Ghislaine Maxwell offers to testify before Congress about Epstein

The Jeffrey Epstein files saga is leading the news again.

To make a long story short, many people have believed for years that Epstein was at the heart of a child sex trafficking ring that involved blackmailing prominent people on a worldwide “client list.” Many also doubt the government’s statement that Epstein died by his own hand when he was jailed in 2019.

However, a memo by the Department of Justice and the FBI stated last week that such a client list does not exist and that no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals has been found. Reaction from longtime conservatives especially has been furious. Now comes news that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend who is currently in prison on child sex trafficking offenses, is willing to tell Congress what she knows about Epstein.

Clearly, as many are warning, this story is not going away.

Why are people rewatching old TV shows?

Don’t you wish you could trust everyone who makes and reports the news?

According to Gallup, fifty years ago, 70 percent of Americans said they trusted the mass media. Today, less than half that number agree, an all-time low. Only 22 percent of US adults say they trust the federal government to do the right thing just about always or most of the time.

Office workers are feeling paranoid about job security, with fears of layoffs and being replaced by AI. Conversely, some are turning to AI therapy bots even though, as a Stanford study found, they fuel delusions and give dangerous advice.

As a sign of the times, The New York Times reports that many people are rewatching television shows made in the early twenty-first century. The article cites the shows’ quality and the nostalgia of watching them again. I also think they are popular in an unpredictable world because we like stories that we already know we like and know we like the way they turn out.

Numerous studies show that people value their earthly lives more today than ever before: we are willing to spend far more on healthcare, cutting back on teenage driving and motorcycles, reducing participation in extreme sports, and taking fewer social risks than ever. One explanation is especially foundational:

For most of human history, death wasn’t the end—it was a transition. Whether you believed in heaven, reincarnation, or joining our ancestors, mortality had an escape clause.

But as traditional religious belief declines, this life becomes all there is. The stakes of mortality go from high to infinite (their italics).

Putting gasoline in a diesel engine

When our boys were young, they found my father’s old manual typewriter in a closet. They pulled it out, tried to make it work, then gave up and asked me, “What is it?” If you’ve never seen one before, you might have the same question. It could function as a doorstop, a large paperweight, or a bookend. But it was designed to do what people of a certain age understand its function to be.

Why did our Maker make us? For what purpose are our lives intended?

God creates humans “in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). Like children who inherit their father’s DNA, we are made to be like our Father as members of his family.

Accordingly, he intends us to be “conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Romans 8:29). Our Father wants us to have such an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus that we become like him. He forgives our sins and saves us from hell not just so we can spend eternity with him in heaven but so we can extend his family as his Christlike children. As Jesus’ best friend said of his Lord, “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6).

To be like Christ is why we exist. Nothing less will give our lives purpose and joy, because this is the joyful purpose for which we were designed.

If we live for any other purpose than this, our lives fall into brokenness and grief. Like a diesel truck fueled with gasoline, our engine fails and the truck stalls. We can push it ourselves, use it as a storage closet, or park it in front of our house as a decoration, but it doesn’t do what it was made to do.

Thus the distrust and anxiety in our secularized culture.

If we want what God wants

If you and I want what God wants for us, we want to know Christ so fully that we become like him and thus make him known to the world.

We may want far less. We want God to forgive our sins and save us from hell for heaven. We want him to answer our prayers and meet our needs. We may even want him to use our lives in significant ways in the world.

But how many of us get up every morning with the goal to be more like Christ today than ever before?

Imagine a world in which every government official and every reporter covering them acted with the integrity and servant heart of Jesus. Imagine a world in which the rest of us did the same. There would be no Jeffrey Epstein scandals, no sexual immorality or crime or wars to report.

Before you dismiss such a possibility as hopelessly naïve, remember that the Holy Spirit indwells every Christian for just this purpose. As Oswald Chambers noted, “The Holy Spirit is determined that we will manifest Christ . . . in every domain of life.”

Are you saying the Spirit is incapable of doing what the Father intends him to do?

Here’s my point:

The Spirit will see to it that we become as much like Jesus as we want to be like Jesus.

He will manifest the “fruit” or character of Christ in every life that is fully yielded to him (Galatians 5:22–23; Ephesians 5:18; John 15:5). He will empower us to resist temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) and live as “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

And as with his first followers, the world will know that we have “been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

John MacArthur on “true discipleship”

Rev. John MacArthur, one of the best-known evangelical preachers and pastors of our generation, died last night at the age of eighty-six.

In his 1981 sermon, “Christlikeness: The Goal of Discipleship,” he quoted Jesus’ statement, “Everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). Then he defined “true discipleship” very simply: “You are a learner growing toward Christlikeness.”

Will you be a “true” disciple today?

Quote for the day:

“There are many who preach Christ, but not so many who live Christ. My great aim will be to live Christ.” —Robert Chapman (1803–1902)

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