A ten-point buck sought shelter inside a southern Michigan church on Monday, the opening day of the state’s firearm deer hunting season. A video shows the animal wandering around the church auditorium, at one point climbing stairs to a balcony. It eventually leapt through a window and back out into the wild.

Unfortunately, not everyone is finding the same sanctuary inside churches these days. 

A Barna Group survey released Tuesday reports that 38 percent of US pastors have considered quitting full-time ministry in the past year. This percentage is up nine points since Barna asked church leaders the same question at the beginning of 2021. 

A Barna official explains: “All the chaos, all the pressure, the magnifying glass of social media, the pandemic, the politics, the hyperdigital context, it makes sense that you have a lot of pastors saying, ‘Is this really what I signed up for? Is this what I was called into?’” 

Pastors are not alone in needing help these days. Federal researchers reported yesterday that more than one hundred thousand Americans died of drug overdoses in the twelve-month period ending in April, up almost 30 percent from the prior year. Overdose deaths have doubled since 2015 and now surpass the toll of car crashes and guns combined. 

We live in the most advanced technological age in history. We have more wealth and means than previous generations could have imagined. What, then, explains the anxiety epidemic of our age? 

Why Ben Carson is an advocate for life 

Dr. Ben Carson was the keynote speaker for the Twentieth Annual Celebrating Life Luncheon in Dallas yesterday. The event was sponsored by the Council for Life, one of the most effective organizations supporting life I have ever known. I am honored to serve on their Advisory Board and to encourage their mission and ministry. 

The previous evening, the Council held a dinner for board members and invited guests. Matthew West provided worship music for the evening and for yesterday’s luncheon. I was privileged to interview them both as part of the program. 

As you may know, Dr. Carson was an award-winning pediatric neurosurgeon, named by CNN and Time magazine as one of America’s twenty foremost physicians and scientists and selected by the Library of Congress as one of eighty-nine “Living Legends” on its two-hundredth anniversary. He then became a candidate for president of the United States before serving as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He founded and leads the American Cornerstone Institute in promoting and preserving individual and religious liberty and serving all our citizens. 

During our conversation, I asked Dr. Carson how he had come to be such an advocate for life. He explained that he grew up in a very liberal worldview, one that was furthered by his education at Yale, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins. While he told us that he did not agree with abortion personally, he also believed that he had no right to force his belief on women. (This is the most common pro-choice explanation I have heard over the years.) 

However, he came to understand that abortion, which treats an unborn child as less than fully human, is very similar to slavery, which treats a person of a different race as less than fully human. Then he asked himself: “What if abolitionists had taken the same position on slavery that I am taking on abortion? What if they had said, ‘I don’t believe in slavery personally, but I don’t want to force my beliefs on slaveholders?’ Where would I be today?” 

Dr. Carson told our group that this reasoning led him to advocate passionately for all life, beginning at conception.  

Our perennial temptation 

Reflecting on his remarkable observation, I realized that the temptation to make others a means to our ends is endemic to fallen human nature and, therefore, every dimension of human experience. Like our first parents in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:5), you and I face this temptation every moment of every day. 

For example, God intends sexual relations to be the celebration of covenant love between a husband and a wife, while the so-called sexual revolution objectifies others as a means to our sexual pleasure. Our Creator makes each human in his image as a person of sacred worth, while pornography, prostitution, and sex trafficking make them objects of lust and greed. 

If murderers valued their victims as God does, what would be the impact on our homicide epidemic? If liars, thieves, and other criminals did the same, what would be the result? 

Slave traders and owners justified their horrific sin by viewing Africans as inferior to white people. White supremacists similarly denigrate Jews and ethnic minorities today. Over decades of pastoral experience, I have often met church members who objectify their pastor and staff ministers as their employees, measuring their value by their utility rather than their intrinsic worth as God’s children and servants. 

Three prayers that would change the world 

The way forward is found in Jesus’ Great Commandments (Mark 12:29–31), where we are taught to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. On this basis, you and I should pray three prayers every day: 

One: “God, help me to love you fully in response to your unconditional love for me.” 

The more we remember our Father’s sacrificial, passionate, absolute love for us, the more we will want to love him in the same way. 

Two: “God, help me love myself as you love me.” 

The more we remember what Jesus did to restore our relationship with our Father, the more we will find our self-worth, not in our possessions, popularity, or performance but in his never-ending, never-changing love for us. 

Three: “God, help me love my neighbor as you love me.” 

The more we experience God’s transforming love, the more we will be empowered and motivated to share it with every person we can. And the more we will love them as we are loved. 

