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.
