There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
What kind of work is most valuable in the eyes of God? Some people think that the kind of work God most values is ministry. That assumption can leave many with the sense that the work they do every day has little value beyond a paycheck. Are those in ministry the only ones storing up treasure in heaven? Nehemiah suggests that is not the truth.While Ezra returned and set his focus on restoring obedience to the Law in Israel, Nehemiah faced a different problem. A high-ranking official in the court of Persian king Artaxerxes, Nehemiah was in a key position of influence (Neh. 1:11). So, when he received a report that Jerusalem was defenseless and in a state of disrepair, he sprang into action. “I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem” (v. 12). Nehemiah did not make a distinction between spiritual and earthly work. He understood that work can be spiritual when the motive is right.Nehemiah recognized that he had a promise from the Lord that he could claim. God promised He would send Israel into exile if they disobeyed Him, but He also promised to bring them back and restore them to their place if they repented (Neh. 1:9). Israel was back in the land, but it didn’t appear they would thrive because a city without walls is vulnerable. So, the official prayed for favor with the king to start a construction project! He then relocated to Israel to oversee the work. Some might consider this kind of work of lesser value than more spiritual work, but that’s not how God saw it. When the king granted his request, Nehemiah noted it was “because the gracious hand of my God was on me” (v. 8).
Go Deeper Do you ever wonder about the value your work has to God? Why was Nehemiah’s work so significant? How did he honor God with his efforts? Extended Reading: Nehemiah 2-4
Pray with Us Father God, help us to discern and then follow Your plan and purpose for our lives, not our own ambitions. Teach us to always seek You in our journey on this earth.
We may conclude all with doxologies or solemn praises of God, ascribing honor and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and sealing up all our praises and prayers with an affectionate Amen.
Now blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. Psalm 41:13(ESV)
Forever blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things, and blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen. Psalm 72:18-19(ESV) Yes, let all the people say, “Amen! Praise the LORD.” Psalm 106:48(ESV)
To the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. Romans 16:27(ESV)
Now to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for my sins to deliver me from this present evil age, according to the will of my God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Galatians 1:3-5(ESV)
To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:21(ESV)
To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:17(ESV) To him be honor and eternal dominion; 1 Timothy 6:16(ESV) to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:11(ESV)
Now to him who is able to keep me from stumbling and to present me blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God my Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25(ESV)
And now, I prostrate my soul before the throne and worship God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to God forever and ever! Amen. Revelation 7:11-12(ESV) To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” Revelation 5:13(ESV) And let the whole creation say, “Amen. Amen.”
1 Corinthians 13 In this week’s lessons we learn how Jesus perfectly carries out the biblical understanding of love, and how we, as His disciples, are called to show that same kind of love to others.
Theme
The Nature of Love
As I look at these items, I think they characterize the major types of Christian ministry today, even the types of ministry present in a single Christian congregation. When Paul talks about tongues and prophecy, is he not speaking of what we generally call a charismatic type of service? When he speaks of mysteries, knowledge, and faith, is he not speaking there of what we might speak of as a Presbyterian or formal teaching service? When he talks about giving all he possesses to feed the poor, is he not talking about what we would generally characterize as the social gospel, the kind of thing that is also present in many small, sharing types of churches? If he is, then it seems to me that he is saying you can be charismatic, Reformed, or generous in all you do, and still not be born again. So he says, “See to the condition of your heart. Seek God and the reality of knowing God, while God may be found.”
The second section of the chapter deals with love’s nature. In the Greek language there are three main words for love. C.S. Lewis wrote a book in which he added another word, but generally speaking the common words for love are: eroo, from which we get our word “erotic”; phileo from which we get the word “philanthropic”; and agapao, which refers to the divine love. All three types of love are known to the biblical writers.
But it is interesting that when the Bible writes about love, it uses only two of these words. It uses agapao, that is, the love God has for the world. Here we think of John 3:16, which says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” It also speaks about phileo, noting that we are to love the brethren. But it does not speak about eroo. This is because sexual love had become so debased in the culture of the Roman world that it is as if God the Holy Spirit said, “Look, I do not even want that word in my book. There is a true kind of sexual love, but it has become so perverted in the world that I do not even want the word for it in the Bible.”
But notice this corresponding and equally interesting fact. In the classical Greek world, the words eroo and phileo were used, but not the word agapao. Both worlds held in common the idea of family love, phileo. But the Bible did not use the word eroo, and the secular world did not use agapao. Apparently, it knew nothing about divine love. That is also what has happened in our culture. We have such a preoccupation with sexual love in our culture that it is almost impossible to have love mean anything but sexual intimacy. Our world has lost the glory of the love of God. So it shifts over to the other side, and everything becomes distorted by the sexual. This is a tragedy because, as a result the world does not know how to love. Its love is distorted. The world does not love God. It does not love others. It cannot even love itself. Even in sexual matters, the world does not know how to love. It thinks only of “what the relationship will do for me.” If it does not satisfy the individual, the other person is discarded.
Our chapter says that the way to discover what love is, is not by starting at the bottom (with eroo and perhaps getting as far as phileo), but by starting with agapao, the love of God. It is only when we get that right that we learn how the other loves fit in.
Study Questions
What characteristics tend to mark certain denominations or individual churches with which you are familiar? What might they need to add to these they already have?
What three main types of love are found in the Greek language?
Which word does the Bible not use, and why?
Which word did classical Greek not use, and why?
Application
Reflection: How does our own culture understand love? How does it define all three forms? How does it rank them in order of importance?
For Further Study: In order to love others, we need to first learn what it means to love God by loving His house and desiring to abide in His presence. Download for free and listen to James Boice’s message on Psalm 84, “The Psalm of the Janitors.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31
Christianity without the cross is not Christianity at all, but a shabby, slimy substitute. The word of the cross is what makes it Christian. What does it mean? Three elements, which will come out as we continue our study in Mark.
First, it means the end of the natural, the end of what we call self-sufficiency. That is the philosophy of the day, and how the world despises this message that it must be done away with! Not only does the world not understand it, it literally despises it! Anyone who preaches it is regarded as preaching nonsense. As Christians, we are called upon either to believe our Lord or the voices that whisper in our ears–one or the other. Which is right? The word of the cross means the end of all our reliance upon ourselves, and we do not like that. It means wiping out the natural life. Nothing that we have by virtue of being born is ever worthwhile or acceptable in the sight of God. A cross wipes people out. It does not improve them, does not better them in any way; it wipes them out.
Furthermore, the second element involves pain and hurt. It always does, because we do not like being cut off. Which of us, if allowed to choose the program by which we serve God, would ever include in it defeat, disaster, despair, disappointment, disillusionment, and death? Yet these are the very elements that God finds absolutely essential to working out His plan for us. Difficulty and danger? Yes, we include them. They challenge the flesh and make it appear to be something when it surmounts these. But defeat? Never! Dishonor? Never! Disaster? Disappointment? No! Death? Inconceivable! But they are what God chooses.
The third element of the way of the cross is that it leads to a resurrection. Is it not strange that the disciples never seemed to hear Jesus when, every time He spoke of the cross, He said that after three days He would rise again? They seemed arrested by the cross and could never get beyond it. They rejected it, refused to listen to it, and so they never came to an understanding of what the glorious event of the resurrection would mean, until it actually happened. But the way of the cross always leads to a resurrection, to a new beginning, on different terms. It leads to freedom, to being set free from natural catastrophe and disaster, to having your spirit peaceful and at rest, despite what is happening to your body or your person. This is what people really want. How we long for and dream of being free, whole, adequate, able to handle life, able to cope with whatever comes, undisturbed at heart.
Father, I ask that You will help me understand that Jesus is in the hurts, in the disappointments, in the disasters, that He is leading me on, setting me free from that which is shackling me-all my self-sufficiency and self-reliance, all my desire to be exalted, to be made much of.
