I’m still a bit haunted by my conversation with the Jewish lady who took me to task for “hating” people she thought should be loved and affirmed. (Please see What Would Jesus Do? from a couple of days ago.)

Hold that thought while we think about the kinds of things Pope Leo XIV is doing: taking on President Trump for the war in Iran is one thing. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” Going to Algeria and proclaiming peace with Islam is another.

Communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape under the mantle of Our Lady of Africa. Here, in #Algeria, the maternal love of Lalla Meryem gathers everyone as children, within our rich diversity, in our shared aspiration for dignity, love, justice, and peace. In a world where division and wars sow pain and death, living in unity and peace is a compelling sign. – Pope Leo XIV

I respect the Pope and understand that he sees one of his roles (maybe his main role) to promote peace. His efforts with respect to Iran and Algeria sound great, but both efforts may be misguided. A.S. Ibrahim, writing in World Magazine, explains about Algeria:

The rhetoric is fancifully poetic, but the reality it ignores is brutal. In Algeria itself, the very country the pope held up as a model of “shared aspiration,” Christians exist only by permission, under a 2006 ordinance that criminalizes evangelism of Muslims with penalties of two to five years in prison and steep fines. Distributing Bibles, posting Christian messages online, or even hosting a prayer meeting can trigger prosecution. Dozens of Protestant churches have been forcibly closed. The 2020 constitution erased explicit protection for freedom of conscience, leaving only “freedom of worship in accordance with the law”—a law written by and for the Islamic state. In a country that constitutionally defines itself as Islamic and treats conversion as a crime, the pope’s talk of “communion” and a “shared mantle” is not merely naïve. It is laughable.

Similarly, the pope and his recent predecessors have uniformly declared that all war is wrong, despite a long history of “just war theory” going back to Augustine. By contrast, the Rev. Gerald Murray, a Catholic priest and commentator on the Catholics’ EWTN, has called out his pope:

Christianity isn’t a pacifist religion. Churchmen need to affirm that the legitimate use of force is virtuous. Protecting the innocent isn’t simply the ideal we hope to attain, it is a clear duty. If negotiation is the only way to solve conflicts, Pope Leo should send home the Swiss Guard and train negotiators to meet with anyone who shows up at Vatican City with a gun or a bomb. Right now, everyone is treated as a suspect by having to pass through metal detectors to get into St. Peter’s. – quoted in Pope Leo XIV Goes to War by William McGurn, Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2026.

This is not to say I approve or disapprove of the current war in Iran. As I wrote a few days ago, such things are above my paygrade. I’m just saying sometimes war is called for. It’s not always wrong. Brad East has just recently written what I think is a balanced view of war and the role of Just War Theory.

Last week’s blog A Defeated Foe with an inspiring painting of the Archangel Michael stepping on the head of Satan reminds us not only that Satan is a defeated foe, but also that he is a foe! There is a war going on. It’s not always possible to just love peace and affirm everyone. (We are called, of course, to “speak the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4.15)).

Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus… (Revelation 12.17, ESV)

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6.12, ESV)

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. – Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 10.34 – 36, ESV

It’s not every day that a historic record happens. Yesterday, Sunday, April 26, at the London Marathon, Sabastian Sawe became the first man to run the marathon in under two hours. 1:59:30. He beat the previous world record of 2:00:35, set in 2023. It’s roughly the equivalent to Roger Bannister running the first sub-4-minute mile in 1954. Both are records that at one time were considered out of reach.

There are lessons.

First, it’s an illustration of training. Sawe didn’t break the record by accident: he trained for it!

Second, it’s a reminder that training doesn’t guarantee results. Sawe finished first, of course. The guy who finished second ALSO ran the marathon in under two hours! Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia ran 1:59:41, just 11 seconds behind. And the guy who finished third, Jacob Kipling of Uganda, ran 2:00:28, also breaking the previous world record.

You can’t make this stuff up. I’m sure they all three trained exactly the same way. All three ran the best they’d ever run. Only one got first place.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. (1 Corinthians 9.24, 25, NIV)

The good news is that in our race we can ALL get the prize:

Train yourself to be godly. (1 Timothy 4.7, NIV)

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for another sub-two-hour marathon. When the 4-minute mile was broken, it wasn’t long before A LOT of runners broke 4 minutes. Today, the record for the mile is 3:43.13. I’m expecting the same thing here. Now that people know a marathon can be run in under two hours, the elite runners will chase it.