Imagine the difference it would make in the world if Christians were known for loving others as God loves us. 

Now imagine the difference for the next person you meet. 

Denison Forum

Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, a megachurch in Washington, DC, held their first-ever “Gas on God” event last Saturday morning, giving 250 drivers $20 each to help pay for gas. The church’s executive pastor explained that “our desire has always been to meet the needs of the community” and hoped the commuters they helped “felt God’s love for them in a tangible way.”

That’s a church I would like to join.

There’s more good news in the news:

• The California School for the Deaf in Riverside, California, has made the New York Times due to their undefeated season as the highest-ranked team in their division.
• Sesame Street debuted Ji-Young, the show’s first Asian-American puppet.
• Chicago billionaire Ty Warner, who manufactures Beanie Babies in China, has responded to supply chain problems by booking more than 150 cargo planes to airlift the toys more than six thousand miles to Chicago for Christmas sales.
• A Jewish community is being rebuilt in Poland nearly eighty years after the Holocaust.
• And an emotional support duck ran the recent NYC Marathon in custom webbed sneakers.

Each story illustrates the same theme: news outlets know that people are grateful when we make public our personal values and victories. With one major exception.

Three seasons in my neighborhood

Walking in my neighborhood early yesterday morning, it seems like we are living in three seasons simultaneously. American flags left over from Veterans Day are still dotting some front lawns. Thanksgiving decorations and pumpkins are much in evidence. And more houses every day are displaying Christmas lights. Not to mention the signs and banners proclaiming allegiances to various high schools and colleges.

Why do we do this? Those inside these houses cannot see what they are displaying outside them. Unlike political posters that are persuasional by design, I cannot imagine that those who put out such holiday displays are trying to make those who pass by more patriotic, thankful, or supportive of Christmas.

One explanation is that there is something in us that wants to make public what matters to us personally. And our culture affirms this practice.

Even though there are more Americans with no religious affiliation than ever before, I am not aware of an effort to ban Christmas decorations lest we offend the irreligious among us. Even though some claim that the Pilgrims did far more harm than good to the Native Americans they encountered, I have not seen a national strategy to cancel Thanksgiving. Some proponents of the 1619 Project view America as endemically racist and flawed from its inception, but no one I know fears offending them by displaying American flags on Veterans Day.

However, if evangelical Christians seek to share their faith in public, a rising tide of opposition brands us as intolerant, discriminatory, and even dangerous.

A very troubling report

It is conventional wisdom today that all truth is personal and subjective. As a result, sharing Christ in public is viewed as the imposition of our beliefs on others. I have no right to tell you that you should like classical music, any more than you have the right to impose your love for ballet on me.

This view of truth extends especially to the claim that non-Christians need to trust Christ to escape hell for heaven (Acts 4:12). Such a claim is increasingly seen as intolerant in the extreme, a view that is affecting and infecting Christians as well as the larger secular culture.

For example, a very troubling Barna report recently showed that 47 percent of practicing Christian Millennials say it is wrong to share our personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.

As we move closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas—once religious holidays that are now broadly and deeply secularized—how should Christians respond in ways that draw people closer to Christ?

Balancing boldness with discernment

During his first missionary journey, Paul was stoned in Lystra and left for dead (Acts 14:19), but he revived and “rose up and entered the city” to continue preaching (v. 20). When he faced opposition in Corinth, he nonetheless remained in the city for eighteen months, “teaching the word of God among them” (Acts 18:5–11).

Conversely, when city leaders in Philippi asked the apostle to leave, he complied (Acts 16:39–40). And when crowds erupted against him in Thessalonica, he escaped the city by night (Acts 17:1–10).

Here’s the principle: balance boldness with discernment.

We are to “speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31) and courage (1 Corinthians 16:13). At the same time, we are to seek God’s leading as to where we go and what we say, knowing that his Spirit will give us the discernment to know when we are in Corinth and when we are in Thessalonica.

We must not be presumptuous, jumping from the temple and expecting angels to catch us (Matthew 4:5–7). But neither are we to shrink from the calling and privilege of sharing the only news that can save souls and change hearts (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If we will seek God’s leading at the start of each day and then through the day, he will guide us, empower us, and use us to speak his truth and model his grace.

When earth is “a part of heaven”

If we truly love Jesus, we will love everyone he loves enough to pay any price to help them love our Lord. We will seek the Spirit’s discernment in showing that love in its most effective ways to those we influence, but we will also testify with Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

The key factor to remember is that eternity is in the balance here. Every person you meet today will live forever in God’s presence in heaven or separated from him in hell. No price we pay to help them find salvation in our Savior is too high.