Life Application
Since the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus are the foundational pillars of Christianity, do we seek to grasp and value their profound effect upon our daily lives?
22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”
24He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”
25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t go into the village.”
27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?”
28They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”
29“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”
30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.
31He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
What Difference Does It Make to Pray for Peace in Our World? Rachel BrittonDidn’t Jesus tell us in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble”? Didn’t Jesus say that “wars and rumors of wars” were a sign of end times and his return (Matthew 24:6-8)? And yet, the Bible doesn’t leave us with this sense of unrest. It does the opposite. The biblical view is to seek peace. Continue Reading →
What Is the “Good Work” That Christ Began in Us? Ashley HookerToday we can glean from this verse that God has begun a good work in all of us. He wants us to live out a life that shows us progressively becoming more like Him. Paul reminded the church at Philippi that God would do the work, but they needed to be an active part in that work. Today, we must remember the same. Continue Reading →
How Does the Bible Illuminate What’s Real and What’s Fake? Lisa Loraine BakerReality has a fixed nature which is true and unaffected by a person’s beliefs, perceptions or experiences. We can say reality has an objective nature because God created the heavens and the earth. He determines what’s real and true, not us. Continue Reading →
What Did Each of the Apostles Do after the Ascension? Bethany VerrettMany wonder what each of the apostles, who feature prominently in the four Gospels, went on to do. Some of their activities are addressed in the Book of Acts, but much of what we know and believe about the apostles’ lives after the Ascension comes from tradition. Continue Reading →
Do Believers Have Guardian Angels? Bethany VerrettWhether you believe in guardian angels or not, it is important to remember the message of the angel to the Apostle John. Angels are servants of the one who truly deserves worship and praise, and who ultimately desires a personal relationship with each person. This relationship with Him should be each Christian’s first priority. Continue Reading →
Does God Want Me to Be Happy? Britt MooneyThe Father gives us good things to enjoy, and we should be thankful. But we must be careful not to worship happiness. We were created for a greater goal. Continue Reading →
7 Powerful Morning Prayers to Begin Your Day Jessica BrodieCoaches often advise people embarking on a lifestyle change to start their day with a positive, affirming routine that both centers and energizes them. Starting the day “right” often leads to a strong noon, and that momentum carries through until nightfall. Similarly, starting your day in prayer, by bowing heart, mind, and soul to the Lord of the universe, can propel your day from ho-hum to positively sparking with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Continue Reading →
Why Is Faith Without Works Dead? Emma DanzeyIn the same way, my plants died because I neglected them, faith without works is dead. When we accept Jesus into our lives, the Holy Spirit enters our hearts. Continue Reading →
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Unable to express the glory of God, the Psalmist utters a note of exclamation. O Jehovah our Lord! We need not wonder at this, for no heart can measure, no tongue can utter, the half of the greatness of Jehovah. The whole creation is full of his glory and radiant with the excellency of his power; his goodness and his wisdom are manifested on every hand. The countless myriads of terrestrial beings, from man the head, to the creeping worm at the foot, are all supported and nourished by the Divine bounty. The solid fabric of the universe leans upon his eternal arm. Universally is he present, and everywhere is his name excellent. God worketh ever and everywhere. There is no place where God is not. The miracles of his power await us on all sides. Traverse the silent valleys where the rocks enclose you on either side, rising like the battlements of heaven till you can see but a strip of the blue sky far overhead; you may be the only traveller who has passed through that glen; the bird may start up affrighted, and the moss may tremble beneath the first tread of human foot; but God is there in a thousand wonders, upholding you rocky barriers, filling the flowercups with their perfume, and refreshing the lonely pines with the breath of his mouth. Descend, if you will, into the lowest depths of the ocean, where undisturbed the water sleeps, and the very sand is motionless in unbroken quiet, but the glory of the Lord is there, revealing its excellence in the silent palace of the sea. Borrow the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the sea, but God is there. Mount to the highest heaven, or dive into the deepest hell, and God is in both hymned in everlasting song, or justified in terrible vengeance. Everywhere, and in every place, God dwells and is manifestly at work. Nor on earth alone is Jehovah extolled, for his brightness shines forth in the firmament above the earth. His glory exceeds the glory of the starry heavens; above the region of the stars he hath set fast his everlasting throne, and there he dwells in light ineffable. Let us adore him “who alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; who maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.” (Job 9:8, 9.) We can scarcely find more fitting words than those of Nehemiah, “Thou even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.” Returning to the text we are led to observe that this Psalm is addressed to God, because none but the Lord himself can fully know his own glory. The believing heart is ravished with what it sees, but God only knows the glory of God. What a sweetness lies in the little word our, how much is God’s glory endeared to us when we consider our interest in him as our Lord. How excellent is thy name! no words can express that excellency; and therefore it is left as a note of exclamation. The very name of Jehovah is excellent, what must his person be. Note the fact that even the heavens cannot contain his glory, it is set above the heavens, since it is and ever must be too great for the creature to express. When wandering amid the Alps, we felt that the Lord was infinitely greater than all his grandest works, and under that feeling we roughly wrote these few lines:—
Yet in all these how great soe’er they be,
We see not Him. The glass is all too dense
And dark, or else our earthborn eyes too dim.
You Alps, that lift their heads above the clouds
And hold familiar converse with the stars,
Are dust, at which the balance trembleth not,
Compared with His divine immensity.
The snow-crown’d summits fail to set Him forth,
Who dwelleth in Eternity, and bears
Alone, the name of High and Lofty One.
Depths unfathomed are too shallow to express
The wisdom and the knowledge of the Lord,
The mirror of the creatures has no space
To bear the image of the Infinite.
’Tis true the Lord hath fairly writ His name,
And set His seal upon creation’s brow.
But as the skilful potter much excels
The vessel which he fashions on the wheel,
E’en so, but in proportion greater far,
Jehovah’s self transcends His noblest works.
Earth’s ponderous wheels would break, her axles snap,
If freighted with the load of Deity.
Space is too narrow for the Eternal’s rest,
And time too short a footstool for His throne.
E’en avalanche and thunder lack a voice,
To utter the full volume of His praise.
How then can I declare Him! Where are words
With which my glowing tongue may speak His name!
Silent I bow, and humbly I adore.
Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 1-26 (Vol. 1, pp. 79–80). Marshall Brothers.
8:1 The majesty of the LORD is evident in all creation, if a person only has eyes to see it. Every area of natural science teems with evidences of the wisdom and power of the Creator. God’s glory is higher than the heavens. The planets, the stars, the limitless universe give only a partial view of how very great God really is. Yet sophisticated men shrug off the evidence as if it didn’t exist.
MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; p. 557). Thomas Nelson.
8:1 How excellent is Your name: The name of God and the glory of God are alternate ways of describing who He is. See the description of the meaning of the name of God in Ex. 3:14, 15 and the focus on the name of God in 113:1–3. This psalm ends with the same words it begins with. These words of praise to the name of God form a frame for its central subject—the praise of man as male and female, whom God has made to reflect His majesty.
Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (pp. 652–653). T. Nelson Publishers.
8:1 Yahweh, our Lord The first Hebrew word used here, yhwh, is God’s personal covenant name to Israel, Yahweh (see note on Exod 3:14). The second Hebrew word, adon, conveys the sense of “master.” This statement declares that Yahweh is the master or ruler over the psalmist and God’s people.
in all the earth Yahweh is the personal God of Israel, and the majesty of His name is known throughout the entire earth.
put your splendor above the heavens This Hebrew phrase used here could indicate that the heavens are the place where God in His glory dwells or that the heavens celebrate God’s glory. It seems that both options are appear elsewhere (Pss 19:1; 113:4).
Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ps 8:1). Lexham Press.
