I planned to write today’s Daily Article about golfer Scottie Scheffler’s response to his early-morning arrest last Friday and the global coverage that has ensued. Then word came this morning that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash Sunday in northwestern Iran. A hard-line protégé of the country’s supreme leader, his death is likely to set off what the Atlantic is calling “a fierce scramble for power” in the Islamic nation.

The two stories offer the same reminder in starkly disparate ways: the time to prepare for the inevitable crises of life is before they happen.

Dwight Moody noted that “character is what you are in the dark.” However, our character is revealed to a skeptical world when the bright light of adversity shines on us. And none of us knows when that moment is coming.

To be the people we most want to be, there is a choice we can make right now. Its consequences will shape this world today and echo in the next world forever.

“That’s what I admire the most”

As everyone who follows the news knows, the world’s No. 1 golfer was arrested Friday morning. A man had been struck and killed by a shuttle bus earlier that morning; Scheffler tried to drive around the crash scene when he was arrested by an officer and taken to jail.

Golf Digest has an in-depth account of what happened and what happens next; most observers seem to think this was a misunderstanding. According to the Wall Street Journal, other golfers at the scene “described a rare level of pandemonium.” One said of Scheffler’s arrest, “That could have been any one of us.”

After he was booked and released, Scheffler stated, “There was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do. I never intended to disregard any of the instructions.” He added: “All of us involved in the tournament express our deepest sympathies to the family of the man who passed away in the earlier accident this morning. It truly puts everything in perspective.”

Amid all the controversy, Scheffler finished the tournament tied for eighth at 13-under. But my point was made by a commentator I heard respond to the story over the weekend: “Of all the things Scheffler could have said, you know what he didn’t say? He didn’t tell the officer, ‘Do you know who I am?’ He’s the world’s No. 1 golfer, but he didn’t try to use his status. That’s what I admire the most.”

“The physical organism through which Christ acts”

We cannot ask others to be what we are not or lead them further than we are willing to go. A dentist with bad teeth is unlikely to have a thriving practice. A lawyer in constant legal trouble will have few clients but himself.

WHO DEFINES SEXUALITY?

This is especially true for Christians, since as C. S. Lewis noted, we claim that “Christ is actually operating through [us]; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts—that we are his fingers and muscles, the cells of his body.”

As a result, seeking to be godly is our first step in persuading anyone else to be godly.

After Scottie Scheffler won his second Masters championship last month, he told interviewers: “I believe in Jesus. Ultimately, I think that’s what defines me the most.” He added, “I’ve been called to come out here, do my best to compete, and glorify God.”

It’s one thing to honor the Lord when you win golf’s most prestigious tournament. It’s another to act with humility when you are arrested and thrust into the glare of the global media.

“The splendor that irradiates our understanding”

Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday, commemorating the day when early Christians were “filled with the Spirit” and launched the mightiest spiritual movement the world has ever seen (Acts 2).

St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315–c. 367) was a champion of orthodoxy and one of the most brilliant theologians in Christian history. In his treatise On the Trinity, he wrote:

We receive the Spirit of truth so that we can know the things of God. In order to grasp this, consider how useless the faculties of the human body would become if they were denied their exercise. Our eyes cannot fulfill their task without light, either natural or artificial; our ears cannot react without sound vibrations, and in the absence of any odor our nostrils are ignorant of their function. . . . It is the same with the human soul. Unless it absorbs the gift of the Spirit through faith, the mind has the ability to know God but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge.

This unique gift which is in Christ is offered in its fullness to everyone. It is everywhere available, but it is given to each man in proportion to his readiness to receive it. Its presence is the fuller, the greater a man’s desire to be worthy of it. This gift will remain with us until the end of the world and will be our comfort in the time of waiting. By the favors it bestows, it is the pledge of our hope for the future, the light of our minds, and the splendor that irradiates our understanding.

St. Hilary was right: we experience the power of the Spirit to the degree that we wish to experience it. That decision is best made at the start of each day, seeking to be “filled” and controlled by the Spirit as we yield our lives to him (Ephesians 5:18).

Scottie Scheffler had no idea when last Friday began that he would soon find himself in a jail cell. You and I have no idea how this Monday will unfold. Consequently, the moment to submit to the Spirit and seek his empowering direction and holiness is now. The time to prepare for the crisis—or the opportunity—is before it comes.

The question I’ve written this article to ask

Billy Graham wrote: “The Holy Spirit is God himself, as he comes to live within us.” He noted that the Spirit “comes to convict us of our sin,” he “gives us new life” as we trust in Christ, and he “produces fruit in our lives” as we reflect his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23). Dr. Graham added, “This fruit comes as we yield ourselves to the Spirit.”

