A group of Senate Democrats reached an agreement last night with congressional Republicans, the first in a series of votes that would lead to reopening the US government. The negotiated deal reverses federal layoffs, promises a future vote on expiring Obamacare subsidies, and fully reopens the government through January 30. The Senate and the House still require a final vote, then the continuing resolution would head to President Trump for his signature.

Healthcare benefits have been at the heart of the longest-ever government shutdown, which raises the question: How much of our lives are spent managing our mortality? Americans spend $265 billion each year on physical activity, $70 billion a year on weight-loss plans, and $100 billion on prescription drugs.

Nearly a million people have evacuated in the Philippines ahead of a deadly typhoon that struck yesterday. Paris residents are entering a lottery to share cemetery space with Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. The plastic surgery industry is now booming in the US.

It is human nature to seek to mitigate human finitude, but the mortality rate is still 100 percent. In a world where death comes to all (Hebrews 9:27), why should we believe that “God is love” (1 John 4:8)?

 “Let death do its work in us”

I spent the weekend grappling with a sinus infection, the details of which I won’t share as you begin your Monday. However, I would wager that, like me, you can name something (or several somethings) about your health you’re glad you won’t have to endure forever. And every day you tire of the news with its never-ending cycles of doom and gloom, you can take heart that your world will not always be like this.

St. Ambrose of Milan (339–97) is best known for his influence on St. Augustine, but he was a brilliant theologian in his own right. He encouraged us:

Let death do its work in us . . . so that life may do its work also: a good life after death, that is, a good life after victory, after the battle is over, when the law of the flesh is no longer in conflict with the law of the mind, when we have no more battles with mortal flesh but in mortal flesh we have victory.

He understood that for Christians, dying is not the final battle but the final victory. Our death is but the doorway into a life without death, a world in which “death shall be no more” (Revelation 21:4) and, as John Donne warned our old foe, “Death, thou shalt die.”

Max Lucado is right:

Though you and I may wish for a longer life for our loved ones who have gone before us, they don’t. Ironically, the first to accept God’s decision of death is the one who dies. You see, while we’re mourning at a grave, they’re marveling in heaven. While we’re questioning God, they’re praising God!

As I often said at funerals, when we take our last breath here, we take our first breath there. We close our eyes in this world of death and open them in that world of life. We step out of the “car” and go into the “house.” We are well, and we are home. And we discover for ourselves the truth of Jesus’ promise: “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26).

“No different from being unborn”

Here’s our problem: we cannot prove that it is so.

When we die, we obviously have no agency to save ourselves from death. Like a patient under anesthesia, we are completely dependent on someone besides ourselves to bring us back to life. But unlike those facing anesthesia, we cannot interview someone who has come back from the other side, so we have no way to prove that the other side even exists, much less that we will go there upon our death.

Every position we take on the afterlife is, therefore, a faith position.

The atheist Richard Dawkins is sure that “being dead will be no different from being unborn,” but he has absolutely no way to prove that he’s right. He has faith that there is no God, judgment, or afterlife, just as I have faith that all three are real.

Faced with a faith decision we cannot avoid—and no one can avoid death—we do well to examine the evidence and then make our decision on its basis as best we can. Here’s the evidence upon which I base my hope of eternal life: the fact of Jesus’ empty tomb.

The fact that beckons when I doubt

I can prove to you without opening a Bible that Jesus of Nazareth existed, was crucified, and was believed by his followers to have been raised from the grave. When they began proclaiming the resurrection, the easiest response by the authorities would have been to produce Jesus’ corpse. This would have ended the Christian movement before it began.

But they did nothing of the sort. They fabricated the lie that the disciples stole the body only because they had no body to display (Matthew 28:11–15).

