Random Thought From C.S. Lewis

"Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”

“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.

“Not because you are?”

“I am not. But every year you grow,
you will find me bigger.”

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

When Life Caves In (1)

Most of us have been there. Circumstances collapse our well-ordered lives around us leaving us fearful, confused, depressed and feeling abandoned by everyone. David knows how we feel. In Psalm 142, David cries out to God from the depths and finds comfort to face uncertain days. We can find comfort as well.




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When He Was In The Cave...

While doing my sermon prep on Psalm 142, I came across this from John Newton.

"I wish you much comfort from David's thought: When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. (Psalm 142:3) The Lord is not withdrawn to a great distance, but his eye is upon you. He sees you not with the indifference of a mere spectator; but he observes with attention, he knows, he considers your path: yea, he appoints it, and every circumstance about it is under his direction. Your trouble began at the hour he saw best, it could not come before; and he has marked the degree of it to a hair's breadth, and its duration to a minute. He knows likewise how your spirit is affected; and such supplies of grace and strength, and in such seasons as he sees needful, he will afford in due season. So that when things appear darkest, you shall still be able to say, Though chastened, not killed. Therefore hope in God, for you shall yet praise him."

Random Quote

Isn't this the truth...

"Persons manifestly go through more pain and self-denial to gratify a vicious passion than would have been necessary to the conquest of it." - Bishop Joseph Butler

Responding To Evil

In wake of the shootings at Virginia Tech and the anniversaries of the OKC bombing and the shootings at Columbine, this message from Romans 12:9-21 offers five ways that we can respond to the evil in our world.




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Sunday Spurgeon

Well, now, I will say this to end all matters—if you have perpetrated all the sins that ever were committed by men or devils. If you have defiled yourself with all the blackness that could be raked out of the lowermost kennels of Hell. If you have spoken the most damnable blasphemies and followed the most outrageous vices—yet Jesus Christ is an infinite Savior, and nothing can exceed the merit of His precious blood! “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanses us from all sin.” Can you believe this? Can you do Christ the honor to believe this, and come and crouch at the feet that once were pierced? Ah, Man, you shall find mercy now, and you shall clap your hands and say, “He has blotted out my sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud my iniquities.”

I am afraid I do not convey to you the pleasure of my own soul in turning over this thought, but it has charmed me beyond measure. Here were Lot’s sins, scandalous sins. I cannot mention them—they were very different from David’s sins. Black sins, scarlet sins, were those of David, but David’s sins are not at all like those of Manasseh. The sins of Manasseh were not the same as those of Peter—Peter sinned in quite a different track. And the woman that was a sinner, you could not liken her to Peter. And if you look to her character you could not set her side by side with Lydia. Nor if you think of Lydia, can you see her without discovering a great divergence between her and the Philippian jailer. They are all alike. They have all gone Astray. But they are all different, they have turned, every one to his own way. But here is the blessed gathering up of them all! The Lord has made to meet on the Redeemer, as in a common focus, the iniquity of all these! And up yonder Magdalena’s song joins sweetly with that of the woman who was a sinner. And Lydia, chaste, but yet needing pardon, sings side by side with Bathsheba and Rahab—while David takes up the strain with Samson and with Gideon! And these with Abraham and with Isaac—all differently sinners—but the Atonement meeting every case.

We always think that man a quack, who advertises a medicine as healing every disease. But when you come to the great Gospel medicine—the precious blood of Jesus Christ—you have there in very deed what the old doctors used to call a catholicon, a universal medicine. It meets every case in its distinctness It puts away sin in all its separateness of guilt as if it were made for that sin, and for that sin, alone.

A Victory For Life!

By a 5-4 ruling the United States Supreme court has upheld the nationwide ban on partial birth abortions.

"The government has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving and promoting fetal life,'' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

This horrific practice, which partially delivers the baby, then opens the skull and sucks out the child's brain, needed to be stopped. I applaud the courage of President Bush, the Congress and the Supreme Court for their actions to end this crime against the unborn.

Check here for a graphic depiction of this gruesome procedure.

May this first victory spur concerned individuals and state governments to press the fight to end unrestricted abortion.

