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to do God’s will that brings certainty.” —Eric Liddell

Our latest website resources:

• Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back!
• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech
• A book review of Jefferson Fisher’s “The Next Conversation”: Say it to connect, not win the argument
• Worship, anxiety, and identity with Landon Wolfe of Passion City Church and the voice behind “The Lord Will Provide”
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour

Denison Forum

When our solutions make the problem worse

When Secretary of War—or Defense—Pete Hegseth announced last Friday that the US would allow Qatar to build an air force facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, the response was far from positive. The thought of a foreign nation—particularly one that has not been a reliable ally for very long—building a base on American soil sounded like an unprecedented leap from how America usually operates.

And, were that description accurate, it would be. Fortunately, that’s not what’s happening.

Hegseth later clarified that “Qatar will not have their own base in the United States—nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners.”

As Will Kaback described, “Further details make the news seem a lot less alarming than a 150-character push notification might imply. . . . This arrangement is not unprecedented. It’s not common, but it certainly is far from unique.”

So, what’s actually going on?

The US sold Qatar a contingent of F-15 fighter jets in 2016, and allowing their pilots to train in the continental US was a condition of the purchase. Qatar—which is smaller than the state of Connecticut—does not have the space to adequately train with the jets in its territory, and the topography around the Mountain Home base is the closest fit to what they have back home.

As such, training there made the most sense, and they were approved to work out of that location in 2022. And while in Idaho, they’ll be training alongside pilots from America, Singapore, and other allies.

The agreement is set to last through at least 2034, though it could be extended further if needed. That puts the Qatari presence at Mountain Home on the same timeline as America’s troops in Qatar after the US renewed its agreement to occupy Al Udeid Air Base for another ten years last January.

Why headlines are dangerous

Ultimately, the announcement about a Qatari presence on American soil is far from the “betrayal” and “abomination” that far-right activist Laura Loomer and others initially described. But that is due more to how it was portrayed in the headlines than because of what Hegseth or the content of the actual articles presented. Still, the headlines were enough to stoke anger and confusion among many, and that points to a much larger problem.

As Micah and Conner discussed earlier this year in the Culture Brief, media bias has been a problem for quite some time, and the companies that deliver news often find greater profits in pandering to a particular audience than by trying to be objective. There are signs that this trend may be shifting, but we’re not there yet.

To make matters worse, most people who get their news from social media never read beyond the headlines, with as many as 75 percent of those who share posts doing so without ever clicking through to the article. So, when CNN and others use misleading headlines to generate interest in stories like the one above, the ensuing narrative can be challenging to correct.

And it would appear that Hegseth and the Pentagon are tired of trying to do just that.

“A stranglehold on the free press”

Last month, Hegseth announced that any journalist who wants to maintain access to the Pentagon must sign a statement acknowledging that Defense Department “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” Moreover, such information will be provided “when there is a lawful governmental purpose for doing so,” and anyone who attempts to attain information by talking directly with Pentagon employees will be in violation of the new rules.

The policy also warns that service members could be prosecuted for releasing “non-public information” to journalists and reporters. Consequently, were the media to ask for such information, they could be credibly accused of “soliciting DOW (Department of War) service members and civilians to commit crimes.”

So, while the new policy does not explicitly threaten the media for reporting information that the Pentagon deems unapproved, the implied consequences of crossing that line are dire. As Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley warned, “What they’re basically saying is if you publish anything that’s not in the press release, is not the official statement of the Pentagon, you could be held responsible. . . . That is going to create a stranglehold on the free press. And the cost is too great.”

As such, more than thirty news organizations, ranging from CNN and the New York Times to Fox News and Newsmax, have declined to sign the agreement. And when the deadline passed yesterday afternoon, dozens of reporters turned in their press badges and left in defiance of the new rules.

It’s unclear how long the Pentagon will maintain this policy or whether media members who refuse to sign it can still perform their jobs without direct access. However, if Hegseth is truly attempting to address the well-earned lack of trust in the media’s reporting, forcing them to choose between the government’s official narrative and sources they cannot adequately verify seems like a pretty awful solution that will only make the problem worse.

Unfortunately, that tendency to cling to answers that only exacerbate the issues is hardly limited to the Department of War.

The only solution to sin

Our ability to identify a problem matters little if our solution makes it worse. Yet, far too often, we get so wrapped up in finding an answer that we never stop to evaluate whether we’re addressing the real issue until it’s too late. And while we can make that mistake in any area of our lives, one of the most common is in our approach to sin.

Recognizing where we fall short of God’s standard is usually pretty simple. A little self-awareness goes a long way in discerning where we’re most vulnerable to temptation. However, it can be easy to fixate on the symptoms of our sin rather than the root cause, with the result that those roots become even more deeply embedded in our lives.

Jesus spoke to this tendency in the Sermon on the Mount, when he repeatedly focused on the motivations behind our sins as much or more than the actions themselves (Matthew 5:21–48). And his solution echoes what we find in Psalm 51, where David cries out, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

As long as our solutions to the sins in our lives focus on what we can do rather than on who God wants us to become, odds are good that those sins will only grow into even bigger problems. We may go through periods where it seems like the issue is solved, but the temptation is likely to return in force unless we partner with the Holy Spirit to truly repent and address the reasons why that temptation held such sway in the first place.

So, where does the Holy Spirit need to get to work in your life? Are there any sins that just keep coming back, no matter how hard you try to solve them?

We are blessed to serve a God who knows our hearts and minds well enough to identify the real source of our sins. But he’s not going to fix them for us unless we humbly submit to partner with him in that effort.

Are you willing to take that step today?

Quote of the day:

“You cannot make men good by law; and without good men you cannot have a good society.” —C. S. Lewis

Our latest website resources:

• Hostages come home, Super Bowl halftime debate, Nobel Peace Prize, MLB playoffs & NBA and NHL are back! |CB Ep. 41
• Why didn’t God free the hostages two years ago?
• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech
• When you don’t want to read your Bible
• Focus on the “i” in the middle

Denison Forum

We are starting to hear horrific stories about what the hostages in Gaza endured over their two years of captivity. Some were so deprived of food that they now have to be taught how to eat normally again. Just reading Eli Sharabi’s book about his ordeal was painful for me. I cannot imagine what they are going through today.

Their suffering raises the question: Do you believe God could have liberated the hostages two years ago?

Why, then, didn’t he?

In her New York Times newsletter “Believing,” Lauren Jackson quotes the Rev. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Christian based in the West Bank: “The war has made so many people question God—his absence, his silence.”

They are not alone.

