How secure are those included in Christ? They are sealed – shut in – by the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Feel it today, friend – feel deeply the comfort of knowing that you belong to Jesus. Though all hell might break loose outside, though you might be attacked and assailed on many sides, though you will inevitably face trials of many kinds – you are safe. God has laid claim to us, and we are His.

There are all kinds of questions that come about when you read the story of Noah in Genesis 6 and 7. Most of the answers are left to the imagination. For example:
Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah (Gen. 7:8-9).
They came to Noah? What was that like? Was it orderly? Were the animals friendly to one another? Lots of questions, but ones that the Bible is not particularly concerned with answering. The overall point seems to be that God told Noah it would happen, just as He did with the flood, and so it was.
Here is another moment in the same chapter that might cause us to wonder:
The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in (Gen. 7:16).
“The Lord shut them in.” What a wonderfully mysterious and imagination-stirring little sentence that is.
How did He shut them in? What did Noah and his family see, if anything? What did it sound like as the door was closed? We don’t know.
What we do know is that however it happened; whatever it looked like; whatever it sounded like – it was secure. Because the Lord shut them in. Sealed the door. And when the Lord shuts you in, you are in.
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Donors showed low confidence in the college’s defense of free expression during Quillen’s tenure as president — only 20 percent of respondents said the administration protects free speech on campus. Furthermore, the survey found that 94 percent of all donors and 99 percent of dissatisfied donors agreed that Davidson’s next president should make free speech and civil discourse a “high priority.”

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni recently conducted a survey that revealed a majority of major donors to Davidson College are dissatisfied with the growing ideological imbalance and intolerance of free speech the college has taken in the last decade.
“Many have cut back their philanthropic support to the college in response, which is a serious threat to the institution,” according to the council’s report on the small, private North Carolina-based college.
Recently, a cohort of Davidson alumni was one of five higher education groups that co-founded the Alumni Free Speech Alliance, focused on supporting free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity at their respective colleges and universities. The group is called Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-North Carolina, an alumnus and donor to Davidson College, has been one of the most outspoken voices against college administration over the last decade. Murphy, who served on the Davidson College board of trustees and functioned as the alumni president, helped found Davidsonians for Freedom.
The group advocates for the college to foster intellectual freedom and supports an unfettered search for the truth, he said.
“When I was at Davidson College, there was a good balance of different opinions and thoughts, but unfortunately, over the last decade, the college has migrated towards an intolerance of differing opinions and a monolithic thought process,” Murphy told The College Fix.
“I’ve heard directly from professors at the college who did not want to express their opinion over fears of not being places on committees or receiving tenure, and I’ve heard directly from students who cannot talk freely in the classroom because of grading practices by their professors.”
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni survey was released in early November. It came out shortly after the college began the process of replacing the current president, Carol Quillen, who will step down after the 2021-22 school year.
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God’s sovereignty is not an invitation to make perfect sense of how his power and love coexist with every detail of our suffering. Instead, his sovereignty reminds us to approach him as children who trust their Father and his love. A child understands love, and God’s love is, indeed, a fathomless expanse that he welcomes us to explore. He gives help and wisdom as we consider, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556) believed the cannonball that broke his leg was essential to his spiritual awakening. For Martin Luther, it was the threat of lightning. What unites them is that they are part of a common Christian tradition that teaches an uncomfortable lesson: suffering sanctifies.
The stories can be found throughout Scripture and in every church on almost any day. We might wish that faith grew especially during prosperity, but the voice of faith says, “Jesus, help!” And those words come most naturally when we are weak and unable to manage on our own. Growth can be judged, in part, by the number of words we speak to our Lord, and we tend to speak more words when we are at the end of ourselves.
Suffering sanctifies. God tests us in order to refine us. This is true, and knowing this might help us face the inconveniences and challenges of everyday life. But this knowledge feels less satisfying in the face of the death of a child, betrayal by a loved one, or victimization that leaves you undone. Then the nexus between trouble and God’s sanctifying goodness can gradually give way to a relationship in which you and God seem to live in the same house, but you rarely acknowledge him.
We expect some types of sanctifying suffering, but not those sufferings that border on the unspeakable. When these come, the idea that they sanctify us may feel unhelpful. Though we might say to a friend who had a flat tire, “How is God growing you through that?” we know that we should never ask such a question to someone when “the waters have come up to my neck” (Psalm 69:1). The basic principle is true — God sanctifies us through suffering — but there are more elegant and personal ways to talk about it.
Sanctification Is Closeness
A more helpful approach first refreshes our understanding of sanctification.
Let’s begin with a common definition: sanctification is growth in obedience. The problem is when this definition drifts from its intensely personal moorings. As it does, suffering becomes God’s plan to make us better people — stronger, seasoned soldiers who don’t retreat after a mere flesh wound. All of this, of course, sounds suspiciously like a father who is preparing his children to move out and become independent, which is the exact opposite of what God desires for us. Left in this form, the principle that “suffering sanctifies” will erode faith.
Sanctification, of course, is much more intimate. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus died to draw us near to God, and our obedience serves that closeness. From this perspective, sin and any form of uncleanness distance us from God. Holiness, or sanctification, brings us closer.
Progressive Nearness
Think of the Old Testament tabernacle. The unclean, which included the foreign nations and those contaminated by the sins of others, were farthest from the place of God’s presence in the Most Holy Place. The clean were closer. They camped around God’s house and could freely come near to worship and offer sacrifices. The priests, however — the ones made holy — were closer still. They were invited daily, in turn, into the Holy Place, and, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest dared to enter the Most Holy Place. The high priest offers a picture of humanity as God intended — purified and close to him.
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