Tomorrow we kick off our Men’s early morning Bible study at 6:15 a.m. I invite you to come if you have the time and can get out of the bed. It’s a challenging time together, in spite of the donuts and coffee.

This semester, we’re going to be studying from the book Because We Love Him by Clyde Cranford. It’s all about “embracing a life of holiness.” Frankly, it’s one of the single best books I’ve ever read on what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Cranford was a personal disciple-maker and spent untold hours pouring his living beliefs into young Christians.

He died prematurely, but not before making a mark on many believers and leaving behind this great work. I’d encourage you to get a copy (click the photo) and dive in. It’s life-changing.

I think creativity is overlooked and underrated among Christian leaders today. Quite frankly, we’re afraid of what changes creativity may bring. We’re paranoid some crazy guy will hijack our conservative churches and turn them upside down. But what about a leader who is focused on the Scriptures and simply wants to glorify the Creator by imagining great things? I’m currently reading The Creative Leader by Ed Young. I wanted to record a major quote here for posterity, and to share it with my readers…

So why should we implement creativity in leadership? God invented it. Jesus modeled it. The Holy Spirit empowers it because people need it. If we church leaders are going to live out the challenging mission that God has laid out for the local church, we must unleash the creative potential available to us, develop it, and use it to communicate the most compelling message ever given to mankind. Creativity is not an option for the church; it is a biblical mandate that flows from the very character of the Creator.

I couldn’t agree more!

I just finished reading C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity for the first time (I’ll be perusing it again in the future). Until purchasing the book, I had little idea just how much influence the book has had on modern Christianity. I was amazed at how many conversations my copy of the book started. Once in a hospital waiting room, in my office, and in a church camp college class, I met all sorts of people who had not only read the book, but who were deeply impacted by it. In fact, just yesterday I was reading in the appendix of R. Kent Hughes’ book The Disciplines of a Godly Man where he surveyed 35 of today’s greatest Christian leaders and thinkers. Ten listed Lewis’ epochal work as one of the most influential they had ever read (it was mentioned more than any other book, second was Calvin’s Institutes).

Now that I’ve completed it, I must agree with all of them. Surprisingly, Lewis never quotes Scripture or refers to the works of other theologians at all. There are no references, citations, or endnotes. Instead, Mere Christianity is a collection of informal, conversational “talks” given over the radio waves. Lewis compiled the transcriptions together, edited them for print, and the world was changed.

The book is as much a philosophical treatise as a theological one. Lewis gives to us the thinking of a man who has not grown up in Christianity. His theology is practical, gritty, and brutally honest. He raises questions that nonchurchgoers are bound to ask, and he tackles them without hesitation. Many within the Christian faith today are threatened by the possibility of such questions being hurled at the faith, but Christianity, since it is true, will stand every test.

I wish that I could recall all of the particular lessons I gleaned from Lewis’ thoughts. This book, however, has a surprising effect. Rather than being a simple outline of truthful points and principles, it is a book that simply works your mind over. You can’t get it out of your head during the day and you end up working its words into your thought patterns.

I would highly recommend that every young person entering a life of ministry read this book at the outset. It took me far too long to stumble upon it. I would also highly recommend every Christian layperson to obtain a copy and see how the world around us thinks, and how to answer them. It will certainly help prepare us to “give a reason of the hope that is in us.” And I certainly recommend the work to anyone seeking truth, who wants to know why it is that we can’t ever earn God’s favor on our own.

Today, I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time. I have never read the fictional fantasy books by the late C. S. Lewis, but I do appreciate Lewis’ other writings very much. The movie itself was, to my taste, not quite as entertaining as it could have been. What I did notice, however, was the beauty of the pictures presented in it. I watched intently, searching for details that were designed by Lewis to mimic the gospel story in some way. What I saw during this adventure of discovery brought me to tears.

There is a scene at the end where the resurrected Aslan (a lion representing Jesus) is helping to coronate the four kids in the story as monarchs over various realms of Narnia. It suddently occurred to me all over again that Jesus is not merely the human, suffering Savior, but the risen and triumphant King. And furthermore, His worthiness to be followed and worshipped overwhelmed me. I sat there thinking, “I want to live all of my life for “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” Jesus Christ.

One of the aspects of the movie that I enjoyed the most was the courage with which Aslan was portrayed. We think of Jesus as compassionate, wise, gentle, but rarely do we think of Him as the confident warrior or the courageous King. I’m not sure of all of the symbology in the movie, but I do plan on seeing it again (and, of course, reading the book along with the rest of the series). In the meantime, I’m reminded of the picture John saw in his revelation. First, no one was worthy to claim the title deed to planet earth. Then John records, “one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain…” He was slain for you!

http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/template/Article.html/id/24549

Richard Blackaby, in this article, does a great job of related to us that the growth and success of a church largely (almost entirely) depends on the spiritual growth taking place in the heart of the Pastor. It’s so true that we can’t give away what we don’t have. I’ve spent plenty of time being frustrated and discouraged over low numbers in seasons when I’m more about studying church growth than studying God’s Word. But when I really connect with God and spend ample time in prayer, that’s when God seems to really bless the church around me with a fresh season of growth, both spiritually and numerically.