Show me where Christ is, and I will show you an awful place.
Funny how a word can get turned on its head over time. In the 21st century, to call a place awful isn’t a compliment. Not so in the 18th century, in which awful was a word to express deep reverence — as in full of awe. In that sense, the place where Christ dwells is the most awful of all.
Here’s a hymn that brought me to tears at the conference I attended earlier this year. This is the actual recording of it being sung before one of the sessions. (Can you pick out my voice?) Isaac Watts wrote the words in 1707. Like Watts, I marvel that a sinner like me has been given a place at the Lord’s table.
How Sweet and Awful is the Place
Reading the words to this moving song might be helpful before listening to it. Here they are: (more…)
What would you say about a man who invested well, expanded his holdings, took early retirement, and was well-positioned to enjoy his profit for many years to come? Many of us would say: “What a wise man! What was his secret? I wish that were me!” But listen to what God would say about this man: “Fool!” (more…)
The Peru team strapped on its backpacks today and is heading into the mountains. The team will be sharing the gospel in a couple of different villages over the next few days. Keep praying!
This view of Huaraz was taken from an adjacent mountain while on our trip in ‘05. You can see that this Andean town is substantial in size — filled with people who need Jesus. Our team of 19 is ministering there today. (more…)
Greed makes us dragonish. The good news, though, is that Christ can strip off the beastly skin and make us human again – truly human, that is. Eustace Scrubb experiences this truth in C. S. Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace turns, or I should say he is turned, from being a self-absorbed brat into a self-giving boy. Living to give rather than living to have is a characteristic of redeemed humanity.
And yet, even the redeemed feel dragonish at times. (more…)
