Have you heard of “vampire facials”? This is the colloquial term for a “microneedling treatment using platelet-rich plasma—a component of your blood that can lead to impressive results when absorbed into your skin.” The treatment promises to “enhance the skin’s overall appearance.” However, it is also a way to contract HIV; a third case has now been confirmed from a now-defunct spa that offered this service.

In other news, a businessman named Mark Exposito is accused by prosecutors of raiding his company’s bank accounts to steal more than $8 million he and his wife used to support a lavish lifestyle. Exposito, the stepson of former US Senator Claire McCaskill, faces about two dozen wire fraud counts.

A dear friend alerted me to these articles and commented on them: “Although very different stories, they share a common thread: a desire to be someone other than God created us to be.” He added: “Sadly, they have missed the fact that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ by a loving Father. In pursuit of something else, we forget to whom we belong.”

Pastor and author Craig Groeschel agreed: “Being consumed by what people think of you is the fastest way to forget what God thinks of you.”

Abortion ban saves nearly 10,000 lives

Yesterday we discussed the importance of making public our faith stories of transformation by God’s grace. Using our influence to promote biblical morality is a vital way we can serve God’s kingdom and advance the common good.

For example, it is estimated that the abortion ban in Texas has saved the lives of nearly ten thousand precious babies. Our state’s pro-life policies are largely the result of decades of selfless service by pro-life faith-based advocates. Indiana is now seeing a similar drop in abortions for similar reasons.

Believers should be engaged not only in politics but also in public media. Jim Morrison was right: “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” And we should encourage people to join us for worship; studies show that those who do so regularly tend to have more close friendships, which can in turn lead to better health outcomes.

However, the most foundational way we can be catalysts for moral transformation is to be the change we wish to see. In his daily devotional, Dr. Duane Brooks recently included a sentence that would change every person who embraces it: “The only Bible we really believe is the Bible we live.”

Paul would have agreed. In discussing the characteristics of an effective faith leader, he stated that he “must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:7).

“There is a reckless abandonment about him”

In one sense, there is nothing sinful humans can do to make ourselves more holy. I cannot learn to fly faster if I do not have the inherent ability to fly at all. Watchman Nee was right: “Just as one cannot be saved through good works, one cannot overcome through good works.”

On the other hand, we are frequently encouraged by Scripture to practice the various spiritual disciplines such as prayer, Bible study, solitude, and meditation. Why are we to do so if such disciplines cannot sanctify us?

The balance inherent in spiritual growth is captured by Paul’s phrase: “sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thessalonians 2:13). On one hand, we are to “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (v. 15). On the other, we are to pray for God to “comfort [our] hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (v. 17).

As we work, God works. As we practice spiritual disciplines, we position ourselves to be transformed by God’s Spirit.

Our part of this partnership involves a daily commitment to know Christ in every circumstance of our lives. The spiritual genius Oswald Chambers observed: “The spiritual saint never believes circumstances to be haphazard, or thinks of his life as secular and sacred; he sees everything he is dumped down in as the means of securing the knowledge of Jesus Christ. There is a reckless abandonment about him. The Holy Spirit is determined that we shall realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and he will bring us back to the same point again and again until we do.”

Thus, “The aim of the spiritual saint is ‘that I may know him.’ Do I know him where I am today? If not, I am failing him.”

“The gleaming water in a jar”

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335–c. 395) commented on today’s theme: “The life of the Christian has three distinguishing aspects: deeds, words, and thought. Thought comes first, then words, since our words express openly the interior conclusions of the mind. Finally, after thoughts and words, comes action, for our deeds carry out what the mind has conceived.

“So when one of these results in our acting or speaking or thinking, we must make sure that all our thoughts, words, and deeds are controlled by the divine ideal, the revelation of Christ. For then our thoughts, words, and deeds will not fall short of the nobility of their implications.”

How do we do this?

Gregory continued: “Each of us must examine his thoughts, words, and deeds, to see whether they are directed towards Christ or are turned away from him.” This is because Jesus is “like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts of your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained.”

Will your thoughts and actions “show a likeness to Christ” today?

Denison Forum

Harrison Ford is making headlines again these days with the fifth installment in his iconic “Indiana Jones” film series. Consequently, his affair with Carrie Fisher when they were filming the original Star Wars movie in 1976 has been back in the news as well.

Fisher made their relationship public in 2016 as part of her memoir released shortly before her death. She was nineteen at the time of their affair; Ford was thirty-three and the married father of two. She claimed that the affair was not the cause of Ford’s divorce from his wife, which happened around the same time, reportedly calling their relationship a “minor digression.”

In all the coverage of their affair, I have seen no suggestion that what they did was immoral. In a day when more Americans than ever before consider sexual relationships of all kinds to be acceptable and half of US Christians say casual sex between consenting adults is sometimes or always acceptable, perhaps I should not be surprised.

But I am grieved. And, much more to the point, so is God.

What “the fool says in his heart”

This one sentence explains our moral crisis: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14:1a). Here’s why: if we are not accountable to God, we will be accountable only to ourselves or to other people. However, we are all “corrupt” (v. 1b). Consequently, we “do abominable deeds; there is none who does good” (v. 1c). This fact applies emphatically to us all: “There is none who does good, not even one” (v. 3).

However, one of the delusions of sin is that we are not sinners. World religions lead adherents to claim holiness by their standards, ameliorating the need for repentance and the one true God. Western secularism does the same, convincing us that we are good enough not to need the one true Source of all morality.

In fact, some in our culture celebrate the “fact” that they know what the rest of us do not and can therefore dismiss biblical truth as outdated, irrelevant, and even dangerous to society. On sexual morality, for instance, some are certain that Paul was wrong. (I once heard a religious leader say confidently, “We now know that Paul was a homophobe.”) Others assure us that the church has been misinterpreting the Bible on this issue for two thousand years, but they know better.

