When we look at our nation, it is easy to get quite discouraged. For example, we are up to 33 trillion dollars in debt as a nation. House prices are through the roof, eating up over a 1/3 of people’s monthly income. Real inflation with some goods and services is upwards of 10 percent. Socially, things are also chaotic; you can’t turn the television on without getting blindsided by woke ideology. And to make things worse, we indirectly have our fingers in the war in Ukraine and have political connections to a war in Israel.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that all of our modern technologies are actually making us more ignorant, rather than more informed; they also make us more prone to be isolated, rather than connected with each other. Because of our sinful rebelliousness against the moral truths of God, human beings also seem to be more clueless than ever about how to live their lives in this world meaningfully and joyfully. That’s true even amidst all the advances of science and technology. As I get older, I see this more clearly than ever. Evil truly does exist in the world and evil exists in every human heart. Unfortunately, there is no easy religious, secular, or scientific fix for this DEADLY virus. The great scientist Albert Einstein said, “It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man.”

In his book, The Death of Character, James Davison Hunter says,

When Newsweek poses the question, “How Do We Restore a Sense of Right and Wrong” on its cover, it tacitly acknowledges that our “sense of right and wrong” is less and less present to the living memory of our entire culture . . .

I’m not much of a poker player. When I was growing up, my family tended not to be card players (though the occasional, raucous game of “May I” could be cited as evidence to the contrary). But I do know the meaning of the phrase, “all-in.” How about you? In cards, and especially in the game Texas Hold-Em, “all-in” is when a player decides to put all of his chips on the table. At that moment, he/she bets all they have to either win or lose everything. Back in the days of the Wild West, they called it ''betting the ranch.'' This was not just putting all that you had that night into the pot but, risking everything you owned. That’s an “all-in” commitment in a game! What about an “all-in” commitment in life?

When we look at our nation, it is easy to get quite discouraged. For example, we are up to 33 trillion dollars in debt as a nation. House prices are through the roof, eating up over a 1/3 of people’s monthly income. Real inflation with some goods and services is upwards of 10 percent. Socially, things are also chaotic; you can’t turn the television on without getting blindsided by woke ideology. And to make things worse, we indirectly have our fingers in the war in Ukraine and have political connections to a war in Israel.

We live in a very strange world. It is world that says men and women are the same. In fact, they are so much the same, that a man can decide he is a woman, or a woman can decide she is a man, and everyone around that individual is supposed to act like this is just the way things are. It is asserted that men and women are completely interchangeable, and so marriage can occur between a man and a woman or between two men or between two women.

In a Charlie Brown cartoon, little brother Linus is looking very forlorn. He asks big sister Lucy, “Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?” Lucy, looking very self-righteous, replies, “I just think I have a knack for seeing other people’s faults.” Linus turns indignant. “What about your own faults?” he asks. “I have a knack for overlooking them,” says Lucy.

So, God brought all the animals to him. He named them all one by one. While they were good, something just was not right. Dogs and cats just didn’t do it. So, God made woman from his own bones. Now at last man was just like God—two persons in one flesh. Adam So God brought all the animals to him. He named them all one by one. While they were good, something just was not right. Dogs and cats just didn’t do it. So, God made woman from his own bones. Now at last man was just like God—two persons in one flesh. Adam called her woman—she-man and named her Eve (“life”), because she would be the mother of all people. God’s creation was finally complete. He had made marriage and the family. This was very good..

Someone said that the medicine of modern life is the “joy of not knowing where you’re going, the confidence of not knowing how to get there so that you can have the peace of not worrying about when you’ll arrive.” Well, the God who became man in the Babe laid in the manger seeks to shake us from such doldrums and give us the gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation on His terms alone.

Most of us never tire of flipping to a new calendar and the new opportunity to begin fresh. There is something about it that feels good. It signals an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, to start anew, and maybe, just maybe, this next year will end better than the one we just put behind us.

The baptism of Jesus is one of those events in the Bible that will help you come to grips with who Jesus is, who you are without him, and who you are by grace through faith in Him alone. Baptisms, as a rule, are for people who are dirty and need to get clean. Yet religious washings tend to be about more than outward personal hygiene.

And so, it happened among us. Everyone knew, not all that long ago, that marriage was between one man and one woman. Obama said so, and even mentioned God. Hillary Clinton made a speech on the senator floor, invoking time and tradition.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are a time when our culture looks back and then looks forward. It’s a time when we try to come to grips with the failures and successes of the year that is passing away so as to be ready to face the challenges and opportunities of the year to come.

New Year’s Eve is a time when Americans gather to ceremonially put the past behind them and cast their hopes forward for a blessed New Year.

Who could refuse this offer: “Peace that lasts, forgiveness that holds, and life abundant now and forever because God is with us.” Well, many do. Why? Because as sinful, rebellious people by nature, we tend to settle for counterfeits instead of the real thing.

A blessed Christmas day this weekend as you all hear again that “In the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:1112).

The amazing proclamation of the Bible is that the person and work of Jesus in history stands as the concrete expression of the will of God the Father for all people. Out of His love for us, He sent His Son into this sinful world to save it.

It’s Advent! And those who engage the culture from a two-kingdom perspective are fully aware that human efforts, whether political, economic, philosophic, or even religious, are incapable of bringing the fulfillment in life that humans crave and even strive for. Former Senator turned University of Florida President Ben Sasse wrote a persuasive opinion article several years ago in the Wall Street Journal that described the issue in even more stark terms. It was entitled, “Politics Can’t Solve Our Political Problems.”

That is a prayer of repentance to God for His gracious forgiveness. It sounds like something that John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, might call us to say. Repentance, the God-induced sorrow for our sins in response to His Law, also causes us to fall at the feet of Jesus seeking the forgiveness for our sins that only He can grant.

“I won't indoctrinate my children but will let them decide for themselves.” Non-believers boast that their children are free and critical thinkers, taught to be kind and non-judgmental. Remarkably, though, these free-thinking children end up just like their supposedly free-thinking parents.