If you’re praying for much at all

Hamas expected its October 7 invasion of Israel to spark a “ring of fire” assault from its jihadist partners surrounding Israel that would destroy the Jewish state. Instead, Israel took out the leadership of Hezbollah and Hamas; Israel and the US decimated Iran’s nuclear infrastructure; an uprising toppled Iran’s puppet regime in Syria. Pressure from other Arab states and Muslim nations finally forced Hamas’s hand, leading to the celebrations we have seen in Israel as their last living hostages finally came home.

But if you believe that God “rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:28) and “does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3), you do not believe he needed any of this to happen to intervene miraculously. He sent plagues and used the Red Sea to destroy Egypt, the superpower of its day. His angel struck down the army of the Assyrians, the superpower of its day (2 Kings 19:35).

As surely as he acted to release Peter from Herod’s prison in Jerusalem (Acts 12:1–11), he could have acted to release the hostages from Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza two years ago.

Why didn’t he?

Now apply our question to any yet-unanswered prayer in your life. Perhaps you’ve been praying for a lost person to come to Christ, or for a wayward child to come home, or for a physical, financial, emotional, or relational need to be met. Perhaps you’ve been praying for spiritual awakening in our land and a turn to biblical morality.

If you’re praying for much at all, you are most likely praying for something that has not yet come to pass.

If you asked me for something I could do but don’t, eventually you’d stop asking. Why keep praying to God?

Two hopeful approaches to suffering

Like the hostages in Gaza, Joseph was kidnapped from his homeland and taken captive to a foreign land, where he was imprisoned through no fault of his own. There he interpreted the dream of the Egyptian pharaoh’s chief cupbearer, but when his interpretation was fulfilled and the man was restored to his position, he “forgot” Joseph (Genesis 40:22).

Again like the hostages in Gaza, “two whole years” passed with Joseph imprisoned (Genesis 41:1). We’re not told why God waited so long to free him, but we can connect his story to two theological approaches to evil and suffering that remain helpful and hopeful today.

One: God uses suffering to grow us spiritually

According to a Jerusalem Post study, a third of Israelis say they hold a stronger belief in God since October 7. This is not unusual.

The second-century apologist St. Irenaeus proposed the “soul building” model whereby God uses suffering to catalyze spiritual growth in our lives. We see this in Joseph: while he bragged about his dreams of personal glory years earlier (Genesis 37:5–11), now he honored God with his interpretive answers (Genesis 41:16).

You can perhaps point to times in your life when suffering led you to depend upon God more fully than before. As Charles Spurgeon testified, “I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.”

Two: God works in the present for a better future

Many of us are praying for the hostage release to lead to genuine peace for Palestinians and Israelis. Perhaps the timing of the former will help advance the latter.

In Joseph’s world, God had a plan to bring seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. He used Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams to reveal this plan, then he used Pharaoh to elevate him to prime minister so he could prepare the nation. He did all this to draw Joseph’s own family to Egypt, where they were reunited and eventually became the nation through whom the Messiah would come one day.

I have personally seen God’s mysterious timing at work over the years. For example, a man I knew was praying for a new job, apparently without answers. But he didn’t know that a person would soon retire from the home office, leading to a promotion from the local office, leading to an opening that my friend would fill.

The fact that he could not see God at work made his work no less real. To paraphrase Spurgeon again: When you cannot see your Father’s hand, trust his heart.

Translating the Bible with one finger

If you are experiencing the silence of God today, you may feel like Joseph imprisoned in Egypt. But Joseph was eventually able to tell the brothers who sold him into captivity, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

One day, perhaps in eternity but perhaps far sooner, you will be able to say the same. In the meantime:

• Would you turn your obstacles into opportunities to trust more fully in your Father?

• Would you ask him to work in ways you cannot see to accomplish his greater purposes in your life and world?

• Would you believe that he redeems all he allows and trust your pain to his providence?

Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky died on this day in 1906 at the age of seventy-five. Born in Lithuania in 1831, he went to Germany to study for the rabbinate, where he became a Christian. He emigrated to America, trained for the priesthood, and was sent by the Episcopal Church to China. There, he translated the Bible into Mandarin, was elected bishop of Shanghai, founded St. John’s University, and began translating the Bible into Wenli, another Chinese dialect.

However, he developed Parkinson’s disease and became largely paralyzed. Resigning his bishopric, he spent the rest of his life completing his Wenli Bible, typing the last two thousand pages with the one finger that he could still move.

Four years before his death, he said:

“I have sat in this chair for over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted.”

What “chair” would you trust God to redeem in your life today?

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

• Understanding the AI Bible, assisted suicide, congressional term limits & free speech

• Ex-FBI director James Comey pleads not guilty
• A book review of Jefferson Fisher’s “The Next Conversation”: Say it to connect, not win the argument
• Worship, anxiety, and identity with Landon Wolfe of Passion City Church and the voice behind “The Lord Will Provide”
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour

Denison Forum

Charlie Kirk would have turned thirty-two years old today. Instead, his life and death will be remembered this evening when President Trump posthumously awards him the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Charlie’s widow, Erika, will join the president for the ceremony in the East Room of the White House.

As I heard a commentator say, Charlie died for what he believed in, but he is being honored for what he did. And God continues to work in response to his tragic death in remarkable ways. For example, the former Navy SEAL and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr said that Charlie’s assassination is prompting him and his family to return to church and to “make some changes” in their lives.

However, despite tonight’s honor and remarkable spiritual responses to Charlie’s death, the fact remains that his wife is a widow raising their children without their father. And the world will miss all Charlie could have done in the decades he should have lived.

In other news, Israelis continue to rejoice in the return of their hostages. More than five hundred thousand Palestinians have returned to Gaza City, and aid to Gaza is significantly increasing.

However, challenges remain. Hamas is reportedly attempting to reassert control in Gaza and punishing those it suspects of collaborating with Israel. Its jihadist ideology remains prevalent in the region. And geopolitical expert Richard Haass warns: “Hamas has not accepted that it must disarm, and even if it did, there is no way to monitor or verify the handing over . . . of its weapons.” He adds that “Hamas can be denied a formal role in Palestinian governance, but it will still have influence, possibly more than any other actor.”

Truth and a Persian legend

In his address to the Knesset yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quoted from the book of Ecclesiastes.

This is because Monday was the seventh day of Sukkot, the Jewish festival known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths (Leviticus 23:42–43), during which it is traditional to read the book. Mr. Netanyahu quoted from the famous third chapter: “A time for war, and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:8).

However, the latter cannot come unless both sides refuse the former.