8:1 LORD. The personal, or covenantal, name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3).
our LORD. A title, which can also be translated “governor” or “master.” He is our Lord because He has established His covenant with His people.
how majestic is your name. The repetition of this line at the end enhances the high note of reverence that pervades the psalm. “Name” signifies the character or reputation of God.
Sproul, R. C., ed. (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 743). Ligonier Ministries.
8:1 This hymn of praise is more specifically identified as a creation hymn (along with 19:1–6; 33; 104) in its focus on earth and the heavens, terms describing the whole of creation (Gn 1:1; Ex 20:11; Neh 9:6). Majesty, a synonym for “honor” or “glory,” and name, representing the person and not just the designation, are parallel. They demonstrate that God and his glory fill all of creation. This language distinguishes God from his creation (he is transcendent) but also shows that he is present (he is immanent) within it.
Warstler, K. R. (2017). Psalms. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 823). Holman Bible Publishers.
And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good. (Genesis 32:12)
This is the sure way of prevailing with the Lord in prayer. We may humbly remind Him of what He has said. Our faithful God will never run back from His word, nor will He leave it unfulfilled; yet He loves to be enquired of by His people and put in mind of His promise. This is refreshing to their memories, reviving to their faith, and renewing to their hope. God’s Word is given, not for His sake, but for ours. His purposes are settled, and He needs nothing to bind Him to His design of doing His people good; but He gives the promise for our strengthening and comfort. Hence He wishes us to plead it and say to Him, “Thou saidst.”
“I will surely do thee good” is just the essence of all the Lord’s gracious sayings, Lay a special stress on the word surely. He will do us good, real good, tasting good, only good, every good. He will make us good, and this is to do us good in the very highest degree. He will treat us as He does his saints while we are here, and that is good. He will soon take us to be with Jesus and all His chosen, and that is supremely good. With this promise in our hearts we need not fear angry Esau or anyone else. If the Lord will do us good, who can do us hurt?
For if these thing be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:8)
If we desire to glorify our Lord by fruitfulness, we must have certain things within us; for nothing can come out of us which is not first of all within us. We must begin with faith, which is the groundwork of all the virtues; and then diligently add to it virtue, knowledge, temperance, and patience. With these we must have godliness and brotherly love. All these put together will most assuredly cause us to produce, as our life fruit, the clusters of usefulness, and we shall not be mere idle knowers but real doers of the Word. These holy things must not only be in us, but abound, or we shall be barren. Fruit is the overflow of life, and we must be full before we can flow over.
We have noticed men of considerable parts and opportunities who have never succeeded in doing real good in the conversion of souls; and after close observation we have concluded that they lacked certain graces which are absolutely essential to fruit bearing. For real usefulness, graces are better than gifts. As the man is, so is his work. If we would do better, we must be better. Let the text be a gentle hint to unfruitful professors and to myself also.
Human beings come in all shapes, sizes, and personalities. Some of us are too often, captured by our thoughts. For me, I have found that my thinking, if I’m not careful, can often lead to fear, then worry, which gives birth to anxiety, which then creates more of all three things. Much of what people worry about never comes to pass. Yet, we invest our emotions into those fearful and worrying thoughts because they tend to grab us, captivate us and ultimately imprison us into wrong thinking. So what can Christians do about this so that we are not guided or overcome by fear, leading to worry and ultimately to debilitating anxiety?
One of the things I’m enjoying is working through my biblical counseling certification program. It has opened my eyes in many ways to understand how Christians can fail in certain areas. Sometimes, these failures become habitual lifelong practices. We often feel powerless to really deal with them in a biblical way. I’d like to take a few moments to offer some insight from what I’ve learned and I’ll be borrowing from Tim Bryant’s work in the Foundations: Change that Sticks! book he wrote.
In Lesson 7: Controlling Fear, Worry and Anxiety, Tim presents a biblical definition of these things and then moves into ways to deal with it from a biblical standpoint. Let me quote a paragraph from his book that defines each issue.
Sinful fear is believing something to be more dangerous and powerful than God. Worry is thinking on that which you fear with the primary purpose of avoiding pain vs. discerning the will of God. Anxiety is the emotional and psychological result of worry.
I had never really never considered my fears as being more powerful than God, but in essence, that’s what’s happening within me. My fears take over my mind and then my emotions follow what my mind sees and thinks. That’s true enough isn’t it? Conversely, when we reminisce about some great memories we’ve enjoyed in the past, we tend to feel good; warm and even fuzzy, if you will. We tend to be calm and feel good as we remember those nostalgic times.
Conversely, we all probably have memories that are not so pleasant and when we think of those, we can become tense, upset, filled with anxiety over them and if that continues, we can become immobilized in our thinking, directed by negative thoughts that were not pleasant to originally live through. Remembering them brings back many of those negative feelings.
Who does not have to deal with things like this? Who goes through life never thinking a bad thought or a negative memory (and too often building on it)? As a Christian, it really does become my responsibility to do what I can to redirect my mind away from that negativity.
Tim talks about proper fear that is actually good for us. One of those fears is when we are in some type of real (not imagined) danger. Our fight or flight response to danger is always there to try to save us.
Another type of fear that is very good is having a healthy fear of God.[1] When we say to fear God, often we have the wrong impression. True Christians never have to worry about God’s judgment or wrath on us (Romans 8). Here, fearing God means understanding who He is, the power that He wields and the fact that He controls all things, including the things that come into our life (see the book of Job throughout). We might say fearing God is to have the utmost respect and awe for Him because of who He is. This fear should result in the Christian having a greater sense of reverence for God, which should increase within us over time. Here’s how Tim describes the fear of God.
To live in a constant awareness of the existence, attributes, and glories of God (His sovereignty, His goodness, His wisdom, and His holiness, etc.), to the point that His reality controls and directs my actions, words, thoughts and motives (affections, desires, feelings, etc.), in all of my circumstances, responsibilities, and relationships. My comprehension of God restrains me from doing evil and constrains me to do good in any situation, no matter what is happening. The glories of God both confront and comfort me! (emphasis in original, page 7-2, Foundations)
That’s a mouthful yet it is very true. If we endeavor to live in such a way, we will not engage in fearing people or situations. The reason we might fear people is because we idolize self or we give others more power than they have. In essence, this is what it all boils down to. We either worship and serve God or we worship and serve self. If we worship and serve self, we can easily become truly unhappy people. This is really idolatrous fear that causes us to see ourselves as the center of the universe even though at the same time, we feel helpless to be able to comfort ourselves. God has the answer for that.
Tim explains what he calls the “fear cycle” and its results. He prefaces this by telling us that when we fear, we are prevented from fulfilling God-given responsibilities because we think they’re too hard. This is the result of unsound and undisciplined thinking (2 Timothy 1:7).
With respect to the fear cycle, see if you can relate to this. Unfounded fears are often triggered by some circumstance or set of circumstances that come from outside ourselves. They place pressure on our thinking. If we succumb to that pressure to increase our thinking about them, the result is idolatrous thinking. This then quickly creates worry. From worry, anxiety is the result as an emotional and physical response. Our bodies begin to stiffen, we think we are undone, we believe we are overcome and there’s nothing we can do about it. This then creates more worry, with more anxiety and if left unchecked, wild worry to wild anxiety is the result of that. Then we’ll spend hours replaying certain things in our minds that we have no control over and all of that feeds the fear cycle. We are accomplishing nothing.
Has that ever happened to you? It has happened to me and I can clearly see how I was affected by it. I became somewhat withdrawn and unpleasant during those times, fully focused on what was happening in my mind. I felt I needed to do whatever I could to protect myself by trying to come up with a solution to the problem that had not even occurred yet! So many times I’ve tried to do that and never really got anywhere. Has that happened to you?
