Will Vaus

I do not often make New Year's resolutions, but I just thought today of something I want to try in 2014. I plan to try to read through the entire "C. S. Lewis Bible" in a year, starting on January 1. For those of you who are not familiar with the C. S. Lewis Bible, it is, as pictured above, a New Revised Standard Version of the Bible with appropriate excerpts from Lewis' writings throughout. Not only do I plan to read through the CSL Bible in 2014, I also hope to blog about it here. My goal will be to read three to four chapters per day and blog about what I am reading every day. Check back on January 1 to see if I get started. Then check in every day to see if I keep up the pace. I would love to hear from you if you would be interested in joining me for this journey, either in reading through the CSL Bible or a Bible of your choice....

I thought this was one of the most beautiful carols today in the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's College Chapel, Cambridge, England. In this video it is followed by the better known "In the Bleak Midwinter" by Christina Rossetti. Here are the words to Jesus Christ the Apple Tree.... The  tree of life my soul hath seen, Laden with fruit and always green: The trees of Nature fruitless be Compared with Christ, the apple tree. His beauty doth all things excel: By faith I know, but ne’er can tell The glory which I now can see In Jesus Christ, the apple tree. For happiness I long have sought, And pleasure dearly I have bought; I missed of all, but now I see, ’Tis found in Christ, the apple tree. I’m weary with my former toil, Here I will sit and rest awhile: Under the shadow I will be Of Jesus Christ, the apple tree. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive, It keeps my dying faith alive; Which makes my soul in h

"The Adoration of the Shepherds" Gerard van Honthorst 1622 With so many negative stories in the news (and when are there not such stories in the spin cycle?) it is easy to have that negativity infect us. Especially in times of great cultural shifts, some of us, particularly as Christians, understandably feel a need to take a stand. Often we find ourselves stating, even with a certain shrillness, what we are against. Perhaps that is necessary at times. However, often it is easy to forget that the Christian faith is overwhelmingly about a great and positive good: the good news of God's love for all human beings expressed through Jesus Christ, who was born at Bethlehem, lived every day of his life to demonstrate God's love for all, gave up his life on Calvary because of that love, and rose again from the dead because the power of God's love and God's life can never truly be defeated. To me, this is all so well expressed in the poem written by C