In the epigraph to his latest book, The Future of Truth, acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog tells what he calls a “Persian legend”:

God had a great mirror, and when God looked in the mirror, he saw the truth. One day God dropped the mirror, and the mirror shattered into a thousand pieces. Men fought to secure a piece of the mirror for themselves. They all looked into their own shards, saw themselves, and thought they saw the truth.

Asaph the psalmist did the same. After complaining that the “wicked” around him are “always at ease” and “increase in riches” (Psalm 73:12), he commented on what he saw in his own “mirror”: “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken” (vv. 13–14).

I would imagine that Erika Kirk can resonate with Asaph’s “reflection.” As can the hostages and their loved ones, and especially those grieving those they lost on October 7 and because of October 7. As can you and I whenever we face challenges and trials that are not our fault.

“My flesh and my heart may fail”

However, for those who trust in God, the bad news is never the last news.

In Asaph’s case, he reports, “When I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end” (vv. 16–17). There he saw that God “set them in slippery places” and will “make them fall to ruin” (v. 18) so that “they are destroyed in a moment” (v. 19).

By contrast, Asaph prays,

I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (vv. 23–26).

God’s omnipotence and omnibenevolence had not changed, but Asaph “went into the sanctuary of God,” where he shifted his soul’s “mirror” from himself to his Lord. Then he saw the reality that was there all along.

This is why we need to trust God most on those days when we want to trust him least.

The Bible is not true because it works—it works (in God’s providence) because it is true. If God is the God of the Bible, he is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived” (quoting St. Anselm). This means that, by definition, his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). If we could understand him, either we would be God or he would not be.

Consequently, the days when our pain and suffering seem to demand that we reject a supposedly all-loving, all-powerful God are the very days we need his love and power the most. The sicker the patient, the more essential the physician.

“Faith is to believe what you do not see”

So, let me invite you to take your “mirror” into “the sanctuary of God” in your heart and point it at your Father. Remember your personal encounters with the grace you see reflected there—the sins he has forgiven, the needs he has met, the prayers he has answered, the salvation he has purchased for your eternal soul.

Then decide to emulate the courage for which Charlie Kirk wanted to be remembered, the courage Eli Sharabi and the other hostages displayed through their ordeal. Decide to use your obstacles as opportunities for faith that shows a skeptical world the reality and relevance of your Lord.

The greater our need for courage, the greater the need our courage will meet.

Let us remember,

“Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe” (St. Augustine).

Will you believe in the One you do not see today?

Quote for the day:

“Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time.” —Oswald Chambers

Our latest website resources:

• Ex-FBI director James Comey pleads not guilty
• A book review of Jefferson Fisher’s “The Next Conversation”: Say it to connect, not win the argument
• What does the Bible say about tattoos?
• Worship, anxiety, and identity with Landon Wolfe of Passion City Church and the voice behind “The Lord Will Provide”
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour

Denison Forum

When Congress passed a bill last year requiring TikTok to either sell its American user base or shut down the app, no one really knew how ByteDance—TikTok’s parent company—would respond. At issue was a bipartisan fear that the Chinese government could (and would) force ByteDance to surrender data on Americans as they did during Hong Kong’s 2018 pro-democracy protests.

Fast forward roughly eighteen months—a year longer than the Congressional bill allowed—and it appears as though the saga is now coming to an end.

Oracle, Fox Corp, and several other investors have agreed to buy the company for an estimated $14 billion, and TikTok is expected to come under American control as soon as the details are finalized. However, given that all of this occurred several weeks ago, you might wonder why I’m bringing it up this morning.

The reason is that an alarming number of leaders in our government have gone from fearing TikTok to embracing the app since the sale was announced. Senators Adam Schiff and John Hickenlooper both started accounts in recent days, while President Trump and Vice President JD Vance both joined even earlier. Hickenlooper pointed specifically to the sale of the app as his reason for confidence that it was now safe to use.

The problem, though, is that nothing has actually changed. Although the deal has been agreed upon, both the algorithm and the data are still managed by ByteDance and are subject to potential manipulation by the Chinese government. Moreover, the official policy of the American government still bans the use of the app on any government device.

While the officials who have joined TikTok since the sale was announced have all done so on private devices, the basic concerns that led an overwhelming majority of them to ban the app last year have not been addressed.

And the biggest concern of all isn’t going anywhere, even after the app is in—presumably—more trusted hands.

Why TikTok is so addictive

The primary reason TikTok set off alarms in Congress and prompted multiple companies to clamor for the chance to pay billions of dollars for its rights is the algorithm that keeps people glued to the app for hours on end. Previous versions of the deal all failed because ByteDance and the Chinese government were hesitant to turn control of that algorithm over to American buyers. And while they are not selling the code outright, they are leasing it to Oracle and others.

TikTok’s internal documents state that the algorithm gets people hooked in as little as 35 minutes, with an average increase of 40 percent more time spent on the app after only the first week. After a month, even the least active users averaged just under an hour a day of scrolling, while their “power users” were watching more than four times that amount.

The pull is particularly strong for Gen Z and other young people, where 63 percent of teens ages 13 to 17 use TikTok. Moreover, 50 percent say they are on the app at least several times a day. However, some among their number are trying to change that fact, and there’s an important lesson in their efforts for each of us today.

Take responsibility for your life

The organization Time to Refuse is intent on helping Gen Z break free from social media addiction. And while Gen Z encompasses everyone born between 1996 and 2012, the organization’s focus is primarily on those in their 20s.

As Freya India described:

There are countless teachers, organizations, and advocates trying to help Generation Z and Generation Alpha escape from the addictive trap of smartphones and social media. They are fighting against fearful overprotection, pushing to get phones out of schools, and urging parents to delay social media access until at least age 16. They are on a mission to save childhood. But what about those of us who already lost ours?

She goes on to describe how many young people in their 20s today were “overprotected in the real world and abandoned online.” As the parent of two kids who reside just outside of that generation, finding a better balance than the one she describes is among my highest priorities.

But, at the end of the day, there’s only so much I can do to protect them. And, really, that’s what stood out the most from Time to Refuse’s approach. Rather than blame parents, teachers, and adults for allowing access to Facebook, TikTok, and a host of other apps, they’re calling young people to take responsibility for their lives and make the necessary changes.

To that end, they’re hosting an event in New York City this evening, with partners throughout the country joining as well, in which they’re encouraging people to delete one social media account as the first step toward greater independence. However, they’re clear that, for many, it’s just the first step:

You can’t leave the digital world and call it a day. Take more time to do the things you should already be doing. Live more slowly. Take up analog activities and real self-care activities: exercising, calling your relatives, hanging out with friends, etc.