If you were to go to a secular psychologist, they would lead you to believe that you simply had certain “phobias” and the psychologist would then work to help you minimize those phobias so that they were no longer overwhelming. That’s not the way the God of the Bible wants us to deal with them. He has a far better way.
Jay Adams, who was a pioneer in biblical counseling way back in the 1970s has a chapter in one of his book, The Christian Counselor’s Manual called Helping Those Who Fear. Adams breaks things down into two opposing categories; love vs fear. We cannot do both. We can do one or the other.
Love looks for opportunities to give; it asks: “What can I do for another?” Fear keeps a wary eye on the possible consequences and asks: “What will he do for me?” Love “thinks no evil”; fear thinks of little else. Love labors doing today’s tasks and is so busy that it has no time to worry about tomorrow. Because it focuses upon tomorrow, fear fails to undertake responsibilities today. Love leads to great love – fulfilling one’s obligations brings joy and peace and satisfaction and greater love and devotion to the work. Fear, in turn, occasions greater fear, since failure to assume responsibilities brings additional fear of the consequences of acting irresponsibly. (emphasis added, page 413)
At another point in this same chapter, Adams makes this statement, which actually ties everything together in my opinion, making it easier to comprehend on a practical level.
The enemy of fear is love; the way to put off fear, then, is to put on love. (page 414)
Fear does everything it can to protect self. Love is self-giving. So in practical ways, how does a Christian who is dealing with fear, worry and anxiety, move away from those things? We need to actively replace fear that circumstances can generate in our minds, with actions of love that not only involve our bodies (in actions), but our minds in thought as well.
1 John 4:18-19 speaks of how love casts out perfect fear.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because He first loved us.
Fear consists of a fear of punishment. True believers will never be punished (in this or the next life), though God may offer corrective discipline at times. However, we will never experience His punishment/wrath. Certainly John is looking at the big picture here regarding our salvation. However, there is another point being made. If we pursue the love we have been called to imitate, our love for God and others will literally cast out the fear that seeks to captivate and control our minds and lives.
5 In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered and set me free. 6 The LORD is on my side; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 118:5-6 NKJV)
So recently, when I was dealing with negative, fearful thoughts that sought to control my thinking and outlook, I did something that is not necessarily habitual yet, but was certainly needed. I deliberately asked myself what I could do that would be loving someone else. If love (including acts of love), drives out fear, then I needed to turn my mind to acts of love. What did that look like at that point?
My wife works hard remotely from our home. She’s always dealing with paperwork and zoom meetings. When she is done, she often immediately starts dinner. What could I do to help? I’m not a cook by any stretch but I can make salads. So I spent time cutting everything up for salads and put together four salads that we would use over the next two evenings for dinner. This may not seem like much, but for me, it was an act of love that made fixing dinner easier for my wife.
What I’ve come to understand is that there is no convincing our fears, worries, and anxieties to simply go away on their own or using willpower to overcome. Those things need to be replaced. We need to actively stand against them by turning our backs on them and replacing them with acts of love. By the way, what I’m not talking about are the sometimes very real issues of life that we must face, but even there, we can and should approach those things with the understanding that God is in control. That truth should help us not to wallow in fear, worry or anxiety as if it’s all up to us to “fix” whatever problem exists. We should simply go on with life, continuing to offer acts of love to family members, our friends in church or even to the world in general, just as Jesus did.
Jesus was never captivated and controlled by fear, worry or anxiety. He had a completely different perspective than we often do and He simply continued on, loving people by doing loving things for them in spite of how He might have been tempted to think and feel.
I’m quite sure that Jesus was tempted time and time again to give into the fear of many circumstances (real or imagined) as we are today, yet He never followed the urges to protect self (Hebrews 4:15) by giving into fear leading to worry and anxiety. As believers, we need to act in a way that shows our love for God and others. We cannot do that and engage in fear, worry or anxiety. The two – love and fear – are opposed to one another. We can do one or the other, but not both at the same time.
I don’t know if this makes sense to you or not because of the way I’ve explained it. If not, that’s on me. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). That is what we are called to do; live a life of love. The more we love people, reaching out to them with acts and words of love, the more we become like Jesus and the less we dwell on the fears life can throw at us.
The more we love, the less inclined we are to cater to and protect self. In fact, Jesus called us to deny self (Mark 8:34-35), something that is completely contrary to what this world (and our sin natures), demands. The only way to do that is to excel in loving God and others. By doing so, we move away from self and it’s desires. Isn’t that what being a Christian actually means because it is the main aspect of our sanctification?
Scripture begins with God creating a good world and appointing humans to establish his generous rule over creation (Gen. 1:27–28). When humans failed to do so by listening to the serpent and falling into sin (Gen. 3:1–7), they ceded dominion over creation to Satan (Matt. 4:8–9; 1 Cor. 5:5). Thus, he is described as both “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30) and “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4). Today, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), and he’s filled it with suffering and death. It’s only after he gained a foothold in the garden that humanity was cursed with relational strife, painful toil, agony in childbirth, and death (Gen. 3:16–19). And it’s no coincidence that immediately after the devil will be judged (Rev. 20:10), death itself will be done away with (Rev. 20:14), and a new world will be ushered in with no “mourning, nor crying, nor pain” (Rev. 21:4).
Moreover, death is the ultimate and archetypal human suffering, and Hebrews describes the devil as having “the power of death” (Heb. 2:14). Paul, too, links death with the authorities and powers—which is Paul’s terminology for demonic powers. That’s why it’s through the victory of Jesus and his saints over death (Col. 2:12–13) that God “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (Col. 2:15).1 Elsewhere, Paul writes, “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:24–26).
Within this larger narrative, the Scriptures are filled with specific stories in which Satan causes suffering. Importantly, Satan is described as causing not only the suffering that comes as a direct result of human wickedness but also the seemingly “random” suffering that comes from natural disasters and disease. It is Satan who uses a great storm to kill Job’s children and strikes him “with loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). Similarly, in the New Testament, Matthew and Luke depict muteness, blindness, and seizures as caused by demons (Matt. 9:32–34; 12:22–24; 17:15; Luke 4:35; 11:14–15). Jesus himself describes a woman disabled for eighteen years as bound by Satan in her sickness (Luke 13:16). Clearly, as the Scriptures show, physical illness is sometimes a result of satanic or demonic activity.
Today, many Christians imagine that certain sicknesses have physical causes and should be treated medically while other illnesses are caused by demons and can be cured through exorcism. I don’t think this is what the Gospel writers mean, since they almost always speak of healings and the casting out of demons in the same breath (e.g., Matt. 4:24; 10:8; Mark 1:32, 34; Luke 9:1). Those who have power to do one have power to do the other. The Gospel writers see sickness more broadly as tied to the work of demons. Of course, sickness still has physical causes, but under the broader umbrella of God’s sovereignty, it is the devil’s work that sets them in motion to bring about human suffering, even if this often occurs only indirectly as a result of the fall. That said, the devil can act to cause suffering directly—in Job’s case, Satan works through physical causes to take Job’s livestock, kill his children, and produce intense physical pain.
Here, I’d like to offer two clarifications. First, I recognize that some readers might be confused when I say that the Scriptures point to Satan as the initiator of human suffering. Don’t the Scriptures also describe God as sovereign over all suffering and death? After all, God says:
See now that I, even I, am he,
and there is no god beside me;
I kill and I make alive;
I wound and I heal. (Deut. 32:39)
And Satan is able to torment Job only when God gives him permission to do so (Job 1:1–12; 2:4–6).
People wouldn’t need thorns in their flesh to keep them humble if the world hadn’t been marred by the work of Satan.
