Thanksgiving
Give Thanks – He is Worthy (also posted at the website of Bow Valley Christian Church) Thanksgiving season is a time when we examine the gifts we have been given and remind ourselves that we are not “self-made.” Douglas Wilson writes, The issue of thanksgiving is really central to the whole debate about the existence…
Continue readingLewis, Tash, Aslan, and Emeth
Many of us love the writings of C.S. Lewis, not because they tickle our ears with things we want to hear; but precisely because they challenge us with a new way of hearing the old message of the Gospel of Jesus. When we think we have our theology and practice all worked out, it is…
Continue readingIf There Is No God
If there is no God, then all that exists is time and chance acting on matter. If this is true then the difference between your thoughts and mine correspond to the difference between shaking up a bottle of Mountain Dew and a bottle of Dr. Pepper. You simply fizz atheistically and I fizz theistically. This…
Continue readingDoubt (Speak It Plain) – A Follow-Up To “No Answer”
The song “Doubt (Speak It Plain)” by Sandra McCracken, alludes to a novel written by C.S. Lewis. Her words, “Until we come to set things right I have no words and I have no face” are a direct reference to the words of Orual in the book Till We Have Faces,1 in which Queen Orual first…
Continue readingNo Answer
C.S. Lewis tells a story in one of his novels of a queen who writes two books from two perspectives. The first quote is from book one; the second from book two. I say, therefore, that there is no creature (toad, scorpion, or serpent) so noxious to man as the gods. Let them answer my…
Continue readingLove, Emotions, and Fidelity
Inspiration for blog entries comes from personal experiences, community or world events, and emotional responses to all of the above. A muse may be uplifting or discouraging but the writer is responsible for the wisdom and encouragement that the experience creates. This entry has a number of influences contributing to the lessons learned. Love, in…
Continue readingAvoiding God
C.S. Lewis had this to say about avoiding God. The avoiding, in many times and places, has proved so difficult that a very large part of the human race failed to achieve it. But in our own time and place it is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads…
Continue readingSeeing Stars and Seeing God
These words found in Romans 1:20-23 are worth meditating upon. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks…
Continue readingAs To The Lord
The work of a Beethoven, and the work of a charwoman [cleaning lady], become spiritual on precisely the same condition, that of being offered to God, of being done humbly “as to the Lord.” This does not, of course, mean that it is for anyone a mere toss up whether he should sweep rooms or…
Continue readingMillennials
A recent conference in Calgary has me dreaming of the kind of church that will thrive in the next generation. James Penner was the guest speaker at the Western Canada Leadership Summit and he challenged us to think about the characteristics of the Millennial Generation (variously defined, but for the purposes of these talks, defined…
Continue reading