1/5/1969 John 16.20-22– ‘Now you have sorrow, but your sorrow will be turned into joy for I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice, and that joy no one can take from you’ God’s gracious purposes are revealed in Jesus Christ, his well beloved Son. It is a purpose of love and is intended to bring joy into human hearts. Certainly, there is nothing that human beings so universally and ardently seek after as joy. But with countless... Read more
Luke 3.28– ‘Seth was the son of Adam, and Adam was the son of God’ Seth could not help being the son of Adam, nor Adam the son of God. This helplessness is a bit startling but it is true. But when we stop to think about life, we discover many things which cannot be altered. We did not choose our parents, we did not choose the color of our skin, the place of our birth, the color of our... Read more
5/12/1968 Ephesians 2.10–‘for we are his workmanship.’ This word translated workmanship is the old Greek word for poem. A poem is a dream set into words. God’s dream for his children is the realization of the divine preface found in Gen. 1-2. ‘Let us make humankind in our image and after our likeness’ He is at work doing that very thing in the workshop of our lives. It is the majestic obsession of his heart. The very same power with... Read more
1/12/1969 1 John 1.5 ‘God is light, and in him is no darkness at all’. How significant is this figure of speech? Without light we could not see, could not walk safely, could not live. God is the source of our being, the home of our souls. In him we live and move and have our being. It is the light that paints the earth with color and makes the world a wonderland of beauty. So God shines upon the... Read more
One of John Wesley’s favorite texts to preach from was ‘Today is the Day of Salvation’— 2 Cor. 6.2. It was also one of my Grandfather’s favorite verses. Here are his reflections. When Jesus started his ministry, he didn’t take a text from the Old Testament, rather he started where the people were, with their concerns about plowing, cooking, fishing, farming, or whatever, in order to lead them to a place where they would face up to the mystery... Read more
A very long time ago, there were a couple of songs by the Doors that suit this movie to a T— ‘People are Strange’ and ‘Strange Days’. On the basis of the last Spiderman movie I was prepared for the confusions involving the multiverse. That didn’t bother me. I was also prepared for Benedict Cumberbatch to do a good job playing a difficult role— Stephen Strange, as he had before. And he did do a good job, although making him... Read more
8/11/74 1 Cor. 11.31— ‘Whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God’. In this world where we live, the church is Christ’s organization. It is a place where we worship God, learn his Word, and fellowship with other Christians. The Bible calls the church a holy nation, God’s own people, the household of God, a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, and the body of Christ. These phrases are used to... Read more
10/13/1974 What is the conscience? That little shock of reality which reminds us of what is right and what is wrong. Esau sold his birthright with profane indifference, yet what would he have given years later to have been able to change his father’s mind. What bitter tears a few minutes of pleasure cost him. Ahab said to Elijah when his royal chariot was accosted, ‘Have you found me, oh my enemy’? Why should he say this when a short... Read more
My grandfather, James Arthur West, was a devout Christian, a Baptist by denomination. He regularly did things for his local church, including, it appears, doing brief lessons for his Sunday school class in Wilmington N.C. He was not a college educated man, but he studied and knew his Bible well. My sister discovered spiral notebooks full of these lessons, written out in beautiful cursive script while cleaning out the garage. What follows here for some time is some of them... Read more
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