I re-read Perelandra by C.S. Lewis a few weeks ago, both to get something done on the summer reading program and because I wanted to buy the Space Trilogy , but thought I ought to remind myself why I decided to buy it after the first time I read the books. Conclusion: I am definitely using my gift card on this trilogy. The following quotes will give you a sampling of the reasons I love it so much. ….His journey to Perelandra was not a moral exercise, nor a sham fight. If the issue lay in Maleldil’s hands, Ransom and the Lady were those hands. the fate of a world really depended on how they behaved in the next few hours. the thing was irreducibly, nakedly real. They could, if they chose, decline to save the innocence of this new race, and if they declined its innocence would not be saved. It rested with no other creature in all time or all space. This he saw clearly, though as yet he had no inkling of what he could do. The voluble self protested, wildly, swiftly, like the propelle...

I don’t usually have any sort of theme to these links, but this week I’ve had precious little time to read much—except that I’ve been kind of curious about the whole Rob Bell/universalism brouhaha surrounding his latest book, Love Wins . Rob Bell isn’t really my type; I don’t have the patience for the artistry (so they call it) of the NOOMA videos he’s produced, and I’d rather sink my teeth into something forthright rather than postmodern (and something written rather than videotaped, for that matter). My pastors back home are no aficionados of his works, and I respect their reasons for it. But I know some big fans of his, and some of these fans are people I respect too. So I’ve read a few links about it: How I first heard about this controversy: from a staff member at my college. This staff member has written several posts about the whole deal in the last few days, and is definitely taking a side, as you can see. (FWIW whenever this guy speaks in chapel, he may as well be Rob Bel...

You know all those famous quotes that people attribute to famous people? Like the quote “A woman’s heart should be so hidden in God that a man must seek Him in order to find her.” Probably not a C.S. Lewis quote (or a Maya Angelou one either). I think it’s Max Lucado but I haven’t found the source for it yet. But anyways, here’s another one, coming from the theological types: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” At the theologically Wesleyan university that I attend, this line has always been attributed to John Wesley, beloved father of that theological tradition. I wondered this morning where he had said that, so I did a Google search… turns out it wasn’t him at all, though he no doubt subscribed to that school of thought. Instead, it is a translation (poetic, too) of a line in a 1617 Latin book called “De Republica Ecclesiastica Libri X” by Marcus Antonius de Dominis—a man I have never heard of before now, but with a name and a book like that,...

I often fret about the comparatively little time I spend reading my Bible. It’s as if the time spent reading the Bible, praying, reading devotionals or singing worship songs must be equal to the time I spend in my waking hours doing anything else… which would, of course, amount to a solid 7 or 8 hours a day doing those things. But then what of the other 7 or 8 hours? Are they wasted hours, because I am not steeped in God’s Word then? It pushes me to despair. And then I am refreshed by something like this, part of the A. W. Tozer book I’ve finished (re)reading tonight. One of the greatest hindrances to internal peace which the Christian encounters is the common habit of dividing our lives into two areas, the sacred and the secular. As the seas are conceived to exist apart from each other and to be morally and spiritually incompatible, and as we are compelled by the necessities of living to be always crossing back and forth from the one to the other, our inner lives tend to break up...

“Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship.” That’s fine. But make sure it really is a relationship. Here’s what I mean: This phrase is sometimes used to avoid talking about theology & doctrines, or to imply that theology & doctrine is not worth the time spent on it. But, theology & doctrines are basically man’s pursuit of knowing God more. If you don’t know anything about a person, can you really know a person? If I say I love someone with all my heart, yet I can’t describe this person with anything less general than “wonderful” or “awesome”—or I don’t even know any of that person’s nicknames—what kind of loving friend am I?

I read an article on Yahoo! News today about a man who killed another person in Montana back in the 1950s, skipped out on parole about 20 years after that, and managed to hide in plain sight for several decades until the victim’s grandson tracked him down. This man, Frank Dryman, went by the name Victor Houston while he lived in Arizona, started his own wedding-chapel business, and even married a woman (who knew nothing of his past until he was apprehended). "They [law enforcement] just forgot about me," said Dryman, in his first interview since being caught and sent back to the prison he last left in the 1960s. "I was a prominent member of the community." And what does he have to say about his misdeeds? Well, to quote the article, “he is not kindly disposed to the victim’s grandson,” who found him with some private investigative help. "I can't blame him for what he did," Dryman said. "But I think it was so wrong he spent so much money get...