In short, your life isn’t actually going to improve unless you not only stop doing the things that are making it worse but take the added step of replacing them with things that will make it better. And that’s a lesson that applies to far more than social media.

Virtue or another vice?

The first message that Christ preached upon starting his public ministry was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). This call to repentance epitomizes the idea we’re talking about today.

You see, biblical repentance is more than just asking forgiveness when you mess up or promising to do better in the future. The Greek word metanoia carries with it a concept of change that requires not only leaving behind the things you’ve done wrong but also choosing to replace them with something different.

Now, that something doesn’t have to be better, and far too often we end up replacing one sin with another. But if our eyes remain fixed on Jesus and our repentance leads us to pursue his righteousness (Matthew 5:6), then it becomes far easier to choose virtue over another vice.

So, where do you need to make that choice today? Are there any areas of your life where you just keep stumbling?

We all have certain sins in our lives that we are particularly prone to commit. In such instances, learning to rely on the help of other believers and, most of all, the Holy Spirit to pursue the righteousness of Christ is the only path to genuine freedom and joy.

Will you seek out that help today?

Quote of the day:

“Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace, and your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.” —Jerry Bridges

Our latest website resources:

• Ex-FBI director James Comey pleads not guilty
• Hamas accepts Trump’s peace plan, will return all hostages
• Worship, anxiety, and identity with Landon Wolfe of Passion City Church and the voice behind “The Lord Will Provide” | CB Ep. 40
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour
• Who is Sean Feucht?

Denison Forum

President Trump wrote yesterday evening on Truth Social:

I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed-upon line as the first step toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would meet today to approve the agreement and “bring all our dear hostages home.” Hamas similarly announced that it had reached “an agreement that ends the war in Gaza, provides for the withdrawal of the occupation, allows the entry of aid, and implements a prisoner exchange.”

If Israel’s ministers approve the deal, the IDF must withdraw from Gaza to the agreed line, which would likely happen within twenty-four hours. The seventy-two-hour clock would then begin where Hamas must release the living hostages, which would likely occur on Monday, though the return of the bodies of deceased hostages will take longer. Once the hostages are returned, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and 1,700 Palestinians who have been detained in Gaza during the conflict.

The hostages’ families released a statement: “Their return is a condition for the rehabilitation and revival of Israeli society as a whole. We will not rest or be quiet until the return of the last hostage. We will bring them back. We will rise.”

The memoir of a Hamas hostage

If you are wondering what life has been like for Israelis held captive by Hamas for two years, I strongly urge you to read Eli Sharabi’s new book, Hostage. He was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and spent 491 days in captivity. His memoir is deeply painful to read as he describes the brutal torture, horrifically inhumane conditions, and near starvation he and his fellow captives endured.

But through it all, Eli chose to be a survivor. He did not know if his wife and children were alive, so he determined to live for them. He chose not to let the terrorists take his will to live.

He writes that he and the hostages imprisoned in his tunnel with him were encouraged by a sentence one of them shared with the others: “He who has a why can bear any how” (his italics). Even when Eli was finally freed and learned that his brother, his wife, and his two daughters had been murdered by the terrorists, he chose to write his book to encourage support for the remaining hostages. His story became the fastest-selling book in Israeli history.

Eli’s courage is made all the more remarkable by the fact that it is unremarkable in his nation.

Last Tuesday, I wrote to my friends in Israel to express my sorrow and solidarity with them on the second anniversary of Hamas’s horrific terror attack against their people. One of them wrote back with this story:

An eighteen-year-old girl wanted to join the Israeli army, but her weight was too low. She failed. She tried again, this time by putting stones in her pocket. She made it. Unfortunately, she died on the 7^th of October.

“When one has one’s wherefore of life”

Friedrich Nietzsche is sometimes called the “father of postmodernism,” a movement that has led to the denial of absolute truth, which has come to dominate our culture. In Twilight of the Idols, the atheistic philosopher asked, “Is man only a mistake of God? Or God only a mistake of man?” Because he was convinced that “God is dead,” he was equally convinced that he had to find his own meaning and purpose in life.

Nietzsche therefore famously asserted, “What does not kill me, strengthens me.” And he made the statement Eli Sharabi’s fellow captives paraphrastically embraced: “When one has one’s wherefore of life, one gets along with almost every how” (Nietzsche’s italics).

Eli’s resolve to survive his horrific captivity illustrates this maxim, as does the eighteen-year-old Israeli soldier who died serving her country. Our confused and chaotic “post-truth” culture can learn much from their examples of purpose-driven courage.

As can all of us who call Jesus our Lord.

For Christians, our “wherefore of life” has been chosen for us. Jesus’ call was consistent across the Gospels: “Follow me” (cf. Matthew 4:19; 8:22; 9:9; 10:38; 16:24; Mark 10:21; John 1:43; 10:27; 12:26). Not “follow my teachings” or “follow my church,” but “follow me.” The word translated follow means to “live alongside and obey unconditionally.”

Jesus’ call is to live with him and for him, to know him intimately and then to make him known publicly. The more emphatically our post-Christian culture rejects this call, the more courageously you and I must embrace it.

Marking the birthday of Jim Elliot

Let’s close with an example.

Yesterday was the birthday of the famed missionary Jim Elliot. He and his wife Elisabeth followed God’s call to the Ecuadorian jungle, where he and four other missionaries were speared to death. After his martyrdom, his wife and their young daughter moved into the Auca/Waodani village to live among those who killed him and share the gospel with them.

This remarkable story was shared around the world, inspiring millions to serve God through missions.

Jim’s most famous words were written in his journal on October 28, 1949: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” He understood the essence of the gospel: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). He therefore embraced the same “wherefore of life” as the Apostle Paul: “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works in me” (v. 29).

His wife agreed. According to Elisabeth Elliot,

“The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.”

How courageously will you embrace and share this “secret” today?

Quote for the day:

“It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.” —A. A. Hodge

Our latest website resources:

• Worship, anxiety, and identity with Landon Wolfe of Passion City Church and the voice behind “The Lord Will Provide”
• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour
• Who is Sean Feucht? Why the worship leader and conservative activist is facing financial misuse allegations
• Embracing the wonder after Forrest Frank’s miraculous healing
• Government shutdown, peace in Gaza, UFO video, Tim Allen, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny & Ryder Cup Results

Denison Forum

Following yesterday’s tragic October 7 anniversary, let’s focus today on something more uplifting. Or at least very different.

I typically try to write on subjects about which I have at least some personal knowledge or expertise. Today, I’ll not do that—at least to begin. Instead, I want to reflect with you on the prolific output of Taylor Swift, who released her twelfth original studio album last week.

