Power of touch March 4, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Christianity, Jesus, Salvation, Spirituality, Truth.5 comments
A number of years ago, a stomach virus went through our family. One night my wife, in the grip of the thing, chose to sleep on the couch.
Sometime during the night our 3-year-old son found his way to my bed and went back to sleep. I awoke around 4:15 and got up. After washing my face and getting more awake, I walked through the darkness to my study, which opened from our bedroom. In the darkness I bumped two porcelein pans we had bought to use on camping trips and by the time I turned on the study light, our 3-year-old was out of bed and walking wide-eyed toward me. My hopes of early morning work instantly looked dim. I scooped up my son, held him close, and we both laid back down, him laying on my chest.
In a few minutes I moved him to my side, but I stayed on the bed. As I laid there, I prayed. I was struggling with some frustrations at that time, most importantly, I was just struggling with life itself.
As I laid there, I began to pray, and I said something to the affect of, “Lord, I need a fresh vision of Your presence. I need to know You’re here with me.” And then, as I laid there with my eyes closed, my son laid his young arm across my chest. He was on the edge of sleep once again, and he had reached out and touched his dad.
In that moment I felt a peace beyond understanding. My son’s touch was so soft and gentle and comforting. It was a touch of love, for I knew in his semi-slumber that he was making sure I was still there. And in that moment I thought of the sheer joy of being touched, that feeling of flesh against flesh, and how through such a touch we feel loved.
Then I thought of a Bible verse, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” In the silent pleasure of that moment, I better understood the incarnation of Jesus Christ, as He became flesh and dwelt among us and touched us in a way we had never before been touched.
Back from Terabithia February 20, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Bible, Books, Christianity, Movies, Religion, Salvation, Scripture, Spirituality, Truth.add a comment
The fam and I just arrived home from seeing the movie, “The Bridge to Terabithia”. Very good. My 12-year-old daughter said she liked it but that it was different from the book.
I am not as literate as my daughter at this level of reading, so the movie was my first exposure to the story. I loved one conversation between the primary boy and girl (Jess and Leslie) and and his younger sister (May Belle). The youngest girl said something like you have to believe the Bible or you’ll be damned to hell. The older girl didn’t believe it, and I agree with her. You don’t have to believe in the Bible, you have to believe in Jesus.
Now I know that last sentence is a rather elementery description, but sometimes I just like to keep it really, really simple. Some of you want to expand that last clause into a full-length book, while others of you are a little uncomfortable with such things being said about the Bible, and still others of you are really hung up on that last “have to”.
I leave you in that discomfort and end with a quote from book during that same conversation. (My wife found it for me.)
Leslie, the one who had never been to church, says: “It’s crazy, isn’t it? … You [Jess and May Belle] have to believe it, but you hate it. I don’t have to believe it, and I think it’s beautiful.”
A little jarring. Is it true? January 30, 2007
Posted by Alien Drums in Bible, Christianity, Emerging church, Holy Spirit, Religion, Salvation, Scripture, Spirituality, Theology.2 comments
“There is need of greater light than the word [Bible] of itself is able to give; for it is not all the promises in Scripture that have … wrought any gracious changes in my soul.” — John Cotton, 17th century
Cotton, a Puritan who was a pastor in early Boston, was emphasizing the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and sanctification.
The Bible, we often say, has an amazing power to speak to our lives today. I think John Cotton would say that the Holy Spirit has an amazing power to speak to our lives today and that the Spirit often uses Scripture. I think this is correct. And by attributing the real power to the Spirit, we are really attributing it to God.
I think it also is true that we are in need of greater light than the word alone can give. God’s Word is greater than the words on the pages of the book we call the Bible. We all may know that, but we don’t act like it.
Cotton’s theology differed from most of the other ministers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was more centered on the work of the Spirit and on grace, as opposed to law. It is, in short, a scarier way to do faith.
“Without the work of the Spirit, there is no faith,” Cotton said.
(Cotton quotes come from American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, by Eve LaPlante.)
Salvation is divine August 25, 2006
Posted by Alien Drums in Evangelism, Salvation.2 comments
More from Iain H. Murray: “… the salvation of souls … is not finally determined by our efforts.” (Pentecost – Today? p. 11)
Yes, Murray is a Calvinist, but he’s not a hyper one. He recognizes that Scripture clearly says followers of Christ have a responsibility to share the good news. But while hyper-Calvinists make one mistake, others, let’s call them hyper-evangelists, make another. They basically reduce the salvation of souls to a rote process of cause and effect — if believers do this and that, then revival will invariably come. It doesn’t. Murray deals with this well, citing both Scripture and general experience.
Murray quotes Theodore L. Cuyler: “God always means to be God. He bestows spiritual blessings when he pleases, how he pleases, and where he pleases. We may labour, we may pray, we may ‘plant’, but we must not dictate.” (p. 12)
I’m not a Calvinist, but I sure love the importance they place on the sovereignty of God.
We should work, pray and plant; but we should always remember that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to save. There is no magic formula that we can concoct to produce one salvation, much less a revival.
In short, salvation is divine, in more ways than one.