We can recognize several layers of causation as we discuss this topic. It’s true that suffering and death were ordained by God, but it was still through Satan’s work that they entered human history. After all, while God curses humans with suffering and death in the garden, he does so only after they rebel and listen to the serpent (Gen. 3:14–19). Thus, while we see both God and Satan at work in people’s suffering in the Scriptures, God and Satan stand behind that suffering asymmetrically. For Satan, suffering and death are ends in themselves; for God, they are corrective measures that he uses to judge the evil that has occurred in this suffering world and to redeem his people from it. He is leading his people through suffering to a new world where “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Rev. 21:4).
But suffering is only a part of our redemption because of Satan’s rule in our world. For example, Paul writes, “So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor. 12:7). Clearly, God bestowed a physical ailment on Paul, and he did so for Paul’s sake. But again, because Paul’s thorn caused destruction and suffering in his body, it was not only a gift from God but also a “messenger of Satan.” People wouldn’t need thorns in their flesh to keep them humble if the world hadn’t been marred by the work of Satan.
Second, when I say that all suffering and death are largely the result of Satan’s work, I am not taking issue with the traditional evangelical position that human suffering finds its origin in human sinfulness. Here again, it’s important to remember that multiple layers of causation can operate simultaneously. D. A. Carson rightly observes that “the first human rebellion (Gen. 3) marks the onset of suffering, pain, toil, and death. . . . Evil is the primal cause of suffering, rebellion is the root of pain, sin is the source of death.”2
I agree entirely that human suffering and death entered the world through human sinfulness. I’m simply asking readers to remember, in addition, that humans fell into sin only after being tempted by Satan in the garden. Thus, both human sinfulness and the devil’s work are instrumental in causing human suffering. It’s important that we acknowledge both realities. If we insist that human suffering is merely a result of human sinfulness—introduced into the world by God either to correct and punish human sin or to establish a natural consequence for sin—then we’ll miss the malicious demonic purposes that operate alongside God’s own good purposes in our suffering. Maintaining an awareness of these darker purposes will help us both resist them and understand how great an evil human suffering is.
Notes:
See Eph. 2:1–2; 6:12. Similarly, it is only after mentioning how “we are being killed all the day long” that Paul notes that “neither death . . . nor angels nor rulers . . . nor powers” can separate us from Christ’s love (Rom. 8:36–38). Paul connects the danger of death that his readers face with the actions of the rulers and powers.
D. A. Carson, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil, 2nd ed. (Inter-Varsity Press, 2006), 39. Similarly, Tim Keller writes, “It is fair to say that suffering and death in general is a natural consequence and just judgment of God on our sin.” Timothy Keller, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015), 411.
Matt Rhodes grew up in San Diego, California, and has lived in North Africa since 2011. He and his wife, Kim, serve as part of a church-planting team to a previously unengaged people group.
You won’t go far in evangelistic conversations in the West today before someone asks you to explain the problem of theodicy: how it is that a good God could allow suffering in the world.
As you grow in age and in grace, the sorrows become more sorrowful and the joys grow deeper. The sorrows deepen, and yet are infused with stronger joys.
The answer to the question “What do you do when you’re not happy in God?” is to preach to yourself. Preach to yourself Psalm 42—and all the other glorious promises of the Bible.
In times of distress or trouble, I often find myself turning to Psalm 90. God has been our dwelling place throughout all generations. From everlasting to everlasting, he is God.
Peter … said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the very corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved.” Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. (4:8–13)
Instead of being frightened into silence or compromise, Peter displayed great courage and went on the offensive. Submission is not cowardice. He began by indicting them for the incongruity of putting him and John on trial … for a benefit done to a sick man. He thus turned the tables on the Sanhedrin and subtly accused them of injustice—certainly it couldn’t be wrong to heal a lame man. Since they had demanded to know as to how this man has been made well, by what name (or authority) the apostles performed the miracle, Peter told them. He desired them and all the people of Israel to know that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom they crucified, but God raised from the dead—the beggar stood before them in good health. In the very citadel of the Sanhedrin’s power Peter put his judges on trial by proclaiming the truth about the living Christ to those responsible for His execution. By pointing out that they executed Jesus but God raised Him up, Peter showed them to be the enemies of God. That approach was frequently employed in Acts (cf. 2:23–24; 3:14–15; 10:39–40; 13:27–30). Peter refused to compromise the gospel by deleting what would offend the Sanhedrin. He spoke courageously because he was devoted to the truth and entrusted the outcome to his Lord. That is an example for all persecuted believers to follow. One of the most formidable barriers to the Sanhedrin’s acceptance of Jesus as Messiah was that He could not prevent Himself from being killed. That did not fit their conception of the Messiah as a political and military deliverer. As he had done on the day of Pentecost, Peter turned to the Old Testament Scriptures to build his case. He quoted Psalm 118:22, applying it to their rejection of Jesus Christ (cf. Mark 12:10–11; 1 Peter 2:4, 6–8). Peter was not leading the Jews away from God but preaching the very truth of the Old Testament as fulfilled in Jesus. He was the stone which was rejected by them, the builders or spiritual leaders of the nation. Although they rejected Jesus, God made Him the very corner stone through His resurrection and exaltation. Again, Peter puts them in opposition to God—they rejected Jesus, but God gave Him the place of preeminence. He is the cornerstone of God’s spiritual temple, the church (Eph. 2:19–22). They were the ones leading the people away from God. In verse 12 Peter gives what amounts to a direct invitation to the Sanhedrin to repent and embrace Jesus Christ to be saved. He had already declared that the healing of the lame beggar had been done in Jesus’ name. Now he goes further and proclaims that there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved. Saved is a form of the same verb (sozō) used in verse 9 to describe the healing of the lame man. Not only was Jesus the source of physical healing, but He is also the only source of spiritual healing. Deliverance from the devastating effects of sin comes only through Jesus Christ. Peter did not invent that truth; he is merely echoing his Master. In John 14:6 Jesus declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” This same exclusivity is claimed by our Lord in John 10:7–8 when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers.” The exclusivism of Christianity goes against the grain of our religiously pluralistic society. A chapel built at the North Pole in February 1959 by the men of Operation Deep Freeze 4 typifies the prevalent attitude today toward religious belief. The structure contained an altar, over which was hung a picture of Jesus, a crucifix, a star of David, and a lotus leaf (representing the Buddha). On the wall of the chapel was an inscription that read “Now it can be said that the earth turns on the point of faith.” Christians preach an exclusive Christ in an inclusive age. Because of that, we are often accused of being narrow-minded, even intolerant. Many paths, it is said, lead to the top of the mountain of religious enlightenment. How dare we insist that ours is the only one? In reality, however, there are only two religious paths: the broad way of works salvation leading to destruction, and the narrow way of faith in the only Savior leading to eternal life (Matt. 7:13–14). Religious people are on either one or the other. Sadly, the Sanhedrin and all who followed them were on the broad road to hell. Peter’s impassioned plea failed to soften the hardened hearts of the Sanhedrin. Yet it was not without some effect. They could not help being impressed with the confidence of Peter and John. They were amazed that uneducated (in the rabbinical schools) and untrained men (not professional theologians; laymen) could argue so effectively from the Scriptures. That two Galilean fishermen powerfully and successfully argued their case before the elite Jewish supreme court was shocking, so that they were marveling. The explanation slowly dawned on the Sanhedrin, as they began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. No doubt it came back to their memories that the two apostles had been with Jesus in the temple and at His trial (John 18:15–18). What triggered the Sanhedrin’s recognition was the realization that the apostles were doing what Jesus did. Like the apostles, Jesus had boldly and fearlessly confronted the Jewish leaders with His authority and truth (cf. Matt. 7:28–29). He, too, had no formal rabbinic training (cf. John 7:15–16). Yet in His sure handling of the Old Testament Scriptures He had no equal (cf. John 7:46). Jesus had performed many miracles during His earthly ministry. Peter and John were on trial largely because of a miracle they had performed. The attempt by the Sanhedrin to suppress the apostles’ teaching had given them a priceless opportunity. They boldly seized it and proclaimed the gospel to the highest officials of the nation. That is how to handle persecution—face it with the boldest proclamation of the truth.
