3 unpopular dating truths I'd go back to tell my younger self



Growing up in the Christian community, girls especially were encouraged to write their list: “What do you want in a husband?”

Like most girls, I listed things like, “godly, tall, handsome, prays without ceasing, plays guitar, drives a truck.”

As I focused on this fictional dream guy, someone asked me, “Are you mirroring those same qualities in yourself that you want in a guy?” No, I wasn’t praying nonstop. No, I could barely play guitar. No, I had a grandma car. No, I wasn’t a bombshell. No, I wasn’t as godly as I apparently expected my future spouse to be. (I was, however, awkwardly tall as a teen.)

The Christian dating world can be a zoo, and I’d argue it’s much tougher now than it used to be. From all the stories I’ve heard, our grandparents' generation tackled dating with directness and simplicity, though I’m sure it was not perfect. I’ve been married for nearly four years, so there’s little marriage advice I can fork out, but I’ve had my fair share of millennial dating experiences. I’ve done it poorly, and I’ve done it well.

Dating doesn’t have to be agonizing, hard, or confusing. Here are the top three pieces of dating advice I’d go back and give myself if I could.

1. Get healthy first

Do all you can to get healthy — spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s that I went to Christian counseling after yet another breakup. My counselor asked me the hard questions. She made me self-reflect and dig deep until we found the root issues.

When I started counseling, I didn’t understand why guys I had dated treated me poorly or didn’t value me or would say rude things to me out of spite. It baffled me that this scenario kept repeating itself like a bad nightmare.

Throughout counseling, I realized this endless cycle was entirely a "me" problem. I wasn’t some limp fish that had no control over my life or dating decisions. I had to take full responsibility for allowing myself to be treated poorly and end the vicious unhealthy dating cycle once and for all. My unhealthy thinking patterns and lack of self-worth played a momentous role in the kinds of men I attracted and was attracted to.

While we date and wait, we should strive to become holier and healthier.

Once I began valuing myself, I didn’t settle for mediocre guys or half-hearted dating efforts. Everything changed once I rooted out the lies that I believed about God, as well as my own unhealthy thought patterns.

Even though I would publicly profess how God is good, deep down I didn’t believe it. I believed the lie that “God isn’t really good. He doesn’t want good things for me.”

It seemed so easy for other girls to get married. After all, most of my friends already were, so I didn’t understand why I had such bad “luck.” I felt like God would dangle a carrot stick in front of me, and when I’d reach for it, he’d instantly snatch it away. It seemed cruel. The waiting seemed endless, and the rounds of dating grew exhausting, especially as I got into my late 20s.

But the moment I realized that I was believing a key lie about God, everything changed. God wasn’t snatching anything from me but rather protecting me, growing me, and transforming me.

A huge burden lifted off my shoulders and chains were broken once I confessed this lie and realized I had been feeding it.

I began to live my life weightless from believing that God didn’t care about my desires to get married and have a family one day. He wasn’t taunting me with these guys I dated. Rather, God had an incredible plan for my future, and it didn’t involve them. I began to wholeheartedly trust in God’s sovereignty and timing, and those couple years of waiting after counseling and before I met my now-husband were some of the best years of my life.

We are called to be faithful before we’re called to be married.

2. Ignoring red flags doesn't make them green

Don’t ignore red flags; it doesn’t make them go away. I learned this the hard way because I didn’t just ignore red flags, I bulldozed right over them.

How many unhealthy and stagnate relationships continue because we ignore the bright flashing lights? Far too many. They are warning signs that beg us to stop and re-evaluate a relationship. Ignoring them is a sign that we are in denial. Call a spade a spade.

No matter how amazing someone might appear or how many good qualities they might have, if there’s a red flag — it’s time to pause.

Not ignoring red flags may seem like such a simple concept, but it wasn’t for me during my dating years, and it’s not for a lot of Christians I’ve talked to. When someone doesn’t think it’s a big deal to have an addiction, that’s a red flag. When someone treats you like garbage, that’s a red flag. When someone has no boundaries with the opposite sex, that’s a red flag.

Marriage amplifies problems we battle in singleness, so we must be hard at work rooting sin out of our lives. One older woman shared with me that she rushed into marriage, ignoring all the red flags because she thought she’d never have another opportunity to get married. She’s now divorced because her husband had been unfaithful most of their marriage, and she now regrets her decision deeply.

I was almost 30 years old when I got married because that’s what God had planned for me. But I can look back with utter thankfulness that I waited instead of rushing into marriage out of fear.

Dating doesn’t have to be a drawn-out affair if you’re intentional about it. But get married for the right reasons, and don’t dismiss those “this seems off” gut feelings and warning signs.

3. Give each other permission to ask hard questions

Have hard conversations: Give each other permission to ask the hard questions in the early phase of dating.

Before our first date, my now-husband asked, “Can we give each other permission to ask the hard questions?” We both were believers who dated for the intention of marriage, so we weren’t interested in wasting time by beating around the bush. Why would we want to ask the deal-breaker questions later down the road when we’re already emotionally too far gone? That would be a waste of time and energy.

Shockingly, I’ve heard of engaged couples at marriage counseling sessions who never asked each other how many kids they wanted or if they had debt.

While dating, my now-husband and I asked each other everything from theology to money to how we wanted to raise our children to what we envisioned the future to look like. Not everything has to be shared in great detail (especially at the beginning), but being transparent and clear with each other from the get-go is incredibly important. Plus, it builds trust.

Money issues are one of the biggest causes of divorce, so we should be open and honest about our finances, too. God (and Dave Ramsey) have a lot to say about handling money in a biblical way. By asking these types of questions, it can help get the hard stuff out of the way and make dating more fun.

Marrying someone who aligns with your worldview and your values is the glue that holds a marriage together. A good marriage can’t be built without it. Beauty fades, attraction can whither, emotions can come and go.

My mentor in college told me, “Don’t ever go down the aisle unless you can run down it.” We shouldn’t have any lingering questions or anything we’re holding back, either. A strong marriage is built on trust, which only comes by asking the hard questions and having those conversations long before you say, “I do.”

As I matured, my spouse “wish list” went from lengthy and unattainable to bare-bones with a few non-negotiables. Oddly enough, I became more selective as I got older. Not necessarily picky, but I wasn’t willing to settle because I knew not being married was better than being in a miserable marriage.