From then to now, the fact of Jesus’ empty tomb beckons to me every time the inevitable doubts of faith begin to find me. There is no logical explanation for it:

• If the disciples stole the body, they kept the secret better than any secret has ever been kept and then died tortured deaths for a lie.
• If the disciples went to the wrong tomb, the authorities would have shown them to the correct tomb.
• If Jesus had somehow resuscitated himself after his death, despite the spear that pierced the pericardial sac around his heart and the mummified airtight shroud in which his corpse was wrapped, he could not have performed the miracles that proved his resurrected divinity and sparked the Christian movement.

If Christ rose from the grave, he must be God. His word must be true. Trusting him must be the most reasonable decision to make. Sharing his hope must be the greatest gift we can give. And death must be the door to eternal life.

“The funeral of all his sins”

The Puritan Thomas Brooks (1608–80) noted:

“A Christian knows that death shall be the funeral of all his sins, his sorrows, his afflictions, his temptations, his vexations, his oppressions, his persecutions. He knows that death shall be the resurrection of all his hopes, his joys, his delights, his comforts, his contentments.”

Why is this reminder good news for you today?

Quote for the day:

“He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.” —Matthew Henry

Our latest website resources:

• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ‘67’
• Tariffs on trial, Nigerian Christian persecution, Dick Cheney, Mamdani and Dems win big & NFL trades
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps

Denison Forum

Toward the end of President Trump’s first term in office, his administration designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC). The label is given to nations that “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom” as understood under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. While the label was removed the following year by President Biden’s Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, Trump reinstated it this past weekend in response to increased scrutiny of the government’s failure to protect the Christians within its borders.

Designating a country as a CPC doesn’t lead to immediate sanctions or require the administration to follow through on Trump’s threats of military action and withheld aid. However, it does necessitate that Congress look into the matter, and representatives from the House Appropriations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee are preparing to do just that.

But while President Trump is the most powerful voice to raise concerns over the treatment of Christians in Nigeria, he’s far from the first. Senator Ted Cruz introduced legislation in August proposing sanctions against the country for violations of religious freedom. And the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has advocated for intervention for years.

The Commission’s report from August of last year describes in detail the myriad ways in which Christians have suffered at the hands of terrorist organizations and bandits, as well as at the hands of the government at the state and local levels. Despite the country’s constitution officially prohibiting the adoption of an official religion, it does permit the use of Sharia and blasphemy laws. Citizens are not supposed to be compelled to abide by them, but that hasn’t stopped local and state governments from using them to imprison, beat, and even stone those who fail to abide by their codes of conduct.

However, Nigeria’s Christians are not the only ones to suffer such treatment, and the reality of the situation is more complex than the headlines make it seem.

Boko Haram and violence in the North

As Conner Jones described on this week’s episode of Culture Brief, part of what makes the situation in Nigeria so complicated is that the nation has a population of nearly 240 million people, and it’s split relatively evenly between Christians and Muslims. Most of the country’s Christian population resides in the southern half, while the northern half is predominantly Muslim.

The vast majority of the violence is located in the northern and central parts of the country. In major southern metropolitan areas, like Lagos, Christian persecution is relatively low. In the north, however, militant groups like Boko Haram target both Christians and Muslims who will not go along with their brand of radicalized Islam. While followers of Jesus are 6.5 times more likely to be killed than Muslims, these terrorist armies have killed tens of thousands of their fellow Muslims as well.

To their credit, the government has tried to intervene at times, only to find that its forces are often outmatched. Just last month, Boko Haram overran a military barracks along Nigeria’s northern border and forced the soldiers to flee, leaving behind their weapons.

Yet, as bad as the violence is in the north, central Nigeria is even worse.

Fulani Herdsmen and a more complicated conflict

Isa Sanusi, the executive director of Nigeria’s branch of Amnesty International, said in May that 93 percent of the roughly ten thousand people killed by bandits in the last two years came from two states in the central part of the nation. But while there is undoubtedly a religious component to the violence in this region, economics play an important role as well.

The primary perpetrators of the attacks in central Nigeria are the Fulani Herdsmen. For generations, they raised their cattle and other livestock in a nomadic way of life. However, as the country’s population increased, more and more of that land was converted to farms, most of which are owned and operated by Christians.