I am apparently unlike most of humanity in that I have heard only one of her songs one time (at my granddaughter’s urging), have never been to one of her concerts, and have never heard a podcast or seen a movie featuring her. The closest I have come to observing her in popular media has been those times when the TV cameras panned to her in the stands watching her now-fiancée Travis Kelce play tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs.

So, I’ll turn to an expert on the subject. Ari Perez is an associate professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, where she teaches a class called “Taylor Swift: Cultural Mirrorball.” She explains that Swift is so prolific because she genuinely likes what she does: “I think she enjoys keeping a strong, productive output so that putting music out on a continuous basis makes her happy and fulfilled.”

That was simple, wasn’t it? But there’s more to the story.

“Let them + let me”

Next, we’ll turn to another very popular media figure: Mel Robbins, the bestselling author and podcaster. Her latest book, The Let Them Theory, was the #1 selling book of 2025 and is on pace to have the best non-fiction book launch of all time. In reading it, I was impressed with the simplicity of its central formula:

Let them + let me.

“Let them” applies to people whose behavior bothers you. These two words are a way of admitting that we cannot control them and that they are going to do what they choose to do. “Let me” applies to us as we decide how we will respond proactively to what life brings us.

According to Robbins, allowing people to live their lives while taking control of our own is the key to flourishing. She complimented Taylor Swift for modeling this philosophy: “Let Them be wrong about you. Let Me get back to doing what I was put on this earth to do.”

So, how do we know what we were “put on this earth to do”? Ray Bradbury famously offered advice that aligns with the philosophies of Swift and Robbins: “Love what you do and do what you love.”

Here’s the catch: Doing what you love only leads to flourishing if what you love is worth doing.

When the police went on strike

In The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations, Nicholas Wade reports:

On the morning of October 7, 1969, the entire police force of Montreal went on strike. Within a few hours, gathering crowds started to loot stores. Gangs of masked men arrived to rob banks. Citizens huddled indoors as looters swept through downtown Montreal, smashing the windows of restaurants, stores, and hotels. By the end of the day some $500,000 worth of merchandise had been looted. Not until the arrival of army troops shortly after midnight were the violence and disorder brought to an end.

Paul would not have been surprised. He listed the “works of the flesh,” the things fallen humans naturally do: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Galatians 5:19–21). We can love doing them, but we see the brokenness they produce every day in the news.

Conversely, the apostle listed the “fruit of the Spirit,” the things Spirit-led humans naturally do: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (vv. 22–23). When we love doing them, our changed lives change the world.

The highest purpose in life

Yesterday morning, I spent time on my favorite bench beside my favorite lake just before the sun came up. The “Harvest Supermoon” was still iridescent in the predawn sky, though I could only see it in fragments through the trees that canopied overhead. However, its reflection on the lake before me was so clear as to mirror the moon itself.

This thought occurred: the source of the light (the sun) is most visible to me in the reflection of the reflection of the moon.

Jesus said of himself, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:5). Now that he is in heaven, you and I are “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13), called to reflect his light in our darkened culture. Others cannot see his light in our hearts, however, but in the character we manifest through the circumstances of our lives. Our acts are a reflection of the reflection of our Source.

How does this work in practical terms? Jesus tells his followers, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit” (John 15:5). When we know Jesus personally and intimately, we will make him known publicly and powerfully.

Here’s why this matters: People need to know God more than they need anything else. They are made in his image and likeness, and their hearts are “restless until they rest in him” (St. Augustine). As a result, knowing the God of the universe and making him known is the highest purpose, privilege, and passion in life.

“We may never meet after today”

This purpose is urgent beyond any other in our fallen world.

On this day in 1871, the great evangelist Dwight Moody preached in Chicago to the largest congregation he had ever addressed in that city. In The Life of Dwight L. Moody, written by his son William R. Moody, we read that Moody paraphrased that evening the question of Pontius Pilate: “What shall you do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” (Matthew 27:22). He challenged the congregation to think about this question during the week and return to church the following Sunday, when “we will decide what to do with Jesus of Nazareth.”

But as he said later, “I have never seen that congregation since.”

The Great Chicago Fire began that night, killing hundreds of people, destroying thousands of buildings, and causing more than $4 billion in damages (in today’s dollars). Moody reflected later on the tragedy:

I want to tell you about one lesson I learned that night, which I have never forgotten, and that is, when I preach, to urge Christ upon the people then and there, and try to bring them to a decision on the spot. . . .

I have asked God many times to forgive me for telling people that night to take a week to think it over, and if he spares my life, I will never do it again. This audience will break up in a few moments.

We may never meet after today.

Is the same not true for everyone you meet this day?

Quote for the day:

“No one can sum up all God is able to accomplish through one solitary life, wholly yielded, adjusted, and obedient to him.” —Dwight L. Moody

Our latest website resources:

• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour
• Who is Sean Feucht? Why the worship leader and conservative activist is facing financial misuse allegations
• Embracing the wonder after Forrest Frank’s miraculous healing
• Government shutdown, peace in Gaza, UFO video, Tim Allen, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny & Ryder Cup Results
• Defeating temptation before it becomes sin

Denison Forum

Negotiations began in Egypt yesterday to finalize a deal based on President Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. The talks are expected to last “a few days,” with a focus on a proposed hostages-for-prisoners swap.

The negotiations began on the eve of one of the most tragic anniversaries in Jewish history. Hamas’s surprise attack on October 7, 2023, is considered the deadliest and most brutal terrorist assault in Israel’s history.

Hamas is celebrating today’s anniversary as a “glorious day” in a message calling the invading terrorists “heroes.” Lest we forget: these “heroes” killed 1,195 people, including 815 civilians. Evidence and autopsies later revealed widespread sexual violence, with dozens of Israeli women raped, sexually abused, or mutilated.

In addition, the terrorists took 251 hostages. Here’s what we know about them:

• 146 have been freed or rescued, while eighty-three have been confirmed killed.
• Thirty-seven were under the age of eighteen; eight were eighty-one years of age or older.
• Fifty-one were women, some of whom were starved, intimidated, and threatened by armed men.
• Thirteen women and two men who survived captivity said they experienced or witnessed sexual violence while held hostage in Gaza.
• About twenty living hostages remain captive in desperate conditions, according to Israeli officials, and about twenty-five more are believed to have died, but their bodies have not been returned.

Why did Hamas take them two years ago?

The answers are not only relevant to peace in the Middle East but a window into human nature.

