There are an estimated 115,000 weddings per day around the world, but one that occurred yesterday is making global headlines this morning. Here’s why: the bride wore fatigues, the groom wore a helmet, and the wedding party carried rifles and RPGs. Their wedding took place next to a military checkpoint in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Kyiv’s mayor attended the ceremony and noted that a week ago, the couple were “normal people” with no plans to carry weapons. Now “they want to defend our city together.” 

This courageous couple is simply following their president’s example. 

Andriy Yermak is head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine. He recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in which he stated, “I am writing this appeal from a bunker in the capital, with President Volodymyr Zelensky by my side. For a week, Russian bombs have fallen overhead. Despite the constant barrage of Russian fire, we stand firm and united in our resolve to defeat the invaders. We will fight to the last breath to protect our country.” 

Rep. John Garamendi, a senior member of the House of Representatives armed services committee, spoke with Mr. Zelensky on Saturday and said later, “He knows that he is at the top of the kill list, and he knows that his life is in jeopardy, but he has pushed that aside to lead this nation.” Rep. Garamendi called him “an incredible man of courage and leadership.” 

“The face of Ukrainian resilience” 

An article in the New Yorker by David Remnick is headlined, “Volodymyr Zelensky leads the defense of Ukraine with his voice.” Remnick describes Mr. Zelensky as having “assumed the role of Winston Churchill.” 

Michael Blake, a political philosopher at the University of Washington, notes that “whatever happens in the coming weeks,” the president “will go down as the face of Ukrainian resilience during the Russian invasion of his country.” He contrasts Mr. Zelensky’s everyman story with Vladimir Putin’s carefully cultivated “strongman” persona. In his opinion, Mr. Zelensky’s appeal resides largely in “the most central lesson of democratic politics—that our leaders are no better, morally speaking, than those they lead.” 

In a Western secular sense, Dr. Blake is absolutely correct. America’s founding document, for example, rejects the monarchy of our mother country for the assertion that “all men are created equal.” There’s a reason our presidential candidates appear at state fairs and town hall gatherings across the country. 

When they succeed, we feel that we have all succeeded. If someone can do something, Americans think we can do it. This Western focus on the individual stands in contrast to the stratified cultural classes of Europe, the class-centric ideology of Marxism, the caste system that still exists in many ways in India, and the tsarist and emperor-driven historical narratives of Russia and China. 

Mr. Zelensky is especially emblematic of this anyone-can-be-someone ethos. I wrote a biography of him for our website last Friday in which I chronicled his unlikely rise from improvisational comedy, television, and movie roles to president of his nation. 

“Struggling with all his energy” 

Offering the world a transformational example they can follow is a biblical model as well, but with an important caveat. 

Paul encouraged the Philippians, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:9, my emphasis). It was not enough for the apostle to have taught them what they should practice—he showed them by his personal example that they could do so. 

But here’s what makes the biblical leadership-by-example ethos different from the secular modeling Dr. Blake and others are celebrating with regard to Volodymyr Zelensky’s courageous leadership: Christians know that the most powerful source of character and courage does not lie within us. 

Paul testified, “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:29, my emphasis). He embraced his Father’s assurance, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9) and could therefore state, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13 NKJV). 

As we work, God works. As God works, we work. 

“The founder and perfecter of our faith” 

The writer of Hebrews 12 captured this balance perfectly. 

First, he reminded us that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” and encouraged us to emulate them: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (v. 1). 

Second, he showed us the power to run our race: “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (v. 2). 

When we remember what others have done in the power of Christ, we are encouraged to emulate them by making their Source ours and finding in Jesus the strength and hope we need. Then others will follow our example by trusting our Lord as theirs. 

“The thing that tells in the long run” 

As we intercede for Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Yermak, and other courageous Ukrainians, let’s pray not only for their courage, protection, and perseverance. Let’s also pray for God to redeem their suffering by leading them to Jesus and the source of strength they need most. 

Then let’s pray the same for ourselves. I often warn myself and others that self-sufficiency is spiritual suicide. Our greatest need as Christians is to be empowered and transformed every day by Christ (Romans 8:29; Ephesians 5:18). 

Oswald Chambers was right: “The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen, and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God. Ask God to keep the eyes of your spirit open to the Risen Christ.” 

Are your eyes open to him today?