Dating should be fun and for the purpose of marriage, but strong relationships come by putting God first and asking the hard questions and not ignoring red flags.

While we date and wait, we should strive to become holier and healthier. God gives good gifts to us, and waiting for the right person can be one of them.

Don't be fooled: How Jesus' 'refugee' status is being used to manipulate you



Was Jesus a refugee?

The question of Jesus' refugee status once again became topic of debate after President Trump began issuing America First policies on immigration and foreign aid. Curiously, those who definitively assert that Jesus was, in fact, a refugee are individuals most likely to oppose Trump.

It's imperative that Christians learn how to discern when empathy is being weaponized as a tool of persuasion against them.

Russell Moore, editor of Christianity Today, is one such example.

In an essay titled, "Yes, Jesus was a refugee," Moore claimed the evidence that Jesus was a refugee is "straightforward and without any ambiguity." To back his claim, Moore cited the United Nations and Merriam-Webster definitions of the word "refugee" and several (mostly unrelated) biblical stories.

Here is where I stand on the question: It is debatable whether Jesus was functionally or definitionally a "refugee." Both sides of the debate can present evidence to support their case. On one hand, the Holy Family's flight from Bethlehem to Egypt was a foretold prophecy, and they never departed their "home country," as Egypt was part of a the Roman Empire. On the other, Jesus' parents were escaping persecution, and they sought refuge in a distant land to protect Jesus.

Again: Both sides can argue their case.

While I doubt that Jesus was technically a "refugee" — and I find it bizarre when people try to map 21st-century politics onto the Bible — the more interesting question is not, "Was Jesus a refugee," but: Why definitively assert that he was?

Moore gives us an answer.

After citing the evidence that he believes supports his claim, Moore connected the question of Jesus' refugee status to contemporary politics. He asked, "So, what does that tell us about refugee policy?" And although he admitted it's "not very much," Moore mapped his assertion about Jesus onto modern-day refugee policies.

He wrote:

We won’t always agree on how to design a national refugee policy, but we can’t say we haven’t been warned about what happens to us when we learn to harden our hearts to those in danger. We should be so shaped by the story of Christ that we catch ourselves when we hear ourselves saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).

Yes, Jesus was a refugee. And he is still in their camp. We should be too.

It's now rather obvious that Moore's emphatic declaration that "Jesus was a refugee" is not a simple theological assertion. Rather, it's a rhetorical sleight of hand comparable to emotional blackmail.

The goal, I believe, is clear: Moore wants Christians to adopt a specific stance on refugee policy.

By framing the issue around Jesus and theological ethics, Moore provokes moral urgency for Christians while creating a (false) binary choice: Either you accept his claim about Jesus (faithful Christian) or you reject it (unfaithful Christian).

The rhetorical effect of Moore's identification of Jesus with modern-day refugees is an implicit accusation that if you deny a certain flavor of refugee policy, then you, in effect, deny Jesus.

This argument is designed to evoke an emotional response from the reader. After all, Christians don't want to be found opposing Jesus, right? Right. Moore, therefore, is leveraging (and weaponizing) the emotions of his readers to shift the conversation about refugees away from policy nuances. And by using moral absolutes, he moves the debate from, "How should we help refugees?" to "Because Jesus himself was a refugee, how can we possibly agree with any of Trump's policies toward refugees?"

This type of emotivism discourages good-faith debate and makes dissent seem unchristian. Just as bad, it oversimplifies a serious and complicated issue while pre-empting alternative perspectives.

Even if Jesus were a refugee, the discussion about U.S. refugee policy cannot be framed in moral absolutes only. Obviously, President Trump and lawmakers must take into consideration the economic, national security, and legal implications of their policy decisions.

Don't get me wrong: I do not believe empathy in its purest form is bad. Mature people understand how to relate to people different from them; they know how to put themselves in someone else's shoes. But I fear that empathy is increasingly being used against Christians to steer them in certain directions.

In this case, Christian empathy is being strategically weaponized to push Christians toward a specific political aim: to discourage Christians from supporting Trump's policies on immigration, refugees, and foreign aid. Even worse, by definitively declaring that Jesus was a refugee, Jesus becomes the bait that ultimately pushes Christians toward that specific goal.

It's imperative, therefore, that Christians learn how to discern when empathy is being weaponized as a tool of persuasion against them.

Do Americans, or Christians specifically, have a moral responsibility to care for legitimate refugees? Maybe. We can and should have that debate. However, asserting that "Yes, Jesus was a refugee" and using that debatable claim to create moral urgency and steer Christians toward a specific policy or view is dishonest and manipulative.

Yes, Christians should have compassion for the vulnerable. Yes, we should care for and meet the needs of the vulnerable. It's what Christians have done for 2,000 years. But when it comes to national policy, we must engage these issues with biblical and political wisdom and reality itself. It would not be wise, for instance, to adopt policies that destroy American communities simply because Jesus may or may not have been a "refugee."

Without wisdom to balance empathy, we're just pawns in someone else's game. Don't fall for it.

God's will isn't a mystery: Follow these 3 biblical truths



I believe that walking in God’s will and making decisions with confidence are impossible without the power of the gospel at work in our lives.

Why? Because the gospel is attached to our purpose, and the gospel transforms us. When we have placed our faith in Jesus Christ, we receive a brand-new heart (2 Corinthians 5:17), and a new heart will supernaturally result in a new direction.

Purpose is found in Christ alone. Keep your gaze fixed on him.

As we reflect on our purpose and the way we approach decisions (with the wisdom of God versus in the foolishness of this world), living out the three truths below will be a game-changer for our past, present, and future.

1. Repent of sin, turn to Christ in faith, and commit your life to God’s glory.

I like to say that no Christian ever graduates from the gospel.

Can I encourage you to go back to the gospel again and again? You need it, I need it, and it takes us back to the foundational reality that we can do nothing apart from Christ (John 15:5). The gospel is a wellspring of living water to the parched soul. The gospel turns the bitter heart sweet with grace. The gospel melts the heart of stone into a soft and submissive vessel. You need the gospel to live out God’s will.

There is no greater next step toward purpose than to turn from sin, put your faith in Jesus Christ, and commit to live for his glory. If you’ve never done that, today is the day of salvation — you can be born again and experience how Christ makes all things new.

If you’ve been saved by his grace, go back to that first love that changed your life and renew your commitment to live for him all the more.

2. Focus on Christ as the key to your purpose.

Identity is everything.