Taking Israelis hostage is nothing new

According to the British policy institute Chatham House, Hamas took hostages on October 7 for five reasons:

1. To be used as human shields in the face of Israel’s counter-attack.
2. As an insurance policy and bargaining chips as the conflict evolved.
3. To create media opportunities for Hamas and an ability to control the narrative.
4. To draw other countries into the conflict (given the multinational nature of the hostage group), inflicting harm not just on Israel but on some of its closest allies.
5. To generate terror, shaking the foundation of life for many Israelis.

Hostage-taking by Israel’s enemies is nothing new. Palestinian terrorists have taken Israeli hostages numerous times; in some cases, a few Israelis were then swapped for thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

The calculus behind the taking of Jewish hostages is worth contemplating on this tragic anniversary.

The Qur’an describes the Jews as “apes and swine” (5:60; 2:65; 7:166). Hamas further claims that the Jewish people were behind World War I and World War II, among other global conflicts and revolutions. The terrorists are in fact convinced that the Jewish people are hostis humani generis, the enemies of humankind itself.

Such dehumanization of others is always the first step to their mistreatment:

• The ancient Romans saw themselves as a superior civilization and believed that conquering and assimilating other people into their empire was best for those they subjugated.
• Many European explorers characterized the indigenous peoples they encountered in the New World as an inferior race and culture, paving the way for the theft of their tribal lands.
• Many who supported the enslavement of Africans similarly considered them intellectually and morally inferior to whites, convincing themselves that Africans were better off as their slaves.

What pastors said about their members

In On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin famously observed that in nature, there are typically more offspring produced than can survive, creating a competition for limited resources in which the “fittest” tend to prevail. We don’t need to adopt his bias against religion or larger biological theory to recognize this principle as a basic fact of human psychology and culture.

Our “will to power,” the fallen drive to be our own god (Genesis 3:5), operates as a zero-sum equation: for me to win, you must lose. If Hamas can blame Israelis for all the Palestinians’ problems, they can justify unleashing their basest sinful instincts to oppress their “oppressors” and “advance” their people and cause.

This calculus is by no means limited to terrorists in the Middle East. In fact, every crime against another person is a version of such denigration and commodification.

We see this across the biological spectrum, from aborting unwanted babies to euthanizing the infirm and elderly. At the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994, Mother Teresa warned: “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want.”

If I see you as my equal, created in God’s image as I am and equally loved by our Father, it will be difficult for me to lie to you, steal from you, or otherwise harm you. But my fallen nature wants to denigrate and commodify you so I can use you as a means to my ends.

I have known ministers who said (only half in jest) that they loved pastoring churches—it was dealing with church members that was the problem. Even now, I am tempted to write this article to impress you rather than to serve you.

If you were put on trial

As I noted yesterday, you and I are typically persuaded by ideas that appeal to our self-interest. So, let’s close with a biblical argument for sacrificial service that does just that:

• Our all-knowing, all-loving Father has a plan for our lives that is better than ours (Jeremiah 29:11; Romans 12:2).
• When we submit to his Spirit each day, he will lead us onto this path and empower us to walk it faithfully (Ephesians 5:18; Proverbs 3:5–6).
• One consequence or “fruit” of the Spirit’s operation in our lives is “love,” the selfless desire to serve others at our personal expense (Galatians 5:22; John 13:34–35).
• When we serve those who cannot serve us, we serve Jesus himself (Matthew 25:40).
• Serving Jesus is the key to significance in this life (Colossians 3:23–24) and “the joy of your master” in eternity (Matthew 25:21, 23).

To paraphrase my youth minister’s question: If you were put on trial for being submitted to the Holy Spirit, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Quote for the day:

“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” —Jackie Robinson

Our latest website resources:

• Who is Sean Feucht? Why the worship leader and conservative activist is facing financial misuse allegations
• Embracing the wonder after Forrest Frank’s miraculous healing
• Government shutdown, peace in Gaza, UFO video, Tim Allen, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny & Ryder Cup Results
• What is the Trinity?
• Defeating temptation before it becomes sin

Denison Forum

Note: I want to thank Dr. Ryan Denison for writing the Daily Article last week while my wife and I were traveling. It is a great privilege to partner with him in sharing this ministry with you.

Two stories are leading the news for obvious reasons. But the connection between the two may not be obvious to many, which points to my point today.

First, pro-life supporters are strongly opposing a Trump administration decision to approve a new generic version of the mifepristone abortion pill. Two weeks ago, federal officials said they were conducting a review of the safety of the pills, a decision the activists welcomed. However, the FDA later stated that it “has very limited discretion in deciding whether to approve a generic drug.” One pro-life leader called the announcement “a wildly disappointing decision.”

Second, mediators are set to meet in Egypt today for indirect peace talks between Hamas and Israel. The talks come after Hamas has accepted some parts of a twenty-point US peace plan, including freeing hostages and handing over Gaza governance to Palestinian officials.

According to Axios, “This is the closest Israel and Hamas have come to ending the war since the October 7 attacks almost exactly two years ago.” However, senior Hamas officials stated that there are still major disagreements that require further negotiations. And their statement made no mention of Hamas disarming, a key Israeli demand included in the US proposal.

“A society operates under two sets of rules”

In his new book, The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations, the Cambridge graduate and science journalist Nicholas Wade writes:

A society operates under two sets of rules. One is the rules of human nature—the inherited behaviors selected by evolution because of their survival value. The other is the rules of the society’s political system. When the two sets of rules conflict, a crisis is likely to follow, which the society must resolve on pain of collapse.

In reading his book as a cultural apologist, I substituted the biblical theme of inherited sin nature for his description of inherited evolutionary behavior. This theme is foundationally manifested in the Garden of Eden, where our first parents sought to be their “own god” (Genesis 3:5). From then to today, the “will to power” has dominated our fallen nature.

Since, as Wade notes, “Political scientists generally agree that the roots of politics lie in human nature,” our will to power dominates our politics as well. He adds that “human nature is often most evident when proponents of a political ideology try to modify or suppress it.” When political means are used to modify our basic drive for self-interest and power, our self-interest ultimately prevails.

George Washington made a similar observation: “It is a maxim founded on the universal experience of Mankind, that no Nation is to be trusted farther than it is bound by its interest, and no prudent Statesman or politician will venture to depart from it.”

It was because the founders recognized our fallen self-interest that, as John Adams noted, they sought to create “a government of laws, not of men.” But human laws cannot change human hearts. As the weekend shooting at South Carolina State University tragically illustrates, laws against murder do not prevent all murders.

“The moral miracle of redemption”

Pro-life supporters will be grateful whenever government officials act in ways that uphold the sanctity of life. But as today’s news shows, we must not depend on them always to do so. The same is true for political leaders engaged in war and peace. Each side in the Israel-Hamas conflict has its own self-interest and will act in line with it.