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1994). Acts (Vol. 1, pp. 134–136). Moody Press.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” We make these observations: a. Salvation proclaimed. “Salvation is found in no one else.” This text is among the well-known and cherished passages in Acts. Peter challenges his immediate audience but at the same time speaks to all people who seek salvation. He addresses learned and influential men in the Sanhedrin whose work consisted of showing the people of Israel the way of salvation. They did so by telling the Jews to perform works that would earn them salvation. But Peter preaches that salvation can be obtained in no way other than through the name of Jesus Christ. The salvation he preaches comprises both physical and spiritual healing. They see the evidence of physical healing in the man who used to be a cripple. But they must understand that spiritual well-being includes forgiveness of sin and a restored relationship with God. No one in Peter’s audience is able to point to any person who grants salvation, because everyone needs salvation himself. Hence, they should realize that they can have peace with God only through Jesus Christ. b. Name given. “There is no other name under heaven given among men.” The name Jesus reveals the task of the Savior, because the name means “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). That is, he heals people physically from the effect of sin, but more than that, he removes sin itself so that people can stand before the judgment seat of God as if they had never sinned at all. Jesus makes them spiritually whole by restoring them in true relation to God the Father. Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6). No person but Jesus has the ability to provide remission of sin. “Through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins” (10:43). Peter resorts not to an overstatement but rather to a descriptive idiom when he says that there is no other name under heaven than the name Jesus. Nowhere in the entire world is man able to find another name (i.e., person) that offers the salvation Jesus provides. Religions other than Christianity fail because they stress salvation by works and not by grace. The name Jesus has been given to men by God himself to show that salvation has its origin in God. c. Believers saved. “[No other name] by which we must be saved.” The Greek text is specific. It does not say that we can be saved, for this would indicate that man has inherent ability to achieve salvation. Nor does it say that we may be saved, for then the clause would convey uncertainty. The text is definite. It says: “by which we must be saved.” The word must reveals a divine necessity which God has established, according to his plan and decree, to save us through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, this word signifies that man is under moral obligation to respond to the call to believe in Jesus Christ and thus gain salvation. He has no recourse to salvation other than through the Son of God.
Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles (Vol. 17, pp. 155–156). Baker Book House.
“It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage. … If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives.” —John Adams (1756)
Clintons wipe Epstein subpoena with a cloth or something: On Tuesday, Bill and Hillary Clinton refused a subpoena to testify before the House Oversight Committee regarding its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The Clintons released an eight-page letter stating they were “ready to fight … no matter the consequences.” In the letter, they also asserted, “The Subpoenas issued to President and Secretary Clinton are invalid and legally unenforceable. Mindful of these defects, we trust you will engage in good faith to de-escalate this dispute.” Committee Chair James Comer responded to the Clintons’ no-show by stating, “We will move next week in the House Oversight Committee … to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress.” Clinton is one of the highest-profile individuals connected to Epstein, and questions abound as to whether he was involved in Epstein’s sex-trafficking crimes.
Iran protests continue: Protests against the totalitarian regime that has ruled Iran since the days of Jimmy Carter continue, with the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reporting over 2,000 deaths so far. That figure is already the highest death count for protests inside Iran for any event since the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Other sources, including some inside Iran, suggest the actual death count is much higher, with a figure of 12,000 dead circulating widely, and some suggesting it may be closer to 20,000. The Iranians’ ability to communicate with the outside world has been deliberately crippled by the ayatollahs, although some communications were reestablished yesterday, and Elon Musk’s Starlink has provided some internet access. President Donald Trump yesterday told Iranian patriots to continue protesting and promised, “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.” On Monday, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on any country continuing to trade with Iran.
Temporary protection status for Somalia nullified: Thousands of Somalis living in the U.S. were allowed to remain under the temporary protection status (TPS) for Somalia, but no longer. The Trump administration has revoked Somalia’s TPS, and those Somalis here under its auspices have until March 17 to leave the country. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem explained that “allowing Somali nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interests.” Noem also argued that conditions in Somalia have improved enough to justify ending TPS. Perhaps the only word on the issue that matters came at the beginning of Noem’s statement: “Temporary means temporary.”
House rejects low-flow showerheads: The House of Representatives continues to codify President Trump’s executive orders into law. Its newest target? Low-flow showerheads. A 1992 energy law restricted showerheads to no more than 2.5 gallons per minute, inspiring the TV show “Seinfeld” to bemoan the lack of pressure. President Barack Obama reinterpreted that law to mean that no showerhead system can allow more than 2.5 gallons per minute, regardless of the number of total showerheads. Trump repealed those standards in his first term, only for President Joe Biden to reinstate them. Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina aims to put the issue beyond the reach of executive power. On Tuesday, lawmakers passed Fry’s bill, reaffirming that each shower nozzle is its own showerhead and is entitled to 2.5 gpm of water flow. Pushing back the regulatory state is tedious work, but this Congress is slowly and steadily making progress.
Possible “Havana Syndrome” device acquired by U.S.: In late 2024, the U.S. government acquired a device that may be the culprit behind the debilitating condition known as “Havana Syndrome” that has affected more than 1,500 American officials since it was first reported in 2016. The backpack-sized portable device was reportedly clandestinely purchased by DHS at an undisclosed price in the eight-figures. Unsurprisingly, it is said to contain components of Russian origin. The Pentagon has been studying and testing the device over the past year. Apparently, it emits pulsed, radio-frequency energy. The revelation of this device runs counter to a 2023 U.S. intel report that concluded it was “very unlikely” a foreign entity was responsible for the ill-health conditions these officials were suffering, which were officially labeled “Anomalous Health Incidents.”
Both parties are losing ground with voters: Some 45% of voters now identify as independent. However, only 10% of voters represent what might be called the “true independent,” expressing no partisan preference, with the remainder of that 45% leaning toward one party or the other. Among the “leaners,” Democrats have a five-point edge over Republicans. Despite that, more Americans describe themselves as varying degrees of conservative (35%) than liberal (28%) or moderate (33%). The rise in independents seems to be a function of youth, with Millennial and Gen Z voters having majority independent identification.
Ed Dept. green-lights new rule stopping funding of low-paying degrees: The Department of Education is finalizing a new rule that will require schools to include the average earnings of graduates of the degree programs they offer. Furthermore, if graduates of those degrees don’t earn more, on average, than a high school graduate, those degrees will be prohibited from receiving federal funds. The Trump administration is looking to “break the cycle of student debt and poor return on investment” plaguing too many graduates, explained Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent. “After more than 15 years of regulatory uncertainty under the previous three Administrations, we’ve developed an accountability framework that institutions can work with, students will benefit from, and taxpayers can rightfully expect to improve outcomes.” According to the U.S. Career Institute estimate, the average high school graduate earned $42,590 in 2023.
Trump flips bird at heckler in Ford plant: While touring a Ford plant in Dearborn, Michigan, yesterday, President Trump responded to a heckler who yelled out “pedophile protector” by pointing and appearing to mouth the words “F**k you” before flipping off the heckler. White House Communications Director Steven Cheung defended Trump, stating, “A lunatic was wildly screaming expletives in a complete fit of rage, and the president gave an appropriate and unambiguous response.” Meanwhile, DNC Chair Ken Martin took the interaction as an opportunity to frame Trump’s response as “Protecting pedophiles and saying f**k you to American workers.”
Headlines
Trump to cut federal payments to sanctuary cities starting February 1 (Fox News)
Trump admin designates Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon as foreign terror groups (NY Post)
Politico says Trump “quietly restored” payments to Planned Parenthood last month (Not the Bee)
America had negative migration for the first time in over 50 years (Not the Bee)
Humor: Democrats fear Iranian love of freedom could spread to America (Babylon Bee)
The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.
