[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Friday, January the 15th, 2026 edition of Denison Forum's Daily Article podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today's Daily article is authored by our CEO, Dr.

Jim Denison, and narrated by your streeling preselkins.

[SPEAKER_00]: A free press article published this week by Geopolitical Analysts Matt Pottenger and Roy Econ begins.

[SPEAKER_00]: If the first days are anything to go by, 2026 may end up the most pivotal year in geopolitics since 1989, a hinge point that began in a moment of geopolitical calm but ended with the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

[SPEAKER_00]: Within a few years, the Soviet Union had fallen, the European Union had been born, and an era of hyper-globalized trade took off on the wings of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization.

[SPEAKER_00]: This year could be equally pivotal only this time with a vaster range of possible outcomes for the world order, in quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to the article, a positive reading of such outcomes could include the fall of the Iranian regime, [SPEAKER_00]: which according to pottinger in Ecan, quote, would deal a major setback to Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin's geostrategic ambitions, in quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since Iran is quote, the de facto proxy for Beijing and Moscow in the Middle East, they have provided significant support to it as well as several of Iran's proxies following the start of the war on Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Iran, in turn, has supplied drones that Russia uses against Ukraine and oil [SPEAKER_00]: The article suggests that the fall of Tehran could even trigger the destabilization of Beijing itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: However, the writer state that a negative reading would include the destabilization of NATO over the Trump administration's designs for Greenland, which could invite Moscow to take military action beyond Ukraine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the article points to China's escalating pressure against Taiwan, warning that according to Putin, Jiren-Eken, if Taiwan does fall, the economic and geopolitical shock to the world would be immense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Taiwan is tied to American power in the region supporting Japan, South Korea, Australia, and much of Southeast Asia.

[SPEAKER_00]: and since nearly all the world's most advanced chips are made in Taiwan, if China sees control of this supply chain, it would quote effectively hold a kill switch on American ambition to lead the AI revolution as well as its ability to compete economically and militarily according to the authors.

[SPEAKER_00]: How are we to manage our emotional and relational health in a world that seems to whip salt daily between cataclysmic crises?

[SPEAKER_00]: According to journalist Sasha Chapin, congruence is essential here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Siding the famed psychologist Carl Rogers, he describes it roughly as a state of unity between your experience, your self-concept, and your outward behavior.

[SPEAKER_00]: In such a state, you agree with what you're doing with your time, [SPEAKER_00]: Refuse falsehoods you attempt to project to yourself and others, and live at peace with who and what you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Frederick Douglass offered an example stating, I prefer to be true to myself even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, in quote.

[SPEAKER_00]: Living in this way elevates us above the malstrom of media alarmism and political fervor.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to Chapin, we center on our inner authority with integrity and integration.

[SPEAKER_00]: but aspiring to such holistic health is one thing, achieving it as another.

[SPEAKER_00]: Simon Peter of the Gospels might be the least congruent person in the New Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: On his good days, he's walking on the stormy sea to Jesus, noted in Matthew 14 verses 28 and 29, proclaiming Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God in Matthew 1616, [SPEAKER_00]: and promising that he will never fall away from following his Lord stated in Matthew 26 verse 33.

[SPEAKER_00]: On his bad days, he is speaking when he should be silent, revealed in Matthew 17 verses 4 and 5, sleeping when he should be praying, revealed in Matthew 26 verse 40, and denying Jesus to a [SPEAKER_00]: Then came Pinocost and the gift by which Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, verse 4.

[SPEAKER_00]: The next thing we know, the fearful fisherman, is preaching the gospel and leading thousands to Christ revealed in verses 14 through 41.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Acts 3, verses 1 through 10, He's being used to heal the lame and giving glory to Jesus, noted in verses 11 through 26 of Acts 3.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is proclaiming the necessity of faith in Christ to the very rulers who crucified His Lord, according to Acts 4, verse 12, and boldly testifying in Acts 5, verse 29, we must obey God rather than men.

[SPEAKER_00]: He ends up pastoring the church in Rome, referencing 1 Peter 5 verse 13, and writing two letters of the New Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: The largest cathedral of the largest church in the world stands over his traditional grave site.

[SPEAKER_00]: His faith and life were so congruent that he chose execution [SPEAKER_00]: over denying Jesus, but asked that he would be crucified upside down, since he was not worthy to die in the same manner as his Lord, according to First Clement, and, in Eusebius's, it cleats the ethical history.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the same spirit who transformed Peter stands ready to do the same in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: A dear friend recently suggested that I read Living Fearless, exchanging the [SPEAKER_00]: The author, Jamie Winship, is a former police officer who spent nearly 30 years serving Christ in the Muslim world.

[SPEAKER_00]: His practical guide invites us to experience God's best for our lives by asking our Lord to show us who were not living in truth, expose the false identity that enslaves us, reveal to us our true identity in His eyes and grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ask him what he wants us to do today in relation to this identity, then pay attention as he speaks through his spirit, his word, our circumstances, and the people around us.

[SPEAKER_00]: His inspiring book is filled with examples of God's miraculous responses to these prayers.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Winship shows, our father wants to speak to his children.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants us to walk with him as [SPEAKER_00]: When we say to God, with the Psalmist, with my whole heart, I seek you, we can pray with the Psalmist, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oswell chambers noted, whether or not I hear God's call depends on the state of my ears, and what I hear depends upon my disposition, in quote, [SPEAKER_00]: CS Lewis similarly explained that God shows himself to us as we are able to receive his revelation, quoting Lewis.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other sciences, the instruments you use are things external to you, things like microscopes and telescopes, but the instrument through which you see God is your whole self.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred, [SPEAKER_00]: How clean and bright is your soul today.