The Resurrection Imperative

"Stop doubting and start acting like a believer," Jesus told Thomas following the resurrection. In response Thomas declared Jesus to be his Lord and His God. What does it mean for us to act like a believer in the Risen Lord? This message from John 20:24-31 looks at three ways we can: by surrendering to His truth, submitting daily to His will and serving willingly in His Kingdom.




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The Relevance Of The Resurrection

A recent survey claims that 75% of people believe Jesus literally rose from the dead on the first Easter. Yet there appears to be no change in people's behavior or attitudes as a result - Why? This message addresses the relevance of the resurrection for our lives today.




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Doctors: No Doubt Divine Healing Happens

From the Chicago-Sun Times:

A majority of American doctors believe God or another supernatural being intervenes in patients' health, a study has found.

And nearly two in five doctors believe religion and spirituality can help prevent bad outcomes such as heart attacks, infections and even death, according to the University of Chicago nationwide survey of 2,000 physicians.

"Most physicians apply medical science while maintaining a belief that God intervenes in patients' health," Dr. Farr Curlin and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine...

Study numbers:

54% of doctors surveyed believe God or another supernatural being intervenes in patients' health.

76% of doctors surveyed believe God or another supernatural being helps patients cope with and endure illness and suffering.

74% of doctors surveyed believe God or another supernatural being gives patients a hopeful state of mind.

Read the whole article here.

Zach Johnson: Thanking The Master For Masters Win

From The Biblical Recorder News:

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Zach Johnson's two-shot victory at the 2007 Masters Tournament on Easter Sunday surprised those inside and out of the golf world, but as no surprise to those who know him, Johnson boldly used the occasion to proclaim his love and faith in Jesus Christ.

"Being Easter, my goal was to glorify God and hopefully I did that today," said the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native, who attended the same high school as fellow Christian and former NFL MVP quarterback Kurt Warner.

Johnson credited his faith in God and the counsel of longtime PGA Tour chaplain Larry Moody of Search Ministry, whose Bible study Johnson attends on a weekly basis, for allowing him to remain calm in the competitive and often chaotic final round.

The 31-year-old golfer entered the final round at Augusta National Golf Club two shots behind third-round leader Stuart Appleby and one behind four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods, the heavy favorite in Sunday's sunny, but cool final round.

Johnson took the lead with birdies on holes 13, 14 and 16 and never surrendered it despite a bogey on the 17th hole and having to wait for Woods, two groups behind him.

"On the 18th green, seeing my wife and our new baby, my parents and brother, I started to get emotional," Johnson said. "I tried to stay in the moment and just started praying."

Less than a half-hour later, Johnson was wearing the green jacket given to each year's champion and was handed the opportunity to share the secrets of his success to the worldwide sports media and to the golf fans on hand for the season's most prestigious tournament.

He became the second professing Christian to win the Masters Tournament on Easter Sunday Ñ Bernhard Langer did so in the 1980s.

"Because it's Easter today, I want to say, ‘Thank You, Jesus,'" Johnson said at the public awards ceremony, echoing the words fellow Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native Warner shared after being named Super Bowl MVP.

Later in the Masters media center, Johnson expanded on the role his personal faith played in his Masters victory.

"I don't even know what I shot, but I know I had a lot of people giving me some good words of wisdom last week including my coach and the PGA Tour chaplain (Moody).

"Being Easter Sunday, I feel very blessed and honored and I feel like there was a power that was walking with me and guiding me. So that's where things stand. You know, I feel very blessed and honored to be here."

Johnson lives with his wife and son outside of Orlando, Fla., where they moved a few years ago to escape the harsh Iowa winters. He still avidly follows the University of Iowa in all sports.

He also is avid about his faith and speaks openly about his participation in the Tour Bible study and about his personal worship. Last year at the annual Masters Prayer Breakfast at Warren Baptist Church in Augusta, he shared his testimony of salvation and about his growing faith in God.

In each of his national and regional TV interviews following the traditional champion's dinner late Sunday, Johnson continued to speak openly about his faith and what it meant for him to share such an experience on one of the most important days of the year for Christians. He also expressed humility.

"I'm very normal. I'm as normal as they come," he said. "I love to play a game for a living. I love to play this game for just what it is, golf. I appreciate it, and I feel honored to play golf for a living.

"Today was a day of perseverance and patience and redemption."

And now Johnson has a larger stage to share God's love and power in his life in golf's biggest and brightest spotlight.

