Category: The Christian Spirit

Reflections on living as a disciple of Christ.

Hope in a Deteriorating Culture

  

The culture shift of the past forty to fifty years has been astounding. I remember the late 1960s when it began in earnest. Being in college from 1969-1973, during the height of the Vietnam War, meant interacting with that shift constantly. Yet, even in the midst of such influences, my Christian faith was confirmed and became more real than ever. This is what gives me hope. Today, those influences are more in-your-face than before. We’ve seen radical changes in the… Read more »

C. S. Lewis’s Conversion

  

As explained in his autobiography Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis was not the happiest of all converts. Later, though, he realized a deep truth about the character of God through his conversion experience: In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed; perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the… Read more »

C. S. Lewis: Christianity Demands the Supernatural

  

Here’s a timely reminder from C. S. Lewis that the Christian faith is not just a mental exercise or an affirmation of certain ideas. It is, in fact, based on the supernatural: Do not attempt to water Christianity down. There must be no pretence that you can have it with the Supernatural left out. So far as I can see Christianity is precisely the one religion from which the miraculous cannot be separated. You must frankly argue for supernaturalism from… Read more »

Why We Must Judge

  

Every Sunday, I post a passage of Scripture without commentary. Although I often use Scripture during the week as foundational to my reasoning, I like to let it speak for itself once a week. I trust the Lord will use it to minister to someone; His Word will do that. Yesterday, though, the passage I quoted was from Matthew 7, part of the Sermon on the Mount, and it centered on judging others. While it speaks quite clearly to me,… Read more »

C. S. Lewis: Truth, Not Comfort

  

Some people are good at speaking truth directly. Others have a more thoughtful way of communicating truth. I think that’s one reason why I’m enamored of C. S. Lewis’s manner of writing. He will lead you to truth, but do so while helping you see it in a different light. Take this comment, for instance: The Christian religion . . . does not begin in comfort; it begins in . . . dismay. . . . In religion, as in… Read more »

The Narcissistic Personality in a Position of Power

  

In church last Sunday, my pastor spoke about people who are fundamentally narcissistic, which is just another way of saying people are principally self-centered, i.e., sinful. As he was going down a list of traits for the narcissistic personality, my wife and I immediately related it to our most prominent political figure. Here’s the list of the manifestations of narcissistic personality disorder. See if you can catch the drift to whom this might apply. According to a medical encyclopedia, narcissistic… Read more »

Heroes vs. Famous Faces

  

Two big events in Washington, DC, this week. The first was the presidential inauguration; the second will be the annual March for Life on Friday. The first got a lot of coverage; the second won’t get nearly as much. Yet the second event is far more significant spiritually. While the inaugural address gave lip service to the ideal of the right to life as stated in the Declaration of Independence, the March for Life is the public face for those… Read more »