Why do political and legal structures not change the human condition?

Consider an analogy: You would not expect me to be able to speak words that raise the dead. The reason the crowds were astonished when Jesus did this (cf. Luke 7:11–11; John 11:38–45) was that such an act was indeed miraculous.

Here’s the problem: fallen humans are just as dead spiritually and morally as if we were dead physically.

Because “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), we are “dead in our trespasses” (Ephesians 2:5) since our self-reliance cuts us off from the resurrecting and transforming power of our Creator. As Oswald Chambers explains in My Utmost for His Highest, “The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the disposition of self-realization—I am my own god.”

The good news, as he added in today’s reading, is this: “The moral miracle of redemption is that God can put into me a new disposition whereby I can live a totally new life.” This happens when we yield to God’s Spirit, allowing him to recreate “the disposition that was in Jesus Christ.”

Here we discover one way God redeems the moral failures that dominate each day’s news: as Chambers notes, God cannot work this miracle of transformation in my life “until I am conscious I need it.” Our Father cannot change our hearts without our hearts’ consent.

“When Christ calls a man”

This is why the first beatitude is foundational to the Sermon that follows: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). When we honestly recognize our abject spiritual poverty, we abdicate the throne of our hearts and enthrone God as our king.

As a result, we experience the “kingdom of heaven,” that realm where God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Imagine such a life-transforming, grace-infused, love-centered world. Now decide if you will pay the price to experience it personally.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously observed,

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Is Jesus calling you today?

Quote for the day:

“A day must come in our lives, as definite as the day of our conversion, when we give up all right to ourselves and submit to the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ.” —Watchman Nee

Our latest website resources:

• Who is Sean Feucht? Why the worship leader and conservative activist is facing financial misuse allegations
• Embracing the wonder after Forrest Frank’s miraculous healing
• Government shutdown, peace in Gaza, UFO video, Tim Allen, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny & Ryder Cup Results
• What is the Trinity?
• Defeating temptation before it becomes sin

Denison Forum

Earlier this week, President Trump released the details of the proposed ceasefire that he hopes will end the war in Gaza. Following a meeting with leaders from Muslim nations in the Middle East and beyond last week to discuss the plan, it was formally announced on Monday during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While not all parties involved were happy with some of the changes made during that visit, overall support for the plan remains unmoved.

The only relevant party that has yet to agree is Hamas. However, Trump warned that if they did not assent to the deal by today or tomorrow, “Israel will have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.”

As of this writing, the latest speculation is that they will respond “positively” to the report as a whole, though with a series of amendments intended to walk back some of the changes made after Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu. However, there is still a fair bit of uncertainty as to whether the US or Israel would be amenable to changes of any sort.

If forced to choose between accepting the current plan or continuing to fight, it is unclear what the leaders of Hamas will decide. Moreover, reports indicate that at least part of the reason is that they don’t know themselves.

Qatar, which has served as both a safe haven for Hamas’s leadership and one of the primary mediators throughout much of these negotiations, has encouraged them to accept. Many in the political leadership of Hamas appear open to heeding that advice. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for those in charge of their military forces, and their decision is the one that matters most.

Who is making the decisions for Hamas?

It’s believed that Hamas still has forty-eight hostages, all of whom would be released in the event of a ceasefire. However, only twenty of them are thought to still be alive, and all twenty are currently being held by the military wing of Hamas in Gaza. As such, the decision of the politicians in Qatar may mean little to those actually responsible for upholding their end of the bargain.

To complicate matters further, the latest reports estimate that up to 90 percent of Hamas commanders have been killed in the war so far, meaning most of the leadership in Gaza is comprised of younger fighters who still think they can win. For them, the idea of giving up their weapons as part of the deal is largely considered a nonstarter. Armed conflict is the foundation of their identity, so disarmament is akin to death for many.

Moreover, as Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, notes, “Their view is that Israel is struggling strategically: the mobilization of reservists is a huge burden, elections are due within a year or so, there is growing international and domestic pressure . . . So, for them, it’s just a question of who will hold out the longest.”

But while much of that may be true, one of the key ways in which the current proposal differs from ceasefires in the past is the degree to which it has near-universal support from many of the same nations that have condemned Israel’s actions. If Hamas is the only one to say no to a deal everyone else agrees is worth pursuing, can they really count on that support to continue?

Most agree the answer is no. And, in the event they decide to continue fighting, that opposition could start to come from those much closer to home.

“Hamas must say yes”

Discerning where to draw the line between the people of Gaza and the terrorists hiding beneath them has proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of understanding the war between Israel and Hamas. And when some of the citizens have risen to oppose Hamas in the past, they have often met a violent and painful end for their bravery. However, there are signs that the tide may have begun to shift.

As one resident of Gaza City put it, “Hamas must say yes to this offer—we have been through hell already. . . . Hamas needs to understand: Enough is enough.” Another resident was even more blunt: “We are dying for nothing, and no one cares about us. Hamas needs to think more of us and what we have been through.” Abdelhalim Awad, who manages a bakery in the center of the city, said almost “any price” would be acceptable for peace, but that he did not think Hamas would say the same.

These quotes epitomize why it was crucial to secure the support of Qatar and other Middle Eastern nations for the deal. Hamas has proven repeatedly that it will not give up its power to protect the people of Gaza. However, they may in order to protect themselves. And the fact that more people in Gaza feel confident enough to speak out against them reveals just how much the terrorist group’s situation has changed.

Adapting to a new reality is rarely an easy task, though, and that’s often just as true for us as it appears to be for the leaders of Hamas.

Do you run or hide from your sin?

While I doubt any of us have committed the same kinds of atrocities as Hamas, most of us have sin in our lives that we’re hoping God will just ignore. The Bible is clear that he won’t (Hebrews 9:27), but it can be easy to mistake his patience for his permission when that permission allows us to continue enjoying our sin.

In such moments, Christ’s solution is simple: “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Romans 12:2).

One of the reasons Scripture places such a heavy emphasis on allowing the Lord to shape our worldview is that it makes it easier to accept that our choices have consequences. Acting as though they don’t or trying to live in the false reality that we shouldn’t have to be accountable for them will place us firmly outside of God’s will for our lives. That’s why the good news Christ preached always started with repentance (Matthew 3:2).

You see, it’s only when we come to understand that God’s love is not contingent on our perfection that we can find the peace necessary to truly address our sin. Our heavenly Father is under no illusions about how messed up we are, but he chose to love us and to send his Son to die for us anyway. He didn’t do that because we were worthy of his love, but because he is love.

