Happy Friday,
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy – to the only God our Savior – be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
Jude 23-24
In Philippians 1:6, Paul states that “He who began a good work within us will complete it.” – i.e., God is committed to our sanctification. In Jude’s doxology, this good news gets better. There, we are told that God delights in doing so. The “great joy” mentioned at the end of verse 23 is His not ours. Be encouraged!
Without Comment: 1) The single best predictor of extramarital sex is premarital sexual permissiveness; 2) Approximately 16,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln; 3) According to the 2020 book Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them, one in four Americans are estranged from their parents or another relative; 4) The U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households; 5) According to Gallup, in 1999, 60% of Ds and 62% of Rs identified as religious. Since then, the percentage of religious Ds has dropped more than 20 points, while the percentage of religious Rs has “not meaningfully changed.”
Clean Up from Last Week: 1) Your comments about my comments on John Stott — which are here — prompt me to be less cryptic and more clear about our interaction. I now think that he was right — i.e., I believe that his claim that “generalities are the refuge of a weak mind” is true. Yes, I am aware that his statement about generalities is a generality, but to me, that shows how hard we have to work to avoid them; 2) Several people asked me to elaborate on my claim that more people are “talking left but walking right.” The first thing to note is that it is not “my phrase” — I first heard it from UVA sociologist Brad Wilcox. The second thing to say is that it refers to those (generally “liberal elites”) who champion progressive values while living conservative lives. As to the question, “Does the opposite exist?” — i.e., are there those who “talk right but live left” (i.e., those who “advocate conservative values but practice more bohemian ones”)? I think the answer is yes, but it’s quite different. I know one guy who advocates higher moral standards than he keeps, but he’s a bit of a lout who seems unable to consistently do what he knows is right. Those who talk left but live right actually embrace traditional morality more closely than they suggest others need to.
WOTW: Honorable mention goes to kakistocracy — a Greek term describing “government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state;” generica — which I heard used to belittle suburban America (where I live) and sitrep, which is shorthand for the military term situation report. (Those of you who like to sound cool by using military jargon can add “sitrep” to “MIA,” “SOP,” “AWOL,” “front lines,” and “0-dark-thirty.” Full honors go to noctalgia, which translates as “sky grief.” It was recently coined by astronomers who feel we should be upset that light pollution is blocking the night sky. Here is a picture of what everyone used to see on a cloudless night. You might also commit Psalm 19:1 to memory: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Quote Worth Requoting: When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either. C.S. Lewis.
A Question Worth Pondering: Has Jesus impressed you lately? Has some new insight into his goodness and grace taken your breath away? If not, why not?
TFA: My TFA file (The First Amendment) is past full, and I’m not happy about it. I dislike reading about freedom of speech and freedom of religion issues and only do so because I feel I must. It’s increasingly clear many think that Patrick Henry was a kook. (Reminder: he is the one typically credited with saying, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
IS2M: 1) While I like science as much as the next guy — and have no desire to be grouped with conspiracy theorists — those who say, “trust the science” to shut down debates about science do not understand science; 2) Public education is one of the most contentious fronts in the culture war; 3) We need to stop claiming that technology is neutral. Many of our tools fail to read the memo that explains that they are the tool and we are the master. They silently change the way we think and live — and there is nothing neutral about that. Indeed, technological progress without progress in our obedience to God is often a dangerous thing; and 4) The principal purpose of prophecy is to engender repentance.
Interesting? I think it’s interesting that the ten states that saw the biggest population gains in the last 20 years are red states — which have an average maximum income tax of 3.8%, as compared with the 8% average rate of the ten states with the biggest population loss. I also think it’s worth noting that the parts of the red states that are growing tend to be the bigger cities, which are blue or blueish.
Trending: As you’ve likely noted, both the Roman Empire and Trust are “having a moment.” The first is not only the subject of viral videos and an avalanche of new books; Panera Bread is now offering a Roman Empire Menu. Alas, the second is making the news because it is going missing. A new Gallup poll measuring trust in major institutions (e.g., the state, the media, science, etc.) reports that it is down in 11 of the 16 institutions that have been tracked since the 1970s. Indeed, trust in these institutions is not just down; it has virtually collapsed. The Media has suffered the most — down from 70+% in the 80s to about 15% today. Only the military and small business are unscathed.
Resources:
You can click here to listen to (or read) last week’s sermon on excuses. (Note: it’s not very good because I ran out of time). You can click here to listen to my interview with Christian Miller, who — in addition to leading major studies about character and honesty and writing about the same for Forbes, the WSJ, and Oxford Press— chairs the Department of Philosophy at Wake Forest. (You should know he claims to have evidence that you are not as good as you claim to be.)
You can click here to register for the Lakelight Live events in Nashville, TN (Oct. 3), Bellingham, WA (Oct. 18), Lake Forest, IL (Oct. 29), or Naples, FL (Nov. 2).
You can click here for info on the Oct 14th Good Work Summit. Speakers include David Miller (Director of the Princeton Faith and Work Center), Joanna Meyer (founder of Women, Work, & Calling), Lance Mitchell (CEO of Reynolds Consumer Products), Mike Zafirovski (former CEO of Motorola), and Tom Tropp (Global Chief Ethics Officer for Gallagher).
Closing Prayer: O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry; Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide; Take not thy thunder from us, But take away our pride. From all that terror teaches, From lies of tongue and pen, From all the easy speeches that comfort cruel men, From sale and profanation of honor and the sword, From sleep and from damnation, Deliver us, good Lord! Amen (G.K. Chesterton, 1874–1936).