Nicholas Kristof is leaving his longtime post at the New York Times to run for governor of Oregon. I could construct a significant list of issues about which I disagree with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. However, I commend him for his reasoning in making this move:

“I love journalism, but I also love my home state. I keep thinking of Theodore Roosevelt’s dictum: ‘It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,’ he said. ‘The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.’”

Noting that one-quarter of the students who rode the bus with him in elementary and high school “are dead from drugs, alcohol, and suicide—deaths of despair,” he writes: “I’m bucking the journalistic impulse to stay on the sidelines because my heart aches at what classmates have endured, and it feels like the right moment to move from covering problems to trying to fix them.”

He concludes: “I hope to convince some of you that public service in government can be a path to show responsibility for communities we love, for a country that can do better. Even if that means leaving a job I love.”

Yesterday we noted that one person inspired by Christ can change the world. Today we’ll focus on one powerful way to do this.

Why empathy is so vital

Today’s Daily Article was inspired by this headline in Forbes: “Empathy is the Most Important Leadership Skill According to Research.”

Tracy Brower’s article notes that empathy is especially important these days because “people are experiencing multiple kinds of stress, and data suggests it is affected by the pandemic—and the ways our lives and our work have been turned upside down.” Some examples:

• A global study found 42 percent of people experienced a decline in mental health. Specifically, 67 percent are experiencing increases in stress; 57 percent have increased anxiety; 54 percent are emotionally exhausted; 53 percent are sad; and 50 percent are irritable.
• Another study reported that our sleep is compromised when we feel stressed at work.
• A third study found workplace incivility is rising, with extensive effects that include reduced performance and collaboration, deteriorating customer experiences, and increased turnover.

By contrast, when leaders are empathetic, their employees are much more likely to be innovative, engaged in their work, retained by their companies, feel included in their workplace, and navigate the demands of work and life successfully.

The article encourages leaders to consider the thoughts of others through cognitive empathy (“If I were in his/her position, what would I be thinking right now?”) and emotional empathy. (“Being in his/her position would make me feel _______.”) They should also inquire directly about the challenges their employees are facing, then listen to their responses.

A friend’s wise advice

Nicholas Kristof writes that he is running for governor of Oregon out of empathetic concern for his home state and its people. It would seem appropriate for me to encourage Christians to follow his example by serving everyone we can with empathy for their needs and struggles.

God’s word does, in fact, teach that when we serve the hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, and imprisoned, we are serving Jesus (Matthew 25:35–40). Our Lord exhorted us: “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (Mark 9:35, my emphasis). And Peter adds: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).

However, this call to empathetic service is more nuanced than it might first appear. Peter continues: “Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies” (v. 11). In other words, we are to serve within our gifts and abilities by the strength God gives those who answer his call.

It is also true that our service should be directed by our Lord, not by the needs around us. Paul’s Macedonian vision led him west instead of east (Acts 16:6–10), but this made the needs of the region he left no less real. Oswald Chambers noted: “Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of his Father, not to the needs of people—the saving of people was the natural outcome of his obedience to the Father.”

A wise friend once told me, “Their need does not constitute your call.”

“On purpose for a purpose”

Before we can serve where God intends us to serve, we must know where God intends us to serve. We can trust his omniscience and perfect will (a fact I discussed in a recent personal blog about Baylor’s football victory over the University of Texas). In fact, the older we get, the more urgently we need to seek and follow our Father’s leading (a fact I discussed in my latest personal blog).

In You Were Made for This Moment, Max Lucado focuses on the dramatic scene in Esther 4 where Mordecai encourages Esther to intercede with the king on behalf of her Jewish people. She explains, “If any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live” (v. 11).

Mordecai replies, “If you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (v. 14). In response, Esther agrees to go to the king “though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish” (v. 16).

Lucado then writes: “What took Esther from ‘If I go, I’ll perish’ to ‘If I perish, I perish’? It had to be Mordecai’s straightforward message: ‘You were placed here on purpose for a purpose.’

“So were you, my friend. What if you, like Esther, have an opportunity to act in a way that will bless your people more than you can imagine? This is your moment.”

He continues: “The question is not ‘Will God prevail?’ The question is ‘Will you be part of the team?’ Heaven will offer each one of us the privilege of participating in the holy work. When your invitation comes, may you find the same courage Esther found and make the same decision Mordecai made. Relief will come. May God help you and me to be a part of it.”

Like Esther, you have come to the kingdom “for such a time as this.”

What “holy work” is God inviting you to join today?

Denison Forum

Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in yesterday’s Virginia governor’s race.

Why am I leading today’s Daily Article with this story? I don’t live in Virginia. The odds are that you don’t, either. Gubernatorial races are typically only news inside the states where they are contested. Governor-elect Youngkin will not cast votes in the congressional disputes of our day, render opinions on Supreme Court decisions, or influence the White House in any direct way.

And yet, his race generated national headlines over the last several weeks as he and his opponent drew into a virtual tie going into yesterday’s election.

One reason is that the Virginia contest was widely viewed as a referendum on Joe Biden’s presidency. In fact, The Hill called it a “proxy war between Trump and Biden.” Another is that national issues such as abortion and vaccine mandates have permeated the race.

Yet another is the divisiveness of our political season. Gerald F. Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal that “there are effectively four political parties in Washington now” and “there is zero trust among them.” There are the progressive Democrats, personified by Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the moderate version, personified by Sen. Joe Manchin. Then there is the traditionally conservative “governing” part of the GOP and the “populist, nationalist version of the Republican Party.”

The bipartisan infrastructure plan created earlier this year is an example of the moderate Democrats and the “governing” Republicans working together. However, the current standoff regarding its future exemplifies the lack of trust between the four “parties” in Washington.

Using skateboards to win souls

In a day as divisive and chaotic as ours, what difference can one person make? All the difference in the world. In fact, the more conflicted our culture, the more one person can stand out as a unique harbinger of hope.

For example, John Barnard is the founder of Middleman Ministries, a partner of Columbus Avenue Baptist Church in Waco. His ministry gives away custom-made skateboards and other equipment to teenagers on the margins of society. They conduct skating clinics and outreaches in skating parks and also pair adult Christian mentors with young people, sometimes bonding by working together on old vans. Middleman then donates the vans to other skateboarding ministries around the country.

In honor of the traditional founding of the Protestant Reformation on October 31, Christian Post ran a terrific article on seven women who were vital to this transformational movement. Here we learn about Marie Dentière, a former nun who led other nuns into the Reformation cause, wrote apologetic works in defense of Reformed theology, and was even asked by John Calvin to write the foreword for one of his printed sermons.

We meet Argula von Grumbach, who was born to a Bavarian noble family and became so famous for her defense of the Reformation that Martin Luther complimented her “valiant fight with great spirit, boldness of speech, and knowledge of Christ.” And Katharina Zell, sometimes called the “Mother Reformer,” whose marriage to a Protestant pastor in 1525 is believed to be one of the first official Protestant marriages in European history. She wrote works defending clerical marriage and commentaries on Scripture and cared extensively for Protestant refugees.

You and I may not be familiar with their stories, but their faithfulness in the midst of epochal change, controversy, and opposition changed history and advanced God’s kingdom on earth.

How to “turn the world upside down”

You don’t have to run for governor for your life to impact our culture. Nor do you have to help lead a reformation for your faith to change eternity. But you do need to make a countercultural decision today that will affect your life and your legacy far beyond today.

God wants to use your life and mine to change our world for Christ. From the first Christians to now, he wants to empower and employ his followers to “turn the world upside down” with the gospel (cf. Acts 17:6).

If he is not using us as transformational salt and light, the fault is with the salt and light (cf. Matthew 5:13–16). This is because the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit; our sins grieve him and quench his power in our lives (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). He can only use us to the degree that we are usable.

Unfortunately, many Christians think that so long as their sins are private and personal, they are affecting no one but themselves. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Who is the “builder of your destiny”?

You and I literally cannot know the ways God’s Spirit would have used our lives if we were more usable. We cannot know the impact we forfeit on earth and the reward we lose in heaven when we spend even a minute or an hour outside his leadership and empowerment.

Of course, Satan does not want us to know this. He tries to tempt us into self-reliance, using means that resonate with our secular culture and with our internal “will to power,” which can be extremely deceptive. As an example, James Allen claims in his influential book As A Man Thinketh that by our thoughts, a person is “the maker of his character, the molder of his life, and the builder of his destiny.” (For more, see my review of his important book on my personal website.)

In fact, the Holy Spirit wants to make our character to reflect Christ (Romans 8:29), mold our life as we manifest his “fruit” (Galatians 5:22–23), and build our destiny as world-changers for eternity. When we are fully his, he will use our gifts, talents, abilities, education, and influence to advance God’s kingdom in ways we will not fully understand this side of eternity.

The key is for us to want to make a difference so passionately that we will pay the personal price for public usefulness.

The more we understand all Jesus has done for us, the more we will want him to do for others what he has done for us. And the more we will want to serve him in gratitude for such grace.

Corrie ten Boom, the Nazi holocaust survivor and Christian ambassador to the world, once prayed: “Lord, you died for me. What can I do for you?”

Will you make her prayer yours today?

Denison Forum

Let’s begin with some inspiring stories that made headlines over the weekend.

Sports broadcaster Ernie Johnson has been called the “father of the century” for adopting a three-year-old from Romania who had been abandoned in a park at birth. The child had muscular dystrophy and could not walk or speak. Ernie and his wife Cheryl named him Michael. Friday night, he died at the age of thirty-three.

Johnson, who is a two-time cancer survivor, was motivated by his worldview to adopt Michael. During a televised conversation about the 2016 presidential election, he stated: “I never know from one election to the next who’s gonna be in the Oval Office, but I always know who’s on the throne. And I’m on this earth because God created me, and that’s who I answer to. I’m a Christian. I follow a guy named Jesus.”

In other news, some fathers began patrolling their children’s high school campus after numerous fights last month, and there has not been a single violent incident since. After a young mother collapsed during the Boston Marathon, spectators and fellow runners kept her alive until paramedics arrived. She was taken to an area hospital and is now recovering at home.

When a bus driver experienced a medical emergency, two middle school students used the radio to call for help and then set the emergency brake, flashers, and emergency stop arm. They flagged down a passing pastor, who came on the bus to pray with the panicking students. One of the two later said, “That was a moment of relief, I think, for Miss Julie and for us to know God was on our side.” The school district recognized the students’ bravery at a board meeting last month.

And on this day in 1955, Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott organized by Martin Luther King Jr. She later came to be called the “mother of the civil rights movement.”

Choosing between Halloween and All Saints Day

There is something in us that is inspired by stories of heroic service. If someone else can adopt a challenged child, care for those in need, or take a risk for the sake of humanity, we can as well.

Today is All Saints Day on the Christian calendar. In the seventh century, the Catholic church designated the day to honor the saints of Christian history. Over the centuries, it has come to be celebrated by numerous Protestant and Orthodox traditions as well. When we read and hear of godly examples from the past, we are stirred to emulate them.

This day is also known as “All Hallows’ Day” or “Hallowmas.” It follows “All Hallows’ Eve,” or “Halloween.” The juxtaposition of the two offers us an opportunity to choose between two competing worldviews, two ways of living in this culture. This choice is urgent not just today, but for every day of the year.

