A number of years ago, I read the most delightful biography about Oswald Chambers. It’s called Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, by David McCasland. It was quite good as well as inspiring. I believe I’ve mentioned before, about two thousand times, that I love reading Christian biography.
Of course, as with most people, I first met Chambers through the devotional, My Utmost for His Highest. That devotional, like all of his books, was put together after his death from the notes his wife took (shorthand) from his many lectures, studies, sermons, etc. (She was quite a woman).
I own pretty close to all of Chambers’ books (due to the very kind and generous offerings of a widow who was giving away her departed husband’s library). I have treasured them.
Chambers only lived into his early 40s. As someone who will be 48 this year, I have been “forced” to compare my productivity with his. I’m not fairing well. But we moderns never seem to compare well with anyone who’s been dead for a hundred years or more (usually). At any rate, if you would like to learn more about Chambers’ extraordinary short life, you can check out the following links.
One of the most encouraging messages I ever heard was from John Piper on the topic of the life and ministry of Charles Spurgeon, from Piper’s 1995 pastors conference. Click here to listen to or read the transcript from it. For that matter, Piper’s biographical messages that he gives annually at that conference are some of the most inspiring, convicting, and rewarding sermons I’ve ever heard. Whether you’re a pastor or a lay-person, you owe it to yourself to check these messages out. You can listen online or download them for later. Whichever you do, please listen to them. You’ll be glad you did. Click hereto see the selection of messages.
It was the summer of ’86 and I had just finished my sophomore year of college. That was when I first “met” William F. Buckley, Jr. One of my best friends had invited me to his home and when I arrived he called me into his family’s living room where he was watching a television program. The first thing I remember was noticing some guy I had never seen before slouched in his chair holding what looked like a notebook and interviewing some other guy I had never seen before. It wasn’t riveting entertainment for someone who was looking for something a bit more exciting to do with his time.
My friend asked me if I had ever seen this show before. I quickly said that I hadn’t and so he began to share with me who Buckley was and what the program was about. We ended up watching the rest of it together.
Going through my high school and college years with Ronald Reagan in the White House was very formative for me. Now, through Buckley, I would begin getting to know and better understand many of the foundational principles that undergirded our president’s philosophy of governing.
Of course, I don’t want to sound like it was all about being intensely serious. The truth is, Buckley was just plain fun to watch. I grew to love his masterful use of the English language, watching his cross-examinations of his television guests, and laughing out loud at his many witticisms. I wanted more.
I eventually subscribed to National Review and then purchased my first book authored by Buckley, Right Reason. Every summer my friend and I would not only watch Firing Line together, but would also make sure to watch the special two-hour Firing Line debates. (Yes, I realize how much a “nerd light” this casts me in, but Lord help me, it was a good time that I treasured.)
I kept up with Buckley through seminary and after I graduated, in the Fall of 1992, I was finally able to meet my hero in person. He was speaking on behalf of a hospital here in Jacksonville. After he spoke there was a reception where I had the opportunity to introduce myself and get a picture with him.
It was sad news a couple of years ago when I learned of Buckley’s passing. Over the years I had grown to appreciate not only those things that appeal to a pompous young Republican, but those infinitely more important and lasting qualities such as his generosity, faith, and tireless efforts for all that he was committed to.
So why have I taken this walk down memory lane almost three years after his death? Because Fox News has been airing a six-part series on the history of the conservative movement in America, much of which has focused on Buckley. I’ve also been rereading Buckley’s Up From Liberalism. All of this created a desire within me to share a little about someone I consider worth remembering.
Below are a few of the better YouTube tributes to Buckley. Enjoy.
PS – Thanks E.K. I owe you.
PSS – Here’s a link to the original post that I wrote upon hearing of his death. It includes many links to articles, etc., by folk who actually knew him.
Have you met Mortimer Adler? One of my first introductions to Adler was back in 1990 through his book, Truth in Religion: The Plurality of Religions and the Unity at Truth. Adler was one of the architects of the Great Books/Ideas program at the University of Chicago, one of the editors of the Great Books editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and author of numerous books. And while I wouldn’t call him a spiritual hero of mine, he is certainly one of my intellectual heroes (along with other luminaries such as William F. Buckley, Jr.).
Adler was a self-avowed generalist and a proponent of the great ideas of Western Civilization. He was, perhaps, one of the last honest agnostics…whose honest intellectual inquiries eventually led him to faith in Jesus Christ. Adler said that one of the things that led him to the Christian faith was the doctrine of the Trinity, which he said would never have been invented by men.
Adler died back in 2001 and left an intellectual legacy second to very few. Below are a few important links to articles about Adler, by Adler and expressions of Adler’s legacy.
The post below is three years old, but has lots of good links about St. Patrick and is well worth checking out. At the very end of the post I have included a new video on St. Patrick from the Apostleship of Prayer. Enjoy.