Walking in the will of God starts with walking in your identity. Jesus doesn’t save you and then say, “Okay, now you take it from here. Muster up the strength to be good enough, to stay saved, and get yourself to your destiny.” Instead, the Bible reminds us that growth begins with our gaze. Where are you looking? If not on Christ, you won’t make it.

Do you remember the story of Jesus walking on water and the lesson Peter learned in the process?

Matthew 14:28-31 tells us: “Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’ And He said, ‘Come!’ And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’”

Peter started out with his gaze fixed on Christ, even committing to do whatever the Lord asked. Before he knew it, he was walking on water! But the miracle was short-lived because Peter took his eyes off the one who called him out of the boat in the first place. He sank into the waves that the one who called him out of the boat controlled.

How often do we fall into the same pattern? We’re all in, only to take our eyes off the one who calls and sustains us. Purpose is found in Christ alone. Keep your gaze fixed on him.

3. Reject the worldly opinions of fools.

With what Proverbs says about fools in mind, along with Paul’s instruction to put away worldly patterns and walk in a manner worthy of your calling, you can confidently reject the opinions of those who live their lives for self-glory and self-satisfaction and boast that they are self-made.

Instead, choose to heed and treasure the divine wisdom God provides for your purpose.

There will be days when the Enemy will lie to you and put temptations in your path that invite you to take shortcuts, give up, or see God’s will as little more than a cosmic killjoy meant to ruin the fun of life. The devil is predictable, having tempted Christ with the same self-serving routine, only to fail. He will fail with you as well if you stick to God’s word over his wicked lies. One of the primary ways he will assault you is through the peer-pressuring opinions of fools.

Turn down the lies; turn up the truth.

Taken from "Walking in God’s Will" by Costi Hinn. Copyright ©March 2025 by Zondervan. Used by permission of Zondervan, www.zondervan.com.

Oprah's 'Christianity' exposed: A spiritual virus deceiving millions



Depending on who you ask, Oprah Winfrey is either a beacon of wisdom or the most persuasive snake oil salesman of our time.

When you hear the name “Oprah,” different versions of her might come to mind. Are you picturing Oprah, the author and philanthropist, the inspiring woman who overcame hardship and has helped countless people? Or perhaps the talk show host who captivated audiences for decades?

This blasphemy is not new. This is the oldest deception of mankind.

Maybe you think of Oprah, the actress or the savvy businesswoman. Maybe all these aspects blend together in your mind, forming a deep sense of admiration for her. For others, despite her good works, it might be the opposite. Maybe you see a political activist, who has compromised her principles in the pursuit of social justice and identity politics. However you perceive her, that perspective shapes how you interpret her overall character.

But I believe one defining aspect of her stands out above the rest and ultimately shapes them all: Oprah, the spiritual guru.

Oprah says, “I’m a Christian, too.” Millions of people, including many Christians, look up to her as a spiritual authority. She quotes scripture, talks about a God of love, and says she believes in and follows Jesus and the gospel. But Christians all around the world scratch their heads in deep confusion because Oprah also fundamentally denies core Christian doctrines.

This is comparable to people who call themselves vegan yet go to town on extra greasy BLTs with sides of beef stew for dinner every night. How is this possible?

Because in Oprah’s spirituality, the identity of Jesus, the role of the Bible, the gospel — and even truth — have been redefined.

Jesus?

Oprah says she believes in Jesus, but her “Jesus” didn’t come to die on the cross for the sins of humanity.

She says, “I thought Jesus came, died on the cross, that Jesus’ being here was about his death and dying on the cross. [But] it really was about him coming to show us how to do it, how to be. To show us the Christ Consciousness.” Oprah’s Jesus really came to show us our divine potential in the Christ Consciousness — the inner divine spark within us all.

To Oprah, Jesus is the divine Son of God, but this is not a unique title that applies just to him. You are just as much the Christ, the I AM, as Jesus was. The key is to see how powerful and good you are, not a sinner who needs forgiveness from a holy God.

In biblical historic Christianity, Jesus is both fully God and fully human, the unique Christ and Son of God (John 1:1-14; John 3:16). He came to earth to die for our sins and offer us salvation through his death and resurrection, which is the foundation of the Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).

The Bible? Truth?

Oprah says she believes in and reads the Bible, but to her, the Bible is not the exclusive word of God.

She’d agree that “the biblical God is a ‘starter kit’ God.” To her, the more spiritually evolved Christian position is that the Bible is up for interpretation depending on your heart's belief. You rely on the “internal voice of God.” The Bible has some truth in it, but it isn’t the only source of spiritual truth. God speaks to us individually from within. She openly demonstrates this by her numerous endorsements of progressive and New Age leaders.

For Oprah, anything read in scripture is read through a lens filled with feelings of love — with “love” defined subjectively, of course. She sums this up in an interview with Marianne Williamson when she says that “we are either walking in the direction of love or fear.”

Historic biblical Christians see the Bible as God's inspired, authoritative, and inerrant word (2 Timothy 3:16). It’s the source that contains the most reliable documents about who Jesus is, what he taught, and what he did. Understanding God's will and purpose for humanity is central to this. We test claims about Jesus and God against scripture to see what claims align with how God chose to reveal himself (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 John 4:1). Furthermore, Jesus calls himself the “truth” and Satan the “father of lies” (John 14:6; John 8:44).

When lies look like “love” and truth looks like “hate,” chances are Satan is behind it.

The gospel?

Oprah says she follows the gospel, but Oprah’s gospel is a mixture of self-empowerment, inner divinity, and the idea that thoughts shape reality.

To Oprah, Jesus is not the only way to salvation. She promotes living your best life, believing there are many paths to God, and emphasizing service, gratitude, and personal growth. Basically, it’s a works-based gospel preached with fluffy language.

In Oprah’s view of God and the gospel, we are not separated from God. The core of Oprah’s gospel is recognizing that we’ve never been separate from God and that he (or “it”) is within the heart of each person.

In historic biblical Christianity, the gospel is the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. All humans have sinned and fall short of God’s perfect standard, with sin leading to death and separation from God (Romans 3:23). The Old Testament law showed that sin required atonement through sacrifice, pointing to the ultimate sacrifice — Jesus’ death on the cross.

Jesus fulfilled the law by offering himself as the perfect sacrifice, taking the punishment for sin, and rising from the dead to conquer death (Romans 4:25). His resurrection proves his victory and offers eternal life to all who believe in him. The gospel is received by faith, not by works, and guarantees salvation, reconciliation with God, and an eternal home in heaven (Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16).