Halloween is a secular holiday with origins in Celtic pagan traditions. As I noted Friday, it can foster occult practices that are forbidden by the word of God. Even at its most innocent, it is an interesting parable for our secular culture: We dress in ways that project an image other than who we really are. Then, we go door-to-door seeking candy in response to our costumes and entreaties. Whatever your “costume” or “candy,” is this not a picture of self-reliant, image- and performance-centered living?

All Saints Day, by contrast, focuses on “saints.” In Catholic tradition, the term designates a person who lived a “heroically virtuous life” and is now in heaven, as attested by two miracles that have taken place through the intercession of this person. In biblical context, however, a “saint” (from the Greek hagios) is simply a Christian, someone who has made Christ their Lord and experienced salvation and new life by his grace (cf. Acts 9:13; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

In other words, every Christian is a saint. However, not every Christian acts like one. How can we live in ways that honor our holy God and draw others to him?

You’re either going up or down

Our first step is to aspire to be all God intends us to be.

Scripture exhorts us to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Peter was adamant: “As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15–16, my emphasis).

However, if you’re like me, you’re tempted to believe that so long as you are godlier than many, you are as godly as you need to be. It’s human nature to judge ourselves by other humans. The fact that you’re reading this Daily Article makes you part of the spiritual minority in our secular culture. If you attended church services yesterday, you’re among the 17 percent of Americans who joined you.

So long as we don’t commit any obvious or “big” sins, attend worship services, read the Bible, pray, and give something to ministries, we can think that we’re a spiritual “success.” But this is a deception of the evil one. He doesn’t want you to do anything I just listed. But if you insist, he will do all he can to ensure that you do no more.

He knows, for instance, that if we compromise with private, personal sins, we will eventually and inevitably fall in much more public and defaming ways. If we grow complacent in our current spiritual condition, we will soon fall further away from our Lord.

The spiritual life is an ascent up a mountain. You’re either going up and forward or down and backward. You cannot stay where you are for long.

“As small as your controlling desire”

I believe God wants to use the rampant secularism of our culture and its growing animosity toward biblical faith to stir Christians from complacency to holiness. As we will see tomorrow, his Spirit will make us as holy as we wish to be. But we must first wish to be holier than we are.

In As A Man Thinketh, James Allen observed: “You will fall, remain, or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire, as great as your dominant aspiration.”

What is your “dominant aspiration” today?

NOTE: On multiple occasions, I’ve seen acclaimed stage actor Max McLean perform in his solo stage plays based on C. S. Lewis’ books. His artistry has helped millions experience the life and thoughts of one of the greatest Christian minds of the last century.

So I’m glad to relay that Max is starring as the elder Lewis in a feature-length film opening in a theater near you this Wednesday night, Nov. 3.

I encourage you to see The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C. S. Lewis on opening night. Visit CSLewisMovie.com for showtimes. You may also read our early review here.

Denison Forum

 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

As Halloween approaches this Sunday, I found these facts about Americans to be relevant:

• 70 percent of us will celebrate the upcoming holiday; the figure rises to 91 percent for parents with children in their home.
• 88 percent of parents say they eat their children’s candy.
• 32 percent say there is no age limit for trick-or-treating.
• 46 percent believe ghosts are real.

As to why so many Americans believe in ghosts, the New York Times cites the rise of Americans claiming no religious preference and quotes sociologist Thomas Mowen in response: “People are looking to other things or nontraditional things to answer life’s big questions that don’t necessarily include religion.” Interestingly, Mowen says he is finding that “atheists tend to report higher belief in the paranormal than religious folk.”

In other words, many do not believe in the supernatural when it refers to God, but they do when it does not.

For example, the Washington Post is carrying a feature-length portrait of a “teenage witch” who lives in Austin, Texas. The article reports that the hashtag #witchtok on TikTok has 19.4 billion views. The teenager profiled by the Post says, “I’ve never felt more peace than when I’m with my gods. Reading a prayer or doing a ritual. It’s like the earth is alive, a way of stepping into my power as a person.”

An illusion that illustrates a cultural fact

The “Delboeuf Illusion” is an optical illusion of relative size perception. The best-known version of the illusion is below. The two dark-circled discs are the same size, though the one on the left seems smaller than the one on the right.

The Delboeuf Illusion (Image credit: Public Domain)

This illusion illustrates a cultural fact: the more chaos we see in the world around us, the smaller our individual challenges can seem.

There was a day, for instance, when concerns about witchcraft and the occult in the Harry Potter series were front-page stories. Now the enormous escalation of interest in witchcraft raises few eyebrows. So many people are fascinated with astrology and occult practices that the phenomenon is being called an “occult revival.” In a day dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, political divisions, and natural disasters, this “revival” can seem innocuous. But this is far from true.

My purpose is not to disparage all Halloween activities. We took our boys trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and they will do the same with their children this Sunday. Halloween can be a fun holiday and even a way of building relational bridges for the gospel with our neighbors and community.

It is estimated that Americans will spend $10.1 billion on Halloween this year, including $3.3 billion on costumes and $3 billion on candy. Such a popular event can be a great opportunity to reach out to those around us with Christian truth and love (Ephesians 4:15).

“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers”

Rather, I’d like to use what the teenage witch said in the Washington Post article to contrast Halloween and the day it precedes. She claimed that communing with her occult “gods” is “a way of a way of stepping into my power as a person.” By contrast, God’s word consistently forbids engagement with the occult:

• “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them” (Leviticus 19:31).
• Scripture says of King Manasseh that he “used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers.” As a result, “He did much evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, provoking him to anger” (2 Chronicles 33:6).
• “The household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd” (Zechariah 10:2).

Satan’s first strategy is always to claim that we will “step into our power as a person” by being our own god (Genesis 3:5). This is because the “will to power,” as Nietzsche described it, is basic to our fallen human nature.

As a result, we don’t have to engage in witchcraft and other occult practices to be tempted by the self-sufficiency our secular culture applauds and reinforces. I can refuse the occult but still write this article in my own ability for my own glory. You can read it in the same way.

If we do, neither of us will experience the omnipotent power available to everyone who refuses self-reliance for Spirit-dependence by yielding our minds and lives to the Holy Spirit.

Why we should “keep in step with the Spirit”

In contrast to Halloween, the following day is All Saints Day. (Halloween is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Eve,” referring to the day it precedes.) The day celebrates all the saints from Christian history.

But know this: all Christians qualify. We are all God’s “saints” (cf. Acts 9:13; 9:32; Romans 1:7; 8:27; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 4:12; Philippians 4:21). However, to live out our identity requires power beyond ourselves.

By his Spirit who dwells in every Christian (1 Corinthians 3:16), God will enable us to defeat temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), guide us into “all the truth” (John 16:13), and empower our global witness and ministry (Acts 1:8). But if we turn to any other source—be it occult, secular, or self-reliant—we forfeit what our omnipotent Father wants to do with and through us.

I’ll close with an illustration: I walked early yesterday morning in our neighborhood in the midst of a windstorm blowing twenty miles per hour, with gusts twice that strong. When I walked against the wind, I had no help from its strength. To the contrary, I had to work much harder than if there were no wind.

But when I went with the wind, its force at my back enabled me to walk with power beyond myself. (For more, see my blog on my personal website, where you’ll find other blogs, videos, and a way to ask me questions about faith and life.)

Jesus likened the Holy Spirit to the “wind [that] blows where it wishes” (John 3:8). Scripture calls us to submit to this “wind” every day (Ephesians 5:18), refusing to quench (1 Thessalonians 5:19) or grieve (Ephesians 4:30) his power through sin.

If we will “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25), we will have his omniscient wisdom to guide us and his omnipotent power to strengthen us.

Would the Spirit say you are “in step” with him today?

If not, why not?

Denison Forum

“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Lauren Daigle is one of the most famous musicians in America. Two of her songs have won Grammys; the multiplatinum artist was one of the headlining performers at this year’s Gospel Music Association Dove Awards.

Reflecting on the challenges Christians face in the music industry, she often reflects on Matthew 5:10, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” She told Christian Post that when she was in high school, she prayed that God would give her a “backbone” to stand up for those who were being bullied. As a result, she testified, “If you ask God for that courage, he will give it to you. He will give you boldness; he will give you courage.”

She encouraged young Christians to ask for courage as well: “Just know you’re not the only one doing it. It will feel like, in the moment, that you’re the only one making a stand. But you’re not the only one making a stand. There are others around you. And we’ve got your back.”

High school stages “drag ball” for homecoming

Lauren Daigle is right: it can feel lonely to stand for biblical morality in our radically secular culture.

My wife and I returned recently from a trip to Vermont, where we found beautiful nature and many gracious people. But we were surprised by the irreligious nature of the culture. For example, I went into seven bookstores during our trip; not one had a Bible for sale.

It is therefore unsurprising that a Vermont high school would stage a “drag ball” for its homecoming halftime show. About thirty students and faculty members dressed as drag queens and kings walked onto the stage and the crowd started to chant, “Drag Ball!” They paraded and danced to show support for LGBTQ persons and lip-synced to the song “Rainbow Reign.”

In other news, the US State Department has issued its first gender-neutral passport. The Wall Street Journal reports that fashion designers are striving to “upgrade gender-neutral clothing.” There will be more to come as polygamy continues to advance, LGBTQ activism focuses on children’s toys and programming, calls to legalize prostitution escalate, and “zoophilia” (sexual relationships between people and animals) gains acceptance.

The late Paul Powell noticed this statement on a bumper sticker: “With God, all things are possible. Without God, all things are permissible.”

“The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire”

In such days, Lauren Daigle’s observation is truly relevant: “You’re not the only one making a stand.” The Bible is filled with stories of otherwise unknown people whose courageous faith changed the world.

The Book of Acts offers some examples. God sent a disciple named Ananias to minister to Paul after his Damascus Road encounter with Jesus (Acts 9:10–19). Everyone knows of Paul, though few remember Ananias. But without the latter, I wonder if we would know of the former.

Then, when Paul’s enemies in Damascus sought to kill him, “his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket” (v. 25). We have these unnamed disciples to thank for the rest of Paul’s ministry, from his missionary journeys to letters that comprise one-third of the New Testament’s twenty-seven books.

Still later, Barnabas championed Paul before skeptical Christians in Jerusalem (v. 27) and partnered with him in his first two missionary journeys. An unnamed “tribune of the cohort” saved Paul from being executed by a mob in Jerusalem (Acts 21:31–22:29). Paul’s unnamed nephew prevented a plot to kill the apostle (Acts 23:16–22). A Roman centurion named Julius kept sailors from killing Paul after their shipwreck at Malta (Acts 27:43).

One of my favorite biblical stories tells of a Syrian army that surrounded the prophet Elisha and his servant (2 Kings 6:15). The servant was terrified, but Elisha reassured him: “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (v. 16). He then asked God to open the young man’s eyes, and “he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (v. 17).

Angels are with you right now (cf. Hebrews 1:14). The God you cannot see can see you (Genesis 16:13). Jesus’ best friend assures us: “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Prisoners serving other prisoners

Let’s consider some examples of God’s people doing things today you may not know they are doing.

• Believers across America are ministering to Afghan refugees whose experiences with the Taliban are turning them from Islam and opening their hearts to the gospel.
• Christians imprisoned for their faith around the world are sharing Christ with their fellow prisoners, leading many to Jesus.
• As America’s prisons face mounting problems and employee shortages, Christians are volunteering to serve and educate prisoners in twenty-nine states and over fifty maximum-security prisons nationwide. Scholars describe their efforts as “the most innovative, holistic, and effective programs available in correctional facilities today.”
• Many persecuted Christians in the Middle East are choosing to forgive their enemies, seek reconciliation, and refuse to retaliate.