In The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis noted: “Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in hell; and earth, if put second to heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of heaven itself.”

Which will be true for you today?

Denison Forum

Russia made news over the weekend when they launched a missile into space and blew up one of their now-defunct Soviet-era satellites. The debris from the downed satellite is expected to remain floating in space for at least the next few years, complicating missions for astronauts at the International Space Station and anyone else who journeys beyond Earth’s atmosphere. 

As General James Dickenson, leader of the U.S. Space Command, described it, “Space activities underpin our way of life, and this kind of behavior is simply irresponsible.” He then added, “Russia is developing and deploying capabilities to actively deny access to and use of space by the United States and its allies and partners . . . . Russia continues to pursue counter space weapon systems that undermine strategic stability and pose a threat to all nations.”

Irresponsible seems like the operative word in that assessment.

You see, we can’t fully know what motivated Russia to launch that missile but, even if we could, it wouldn’t change the practical consequences of their decision. The debris would still be there, and every other country with aspirations of working in space will now have to deal with that new reality. 

The same is often true in our lives. 

Consequences beyond ourselves

It’s been said that we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions. Most of the time, that statement seems to be made in an effort to encourage people to have more grace for the mistakes of others and to try to see things from their perspective. And that’s a valid application. 

It’s also true, however, that it should help us remember that our intentions don’t change the consequences others must face when we make a mistake. It should motivate us to be a bit more introspective and a bit more aware of the fact that every choice we make has consequences beyond ourselves, and we need to be mindful of those consequences when deciding how to act in a given situation. 

As Christians, we are called to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3—4). 

That “selfish ambition” is not always the result of simply not caring about the needs of others. More often, it comes from an ignorance of the needs of others and how our actions will impact them.

So as you go through your day, ask God to help you be aware of how your decisions will affect those around you. Be intentional about considering the needs of others when assessing how you will act in a given situation. 

While I doubt any of us are planning to launch a missile into space anytime soon, the way that you approach your family at home, the coworker next to you, or the person driving next to you can still have practical implications that extend well beyond whatever your intentions might be. 

Denison Forum

In July 1969, Theodore John Conrad showed up for work as a bank teller in Cleveland. According to authorities, at the end of his shift, the then twenty-year-old stole $215,000 (the equivalent of $1.7 million today), stuffed it in a paper bag, and vanished.

Friday, the FBI announced that it had identified the man considered one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives. He had been living in Boston since 1970 under the name Thomas Randele. Investigators had chased tips in California, Hawaii, Texas, and Oregon. His case was featured on America’s Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries.

Financial documents helped them finally identify Conrad. However, he had already died of lung cancer in May of this year at the age of seventy-one.

You may think you have nothing in common with Theodore John Conrad. You’ve likely never robbed a bank or lived under a fake identity. You’ve committed no crimes worthy of the FBI’s attention or national publicity.

But you and I are more like Mr. Conrad than we’d like to admit.

Could deer spread coronavirus to humans?

Veterinarians at Pennsylvania State University reported last week that they have found active SARS-CoV-2 infections in at least 30 percent of white-tailed deer tested across Iowa during 2020. Their study raises the urgent question: If the entire human population becomes immune to the virus, could deer then spread it back to us?

Scientists have not yet determined whether deer can actually transmit the virus to humans. However, since there are an estimated thirty million deer in the US, the answer is obviously vital.

Less obviously, the story also illustrates a vital spiritual principle.

Christians are a “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have been “born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). But the virus of sin in our fallen world can still infect us.

Paul spoke for believers everywhere: “When I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Romans 7:21).

When we yield to temptation, however, we don’t want others to know it. We want to maintain the façade of external godliness. Like Theodore John Conrad, we’re living under a false identity, projecting an image to the world that is untrue to our real selves. And like Mr. Conrad, we think we are getting away with our “private” sin.

All the while, we continue to serve God publicly. We stand for the unborn and against abortion; we stand for biblical sexuality and against LGBTQ activism; we stand for biblical purity and against pornography and prostitution.

So long as no one sees our hidden sins, no one needs to know.

But Someone does.

A fact you may not have considered

Scripture attests, “The eyes of the Lᴏʀᴅ are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). There are no exceptions: “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).

You know this to be true already. But here’s a biblical fact you might not have considered.

In Romans 2, Paul states: “In passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things” (v. 1). The apostle does not mean that we have heterosexual affairs or commit homosexual sins. He means that we commit our own versions of the same sins we condemn in others.

For example, “You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?” (v. 22a). According to Jesus, lust is adultery (Matthew 5:28) just as pornography or sex outside of marriage is adultery.