Rejecting the gospel means remaining under condemnation, but through Christ, there is no condemnation for those who believe (Romans 8:1).

The stealthy 'Oprah' belief ruining the gospel

It’s clear. Oprah can call herself a Christian and say she believes in and follows Jesus and spreads the gospel, but it’s a different Jesus and a different gospel.

But I believe there’s a deeper issue here: What is shaping Oprah’s spirituality? Where did her views come from? Many Christians understand that she sounds like a Christian and claims to be one, but her beliefs are anything but. Some might assume this is because Oprah is actually a New Ager.

She’s not.

Even she firmly denies being in the New Age. And I agree with her.

This is because she’s actually a follower of a belief system with far more influence than recognition: New Thought. In fact, her most foundational spiritual formation happened from reading New Thought material.

New Thought is much more deceptive than the New Age because it looks and sounds Christian. It’s metaphysical Christianity, a more enlightened, “better” version of Christianity. But it’s actually a stealthy spiritual virus. As you’ve briefly seen demonstrated above in some of Oprah’s beliefs, New Thought redefines core Christian doctrines but uses the same terms. Scripture has a deeper, more esoteric meaning, which explains the redefinition of these Christian terms.

This is precisely why Oprah identifies herself as a “Christian” who “follows Jesus” and “spreads the gospel.” But it’s a different Jesus she’s following and a different gospel that she’s spreading.

And this is how her New Thought beliefs are ruining the gospel. Her influence has led millions to embrace and spread this New Thought version of Jesus, turning it into a widespread spiritual deception.

Though there is no denying that Oprah has done many admirable things, and many might see her as a “good person,” her “goodness” isn’t the standard to be made right with God. Your good works are not enough to save you. Only the work of Jesus is. Nobody is “good.” Only God is good. The standard is perfection, not just “your best.” Perfection is an unattainable standard that nobody can reach, which is why we need Jesus.

But Oprah’s New Thought gospel tells you that you’re already whole, perfect, complete, and made right with God. You just need to realize it as God.

This blasphemy is not new. This is the oldest deception of mankind, that humanity could be like God.

Oprah’s distorted New Thought gospel elevates mankind and demotes God. It creates the illusion that you are good and don’t need a savior. But this is the mindset of the Pharisees, who thought their good works were enough to be made right with God. Jesus rebuked them for their self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and pride. This is why Jesus saved his harshest words for them — not because they were religious but because they refused to come to him for salvation.

The true gospel humbles us before a holy God, while Oprah’s gospel exalts humanity in place of him — offering not salvation but a deception as old as Eden.

Celebrating Saint Patrick, the slave who converted his captors



I remember when I first wanted to move to Ireland.

Oh, I’d seen beautiful photos, like this:

MyLoupe/Getty Images

And in later years I was enchanted by films that painted a charming picture of Irish village life, like "Waking Ned Devine" (highly recommend).

Serve something Irish, and I don’t mean a shamrock-shaped Domino’s pizza. I’m pretty sure there’s a law that you must eat potatoes to truly celebrate Ireland.

But the real reason, held tightly in my elementary school heart, was that I read a story of how Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland.

And man, do I hate snakes.

Of course I eventually realized that was a myth, which may have been an allegory for driving pagans out of the Emerald Isle, or something along those lines.

But I still may have to move to Ireland, because — here’s a cool thing — apparently the fossil record shows there never really were any snakes there. That’s my idea of heaven!

In reality, though, it turns out that the coolest thing about all this was Patrick himself. (And I’m going to refer to him as Patrick, because all of us who have been saved by faith in Christ are now saints in Him. Here’s a good explanation of that truth.)

The real Patrick

Patrick was British, born into a Christian family around the fifth century. He wasn’t really a believer himself, apparently, but things changed at age 16 after he was captured by Irish raiders who forced him into slavery in Ireland. The hardships he endured drove him back to God, and his faith deepened.

Six long years later, he managed to escape back to his family in Britain — but after a dream in which he understood God to tell him to return to Ireland, to convert the pagans to faith in the one true God, he did exactly that.

Patrick did not drive out all the pagans (or snakes), but he is reported to have planted churches and made thousands of converts. Perhaps due to his Christian family, which included a deacon and possibly other learned individuals, he also had quite a grasp of Scripture, as theologian and pastor Kevin DeYoung notes:

In his "Confessio" Patrick writes movingly about his burden to evangelize the Irish. He explicitly links his vocation to the commands of Scripture. Biblical allusions like "the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth" and "I have put you as a light among the nations" and "I shall make you fishers of men" flow from his pen. Seeing his life’s work through the lens of Matthew 28 and Acts 1, Patrick prayed that God would "never allow me to be separated from His people whom He has won in the end of the earth." For Patrick, the end of the earth was Ireland.

But what I find most inspiring about Patrick is that he may well have been the first person in Christian history to take those scriptures literally — to understand that bringing Christ to “all nations” meant, as DeYoung notes, “teaching even barbarians who lived beyond the border of the frontiers of the Roman Empire.” And this after being enslaved to them!

What an amazing legacy. If you want the whole story, DeYoung recommends "The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity," which explains how Christianity swept (slowly) across Europe.

So by all means, celebrate Patrick, on March 17 or any other day. Getting drunk (the traditional adult celebratory activity) doesn’t seem a proper tribute to the man, of course, so here are some better and more family-friendly suggestions.

Celebrating Patrick: History

Celebrating Ireland — just for fun

Beauty forsaken: Reclaiming the church's forgotten weapon against secularism



Down the road from where I live, a Catholic church is in the process of being built. I’ve lost track of the times I’ve nearly driven off the road staring at it. The in-progress structure sits in a large clearing allowing unhindered sunlight to turn its vanilla walls to a rich honey gold. The spires seem to pierce the blue canvas above, as arched doorways beckon in ways its rectangular counterparts can’t seem to mirror.

I hear that phase two of the building process will see the importation of ancient stained glass windows and a bell for the tower that currently sits vacant.

I’m excited.

I'm maybe more excited than the church’s eventual congregants. You see, I am not Catholic. When those arched wooden doors finally swing open, I will not be one of the people who passes through them.

That’s no indictment on Catholics. It’s just ... well, I am what you call a low-church Protestant (born and raised Southern Baptist, if you care to know). And I’ve continued down this path my entire life without so much as a sideways glance in another direction.

