Listening to the Giants

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.           C.S. Lewis Lately I have been obsessed with the writings of C.S. Lewis. I feel like I have been woken up from a 20-year nap with a Rip Van Winkle beard and new eyes, eyes that see through the lens of imagination. Recent personal examples: Reading Lewis’ The Great Divorce , I can actually imagine the Deep Heaven and the grey town (Hell). Reading The Magician’s Nephew , I imagine the horrific evil eyes and curved mouth of Queen Jadis and sit in fearful awe of the majesty Sovereignty of Aslan (Jesus Christ). Reading Perelandra (the second of Lewis’ Space Trilogy), I felt my imagination overtake me…in a way I haven’t experience since I read A Wrinkle in Time at the innocent age of 8. To paint the landscape, here is the scene in Perelandra that literally shook my inner soul: “There he (Ransom) stopped dead and stared at Weston (a man likely posse...

I must admit this paragraph caught me off guard in Wycliffe’s latest biography. She writes, “No work in English which can be attributed with certainty to Wycliffe survives, nor is there evidence that he actively got the work of translating the Bible into English under way or was even directly involved in it.” Really? This man, who is known as the “morning star of the Reformation” and is bestowed the immortal honor of translating the Bible into the English language. So my question is, “Then why is Wycliffe highly regarded in the annals of church history?” For what I can gather there is one reason. The zealous words of John Foxe.  He wrote, “When Wickliffe recovered, he set about a most important work, the translation of the Bible into English. Before this work appeared, he published a tract, wherein he showed the necessity of it. The zeal of the bishops to suppress the Scriptures greatly promoted its sale, and they who were not able to purchase copies, procured t...

John Wycliffe’s last work was called Gospel Work . His latest biographer assessment of it is interesting. She states, “The drift of this last book on Scripture seems clear. There are no automatic, special, divine preferences for any particular class of Christian, priest or monk or friar; it is personal virtue which counts. The Bible is not reserved for the educated or the ordained. The Bible is for all the people of God.” History states that the heart of Wycliffe was for the laity, so that they could own and read the scriptures for themselves. Because of his passion for God’s word, millions of Christians have multiple bibles in their homes. And yet many Christians often lament that they themselves, though they own a bible, are unable to understand the Bible. Here are 6 main reasons Christians struggle to understand the Bible. ***Please understand when I write “you”, I mean you, me…any Christian who struggles with this. Reason #1—You do not ask for Divine...

The life of John Wycliffe (1324-1384) WYCLIFFE’S TIMES In Wycliffe’s day Rome ruled England and Europe with an iron fist.  One hundred years earlier, Pope Innocent III had humbled King John of England. The king had done things that displeased the pope, so the pope excommunicated him and issued a decree declaring that he was no longer the king and releasing the people of England from obeying him. The pope further ordered King Philip of France to organize an army and navy to overthrow John, which Philip began to do with great zeal, eager to conquer England for himself. The pope also called for a general crusade against John, promising the participants remission of sins and a share of the spoils of war. The Scriptures was forbidden in the common languages of the people in Wycliffe’s day. One of Wycliffe’s enemies, Knyghton, a canon of Leicester, complained that by translating the Scriptures into English and thus laying it “open to the laity and to women who could read”. This...

Here are #13--#24: #13—“But how much greater is the spiritual blessing we receive, both in this life and in the world to come, if constrained by the love of Christ, we act as God’s stewards, respecting that, with which He is pleased to entrust us!” #14—“Our Heavenly Father never takes any earthly thing from His children except He means to give them something better instead ”. Early in my Christian walk I would have read this quote and believed that God would bless me like Job (Job 42:12-17). Now in my 23 rd or 29 th year as a Christian, I understand that the blessing may or may not be material , but it is always spiritual. #15—“We have to guard against practically despising the discipline of the Lord, though we may not do so in word, and against fainting under discipline; since all is intended for blessing to us”. The reader must not have a one-dimensional understanding of “fainting”. “Fainting” can mean wilting under the heat of God’s discipline, which ...

One of my favorite sections of the biography is when A.T. Pierson presents a list of 24 important steps, steps that he believes were essential in the spiritual formation of George Müller. Here are steps 13-18:   13. His companions in service. Two most efficient co-workers were divinely provided: first his brother Craik so like-minded with himself, and secondly, his wife, so peculiarly God’s gift, both of them proving great aids in working and in bearing burdens of responsibility. History doesn’t speak much of Mr. Craik, but to be as like-minded as George Müller says volumes about this man. In a similar way, history speaks little about George Müller’s wife. This amazing woman entered into marriage agreeing to a life of voluntary poverty, desiring to “help” her husband live out God’s plan for him. Here are Müller’s words about her at her funeral: “She was God’s own gift, exquisitely suited to me even in natural temperament. Thousands of times I said to her, ‘My da...

One of my favorite sections of the biography is when Pierson presents a list of 24 important steps, steps that he believes were essential in the spiritual formation of George Müller. Here are steps 7-12:   7. His cutting loose from man. Step by step, all dependence on men or appeals to man for support were abandoned, together with all borrowing, running into debt, stated salary, etc. His eyes were turned to God alone as the Provider. Early on in his Christian journey, Müller committed himself (and his wife) to voluntary poverty and then to the rejection of a fixed salary. Is this approach a prescription for the Christian life? No, it is not. Yet this does not mean we should disregard the reason that drove Müller to this commitment, a desire to trust God and to show others that God is the Great Provider. Furthermore, how often does “the law of sin” convince us that this approach is irrational, irresponsible and foolish….but really we simply want to stay comfortable. We like...

Bullying is a serious thing. Nowadays, kids are able to bully other kids verbally, physically and now virtually. For James Innell Packer, bullying changed his life forever. “He was always being bullied. Another boy chased him out of school grounds on to the busy London Road outside. A passing bread van could not avoid hitting him. He was thrown to the ground with a major head injury. The young boy was taken to the Gloucester Royal Infirmary and rushed into the operating room. He was discovered to have a depressed compound fracture of the frontal bone on the right side of his forehead, with injury to the frontal lobe of the brain. After surgery, the boy was left with a small hole in his right forehead, about two centimeters in diameter. The injury would remain clearly visible for the rest of his life.” (p. 1) So what can we learn from this unfortunate circumstance? Packer’s injury was used by God to mold him and stretch him. How did it mold him? As a boy, Packer was qu...