Embracing the fact that our sins and shortcomings don’t have to define who we are is the only path to accepting their consequences and allowing the Lord to redeem them in ways only he can.

So, where are you running from the consequences of your sins today? The God who is truth cannot be found in a worldview built on lies, and it is only by owning our sins and accepting their consequences that we can find the freedom to live fully in his grace.

Let’s start today.

Quote of the day:

“Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.” —Philip Yancey

Our latest website resources:

• The War in Israel
• Why we all need the Major League Baseball playoffs
• Government shutdown, peace in Gaza, UFO video, Tim Allen, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny & Ryder Cup results | CB Ep. 39
• How you can support kids and families in crisis in your community
• Why can’t Congress pass a budget?

Denison Forum

The fallout from the government shutdown continues to dominate headlines this morning as the news finds new ways to profile the same basic dysfunction. Not much has changed from what I wrote on Tuesday, and, to be honest, I just didn’t really feel any sense of peace or purpose from the Lord to cover that same ground again today.

So, instead, I’d like to write about a story far closer to my heart: the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Now, if you’re not a baseball fan, please don’t click away quite yet. Even if you don’t plan on watching a single pitch between now and the moment baseball crowns its champion, I think there’s an important lesson for each of us in what will transpire across the coming weeks.

As a Texas Rangers fan—or, some might say, fanatic—I’m sadly without a team to root for this postseason.

Despite having the best defense in baseball and one of the best rotations, the Rangers’ anemic offense and leaky bullpen eliminated them from contention two weeks ago. As such, I get to watch without all that much emotional investment in the outcome. While I’d trade that privilege for Texas to be in the tournament in a heartbeat, it does make it a bit easier to enjoy the storylines that make this year’s playoffs unique.

Baseball’s best or baseball’s best story?

If, like me, you’re in search of a team to follow over the next month, The Ringer and The Athletic both have great rundowns of the most interesting narratives this fall.

If you’re a fan of underdogs, the Brewers, Padres, and Mariners are all looking for their first World Series—and, in the case of the Mariners, their first trip to the World Series. If dynasties are more your thing, then may I interest you in the Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani: one of MLB’s best hitters and pitchers, who also happens to be the most talented player to ever step onto the diamond?

If teams on a hot streak are more your style, then the Cleveland Guardians could be just what you’re looking for. They completed the largest comeback in league history after erasing a 15.5-game deficit over the season’s final months to pass the Detroit Tigers and win their division. As a reward, they now get to face those same Tigers in the first round, with the future of both teams coming down to this afternoon’s game three.

But whoever you choose to follow, it’s important to go in knowing that what happened over the last six months and 162 games really don’t have all that much bearing on what will happen going forward.

The best teams in baseball this year still won less than 60 percent of their games, and that’s with the benefit of padding their résumé with baseball’s worst teams during the regular season. Most of these series will be a coin flip at best and hinge on a few plays here and there going in one team’s favor.

That’s part of the fun, but it’s also why investing too much of your energy and mental well-being into a game is not always the best idea. And I say that as someone who is relatively incapable of doing otherwise and bears the emotional scars to prove it.

While you may not have the same masochistic relationship with sports that I do—I also bear the unfortunate legacy of being a Cowboys fan…though I blame my parents for that—most of us struggle in some way when it comes to investing our time and energy in areas that are likely to end in hurt. After all, the only way to completely avoid that risk would be to isolate ourselves from the world, and God’s word is clear that we shouldn’t consider that an option (Matthew 5:13–16; John 17:15).

So, if we can’t escape the pain of living in this world, how can we approach that risk in a way God can redeem?

Are you hurt or injured?

To stay with the sports theme, one of the most important lessons to learn when engaging in any athletic activity is the distinction between being hurt and being injured. If you’ve ever gone for a run, lifted weights, or played a sport of any kind, chances are you know what it’s like to feel sore once you’re done.

When that pain is new, it can be quite alarming. If it’s been a while since you exercised, you may wake up the next morning certain that you have done irreparable harm to muscles you didn’t even know existed. Most of the time, though, that pain is nothing to worry about, and the best way to get better is to just keep pushing forward.

By contrast, an injury requires rest and demands a level of attention that basic hurts do not. If you try to push through it, expecting it to improve on its own, the situation will only get worse.

In the same way, there are hurts in this life that—in the moment—can feel like an injury. The first time you lose a friendship because you’re unwilling to compromise your beliefs, or when you miss out on a promotion because you weren’t willing to cut corners, the pain can make you question whether staying faithful to the Lord is worth the cost.

However, God never promised us a life devoid of pain on this side of heaven. In fact, Jesus was quite clear that we should expect a level of suffering in this life that is directly related to our decision to obey him (John 16:33, 17:14).  But he was equally clear that allowing that pain to shift our allegiance is foolish (Matthew 10:28).

That said, there are times in our walk with the Lord when the price for following him fits better into the injury category. In those moments, continuing to press on as if everything is alright rather than pausing to rest and recover will only hinder our ability to serve the Lord. Injuries caused by fellow believers can often fit this description, which is part of why Satan delights so much in fostering division within our communities of faith.

How to get back in the game

Ultimately, we must trust the Holy Spirit to help us discern the difference between being hurt and being injured. Resting when God tells us to rest is not a sign of weakness or a lack of faith; it’s simply the best path toward restoring our ability to serve him well.

At the same time, the goal of such rest should always be to get better rather than to settle for a life defined by our hurt. The kingdom of God has little use for the kind of victimhood mentality that would see us replace our identity in Christ with an identity rooted in pain and trauma that we refuse to let the Lord heal.

God wants more for us than that, and he calls us to want more for ourselves as well.

So, the next time you take a blow in service to the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit to help you know whether you’re injured or just hurt. It’s going to happen to all of us if we remain faithful to Christ’s call on our lives, so learning how to heal and get back in the game is crucial. Fortunately, we serve a God who knows how to do just that.

Will you let him?

Quote of the day:

“You will have no test of faith that will not fit you to be a blessing if you are obedient to the Lord. I never had a trial but when I got out of the deep river I found some poor pilgrim on the bank that I was able to help by that very experience.” —A. B. Simpson

Our latest website resources:

• Government shutdown, peace in Gaza, UFO video, Tim Allen, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny & Ryder Cup results | CB Ep. 39
• The savior of Japan’s “Suicide Cliff”
• How you can support kids and families in crisis in your community
• Embracing the wonder after Forrest Frank’s miraculous healing
• James Comey indicted by a grand jury on two counts

Denison Forum