My investment in this half-baked Catholic church, therefore, is a bit of a conundrum. Why am I so enamored with it? Obviously, I’ve seen pretty buildings before, but this feels different. Why?

I’ve been chewing on that question for some months now as the building nears completion.

After a good bit of earnest mulling, here’s my official hypothesis: My infatuation with this local Catholic church stems from having never meditated on the marriage of a place of God and a place of man-made beauty. Sure, I’ve seen Catholic churches before, but it’s always been in thoughtless passing. This will be the first one in my community, and it's the first one I have ever given genuine thought to. I drive past it twice a day, so how could I not?

By comparison, the churches I have attended over the years have been rich in internal beauty — the kind that’s harbored in the hearts of its faithful congregants and its steadfast leadership. I do not take that for granted. The pre-eminence of internal beauty is a hill I will die on. After all, the Messiah is described as having “nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him” (Isaiah 53:2). If his perfection did not require external appeal, certainly aesthetics in the church are not absolutely necessary.

Beauty is water for the parched, a fire for the cold, a sanctuary for the lost.

Even still, I can’t help but ask: Should it bother me that my brain has God and aesthetics on opposite sides of a Venn diagram, only intersecting when I stumble across the rare Christian artist on Instagram, for example?

Confession: That was a rhetorical question. It does bother me.

After all, God is the author of beauty, the great fountainhead of all we might call lovely. Even the greatest works of man are inferior imitations of his genius. If the artist manages to create something of true beauty, it is because he collaborated with the divine, whether he knows it or not.

If aesthetics belong to God, shouldn’t they have a place in all churches? Do they have something of value to offer?

Half a millennium ago, certain Reformers, specifically the ones who would forge the path for the low church’s “plain-Jane-ness,” said "no" to those questions, wrenched God and aesthetics apart, and charted a new trajectory that would eventually lead to the kind of church I’ve spent my entire life in: gospel-centered but bare-bones.

I wonder if maybe these Reformers (dare I say it?) threw the baby out with the bathwater.

To even attempt to answer this question, we have to first understand how we got here.

The genesis

The severance of God and aesthetics first began in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" to the wall of a German church, igniting the Reformation and laying the foundation for the modern world.

Interestingly, though, Luther’s theses didn’t directly broach aesthetics. The artistry and craftsmanship associated with the Catholic Church was not an explicit issue for him.

Luther’s sole preoccupation was with the Catholic Church’s moral rot: the sale of indulgences, which turned forgiveness and salvation into cash grabs for the Church; the papacy’s heretical claims to be the gatekeepers of heaven; the intentional resewing of the veil that Christ’s sacrifice tore in the form of keeping scripture out of the hands of the laity; and most notably, the exploitation of the poor to fund artistic opulence.

On the latter, Luther was neither an advocate nor an opponent of the Renaissant art and architecture of which the Catholic Church was both a patron and a vocal enthusiast. The issue for Luther lay not in the art or architecture itself, but in the fact that the poor were being exploited to fund such lavish projects as the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. He hated that people were starving (both literally and spiritually) while the papacy fattened itself in gilded churches.

It's a valid complaint.

But Luther never denounced aesthetics outright. In fact, a peek into some of his other works suggests that he was actually an advocate. Perhaps his take on aesthetics is best captured in his treatise "Against the Heavenly Prophets," in which he confessed, “I am not of the opinion that the gospel should destroy all the arts, as some superstitious folk believe. I would gladly see all the arts, especially music, in the service of Him who gave and created them.”

So if Luther was for “all the arts,” what spurred the divorce?

That is a complicated answer that remains in the fallout of the Reformation. Luther may have heated the metal, but it was a subset of more radical Reformers that forged the blade that would sever God and aesthetics — ultimately paving the way for what I am suggesting is excessive simplicity in the modern low church.

Cutting ties

Admittedly, this is a subject for books, not articles, and so I will attempt to give you the CliffNotes version.

When the Reformation began, Europe was in the height of the Renaissance, a period of art characterized by a return to the values and ideals of classical antiquity — the Greco-Roman era heralded as one of the greatest historical periods of artistic achievement. The Catholic Church, in many ways, was the queen in the chess game of the Renaissance. Not only did it steer art in a religious direction, but its deep pockets commissioned some of the movement’s prodigies, including the beloved trio: Michelangelo, Raphael, and da Vinci.

The result? Gorgeous artwork but malnourished denizens. Enter Luther.

However, as the Reformation caught fire and spread across Europe, other Reformers took Luther’s condemnation of the Catholic Church’s extravagance to draconian levels. Switzerland’s Ulrich Zwingli and France’s John Calvin, two of the most influential Reformers, brought iconoclasm, the rejection and destruction of religious images, to the movement. For both of these zealots, religious art, including architecture, was both distraction and idolatry. It was simply incompatible with the teaching of God’s word. Thus, statues were smashed, murals effaced, and churches stripped bare.

These Reformers created the roots of the modern low church, which, at best, views aesthetics with skepticism and, at worst, outright rejects them, typically with the exception of music.

It’s also worth noting that 30 years into the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution entered the picture with its obsession with reason, quantitative thought, and order. Without really meaning to, the movement widened the already growing gap between the divine and aesthetics. Where radical Reformers wrote off the arts as a distraction from doctrine, scientific thinkers, with their “nature as machine, not miracle” worldview, pushed the arts away from mysticism and toward something more human-centric.

Then, along came the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, Modernism, and Postmodernism — all of which pushed aesthetics further down paths of secularism and mechanization — and eventually culminated in the digital age, where we find ourselves now. It's an age where, to quote my dear friend and fellow writer Ren Miller, most of our architecture has “separated function from delight” and serves to “gridlock us into brutal ugliness,” while modern art, which society tends to elevate, “is characteristically flat ... excessively detached and often grotesque” (Duchamp’s urinal, anyone?).

Or in the words of my favorite critic of modernity, Paul Kingsnorth, “Exchange beauty for utility, roots for wings, the whole for the parts, lostness and wandering and stumbling for the straight march towards the goal ... now look at us.”

So we find ourselves in a world that is more machine than human, a world that is, by and large, ugly and getting uglier because what we are creating is a reflection of what our culture values, and what our culture values is an enemy of beauty.

Human beings are always in pursuit of beauty. They can’t help it. They are made in the image of him who is beauty.