That said, what started as a land dispute has since morphed into something else.

These radicalized groups have learned that it is often far easier to find support for their cause when they can claim it is motivated by religion. Moreover, at least in central Nigeria, they receive less pushback by targeting Christians than they would by attacking those who share their spiritual perspectives.

And while government officials claim that “both sides have been perpetrators and victims,” Zayiri Yusuf—a Nigerian political analyst—notes that “I am yet to find any Muslim community where people have been sacked and others came in to occupy those places.”

At the end of the day, even if the violence is motivated by more than religion, religion is still at the heart of the death and destruction that has turned Nigeria into “The deadliest country for Christians.”

So, what can we do about it?

How to pray for the persecuted

When faced with the reality of persecution to the extent seen in Nigeria, we have to start with prayer. However, we can intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ more effectively when we know enough about them to better empathize with what they’re going through. That means reading beyond the headlines and talking points to truly learn about their situation and the dangers they face.

So, while we pray for those who go to bed each night unsure of whether they’ll see the morning, we must also pray for those in the government who are genuinely trying to help but lack either the strength or resources to make a significant difference. And we need to pray that God would protect the Muslims who are being persecuted as well, understanding that those who perpetrate this violence do not represent the entire religion.

Taking the time to research the events and people for whom we pray will add depth to our intercession and help them remain on our hearts and minds far longer than if we simply offer a short prayer before moving on with our day.

Then, once you’ve prayed for those facing the threat of persecution, take some time to ask the Lord if he would ask anything else of you as well.

Wissam al-Saliby, the President of 21 Wilberforce, joined Dr. Mark Turman on this week’s Faith and Clarity podcast to discuss the persecution in Nigeria and around the world, as well as some of the more tangible ways that people can help. Organizations such as Open Doors, The Voice of the Martyrs, and others are also worth exploring.

We are all called to help

God is not going to ask most of us to share the gospel in areas where we might lose our lives for doing so. That may be his will for some, but even if it’s not your calling to go, we are all called to help.

So, before you close this article or pause this podcast, take some time to ask the Lord where he wants you to help. It could be as simple as setting reminders in your phone or on notes around your bedroom to help you remember to pray more frequently for those facing persecution. Perhaps he would have you donate your time or resources to one of the organizations trying to help those same people. Or maybe his calling for your life is to take the step of becoming more directly involved in taking the gospel to some of the world’s darkest places.

Whatever the case may be, know that he has a role for you to play in helping the lost come to know Jesus and in supporting your fellow believers as they attempt to do the same.

What is your role today?

Quote of the day:

“Every Christian a missionary; every non-Christian a mission-field.” —Winkie Pratney

Our latest website resources:

• Nigeria is becoming a “mass grave” for Christians
• Tariffs on trial, Nigerian Christian persecution, Dick Cheney, Mamdani and Dems win big & NFL trades |CB Ep. 44
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ’67’
• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy

Denison Forum

This week’s elections have been framed by many, especially those critical of President Trump, as a negative referendum on his second term. Some are even predicting that the Democrats’ victories portend a “blue wave” in next year’s midterms. By contrast, others suggest that Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral race is a political “gift” for Mr. Trump, so long as he understands voters’ frustrations that led to Mr. Mamdani’s ascension.

While I would not offer partisan advice to Mr. Trump as he responds to these partisan views, I have been reflecting on his approach to a far more significant election in his future.

The president dialed into Fox & Friends a few weeks ago to discuss the war in Ukraine. During the conversation, he explained his motivation for trying to broker an end to the conflict: “I want to try and get to heaven, if possible,” he said. “I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I am really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons.”

Prodded recently by a reporter to elaborate, he said, “I’m being a little cute. I don’t think there’s anything that’s going to get me into heaven. I think I’m not maybe heaven-bound.” He added, “I’m not sure I’m going to be able to make heaven, but I’ve made life a lot better for a lot of people.”