Denison Forum

Buckingham Palace announced yesterday that Queen Elizabeth II has tested positive for coronavirus. The ninety-five-year-old monarch is reportedly experiencing mild cold-like symptoms but expects to continue light duties at Windsor over the coming week.

One fact the pandemic has made emphatically clear is that we are each mortal. We enter this world with nothing and we leave it with nothing. One day, the queen will stand alone before the King, as will we all: “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).

If we could all remember that fact, our world would be dramatically transformed. My friend John Stonestreet is right: “Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims.”

“The biggest war in Europe since 1945”

CBS News reported yesterday that Russian commanders have received orders to proceed with an invasion of Ukraine and commanders on the ground are now making specific battlefield plans. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said all signs suggest that we are on the brink of an invasion. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC that Russia is planning “the biggest war in Europe since 1945.”

Meanwhile, the Winter Olympics came to a close in China yesterday, ending what the New York Times is calling “a games marked by triumph, heartbreak, and scandal.” China’s horrific treatment of the Uyghur people has been in the headlines since 2014, with more than a million Turkic Muslims in this northwestern region of China incarcerated. This is being called “the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II” with forced abortions, forced sterilization, forced birth control, forced labor, torture, and brainwashing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is in such complete control of his government and military that the Moscow Times called him “a modern-day Tsar.” China is ruled by the seven members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo but led in actuality by Xi Jinping, who is general secretary, president, and head of the military.

Both men reflect the cultural narratives of their cultures. Russia has historically been governed by a single strong leader, whether a tsar, a General Secretary of the Communist Party, or a president. China has functioned in a similar fashion across its history, whether its leaders were emperors or Communist officials.

When we usurp God’s throne

By contrast, America’s founding ideal is captured in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This ethic is itself founded on the Judeo-Christian worldview and its claims that every human is equally created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) but also equally fallen and sinful (Romans 3:23).

Here we find the two catalytic reasons for our republic: we are each equally deserving of life, liberty, and happiness, but we are each so finite and fallen that none of us can be trusted with unaccountable power and authority. For both reasons, there should be no kings, tsars, despots, or otherwise unelected leaders among us.

In Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, our founders created a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

My purpose is not to extol my country in contrast with others. Admittedly, our nation, as it is led by fallen people, has not fully lived up to our constitutional values. The man who wrote the Declaration was a slave owner who fathered children by one of his slaves. It took a civil war and another century of civil rights advances to eradicate governmentally sanctioned racism and Jim Crow laws. We still have far to go to realize fully our ideals.

But my point is this: the equality of all people is our ideal. Like Queen Elizabeth II, we are all mortal: “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). When we usurp God’s throne and seek to be our own gods (Genesis 3:15), tragedy soon ensues, whether in the garden of Eden, Ukraine, China, or our own backyards.

“Christianity is a power religion”

Imagine a world in which every person valued every other person equally as made in God’s image. Imagine a world in which our leaders saw themselves as servants of those they led (cf. John 13:14–15). These ideas would have monumental and transformative consequences for our entire world. By contrast, rejecting them leads to victims of every kind, including adultery in marriage, child abuse in families, crime in our cities, and wars against nations.

So, it turns out, John Stonestreet is right about the power of ideas. John F. Kennedy noted, “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.” This fact shows us a powerful way Christians can respond to the crisis in Ukraine, with the Uyghurs, or anywhere people are oppressing people: we can and should pray for God to change the minds and hearts of the oppressors.

Christians as disparate as David French and Franklin Graham are praying that God “turns Vladimir Putin’s heart from war,” as French states. We should join them, and we should do the same for Xi Jinping. If you doubt God’s ability to change the heart of someone who seems so far from his word and will, remember what the risen Christ did with Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–22).

As we pray for the Holy Spirit to convict people who are sinning against people, let’s remember to pray the same for ourselves. Peter Marshall was right: “Christianity is a power religion. Christ has the power to recreate men from the inside out.”

R. C. Sproul asserted: “The Spirit brings order out of chaos and beauty out of ugliness. He can transform a sin-blistered man into a paragon of virtue. The Spirit changes people. The Author of life is also the Transformer of life.”

Is he transforming you today?

Denison Forum

 “Nordic combined skiing” is so named because it combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing. The sport has been dominated in recent years by Norwegian athlete Jarl Magnus Riiber, considered by NBC analyst Johnny Spillane to be “the best Nordic combined skier ever.” As Riiber prepared to compete in this year’s Olympics, Spillane predicted, “If he has a good day, he’s pretty much unstoppable.”