In Acts 4, the persecuted early Christians prayed that God would “grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (v. 29). With this result: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (v. 31, my emphasis).

If we will ask God for the courage to stand for biblical truth and serve with biblical compassion, he will answer our prayer. Then, whether the world knows our name or not, God will use us for his eternal purposes.

Jane Marczewski on “a story worth writing”

Jane Marczewski, the singer who made headlines when she competed on America’s Got Talent but had to withdraw to continue her battle with terminal cancer, is back in the news. In a recent Instagram post, she wrote:

“A journalism professor in a long gray sweater taught me the difference between a story worth writing and a public relations stunt. A real story has meaning even if no one ever hears it; a PR stunt matters only if people are watching.

“And that became a new item on the list of promises to myself: That I would never let my life become a public relations stunt. My life would have meaning, even if no one ever knew it. I wanted to write a story I was proud of, even if nobody read it.”

If we will pray for the courage to share God’s story through ours, he will answer us. And when he does, because his word never fails (Isaiah 55:10–11), our world can never be the same.

Why do you need the courage of Christ today?

Denison Forum

The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C. S. Lewisdebuts in theaters on November 3 andbrings the viewer into C. S. Lewis’ shoes, from his childhood to when his life begins anew as a full-fledged follower of Jesus. 

The short movie is based on the successful stage production by the same name, which heavily draws from C. S. Lewis’ own account in his book Surprised by Joy, sometimes using direct quotes. 

The biopic account is narrated by an older “Jack” Lewis who journeys with you, the viewer, through his life. Jack is played by acclaimed narrator and stage performer Max McLean, known for his solo stage shows based on Lewis’ books The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce.

The film also stars Nicholas Ralph as the younger Lewis and Eddie Ray Martin as Lewis as a child. The Most Reluctant Convert is directed by Norman Stone, who may be best known as the director of another film about C. S. Lewis, Shadowlands.

Witness real-world sets

I’ve personally had the pleasure of going to Oxford and Cambridge, Lewis’ grave, the Kilns (his home later in his life), the Eagle and Child (a pub frequented by Lewis and Tolkien), and studying the legendary man. The movie uses all of these real-world sites as sets, bringing a unique realism to the story. 

Though the storytelling certainly delivers, the constant narration gives the impression of a documentary, and one should set their expectations appropriately. The film uses simplistic and beautiful cinematography as the camera follows the older Lewis through the critical events of his life.

Lewis’ reluctant conversion 

From bookish boy to young professor, Lewis’ spiritual journey moves from indifferent child to rationalistic teen and atheist, to a dabbler in the occult, to a weakened atheist, to a believer in the transcendent, to aloof theist, and, finally, to reluctant Christian. In each step in the process toward Christ, Lewis dragged his feet, putting up his best fight against God’s draw on his life. 

At the beginning, we hear a tirade from the old Lewis explaining what he would have said if you’d asked him “why he was an atheist” all those years ago. His beginning monologue tears down Christianity, posing the problem of evil with rational and rhetorical force. From the beginning, the viewer knows it would take God himself to move a man like this away from his atheism, and that is precisely what happened. 

Avid Lewis fans will enjoy how the movie fills between the lines of Surprised by Joy. People who have only heard of the Chronicles of Narnia will get an introduction to one of the most brilliant minds and greatest communicators of the twentieth century and his reluctant conversion to Christianity.

How to watch The Most Reluctant Convert 

The movie debuts on November 3 and has a short run through November 7. To see if the film is playing at a theater near you, visit CSLewisMovie.com. 

The filmmakers’ commitment to showing Lewis’ Christian story is apparent in their website, which includes a workbook that your small group or family can use to discuss the biblical truths in his story.

Denison Forum

 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Alec Baldwin was reportedly “inconsolable for hours” after allegedly discharging a prop gun in the accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. “Everyone knows this was an accident, but he’s absolutely devastated,” a source told People magazine.

Nonetheless, some have responded to this tragedy in ways that personally disparage Baldwin. I will not repeat these taunts and jibes here.

I understand that Baldwin has offended many with his political satire and attacks on leaders with whom he disagreed. Nonetheless, it is discouraging to see the level to which our public discourse has sunk—and especially discouraging when Christians participate in such vitriol.

“The nation is coming apart”

Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren writes in her latest New York Times op-ed: “The nation is coming apart. The world is in turmoil.” She explains: “A recent poll by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics showed that 75 percent of Biden voters and 78 percent of Trump voters believe that their political opponents ‘have become a clear and present danger to the American way of life.’ A majority of Trump voters (52 percent) and a large minority of Biden voters (41 percent) support splitting the country into two along blue/red lines.”

Digital media executive Brett Meiselas tweeted, “If you’re attacking Alec Baldwin for this horrible tragedy, you are a bad person. Full stop. This is profoundly traumatic for everyone involved. I cannot even begin to imagine the guilt, sadness, and devastation everyone involved is currently feeling.”

A better response to tragedy is being modeled by Christians praying around the clock for the Haitian missionary hostages, a story I reported yesterday. (For updates on the missionaries from the organization sponsoring them, click here.)

As I was praying for these missionaries, Alec Baldwin, the families affected by the shooting on his movie set, and others suffering in the news, I was reminded of a single verse in Scripture with profound implications. I consider it a Spirit-inspired template we should each follow today.

A verse that changes everything

Acts 12 finds Peter imprisoned by King Herod, the grandson of Herod the Great. The apostle has been turned over to four squads of four guards each (v. 4), likely in the fortress Antonia (cf. Acts 21:31–23:32).

In response, “Earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (v. 5). In his classic work, The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power, R. A. Torrey identifies their four-fold strategy.

One: Pray together.

The “church” was praying for the apostle, at least five thousand families (Acts 4:4) scattered across the region (Acts 8:1). They were claiming Jesus’ promise that God answers collective prayer (Matthew 18:19–20). Not because we should not pray in solitude, a discipline Jesus often modeled (cf. Mark 1:35; Matthew 14:23). Nor because praying together talks God into what he would not have done otherwise. Rather, collective prayer encourages us, holds us accountable to each other, and magnifies our passion and faith.

Two: Pray passionately.

Luke records that “earnest prayer” was “made” by the church for Peter. The Greek is in the continuous tense; they were still praying in the morning when Peter escaped and came to them (Acts 12:12). Jesus set the example in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). Such passion does not earn God’s favor. Rather, it positions us to be molded by his Spirit into the character of Christ (Romans 8:29) and empowers us often to become the answer we seek (cf. Matthew 9:38; 10:1).

Three: Pray specifically.

Luke notes that they prayed “for him.” By contrast, we sometimes pray so generically that even if God could answer us, we wouldn’t know he did. I often hear people ask God to “be with us” when he already promised he would be (Matthew 28:20). We ask him to “bless” someone without stating their specific needs and asking for his specific answers. Good golfers don’t aim at the fairway—they aim at a tree on the fairway. Effective intercessors are specific and focused in how they pray and how they ask God to answer them.

Four: Pray to God.

It seems redundant that Luke was inspired to write, “earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church” (my emphasis). But we are all tempted to pray more to impress others than to intercede before the Lord. We can pray about God more than to him. Or we can enter his presence intentionally and consciously, kneeling before the throne of the God of the universe. Our true power is not in our prayer but in the One to whom we pray.

How to “turn the world upside down”

The results in Acts 12 were miraculous: an angel freed Peter from his chains, led him past sleeping guards, and opened the iron gate of the prison (vv. 6–10). However, I need to add: even when we pray collectively, passionately, and specifically to God, he does not always answer in ways we wish. According to very early tradition, Peter was eventually crucified upside down in fulfillment of Jesus’ warning that he would die as a martyr (John 21:18–19). The other disciples died as martyrs or suffered imprisonment.

But praying as the first Christians prayed positions us to be transformed and empowered by the One to whom we pray (cf. Acts 4:31). It positions us to receive God’s best, whatever that may be (cf. Romans 12:2; Isaiah 55:8–9). And it serves as a powerful testimony to our skeptical secular culture that the One to whom we pray is real and relevant.

The first Christians “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6) and sparked the mightiest spiritual movement the world has ever seen. God’s nature does not change. Anything he has ever done he can still do today.

I am therefore convinced that the key to fulfilling our “salt” and “light” calling in our culture (Matthew 5:13–16) is doing what these early Christians did. If we were praying as they prayed, we would experience what they experienced. If we do not, we will not (James 4:2).

Twenty-seven soldiers

Some years ago, a group of missionaries were camping at night on a hillside. Robber bands were common in the area. The missionaries were carrying money and feared attack. After praying together, they finally went to sleep.

Months later, the leader of one of the robber bands was brought to the mission hospital for treatment. While there, he asked the missionaries if they still had the soldiers who guarded them that night. “We intended to rob you,” he admitted, “but were afraid of the twenty-seven soldiers.”

When the story got back to the church supporting these missionaries, someone remembered, “We had a prayer meeting that night, and there were twenty-seven of us present.”

Why do you need to pray collectively, passionately, and specifically to God today?

Denison Forum

“They themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

As of this morning, there is no reported progress on freeing the missionaries being held hostage in Haiti. But behind the scenes, Christians are praying in thirty-minute blocks around the clock for their release. Their fervent and sacrificial passion even made the pages of the New York Times.

I wanted to begin with this story, even though last week’s accidental shooting involving actor Alec Baldwin is leading today’s news. Baldwin reportedly discharged a prop gun during rehearsal for his Western film Rust, killing forty-two-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Her sister is now speaking out for the first time, sharing the “great grief” she and her family are feeling. We are also seeing claims that the assistant director has a history of unsafe practices.

In other news, Axios reports that 2020 saw a historic rise in homicides in the US—the vast majority committed with a gun—and the upward trend is continuing this year. A Harvard study shows that “loneliness appears to have increased substantially since the outbreak of the global pandemic.”

And according to a new national poll, 81 percent of Americans say life won’t return to normal anytime soon. Participants were asked to select the word or words that best described how they are feeling:

• 62 percent chose “disappointed.”
• 50 percent chose “hopeful.”
• 46 percent chose “exhausted.”
• 43 percent chose “worried.”
• 41 percent chose “angry.”
• 24 percent chose “indifferent.”

Clearly, the deep and rampant secularization of our culture is not improving our culture. But the good news is that Christians can respond to the bad news with the best news of all. We can do what Christians interceding for Haitian hostages can do. We can still be salt and light in ways that transform our world.

But there is an often-overlooked step we need to take first.

A term that explains our times

In his Sunday article, cultural commentator David French points us to “a new term, one I learned from John Strahan, a New Testament professor at my alma mater, Lipscomb University. That term is orthocardia. Essentially it means ‘having a right heart.’” French adds, “When I learned that term, it started to transform the way I understood our times.”

French cites Methodist pastor Jason Valendy, who explains that orthocardia is distinct from and essentially precedes orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right practice). As French notes, “knowledge about God is distinct from faith in God. For example, one of the most famous passages in the Bible declares, ‘You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” (his emphases).