Hear me out: One of the things that characterizes the West is mass consumerism. We like our stuff, and we want it fast and cheap. That mentality is an enemy of beauty. We live our lives at breakneck speed, working and grinding like cogs in a machine. That kind of living is an enemy of beauty. We’re obsessed with technological innovation — more screens, more access, and more speed. Such mania is an enemy of beauty.

We’re increasingly secular, wringing the divine out of society like it’s dirty water in need of purging. It's heartbreaking — and an enemy of beauty.

This is the world the modern church finds herself in.

Suddenly, my adoration of the pretty little Catholic church down the street makes sense. It’s a little sunspot among the drab office buildings, the shopping centers in their various shades of brown and gray, the competing gas stations, the construction zones where trees are being ripped up to make room for more retailers or another development of identical mansions.

Where the town seems to say, "What's next on the agenda?” the little golden church asks, “Are you tired? Need a rest?”

And it asks these things before it even opens, before internal beauty has a chance to take up residence.

But that’s what aesthetic appeal does. Beauty is water for the parched, a fire for the cold, a sanctuary for the lost. Why does it have this kind of effect on us? Because it speaks of him who is living water, everlasting warmth, home eternal.

I believe that outward beauty has a place in the church, not just because its origins are divine, but because it would make us different from the world that has grown so ghastly in its march toward “progress.”

Christians are called to be different from the world, are we not? I know that command is about our conduct, but might it also apply to the way the church looks? If our “city set on a hill" (Matthew 5:14) was half as beautiful on the outside as it should be on the inside, might we extend our reach? Might we appear as a refuge from the grim machinery of the world only to turn around and offer Jesus, the greatest refuge of all?

I think that we just might. Human beings are always in pursuit of beauty. They can’t help it. They are made in the image of him who is beauty.

Now, I’m not proposing a return to gilded altarpieces, extravagant frescos, and bronze statues. I do not think the church should look like a tourist attraction. But beauty doesn't need to be complicated.

A few weeks ago, a young ambitious man knocked on my door selling something (I forgot what). He told me that he starts with the homes that have wreathes on the door because those people tend to be the kindest.

And there it is in its simplest form.

Beauty beckons because it means something good lies there. Shouldn’t that be the business of the church?

Satan's target: Confronting the spiritual battle threatening your pastor



Is your pastor biblically unqualified? Then that situation pleases the devil while at the same time displeasing God.

But if your pastor is biblically qualified, then you should know that Satan hates him. Godly, qualified pastors are a particular source of demonic rage.

Ministry is spiritual warfare, and the God-hating devil takes aim at the leaders of Christ’s churches.

Let’s think about a few lines from 1 Timothy 3 that point to the devil’s plans. In 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Paul tells Timothy about the qualifications for church leaders (called “overseers” in 3:1, a term synonymous with “pastors” or “elders”). In 3:6, the leader “must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.” In 3:7, “he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”

In back-to-back verses, Paul mentions the devil, and this observation reminds us that pastoral ministry is spiritual warfare.

According to 1 Timothy 3:6, a pastor must not be a recent convert. A recent convert lacks the maturity and wisdom necessary for pastoral ministry. Moral steadfastness is vital for being qualified for ministry, and such steadfastness becomes evident over time. While a convert may become qualified for ministry at a later time, the timing has not arrived as long as the adjective “recent” still applies.

Self-conceit can grip the heart of a recent convert who is thrust into the responsibilities of pastoral ministry. And then the pastor may “fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6). What is the role of the of here? Is this the condemnation which the devil will experience? Or is this some kind of condemnation that the devil gives? We know that the devil will be condemned (Revelation 20:10), but we also know that this pastor is called a “recent convert” — and converts are not condemned to hell.

Probably, then, this “condemnation of the devil” is “condemnation from the devil,” some kind of accusatory and defamatory activity from the devil against the pastor. Why would the devil act against the pastor in accusatory ways? In order to disgrace the pastor. And a recent convert may be especially vulnerable to the snares of pride and conceit.

In 1 Timothy 3:7, the potential pastor must be well thought of by outsiders. This requirement is “so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” Looking at this purpose statement, we can see that “disgrace” is the devil’s snare that’s in view. If people outside the church could make legitimate accusations about a pastor’s character to show that he isn’t above reproach, then this compromised character will lead to the pastor’s disgrace.

The devil wants pastors to be disqualified and disgraced. The pastor lives a public life, so a pastor’s disgrace has public ramifications. We’ve all seen the headlines of ministers who have a moral failing, and the aftermath is brutal. It’s sorrowful for the pastor’s family, for the pastor’s church, and for those beyond the church who become aware of the moral failing.

The devil knows that a disgraced pastor will dishearten people, and discouragement is a vital tool in the enemy’s arsenal. He wants people to think of the gospel as untrue or, at least, as powerless. He wants people to wonder why they should bother with church when church leaders can be untrustworthy or hypocritical.

The devil also knows that a disgraced pastor emboldens the enemies of Christ. Rather than being discouraged, some people seize upon every story of moral failing and leverage it for their own ends. They may want to spread it like wildfire because they love juicy bits of gossip. They may want to stoke suspicion of organized religion. A pastor’s disgrace becomes fuel for devilish ambitions.

Ministry is spiritual warfare, and the God-hating devil takes aim at the leaders of Christ’s churches. The snare of their disgrace has the potential for widespread damage to the churches and lives of Christ’s people. Pray for your pastor, because Satan hates your pastor.

This essay was originally published at Dr. Mitchell Chase's Substack, Biblical Theology.

Atheists talk tough, but even they can't deny this inconvenient truth



It is widely accepted in the Western world today that morality is relative.

People who say this usually mean that morality is a matter of personal or cultural sentiment that has no objective basis in reality. Many modern people tend to think of the physical world as consisting of matters of fact (it’s not relative whether water is H2O), but of morality as being a matter of subjective opinion.

If we accept the modern, secular story of the world, this is a natural belief. If there is no higher authority on moral issues than individual or group opinion, then moral judgments are indeed subjective. Further, if the naturalistic story is true, and all that exists are matter and energy governed by natural laws, then good and evil are illusory concepts with no basis in reality.

After all, no material thing has the property of being good or evil; there are no good or evil atoms or molecules. Thus, neither good nor evil exists. Yes, one could have ideas about good and evil on this view, but they wouldn’t be any different from ideas about unicorns or leprechauns — none of these, in reality, would exist.

