Tennis superstar Serena Williams announced earlier this month that she would retire sometime after the US Open, so her first-round victory last night captured headlines. However, a tennis event last week deserves attention as well: the US Open held a “Tennis Plays for Peace” exhibition to raise funds for Ukraine relief. Tennis luminaries such as Rafael Nadal, John McEnroe, and Coco Gauff participated. The event raised $1.2 million.

In other recent news, a firefighter playing in a semi-pro basketball game used his knowledge of CPR to save a referee who had collapsed from a heart attack. A stranger searched for days using a metal detector until he found a woman’s engagement ring lost in the ocean. A British mother who lost her teenage son to cardiac arrest has installed twenty defibrillators in their town.

And a university student has raised more than $159,000 in donations as of this morning to help him adopt a baby he found abandoned in a trash can while visiting his family in Haiti.

Measuring God by the evidence

When people act in benevolent ways, we feel better about human nature. When people act in hurtful ways, we feel worse about human nature. This is especially true when religious leaders make the news for the wrong reasons, as with Matt Chandler’s leave of absence from his Dallas area megachurch, an announcement that is still echoing in my community and across the evangelical world.

We tend to measure not just the people of God but God himself by the evidence. When he answers our prayers and otherwise acts in gracious ways toward us, we respond with worship and thanksgiving. But when he does not answer our prayers in the way we ask and acts in other ways we do not understand, we are prone to question his power, his love, and even his existence.

The skeptic Sam Harris claimed that the existence of a suffering child anywhere in the universe negates belief in an all-knowing, all-loving God. You and I would not go that far. We continue to pray and try to have faith. But when God seems silent or distant or even asleep in our crisis, it can be hard to keep trusting him.

So, let’s consider a time when God actually did fall asleep in a storm.

Facing a mega seismos

In Matthew 8, Jesus “gave orders to go over to the other side” of the Sea of Galilee (v. 18), then he “got into the boat, [and] his disciples followed him” (v. 23). Suddenly there “arose a great storm on the sea” (v. 24a); the Greek calls it a mega seismos, a “massive shaking.” The boat was being “swamped by the waves”—so much water was getting inside the boat that it could soon sink.

Where was Jesus in this crisis? “He was asleep” (v. 24b). So his disciples “went and woke him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing’” (v. 25). These veteran fishermen knew their very lives were in jeopardy and cried to Christ for help.

His response seems surprising: “He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’” (v. 26a). What did they do wrong? They were in the storm because they had followed Jesus at his command. He had taught them in the Sermon on the Mount, “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Matthew 7:7). Their prayer was not superficial but heartfelt, sincere, and passionate.

The rest of the story gives us our answer: “Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’” (vv. 26b–27).

“You rule the raging of the sea”

The healing miracles Jesus’ disciples had seen him perform had been performed by others. However, prior to this event, no man had ever calmed a storm with only his words. Furthermore, the Jews considered calming storms to be the providence of God alone: “You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them” (Psalm 89:9; cf. Psalm 46:1–3; Psalm 107:29).

So the disciples went to Jesus for what help he could give, hoping he might be able to do something but nonetheless “afraid” he could not (v. 26). And when he answered their prayer, they marveled at “what sort of man is this” (v. 27, my emphasis).

They did not yet know what we know. They did not know that he would be raised from the dead and ascend back to heaven. At this point, they apparently saw Jesus as other Jews saw the Messiah: an anointed person used greatly by God but nonetheless a man, not God.

In their Jewish monotheism, “the Lᴏʀᴅ is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). God could not be in heaven and on earth. Jesus could not be man and God. So, when he did what only God could do, “they marveled” at him.

They needed to learn what we need to remember: Jesus is God, and God is always enough.

“Who can drain a fountain?”

The storms of life can cause us to question the sufficiency of the God who allows them, but when we understand his providence the least is when we need his power the most.

When the crisis comes, we can turn from God because we do not understand his will, or we can trust that he knows what we do not (Isaiah 55:9) and will always act consistently with his perfect holiness (Revelation 4:8) and perfect love (1 John 4:8).

Then, the more we experience his power, the more we are transformed by gratitude for his grace. As A. W. Tozer paraphrased St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “The blacker the iniquity, the deeper the fall, the sweeter is the mercy of God who pardoned all.”

So trust the Savior who loved you enough to die for you, who is holding you in his hand right now (John 10:28) and praying for you at this very moment (Romans 8:34). And believe that this God is enough.