Paul continues: “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (v. 22b). Idolatry is putting creation in the place of the Creator. It is valuing money more than our Master, pleasure more than moral principles, and personal promotion more than glorifying God. If we steal God’s creation for ourselves, we “rob temples.”

Then, when our personal lives contradict the faith we proclaim, secular people feel justified in continuing in their sins and in rejecting our Lord: “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (v. 24).

The vital question

In Zephaniah 1, we read of “those who bow down and swear to the Lᴏʀᴅ and yet swear by Milcom” (v. 5), the god of the pagan Ammonites. Commenting on this text, Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Duplicity is abominable with God, and hypocrisy his soul hateth.”

Then he added: “The idolater who gives himself to his false god has one sin less than he who brings his polluted and detestable sacrifice unto the temple of the Lord while his heart is with the world and the sins thereof.”

The great preacher concluded: “Christ will be all or nothing. God fills the whole universe, and hence there is no room for another god; if then he reigns in my heart, there will be no space for another reigning power. Do I rest on Jesus crucified, and live alone for him? Is it my desire to do so? Is my heart set upon so doing?”

The good news is that the Christ who reigns over the universe also lives in us by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). If we ask him to show us any secret sins in our hearts, he will do so (John 16:8). If we confess them and ask him to forgive us and cleanse us, he always answers our prayer (1 John 1:9).

For every follower of Jesus, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). Now the Spirit will help us love Jesus so much that we hate sin. He will help us love our Lord so passionately that we want to please him privately and serve him publicly.

But our Lord can give only what we will receive (Revelation 3:20).

Here’s the vital question: Do you want to love Jesus so much that you love all that he loves and hate all that he hates today?

Denison Forum

Gov. Greg Abbott is directing Texas education officials to investigate whether pornography is available in the state’s public schools and to notify law enforcement if such material is found to be accessible. In a letter to Education Commissioner Mike Morath, he noted, “The presence of pornography in schools is not only inappropriate, but it is also against the law.”

In previous correspondence, the governor cited two books removed from libraries in the cities of Keller and Leander. According to the Dallas Morning News, “Keller removed Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe after complaints of the book’s drawings and Leander removed In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, which describes sexual acts.”

Machado wrote a New York Times editorial defending her work. She describes her book as a memoir of “domestic violence or verbal, psychological, and emotional abuse in queer relationships.” In her mind, the book helps prepare students to “understand the world they’ll encounter, or even the lives they’re already living.” She dismisses allegations that her depiction of lesbian relationships is “grooming” students by normalizing such relationships.

However, normalizing unbiblical sexual activity has been an intentional and strategic initiative by LGBTQ advocates for decades. It gained early momentum through television shows such as Will & Grace and is now so ubiquitous as to be “normal” and thus successful.

For instance, 30 percent of American millennials now identify as LGBTQ, according to a recent study by George Barna. He notes that social and news media coverage makes it “safe and cool” for young Americans to identify in this way whether or not it represents their actual sexual orientation.

Elementary school takes students to a gay bar

I could fill the next twenty Daily Articles with examples of normalizing unbiblical morality, such as the elementary school that recently took students to a gay bar and Cecily Strong’s clown skit on Saturday Night Live advocating for abortion after describing hers.

However, my focus today is on how effective such normalization has been not just in the culture but also in the church.

For example, Barna’s survey found that just under 30 percent of Christian millennials also say they identify as LGBTQ. In addition, according to the Washington Post, 47 percent of younger evangelical Christians (born after 1964) now favor gay marriage. This is up from 16 percent in 2006 and compares with 26 percent of older evangelicals (born between 1928 and 1964), a figure which is up from 10 percent in 2006.

Such Christians are simply cohering with the norms of our day: 85 percent of unaffiliated Americans endorse same-sex marriage, as do 67 percent of Catholics, 68 percent of white mainline Protestants, and 44 percent of Black Protestants.

The two stages of judgment

We focused earlier this week on the biblical facts that a holy God must judge sin and that a loving Father must do all he can to lead his children from that which harms them to that which is best for them. Hosea 5 depicts the two ways our Lord judges sin for the sake of his character and our future.

The first stage is permissive. When his people persist in their sin but “go to seek the Lᴏʀᴅ,” he warns: “They will not find him; he has withdrawn from them” (v. 6). We find this stage at work in Romans 1, where God responded to those who “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” when he “gave them up to dishonorable passions” (vv. 25–26). The text adds: “Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (v. 28).

The second stage is active: “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue” (Hosea 5:14). These warnings came to pass when Ephraim (Israel) was exiled by Assyria in 722 BC and Judah by Babylon in 586 BC.