Can Idaho and West Virginia, and, by extension, 27 other states, define sports based on sex? That’s essentially the question the Supreme Court considered during yesterday’s oral arguments, and it certainly seemed likely that the Court would side with reason, science, and morality, as well as protect women’s sports from males pretending to be females.
Amy Howe at SCOTUSblog lays out the background of the two cases (Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J.), though I will make a couple of key edits for clarity and truth:
Idaho adopted its law in 2020; West Virginia followed one year later. Lindsay Hecox, now 24 years old, went to federal court in Idaho to challenge that state’s law. Hecox is a transgender woman man who wanted to be able to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University; she he did not make those teams but later played club sports.
The West Virginia case was filed by Heather Jackson, the mother of B.P.J., a now-15-year-old transgender high school student who has publicly identified as a girl since the third grade. B.P.J. has taken puberty blockers to prevent the onset of male puberty, as well as hormone therapy with estrogen. B.P.J. has competed on the track and cross-country teams at school.
The Washington Post has a gushing profile on Becky Pepper-Jackson (B.J.P.), the West Virginia student, in which he and his supporters argue that “treatment” began early enough to negate any inherent biological advantage. The problem is that B.P.J. keeps winning girls’ events, and it’s sometimes not even close.
Indeed, the Post’s editorial board came out in favor of the state laws, rhetorically asking and answering, “Is there evidence that males are better athletes than females? Yes, scads.”
Previously, the Fourth Circuit Court blocked West Virginia’s law because it allegedly violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating on the basis of sex. The Ninth Circuit Court blocked the Idaho law only on 14th Amendment grounds. In a bit of a twist, Hecox actually requested that the Supreme Court drop the case because he was no longer competing in athletics — in other words, he knew he was headed for defeat and would rather have no decision than a loss.
Back here in reality, as Justice Samuel Alito noted yesterday, you can’t violate equal protection or Title IX’s language about discriminating “on the basis of sex” if you erase the definition of sex.
Alito and Kathleen Hartnett, the ACLU attorney arguing both cases, had an incredible exchange that utterly eviscerated the trans ideology (forgive the length, but it’s illustrative):
Alito: Do you agree that a school may have separate teams for a category of students classified as boys and the category of students classified as girls?
Hartnett: Yes, Your Honor. …
Alito: If it does that, then is it not necessary for there to be, for equal protection purposes, if that is challenged under the equal protection clause, an understanding of what it means to be a boy or a girl or a man or a woman?
Hartnett: Yes, Your Honor.
Alito: And what is that definition for equal protection purposes? … What does it mean to be a boy or a girl or a man or a woman?
Hartnett: … We do not have a definition for the court…
Alito: Well, how can you, how can a court determine whether there’s discrimination on the basis of sex without knowing what sex means for equal protection purposes? …
Suppose this school has a boys’, let’s say, track team, and a girls’ track team. … A student who has the genes and the reproductive system of a male, and had those at birth and has never taken puberty blockers, never taken female hormones, never had any gender-altering or affirming surgery, says, “Nevertheless, I am a woman. That’s who I am.” Can the school say, “No, you cannot participate on the girls’ team?”
Hartnett: [After asking clarification] “Yes, they can.”
Alito: Is that person not a woman in your understanding? The person says, “I sincerely believe I am a woman…” Is that person not a woman?
Hartnett: I would respect their self-identity in addressing the person, but in terms of the statute, I think the question is, “Does that person have a sex-based biological advantage that’s going to make it unfair for that person to be a part of the women’s team?”
Alito: … What you seem to be saying is yes, it is permissible for the school to discriminate on the basis of transgender status. Because if this person is a “trans woman,” a “trans girl,” and is barred from the girls’ team, then that person is being subjected to differential treatment based on transgender status, right?
Eventually, the challengers argued that there’s a “subset” of “birth-sex males” who shouldn’t be excluded from girls’ sports because they don’t possess all the physical advantages of normal males. The conservative justices appeared unconvinced by this hair-splitting definition of convenience.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who unfortunately used terms like “trans girl” and “cisgender,” nevertheless noted that regular testing to prove or disprove any inherent advantages would be far more invasive than simple male/female categories.
Meanwhile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who protested that she’s “not a biologist” when asked to define a woman during her confirmation hearings, is still every bit as deliberately ignorant now as she was then. See if you can decipher this mumbo jumbo:
You have the overarching classification, you know, everybody has to be, um, uh, uh, play on the team that is the same as their sex at birth. Um, but then you have a gender identity definition that is operating within that. Meaning, a distinction, meaning that, um, for, uh, cisginger [sic] girls they can play consistent with their gender identity, w- for transgender girls, they can’t.
“Cisginger.” LOL.
Her lowest moment, however, came when she said, “I guess I’m still struggling to understand why the state would have to have perfectly tailored laws. I— I— I would think the state would just have to make exceptions where people can demonstrate that the justification that makes the state’s conduct constitutional does — doesn’t apply to them.”
Justice Department attorney Hashim Moopan could hardly believe his ears: “So, making exceptions is tailoring your law. That’s literally what it means to tailor a law.”
Game, set, match. Well, at least I hope so when the Court renders its opinion in June.
Sophie Starkova: Saving the American Family — Incentivize marriage and family through laws and policies, and ferret out rules or laws that harm or disincentivize marriage and the American family.
Emmy Griffin: Cuba Is Literally Running on Fumes — This small island nation that relied on Venezuelan oil is experiencing economic free fall thanks in part to Operation Absolute Resolve.
Thomas Gallatin: Exploiting American Generosity — After a shooting in Maine, people raised money for the victims. A group of Somalis ended up stealing some of it.
Progressive Utopias: Why Communes Collapse — Socialists like New York City’s new mayor push the “warmth of collectivism.” But every time they build their model of a socialist utopia — a commune — they fail.
“Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. … He will be truly missed. God bless you Scott!” —President Donald Trump
Yellow Journalism
“Scott Adams, Disgraced Dilbert Creator, Dies at 68.” —People Magazine headline
Dumb & Dumber
“For cisginger [sic] girls, they can play consistent with their gender identity. For transgender girls, they can’t.” —Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
“We do not have a definition [of sex] for the Court.” —ACLU attorney Kathleen Hartnett to Justice Samuel Alito
Braying Jennies
“Officials [are] saying [Renee Good] was dangerous, not just some innocent mother of three. Just like they say Kilmar Abrego Garcia isn’t just a Maryland father.” —MS Now’s Katy Tur
“The violent criminals seem to be in the agency.” —”The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg regarding ICE
For the Record
“Law-enforcement officers make split-second decisions in chaos, guided by training and law, when hesitation can be fatal. We perceive threats in real time — tinted windows, sudden movements, a suspect’s history — not in slow-motion replays. Yet we’re judged in hindsight, often through political lenses.” —Wisconsin LEO Mark Wagner
“Once a federal law is passed and upheld by the Supreme Court, you must obey the law. If you don’t obey the law, then we’re back to the Civil War, which was fought over the idea that states could ignore the federal government. … Left-wing Democrat governors and mayors are defying federal law.” —Gary Bauer
“The political movement that gained momentum from George Floyd’s death in 2020 didn’t make America safer for people who looked like Floyd. It only weakened police and subjected Americans of all colors to more violence.” —Daniel McCarthy
Make Responsibility Great Again
“I want every liberal … to engage in a thought scenario. … If your sister is telling you that instead of caring for her children or her mental health that she prefers to stalk law enforcement, would you say, ‘You go girl?’ Of course not. You would say, ‘You need an intervention.’” —Greg Gutfeld
And Last…
“As a result of Bill Clinton not showing up for his lawful subpoena … we will move next week in the House Oversight Committee markup to hold former President Clinton in contempt of Congress.” —Rep. James Comer (R-KY)
ON THIS DAY in 1784, after nine long years since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
President Trump promises help to Iranian protesters amid the regime’s brutal crackdown, with the death toll estimated above 10,000, as Iranians are being shot and attacked by the government; the protesters are rallying around the son of the former Shah, Reva Pahlavi, who encouraged Iranians to keep up the fight, and he addressed the Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast at Mar a Lago this week, calling for prayers and saying hopefully the prayer breakfast will be held in Tehran after it’s liberated; Chris Mitchell talks about what he’s hearing about the attacks on Iranians, a report that Israeli and Arab officials are urging the Trump Administration to hold off on attacking Iran for now, how Iran might retaliate, the significance of the meeting between Pahlavi and Steve Witkoff of the Trump Administration, and how the Israeli and Iranian people feel about each other; a look at the growing persecution of Christians around the world, which has now reached record levels, as some US lawmakers want a shift in foreign policy to deal with problems with religious liberty; and our Studio 5 interview with recording artist Victory Boyd, who talks about her new music in the new year, exploring a personal journey of love and loss – it’s called “Confessions of a Lonely Girl.”