Saved by grace but living by works

Mr. Trump’s soteriology (doctrine of salvation) needs a significant biblical corrective. We are saved by grace and not works, by what Jesus has done rather than by anything we can do (Ephesians 2:8–9; Romans 11:6). If Donald Trump has trusted in Christ as his Savior, he is a child of God and has eternal life now (John 1:12; 3:16). If he has not, he urgently needs to make this commitment (2 Corinthians 6:2).

But I am focusing today less on the president’s soul and more on yours and mine.

My assumption is that you have already trusted in Jesus as your Savior and Lord. (If you have not, I encourage you to read my article, “Why Jesus?”, make the commitment I explain at its end, then reach out to a Christian friend who can help you grow in your new faith.)

My point is this: We know we are saved by grace, but many of us live by works.

We agree with St. Augustine that God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. We’ve heard pastors assure us that Jesus would die on the cross all over again just for us. But in every other dimension of our lives, we are what we do. Imagine appealing to grace when you undertake your next assignment at work, take your next test at school, or owe your next mortgage payment to the bank. Even marriage and family have performance-based conditional limits relative to adultery and abuse.

The same is true in a sense with our souls. As we have been discussing this week, we are commanded to love our Lord and our neighbor holistically and unconditionally (Matthew 22:37–39). This takes discipline and devotion: we go to church on Sunday, pray and read the Bible during the week, devote significant time and resources to Christian causes, and even read (and write) articles like this one.

But it’s not enough.

If you’re like me, you live with the knowledge that you don’t always love God holistically or your neighbor unconditionally. In fact, we fall short on both counts—sometimes far short—every day. And working harder to do better seems to be a path not to progress and holiness but to discouragement and burnout.

The supermoon and our sanctification

Last night we saw the brightest supermoon we will see this year. If we didn’t know better, we would think that this was because the moon itself became larger and more luminous.

However, astronomers inform us that the moon’s “light” is a reflection of the light of the sun and that the moon was closer to our planet and thus appeared to be larger and more luminous. I would not know any of this to be true if someone who knows more than me had not told me. My part is to trust their scientific expertise rather than my flawed observation.

So it is with our souls. Trying harder to be more godly doesn’t make us more godly, at least not in the long run. We need a source of light and wisdom beyond ourselves. And we need to trust that source even—and especially—when it contradicts our self-reliant culture.

What does God’s word tell us about spiritual progress?

• When facing temptation: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
• When facing decisions: “Trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6).
• When facing difficult circumstances: “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9).
• When facing death: “He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

In short, God alone is “able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).

As with astronomical wisdom, our role is to believe that this is so. As with the moon and the sun, we are to receive what our Source offers by grace and then to reflect that grace to a graceless world.

This means that we read Scripture, pray, worship, and serve, not so God will love us but because he already does. We practice spiritual disciplines not to grow spiritually but to position ourselves to experience the sanctification only the Spirit can effect in our lives.

“The best thing we will ever know”

First15, our ministry’s devotional resource, noted recently:

Of all the wonders our Creator provides us, boundless and unadulterated relationship with Jesus vastly exceeds them all. Jesus is the best thing we will ever know. His love restores, satisfies, transforms, and heals. His grace empowers and brings transcendent peace. His nearness resolves the great fears of our hearts. And his Kingship calls us to a right relationship of living for heaven rather than a pursuit of that which is worldly and fleeting.

Tim Keller was right:

“To be loved but not known is superficial. To be known and not loved is our nightmare. Only Jesus knows us to the bottom and loves us to the sky.”

When last did his love change your life?

Why not today?

Quote for the day:

“For breadth the love of Jesus is immensity, for length it is eternity, for depth it is immeasurability, and for height it is infinity.” —Charles Spurgeon

Our latest website resources:

• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ‘67’
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps
• What does the Bible say about transhumanism?

Denison Forum

As expected, Democrats Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia won their state’s gubernatorial races last night, while California voters approved a plan to redraw their state’s congressional map in Democrats’ favor.