Some stories are worth sharing. This is from an email sent to staff of The Navigators, the organization with which I serve. Jill Marion, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area was writing about an experience in a coffee shop she and her dad frequented for several years. Jill shares:

I was buying coffee from a barista we’ve seen consistently for years. I usually chitchat a bit, but I don’t take the time to stop and go deep. That particular morning she had braces on both of her wrists. I paused and thought, Do I get my coffee and say a few nice words? Or do I ask her what’s wrong? I looked at her hands, and suddenly I just felt so much concern for this barista. I thought, “That must be the Holy Spirit, because I know I just want to get this coffee and get to work.”

So, I asked. She responded, “Oh yeah, I have really bad carpal tunnel syndrome. It hurts so bad I can’t sleep at night.” Now, I had two options: Do I get my coffee, say, “I’m sorry,” and keep it moving? Or do I ask if my dad and I can pray for her? I could feel the concern welling up inside me — the Holy Spirit stirring in me. Jesus cares about her carpal tunnel. Jesus would pray.

So, I said, “You should let my dad pray for you. I’ll pray too, but when he prays, sometimes people get healed. What do you have to lose?” We stopped our morning, and dad held her wrists and prayed for her. She said, “Oh my gosh, my left wrist feels twenty times better, this is unbelievable!” The next day, as I was buying coffee, she excitedly told me, “My wrist is healed!” She had been telling all the baristas about it, and everyone was amazed. One of the baristas asked if she could sit down and have coffee with us, rather than serve us, so she could ask us questions about faith.

God is alive and well, and he’s still at work.

In another part of the same article Marion made this observation after an unexpected conversation with another customer in that coffee shop:

I can’t tell who is a seeker. I have to be the seeker and trust the Holy Spirit to lead.

Jesus told the disciples as he was preparing to heal the man born blind:

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9.4, 5, ESV)

Similarly, Jesus told the disciples in John 4, while they were in Samaria:

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” (John 4.34, ESV)

God has work to do, and he has given us the privilege of working with him. Let’s keep our eyes open.

Jesus saw a man… (John 9.1)

As we were passing through Longmont, Colorado, on our way home from Estes Park a few weeks ago, I noticed several crabapple trees in full bloom. Beautiful, and I almost took a picture of them…but I didn’t.

Then we got home, and as I was walking to the community mailbox, I noticed our neighbor two doors over had such a tree. Wow. I took a couple of pictures of her tree. Then I walked back into our house and looked out our patio doors, and guess what? We have our own crabapple tree! (We moved in last July well after the crabapple blossoms were gone.)

June said, “A gift from God.” Agree.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.17, ESV)

One more blog before leaving this distressing (and depressing) topic of evil. Am I on the wrong side of things by not affirming everyone’s “sexual choices”? Others certainly appear more “loving” and “accepting.” Truly, what would Jesus do?

The problem is, there have always been conflicting messages. Here we have Jeremiah thundering God’s judgments on the sin of Judah, but he’s not the only prophet in town:

The LORD said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

Then I said: “Ah, Lord GOD, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ” (Jeremiah 14.11 – 13, ESV)

Again, there have always been conflicting messages. Right after “trans” stuff starting coming out, for example, we were attending a concert in a downtown church that proudly displayed signs on the facilities: “Please use the restroom that conforms to your sexual identity.” I thought at the time, “Abolition of slavery, a worthy cause, was spearheaded by churches. In this case, the churches are just in trail to the culture.”

So we have “prophets,” pastors of some churches, commending their people for supporting sexual deviance. Entire denominations have sprung up that sound way more loving than I do:

Embrace your authentic self and your spirituality! At Pikes Peak MCC, we celebrate your true self, offering a sanctuary where you can explore and deepen your spiritual journey, embraced by a community that genuinely cares.

For sure, Jesus loved everyone, but he did not leave them where they were.