French then reminds us of Paul’s statement that I can “speak in the tongues of men and of angels,” “have prophetic powers,” and “have all faith,” but if I “have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1–2).

French concludes: “I can know the right things and even do many great things, and yet there is something missing. The beliefs and practices must flow from a heart that is oriented toward God” (his emphases).

“The great essential of fitness”

I read French’s article after discovering a profoundly urgent insight in an unusual place. In my personal Bible study yesterday morning, I read the description in 1 Kings 6 of Solomon’s construction of the first temple. After he completed the structure itself, he then finished the “Most Holy Place” (v. 16) where only the high priest could enter, and that only on the Day of Atonement.

Even though only one person would see this room, Solomon “overlaid it with pure gold. He also overlaid an altar of cedar. And Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold” (vv. 20–21). He “made two cherubim of olivewood” for the inner sanctuary (v. 23) and overlaid them with gold (v. 28), then “carved engraved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, in the inner and outer rooms” (v. 29). He even “overlaid with gold” the “floor of the house” (v. 30).

The king spared no expense or detail in building a private room for worship and sacrifice that only God and the high priest would see. From this fact, I noted this life principle: we must give our Lord our best in private worship to experience his best in public service.

Oswald Chambers exhorted his ministerial students, “The private relationship of worshiping God is the great essential of fitness. . . . Worship aright in your private relationships, then when God sets you free you will be ready, because in the unseen life which no one saw but God you have become perfectly fit, and when the strain comes you can be relied upon by God.”

God’s vision for our world

When Christians are not influencing the culture in publicly transforming ways, we should ask if we are being transformed privately by God.

Salt must change what it touches. Light must defeat darkness. If you put salt on your food but taste no difference, you will assume that the salt has “lost its taste” (Matthew 5:13). If there is a lamp in a room but the room is still dark, you will assume that the light is “under a basket” (v. 15).

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). Like Solomon’s temple, you have outer courts the world can see and an inner court only you can enter. Is that inner court covered with the pure gold of biblical integrity in thoughts and attitudes? Or is it overlaid with sporadic Bible study, insincere worship, and partial obedience?

Here is God’s vision for our world: “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). Our Father deeply longs to change our culture with his word and longs to use us in powerful ways to this end. If he is not doing so, the blame is not with him or with our fallen culture. But if we dedicate our private lives to his worship and glory, he will use us publicly in ways that transform other lives forever.

he defining moment of Desmond Tutu’s life

Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate and Anglican minister who helped lead the quest to end apartheid in South Africa, was once asked by the BBC to identify the defining moment of his life. Tutu described a day he and his mother were walking down the street. He was nine years old at the time.

A tall white man dressed in a black suit came toward them. In the days of apartheid, when a black person and a white person met on a footpath, the black person was expected to step into the gutter to allow the white person to pass while nodding their head as a gesture of respect.

On this day, however, before the young Tutu and his mother could step off the sidewalk, the white man stepped aside. As they passed, he tipped his hat in a gesture of respect to her.

The white man was Trevor Huddleston, an Anglican priest who was bitterly opposed to apartheid. When Tutu’s mother told him that Huddleston had stepped off the sidewalk because he was a “man of God,” the young man found his calling: “When she told me that he was an Anglican priest, I decided then and there that I wanted to be an Anglican priest too. And what is more, I wanted to be a man of God.”

Will the people who meet you today want to be people of God because of you?

NOTE: The Ten Commandments are God’s rules for every day, but most people don’t know the rules, at least not very well. Do you? Are you living by them, and thus living well? Find out when you request the tenth volume of my Biblical Insight to Tough Questions, where I unpack each of the Ten Commandments — God’s “rules of the game” for a life well-lived. Please request your copy* today.

*You can also pre-order the entire 10-volume set of Biblical Insight to Tough Questions. In it you’ll find dozens of our culture’s toughest questions — all answered, without apology, with Scripture.

Denison Forum

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).

Facebook is changing its company name next week to focus on building the “metaverse.” What is the metaverse, you ask?

The term was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash, where it referred to a 3D world inhabited by avatars of real people. BBC reports that the metaverse “could be to [virtual reality] what the modern smartphone is to the first clunky mobile phones of the 1980s.” The article explains, “Instead of being on a computer, in the metaverse you might use a headset to enter a virtual world connecting all sorts of digital environments. . . . this virtual world could be used for practically anything—work, play, concerts, cinema trips—or just hanging out.”

Facebook is making a huge investment in the metaverse, announcing its plan to hire ten thousand people in Europe to build it. You can already use technology to stage “watch” and “listen” parties with nearly every streaming and gaming company. This is apparently the next step.

Donald Trump is launching “TRUTH Social”

In other digital news, former President Trump has announced plans to launch his own social media platform early next year. He’s calling it TRUTH Social and considers it part of his efforts to fight back against “the Big Tech companies of Silicon Valley, which have used their unilateral power to silence opposing voices in America.”

Meanwhile, PayPal is reportedly in late stage talks to acquire Pinterest at a cost of $45 billion. And the Wall Street Journal reports that a ransomware gang masqueraded as a real company to recruit tech talent.

Digital news makes the news daily. There is much you can do online, with more coming. But a cell phone cannot hug a grieving spouse. A laptop cannot open Christmas presents from your grandparents. A tablet cannot substitute for a parent at a recital or baseball game.

In a new poll, nearly two-thirds of Americans who use social media platforms believe life was better without them. While Pascal was right to observe that there is a “God-shaped emptiness” in our souls, there is a “people-shaped emptiness” in us as well. The first time God ever said something was “not good,” he made this declaration: “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Genesis 2:18).

Real people need real people. And that’s the good news we’ll discuss today.

“The key to a fulfilled life”

Oscar Thompson’s Concentric Circles of Concern: From Self to Others Through Life-Style Evangelism is a classic in the field. Dr. Thompson, a longtime pastor and evangelism professor, identifies seven relational “circles” in our lives: self, family, relatives, friends, neighbors-associates, acquaintances, and “Person X” whom we’ve not yet met.

He notes: “The key to a fulfilled life is relationships. Things do not satisfy; relationships do.” His book encourages us to first “get right with God, self, and others,” since we cannot give what we do not have or lead people where we are unwilling to go. When “you do get things right in your own life with God,” he writes, “he will begin to engineer humanly impossible circumstances to bring more people into your concentric circles to have their needs met.” As a result, “You become fulfilled as you see the fruit of God’s Spirit impacting the lives of those around you.”

Dr. Thompson adds: “When you make Christ Lord of your life, you forever surrender the right to choose whom you will love.” It is that love for others that fuels all we do to serve our Lord (cf. Matthew 22:37–40).

Next, we are to survey our relationships, work with God through prayer, build relationship bridges to them, show God’s love by meeting needs, make disciples and help them grow, and then help new Christians make disciples.

Dr. Thompson is right: the people in your spheres of influence “are there for you to love—to meet their needs—so the Father can draw them to his Son Jesus.” He notes that we need to start where we are, since “you will not have a ministry in the future if you do not have it now. . . . So, remember that your ministry is not out there somewhere in the future; it is now!”

Why Luka Doncic is already an MVP

As the NBA season begins this week, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic is the clear favorite to be named Most Valuable Player (MVP) when the season ends. But he is already the MVP for patients at Children’s Health in Dallas and Plano, arranging for a bag of surprises to be delivered to eighty patients Tuesday. They included a pair of Jordan sneakers; a Jordan drawstring, bag, hoodie, and socks; as well as a letter from Luka and a signed photo.

You will probably never compete in the NBA and may never attain the celebrity of a basketball superstar. But God has entrusted someone’s needs to your care today. He has prepared someone for you to share your compassion and faith with them. He has prepared you for that relationship as well.

So, ask him to put that person on your mind and heart right now with Samuel’s prayer, “Speak, Lᴏʀᴅ, your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9 NLT). Then say to God with Isaiah, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8).

Yesterday morning, I was walking in our neighborhood before dawn under a beautiful harvest moon. The moon reflected the sun’s rays so powerfully, they cast my shadow ahead of me as I walked. However, before long I came under a streetlight; its brilliance far outshone the moon.

Obviously, a streetlight cannot compare with the moon for luminosity. But it was so much closer to me than the moon that its light illuminated the entire block where I was walking. 

You and I are “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) as we reflect Jesus, the “light of the world” (John 8:12). We are like the moon reflecting the rays from our Source. We therefore need to be aligned with Jesus and we need to be close to those who need his light in their darkness.

Who will walk under your “streetlight” today?

NOTE: The Ten Commandments are the ancient “rules of the game” from God that tell us how to live if we want to live well. I unpack each of these rules in my tenth volume of Biblical Insight to Tough Questions, where I seek to answer questions about how to handle our ambitions, religion, stress, parents, enemies, sex, possessions, lies, and lusts. Please request your copy of this new resource* today.

*You can also pre-order the entire 10-volume set of Biblical Insight to Tough Questions, where I unapologetically answer dozens of our culture’s toughest questions with Scripture.

Denison Forum

“Precious in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).

The Haitian gang that kidnapped seventeen missionaries on Saturday is demanding a ransom of $1 million for each person they are holding, for a total of $17 million. A top Haitian official reported the demand and disclosed that among the missionaries are five children—one an eight-month-old baby, and the others three, six, fourteen, and fifteen years old.

He added that negotiations could take weeks, explaining, “We are trying to get them released without paying any ransom. This is the first course of action. Let’s be honest: when we give them that money, that money is going to be used for more guns and more munitions.”

In other news, a plane carrying twenty-one people crashed near Houston yesterday. However, the New York Post reports that “miraculously, only one person was reported injured.” Looking at pictures of the plane’s wreckage, it indeed seems a miracle that any of the passengers survived.

So, here’s the question: If God “miraculously” protected these passengers in Houston, why did he not protect his missionaries in Haiti?

Hypersonic weapons and submarine missiles

Examples of our need for such protection abound, from record homicides in Portland, Oregon, to North Korea’s submarine ballistic missile test described as “possibly the most significant demonstration of the North’s military might since US President Joe Biden took office,” to China’s testing of a nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon that “surprised and alarmed US officials,” to an asteroid that “just zipped past Earth closer than the moon’s orbit.”

We know that God is “the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). He “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11) and “does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). This is because “the Lᴏʀᴅ has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19).

Why, then, does he not intervene when danger threatens his people?

In Acts 12, we read that “Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also” (vv. 1–3). If God did not spare James, it would seem that Peter’s life would soon be over as well.

But not so. God sent “an angel of the Lord” to free Peter from his prison cell and thus rescue him “from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting” (vv. 7–11).

If Peter, why not James?

How Peter died

The question becomes more complex when we learn how Peter eventually died. Jesus had warned his lead apostle: “When you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God)” (John 21:18–19).

The First Epistle of Clement, written from Rome to Christians in Corinth around AD 96, stated: “Peter, who because of unrighteous jealousy suffered not one or two but many trials, and having thus given his testimony went to the glorious place which was his due” (1 Clement 5:4). His execution most likely occurred after the fire of Rome, when Nero sought to transfer blame to Christians and persecuted them mercilessly (Tacitus, Annals 15:44).

According to the early church historian Eusebius, Peter was made to watch his wife’s execution first: “When the blessed Peter saw his own wife led out to die, he rejoiced because of her summons and her return home, and called to her very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, and saying, ‘O thou, remember the Lord’” (Ecclesiastical History 3:30:2).

