I've written about Francis Schaeffer in some of my other blogs but I'd like to focus on him today.
If you remember I mentioned that I became aware of Francis Schaeffer when I was in Piraeus, Greece (near Athens). Some young people who were hiking around Europe mentioned him and his work with young intellectuals. They gave me his book The God Who Is There and it opened my eyes to a new way to share the Gospel with those who needed to think about it.
Schaeffer was an evangelical Presbyterian pastor who came to a point in his life in his early 50's that he wasn't sure he was preaching real stuff. He wasn't sure the Bible was worth staking his life on. So he resigned his pastorate and moved to Switzerland. There he spent three years reading his Bible, praying and pacing around a chalet until he felt he had encountered the living God. He came to believe that the Bible was "true truth" as he used to say.
During that time his daughters were in college and they would bring their friends home to discuss life with Francis. They were searching for truth but needed it framed in something other than hell fire and brimstone. They wanted a faith that didn't negate their intellect.
Francis began to study philosophy, art and culture to discover ways that the God who was there was speaking to the intellectuals. His God-given anointing was to be able to understand a philosophy and those who adhered to it, take them to the end of the philosophical thought and show them how it fell short of the Gospel. He didn't do it by beating them over the head with a Bible but he addressed them where they were. They were asking legitimate questions that needed legitimate answers. It reminds me of what Paul did in Athens when he told those seeking truth that he could introduce them to the one who was truth. (Acts 17)
I had the opportunity to travel by train to Switzerland soon after I met those other kids in Piraeus. I spent time with other young people from around the world listening to lectures, having tea with Edith and Francis Schaeffer in their chalet and being stretched intellectually. I have often wondered who has taken up that mantel to the intellectuals. I have had the opportunity when he was living to hear him lecture here in the states. I remember Pat saying that she couldn't even understand some of the questions people were asking Francis let alone the answer. I couldn't either.
I have discovered that the Gospel can reach anyone, at any level of intelligence, in any circumstance. It is as magnificent as the landscape around us and the beauty of all creation. I have never been found wanting for what the Gospel is capable of doing in the lives of those who hear, see and experience it.
My prayer is that your faith is as vibrant today and even more so than when you first believed.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Neighbors
I've always been blessed by having great neighbors and friends. My Dad has often commented about how I can find such jewels to repair my cars, help me out with projects and loan me anything they have to make my life easier.
I was just telling my neighbor about my OH neighbor, Daryl, who used to come plow my driveway. He had a long gravel driveway that he used to go up and down on, rearranging the gravel, putting it in the middle, dragging it up to the top. He used to tease me about how much I liked to mow and I teased him back about how he wouldn't have anything to do if he didn't rearrange the gravel on his driveway.
I had contracted for someone to plow my driveway but he often came over after clearing his drive of snow. I could hear his John Deere lawn tractor coming and beginning to plow my driveway. Together we would clean out the mail boxes in the area for our other neighbors. He also owned some land behind mine and he would let me play in the woods, cleaning up the fallen trees and brush, burning piles of debris and just having fun being a 50 something year old kid.
Another friend who wasn't even a neighbor would loan me anything he had in the way of equipment from his landscaping business. If I needed it and he had it I could use it. When we moved to OH he loaned me trucks and a trailer to move all my stuff to save me renting from UHaul. I asked him one time about it and he said that everything he had had come from God and he was just taking care of it. He didn't feel like it was his to hold on to. I like that. In fact, I think that's scriptural.
What does it mean to be a neighbor? Who is my neighbor, as someone once asked Jesus? My neighbor is anyone who needs help and I have the help to give. I wish I had a snow blower to do my driveway...because then I could take it around the neighborhood and do other drives for those who didn't have one. Frankly, I'm more interested in doing the Gospel and loving my neighbors than hearing a good sermon that doesn't cause me to repent and change some of my behavior. So what if everyone sees me go out to church on Sunday morning but they never see me come help them in a time of need? What speaks louder?
My neighbor in OH didn't often go to church that I was aware of but he loved me and I felt the love of God coming from him. He delighted in helping me and I delighted in knowing him.
What do you think makes more of an impact on your neighbors? Going around the neighborhood giving out tracts or helping them clear their driveway? Or cleaning up something they can't get to? Or doing something for them just because?
Today you have an opportunity to love your neighbors as Christ loves you. I hope you take the opportunity to love.
I was just telling my neighbor about my OH neighbor, Daryl, who used to come plow my driveway. He had a long gravel driveway that he used to go up and down on, rearranging the gravel, putting it in the middle, dragging it up to the top. He used to tease me about how much I liked to mow and I teased him back about how he wouldn't have anything to do if he didn't rearrange the gravel on his driveway.
I had contracted for someone to plow my driveway but he often came over after clearing his drive of snow. I could hear his John Deere lawn tractor coming and beginning to plow my driveway. Together we would clean out the mail boxes in the area for our other neighbors. He also owned some land behind mine and he would let me play in the woods, cleaning up the fallen trees and brush, burning piles of debris and just having fun being a 50 something year old kid.
Another friend who wasn't even a neighbor would loan me anything he had in the way of equipment from his landscaping business. If I needed it and he had it I could use it. When we moved to OH he loaned me trucks and a trailer to move all my stuff to save me renting from UHaul. I asked him one time about it and he said that everything he had had come from God and he was just taking care of it. He didn't feel like it was his to hold on to. I like that. In fact, I think that's scriptural.
What does it mean to be a neighbor? Who is my neighbor, as someone once asked Jesus? My neighbor is anyone who needs help and I have the help to give. I wish I had a snow blower to do my driveway...because then I could take it around the neighborhood and do other drives for those who didn't have one. Frankly, I'm more interested in doing the Gospel and loving my neighbors than hearing a good sermon that doesn't cause me to repent and change some of my behavior. So what if everyone sees me go out to church on Sunday morning but they never see me come help them in a time of need? What speaks louder?
