Not My How and When
 
C.S. Lewis refused to read a daily newspaper saying it was a waste of time.  He said that he heard all the news of the day at the pub each evening and if something of lasting importance happened, someone would write a book about it and he might consider reading it.  Lewis, of course, was keenly interested in the world around him and his critique of modern culture in his classic The Abolition of Man is still widely quoted for its amazing insight.  He just didn’t waste time with the newspaper. Continue reading →

Christmas Gifts with a Theological Twist
 
I am infamous in our family for being the only member who refuses to come up with any kind of Christmas wish list.  I’m sure a good therapist could ferret it out, but for some reason I just don’t pay much attention to the whole gift side of Christmas.  And, frankly, I’m also a lousy gift-giver, and that’s really not such a good thing.
 
That being said, I have some suggestions for your gift-giving this season. Continue reading →

The for which and the to whom of Thanksgiving
 
The TV commentators at the Thanksgiving Day parades are sure to ask it, and if the score is too lopsided, so are the announcers for tomorrow's NFL games.  "So, John, what are you thankful for?" Al may ask sometime in the third quarter. 
 
"What are you thankful for?" probably will be asked millions of times around family tables across the land.  It's a good question and the answers many and varied.  But there is a companion question that doesn't get asked so often in our God-avoiding culture:  "To whom are you thankful?" Continue reading →

Things that Change and Things that Don’t Change
 
In the days immediately following September 11, 2001, we were told repeatedly that “things will never be the same again.”  And in many ways that counsel was wise and true.  Our world is a very different world than it was on September 10, 2001.  But in other ways it is the same old world.  Not much has changed and what has changed is rooted in things long before 9/11 and far from the World Trade Center.  Continue reading →

2 Samuel 23 records the words of David, Israel's singer of songs, as his life drew near to its end:

¹ These are the last words of David:
       "The oracle of David son of Jesse,
       the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High,
       the man anointed by the God of Jacob,
       Israel's singer of songs:

    ² "The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me;
       his word was on my tongue.

    ³ The God of Israel spoke,
       the Rock of Israel said to me:
       'When one rules over men in righteousness,
       when he rules in the fear of God,

    ⁴ he is like the light of morning at sunrise
       on a cloudless morning,
       like the brightness after rain
       that brings the grass from the earth.'"

As we prepare for beginning of our new president's term of office, some of us within Christ's Body may be greatly encouraged by the hope President-elect Obama promises to bring while others are disheartened by the prospect of policies and practices that cause deep concern. Whatever our hopes, whatever our concerns; whatever our partisan loyalties and principled convictions:

• Let's keep perspective.  The world is not much different today than it was yesterday – it will take a lot to change it for better or for worse.  Let's be sure we're on the side of better.  An anonymous Second Century saint once wrote of the Christians, "Every foreign country is their homeland, and every homeland is a foreign country." Our ultimate loyalties are not political.
• Let's keep talking.  They may not be ultimate, but political discussion belongs in the family of faith, for politics, too, are the domain of our sovereign God – "if Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all."
• Let's keep praying. Let's pray that Barack Obama will be one who humbly seeks to rule in righteousness and in the fear of God. It is not too much to expect that God still desires that, while we await the coming of his Kingdom, we work for times of cloudless mornings and a brightness like after the rain.  

There are a hundred good reasons to sense pride and privilege in being an American this morning.  The reasons to rejoice that Jesus is Lord are infinitely more.