God’s purpose in such punishment, however, was redemptive: “I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me” (v. 15).

Does the first stage describe America today? If we do not repent and seek our holy God, will the second?

Some uncomfortable questions

How should you and I respond?

As I noted yesterday, God’s people are to be watchmen on the wall, warning those inside the city of impending danger (Ezekiel 3:17–21). We are the body of Christ, the visible manifestation of his continuing ministry in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

However, a speaker cannot expect her audience to believe a message she does not model. An obese fitness instructor or a tone-deaf singing coach will struggle to find employment.

Has the normalization of sin found you? Let me ask you some uncomfortable questions that I must answer for myself as well:

• Do you wince when a movie makes extramarital sex an expected part of its plot or when adultery is a punch line on a TV show?
• Do you grieve for those who champion and even joke about abortion or march in Pride parades?
• If your children or grandchildren were watching the shows or movies you watch, would you still watch them?
• Are you truly burdened for the spiritual condition of your neighbors, colleagues, and unsaved family members?

“An arm that always fights for us”

Br. Luke Ditewig of the Society of St. John the Evangelist writes: “Kingdom life is one of participation. To not act is just as bad as to overtly do something wrong. What we do or don’t do matters. God gives gifts—we are to receive and use them” (my emphasis).

The good news is that as we work, God works. If we will pray for boldness to stand courageously and compassionately for biblical morality, our Lord will always answer our prayers (cf. Acts 4:29–31). If we will ask the Spirit to help us use our influence to lead others to truth and transformation in Christ, he will empower and employ us in ways we may not fully understand on this side of eternity (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Charles Spurgeon noted, “There beats a heart in heaven that always loves us, a tongue that always pleads for us, an arm that always fights for us.”

Scottish minister John Baillie prayed: “Lord, do not let me rest content with an ideal of humanity that is less than what was shown to us in Jesus. Give me the mind of Christ. May I not rest until I am like him in all his fullness.”

Is this your prayer today?

Denison Forum

Colin Morrison grew up playing hockey. His love for the sport defined a large part of his childhood, and he played every season until joining the Marines after high school. But after spending 9/11 at boot camp and two tours in Iraq, he was honorably discharged in 2005. 

He picked the sport back up three years ago, though, and found the Warrior Hockey program shortly thereafter. He now leads their team in Arizona. 

As Amalie Benjamin writes, Warrior Hockey works alongside USA Hockey to provide injured and disabled US military veterans with “a way for them to find the camaraderie and support they experienced in their military units and a therapeutic tool for their mental health.”

Considering the rampant cases of PTSD and the high rate of suicide among veterans when compared to the larger population, such tools can be invaluable to helping those who sacrificed for our country find peace within its borders. 

As Mike Vaccaro, a participant in Warrior Hockey and one of its representatives to USA Hockey, described, most of the people who play have “invisible wounds” and are disabled as a result of their service. He also notes that the program is about “veterans helping veterans get through their emotions. . . . hopefully when those guys feel bad, they go on the ice and they can get through to their next day or their next week, whatever it takes.”

Colin Morrison added that, when they’re on the ice, “everybody’s out there, smiles ear to ear, laughing and having a good time. So regardless of what’s going on in our lives, that hour that we’re on the ice, that’s all gone. We all have our stresses or what life is, and most of these veterans have the additional stresses of dealing with their disabilities.”

The program has proved so effective that the Navy Federal Credit Union recently announced that they were donating $30,000 to the group on behalf of NHL Veterans Appreciation Night. That money will ensure the team can afford to continue meeting every week for the better part of two more years while providing a level of consistency and reliability that is especially needed given the challenges so many of the veterans face.

Helping those with hidden wounds

One of the most difficult parts of knowing how to consistently show appreciation for the men and women that have served and sacrificed on behalf of our country is that many of them return with wounds we can’t see. Their scars can fade from our memory long before they actually heal. 

That’s why some of the most effective ministries to veterans come from other veterans. 

There’s something about a shared trauma or similar experience that enables people to help in ways they otherwise could not. It’s a key part of God’s redemptive work and one of the reasons he places so much emphasis throughout Scripture on seeing our past trials as opportunities for ministry. 

As Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).

Colin Morrison and the others at Warrior Hockey exemplify this truth well. 

But all of us have some experience or trauma in our past that God can use to help others who are still struggling with something similar today. So ask God to help you recognize those scars in others, and be open to his guidance on how to bring some good from that pain by helping someone else.  