However, the headline news is that Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City. Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Party and the Democratic Socialists of America, and he is the city’s youngest mayor in more than a century. On his campaign website, he advocates for freezing rent, fare-free buses, no-cost childcare, city-owned grocery stores, and tripling the City’s production of housing. He says he will pay for all of this by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthiest New Yorkers.

According to the Times of Israel, he has also refused to support Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, repeatedly accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, and vowed to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits New York City (where the United Nations is headquartered). In a 2023 video, he said, “When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF” (Israel Defense Forces).

However, Mr. Mamdani has vowed to fight antisemitism as mayor, and left-wing Jewish groups in the city supported him, though other Jewish voters fear that he “poses a danger to the security of the New York Jewish community.”

So, what kind of mayor has America’s largest city elected? Is he a radical socialist or a pragmatic reformer? A dangerous antisemite or an inclusive antiracist?

We will have to see what Mayor Mamdani does to determine who he actually is.

Why “the world is not enough”

In the 1976 movie Network, the character Arthur Jensen asserts:

There are no nations. There are no peoples. . . . There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast . . . interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. . . .

It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the national order of things today. . . . We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime.

You can make a biblical argument for his argument:

• Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit because it was “good for food” and a “delight to the eyes” (Genesis 3:6).
• Cain murdered Abel after God blessed Abel’s offering over Cain’s (Genesis 4:1–8).
• The Jews worshiped Canaanite gods who were purported to control the weather and thus the economy.
• When Jesus warned, “You cannot serve God and money,” the Pharisees, “who were lovers of money,” heard his words and “ridiculed him” (Luke 16:13–14).
• Among the wicked in Revelation are those who worshiped “idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood” (Revelation 9:20).

In a world of materialism, success is measured by material means. We are what we have, what we do, and what others think of what we have and do. But we can always have and do more and impress more people with what we have and do. We are never done.

As the fictional spy James Bond’s family motto proclaimed, “The world is not enough.”

This changes everything

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

According to economist Adam Smith, whose 1776 book The Wealth of Nations was extremely influential for colonial America, the “invisible hand of the market” guides society through self-interested choices to greater societal outcomes. As consumers want what we want, the free market produces goods and services that benefit not only us but everyone else. The astounding technological and material advances produced by capitalism over the centuries illustrate his thesis.

However, the “pursuit of happiness” our nation was created to secure, unalloyed by unconditional love for ourselves and others, can lead only to a zero-sum competition for materialistic success. And such success cannot meet the deepest hunger of the human heart.

This is why the third part of the Great Commandments we’re discussing this week is so important. As we have noted, Jesus famously taught us to love our Lord and to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:37–39a). Many people overlook the rest of the second command, however: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 39b, my emphasis). The phrase could be translated, “Love your neighbor in the same way and to the same degree as yourself.”

So, we might ask: How do we love ourselves?

If we love ourselves as transactionally and materialistically as the world loves us, we will similarly love our neighbor for what they do and have that is selfishly relevant to us. But if we love ourselves as unconditionally and passionately as God loves us, we will similarly love our neighbor as a beloved fellow child of our Father.

This changes everything.

“Reclaim your primal identity”

Philip Yancey wrote:

Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?

Henri Nouwen similarly urged us:

Look in the mirror each day and claim your true identity. Act ahead of your feelings and trust that one day your feelings will match your convictions. Choose now and continue to choose this incredible truth.

Then he added:

“As a spiritual practice, claim and reclaim your primal identity as a beloved daughter or son of a personal Creator.”

What is your “primal identity” today?

Quote for the day:

“Being the Beloved expresses the core truth of our existence.” —Henri Nouwen

Our latest website resources:

• If spreading the gospel was as easy as ‘67’
• How can Christians respond to persecution and defend religious freedom?
• Washington walks back attempts to single out Catholic clergy
• Trade deals, East Wing destroyed, NBA gambling scandal, election day preview & scented stamps
• What does the Bible say about transhumanism?

Denison Forum

In a democratic republic, politics and politicians will always play an outsized role in our culture. For example, this morning’s announcement that former US Vice President Dick Cheney has died at the age of eighty-four is making headlines even though his term in office ended sixteen years ago.

