Category: The Christian Spirit

Reflections on living as a disciple of Christ.

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 »

Finney: Break Up the Fallow Ground

  

One of Charles Finney’s themes in speaking and writing was the need for everyone to undergo a merciless self-examination. By this, he didn’t mean some self-centered ego trip, but an honest assessment of where we stand before God. Those outside the family of God have to start there, of course, but he believed it is just as essential for those who have entered into the faith. He called it “breaking up the fallow ground” of the heart. In his Revival… Read more »

Lewis, Space Travel, & the Existence of God

  

C. S. Lewis died on November 22, 1963, one week before his 65th birthday. Most people didn’t notice his death since that was also the day of the JFK assassination. Lewis probably would have liked the anonymity of his passing. In those 65 years, which spanned from just before the beginning of the 20th century to the dawn of the space age, he saw society transformed. One of his final essays, written in the year of his death, showed he… Read more »

Finney: Directness

  

Charles Finney was a very direct preacher. He didn’t hold back on anything. If he believed the congregation to which he was speaking was resisting God, he said so. To do that kind of thing nowadays would be to invite open rebellion and loss of pulpit in most places. Yet Finney’s approach led to numerous awakenings of solid Biblical faith. Wherever he went, controversy followed. One story from his autobiography I find both amusing and sad at the same time:… Read more »

Lewis: Look Out! It’s Alive!

  

There’s just no getting around the existence of God. The apostle Paul says people have to actively suppress the truth of His presence, and they do so to avoid the idea they are accountable for their actions. One of the psalms says a person has to be a fool to believe there is no God. C. S. Lewis has his own unique way of expressing these Biblical truths. In his book Miracles he declares, God is basic Fact or Actuality,… Read more »

God, Labor, & Prosperity

  

On this Labor Day, I’ve decided to labor less than usual. I think I’ll just remind us all of how God sees our labor. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 8, Moses recounts the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness and gives them this warning: In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end…. Read more »