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8.10, 11, ESV)

As for us, sometimes we have to go back to the old ways:

This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls…” (Jeremiah 6.16, NIV, emphasis mine)

We’re thinking about Evil and how much the US has drifted since its founding. In that context, I’d be remiss not to discuss President Trump, at least a little. I don’t need to pile on. There are plenty of people doing that. One fellow on Facebook that I happen to see from time to time, and who is a fellow-believer, seems to take as his mission to run down the President at every opportunity. To what end? I’m thinking of dropping him a line to say, “My brother, your posts are not conducive to my practicing Philippians 4.8:

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (ESV)

However, whatever your politics, if you are a believer, you ought to be concerned about the picture he posted and then took down:

One writer said, “If the image posted on Trump’s TruthSocial account on Sunday evening (only moments after a bizarre diatribe against Pope Leo) is not blasphemous, the word has no meaning.” – Matthew Walther

Another compared him to Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, closing his essay with this warning:

God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7). There is a time limit on blasphemy. Whether God chooses to cut short such conceit with temporal judgments or whether He stores up his wrath until the last day is entirely up to His wise disposition. Or perhaps the president would repent, believe in Christ, and be saved (Isaiah 59:1). But that repentance will require more than a quiet removal and a lame “I-was-just-being-a-doctor” defense. It will require taking responsibility for the offense, genuinely turning from it, and turning to Christ.

Making blasphemy great again is not going to go well for anyone—neither for President Trump nor for those who defend his outrageous irreverence. There will be a reckoning, and the usual excuses—“he’s a president not a pastor, he’s just joking, people are just pearl-clutching”—are not going to hold water in the final assize. They will be obliterated in judgment along with anyone still clinging to them. – Denny Burk

I need not criticize or defend the President’s decisions. Most of them are, as we say, “above my pay grade.”

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. (Psalm 131.1, ESV)

But I am concerned about his character. Peggy Noonan, quoting the Sermon on the Mount, captured some of the issues well:

• Christ: “Blessed are you who are poor.”
• Mr. Trump: “Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich.” “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy. I’ve grabbed all the money I could get.”

• Christ: “Blessed are the meek.”
• Mr. Trump: “It has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency . . . is the most successful in the history of our nation.” “You know who No. 2 is? George Washington.”

• Christ: “Blessed are the merciful.”
• Mr. Trump: “I am your retribution.”

• Christ: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
• Mr. Trump: “A whole civilization will die tonight.”

• Christ: “Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you.”
• Mr. Trump: “I love getting even with people.” “I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them, I’m sorry.”

The good news is that Donald Trump is not our Savior and Lord, Jesus is. God is in charge…

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21.1, ESV)

…our job is to pray…

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 2.1, 2, ESV)

…believe it or not, honor the Leader…

Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2.17, ESV)

…and continue to do good:

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives. (Titus 3.14, NIV)

Yesterday, we reminded ourselves of the true God and noted from the new movie A Great Awakening that there’s no question that America was founded on Christian principles. There’s also no question that America, like ancient Israel, is drifting (or plunging headlong away from) these principles. As always, the prophets have a word:

And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant and do them. For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not.” Jeremiah 11.6 – 8, ESV)

He continues:

The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done…” (Jeremiah 11.16 – 17, ESV)

What evil have we done? It depends on whom you ask. I quoted Tim Keller almost six years ago in a blog entitled Where are you Loyalties?

The early church’s social project was:

• Multi-racial and multi-ethnic
• Highly committed to caring for the poor and marginalized
• Non-retaliatory, marked by a commitment to forgiveness
• Strongly and practically against abortion and infanticide
• Revolutionary regarding the ethics of sex

The early Christian community was both offensive and also attractive. Believers did not construct their social project in some strategic way to reach Roman culture. Each of the five elements was there because Christians sought to submit to biblical authority. They are all commanded. They are just as category-defying—both offensive and attractive—today. The first two views (ethnic diversity and caring for the poor) sound “liberal,” and the last two (abortion and sexual ethics) sound “conservative.” But the third element, of course, sounds like no particular party. – Tim Keller

I mentioned last week a conversation with a Jewish lady. We were dialoging fine, not always agreeing, but certainly amiable, until I let slip that I didn’t follow the culture’s embrace of all kinds of sexual behavior (element #5, above). Her response was swift and vitriolic while accusing me of hatred. She would say she is committed to the “poor and marginalized” (element #2, above) in supporting the “new” sexual orthodoxy. I asked, trying to get back to our Torah discussions, what she did with “God made them male and female,” but I’ll never find out.