My neighbor in OH didn't often go to church that I was aware of but he loved me and I felt the love of God coming from him. He delighted in helping me and I delighted in knowing him.
What do you think makes more of an impact on your neighbors? Going around the neighborhood giving out tracts or helping them clear their driveway? Or cleaning up something they can't get to? Or doing something for them just because?
Today you have an opportunity to love your neighbors as Christ loves you. I hope you take the opportunity to love.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Scuba Diving
I know my Mom spent a lot of time praying for me. I was willing to take a few too many risks for her comfort. She must have prayed real hard because she scared the risk-taking right out of me for many years but not before I got in a few interesting experiences.
My first two and a half years in college at the University of Kentucky were spent learning bridge and how to live independently without the thumb imprint of my parents on my head. It would have been better had they eased it up a little while I was still home. They could have channeled the energy I had and helped me know how to manage it better. Instead, they turned me loose...all at once.
I pledged a fraternity as a freshman--not the norm for college. Usually, you had to wait until you were at least a sophomore. But again I broke the mold with a couple of other freshmen. My fraternity was loaded with guys who went on to become entrepreneurs so risk-taking was in their blood.
Spring break my sophomore year we decided to go to Ft Lauderdale, FL and do at least one scuba dive. That's not something you want to learn as you go. So, thanks to another fraternity brother who ran a cabana (later called a health club or rec center) we got into the pool evenings after 9 pm and began to learn from others who knew how just what scuba diving was all about.
We learned to test our gear, take our mask off under water and buddy-breathe in case our tanks malfunctioned while we were down. We practiced taking off our gear and heading up to the surface slow enough not to get the bends.
Spring break duly arrived we packed up a station wagon with our scuba gear and other essentials for a break in FL. One of my buddies also took his '68 GTO convertible along so we could cruise the strip with the best of them. It was dark green with a black top and black interior. It also sported the red line tires that were popular then.
One beautiful morning we headed off the coast of Ft Lauderdale to go diving on a reef at about 75'. That's a little deeper than pool we were practicing in. We went off the side of our boat and began the decent down the anchor rope to the reef. There's not much going on until you get down to the reef.
I had a mask that was about six inches across. I was fascinated for the 30 minutes or so we were down. I had never seen so many bright colors in one place. The fish were incredible swimming all around us. I didn't move much because I was so taken by what I could see out of my little screen.
What made me think of this situation was a devotional by John Eldredge where he talked about the beauty of the creation God made. It is so varied, so breath-taking and so stunning that for me it's impossible to think that it just came out of nothing. God is truly an artist and the world he created for us to live in is beyond the imaginations of us as his creation. We can only create slices with our best efforts to replicate what he has given us.
We have sold God so far short of his incredible creativity and all we have to do is look around us briefly to see what a magnificient God he is. The beauty is overwhelming and he created it for us to enjoy and to learn about his heart toward us as we view it.
I've never been scuba diving since that one experience now some 40 years ago...but I'll never forget what I saw. "...when I in awesome wonder, consider all the world thy hands hath made."
Enjoy it today.
My first two and a half years in college at the University of Kentucky were spent learning bridge and how to live independently without the thumb imprint of my parents on my head. It would have been better had they eased it up a little while I was still home. They could have channeled the energy I had and helped me know how to manage it better. Instead, they turned me loose...all at once.
I pledged a fraternity as a freshman--not the norm for college. Usually, you had to wait until you were at least a sophomore. But again I broke the mold with a couple of other freshmen. My fraternity was loaded with guys who went on to become entrepreneurs so risk-taking was in their blood.
Spring break my sophomore year we decided to go to Ft Lauderdale, FL and do at least one scuba dive. That's not something you want to learn as you go. So, thanks to another fraternity brother who ran a cabana (later called a health club or rec center) we got into the pool evenings after 9 pm and began to learn from others who knew how just what scuba diving was all about.
We learned to test our gear, take our mask off under water and buddy-breathe in case our tanks malfunctioned while we were down. We practiced taking off our gear and heading up to the surface slow enough not to get the bends.
Spring break duly arrived we packed up a station wagon with our scuba gear and other essentials for a break in FL. One of my buddies also took his '68 GTO convertible along so we could cruise the strip with the best of them. It was dark green with a black top and black interior. It also sported the red line tires that were popular then.
One beautiful morning we headed off the coast of Ft Lauderdale to go diving on a reef at about 75'. That's a little deeper than pool we were practicing in. We went off the side of our boat and began the decent down the anchor rope to the reef. There's not much going on until you get down to the reef.
I had a mask that was about six inches across. I was fascinated for the 30 minutes or so we were down. I had never seen so many bright colors in one place. The fish were incredible swimming all around us. I didn't move much because I was so taken by what I could see out of my little screen.
What made me think of this situation was a devotional by John Eldredge where he talked about the beauty of the creation God made. It is so varied, so breath-taking and so stunning that for me it's impossible to think that it just came out of nothing. God is truly an artist and the world he created for us to live in is beyond the imaginations of us as his creation. We can only create slices with our best efforts to replicate what he has given us.
We have sold God so far short of his incredible creativity and all we have to do is look around us briefly to see what a magnificient God he is. The beauty is overwhelming and he created it for us to enjoy and to learn about his heart toward us as we view it.
I've never been scuba diving since that one experience now some 40 years ago...but I'll never forget what I saw. "...when I in awesome wonder, consider all the world thy hands hath made."
Enjoy it today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)