He didn’t have a good day.

Riiber tested positive for COVID-19 upon his arrival at the Games, missing his first event and every training session. He cleared isolation on Monday in time to ski cross-country for ten kilometers on Tuesday. As he entered the first of four 2.5-kilometer loops on the course, he came to a fork. To the left was the cross-country circuit; to the right was the path to the finish line. He had not had a chance to practice on the track, so he had to guess and picked the lane on the right.

He chose poorly. 

After skiing around fifty yards, he realized he was going the wrong way and turned around. It was too late, however—he’d frittered away his lead and finished in eighth place. “It’s a silly mistake,” Riiber said later, “and it’s not fun to show the world that I’m maybe wasting a gold medal on that.”

Let’s consider his mishap as a cultural parable.

What George Clooney thinks about heaven and hell

There are many reasons to believe that we’re skiing in the wrong direction these days, but unlike Jarl Magnus Riiber, it’s not too late to turn around.

Let’s begin by identifying the wrong lane. From surging inflation to rising sea levels to religious persecution to continuing tensions in Ukraine, it’s harder to find good news than bad news in the news.

Harvard history professor Tiya Miles writes for the New York Times: “Everyone around me seems to be talking about the end. The end of nearly a million American lives in the Covid pandemic; the end of American democracy; the end of a public bulwark against racism and blatant antisemitism; the end of the post-Cold War peace in Europe; the end of the stable climate; and the end of our children’s best futures, to name a few undeniable possibilities. A condition of apocalyptic anxiety has overtaken us, raising our collective blood pressure, and sending us deeper into a maelstrom of suspicion, conspiracy thinking, and pessimism.”

Filmmaker Woody Allen complained ironically, “Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering—and it’s all over much too soon.” Actor George Clooney added, “I don’t believe in heaven and hell. All I know is that as an individual, I won’t allow this life—the only thing I know to exist—to be wasted.”

They and the multitudes who share their skepticism obviously do not believe that Jesus died and rose again, offering each of us eternal life through his grace and “abundant” life every day (John 10:10). They don’t agree that Christians can now “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) because we are “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

In short, they do not believe that Jesus is who he claims to be, and their unbelief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This is a wrong path Christians must beware, for it is open to us as well.

A girl and boy I will never forget

Mark 6 tells us that when Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth, the people were skeptical and “took offense at him” (v. 3). As a result, “he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief” (vv. 5–6).

God created us in his image (Genesis 1:27) with free will and a capacity for choice that he chooses to honor. He therefore will “stand at the door and knock,” waiting for us to open our hearts to him (Revelation 3:20). If we do not believe he is omnipotent, we are unlikely to seek his power for our problems. If we do not believe he is omniscient, we are unlikely to seek his guidance for our decisions. If we do not believe he is omnibenevolent, we are unlikely to trust that his will is best for us.

As a result, we will not experience his power, wisdom, or love. The less we experience of God, the less we believe in him, and the less we believe in him, the less we experience of him. Taking this wrong path inevitably leads us further down the wrong path.

By contrast, I have seen what happens when people take the right path, choosing to believe that Jesus is who he says he is and that he will do what he says he will do. I have seen Cuban Christians who have no medicines turn to the Great Physician and then experience miraculous healings. I have seen Muslim-background believers facing enormous oppression turn to Jesus for strength and then stand courageously for their Lord.

I will always remember the teenage girl I met in East Malaysia decades ago. Her father told her that if she was baptized as a Christian she could never go home again, so she brought her luggage to the church. And the young Christian I met in Singapore who faced abuse from his father every time he went to church but continued living at home because, as he explained, his father “needed to know about Jesus.”

“God does not give us overcoming life”

A relationship with God, like a relationship with anyone else, requires a commitment that transcends the evidence and becomes self-validating. You cannot prove that a job is the right job until you take it. You examine the evidence, but then you must step beyond the evidence into a relationship. It is the same with being married, or having children, or even reading this article. All relationships require a step of faith that becomes self-validating once we take it.

Oswald Chambers was right: “God does not give us overcoming life; he gives us life as we overcome” (his emphasis). He illustrates: “Our Lord said to the man with the withered hand—’Stretch forth thy hand,’ and as soon as the man did so, his hand was healed, but he had to take the initiative. If we will do the overcoming, we shall find we are inspired of God because he gives life immediately.”

What “overcoming” path is God asking you to choose today?

Denison Forum