An ad for the U.S. Marines pictures a sword with these words beneath it: “Earned, not given.” If you want to become a Marine, you have to earn the right to be called a Marine through sacrifice, hardship, and training. If you get it, you deserve it. In this world, there are jobs that only Marines can handle. There are even efforts that demand special forces like the Navy Seals. When it comes to maintaining law and order in this world, there have to be people who say, “This far and no farther,” so that we can all live in relative peace. But here’s the problem.

As a new mother, I once had a friend and her daughter over for a playdate. After we set our babies down on a bright red and blue blanket I had spread on the floor, she commented, “I love this quilt. It’s so stimulating!” The comment arrested me. I suddenly felt as though my child were one of the microscopic crustaceans from my college physiology lab to be plied with caffeine so we could observe its heart rate.

When did greed, coveting, promiscuity, character assassination, violence, and even intimidation become our “cultural values?” When did things like these even become entertaining to some? When did “virtue” become such a dirty word? Indeed, it seems that all too often vices have become virtues and virtues have been turned into vices. Look, I realize that all of us are sinful and broken. I also know that it’s hard to have these conversations because the finger points back at each one of us. Furthermore, we must all admit that even our best efforts at living morally and virtuously fall short, often when we needed to be at our best.

Teach them how to think, not what to think. That's what Senator Braun's commercial says we need. And in that, he's typical of much of the conservative movement. But scratch the surface of that phrase, and you end up in a world of hurt. Our kids need to be taught goodness, must be inculcated in the natural law, must be formed in an education that is value laden. Education always includes moral formation.

What are your deepest hurts and your grandest hopes? Do you have worries and fears, or great dreams and expectations? What happens when an ugly reality seems to rear its head no matter your planning or provision? What then? Does answering any of these questions really matter in the end?

Yes! The great preacher Charles Spurgeon was right, "We have great needs, but we have a great Christ for our needs!" And the living Christ is here for you in His word to offer you His life and His salvation as a gift. There is one question that engulfs all other questions in this life. The question comes from Jesus himself, “Who do you say that I am?” Another question springs from it, “Who then are you IN HIM?”

What is your responsibility to the government—the state? What do you owe the state? While you are contemplating that question, ask yourself this: What is your responsibility to God—the church? What do you owe the church?

Now is the time of God’s favor? Really? Now?

Sometimes larger circumstances can overcome the reality of a specific situation. In other words, the things that are happening all around us are better viewed in terms of other, more significant events with even more far-reaching consequences. That’s what it was like for some of the people fighting in World War II. The ceremonial surrender of the Japanese government and the “Victory over Japan” proclamation (VJ Day) did indeed mean that the second major, worldwide conflict of the 20th century was officially over. But that did not stop the fighting of many Japanese infantrymen against U.S. Marines in the South Pacific. Some fought for many months, even though their defeat was assured, inevitable, and even officially admitted. As the website “Military History Now” notes:

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.