If you’re in the midst of that suffering now, ask God to bring someone into your life who can provide that kind of help to you. And be vulnerable enough to accept it when he or she comes. 

Pain and suffering are inescapable elements of this fallen life. But that doesn’t mean we have to endure them alone. In fact, we aren’t meant to. 

How might God use that truth in your life today?

Denison Forum

If you’re not familiar with the term the nones, you should get acquainted with it. 

One of the best ways to do that is by reading Ryan P. Burge’s book, The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going.

The nones represent both the demographic group in this country most likely to be reached with the gospel and the group most resistant to its appeal.

The reason behind that apparent contradiction lies in a quirk in the way that social scientists describe religious affiliation in this country, generally placing Americans in one of seven categories:

• Evangelical Protestant
• Mainline Protestant
• Black Protestant
• Catholic
• Jewish
• Observant of other faith traditions
• Nonaffiliated

The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going by Ryan P. Burge

These nonaffiliated Americans, the “nones,” are lumped together even though their situations differ. As a whole, they represent the fastest-growing category, and Burge is one of the leading experts on their rise. A pastor in the American Baptist Church, he is also a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University.

When raw data from the 2018 General Social Survey (GSS) came out, he began to crunch the numbers. “It had finally happened: the nones were now the same size as both Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants,” Burge wrote. “That meant that the religiously unaffiliated were statistically the same size as the largest religious groups in the United States.”

Burge put together a graph showing the trend, tweeted it, and, when he checked his phone later, found it had been retweeted almost one hundred times.

“What followed was one of the busiest periods of my life,” he wrote.

Reporters lined up to interview him. Most major news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and CNN, carried the story. C-SPAN interviewed Burge on Easter Sunday.

“Journalists, podcasters, and pastors were all asking me the same questions: How did this happen? And what does this mean for the future of American religion?” Burge wrote.

The Nones provides some of the answers, but there is still much to learn, including the number of nones. Estimates vary by as much as twenty million people.

Burge described the GSS as “the gold standard in measuring religious change in America,” largely because it has been asking questions about religious affiliation in basically the same way since the survey was created in 1972.

But it does not ask people who describe themselves as unaffiliated if they are atheist or agnostic. The Pew Research Center, on the other hand, offers three options for the religiously unaffiliated: atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”

In 1972, just one in twenty Americans said they had no religion. In 2018, the GSS indicated that group had grown to one in four. As the group has grown, it has become more diverse and now represents every segment of our society.

Mainline Protestants have declined from 30 percent of the population to 10 percent in about four decades, but Burge said it would be too simplistic to give this as the sole reason for the rise of the nones. Many factors seem to be at work, including secularization, politics, and the internet.

However, he wrote, “In essence, moderate Protestants are going extinct, while conservative Christianity is holding the line.”

Instead of people growing up in a religious tradition, drifting away from it in their teens and twenties, and then returning to it as they age, Burge wrote, “More people are entering adulthood without a religious affiliation, and they become more likely to stay a none as they age.”

He continued: “It’s clear that every successive generation starts out less religious than the one prior, but that’s only a part of the puzzle. As these young people [have] become more outspoken about their move away from religious affiliation, that gave permission to older people who had been sliding to disaffiliation to finally declare their true religious attachments. If this is truly the case, then many more nominal Christians are going to check the ‘no religion’ box going forward, and that’s not necessarily true just among the youngest Americans.”

Atheists and agnostics are much more likely to be openly hostile to religion than Americans who would check the “nothing in particular” box. And that’s of more than academic interest.

Burge put it this way: “If one wants to identify the harvest for new religious converts, it can be found in the one in five Americans who say that they are nothing in particular.”

Denison Forum

When I was twelve years of age, I took on a summer responsibility of managing the houses of vacationing neighbors. It was their idea, not mine. Three families that lived side by side were planning to be out of town for a month. They each needed someone to cut their lawn, feed their pets, water their gardens; in sum, make sure their properties were cared for. They invited me to take the job. More accurately, they asked my dad to ask me to take the job. He didn’t ask me. He told me. I didn’t want to do so. After all, I had Little League games to play, a bike to ride and, uh, uh, uh…those were the only two reasons I could muster. They got me no traction.

You Were Made for This Moment: Courage for Today and Hope for Tomorrow by Max Lucado

Before I knew it, I was sitting down with each of the families, making a list of the tasks I needed to manage on their behalf. I recall walking home from their houses feeling something I’d never felt before. I felt overwhelmed. Forgive me if my weight seems nothing compared to yours. Keep in mind, I was only twelve years old. To cut grass, feed pets, and make sure doors were locked in three households for a month? I mean, one family had a goldfish. I’d never fed a goldfish. I envisioned finding the little fellow floating on his side, dead from being under or over fed.