Charles Spurgeon wrote: “The cattle on a thousand hills will suffice for our most hungry feeding, and the granaries of heaven are not likely to be emptied by our eating. If Christ were only a cistern, we might soon exhaust his fulness, but who can drain a fountain? Myriads of spirits have drawn their supplies from him, and not one of them has murmured at the scantiness of his resources.”

He added: “A fish can more easily drink the oceans dry than we can ever exhaust the love of God in heaven. Drink away, little fish, you’ll never drink it all dry!”

What storm are you fighting today?

Denison Forum

When Matt Chandler became pastor of Highland Village First Baptist Church in 2002, the church averaged 160 in attendance. Now known as The Village Church (TVC), the DFW-area congregation has planted multiple churches and has grown to over fourteen thousand attendees.

Chandler was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009 but was declared cancer-free a year later following medical treatment. He has written numerous books and leads the Acts 29 Network, a church planting partnership with more than four hundred churches in the US and around the world.

Then came an announcement yesterday that shocked everyone who knows Matt Chandler and his ministry.

“A Message to Our Church Family”

According to a statement by TVC titled, “A Message to Our Church Family,” a woman approached Chandler a few months ago with “concerns about the way he was using direct messaging on social media with a woman who was not his wife.” Chandler told the church yesterday that the messages were not sexual or romantic but that they crossed a line with their “frequency” and “familiarity.”

According to the church, Chandler shared these concerns with his wife and two elders that same evening and “submitted to their leadership in addressing the situation.” The elders in turn commissioned an independent law firm to review Chandler’s messaging history across all media platforms. Their report “led the elders to conclude that Matt violated our internal social media use policies, and more importantly that, while the overarching pattern of his life has been ‘above reproach,’ he failed to meet the 1 Timothy standard for elders being ‘above reproach’ in this instance.”

The elders did not determine that this issue rose to the level of disqualification, but they concluded that “Matt’s behavior was a sign of unhealth in his life” and determined that “the best course of action would be for him to take a leave of absence.” They added that this leave of absence “is both disciplinary and developmental, which allows him to focus on growing greater awareness in this area.” And they noted, “The timeline for his return will be dictated by the expectations the elders have laid out for his development.”

Four biblical responses

I do not know Matt Chandler or TVC personally. This announcement was made only a day ago; I know only what has been made public through it. Nonetheless, I can make four biblical statements this morning.

First and most obviously, “An overseer must be above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2; cf. 1 Peter 5:3).

The TVC elders and Chandler emphasized this fact. This principle is crucial in part because otherwise the body of Christ faces crises precisely like the one we are discussing today. It is human nature to judge a movement by its leaders. And it can be devastating for church members when trust in their leaders is broken or abused.

Consequently, churches must hold their leaders accountable.

Scripture warns, “We who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1). God knows those who are false shepherds and will judge them for their sins (Ezekiel 34:1–10). Chandler and the church elders are to be commended for taking this matter seriously and responding in a way that appears to be transparent and redemptive.

At the same time, we need to recognize that pastors are under attack.

As Anglican minister Tish Harrison Warren noted in her New York Times newsletter yesterday, pastors are facing burnout and discouragement at epidemic levels. She cites a Barna study showing that 42 percent of pastors have considered quitting full-time ministry within the past year. Stress, isolation, political division, coping with death and grief from the coronavirus pandemic, and the “relentless pace of issues” are all factors. Satan’s attack on Peter mirrors his hatred for all Christian leaders today (Luke 22:31).

While we need to encourage and pray for our pastors, we must also care deeply for those who are harmed by clergy misconduct.

Yesterday, TVC lead pastor Josh Patterson thanked the woman who confronted Chandler for her conviction and courage. The woman who received his inappropriate messages deserves compassion and care from her church family. And TVC leaders and their faith family need our compassion and intercession. We are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

Three bold statements

As I prayed about the way I should close this difficult Daily Article, I felt directly led to make three bold statements to you and to myself as well.

One: If we are hearing this news without a spirit of grief for everyone concerned, we need to repent of our lack of compassion and pray for “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another” (Colossians 3:12–13).

Two: If we are responding to this story with a sense of personal superiority, we need to repent of our prideful sin and “clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another” (1 Peter 5:5).

Three: You and I must pray every day for the power of the Spirit to live with such godliness that our private lives always honor our Lord (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Matt Chandler could not have imagined that his personal direct messages would become headline news months later and would affect multitudes of people in the Dallas area and around the world. In a day of instant digital communication and global social media, our private lives can become public more quickly than ever before.

