Saturday, December 24, 2016

“Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human  teacher. He has not left that open to us. He didn't intend to.”                                                                            
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

During this season which has traditionally been celebrated by the Christian world as the time when Christ was born, it is a good time to ask ourselves the very question Jesus asked the apostles. The world seemingly has as many ideas about Jesus as it has people. Many don’t give Him a second thought. They go about their days with thoughts captive to the proverbial rat race and getting "ready" for the holidays. In their minds, getting ready means preparation for a holiday meal, perhaps spending time with family and the ubiquitous gift giving that our society is known for. Others will give Jesus a cursory thought—witness how much fuller our churches become on Christmas day if, as it does this year, it happens to fall on a Sunday.


Saturday, December 10, 2016

Doing God a Favor

Have you ever heard an unbeliever, especially an atheist, talk about God and His sovereignty? They will often tell you that, if the God of the Bible is the true and living God, then they don’t want to worship and serve such a God. This in reaction to the fact that the Bible, in unmistakable terms (Romans 9; Ephesians 1; etc.) declares that God is sovereign over His creation and that nothing takes place without His guiding hand. It is as if they are telling God they will do Him the “favor” of serving Him if only He were not so… tyrannical!!