Latest / The Daily Article / Artemis 2 is “returning to a planet they have cheered up”: The path to sustaining hope in uncertain times
Transcript
- 0:02[SPEAKER_00]: Greetings and welcome to the daily article podcast for Thursday, April 9th, 2026.
- 0:07[SPEAKER_00]: I'm narrator Chris Elkins, giving voice to today's daily article, authored by co-founder and friend, Dr. Jim Denison.
- 0:18[SPEAKER_00]: The Artemis II crew is scheduled to return to Earth tomorrow, splashing down off the coast of San Diego, California around 807 p.m. eastern time.
- 0:27[SPEAKER_00]: As the Economist reports, they are, quote, returning to a planet they have cheered up.
- 0:33[SPEAKER_00]: in quote, from traveling further into space than any humans before, to naming an unrecorded moon crater for the mission commanders late-wife, to picturing an astronaut silhouetted by a luminous view of Earth.
- 0:46[SPEAKER_00]: The article notes that, Emotion, in the capsule and among millions watching from the ground, has been a significant part of the whole affair.
- 0:54[SPEAKER_00]: We have needed to be cheered up to be sure.
- 0:57[SPEAKER_00]: The two-week ceasefire with Iran announced on April 7, postponed what the Wall Street Journal called the threat that gripped the world.
- 1:06[SPEAKER_00]: However, Iran stopped oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormusius today in response to Israel's strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
- 1:15[SPEAKER_00]: President Trump stated that Lebanon was not part of the truce agreement, but Vice President J.D.
- 1:20[SPEAKER_00]: Vance is now affirming that Israel will reign in its attacks to preserve the ceasefire.
- 1:26[SPEAKER_00]: There was another story from April 7th that generated far fewer headlines, but is hugely significant.
- 1:33[SPEAKER_00]: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman reported on a stunning advance in artificial intelligence that will have equally profound geopolitical implications as the Iran War.
- 1:44[SPEAKER_00]: The AI company Anthropic announced Thursday that it was releasing the newest generation of its large language model dubbed Claude Mithos Preview.
- 1:55[SPEAKER_00]: Here's why this matters so much.
- 1:57[SPEAKER_00]: Friedman notes that the model is finding vulnerabilities in virtually all of the world's most popular software systems more easily than before.
- 2:06[SPEAKER_00]: As a result, if this tool falls into the hands of bad actors, quote, they could hack pretty much every major software system in the world.
- 2:15[SPEAKER_00]: Accordingly, the company has released the model only to the largest and most trusted tech companies and critical infrastructure providers.
- 2:24[SPEAKER_00]: anthropic hopes key software providers will find and fix the vulnerabilities for the bad guys do.
- 2:31[SPEAKER_00]: Studies show that chronic pain is more damaging to mental health and overall flourishing than short-term conditions.
- 2:39[SPEAKER_00]: The same is true with cultural issues and spiritual hope, crises that seem to have an in-date such as broken bones and thunderstorms are one thing.
- 2:49[SPEAKER_00]: But problems that have no apparent solution or end are another matter entirely.
- 2:54[SPEAKER_00]: The Theocrats running Iran are as committed to their apocalyptic vision this week as they were last week.
- 3:02[SPEAKER_00]: Artificial intelligence for good and for bad is only going to become more relevant to our daily lives.
- 3:08[SPEAKER_00]: China is still playing the long game in its quest for global dominance.
- 3:13[SPEAKER_00]: The next pandemic is just a matter of time.
- 3:16[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the good news.
- 3:18[SPEAKER_00]: As theologian and journalist, I've been through and home rights in first things, quote, across the Western world, especially in France, Britain and the United States, we are seeing a remarkable surge of adult conversions to Christianity in quote.
- 3:33[SPEAKER_00]: Baptisms and France are setting records.
- 3:35[SPEAKER_00]: Handlec church attendance is rising.
- 3:38[SPEAKER_00]: Britain is quietly awakening to supernatural Christianity.
- 3:42[SPEAKER_00]: In his latest focus article, Dr. Ryan Denison reports on this phenomenon, explaining that younger generations are seeking meaning in an age of pandemics, political fractures, and social disintegration.
- 3:55[SPEAKER_00]: Ryan quotes John Stone Street, who recently told our podcast that we, quote, have a whole bunch of young people going back to church, talking about how secularism let them down.
- 4:06[SPEAKER_00]: in quote, there's a catch, grand home sites, psychiatrists and philosopher Ian McGillkrist, who agrees that our cultural crisis is first and foremost spiritual.
- 4:18[SPEAKER_00]: However, he warns that a spiritual approach that is individual and purely personal will not be enough to meet this crisis.
- 4:26[SPEAKER_00]: According to the Apostle Paul, the great mystery of the Gospel has recorded in Colossians 1 verse 27 is, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
- 4:35[SPEAKER_00]: Exleccato comments quote, For many years, I miss this truth.
- 4:40[SPEAKER_00]: I believed all the other prepositions.
- 4:42[SPEAKER_00]: Christ for me, Christ with me, Christ ahead of me, but I never imagined that Christ was in me.
- 4:51[SPEAKER_00]: I can't blame my deficiency on Scripture, all refers to the indwelling of Christ, 216 times.
- 4:58[SPEAKER_00]: John mentions his presence, 26, though other religion or philosophy makes such a claim.
- 5:06[SPEAKER_00]: Though other movement implies the living presence of its founder in his followers, Mohammed does not entwale Muslims, Buddha does not inhabit Buddhists,
- 5:15[SPEAKER_00]: Influence?
- 5:16[SPEAKER_00]: Instruct?
- 5:17[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but occupy?
- 5:19[SPEAKER_00]: No.
- 5:20[SPEAKER_00]: In quote, the fact that Christ lives in Christians by his Holy Spirit found in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16 is the hope we need most in facing the most uncertain times.
- 5:31[SPEAKER_00]: Consider four ways the indwelling Christ is at work in our lives today.
- 5:36[SPEAKER_00]: One, he infuses us with significance and purpose that secular culture cannot possibly rival transfusing us with spiritual abundance that sustains us in the hardest places noted in John 10, verse 10, two.
- 5:51[SPEAKER_00]: He shapes our character into his own likeness, claimed in Romans 8, verse 29, giving us victory over temptation and integrity that transcends challenges.
- 6:02[SPEAKER_00]: Three, recorded in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20, he speaks through us to declare his word and draw others to himself.
- 6:10[SPEAKER_00]: and for he endows us with the courage to face a critical and constant culture with joy, producing boldness that testifies to his presence in our lives documented in Acts 4 verse 13.
- 6:24[SPEAKER_00]: The limiter is not Jesus' omnipotence, but our obedience.
- 6:29[SPEAKER_00]: In my utmost for his highest, Oswald Chambers writes that the resurrection means Jesus, quote, as power now to convey his life in me.
- 6:37[SPEAKER_00]: It is therefore gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Ghost can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey him.
- 6:48[SPEAKER_00]: In quote, Jim Elliott typified such obedience as powerfully as anyone outside of scripture, writing in his journal, he is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, gain what he cannot lose.
- 7:02[SPEAKER_00]: After Elliott was martyred by the tribe's people he sought to reach for Christ, his widow Elizabeth spent two years with him sharing the gospel of grace and forgiveness.
- 7:12[SPEAKER_00]: She then wrote over 20 books and became widely known as an author and a speaker.
- 7:17[SPEAKER_00]: From 1988 to 2001, she hosted a daily radio program called Gateway to Joy.
- 7:24[SPEAKER_00]: She explained her secret, quote, I have one desire to live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord, putting all my energy and strength into it, and quote,