The “sanctuary cities” scattered throughout the United States have asked for it, and now they’re going to get it, as President Trump announced that the federal government could be cutting off all funding, effective February 1st.
(AP) – Iranian demonstrators’ ability to get details of bloody nationwide protests out to the world has been given a strong boost, with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service dropping its fees to allow more people to circumvent the Tehran government’s strongest attempt ever to prevent information from spilling outside its borders, activists said Wednesday.
The move by the American aerospace company run by Elon Musk follows the complete shutdown of telecommunications and internet access to Iran’s 85 million people on Jan. 8, as protests expanded over the Islamic Republic’s faltering economy and the collapse of its currency.
SpaceX has not officially announced the decision and did not respond to request for comment, but activists told The Associated Press that Starlink has been available for free to anyone in Iran with the receivers since Tuesday.
“Starlink has been crucial,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian whose nonprofit Net Freedom Pioneers has helped smuggle units into Iran, pointing to video that emerged Sunday showing rows of bodies at a forensic medical center near Tehran.
“That showed a few hundred bodies on the ground, that came out because of Starlink,” he said in an interview from Los Angeles. “I think that those videos from the center pretty much changed everyone’s understanding of what’s happening because they saw it with their own eyes.”
Since the outbreak of demonstrations Dec. 28, the death toll has risen to more than 2,500 people, primarily protesters but also security personnel, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Starlink is banned in Iran by telecommunication regulations, as the country never authorized the importation, sale or use of the devices. Activists fear they could be accused of helping the U.S. or Israel by using Starlink and charged with espionage, which can carry the death penalty.
The first units were smuggled into Iran in 2022 during protests over the country’s mandatory headscarf law, after Musk got the Biden administration to exempt the Starlink service from Iran sanctions.
Since then, more than 50,000 units are estimated to have been sneaked in, with people going through great lengths to conceal them, using virtual private networks while on the system to hide IP addresses and taking other precautions, said Ahmad Ahmadian, the executive director of Holistic Resilience, a Los Angeles-based organization that was responsible for getting some of the first Starlink units into Iran.
Starlink is a global internet network that relies on some 10,000 satellites orbiting Earth.
After efforts to shut down communications during the 12-day war with Israel in June proved to be not terribly effective, Iranian security services have taken more “extreme tactics” now to both jam Starlink’s radio signals and GPS systems, Ahmadian said in a phone interview. After Holistic Resilience passed on reports to SpaceX, Ahmadian said, the company pushed a firmware update that helped circumvent the new countermeasures.
Security services also rely on informers to tell them who might be using Starlink, search internet and social media traffic for signs it has been used, and there have been reports they have raided apartments with satellite dishes.
“There has always been a cat-and-mouse game,” said Ahmadian, who fled Iran himself in 2012, after serving time in prison for student activism. “The government is using every tool in its toolbox.”
Still, Ahmadian noted that the government jamming attempts had only been effective in certain urban areas, suggesting that security services lack the resources to block Starlink more broadly.
Iran did begin to allow people to call out internationally on Tuesday via their mobile phones, but calls from outside the country into Iran remain blocked.
Compared to protests in 2019, when lesser measures by the government were able to effectively stifle information reaching the rest of the world for more than a week, Ahmadian said the proliferation of Starlink has made it impossible to prevent communications. He said the flow could increase now that the service has been made free.
“This time around they really shut it down, even fixed landlines were not working,” he said. “But despite this, the information was coming out and it also shows how distributed this community of Starlink users is in the country.”
Musk has made Starlink free for use during several natural disasters, and Ukraine has relied heavily on the service since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It was initially funded by SpaceX and later through an American government contract.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of ongoing efforts to improve things in both countries, the United States reportedly made an official diplomatic offer to trade all of its liberal women for Iranian women.
According to highly placed sources, representatives of the State Department, including Secretary Marco Rubio, had engaged in high-level talks with officials from the Iranian government to lay out parameters for a trade that would send every liberal American woman to Iran in exchange for Persian women.
“It’s a deal that makes too much sense not to happen,” Rubio said in a brief statement to reporters. “In the United States, we’re overrun with unpleasant, objectionable, hateful women of multi-colored hair. In Iran, they seek to oppress the rights of the beautiful Persian women. In light of the current state of affairs in both countries, making a historic trade is a viable solution. Just think about how much life would instantly improve in America with no more liberal women.”
White House insiders confirmed that the idea for the swap originated with President Donald Trump. “Why don’t we get rid of the nasty, ugly, liberal women and bring in hot Persian ladies?” Trump reportedly asked his advisors. “Everything would be great. Protests would disappear. Traffic would be less congested. They won’t let the crazy liberal women go on social media in Iran. And those Persian women are beautiful, believe me. It’s nothing but winning. Get it done, Marco.”
At publishing time, Iranian officials were reportedly open to moving forward with the trade after realizing that Islamic law could hide all the unattractive liberal women under burqas and prevent them from participating in society.
A Babylon Bee subscriber contributed to this report. If you want to pitch your own headline ideas to our staff, click here to check out all of our membership options!
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With arguments being presented on issues that will have far-reaching effects on shaping the future of American laws, society, and culture, the other eight Supreme Court justices brought in Ms. Rachel to explain cases to Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The judges reportedly discussed a variety of potential solutions to mitigate Jackson’s intellectual shortcomings before deciding to hire the popular YouTube star and children’s educator to help Jackson better understand the complex cases being ruled on by the court.
“Hi, friend! Are you a… Supreme Court justice? You are! Yay! And you’re a woman of color! GOOD JOB!” Ms. Rachel said as she introduced herself to Justice Jackson. “Today, we’re hearing arguments on… boys pretending to be girls to gain an unfair advantage in sports! Your friends over there in the black robes wanted me to come tell you what everything means! Isn’t that FUN? Yay!”
Witnesses in the courtroom reported seeing Justice Jackson clap excitedly at Ms. Rachel’s appearance. “She had the biggest smile on her face,” one source said. “It’s a great move by the other judges to bring in someone who has had a ton of experience and success in teaching uneducated people at a sub-kindergarten level. Having Ms. Rachel start with the basics, like colors, shapes, letters, and counting could be a game-changer for Ketanji. At the very least, it should cut down on some of her ridiculously dumb questions.”
Ms. Rachel reportedly saw the opportunity to privately tutor Justice Jackson as valuable preparation for her new role working with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “She wants to get used to working with adults who are total morons,” one insider said.
At publishing time, the Supreme Court called a recess after a confused Justice Jackson asked Ms. Rachel if the guy who sings the songs on her videos is a man or a woman.
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