Category: The Christian Spirit

Reflections on living as a disciple of Christ.

Finney: Truth & Prayer

  

Personal confession time: sometimes reading Charles Finney makes me extremely uncomfortable. He seems to have a knack for pointing out my weaknesses. Perhaps this is because some weaknesses are more widespread than others and focusing on them brings conviction to a large audience. Whatever the reason, when he writes about prayer vs. simply bringing truth into people’s lives, I see myself far too much. Here’s what Finney says in his Revival Lectures: Some have zealously used truth to convert men,… Read more »

The Real End of the World

  

So here we are: October 1, and the government is in limbo with its funding. The way it’s being portrayed, we’re in sight of the end of the world. Well, I’m not of that opinion. I have it on very good authority that the end will look something like this: And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. …. Read more »

Finney: Discerning the Intent of the Heart

  

Our outward actions are extremely important, but when the Lord looks at those actions, He goes deeper and sees the intent of the heart. Sometimes, the outward actions of two individuals may be exactly the same, but the intent of the heart completely different. One may be honoring God by his actions while someone else doing the very same thing may be sinning. Here’s how Charles Finney explains it further: A student labors to get wages, to purchase books, to… Read more »

Lewis: God’s Claims on Our Lives

  

Why do I take time to write this daily commentary? As I contemplate the reasons, two come to the forefront: to show that God and our relationship to Him and His truth is paramount; to reveal, as much as possible, how, even though we ultimately live for another and better existence after this life, we nevertheless need to put His principles into practice in this one. C. S. Lewis said much the same thing in a 1939 essay, “Learning in… Read more »

Snyderian Truism #8

  

There is no particular order to my truisms. As I think of one, I write it down and it takes its place numerically. We are now up to #8, which is one I’ve had to learn from experience and also one I’ve seen in history; that’s one reason I share it in class. It goes like this: Bitterness may make you feel good temporarily, but it leads to personal destruction. One of the prime examples I use in American history… Read more »

Finney: The Danger of False Security

  

Many people, I fear, have a false sense of security when it comes to their relationship with God. They convince themselves that they are in good standing, yet they’ve never confronted their sins, made a complete repentance, and had a change of heart and life. Charles Finney often comments in his autobiography about such persons. Here’s one particular narrative that’s rather striking: My attention was called to a sick woman in the community, who had been a member of a… Read more »

Lewis: God–The Absolute Being

  

Some people have a concept of God that is so vague as to be meaningless. They conceive of Him as an omnipresence of some kind, but not as a real Person. C. S. Lewis, in his Miracles, tackles this misconception: If anything is to exist at all, then the Original Thing must be, not a principle nor a generality, much less an “ideal” or a “value,” but an utterly concrete fact. We must beware . . . of paying God… Read more »