Category Archives: Spiritual Life

The Importance of Prophecy at Christmas — and in OUR Lives…

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In Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is an evil man, whose only love is himself and his money. When confronted by the outcomes of his evil life, past, present, and future Scrooge is repentant. He isn’t just sorry – he wants to change, to make amends. He tries to do so with the little time he has left, by investing in the Cratchit family. In a sense, he’s trying to redeem himself.

Even when I was a little kid, watching that in movie or cartoon form, the same thought occurred to me. Ebenezer, what makes you think that these last half-dozen or so years of your life can make up for the decades of evil you’ve done? It is impossible for you to redeem yourself.  That’s true of Ebenezer. And it’s true of you and me.

The Bible teaches us that Jesus is our Redeemer. He is the One who can pay for the evil we’ve done. It says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:23-24)

While all of us know this deep inside, the Bible is what makes it crystal clear to us. As the prophecies concerning Christ’s advent in Bethlehem lit the way for those seeking him, so God’s word lights the way for us.

Please forgive the sound of my voice in this message. I could barely talk. ~Steve

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Why Theists Persist

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Even though I am not a real Lord of the Rings fan (There’s just too much data there), I love this thought from Tim Keller:

Jesus spoke of his return to earth as the palingenesis. “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things (Greek palingenesis), the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne.” This was a radically new concept. Jesus insisted that his return will be purged of all decay and brokenness. All will be healed and all might-have-beens will be.

Just after the climax of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings, Sam Gamgee discovers that his friend Gandalf was not dead (as he thought) but alive. He cries, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself! Is everything sad going to come untrue?” The answer of Christianity to that question is – yes. Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost.

Embracing the Christian doctrines of the incarnation and Cross brings profound consolation in the face of suffering. The doctrine of the resurrection can instill us with a powerful hope. It promises that we will get the life we most longed for, but it will be an infinitely more glorious world than if there had never been the need for bravery, endurance, sacrifice, or salvation.”

Dostoevsky put it perfectly when he wrote:

Fyodor Dostoyevsky“I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small Euclidean mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, for all the blood that they’ve shed; that it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

More succinctly, C. S. Lewis wrote:

“They say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.”
~Tim Keller in The Reason for God, p. 33

What a great reason to believe.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance — Purpose Driven Ministry

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Purpose-driven, long before Rick Warren’s fine book was written:

To proclaim this Good News of the all-sufficient Christ — this is our message.

To proclaim it throughout the world — this is our mission.

To do so empowered and led by the Holy Spirit — this is our method.

Let our churches exist for this; let our ministers preach for this; let our seminaries and colleges be on fire with this one theme; let our laborers toil for this; let our consecrated men and women sacrifice for this; let our homes and our wardrobes be purchased with reference to this; and let a whole army of true hearts prove to the world around and the heavens above that they understand the meaning of the cross of Calvary, the cry of dying souls and the glory of the coming King. ~ Dr. A.B. Simpson (1843-1919)

I like it. ~Steve