Today’s political races are dominating the news as well, from the mayoral contest in New York City to gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey to a redistricting vote in California. By my calculations, these elections will directly affect 80.3 million people, which is obviously a very significant number of people, but less than a quarter of our national population.

The larger story is what they mean for our own larger story.

• According to a new poll, 49 percent of Americans say our best times are behind us, while only 41 percent think they lie ahead. According to Politico, this underscores “a pervasive sense of unease about both individuals’ own futures and the national direction.”
• Only 39 percent of Americans believe the Republican Party governs in an “honest and ethical way”; only 42 percent say the same about the Democratic Party.
• Most Americans expect political violence to keep growing in the US.

We are not surprised by reports that Iranians are taught to hate America. But it is distressing that so many Americans are taught the same. In cultural commentator Andrew Sullivan’s latest blog, the Oxford and Harvard PhD graduate summarizes a new report on American higher education:

On race in American history, for example, only one viewpoint is actually taught: that the US is a white supremacist state that murders and imprisons black people as its core goal, that its real founding was 1619, its Constitution is a form of white tyranny, and racial “progress” is a lie designed to obscure this permanent reality.

Sullivan grieves for recent generations who have been indoctrinated in Critical Theory and its resultant anti-Americanism. Clearly, we live in a divided and divisive time in great need of a positive path toward a unified future.

The good news is that this path is as available and transforming as it has ever been.

“They are generally the same people”

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv thirty years ago today. I flew home from Israel that morning and heard the news upon landing in the US. In the years since, I have been many times to Rabin Square, the site that commemorates his tragic death. He was murdered not by an Islamic terrorist but by a Jewish extremist opposed to Mr. Rabin’s peace initiatives with Palestinians.

His death illustrates G. K. Chesterton’s maxim: “The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.”

We are clearly to love both. Jesus insisted: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). His words can be translated literally from the Greek, “Continually and unconditionally love those who hate you and ask God for their best even as they are persecuting you.”

Our Lord went even further when he taught us, “Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). To translate again, “To the exact same degree that I have loved you, you also are to continually love one another.”

Our Savior’s love was unconditional (Romans 8:35–39), sacrificial (1 John 3:16), and empathetic (John 11:35). Now we are commanded to love others, including those who hate us, in the same way.

Imagine the difference in America if every American Christian obeyed his command.

When I love my neighbor well

Of course, as we noted in discussing our love for God yesterday, such love for others is impossible in human agency. I cannot love my neighbor, much less my enemy, as Jesus loves me. I am a sinner, but God “is” love (1 John 4:8).

However, Jesus never intended me to do so. He wants to continue his earthly ministry through me as his “body” (1 Corinthians 12:27), which includes his ministry of love. He wants to forgive those who sin, comfort those who grieve, and heal those who hurt through me.

My part is to stay submitted to his Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and then measure success by what Jesus does through me (John 15:5). When my words and deeds express his love for those I serve, I love my neighbor well. When they do not, I do not.

This works in every dimension of life. If you’re a teacher, Jesus loves your students and wants to love them through you. If you’re a doctor, lawyer, pastor, or business person, he wants to love your patients, clients, congregation, and customers through you. If you’re a parent, he wants to love your children through you. If you’ve been hurt by someone, he wants to love even your enemy through you.

And he wants such love to transform not only our divisive and discouraged culture but our hearts as well.

Forgiving a concentration camp guard

In her classic autobiography The Hiding Place, Holocaust survivor Corrie ten Boom told this remarkable story:

It was at a church service in Munich, Germany, that I saw him, the former SS man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbrück. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. Suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking guards, the heaps of clothing, [her sister] Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, he has washed my sins away!”

His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. “Lord Jesus,” I prayed, “forgive me and help me to forgive him.”

I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. Again, I breathed a silent prayer, “Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.”

As I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.

I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his. When he tells us to love our enemies, he gives, along with the command, the love itself.