Back to evil: God is committed to all five elements of the early church’s behavior. We can usually manage only one or two and seem bent on tearing each other apart. And that’s not counting the recent behavior of our President. Stay tuned.

In the middle of Jeremiah’s diatribe against his Jewish countrymen who have rejected God, there is this reminder in chapter 10 of whom they are rejecting.

God is unique…

There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due; for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you. (Jeremiah 10.6, 7, ESV)

…the true, living, and everlasting King…

But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. (Jeremiah 10.10, ESV)

…with POWER:

It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens. When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. (Jeremiah 10.12, 13, ESV)

We just watched A Great Awakening about the great revivalist George Whitefield’s ministry in the American Colonies, including his long friendship with Benjamin Franklin. Strongly recommend. In one powerful scene, Ben drags George out in a lightning storm to show him how the kite and the key attract electric power. George yells, “Ben, what is the source of this power?” Jeremiah is clear.

“He makes lightning for the rain, and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.”

Ben Franklin was a deist. For most of his life he believed precisely that God does NOT concern himself with the affairs of men. But he changed. He appealed to the deadlocked Constitutional Convention that they ought to pray. His speech contains this famous line:

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth — that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? – Benjamin Franklin, June 28, 1787, Philadelphia

From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64.4, ESV)

I wrote about Backsliding last November – backsliding, a common term in some of our churches back in the day – but it occurs only a few times in scripture. One is in one of our recent readings:

Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. (Jeremiah 8.5, ESV)

Jeremiah has accused the people of backsliding before:

Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.  (Jeremiah 2.19, NIV)

“Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” “Yes, we will come to you, for you are the Lord our God. (Jeremiah 3.22, NIV)

I just reviewed my blog on backsliding as well as the one on Professor Ehrman and Charles Templeton who rejected God’s Word. It seems there a lot of ways to reject the word:

“How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them? (Jeremiah 8.8, 9, ESV)

We can pretend to be people of the word and reject it at the same time! And the result was punishment at the hands of foreign armies.

Sad verses:

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? (Jeremiah 8.20 – 22, ESV)

Sounds like the POWs who didn’t make it out of Viet Nam. The highest ranking POW from the Viet Nam war, Admiral Stockdale, when asked, “Who didn’t make it?” said it was the optimists who didn’t survive prison camp. “We’ll be out by Christmas!” But Christmas came, and “we are not saved.”

Why were the Jews not saved? Jeremiah 9 continues the thought:

Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.” (Jeremiah 9.12 – 16, ESV)

Why is the land ruined? Because “they have forsaken my law…”

Then this well-known verse:

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9.23, 24, ESV)

It is no secret what God delights in: “steadfast love, justice, and righteousness.” That’s why Micah could say,

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6.8, ESV)

“He has told you…”

And it’s never been about mere ritual:

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert…for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9.25, 26, ESV)

The nations are uncircumcised , BUT Israel is uncircumcised, too. Uncircumcised in heart.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2.28, 29, ESV)

I took June to a Christian bookstore the other day. It’s one I hadn’t known about, and if you looked at it from the outside, you wouldn’t expect much:

Turns out looks can be deceiving; it’s deeper than it is wide, chock full of books and A LOT of Christian art, which is what June was looking for. We want more reminders of Jesus as we walk around our house.

This isn’t Jesus, but I was captivated by this reproduction of a painting by Guido Reni, 1635. The original is in Rome, and it’s 9 1/2 feet x 6 1/2 feet!

The Archangel Michael Defeating Satan

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated,and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (Revelation 12.7 – 10, ESV)

The accuser of our brothers has been thrown down. And not only did Michael, the Archangel defeat Satan, we defeat Satan, also:

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. (Revelation 12.11, ESV)

And so did Jesus:

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2.15, NIV)