The apostle’s own execution followed: “He was crucified head-downwards; for he had requested that he might suffer in this way” (Ecclesiastical History 3:1:2). An early source describes his death this way: “Peter, having come to the cross, said: ‘Since my Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from the heaven upon the earth, was raised upon the cross upright, and he has deigned to call to heaven me, who am of the earth, my cross ought to be fixed downmost, so as to direct my feet towards heaven; for I am not worthy to be crucified like my Lord.’ Then, having reversed the cross, they nailed his feet up” (Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Ante-Nicene Fathers 8:484).

Not a wall but a door

Why did God allow Peter to die in this way? Why does he allow missionaries to risk their lives and their children by serving him in dangerous places such as Haiti? Why does he allow you and me to face the suffering and pain of life on this broken planet?

This is obviously a very large conversation, but here’s one fact we often overlook: For Christians, death is not a wall but a door. It is not the end of life but the beginning of life we cannot imagine on this fallen planet (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Peter knew this to be true: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3–4).

When we die, we simply step out of the car and go into the house. There we find God’s “inheritance” waiting for us in reward for our faithfulness. And there we will understand what we do not understand today (1 Corinthians 13:12).

I am not suggesting that we should not grieve for those who are in heaven today. If Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus, we can weep at their graves (John 11:35). But I am suggesting that we do not “grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). We have not lost them—we know precisely where they are and we know that we will join them. In fact, we are one day closer to that great reunion than ever before.

A lesson from a podcast host

I recorded a podcast last week with a host who made this profound statement: This world is the closest to hell a Christian will ever be. However, it is also the closest to heaven a lost person will ever be.

It is our job to help every person we know choose heaven now, knowing that the time is coming when it is too late to choose. C. S. Lewis noted, “When the author walks on the stage the play is over.” I cannot promise you that the Lord will return tomorrow, but I cannot promise that he will not.

In the meantime, believers can experience in this life something of what we will experience in the next. St. Augustine observed, “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”

What romance, adventure, and achievement will you seek today?

Denison Forum

Required: God’s Call to Justice, Mercy, and Humility to Overcome Racial Division offers readers a detailed, yet relatable, perspective on what it would look like for Christians to apply God’s standards to the issues of racial division that continue to plague our country. 

To that end, Bishop Claude Alexander and Dr. Mac Pier unpack this topic around two primary beliefs. 

The first focuses on Micah 6:8 and the Lord’s call “to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God.” The second stems from the first: “that the process of addressing the tensions and the realities underlying them requires awareness, ownership, and agency.” 

As Alexander and Pier go on to explain, the justice, mercy, and humility with which we are called to live necessitate viewing the racial and societal injustice around us as problems over which we must take ownership and action, regardless of whether we had a hand in creating those problems. 

Through exposition of passages like Esther, the parable of the Good Samaritan, and others, the authors demonstrate the biblical mandate to join the Lord in addressing these issues while providing examples of the God-sized impact that various organizations and people have had on their communities by doing just that.

Why Christians should read Required

Required offers Christians clear insights into God’s heart for his people to actively engage with the racial division that continues to place a ceiling on the impact that his church can have on our culture. 

Alexander and Pier offer encouraging examples of Christians that have transformed their corner of society for the kingdom by responding positively to the Lord’s call and creatively looking for ways to be a blessing to those harmed by injustice. And they do so in such a way as to make clear that God has called and equipped each of us to do likewise. 

The big takeaway

In Required, Alexander and Pier manage to leave readers both convicted and encouraged. 

If you will engage with this book, taking time over the course of its chapters to prayerfully ask God to open your heart to the difficult truths revealed throughout, you will finish with a better understanding of the problems we face and God’s power to work through his people to redeem them for his glory and the kingdom’s advancement. 

To truly experience that redemption and play a part in that advancement, however, you must be willing to do the uncomfortable work of engaging with these issues in a real and personal way. 

The church is filled with well-intentioned believers who look at the racial injustices around us with lament, but far too few who decide to become part of the solution. An honest and vulnerable reading of Required will make the need to take that latter step unmistakably clear. 

In their words

Consider these three choice quotes from Required:

• “Our lives with God empower and inform our lives with others. It is what God requires for life with him that sets a conduit for what is necessary to do life with one another.”
• “Whenever we speak of responsibility over the history of race and the continued existence of racism, some people will say, ‘Racism isn’t my fault. I’m not racist. I have friends of color.’ I respond that it isn’t my fault either. It is neither of our faults, but it is something that exists for which God calls us to own and change. None of us chose the race to which we were born. God assigned and designed it to us. With its conferral came blessings and burdens that we inherit. Thus, while the existence of racism, prejudice, and bigotry is not our fault, it is our problem. We all must own it as our problem. While we may not bear responsibility for its commencement, we do have responsibility in its continuance.”
• “Cultures don’t change by merely posting things on the internet, making great declarations that everyone should follow, or getting angry about what’s not right. Cultures change one person at a time; it happens when others see you and me doing good, speaking differently, acting differently, and refusing to allow a political party, a news outlet, or the internet to define our views. Our good works and good words will be noticed. In time, they will follow our example. Good is more powerful than evil. So we need not wait for some messiah figure to make racism go away tomorrow. The Messiah has already come; we just need to follow Him, and the time is now!”

Denison Forum

I was shocked to learn of Colin Powell’s passing this morning. Television news is preempting regular programming to discuss his remarkable life and historic legacy, as they should. 

He served as America’s first African American national security adviser, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and secretary of state. Born in Harlem of Jamaican parents, he grew up in the South Bronx and graduated from City College of New York, where he joined the Army through ROTC. He served two decorated combat tours in Vietnam and rose to the rank of four-star general. 

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan selected him to be national security advisor. Two years later, President George H. W. Bush promoted him to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him America’s top soldier. He later served as secretary of state under President George W. Bush, a position for which he was unanimously confirmed by the US Senate. 

I will always remember a speech I heard him give years ago as part of a leadership conference. He focused on the importance of humility for a leader, a priority he modeled in ways I’d like to reflect upon today. 

Treat well those you don’t have to treat well 

One of Gen. Powell’s observations was that great leaders treat people well whom they don’t have to treat well. This is an old but true maxim, one that is especially urgent in a materialistic secular culture. 

I watched him model this attribute in ways he may not even have fully recognized. When he took the stage, he thanked by name the staff member who introduced him. He was the only speaker on the program who did this. He also thanked by name other staff members who had helped him with transportation and logistics. He took questions from the audience, asking each person their name and then responding to them by name. Again, he was the only speaker in the daylong session to do these things. 

A CEO once disclosed his unusual hiring practice: whenever a prospective employee came for an interview, he arranged for this person to wait in his outer office for ten to fifteen minutes past their appointment time. Then, after their interview, he asked his administrative assistant how the person treated her. He felt he could learn far more about the applicant this way than from what he or she said during the interview. 

The philosopher Martin Buber distinguished between “I-Thou” and “I-It” relationships. The former should characterize the way we relate to people; the latter should describe our relationship with inanimate things. Unfortunately, we often confuse the two, using people as objects in our quest to accumulate things. 

The night Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples and abandoned by the others, he first washed their feet (John 13). This was an act of such abject servitude that no Jew could be made to perform it. Imagine Jesus kneeling before Judas, Peter, and the rest, washing their dirty feet and drying them with his servant’s towel. 

Now hear his command: “You also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13:15). If the Son of God could wash their feet, whose feet can we not wash? 

How will you treat the people who serve you at a restaurant or other business today? How will you treat employees or strangers? Will you say about people what you would not say to them (cf. Matthew 18:15)? Will you say anonymously through social media what you would not say in person? 

How we treat those in need is how we are actually treating Jesus (Matthew 25:40). 

Learn from those with whom you disagree 

In his speech, Gen. Powell repeatedly emphasized the urgency of being a lifelong learner, of constantly acquiring wisdom and applying it in life. Our ability to learn from circumstances, challenges, and other people would set us apart as leaders, he stated. 

He was an example of his message, adapting the military principles he learned in his first career to the diplomacy and political service essential to his second. Not everyone can adapt knowledge and wisdom to new circumstances and challenges, but those who can are typically more successful in every season of their lives. 

The philosopher John Locke believed that we are born as a “blank slate,” a tabula rasa on which life writes its lessons. We are therefore the product of what we learn and what we do with what we learn. The key is to be intentional with what we write on our “slate” and what we then do to use this information wisely. 

We find this strategy modeled in the life of the young Jesus, who “increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). We find it modeled in the life of the elderly Paul, who even near the end of his life asked Timothy to bring him “the books, and above all the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13). 

I learned this principle from Gen. Powell not only in the positive sense but also in the negative.  

For example, I disagree vehemently with his “pro-choice” position on abortion. We should note that he was not “pro-abortion,” claiming that “a child is a valuable creation,” but he also asserted that “the law of the land says a woman has the right to make that choice.” 

In his political endorsements he frustrated nearly everyone at one time or another, supporting both Bushes and the Republican Party before endorsing the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama and strongly opposing the candidacy of Donald Trump. He made a speech in the 2020 Democratic National Convention supporting Joe Biden’s candidacy and declared himself an independent after the January 6 storming of the US Capitol. 

My point is not that I agreed with all he said and did. It is actually the opposite: we can and must learn from those with whom we agree and those with whom we disagree. 

If we can learn only from sinless people, we can learn only from the Lord Jesus (cf. Hebrews 4:15). But if we will ask the Lord to show us what we are to learn from every person and circumstance we encounter, life will become a constant classroom in which we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). 

Be ready every day for the last day 

The news is reporting that Gen. Powell died of complications from COVID-19, even though he was fully vaccinated. He was battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells that suppresses the body’s immune response. This condition put him at greater risk from the virus. 

His death from coronavirus while fully vaccinated does not indicate that the vaccines are not effective or that we should not be vaccinated. Rather, his death shows us the danger of the disease and the urgency of preparing for it as best we can. If someone dies in a car crash while wearing a seat belt, we don’t stop wearing seat belts. The opposite is true: we are reminded of how dangerous car crashes can be and of how much we need to wear seat belts and take other safety measures. 

Even with all his power and status, Gen. Powell was mortal. So are you. So am I. Death humbles us all and thus prepares us for the life to come. 

In our secularized and yet prosperous culture, we need this reminder. We need to remember that all we have is not enough to guarantee another day of life and that this world is but a means to the next. This is the dot before the line, the classroom from which we graduate into the “real world.” 

Our motto every day should be, “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). 

“A good soldier of Jesus Christ” 

In a 2007 interview, Gen. Powell said, “Let others judge me. All I want to do is judge myself as a successful soldier who served his best.” 

In his final letter, Paul exhorted his disciple Timothy, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him” (2 Timothy 2:3–4). 

If we humble ourselves before the One who enlisted us in his service and make it our aim to please him each day, one day we will hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). 

There is no higher calling. 

Denison Forum

When I was a kid, Superman was my favorite comic book hero. I never imagined I’d see a picture published by DC Comics in which he kisses another man, but that was then and this is now: Jon Kent, the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, is officially bisexual. Monday’s announcement of the news was timed to coincide with “National Coming Out Day.”

Dean Cain, who starred as Superman on television in the 1990s, pointed out that this is nothing new: Robin was already bisexual, the new Captain America is gay, and his “Supergirl” daughter in his TV series was gay.

