Tag: Jesus Christ

Lewis Found Treasures There . . . & So Do I

  

C. S. Lewis, as a young man, and before he was a Christian, read the novel Phantastes, written by a minister named George MacDonald. He was so taken by the novel that eventually, after his conversion, he delved into MacDonald’s sermons also. He found treasures there, so many that he edited them into an anthology for which he wrote an endearing preface. I’ve recently begun working my way through this anthology—indeed, it’s now part of my morning devotions—and have found… Read more »

The Hallmark of Humility

  

Ronald Reagan, on his desk in the Oval Office, kept a small plaque with the following words: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.” The first time I read those words, they struck a chord in me—not because I naturally lived those words, but because it was a striking reminder that too often I didn’t. On one of my visits to the Reagan… Read more »

A New Year of Observations & Analysis

  

I’m settled into my comfy recliner in my study, surrounded by books and enjoying a unique kind of coffee (I won’t go into that). So I’m relaxed and ready to begin another year of observations about God, man, society, and life in general. Most people probably have this particular view of the new year: Am I concerned about all those things? Absolutely. Am I living in daily fear of nuclear holocaust, the undermining of the Republic, or the societal trends?… Read more »

What Christmas Is All About

  

There’s one passage of Scripture not in the Gospels themselves that is a crystal-clear Christmas message. It doesn’t mention a manger, shepherds, or a sign in the heavens, yet it communicates what Christmas is all about regardless. It’s found in Philippians 2: 5-11: Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form… Read more »

An Exclusivity Available for All

  

I’m an exclusivist. That doesn’t sound good, does it? If someone says that, the image of “elitist,” “snob,” or “self-righteous” might present itself to the mind of whoever hears such a statement. Yet I’m an exclusivist without being any of those other things. In fact, God calls us to attach ourselves to His exclusivity. The Christian faith is an exclusive faith. It makes the outrageous statement (outrageous to those who don’t like to hear it) that there is no other… Read more »

Presuppositions & Worldviews

  

From the time I first began to realize that everyone, whether they know it or not, operates on a specific worldview, I’ve analyzed everything through that insight. I agree with the late Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer, who famously explained in his excellent book, How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture, People have presuppositions, and they will live more consistently on the basis of these presuppositions than even they themselves may realize. Schaeffer then… Read more »

I Will Not Be Ashamed

  

I was at an early morning Bible study last Friday when a certain Scripture passage burned its way into my spirit. It’s not that it was a new passage to me, but the Lord has a way of taking a verse one has read hundreds of times and turning it into His Word of the Day. That’s what he did for me that morning. It’s found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 8, verse 38: For whoever is ashamed of… Read more »