Then he closed with the question I’ve written this article to ask:

“How yielded is your life today?”

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Monday news to know:

• Iran’s Supreme Leader approves Mokhber as interim president, declares 5 days of mourning
• US and Europe move closer to using Russian assets to help Ukraine
• What it’s like being Jewish at Harvard
• The lunch rush is dead as Americans live for the weekend
• On this day in 1506: Christopher Columbus dies

Quote for the day:

“When we have the Holy Spirit we have all that is needed to be all that God desires us to be.” —A. W. Tozer

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Black holes are objects in the universe with a gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape from them. “Stellar” black holes are formed by the collapse of individual stars, while “supermassive” black holes are found at the centers of most galaxies. The one at the center of our Milky Way has a mass of around 4.3 million times that of our sun. Now NASA has produced a simulation in which the viewer begins around four hundred million miles from a supermassive black hole and rapidly falls toward it. Light and time both warp around you. Unfortunately, however, you have only 12.8 seconds before you die by what physicists call “spaghettification”—your body is pulled apart atom by atom.

There are days when it seems this is happening to our culture.

For example, I was shocked to read that pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a solemn remembrance march to honor the victims of Nazi atrocities at Auschwitz. Some of the protesters even wore yellow badges resembling those forced on Jews by the Nazis.

This time last year, could you have imagined such a horrific scene?

One reason antisemitic protests persist is that there has typically been so little accountability for them. Many protesters even wear masks to hide their identities; others insist on amnesty for their actions. By contrast, where authorities have enforced their “time, place, and manner” restrictions, order has prevailed.

There’s a lesson here Christians can especially embrace and offer our broken culture.

“The most civilizing force in all of human history”

Criminology experts tell us that deterrence measures discourage people from committing crimes to the degree they guarantee swift punishment with a severity proportional to the crime committed. The certainty of being caught has proven to be an even more powerful deterrent than the punishment that follows.

Here’s one reason our post-Christian society is breaking apart: when we no longer consider God to be relevant to our lives or even to exist, we ignore the moral accountability such faith brings to our lives and our world.

Cultural commentator Jonah Goldberg wrote in Suicide of the West: “The notion that God is watching you even when others are not is probably the most powerful civilizing force in all of human history.” He adds:

WHO DEFINES SEXUALITY?

In our book, Sacred Sexuality: Reclaiming God’s Design, we look at God’s intentions for our flourishing.

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If you think God is watching and speaking to you through conscience—or through what Adam Smith called ‘the impartial spectator’ within us—you’re going to think twice about your actions. Or at least it will give you a strong incentive to think twice.
Believing there is something outside of you, judging you by an external ethical or moral standard, gives you a standard to think about yourself that is outside yourself.

This is why “the fear of the Lᴏʀᴅ is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Scripture is clear: “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). On that day:

Each one’s work will become manifest, for the [Judgment] Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation [of Christ] survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:13–15).

If Jesus is your Savior and Lord, your eternal salvation is assured (cf. John 10:28), but your eternal rewards or loss of rewards are not. Even when we confess our sins and are forgiven for them (1 John 1:9), we lose the rewards we would have received had we chosen obedience rather than disobedience.

“In this Little Thing I saw three properties”

My purpose today is not to evoke a “sinners in the hands of an angry God” reaction (though Jonathan Edwards’ homiletical masterpiece should be required reading for us all). Rather, it is to suggest that God’s warning of judgment to come is not only a necessary expression of his holy nature (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8), but also a great gift from the One who “is” love (1 John 4:8).

Like any good father, it is because God loves us that he warns us away from all that is not best for us. Because he loves us, we can always know that his will for us is “perfect” (Romans 12:2) and that violating his will is therefore harmful for us.

If your doctor was omniscient and omnibenevolent, would you not obey her medical directions whether you understood their purpose or not?

In Revelations of Divine Love, Julian of Norwich (1342–c. 1416) records a vision in which she saw “a little thing, the quantity of a hazel-nut, in the palm of my hand.” It seemed small and fragile, but she came to understand that it was the entire universe, “all that is made.”

Then she reported:

“In this Little Thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second is that God loveth it, the third, that God keepeth it.”

All three “properties” are completely true of you.

How obediently will you respond to such grace today?