Why do you need her discovery today?

Quote for the day:

“If God should have no more mercy on us than we have charity to one another, what would become of us?” —Thomas Fuller (1608–61)

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can Christians celebrate Halloween?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why people stray into heresy

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are there any boundaries you need to redraw today?

Quote of the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

A submarine that sank itself

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The first effect of not believing in God”

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

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

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

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

Two: Defeat ungodly thoughts by focusing on godly truth.

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

Three: Advocate for biblical truth.

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

“Fill my lamp with your light”

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

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

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

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

Will you make his prayer yours today?

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

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s how.

How money can make you happier

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four practical responses

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

Our Father wants us to do just the opposite:

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

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

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

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

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

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

My grocery store friend

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

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

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

In whom will you “hope” today?

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

Why 380 million Christians are being persecuted

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Surviving the Bataan Death March

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

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

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

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

Colonel Oliver said to his fellow prisoners,

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

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

“Thank God I’m not the one in charge”

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

The old hymn therefore rightly declares:

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

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

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

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

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Or did you stand on the promises of God?

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

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

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

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

An epic battleground

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Lord, answer me”

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

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

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

The conclusion of the story is worth reading in full:

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

Is God truly your king?

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

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

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

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

The millionaire’s sacrifice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 “Print changed how people thought”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Politics in the age of short-form video”

Today, however, reading is in free-fall.

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

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

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

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

“The chief authority on which our faith is built”

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

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

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

Wheaton College New Testament professor Gary M. Burge warns:

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

“Did not our hearts burn within us”

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

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

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

When last did your heart “burn” within you?

Quote for the day:

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

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

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

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

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

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

But does it?

Love is a verb

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

Let’s think about this for a moment.

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

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

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

Consider:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Love wins” when it is his love.

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

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

Will you make his “awareness” yours today?

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That all men are created equal”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“That they are endowed by their Creator”

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

What does the Creator say about his creation?

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

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

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

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

Why is this?

“This is the summit of pure love”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

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

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

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

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

The “sacred inheritance of every human being”

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to “rejoice and be glad” today

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

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

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

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

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

“All earthly cities are vulnerable”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which “city” will you serve today?

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

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The path to hope for a better future

What do these stories have in common?

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

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

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

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

“On the soul thick midnight lies”

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

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

Where, then, is our hope? He continued:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Your job is not to be successful”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will you do your “job” today?

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

When our solutions make the problem worse

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

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

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

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

So, what’s actually going on?

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

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

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

Why headlines are dangerous

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

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

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

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

“A stranglehold on the free press”

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

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

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

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

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

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

The only solution to sin

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you willing to take that step today?

Quote of the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

Why, then, didn’t he?

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

They are not alone.

If you’re praying for much at all

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

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

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

Why didn’t he?

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

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

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

Two hopeful approaches to suffering

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

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

One: God uses suffering to grow us spiritually

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

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

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

Two: God works in the present for a better future

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

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

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

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

Translating the Bible with one finger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four years before his death, he said:

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

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

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

Truth and a Persian legend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“My flesh and my heart may fail”

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

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

By contrast, Asaph prays,

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

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

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

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

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

“Faith is to believe what you do not see”

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

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

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

Let us remember,

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

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

Quote for the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why TikTok is so addictive

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

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

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

Take responsibility for your life

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

As Freya India described:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Virtue or another vice?

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

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

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

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

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

Will you seek out that help today?

Quote of the day:

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

Our latest website resources:

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• Faith, science, and the call to hospitality with Dr. James Tour
• Who is Sean Feucht?

Denison Forum

President Trump wrote yesterday evening on Truth Social:

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

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

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

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

The memoir of a Hamas hostage

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

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

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

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

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

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

“When one has one’s wherefore of life”

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

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

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

As can all of us who call Jesus our Lord.

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

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

Marking the birthday of Jim Elliot

Let’s close with an example.

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

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

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

His wife agreed. According to Elisabeth Elliot,

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

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

Quote for the day:

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

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