Of course, targeting children and youth with the message of LGBTQ normalization is nothing new, either. Last June, the Walt Disney Company unveiled the Rainbow Disney Collection featuring T-shirts, Mickey Mouse ears, mugs, and even baby apparel adorned with rainbows. Three years ago, Cartoon Network featured a same-sex wedding proposal on the animated series Steven Universe.

Earlier this year, the Nickelodeon series Blue’s Clues and You! unveiled a song teaching children the alphabet while promoting LGBTQ advocacy. The series also released a Pride parade video narrated by an animated version of drag performer and activist Nina West. Kellogg’s introduced LGBTQ-themed cereal for Pride Month; the children’s cartoon Rugrats now features a lesbian single mom.

And a new California law requires retailers to have “gender neutral” toy sections. A critic warned that the legislation will “impose a de-gendered ideology and viewpoint on retailers.”

Ninety rattlesnakes beneath a house

Some problems have obvious solutions. For example, when nearly ninety rattlesnakes set up a den beneath a California woman’s home, she called a reptile rescue team to remove them.

Other problems are more intractable. For instance, capybaras are swarming a wealthy gated community in Argentina. They are the world’s largest rodent, reaching 140 pounds in size. They are destroying lawns, attacking pets, and colliding with people. No one is quite sure what to do.

Several asteroids larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza will approach our planet in coming months; fortunately, none are on a collision course with us. However, a meteor may have exploded over New Hampshire last Sunday, causing a prolonged boom that shook homes. And a small plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, killing two people and demolishing a home newlyweds had just finished remodeling.

When we face intractable problems, we can ignore them, worry about them, or try to solve them ourselves. Or, as with the California woman whose home was infested by snakes, we can seek help from those who can do what we cannot.

Yesterday we discussed Satan’s temptation strategies and the importance of seeking God’s power over our Enemy each day. Today, let’s focus on a very practical way to do so.

Kicker defeats Alabama, glorifies God

Seth Small kicked the game-winning field goal for Texas A&M last Saturday in their upset win over No. 1 Alabama. However, he told reporters after the game that this did not top his list of best moments: “It was probably the third-best moment of my life, right after I accepted Jesus into my heart as my true Lord and Savior, and then after getting married to my wife this summer.”

Before his kick, Seth said, “I was just repeating Psalm 23:1 to myself all night, which is ‘The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not be in want.’ That kind of comforted me.”

According to Gallup senior scientist Frank Newport, 55 percent of Americans say they trust themselves, while only 37 percent trust the legislative branch. Author and speaker Jordan Peterson is enormously popular in large part because he calls us to take accountability for our lives, friends, families, and community through what one reviewer calls “heroic responsibility and self-sacrifice.”

By contrast, when the greatest example of “heroic responsibility and self-sacrifice” in history faced his wilderness temptations, he responded to each by quoting God’s word (Matthew 4:1–10). When Peter faced skeptics of the Pentecost miracle, he quoted the prophet Joel to the crowd (Acts 2:14–21). When he faced critics of his ministry with Cornelius, he quoted what the Lord had revealed to him about the Gentiles (Acts 11:1–18).

God has a word for you every time you face temptation and trials. This is why memorizing Scripture is so important, as this discipline gives the Spirit tools he can use in our minds and hearts. And it is why turning to God as soon as we face difficulty is so vital. His Spirit will empower us, lead us, and use us to the degree that we are willing to be empowered, led, and used.

“Heroic responsibility and self-sacrifice” may well be required in defeating our spiritual enemy, but their ultimate source is in the One who said, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

What William Shatner got wrong

Those of us who believe in biblical morality are becoming more countercultural with each year that passes. From comic books to toys to TV, movies, and social media, unbiblical messages surround us all day, every day.

The good news is that we can look up for the strength to look around. We can choose the vertical in confronting the horizontal. We can find in heaven the resources we need to live authentically and victoriously on earth.

In this sense, William Shatner got it exactly wrong yesterday. After making history as the oldest person ever to go into space, the ninety-year-old actor was ecstatic upon his Blue Origin flight’s return to earth, telling Jeff Bezos: “Everybody in the world needs to do this. . . . I’m so filled with emotion about what just happened. I just, it’s extraordinary, extraordinary. I hope I never recover from this.”

Shatner was especially impressed with the atmosphere through which he traveled: “This air which is keeping us alive. It’s thinner than your skin. It’s a sliver. It’s immeasurably small.” Speaking of the sky into which he traveled, he said, “Fifty miles and . . . you’re in death.” Then, referring to our fallen planet that “lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4), he said, “This is life.”

Where will you point to for life today?

Denison Forum

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden resigned Monday night after the New York Times detailed emails in which he made what the article called “homophobic and misogynistic remarks.” The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on a 2011 email in which Gruden used a racial trope to describe an African American.

Gruden’s resignation was applauded by columnists who wrote that he “had to go” and that his emails “painted him as a relic of what professional football can’t be anymore.”

On the opposite side of the cultural spectrum, Jeopardy! champion Matt Amodio’s epic winning streak ended Monday night at thirty-eight games and $1.5 million. In a Washington Post interview, he expressed his gratitude for the kindness of the show’s staff and the support of the fans and even wished his online hecklers well.

Not long after Amodio’s winning streak came to an end Monday evening, NCIS lead actor Mark Harmon ended his run on the show after eighteen seasons. He had reportedly wanted to retire after last season but learned that doing so would cause the show to be canceled. So, he agreed to return for a handful of episodes if the show returned for Season 19. The show warned after Monday’s episode that we should “never count [him] out,” but Harmon ended well.

What is true of athletics is also true of life: we are remembered less for how we start the race than for how we finish.

What God can’t remember

This week, we’ve discussed the relationship between private character and public service, noting that private sin keeps us from being used and rewarded by God while personal character positions us to be used publicly in ways we may not imagine at the time.

Much like the underwater oil pipeline that was likely damaged months before it ruptured and sent oil spewing onto some of California’s most famous beaches, what we do not see today can change the world tomorrow. God’s word warns: “Be sure your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23).

This is not just because personal secrets inevitably become public stories—it is also because the Enemy who tempts us intends to use our sins against us in ways we seldom see when we’re being tempted.

Here we encounter one of the problems Christians perennially face when dealing with temptation. So long as the results of the sin we are considering do not seem to harm others, we easily conclude that we can commit it without public consequence. We can then confess this sin to God and claim his promise to forgive us (1 John 1:9), separate our sin from us “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12), cast it “into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19), and “remember [our] sins no more” (Hebrews 8:12).

John Claypool told the story of a priest who was troubled by a grievous sin he had committed while a seminary student. He had confessed his sin often but still felt the weight of its guilt and shame. A woman in his congregation came to him one day with the shocking news that God had begun speaking to her in an audible voice. Skeptical, the priest said to her, “The next time God speaks audibly to you, ask him what sin your priest committed while in seminary.” She said she would.

She returned the next week and the priest asked if she had done as he asked. She said she had. “And what did God say?” he asked her. She smiled and replied, “He said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

Erasing your spiritual “hard drive”

Here’s the problem: While God forgives all we confess and forgets all he forgives, Satan does not. You may think you erased your sins from your spiritual “hard drive,” but he keeps them until a time he can use them most effectively against us.

Jon Gruden was in his dream job with a contract worth $100 million over ten years: the richest contract in NFL coaching history. Now the remainder of that contract, $60 million, will be voided.

The higher Satan allows us to climb the ladder of success, the further we will fall and the more people we will hurt on the way down—not least ourselves.

My purpose is not to frighten us regarding our past. If you have confessed your sins to God and made restoration where appropriate (cf. Matthew 5:23–24; Luke 19:8), you have done all you can do with what is done. It is now a mistake to try to have a better past. Every time guilt and shame attack, claim God’s grace and freedom.

Rather, my purpose is to equip us regarding our present and future. If Satan could not use our sins against us in ways that outweigh the “good” they seem to offer, he would not tempt us with them. Even though God will forgive and forget, the devil will not. Nor will the world.

“Open my eyes, that I may see”

It is important to understand Satan’s strategies so that “we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). But we need to do more. Every time the enemy tempts us, we need to turn to the Spirit for the strength, wisdom, courage, and perseverance we need (James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9).

The devil is stronger than I am, but Jesus is stronger than he is.

Tomorrow we will discuss practical ways to experience God’s power over the evil one. For today, let’s close with the commitment to seek such power daily in prayer. If we “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,” God assures us that we will “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

To that end, I invite you to make this familiar hymn by Clara H. Scott your prayer today:

Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my eyes, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my ears, that I may hear
Voices of truth Thou sendest clear;
And while the wave notes fall on my ear,
Everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my ears, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

Open my mouth, and let me bear,
Gladly the warm truth everywhere;
Open my heart and let me prepare
Love with Thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for Thee,
Ready my God, Thy will to see,
Open my heart, illumine me,
Spirit divine!

NOTE: Over the past four decades, I’ve been following cultural developments with professional and personal passion. And after nearly forty years of observation, study, and research, I’ll say I’ve never been as concerned about the trajectory of our culture as I am today. That’s why I’ve written my most pivotal work to date: my book, The Coming Tsunami. And it’s why I want to invite you to pre-order your copy—so you can be ready for the tidal waves of threat and opposition that are headed our way.

Denison Forum

During the 2016 presidential campaign, George Clooney stated emphatically, “There’s not going to be a President Donald Trump.” Now, apparently, there will not be a President George Clooney.

In an interview with the BBC’s Andre Marr, the sixty-year-old actor stated that, while he’s engaged in politics, he hopes to reduce his workload rather than increase it by running for office. When asked if he had such political intentions, he said quickly, “No, because I would actually like to have a nice life.”

He has a point. In recent days, activists supporting the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending bill have accosted Sen. Krysten Sinema at an airport and on her way to the bathroom. Over the weekend, they announced their plan to follow her at yesterday’s Boston Marathon as well. Sen. Joe Manchin was recently at the houseboat where he lives while in Washington, DC, when a group of kayakers confronted him on the same issue.

When asked about the way Sen. Sinema had been treated, President Joe Biden replied, “The only people it doesn’t happen to are the people who have Secret Service standing around them. So, it’s part of the process.”

Tim Keller on celebrity pastors

Public service comes at a cost. Conversely, when we are filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), we are motivated to serve. When we love our Lord, we must love our neighbor (Matthew 22:34–40). When God is working in us, he will work through us.

Yesterday we discussed the temptation of “private” sins that seem to have no public consequences but keep us from being used and rewarded fully by God. Today, let’s accent the positive: private godliness positions us to be used by God in ways we cannot imagine beforehand.

Well-known pastor and author Tim Keller acknowledged to Christian Post that he is viewed as a “celebrity pastor in some circles.” However, he also understands that if he misuses his platform, “a lot of Christians can be put to shame” because of him.

He added: “Therefore, if God gives me a bigger ‘platform,’ then I actually have a responsibility not to disappoint people. Not just to look like a great person; I actually have to be holy; I have to actually mortify my sin. I have to have a prayer life. I have to do the stuff that every Christian needs to do. I don’t have to be better than other Christians. I just need to be what God wants a Christian to be.”

While public ministry requires private godliness, the converse is also true: private godliness empowers and enables public ministry. In seeking such godliness, let’s consider a simple but paradoxical fact.