But there was no getting out now.

On the first day of my unsolicited career, I hurried home from baseball practice, jumped on my bike, and pedaled like crazy to the residences. Three lawns needed mowing. Three houses needed attending. Three sets of locks needed checking. Three families whose pets needed feeding. Three gardens needed watering. This was too much for any human being to handle.

Just when I was about to learn the meaning of the phrase “panic attack”, I saw it. Parked in front of the middle house. White, wide, and fresh off a day in the oil field. My dad’s pickup. He was there. The garage door was open, and the lawn mower was on the driveway.

“You start cutting the grass,” he said. “I’ll water the plants.”

With those words, everything changed. The clouds lifted. I could face the task because my father was facing it with me.

Your Father wants to do the same with you.

Seasons of struggle can be a treacherous time for the human heart. We are sitting ducks for despair and defeat. We turn away from others, turn our backs on God, and turn into fearful, cynical souls. Despair can be a dangerous season. But it can also be a developing time, a time in which we learn to trust God, to lean into his Word and rely on his ways.

The choice is ours. To help us choose the wise path, God gave the wonderfully wild story of Esther. The setting is Persia, 5^th Century BC. King Xerxes declared a holocaust. He plans to destroy all the Jews of his vast empire. Unbeknownst to him, his Queen Esther and one of the members of his court, Mordecai, are Jewish. Both have disguised their ancestry. Upon learning of the decree, Mordecai stripped himself of his Persian disguise. He cried out to Esther to intervene.

She resisted. Dare she risk her life and make an appeal to the fickle Xerxes? Mordecai’s reply was surprisingly sober.

“If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14)

Relief will come! How did Mordecai know relief would come? I can only assume that he stood on God’s Word. He remembered God’s promised deliverance of the Jewish people.

God would:

• Be their God and God would be their people. (Jer. 32:36ff)
• Gather them from all the countries. (Eze. 37:24ff)
• Send a king through them and to them to establish an eternal kingdom. (2 Sam. 7:16; Mt. 1:21)

He recalled the covenants and the covenant-keeping character of God.

Relief will come! This was Mordecai’s message for Esther. And this is God’s message for you. Feeling undone by the struggle? Then let God unleash the power within you to face it. Shift your focus away from the challenges at hand and ponder the power of your almighty God.

Don’t measure the height of the mountain. Ponder the power of the one who made it. Don’t tell God how big your storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is. Your problem is not that your problem is so big, but that your view of God is too small.

The next time you feel the weight of the world, talk to the One who made the world. As your perception of God grows greater, the size of your challenge grows smaller. If God can sway the heart of a Persian monarch and reverse certain death into victorious life, do you not think he can take care of you?

Relief will come. Your Father will give you strength to meet the day. By the time you reach your assignment, he will be there to help you.

Denison Forum

 “I’ve been imagining how they’ll write about me in a thousand years. If I do ever become Queen, what will I be? Insane?” In the new movie Spencer, this is how Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana muses about her legacy.

Released on Friday, the film takes place over Christmas 1991 at the Sandringham Estate, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s country homes. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the movie is just one of several new projects over the last year focusing on the late princess. Diana: The Musical opens on Broadway this month. The actress who played Diana in the fourth season of The Crown was nominated for an Emmy for her role. And a six-part documentary series currently airing on CNN seeks to reframe the story of Diana’s life for a contemporary audience.

I remember vividly the news of Diana’s death in a car crash after paparazzi chased her down a Paris tunnel nearly twenty-five years ago. The tragedy reminds us again of two facts: we could die today, but our legacy will outlive us. Remembering each fact helps us prepare for the other.

Why the Astroworld tragedy is personal for me

I’ve been especially contemplating death and legacy after hearing about the Houston Astroworld tragedy Friday evening. At least eight people were killed and dozens more were injured after a large crowd began pushing toward the stage during a performance by hometown rapper Travis Scott. I grew up in Houston and have visited Astroworld numerous times across many years. But what happened in my hometown could happen in yours as well.

It seems that reminders of our mortality have dominated the news lately:

• The number of American deaths due to the pandemic exceeded 750,000 last week.
• Marília Mendonça, a Brazilian singer and Latin Grammy winner, died Friday in a plane crash on her way to a concert. She was twenty-six.
• Saturday’s oil tanker explosion in Sierra Leone killed at least ninety-eight people.
• A series of bomb threats at Yale University caused the campus to be evacuated for five hours on Friday.
• Colin Powell was laid to rest during a private ceremony at Washington National Cathedral, also on Friday.

