Afterwords -- week 20
"This hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Rom 5:5 CSB)
"If we Christians dare to say that we are going to heaven when we die, and that we are sure of final salvation, as we do dare to say, it is not because we are self-righteous or self-confident; it is because we believe in the steadfast love of God, the love that will not let us go." (John Stott, Men Made New)
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May 7, 2022
Dear friends,
JOHN STOTT. The week's newsletter will focus primarily on the life and ministry of John R. W. Stott (1929--2011). Stott was an Anglican clergyman, author, and speaker who had a global impact on evangelical Christianity in the second half of last century. His contemporaries included Martyn Lloyd-Jones, J. I. Packer, Francis Schaeffer, and Billy Graham. Here's an introduction to his story and ministry.
HIS BOOKS. Though I never heard Stott preach, I did read many of his books through the years, which were formative in my Christian outlook. Here's a sampling, with publication dates: Men Made New (1966), Basic Christianity (1971), Your Mind Matters (1972), Baptism & Fullness (1975), Christian Counterculture (1978), Between Two Worlds (1982), The Cross of Christ (1986), and Why I Am a Christian (2003). These are all still very relevant, excellent reading! Plus, Stott produced a number of popular commentaries on books of the Bible.
CURRENTLY I'M READING his collected essays from Christianity Today, entitled, Christ the Cornerstone (2019), as well as the two-volume biography of Stott by Timothy Dudley-Smith, published in 1999 and 2001.
EXCERPTS.
“Many people visualize a God who sits comfortably on a distant throne, remote, aloof, uninterested, and indifferent to the needs of mortals, until, it may be, they can badger him into taking action on their behalf. Such a view is wholly false. The Bible reveals a God who, long before it even occurs to man to turn to him, while man is still lost in darkness and sunk in sin, takes the initiative, rises from his throne, lays aside his glory, and stoops to seek until he finds him.” (From Basic Christianity)
“The astonishing paradox of Christ's teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is self-discovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for man is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows." (From Basic Christianity)
And here's a longer quote from the most recent collection of his essays.
IN OTHER NEWS. I was surprised the other day by statements made by an evangelical Christian who seemed wholly absorbed (and completely convinced) by a conspiracy theory about the global elite today who have nefarious operations headquartered in the Ukraine. In his storyline Putin is a hero cleansing Europe of an evil cabal. Christians can be susceptible to conspiracy theories.
MAKING FOUNTAIN PENS. Just for fun, here's two different ways (among others) that fountain pens are made today. This video is of the German company, Lamy, in its modern, largely automated production. And then here is a Japanese artisan, Harumi Tanaka, creating a handmade fountain pen.
Well, that's it for week 20!
Sandy
Image credit. Photo above is by Hugo Fergusson on Unsplash.