Category: The Christian Spirit

Reflections on living as a disciple of Christ.

Jesus on the Cross: “I Thirst”

  

Two simple words of Jesus from the cross—I thirst—confirm His human nature. The exact nature of Jesus was a source of debate in the early church. I don’t think there was any disagreement during the apostolic era about precisely who He was as both God and man, but when certain theologians came along and raised questions, the church leaders needed to get together and settle the matter once and for all. One question raised was whether Christ’s divine nature removed… Read more »

On Being an “X”

  

Those of us who have delved deeply into C. S. Lewis’s writings are still sometimes alerted to one of those writings that we either have forgotten or either have not grasped the significance of it in an earlier reading. That has been the case with me in teaching my course on Lewis’s essays the past couple of months. I naturally included most of the “big” ones that everyone mentions, but as I developed the course, I came across a few… Read more »

The Road to Joy

  

I have used C. S. Lewis’s autobiography, Surprised by Joy, every time I have taught my Lewis class at the university. I’ve also used it in an adult class at my church. The title perfectly expresses the end result of Lewis’s early life as he finally turned to Christ. For years, he sought something he defined as “joy.” Three moments in his childhood stood out to him with respect to his quest for joy. The first was when he “stood… Read more »

The Decade of New Focus

  

The end of another year looms. This time of year, as we look forward to Christmas and a new year that will probably be quite similar to the current one (that’s both good and bad), I have a tendency to reflect. That’s not a bad idea, of course, given the subtitle of this blog. My reflection will be a pondering on how God has given me a new focus over the past decade. And that new focus centers on this… Read more »

Kindred Spirits in Romania

  

Doors open, and when the Lord is the One who opens the door, we should enter in to what He has for us. That’s how I looked upon the opportunity to go to Romania and participate in the C. S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits Conference this past week. The theme of the conference was “The Re-Enchanted Academic,” and I was pleased to offer a presentation in the very first panel. That’s me—second from the right, in preparation for the presentation…. Read more »

The Corner Has Been Turned

  

C. S. Lewis’s essay, “The Grand Miracle,” concludes with a comparison of Christianity with other religions. He notices what he calls “an odd point.” All other religions, he comments, are either “nature religions” or the very opposite—religions that are “anti-nature” in their beliefs. The nature religions are easily identified as all the old pagan types where “You actually got drunk in the temple of Bacchus. You actually committed fornication in the temple of Aphrodite.” He then identifies the anti-nature religions… Read more »

God’s Grand Miracle

  

C. S. Lewis, in 1945, gave a talk at St. Jude on the Hill church in London, a talk that was then published that year. The title given to this presentation was “The Grand Miracle.” Lewis based the talk on the passage in Philippians chapter two that expresses the great humility Christ displayed by leaving Heaven to become a man to suffer and die for fallen humanity. God becoming man is a grand miracle. Lewis states, One is very often… Read more »