A clown shortage and a war hero

Northern Ireland is experiencing a clown shortage due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is a problem in circuses and other places where clowns are needed. Being a clown is anonymous business—the more a crowd can identify the person behind the costume, the less effective a clown that person will be.

In other news, Private First Class Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, was presented the Medal of Honor on this day in 1945. He was cited for outstanding bravery as a medical corpsman, the first conscientious objector in American history to receive the nation’s highest military honor.

He served during the bloody battle of Okinawa, saving the lives of dozens of his fellow soldiers at grave risk to his own. When Mel Gibson brought his incredible story to movie theaters with Hacksaw Ridge, I was invited to a private screening followed by a time of discussion with Mr. Gibson. I asked him why he felt compelled to make the film; he explained that he felt PFC Doss’ story was one the world needed to know.

He was right. As the movie makes clear, PFC Doss served with no thought of personal advancement. He simply saw his fellow soldiers in danger and did what he could. He could have had no possible idea that six decades later, his story would make global news.

“I am not but I know I Am”

The more we seek personally to glorify God, the more publicly he can use us. This is because God cannot share his throne lest he commit idolatry. If he seeks to glorify anyone above himself, he leads us into worship of the creature rather than the Creator. As Israel’s idolatrous history illustrates, this sin only leads into further sin.

By contrast, when we say of Jesus what John said of him, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30), the Father uses us to draw more people to his Son than we could ever lead to him in our ability for our glory. When we say with Louie Giglio, “I am not but I know I Am,” we know the great I Aᴍ (Exodus 3:14) in ways that will lead others to know him as well.

God’s word states paradoxically, “The reward for humility and fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is riches and honor and life” (Proverbs 22:4). Scripture promises, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:10). Solomon noted, “Humility comes before honor” (Proverbs 15:33).

The more we seek public recognition, the less God will lead us to experience it. The more we seek to honor our Lord and glorify our Savior in all we do, the more God can trust us with public ministry that will lead even more people to him.

How to “build a tall house of virtues”

Tim Keller is just one of many “celebrity pastors” in our day of global journalism and social media exposure. You could name many others. But I’m sure Rev. Keller would agree that celebrity is not enough.

As the moral decline of our culture illustrates, we need fewer personalities and more servants. Being famous is no substitute for being faithful. As we noted yesterday, we cannot save a single soul or change a single life. Only the Spirit can accomplish spiritual transformation.

So, let’s take a moment to ask ourselves why we do what we do for God. Why did I write this Daily Article? If you attended worship last Sunday, or taught a Bible study, or led worship, or preached a sermon, why did you do so? Think of your last act of service as a Christian—why did you do what you did?

If we do not seek intentionally to honor Jesus in all we do, we will honor ourselves instead. Our default position as fallen people is to be on the throne of our own hearts, seeking our own glory. The “will to power” (Nietzsche) that began in Genesis 3 continues to tempt us today. But if we ask the Spirit to help us know our motives and seek to glorify God in everything we do, he will answer our prayer.

St. Augustine noted, “If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility.”

How deep are your foundations today?

Denison Forum

 “Llama therapy” is in today’s news. A Washington Post writer tells of a recent hiking expedition with her family in Yellowstone National Park aided by a “calm and gentle beast of burden” who carried their gear and bonded with them on a “calming immersion in nature.”

Emotional support animals are more popular than ever. From “emotional support fish” to dogs and other animals, they are one way many people are coping with the challenges of our day. For example, depression in America has reached epidemic levels, increasing by 450 percent since 1987. Five times as many people are taking antidepressants now as then.

Let me be clear: depression is a very real disease, one that must be treated by every means available. Like cancer or heart disease, it often requires the help of medical, psychiatric, and psychological professionals. Other forms of anxiety and emotional trauma are very real as well and should be taken with utmost seriousness.

However, I believe there is a causal factor behind much of the emotional and psychological pain of our day that is never discussed in secular media and is especially challenging for Christians.

High school crowns transgender homecoming queen

Repairs to stop the fifty-eight-story Millennium Tower in San Francisco from sinking have made it worse. Consider this story as a parable of our times.

A transgender teenager was recently crowned homecoming queen at her Florida high school. Evan Bialosuknia said, “I’m the first, but I hope I’m not the last, and I just hope that people will start to open up and see that it’s normal and that trans women are women.”

A Netflix series called “Sex Education” is being praised by the New York Times for its “frank but sensitive depictions of teen sexuality” including “more stories about queer relationships” and “gender presentation.”

In an important article titled “The end of vice,” Bryan Walsh notes that “all the old vices—from sex to gambling to drugs—are quickly becoming legal as both society and the criminal justice system rethink their values.” For example: legal betting on NFL games is up 32 percent. Support for decriminalizing prostitution rose from 24 percent in 1978 to 52 percent last year.

Our secularized culture is busy “repairing” the supposedly intolerant legalism created by Judeo-Christian values. But how is that working for us?

In The Hungering Dark, Frederick Buechner writes:

“If darkness is meant to suggest a world where nobody can see very well—either themselves, or each other, or where they are heading, or even where they are standing at the moment; if darkness is meant to convey a sense of uncertainty, of being lost, of being afraid; if darkness suggests conflict, conflict between races, between nations, between individuals each pretty much out for himself when you come right down to it; then we live in a world that knows much about darkness.

“Darkness is what our newspapers are about. Darkness is what most of our best contemporary literature is about. Darkness fills the skies over our own cities no less than over the cities of our enemies. And in our single lives, we know much about darkness too. If we are people who pray, darkness is apt to be a lot of what our prayers are about. If we are people who do not pray, it is apt to be darkness in one form or another that has stopped our mouths.”

Satan’s backup strategy

Jesus called himself “the light of the world” (John 8:12). The definite article shows that he is the only light of the world. He also told his followers, “You are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14) as we bring his light into the darkness. Note again the definite article.

If the room is dark and I have the only flashlight, whose fault is the darkness?

I believe that if God’s people brought the light of Christ more fully into the world, the world could not stay the same. But to bring his light, we must stay connected to his light. As the moon must remain aligned with the sun to reflect its rays at night, so we must remain aligned with the Son to reflect his love.

Jesus taught us: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Oswald Chambers observed: “I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot atone for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot make right what is wrong, pure what is impure, holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God.”

As a result, we must “abide” in Christ constantly to bring his light into the dark. We therefore know that we must avoid public sins that shame our Lord and ourselves.

However, while Satan would obviously like us to commit such grievous public sins, he has a subtle backup plan: he tempts us with so-called “private” sins that the world never sees and we can be deceived into believing do no real damage. Such sins are especially dangerous since we can be tempted to continue committing them without apparent consequence.

But know this: Any sin grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). Any sin breaks our alignment with the Son and eclipses our witness in the world. We may not recognize these disastrous repercussions since they do not cause positive harm so much as they prevent positive good.

Only in eternity will we see how much fruit on earth and reward in heaven we forfeit by sins we believe we can commit without consequence (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12–15).

The path to spiritual freedom

If you want to find true peace in a world of pain, abide in Christ. If you want to shine true light in a dark culture, abide in Christ. Abide in him on Monday, not just on Sunday. Abide in him in your private thoughts, not just your public words and actions. Recognize “private” sins as the cancer they are. Malignancy starts with tiny cells that, left untreated, can eventually kill the patient.

As a result, I encourage you right now to take a moment for a spiritual inventory. Ask the Spirit to bring to your mind any “private” sins you are committing, then confess whatever comes to your thoughts, claim God’s forgiving grace (1 John 1:9), and ask for his help in refusing them in the future (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The next time you are tempted by a sin that appears to have no consequences, recognize this as a lie from the devil. Now “submit it to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7, my paraphrase). You will live in spiritual freedom, and your life will reflect the transforming light of your Lord to a world desperate for your hope in Christ.

Dwight Moody observed, “Character is what you are in the dark.”

What character will you choose today?

Denison Forum

Yesterday, lawmakers approved a last-minute stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown set to take effect today. Here’s why this is good news: if a partial government shutdown had occurred, airline passengers could see major delays if unpaid air traffic controllers chose not to work; national parks and other sites could have closed; processing of Social Security claims and benefits verification would have stopped; and any company doing business with the US government could have been impacted.

In other words, what happened behind closed doors in Washington affected millions across the nation.

Some other stories in the news illustrating this theme:

• A man in Illinois woke up to a bat on his neck in mid-August. The bat tested positive for rabies, but he declined the rabies vaccine and died of rabies a month later.
• After the Milwaukee Brewers clinched their division Sunday, star pitcher Devin Williams drunkenly punched a wall on his way home. He needs surgery and will miss the playoffs.
• Hurricane Sam is hundreds of miles offshore, but the National Hurricane Center is warning that the unseen storm will “likely cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” along the East Coast.
• An erupting volcano in Hawaii does not threaten residents on the island, but officials worry that spectators coming to view it will spread COVID-19.
• On this day in 2017, a gunman opened fire on a Las Vegas concert crowd, killing fifty-eight and wounding hundreds before killing himself. His motives remain unknown.

In each case, what was once private soon became very public. Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel García Márquez observed, “All human beings have three lives: public, private, and secret.” But the second and third seldom stay that way for long.

The unseen danger of “corroded” pots

This week we have explored ways to help people seek God who do not believe they need to seek God: demonstrate life transformation, choose compassion, embrace excellence, and exhibit compelling joy in the Lord.

We’ll close with one more factor: private sin corrupts our public witness in ways we seldom foresee at the time.

In Ezekiel 24, the Lord warned the people of Jerusalem that the king of Babylon would lay siege to their city. God explained why they were facing such peril by employing a powerful parable: “Set on the pot, set it on; pour in water also; [then] put in the pieces of meat, all the good pieces” and “the choicest one of the flock” (vv. 3–5). However, the pot had “corrosion” in it that ruined the food it cooked (v. 6). What others could not see soon corrupted what they could taste.

“Corroded pots” always have this effect on what they touch.

For example, the ongoing clergy abuse scandal has obviously devastated thousands of innocent victims. But it has also given secular people abundant reason to reject the faith these clergy represent. Many ask, “If religious leaders can commit such horrendous sins, why would we consider their religion for ourselves?”

In a fallen world filled with constant temptations, how do we keep our “pots” from becoming “corroded”?

Learning from Benjamin Franklin’s failures

In his thoughtful and practical new book, Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table: It’s Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind, pastor and author Louie Giglio warns us that entertaining private sinful thoughts allows Satan to influence our lives in ways that wreak far greater damage than we imagine when we are being tempted. Louie writes: “If [the devil] can claim victory over your mind, he can eventually claim victory over your life.”

The answer, however, is not trying harder to do better. As Louie notes, “The solution is surrender.” It is claiming the victory Jesus has already won over Satan and sin at the cross, then seeking his power through Scripture and the Holy Spirit to defeat what is tempting us. (I plan to say more about the role of God’s word in our minds and lives in Monday’s Daily Article.)

This solution is as countercultural as the transformation it offers. Even when we recognize the power of “corroded pots” to ruin our lives and witness to the secular world, our enemy tempts us to fight temptation in our strength. That’s because he knows we will eventually lose the battle.

Benjamin Franklin is Exhibit A of this fact. In a brilliant article for our website, my good friend Dr. David Dykes discusses Franklin’s personal religion. David is an acclaimed author and recently retired pastor of one of America’s greatest churches. He insightfully describes Franklin’s thirteen “moral habitudes” (crosses between habits and attitudes) to which he was passionately committed.