Blessings,
Dale
As I write this I am wearing a green shirt. I began the day in a light blue shirt. But my kids steadfastly refused to stop pinching me until I yielded to the tradition of St. Patty’s Day.
I got to know a little about St. Patrick through two sermons/lectures. One was by Joe Morecraftand the other by T.M. Moore. Both men captured my imagination as they revealed to me more than I ever knew about this incredible Christian man. I’ve provided three short articles and/or devotionals below that will introduce St. Patrick to you. God used him mightily and celebrating his life every March 17 is probably a good thing insofar as it points us to Christ and what one person can do for the Kingdom of God.
St. Patrick: Why His Message Still Matters
Brother Colmán Ó Clabaigh, OSB
at CrossWalk.com
March 17 is upon us again, and all over the world everyone is an honorary Irishman or Irishwoman for 24 hours. St. Patrick’s popularity is a result of the wanderlust of the Irish, and there is no corner of the world in which his name is not honored.
Yet, if his name is known, his story is less familiar and his message often gets drowned out by the parades, the plastic shamrocks and the green-dyed beer.
The little knowledge we have of him comes from two letters he wrote in the course of his missionary work in fifth-century Ireland.
Click hereto read the whole article. (also, make sure to check out the great links to more info on St. Patrick at the end of the article.)
Today is St. Patrick’s Day. Most people think of this day as a time for wearing green and that’s about it (unless you’re Irish!). St. Patrick gets relatively little attention on his day, so I thought I might offer a few thoughts in his honor, including a prayer that is attributed to him.
Patrick’s story reads like an Indiana Jones-type adventure. Raised in Britain (yes, not Ireland), Patrick was captured by pirates in A.D. 405 when he was only sixteen years old. The kidnappers whisked him away to Ireland and sold Patrick into slavery. He spent eight years as a captive in this pagan land.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We are right to remember this great saint, who labored so diligently in the cause of the Gospel, against unimaginable odds, but with unprecedented fruit. Sechnall, Patrick’s contemporary, was correct in referring to him as the light of God to the Irish. That, indeed, is what he was.
And what about us? Patrick’s mission field was all of Ireland, and he lit up the house with his diligent and faithful work. Our mission field is wherever God has set us, in the places and among the people we see week-in and week-out. Are we shining the gift of the Gospel on the people around us or concealing the gift of God under the bushels of timidity, fear, or simple disobedience?
I have described Richard Baxter as a 17th century Renaissance man. More specifically, he was an English puritan pastor and writer. But that description doesn’t do him justice. According to Baxter scholars, J.I. Packer and Timothy Beougher,
“Baxter has been called the greatest of all English preachers, the virtual creator of popular Christian literature, and the most succesful preacher and winner of souls and nurturer of won souls that England has ever had.”
They go on to point out that,
“As Puritanism’s leading writer on practical, devotional, moral, and apologetic themes, Baxter produced over 140 books marking out various aspects of the path of truth and holiness.”
I call Baxter a Renaissance man because of the wide interests about which he wrote. “Baxter penned treatises on grace and salvation, apologetics, …antinomianism, the sacraments, millenarianism, ethics, nonconformity, devotion, conversion, politics, and history, not to mention systematic theology.” In fact, Ian Murray points out that
”Baxter was a many-faceted man. He was both an evangelist and scholar; a speaker and an author, a poet and a possesor of a keen analytical mind.”
How important was he in his day? John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester concluded, “If [Baxter] had lived in the primitive time he would have been one of the fathers of the church.” A biographer of Baxter says about him that “he came nearer the apostolical writings than any man in the age.” How important is he for today? Packer and Beougher tell us:
“As two students of Baxter who cannot be sufficiently thankful for the impact [Baxter] has made in our lives, we would say to every believer, get to know Baxter, and stay with Baxter. He will always do you good.”
Why would I choose Richard Baxter as my “patron saint?” Well, I suppose it’s because he captured as well as anyone the worldview focus (or the “every sphere kingdom-mindedness”) of Christian discipleship. He understood that all of life (every sphere) must be faithfully integrated because Christ is the Lord of all of life. Packer writes,
“The sheer brilliance of Baxter’s achievement in crystallizing a proper form for the life of faith on a canvass as broad as life at a very high level of intelligent, Bible-based, theologically-integrated wisdom, and with unfailing compressed clarity, is dazzling to the mind. Baxter had a high view of “the unity of human life before the Lord.”
Packer says that there is no world-denial with Baxter. Instead, what Baxter calls for
“is the sanctification of all life through bringing all its manifold activities into the unity of a single overmastering purpose – loving God, and laying hold of eternal life in its fulness. That can be put the other way round, by saying that what Baxter calls for is a branching out of the converted Christian’s heart’s desire, to know and love and please God, into biblically informed and situationally appropriate action in every department of life.”
A number of years ago, I read the most delightful biography about Oswald Chambers. It’s called Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, by David McCasland. It was quite good as well as inspiring. I believe I’ve mentioned before, about two thousand times, that I love reading Christian biography.