Thursday news to know:

• Biden says US won’t transfer offensive weapons if Israel invades Rafah
• Mike Johnson easily survives ouster attempt from Marjorie Taylor Greene
• Federal judge indefinitely postpones Trump classified documents trial
• 3 dead from severe storms, tornadoes in Tennessee, North Carolina
• On this day in 1960: FDA approves “the pill”

Quote for the day:

“The whole duty of man is summed up in obedience to God’s will.” —George Washington

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Nearly every headline in the news today is about something we wish was different but feel powerless to change. For example:

• During a Holocaust memorial ceremony at the US Capitol yesterday, President Biden condemned a “ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world” and pointed to “vicious propaganda on social media.” He’s tragically right, but what can be done about this?
• Miss USA gave up her crown, citing a need to protect her mental health. One in five Americans lives with a mental illness, but 60 percent give a poor or failing grade to how such conditions are treated in our country. As loneliness and depression continue to escalate, what can be done?
• Ukraine says it foiled an alleged Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky. As Russia intensifies its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, what can be done to halt its offensive?

The good news is that no matter how hopeless we may feel in these chaotic days, Christians can embrace and share a hope the world can neither recreate nor destroy.

Let’s take a two-step journey into such hope today.

What do you hope “for”?

Research correlates hope with positive emotions, a stronger sense of purpose and meaning, lower levels of depression, and less loneliness. High-hope people experience better physical health and a reduced risk of mortality, chronic illness, cancer, and sleep problems.

Who wouldn’t want more hope?

However, hope has no independent status or reality. It is not a thing like a desk or a chair. We either hope “for” something or we hope “in” something.

Both are vital to being people of hope.

• French President Emmanuel Macron is warning that if Russia wins in Ukraine, European security will lie in ruins. I am therefore hoping for Ukraine’s success in the war.
• A Foreign Affairs article reports that America’s adversaries are uniting to overturn the global order. For example, Russia’s offensive is employing weapons fitted with technology from China, missiles from North Korea, and drones from Iran. I am therefore hoping for a future that does not include World War III.
• Another Foreign Policy article explains that America’s superpower status is difficult to project to areas where our adversaries are neighbors to our allies (Russia with Ukraine, China with Taiwan, North Korea with South Korea). I am therefore hoping for means of deterring them that, once again, do not include World War III.

For what do you hope most today?

What do you hope “in”?

But hoping “for” is of no practical benefit unless whatever we hope “in” can do what we hope it can do. Here is one way the gospel lives up to its definition as “good news.”

WHO DEFINES SEXUALITY?

In our book, Sacred Sexuality: Reclaiming God’s Design, we look at God’s intentions for our flourishing.

The eminent psychologist and Pulitzer Prize winner Erik Erikson believed hope to be a foundational virtue for the best kind of life. He also linked it to the “major creedal values” of religion. Extensive research now supports this connection, demonstrating that religious beliefs, practices, and communities clearly and powerfully inspire hope.

Christians can take a step further: we have historical, evidential, empirical reasons for placing our hope where we do. As St. Augustine reminded us, we are post-Easter people.

Unlike any other religious figure, our risen Lord defeated death and the grave. He promises to do the same for all who place their hope in him (John 11:25–26). And we know that he will come again for us individually (John 14:3) or collectively (Hebrews 9:28) to take us to “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1) where we will “rest from [our] labors” (Revelation 14:13) in a paradise beyond our imagining (1 Corinthians 2:9).

These are promises no other figure in human history has been able to make. And, as Dwight Moody noted:

“God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”

My college advisor died this week

In the meantime, we can remember all God has done as we trust him for all he will do.

Today is V-E Day, celebrated by Great Britain and the United States as the end of World War II in Europe. But before there could be V-E Day, there had to be D-Day nearly a year earlier. The Allied invasion at Normandy, France, marked the beginning of the end for Hitler’s forces. Between D-Day and V-E Day, the war still raged but its outcome was determined.

You and I live between D-Day, when our Lord invaded our fallen planet, and V-Day, when he will return. Spiritual conflict still rages (Ephesians 6:12), but its outcome is sure (cf. Matthew 25:31).

This fact became especially personal for me this week when I learned that my college faculty advisor had died.

Dr. Gene Wofford was a gracious educator and a wise mentor. I will always remember the time in a Christian doctrine class when he claimed he could summarize the Book of Revelation in two words. Seeing the surprised looks on our faces, he smiled and said, “We win.”

Now, in the very presence of his Savior, Dr. Wofford knows he was right. If Christ is your Lord, so will you one day.

Why do you need this hope today?

Wednesday news to know:

• Biden administration halted bomb shipments to Israel over Rafah invasion concerns, reports say
• Testifying in hush money trial, porn actor Stormy Daniels describes first meeting Trump
• New US strategy looks to blunt Russian and Chinese influence in cyberspace
• Boy Scouts rebrands as Scouting America, dropping gendered name
• On this day in 1884: Harry S. Truman is born

Quote for the day:

“However many blessings we expect from God, his infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.” —John Calvin

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