Billy Graham’s greatest personal fear was that “I’ll do something or say something that will bring some disrepute on the gospel of Christ before I go.”

The less you share his fear today, the more you need to.

Denison Forum

A driver and monitor on a school bus in Dallas, Texas, helped save two children who were caught up and nearly swept away in the recent flooding in our area. The driver said later, “It had to be God to send me that way because I don’t normally go that way.”

As our schools open across the country, so does concern for our schools and students. After gun violence in schools tripled over the previous year, wearable panic buttons are being mandated or encouraged by multiple states across the country. Bulletproof backpack sales are on the rise as well.

School violence is not the only risk to our youth: self-harm claims among US teenagers increased by 99 percent during the pandemic, claims related to overdoses jumped 119 percent, and claim reports for anxiety and major depressive disorders rose 94 percent and 84 percent, respectively.

Unsurprisingly, a record 58 percent of Americans say our best days are behind us and three-quarters of voters say the country is heading in the wrong direction. United States Poet Laureate Joseph Brodsky claimed, “Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse.”

And yet, as theologian Teilhard de Chardin observed, “The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.”

How can you and I offer hope most effectively?

A better way to change minds

Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks writes in the Atlantic that changing people’s minds is extremely difficult, especially through argumentation that attacks the beliefs of others.

He notes: “When people fail to live up to your moral values (or your expression of them), it is easy to conclude that they are immoral people. Further, if you are deeply attached to your values, this difference can feel like a threat to your identity, leading you to lash out, which won’t convince anyone who disagrees with you” (his emphasis).

By contrast, Brooks observes, “Effective missionaries present their beliefs as a gift. And sharing a gift is a joyful act, even if not everyone wants it.” He encourages us to follow their example by offering our values “with love, not insults and hatred.”

To this end, we should “go out of your way to welcome those who disagree with you as valued voices worthy of respect and attention.” We should refuse to take rejection personally. And we need to listen empathetically: research shows that “listening and asking sensitive questions almost always has a more beneficial effect than talking.”

“Though I was blind, now I see”

Early Christians believed that the “gospel” (literally “good news”) was so valuable that many sacrificed their lives to share this gift with others. And their transformed lives were evidence that this gift works. What changed them could change others and, through them, the world.

The psalmist declared, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul” (Psalm 66:16). The man born blind told the religious authorities, “One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). Paul never tired of telling the story of God’s transforming grace in the heart of the “chief” of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15 NKJV).

However, Satan knows the power of a changed life as well.

That’s why he is working to turn the culture not only against Christian beliefs but against Christians themselves. For the first time in American history, those who affirm biblical sexual morality are being branded as homophobic, discriminatory, and dangerous. Pro-life advocates are being castigated as part of a “war on women.”

Tragically, we cooperate with Satan’s strategy when our clergy abuse children and congregants, our churches and denominations go to war with each other over theology and buildings, and some of our leaders embrace unbiblical immorality while criticizing those who uphold biblical truth.

Following my guide through the jungle

The key to living a transformed life that draws others to Christ is practicing the presence of the transforming Christ. Jesus was clear on this: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, my emphasis).

From our Lord’s statement we learn this fact: We experience God to the degree that we are surrendered to him. This is how all relationships work: a gift must be opened to be useful; a doctor must be trusted to be helpful.

When I served as a college missionary on the island of Borneo, our guide took us one day through deep jungles to a remote village. He could lead us only when we followed his path and not our own.

Oswald Chambers wrote: “We never know the joy of self-sacrifice until we abandon in every particular.” Paradoxically, many of us have surrendered just enough of our lives to Christ to miss both what the world offers and what God offers. Thus we forfeit the joy of the Lord that would draw the world to the Lord.

However, Chambers assured us, “As soon as we do abandon, the Holy Ghost gives us an intimation of the joy of Jesus.” The results will be visible to others: a life fully surrendered to Jesus is “unutterably humble, unsulliedly pure, and absolutely devoted to God.”

“In his will is our peace”

It is not easy to live a surrendered life. This is a death to self, but a death that leads to abundant life we can find in no other way (John 10:10). As Dante noted in The Divine Comedy, “In his will is our peace.”

World champion weightlifter Jerzy Gregorek observed: “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

My dear friend and fellow minister Dr. Ron Scates puts it this way: “When Christianity is hard, it is easy. When Christianity is easy, it is hard.”

Which will be true for you today?

Denison Forum