Yesterday’s New York City Marathon was dominated by Kenyan runners Peres Jepchirchir, who won the women’s race, and Albert Korir, who won the men’s race. Some thirty thousand competitors made the 26.2-mile journey across five boroughs. Unlike their race, which ended Sunday, your race and mine are not done until we are done.

And, unlike a marathon, none of us know where the finish line is for us.

“The land of Omri”

However, it is human nature to presume that we know more about the future than we do. Has it occurred to you yet today that you could die today? As I remind you of that fact, is your response one of urgency or one of indifference?

In My Daily Pursuit, A. W. Tozer writes: “I was scheduled to preach at a certain camp meeting one time, and when I arrived, they announced a night of miracles. The only thing that happened that night was that a man drowned in the lake. People tried to revive him and keep him alive, but he never did come to. There was no miracle around that place, at least that night.”

You and I cannot calculate today either the length of our lives or the significance of our legacies.

1 Kings 16 reports that a king of Israel named Omri “bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill” (v. 24). That’s the only accomplishment of Omri recorded in the text.

However, the English Standard Version Study Bible notes that “Omri’s house held the throne for over one hundred years, and the northern kingdom in due course became so identified with this dynasty that even after the Omride period it could be referred to in Assyrian records as ‘the land of Omri.’ This suggests that Omri was more a substantial international figure than could be deduced simply from 1 Kings.”

Why the difference? The author of 1 Kings records this as his true legacy: “Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and did more evil than all who were before him” (v. 25).

“All journeys have secret destinations”

The key to dealing with mortality and writing our legacy is the same: live this day fully for the Lord and trust tomorrow to his providential purpose and care.

Martin Buber was right: “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Warren Buffett added: “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” His observation is akin to Alfred North Whitehead’s assertion that great people plant trees they’ll never sit under.

If we surrender each day to Christ as our Lord, our days will become our lives and our lives will write our legacy.

Pastor Greg Laurie tells the story of this pivotal decision in the life of Billy Graham. In May 1938, Graham was heartbroken after the girl he thought he would marry broke off their relationship. He began taking nightly walks to pray. 

On one of these walks, he got down on his knees and cried, “Oh God, if you want me to serve you, I will.” 

Laurie writes: “After this decision, he experienced a newfound love and peace he’d never known before. A burden had been lifted and it gave him greater joy to serve. He saw in himself a new desire to witness and [to] share Christ, a new song in his heart and an unspeakable joy.” 

His days became his life, and his life became his legacy. 

Will you experience a “new song in your heart” today?

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

Why empathy is so vital

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

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

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

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

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

A friend’s wise advice

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

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

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

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

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

“On purpose for a purpose”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Using skateboards to win souls

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

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

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

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

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

How to “turn the world upside down”

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

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

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

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

Who is the “builder of your destiny”?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will you make her prayer yours today?

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

Choosing between Halloween and All Saints Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

You’re either going up or down

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

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

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

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

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

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

“As small as your controlling desire”

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

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

What is your “dominant aspiration” today?

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

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

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

An illusion that illustrates a cultural fact

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

The Delboeuf Illusion (Image credit: Public Domain)

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

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

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

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

“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers”

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

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

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

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

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

Why we should “keep in step with the Spirit”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If not, why not?

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

High school stages “drag ball” for homecoming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Prisoners serving other prisoners

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

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

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

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

Jane Marczewski on “a story worth writing”

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

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

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

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

Why do you need the courage of Christ today?

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

Witness real-world sets

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

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

Lewis’ reluctant conversion 

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

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

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

How to watch The Most Reluctant Convert 

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

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

“The nation is coming apart”

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

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

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

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

A verse that changes everything

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

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

One: Pray together.

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

Two: Pray passionately.

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

Three: Pray specifically.

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

Four: Pray to God.

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

How to “turn the world upside down”

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

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

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

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

Twenty-seven soldiers

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

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

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

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A term that explains our times

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

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

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

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

“The great essential of fitness”

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

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

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

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

God’s vision for our world

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

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

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

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

he defining moment of Desmond Tutu’s life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Denison Forum

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

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

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

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

Donald Trump is launching “TRUTH Social”

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

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

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

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

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

“The key to a fulfilled life”

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

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

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

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

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

Why Luka Doncic is already an MVP

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who will walk under your “streetlight” today?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hypersonic weapons and submarine missiles

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

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

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

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

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

If Peter, why not James?

How Peter died

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

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

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

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

Not a wall but a door

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

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

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

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

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

A lesson from a podcast host

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

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

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

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

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