Many nonbelievers, when presented with this observation, will typically say something like, “I don’t have to be religious to know right from wrong,” or “Lots of atheists are good people,” or “Christians do so many evil things.” We can agree with all of these statements, but they miss the point that naturalism undermines any basis for objective moral values and duties.

The key word here is objective, meaning something that exists or is true regardless of what any person or group of people believes about it. Even if every person in an ancient culture believed that human sacrifice was a good and necessary practice, they would still be objectively wrong — that is, if an objective standard of morality exists. And the only plausible candidate for such an objective standard is God, whose very nature determines what is good.

'The religious fundamentalists are correct: Without God, there is no morality.'

Many who hold to a naturalistic worldview have never thought through its logical implications, especially in relation to morality. A number of leading naturalistic thinkers, though, have recognized and acknowledged that morality and naturalism are incompatible. This doesn’t mean that they became outlaws in their personal lives, but they certainly had to confront the cognitive dissonance of having deep moral intuitions (as all humans do), while also believing those intuitions have no relation to reality (though most don’t admit to this inevitable struggle).

Well-known biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins declared in his book "River Out of Eden," “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” Dawkins recognizes that good and evil have no place in a naturalistic universe.

Existentialist philosopher and atheist Jean-Paul Sartre acknowledged that it was “very distressing that God does not exist, because all possibility of finding values in a heaven of ideas disappears along with Him. … As a result man is forlorn, because neither within him nor without does he find anything to cling to.”

Atheist philosopher Joel Marks recalled that he once believed in objective morality but was eventually driven to abandon that position. He experienced a “shocking epiphany” that “the religious fundamentalists are correct: Without God, there is no morality.” He was forced to conclude that “atheism implies amorality; and since I am an atheist, I must therefore embrace amorality.”

Atheist philosopher Julian Baggini confessed, “In an atheist universe, morality can be rejected without external sanction at any point, and without a clear, compelling reason to believe in its reality, that’s exactly what will sometimes happen.”

In a debate with a Christian at Stanford University, the late Cornell biology professor William Provine stated, “There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. … There is no ultimate foundation for ethics, no ultimate meaning in life, and no free will for humans, either.”

I belabor this point somewhat because it is difficult for most secular moderns to come to grips with. One can hardly blame them because the implications of naturalism are truly horrifying. It represents the complete dissolution of all objective meaning, value, purpose, and morality.

Thankfully, however, naturalism is not true, and there is an objective basis for right and wrong, which is God’s own supremely good nature. Because all human beings are made in God’s image, we have deep moral intuitions that help us discern right from wrong. This remains true even for those who reject belief in God, which is why many nonbelievers live basically moral lives, even while discounting the very foundation of right and wrong (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 1:32; 2:14-15).

Due to the Edenic fall, our moral intuitions have been corrupted by sin, and we need the moral guidance God has provided in His Word. God’s commands in scripture represent our moral duties and obligations and provide a firm foundation for living a life that reflects God’s own wholly good nature.

This article is adapted from a post that originally appeared on the Worldview Bulletin Substack.

Can Queen Esther’s story save modern America?



In mid-March, Jews and many Christians alike will celebrate Purim, commemorating the events in Jewish history when Queen Esther put her life on the line to save her people from certain death.

The story, found in the Old Testament book of Esther, is about an exalted adviser to King Xerxes of Persia named Haman, who devised a plot to exterminate all the Jews in the kingdom. Esther, secretly a Jew, had a cousin named Mordecai, who caught wind of the scheme and advised Esther to approach King Xerxes and beg for the life of their people. But Esther was well aware of the law: A person could not approach the king unsummoned. If the king did not find favor with a royal subject, that person could immediately be dragged out and executed.

Whether we use our life, the gifts God has given us, and the time he has given us to honor our Creator is entirely up to us.

Queen Esther asked her cousin to gather all the Jews and have them fast, repent of their sins, and pray for three days before she made her risky approach into the king's chambers. At the end of the three days of fervently seeking the Lord, Esther felt confident approaching the king. Through a series of wise and timely actions that followed, Esther was able to turn the tables on Haman. Not only had Haman planned to exterminate the Jewish people, but he had also constructed gallows from which to hang Mordecai for refusing to bow before him.

Because Mordecai had previously saved the king’s life by exposing an assassination plot, Xerxes felt compelled to honor him. And Haman was assigned to dress Mordecai in royal robes and parade him on the king's own horse through the kingdom's streets so that everyone could cheer and honor him!

Well, the story ends with Haman himself being hanged from the very gallows he had built for Mordecai — and all of his wealth and power were given to Queen Esther and her cousin Mordecai.

Does any of this story have significance for us today in America? Could the example of Queen Esther be used by those of us in the church to benefit our nation?

For Christians around the world, the Lenten season began on Ash Wednesday. During these 40 days, believers are encouraged to humble themselves, fast and pray, and focus on personally drawing closer to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This period of reflection and repentance can lead to a renewed spirit and focus on what God desires from our lives. And with lives that are changed and attuned correctly on the things of God, the lives of others, even an entire nation, can be affected for the good.

One of the key verses and ideas that comes from Queen Esther's heroic life is a word of encouragement spoken to her by her cousin Mordecai: “Who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

God did not make a mistake in Esther’s life, nor in the words spoken to her by her cousin, her wise adviser.

From this story, we must all be assured that every one of us was born for such a time as ours. Why? Because we know that God does not make mistakes, and we, in our time, are not an exception. God does not look down on a person and say, “Oops! Bill has not used his life properly. I should have had him born in the mid-1800s in America, and he could have stopped Abraham Lincoln from being assassinated! Ugh! My bad!”

Whether we use our life, the gifts God has given us, and the time he has given us to honor our Creator is entirely up to us.

And what a time and place in which we find ourselves today!

A window of opportunity allows each of us to help move America from its state of "fundamental transformation" over the past 16 years and participate — in great and small ways — to “foundationally restore” it to the vision of our Founding Fathers.