However, David notes that Franklin later admitted in his autobiography, “I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it.”

So will we.

“God is not a miser with his grace”

We cannot give what we do not have or lead others where we will not go. In a postmodern culture, a compellingly persuasive apologetic for the relevance of Christianity is demonstrating its relevance in our lives. This means that Christians must live like Christ. But it also means that Christians must seek the help of God’s Spirit to emulate God’s Son (cf. Romans 8:29).

Are you giving the enemy a seat at your table today? Remember that public devastation always results from “private” sin, then name your temptation and take it immediately to God. Ask his Spirit for the strength to resist the enemy and the resolve to be like Jesus.

Have you already allowed private sin to “corrode” your “pot”? Then name your sin now, acting before this cancer metastasizes further and destroys your life and witness. And claim the promise of Romans 5:20: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”

In Grace for the Moment, Max Lucado expands on this promise: “To abound is to have a surplus, an abundance, an extravagant portion. Should the fish in the Pacific worry that it will run out of ocean? No. Why? The ocean abounds with water. Need the lark be anxious about finding room in the sky to fly? No, the sky abounds with space.

“So should the Christian worry that the cup of mercy will run empty? He may. For he may not be aware of God’s abounding grace. Are you? Are you aware that the cup God gives you overflows with mercy? Or are you afraid your cup will run dry? Or your mistakes are too great for God’s grace? God is not a miser with his grace. Your cup may be low on cash or clout, but it is overflowing with mercy.”

You can have a “corroded pot” or an overflowing cup. Choose wisely.

Denison Forum

As a Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin was instrumental in winning America’s independence and framing our constitution. 

He was also an inventor. He didn’t invent electricity, but he invented the lightning rod. His other inventions included bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the $100 bill—not really. 

You might not realize it, but Ben Franklin even invented his own personal religion. 

Benjamin Franklin’s personal religion

Franklin was raised in a Puritan Presbyterian family and was baptized at an early age. Based upon his writings, it’s clear that he was a God-fearing man. However, in his adult years, he seldom attended church and he viewed Jesus as a great moral teacher, like Socrates. But he didn’t believe that Jesus was God in the flesh. 

When Benjamin Franklin was a young adult, he established his own religious system to be a good moral person. In his autobiography, he wrote: “It was about this time [age twenty] I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time. . . . As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined.”

Franklin’s thirteen “moral habitudes”

Franklin enumerated thirteen moral qualities that he tried to attain. He called these his “moral habitudes” (a cross between a habit and an attitude). They included temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. 

Franklin took his personal religion seriously. He had a little book with his thirteen moral qualities written down the left side. Then he had seven columns for the seven days of the week. He would judge himself and, if he failed or needed improvement, he would make a mark in that column. Each week he would erase the marks and start over. He soon found that there were so many marks that erasing them tore a hole in the page! He got a new book, and, when a page would fill up with marks against his plan, he would tear that page out and start over. 

Failing at perfection

Later in life when he wrote his autobiography, he reflected on the failure of his system: “I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it. . . . In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself. . . . For, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

Ben Franklin was a wise, powerful individual. However, he admitted that he failed to live a life of perfect moral purity. He could have saved himself a lot of frustration and paper if he had applied Galatians 2:20 to his life. Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”  

We can never achieve moral perfection ourselves. There is only one person who ever lived a perfect life: his name is Jesus, and he lives in those who have placed their faith in him.

Instead of inventing thirteen moral habitudes, we already have God’s list. Galatians 5:22 describes nine character qualities that Jesus was to live out through us: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” 

But you don’t have to create a checklist and make a daily mark when you try to live up to those character qualities. Those nine words simply describe the personality of Jesus. 

As you surrender to Jesus living in you, he energizes those qualities in your life.

Dr. David O. Dykes served as pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas before retiring on September 1, 2021. He is the author of 21 books, including three action-packed novels, writing as David Orlo; all are available on Amazon. He is currently booking speaking engagements and can be reached at dod75701[at]gmail.com.

Denison Forum

In 2020 and 2021, six of Californias’ ten largest fires in its history swept through the state. 

The August Complex, a collection of multiple fires that grew together, ravaged over one million acres of land in California. In the California fires of 2020, thirty-one people lost their lives and whole towns were swallowed by the massive blazes. One estimate claimed the cost was $10 billion in damages to the economy from the year 2020 alone. And 2021 hasn’t been much better. 

Only recently was the Dixie wildfire mostly controlled, after almost reaching one million acres itself. It is the second-largest wildfire, following close behind the August Complex.  

The desolate aftermath of these massive wildfires leads many to wonder if we could have done something more to prevent them. 

For decades, US policy put its efforts into preventing fires at all costs. The beloved Smokey the Bear reminded everyone to put out our campfires completely and dispose of cigarettes correctly. His catchphrase, riffing off of the World War II Uncle Sam poster, says, “Only YOU can prevent forest fires!” 

Though somewhat effective in preventing unintentional, man-made fires, this sentiment only covers part of the problem. Certainly, accidents have sparked destructive wildfires in the past, yet as our methods for fighting fires have become more advanced, the wildfires seem to be getting worse, not better. 

Surprisingly, the policy of complete fire prevention has fueled, not prevented, the new massive wildfires. 

The paradox of fire suppression

On a family trip to Wyoming many years ago, I remember surveying the pristine forests of Yellowstone National Park with wonder. I also remember the words of my grandfather, a professor with a Ph.D. in forestry. He warned against the blanket policy for national forests: never let anything burn. Like a prophet of the trees, he sagely rubbed his beard and predicted the disasters that this practice would lead to. 

And he was right. 

Though some pin the problem on climate change and others point out the record droughts in recent years that add to the problem, one expert says, “The biggest piece I’d still say is the condition of our forest. I’d say it’s 75% of our problem.” 

What is the condition of the forests in California? 

Well, interestingly, since we’ve aggressively fought the fires for so long, brush and dead forest matter have increasingly built up to frightening levels. One analysis aptly called California a “tinderbox.”

In the normal life cycle of a forest, lightning will cause natural forest fires that allow for greater biodiversity as it clears out deadwood and brush. The carefully balanced ecosystem depended on fires long before humans were there. These natural fires generally don’t kill large trees because they’re small and burn at a low level. According to one estimate from Pewtrust, before the 1800s approximately 5–12 percent of the land of California would naturally burn every year.  

Most critically, natural, low-burning forest fires act as a reset button.

Ironically, the fact that we’ve fought fires so well for so long means that the forests are like powder kegs, with forests full of dead material that will fuel more destructive fires.

A lesson from Indigenous people

Centuries ago, Native Americans regularly intentionally burned forests as part of their cultivation practices. The legacy lives on today in people like Bill Tripp, who is part of the Karuk tribe in California. He and others are leading the way to go back to the centuries-old practice of methodical burning to cultivate forests and hopefully prevent more massive wildfires.

Though some steps in the area of controlled burns are being made, California in particular has a long way to go. 

One article which I’ve drawn on several times in this article is provocatively titled “We must burn the West to save it.” In it, the author concludes, “without concerted action now, the risks will only get worse.”

Wisdom lies in the past. Very quickly, the indigenous practice of forest burning became outlawed when the United States spread to the West, taking American Indian land. The American Indians lived in the Americas for thousands of years and knew how to tend the land of America with responsibility. Practical wisdom lies in the past, in practices from old and diverse cultures. 

They can lead to great lessons if properly understood.

God uses fires in our lives

The second piece of wisdom lies in a more metaphorical lesson. 

When difficulty enters our lives, it can burn like a fire. However, in my experience, times of hardship also reveal the pervasive deadwood of sin. 

Lying like unobtrusive, innocent twigs and leaves, sinful practices and postures build up in our hearts over time. If we approach hardship rightly, then God can use them as a fire to burn through the deadwood. 

Fire can also represent the Scriptures themselves, a difficult word from a friend, or some frustrated desire. All of these can lead us to get the deadwood out of our lives. 

God’s discipline can be a mercy that prevents a massive wildfire from overwhelming us and destroying our lives in a deeper way, like using a small fire to prevent a big fire. As James writes, “Sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15). 

Fires are hot, and they can burn. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

Yet, Dr. Jim Denison reminds us of this truth: “God redeems all he allows.” 

The next time a door is closed, a season becomes fraught with hardship, or an inconvenience happens, reflect on your response. If you can say, “I have learned to give thanks in all circumstances” with Paul, you’re further along than me, but it’s something for everyone to strive for. 

Allow God to clear the deadwood from your heart, praying that he would reveal your hidden sins, even if it’s painful.

Maybe God is allowing a controlled burn in your life to make way for new growth.

Denison Forum

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction is among the more well-known tales of the Old Testament. It is also included in the Qur’an (11:74–83 and 29:28–35) and is cited by Jesus as a clear example of God’s judgment against sin (Matthew 10:14–15). 

For a long time, it was presumed that something like the great earthquake that rocked the region around 1900 BCE was the cause of the two cities’ destruction, turning it from a fertile land with plenty of fresh water into a barren waste. While this account never fit all that well with the biblical description, it at least offered a plausible explanation for what might have happened and why those who witnessed it could have passed down that account in the fashion we have today. 

Recent research, however, offers another explanation.

A meteor may have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah

After fifteen years of excavations and study, archaeologist Christopher R. Moore and his team found evidence that, around 1650 BCE, a massive meteor burst through earth’s atmosphere near the ancient city of Tall el-Hammam—the location where Sodom and Gomorrah are commonly thought to have existed—and exploded 2.5 miles above the ground, raining fiery debris on the cities below. 

The ensuing blast was roughly a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, and everything in its wake would have been instantly incinerated as air temperatures rose to more than 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. The shockwave that followed a few seconds later raged at speeds of up to 740 miles per hour as deadly winds destroyed whatever the initial blast did not.

Ultimately, there’s no way to know this side of heaven if the meteor is what God used to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah or if it was something else entirely, but the plausibility of that scenario offers us an important reminder for how we should look at the Bible today. 

Is the Bible true?

As Christians, we don’t need historical evidence to believe that the Bible is true (See Dr. Jim Denison’s “Why do we believe the Bible is actually the word of God?“) But that doesn’t mean it’s not welcome when it happens. 

The meteor that very well could have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is far from the only time history has backed up the Bible. 

Daniel’s prophetic description of events in chapters 7–12, for example, is so accurate that it forms the primary reason many scholars today date the book to the second century BCE rather than when Scripture claims Daniel actually wrote it. 

The Pool of Bethesda in John 5 was thought to be a myth until it was uncovered exactly where the Bible said it would be, and now it serves as a common stop on tours through Jerusalem. 

Pontius Pilate was considered by many to be a fictional character until a Roman inscription documenting his office and life was discovered. 

And that’s just to name a few examples. 

The truth is that regardless of how many times history proves the Bible to be correct, there will always be enough gaps between what Scripture describes and our ability to prove it that those who want to doubt its veracity can find reasons to do so.

But just because holes in our understanding exist does not mean that the fault is with Scripture rather than us. When weighed against evidence to the contrary, the balance tips heavily in favor of the Bible’s veracity. Believing that God’s word is true is the most logical approach to take, even if arguments can be made to the contrary. 

At the end of the day, though, what Abraham Lincoln once said of the Bible remains the best advice for us today: “Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man.” 

Adopt that approach today, and you will learn just how right he was. 

Denison Forum