If we suggest that sexual relations are immoral outside of monogamous marriage between one man and one woman, we are ridiculed as hopelessly naïve, backward, and worse.

“Wage the good warfare”

This state of affairs is not new. For example, cultural elites in the ancient metropolis of Ephesus, called lumen Asiae (“the light of Asia”) by Pliny the Elder, claimed the same.

Paul exposed their delusions to Timothy, who was pastoring the Ephesian Christian community: “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions” (1 Timothy 1:5–7).

In so doing, they rejected biblical truth that is “not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted” (vv. 9–11).

The good news is that God’s grace is available to all: “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (v. 15). Sharing the gospel and the morality it advances is God’s charge to Timothy and to us as we “wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience” (vv. 18–19).

“The ultimate experience of life”

According to Dr. Billy Graham, “The ultimate experience of life is knowing God.” He pointed to Isaiah 6 as the archetypal text for knowing whether we truly know the Lord:

• We are convicted of our sinfulness: “Woe is me! For I am lost” (v. 5a).
• We confess our sin: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (v. 5b).
• We are cleansed from our sin: “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for’” (vv. 6–7).
• We are commissioned to tell others: “I heard the voice of the LORD saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me’” (v. 8).

By these standards, do you truly know God? If not, why not?

This issue could not be more urgent for your sake and that of your nation. The prophet warns us: “Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14). Again, quoting Dr. Graham: “There will be an end of history and the end of a world that has been dominated by evil. Jesus will come again and set up his kingdom of righteousness and social justice, and hatred, greed, jealousy, war, and death will no longer exist.”

Then he asked, “Are you ready for that day?”

Is America?

Are you?

Denison Forum

Bill de Blasio, the former mayor of New York City, and his wife, Chirlane McCray, recently told the New York Times that they are separating after nearly thirty years of marriage. However, they are not planning to divorce and will continue to share the townhouse where they raised their two children.

Instead, they are “opening” their marriage to date other people, choosing what is now known as “consensual non-monogamy.”

Marriage therapists say they have seen a definite rise in such arrangements. This is one version of “polyamory,” a growing movement to advocate for polygamy, “throuples,” and other forms of non-monogamous romantic relationships. Towns and municipalities are now legalizing such partnerships, fulfilling the warning by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (much ridiculed at the time) that the 2015 Obergefell decision legalizing same-sex marriage would open the door to polygamy as well.

“Let the marriage bed be undefiled”

We are living in a day when marriage is being redefined to include nearly any imaginable sexual relationship. However, God’s word could not be more clear: “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).

Are we witnessing his judgment in our day?

Our Father deals with us as gently as he can or as harshly as he must. Consequently, his judgment takes two forms: permissive and punitive.

The first phase of his response to sin is typically to permit us the consequences of our rebellion against his word and will. For example, when people “did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” (Romans 1:21), “God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves” (v. 24) with disastrous consequences that read like today’s news (vv. 26–31).

If permitting the consequences of our sins will not lead us to repentance, God must shift to punitive judgment in which he responds directly to our rebellion and unrighteousness. We see this in the Exodus, for example, and in his judgments described in Revelation.

“The single most common cause of marital dissolution”

It is clear that our nation is in at least the first phase of divine judgment against sexual immorality.

In 2001, 91 percent of Americans considered it immoral for married people to have sexual relations with someone other than their spouse, the very arrangement Bill de Blasio and his wife are announcing. Today, roughly 60 percent say the same; the more educated the respondent, the greater their acceptance of adultery.

What are the consequences of such sin? Research shows that “infidelity is reliably associated with poorer mental health particularly depression/anxiety and PTSD, and relationship dissolution/divorce which has been shown to adversely impact offspring.”

In fact, “across 160 societies, infidelity is the single most common cause of marital dissolution.”

Four practical responses

How can you and I avoid this trap?

First, define sexual morality as God does.

Jesus forbade lust (Matthew 5:28) because he knew it to be the root of all other sexual sins. This includes pornography, sexual fantasy, “emotional affairs,” and all other ungodly thoughts and desires. God’s standard is clear: sexual relations are reserved for a lifelong marriage covenant between one man and one woman (Genesis 2:24; 1 Corinthians 7:2).

Second, ask God’s Spirit to help you choose personal godliness (Ephesians 5:18).

You can “flee from sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18) when you use temptation to seek the help of God’s indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). “All noble things are difficult” (Oswald Chambers), but “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35).

Third, seek forgiveness if you fail.

If you confess your sins, God is “faithful and just” to forgive them and to cleanse you from “all” unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). This does not mean that we can simply sin and confess, then sin and confess. Even though God forgives all we confess, we must do so with a repentant heart that seeks not to sin again. And even then, the consequences of our sins will often remain.

Fourth, call others to godliness in a spirit of humility.

Our broken culture deserves to know the reality of God’s permissive and punitive judgment against our sins, but “speaking the truth in love” must be our mantra (Ephesians 4:15). St. Augustine observed: “Men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.” Don’t let this be true of you.

“The high soul climbs the high way”

It was my great honor last Saturday to deliver the message at the memorial service for Dr. Russell Dilday, longtime president of Southwestern Seminary and my mentor, hero, and spiritual father. Dr. Dilday’s most famous sermon and most prophetic book were both titled “Higher Ground.” In them, he called us to a civility that transcends rancor and a witness that transforms culture.

His sermon was prompted in part by a John Oxenham poem he recites in his book:

To every man there openeth a way and ways, and a way. The high soul climbs the high way; The low soul gropes the low, And, in between, on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro. And every man decideth the way his soul shall go.

Which way will you choose today?

Denison Forum