A reporter for the New York Post attempted to gain entrance to some of New York City’s finest restaurants while wearing shorts and a hoodie, only to be turned away at the door by each establishment. The reason for his experiment: he was wearing attire that Sen. John Fetterman (D–Pa.) has made famous (or infamous) in our nation’s capital. The senator’s preferred clothing generated national headlines a few days ago when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he was relaxing the Senate’s longstanding dress code requirement that its members wear a suit on the floor.
The most important step we can take in helping people come to accept Christ as their savior is to live a life that draws people to him.Maintaining such a witness doesn’t mean achieving perfection that is, ultimately, impossible on this side of heaven, but there are steps each of us can take that could help and blind spots we must address.Take social media, for example. We may like, share, and post content with little thought to how it might impact the way other people see us. The truth, however, is that our digital persona is often the primary expression of who we are for most of the people we know. After all, how many magnitudes more friends do you have on Facebook than you interact with in real life?To better understand the impact of your digital profile, ask a friend or family member to spend a few minutes going through your Facebook page, X (Twitter) feed, or other social media as if you were a stranger to them. Then, ask for an honest assessment of how they would characterize the person whose content they’d just read.
The wisest man who ever lived (apart from Christ) noted, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). The greatest theologian in history added that in Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).The omniscient Lord of the universe exhorts us: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lᴏʀᴅ who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).God wants us to “understand” him intellectually and then to “know” him intimately.
Christians have a unique gift for our culture today: we alone can demonstrate the kindness of Christ by offering our best service to hurting souls while sharing the good news of God’s love. But we cannot love well until we embrace the fact that we are well loved.
Yesterday, we focused on the urgency of sharing God’s word with a nation that is sliding ever further from biblical morality. Today, let’s discuss the necessity of living in ways that are so different from our fallen culture as to be both distinctive and attractive.
The good news of the gospel is still “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Billy Graham was right: “One of the Bible’s greatest truths is that our lives can be different. No matter what our past has been, Christ stands ready to forgive and cleanse us—and then to make us new.”This is because “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is not our work but God’s transforming miracle: “All this is from God, who through Christ has reconciled us to himself” (v. 18). Now we are “ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us” (v. 20).To this end, let’s close by making John White Chadwick’s hymn our prayer:
North Korea's Kim Jong Un recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And while no official agreements were made when the pair conversed at Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome—a key Russian spaceport—all indications point to an already precarious relationship becoming even more dangerous.
Yesterday we focused on the biblical priority of spiritual discernment and the urgency of “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). Today, let’s step further in this direction by considering Jesus’ maxim: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
We are told that we have no right to force our beliefs on others, which is a belief others seek to force on us. But the illogic of such statements is lost on those who make them. In the face of such deception, it is vital that we be able to say with Paul, “We would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Consider these simple but urgent steps.
There are three ways we know everything we know (called “channels of epistemology” by philosophers): the rational, the practical, and the intuitive. You do math rationally, you start your car practically (unless you’re an automotive engineer, in which case you do so rationally), and you like someone intuitively. All three apply to our conversation today.
Today is the only anniversary in American history known simply by a number. A few days ago, two more victims of the attack on the World Trade Center were identified through DNA technology. A total of 2,753 people were killed in the towers and planes, many of whom have yet to be identified. What are your emotions this morning? What would you like me to say on this hard day?Let’s take a moment to reflect on three attributes of God that are especially relevant today.
It can be tempting to think that suicide will always be someone else’s problem. But given its rapid rise, particularly among young people where as many as four in ten teens struggle with suicidal thoughts on a daily basis, chances are high that all of us will have the opportunity to help save a life at some point. The question then becomes how well we will be equipped to do so when that situation arises.
I am convinced that the church’s greatest obstacle to influencing our culture is that our culture does not see the church as relevant to its greatest issues. Secular people know what we are against more than they know what we are for. In our defense of biblical morality, we can win arguments and lose souls.The answer is not merely to try harder to do better.
The key to happiness in this world and eternal reward in the next is using God’s creation for his glory and our good.In his prayer for his followers shortly before his death, Jesus included this request: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Charles Spurgeon commented: “Jesus did not pray that you should be taken out of the world, and what he did not pray for, you need not desire.”
Americans have made great progress in many ways across recent generations. The average size of our homes has nearly tripled since 1950, for example. Technological innovations, from air conditioning to the internet, have greatly enhanced our daily lives. By contrast, our greatest geopolitical competitor has fallen on significant hard times in recent years.
To understand the necessity of suffering, we have to start with why it’s possible in the first place.The highest purpose for which we were created was to enter into a loving relationship with the Lord and to worship him. However, that kind of relationship requires a free will choice on our part. Because love is, by nature, a choice more than an emotion, if God forced it from us, then it would cease to be love.And we can know that’s the case, in part, because otherwise there is no good reason for him to have created us with free will.
I’ve written often over the years on the subject of innocent suffering and truly believe that God redeems all he allows, even disasters like those in today’s news. At the same time, I don’t want to sound a positive note that would be tone-deaf to those who are grieving. So instead, I’ll offer some very personal reflections that are different from any I’ve shared in the past.
Why must we have faith in Christ to experience fully his help in facing the storms of life? If he loves us unconditionally, why doesn’t he meet our needs whether we trust them to him or not?James explained that “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
Here’s why I’m addressing the fact of our mortality: Scripture teaches that “through fear of death,” humans are “subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:15). In what ways does the fear of death produce such bondage?
Dr. King’s “somebodiness” doctrine stands on the fact that every human is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). He “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26); accordingly, “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11).Nor must we: “If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). Stated bluntly, racism is sin.Here’s the problem: sinners cannot solve the problem of sin, which is why it persists. In the context of Dr. King’s speech, prejudice—an innate sense of superiority over another person or race—is an endemic result of the Fall and our “will to power” (Genesis 3:5).We can and should legislate against it. We can and should take every practical means to minimize its existence and horrific effects. But we cannot eradicate it without the help of the God who made us.