Pastor Jonathan Cahn recently delivered a powerful, prophetic message at the National Prayer Breakfast attended by members of Congress in Washington, D.C. In that message, he challenged Christians to use this window of opportunity to heed the plea of 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV):

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Many scriptures encourage us in this journey to restoration. For example, in Galatians 5, St. Paul provides two verses that work together to help point the way: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

He goes on: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”

And when it comes to dealing with “the sin that so easily entangles” (Hebrews 12:1), Paul says in 1 Corinthians:

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

The Christian rock group Casting Crowns has a powerful song that reminds Christians of life's true purpose and focus. The group's song “Only Jesus” includes these lyrics:

And I, I don’t want to leave a legacy
I don’t care if they remember me
Only Jesus
And I, I’ve only got one life to live
I’ll let every second point to Him
Only Jesus

(The entire song is terrific and worth a listen, and the rest of the lyrics can be read here.)

Dovetailing with this, the popular daily devotional “My Utmost for His Highest,” from the February 24 entry, exhorts us with these words: “Many of us are after our own ends, and Jesus Christ cannot help Himself to our lives. If we are abandoned to Jesus, we have no ends of our own to serve.”

When our personal goals align with those of the Almighty who created us “for such a time as this,” we, like Queen Esther, can participate in what God is doing in our own “kingdom” today, with an eye on the one to come.

Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at the Christian Post.

Christ is king: Why the globalist agenda is doomed to fail



The world isn’t what it used to be — or at least, that’s how it feels.

Every day, we wake up to another headline that sounds more like a dystopian novel than real life. The moral decay, the erosion of individual freedoms, the blatant hostility toward biblical truth — none of it happened overnight, but the acceleration is dizzying. It’s easy to look around and think, "This is it. This is the end."

We may not always see his plan clearly, but we trust in the one who rules over all.

Just last year, the darkness felt particularly suffocating. Conservative parents protesting at school board meetings and Christians praying quietly at abortion clinics were targeted by the Biden Justice Department. Policies were enacted that undermined the family, eroded religious liberties, and weakened our national sovereignty.

Globalist elites smugly declare, "You will own nothing, and you will be happy," while living in luxury and flying their jets around the globe. Big Government, Big Tech, Big Finance, Big Pharma — all marching in lockstep toward a world devoid of personal liberty. And for those who resist? They are silenced, canceled, or crushed.

In moments like these, despair whispers in our ears.

The absolute sovereignty of God

When the world unravels, it’s easy to forget that nothing happens outside God’s control. Governments may rage, tyrants may scheme, and civilizations may crumble, but not one event unfolds apart from the sovereign hand of our king. History is not spiraling into chaos — it is marching toward fulfilling God’s eternal plan.

Scripture makes this clear: "The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will" (Proverbs 21:1). Every ruler, government, and regime — even those that oppose God — are still subject to his authority.

We do not panic when the world grows darker or lose heart when persecution increases. Instead, we stand firm, knowing that the same God who works all things for our good (Romans 8:28) also works all things for his ultimate glory. We may not always see his plan clearly, but we trust in the one who rules over all.

How should Christians respond?

Knowing God is sovereign does not give us an excuse to retreat from the battle. Quite the opposite — it is the foundation for bold, fearless action. So how shall we then live?

1. Reject passivity & despair

It’s one thing to acknowledge God’s sovereignty; it’s another to live like we believe it. Too many Christians have surrendered to passivity, thinking God’s control means inaction while the world burns around them.

But throughout history, the faithful have fought, preached, worked, and suffered, trusting in God’s unfolding plan even when they couldn’t see the whole picture. First Corinthians 15:25 reminds us that Christ is actively reigning, subduing his enemies even now, and we have a role to play. When culture turns hostile and governments oppress, we do not despair — we pick up our tools, stand firm in truth, and advance with unwavering faith.

The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s church.

2. Live as people of hope & action

Our mindset should not be dictated by headlines but by the unshakable reality that Jesus Christ is king. We do not cower in fear; we step forward in faith. The kingdom of God is advancing, and we are called to be active participants, refusing despair and apathy. No matter how dark things seem, we press on because we know how the story ends — Christ wins.

As Martin Luther said, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

We do not wait for better days to act. We act now, living in faith, planting seeds for the future, and trusting that God will bring the harvest.

3. Strengthen the foundations

The erosion of a civilization does not begin with policies or politicians — it starts with the rejection of truth. When truth is abandoned, families weaken, churches compromise, and societies collapse.

To see lasting change, we must strengthen the foundations by taking responsibility for the next generation, reclaiming education, and equipping children to think biblically and stand firm. But it’s not just education. We must also build Christian institutions, churches that preach the full counsel of God, businesses that operate with integrity, and communities rooted in biblical values. The enemy seeks to dismantle these pillars, but we must be relentless in rebuilding them.

The church must lead by restoring truth, strengthening families, and reclaiming the cultural ground we have ceded. We do not need permission to live as God has called us — we need the courage to do it.

The long game

History turns quickly, and just when darkness seems overwhelming, God moves. The early church endured brutal persecution, yet the gospel spread like wildfire. The Reformers stood against a corrupt religious system, unleashing the word of God and transforming nations. Tyrants have repeatedly tried to stamp out the truth, only to fail. This should give us confidence!

Donald Trump’s re-election has shifted policies, reversing some of the damage inflicted by the Democratic Party. This has given us some breathing room in which to make progress. But our hope is not in any politician. Christ reigns now, and our mission remains the same, no matter who holds earthly power.

The church has outlasted empires. Rome fell. The Soviet Union crumbled. Countless oppressive governments have come and gone, yet the body of Christ remains, and his kingdom advances. "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet" (1 Corinthians 15:25).

We do not fight for short-term victories alone — we build for the long haul. We do not merely survive — we advance. And we do so with full confidence that no globalist agenda, no failing civilization, and no oppressive government will overthrow the king of kings.

Christ reigns — now

If there’s one truth that should shape how we live, it’s this: Christ reigns. Not someday, not after some future event — now. He is seated at the Father's right hand, ruling over all things and bringing history to its appointed end. The collapse of nations, the rise of tyrants, the chaos of our age — none of it is outside his control.

That means we have no reason to fear.

Too many Christians today live as if they are on the losing side. But the reality is the exact opposite. The kingdom of God is advancing, and the enemies of Christ are being subdued. Every cultural battle, political upheaval, and struggle we face is just one more step toward the fulfillment of his plan. Our job is not to retreat or despair but to proclaim Christ, make disciples, and take dominion.

So press forward — not with fear but with faith. We build, we fight, we raise our children to love the Lord, and we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We do not measure success by election cycles or news headlines but by the unshakable promise of God’s word.

Victory is certain. Christ reigns. Now, let’s live like it.