As a golf fan and fellow Iowan, I just want to thank God for Christian athletes like Zach Johnson.

Christian Cartoonist Johnny Hart Dies

From NewsTribune.com:

Johnny Hart, whose comic strips “B.C.” and “The Wizard of Id” used wisecracking cave men and henpecked sorcerers to comment on modern life, and who attracted controversy when he introduced Christianity into his work, died Saturday at his home in Nineveh, N.Y., near Binghamton. He was 76.

Hart recently completed treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and died at his drawing table after a stroke, said his wife of 55 years, Bobby Hatcher Hart.

Hart became one of the most popular cartoonists of his era, with a readership estimated at 100 million since starting “B.C.” in 1958 and “The Wizard of Id” in 1964 (with artist Brant Parker). Creators Syndicate distributed both strips, each of which appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers. “B.C.” appears in The News Tribune.

“B.C.” refers to the age “Before Christ” and is the name of Hart’s naive cave-dwelling protagonist, but for years there was little overt religious plotting in the strip.

Among the characters were the one-legged cave man poet, Wiley, and a menagerie of talking animals, including an ant, a clam and a lovelorn dinosaur named Gronk. The female characters were Cute Chick and Fat Broad, names that were anatomically, if not politically, correct.

For a strip whose tone was lighthearted, “B.C” suddenly became controversial in the 1990s when Hart included themes influenced by his fundamental Christianity and literal interpretation of the Bible. He did so sparingly, often around holy days, but its inclusion was perceived by many readers as making him far more frank about Christianity than any of his mainstream contemporaries.

Some newspapers canceled the strip. Others, including The Washington Post, pulled it selectively. On at least one occasion, the Los Angeles Times relocated it to the religion page.

The Times initially canceled the strip – scheduled to run on Palm Sunday 1996 – showing Wiley drafting a poem about Jesus’s suffering on the cross.

Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson told viewers of his “700 Club” show to protest, especially as political cartoons often criticized religion. The uproar that followed led the paper to run the “B.C.” strip on the religion page.

Other work by Hart brought criticism from Jewish and Muslim groups for what they called insensitive and at times offensive themes.

One Easter “B.C.” strip showed a menorah’s candles being extinguished as the candelabra morphs into a cross; the final frame included the words, “It is finished.” To his critics, this symbolized a triumph of Christianity over Judaism, but Hart said it was meant to “pay tribute to both” religions.

More about Hart's Christian faith can be found in this article from the Plain Truth, this one from Christianity Today and this from The Presbyterian Layman.

Blessed Easter!

The Hammer

The Lord Needs It

This Palm Sunday message from Luke 19:28-44 looks at what the Lord needs from us. As the King of Kings, Jesus by Royal Right seeks our possessions, our praises and most importantly our persons.




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Sunday Spurgeon

What a grand day that was for Elijah when he saw the fire come down upon his bullock, in answer to his prayer, and he cried in holy wrath, “Take the prophets of Baal, let not one escape.”

I think I see the grim pleasure in the Prophet’s face as he saw them taken to the brook and slain. Behold his exhilaration as he binds up his loins and runs before Ahab’s chariot, keeping pace with the monarch’s horses with an agility in which soul and body joined. And then, what happens a day or two afterwards? In the wilderness, all alone, he has fled from a woman’s face, and you hear him cry, “Let me die, I am no better than my fathers.” Yes, the man who never was to die at all, prayed that he might die!

Just so, high exaltations involve deep depressions. But what was under Elijah when he fell down in that fainting fit under the juniper tree? Why, underneath were the everlasting arms! So shall it be with you who are called thus to fall into the depths of depression—the eternal arms shall be lower than you are! Brethren, there are many such occasions in which the spirit sinks sometimes through a sense of sin, through disappointments, through desertions of friends, through beholding the decay of the Lord’s work, through a lack of success in our ministry, or a thousand other mischiefs which may all cast us low.

Yes, as low as Jonah, who went, he says, to the bottoms of the mountains. But when Jonah went to the lowest, underneath him were the everlasting arms! And when the earth, with her bars, was about him forever, and the weeds were wrapped about his head he came up again—because still lower than he was the hand of God—the everlasting arms were underneath him still.

Robert's Pinewood Derby Car