Acts 5-8

Of course, one of the recurrent themes in the book of Acts has to do with the power of the Holy Spirit. In our reading for today, we came across these verses.... “The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. . . . As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.” Perhaps if we recovered more of the power of the Holy Spirit in our own day then more people would be attracted to the church.

C. S. Lewis and Joy Davidman, the woman who became Lewis’s wife, had such an unusual relationship that a movie was made about them called Shadowlands. Davidman was a secular American Jewish woman who was led to faith in Christ partly through reading Lewis’s books. She wrote to Lewis in England thanking him for his books and a pen friendship began. Then in 1952, as her marriage to Bill Gresham was falling apart, Joy decided to travel to England for a break and to meet her spiritual mentor, Lewis. Joy subsequently divorced her husband, who was a compulsive adulterer, and moved with her two boys to England. Joy and Lewis met frequently and their friendship deepened. Then in 1956 the British Home Office refused to renew Joy’s visa; they were ready to deport her back to America. At that point C. S. Lewis agreed to marry Joy in a civil ceremony, extending to her and her boys his British citizenship. The two were married in law but continued to live apart as friends. Later that same year, Joy was diagnosed with cancer and it was at that point, as the sword of Damocles hung over Joy’s head, that Jack Lewis realized he was in love with Joy Davidman. Joy was only expected to live for a matter of days or weeks; her body was riddled with cancer. But Jack wanted to marry her in an ecclesiastical ceremony nonetheless. The problem was that the Anglican Church at that time did not approve of the remarriage of divorcees under any circumstances. The Bishop of Oxford could not approve of the marriage, though he was sympathetic. So C. S. Lewis called on a former student of his, Peter Bide, and asked if he would perform the marriage ceremony. Bide agreed, and the two were married at Joy’s hospital bedside. Now it was known that Peter Bide had, in the past, prayed for various people and witnessed some miraculous healing. So Lewis asked Bide if he would lay hands on his wife. Bide did. And Joy Lewis, whose body was shot through with cancer, who wasn’t expected to live but a couple of days, recovered. The cancer went into remission and she lived another three years. Jack and Joy went on honeymoon together to Ireland and, in the last months of Joy’s life, took a dream trip to Greece together.

Years later, when Bide was asked about his healing gift, he said, “the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes chooses to heal people when I pray for them.” What a wonderful, humble way to put it! Perhaps if we prayed more for people, expecting the Lord to heal and perform miracles, we would see more of the power of the Holy Spirit in the church today.

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C. S. Lewis on Homosexuality

Arthur Greeves In light of recent developments in the United States on the issue of gay marriage, I thought it would be interesting to revisit what C. S. Lewis thought about homosexuality. Lewis, who died in 1963, never wrote about same-sex marriage, but he did write, occasionally, about the topic of homosexuality in general. In the following I am quoting from my book, Mere Theology: A Guide to the Thought of C. S. Lewis . For detailed references and footnotes, you may obtain a copy from Amazon, your local library, or by clicking on the book cover at the right.... In Surprised by Joy , Lewis claimed that homosexuality was a vice to which he was never tempted and that he found opaque to the imagination. For this reason he refused to say anything too strongly against the pederasty that he encountered at Malvern College, where he attended school from the age of fifteen to sixteen. Lewis did not rate pederasty as the greatest evil of the school because he felt the cruelty displa...

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The final two days of our C. S. Lewis Tour of Ireland & England were spent in London. Upon our arrival we enjoyed a panoramic tour of the city that included Westminster Abbey. A number of our tour participants chose to tour the inside of the Abbey where they were able to view the new C. S. Lewis plaque in Poets' Corner. Though London was not one of Lewis' favorite places to visit, there are a number of locations associated with him. One which I have noted in my new book, In the Footsteps of C. S. Lewis , is Endsleigh Palace Hospital (25 Gordon Street, London) where Lewis recovered from his wounds received during the First World War.... Not too far away from this location is King's College, part of the University of London, located on the Strand, just off the River Thames. This is the location where Lewis gave the annual commemoration oration entitled The Inner Ring on 14 December 1944.... C. S. Lewis occasionally attended theatrical events in London....

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On December 21, 2015, the following headline appeared in the International Business Times: “Bethlehem Christmas 2015 Cancelled”. To be fully accurate, religious celebrations of Jesus’ birth went forward last year in Bethlehem, but many of the secular celebrations of Christmas that usually surround it were toned down due to instability in the area. Looking back a decade, there was even one year when Christian Arabs canceled community celebrations of Christmas in support of the Palestinian uprising. However, the Jewish government would have no part of that, so the Israeli military sponsored its own holiday celebrations in the area. It is also interesting to note who celebrated the first Christmas and who didn’t. The first Christmas was not celebrated by the emperor Caesar Augustus, nor Quirinius, the governor of Syria, nor was it celebrated by the lowly innkeeper. But Christmas was celebrated by a few lonely shepherds along with Joseph and Mary and the angels of heaven. How ...

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A Prayer at Ground Zero

Does the Bible mention treating animals with kindness?

When I solicited questions to be addressed in this series, a member of the congregation wrote this to me: “Animals are mentioned in the Bible as beasts of burden and sacrificial animals. Is there any mention of treating animals with kindness?” The short answer to that question is: yes. However, it is important to note that what the Bible says about caring for animals comes in the midst of a great narrative. It is a narrative of Creation, Fall, and Redemption. Let’s look at these three great acts in the narrative play of world history one by one. First, let’s look at creation. Creation At the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 through 28, we read this: Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing th...

Christmas Day Thought from Henri Nouwen

" I keep thinking about the Christmas scene that Anthony arranged under the altar. This probably is the most meaningful "crib" I have ever seen. Three small woodcarved figures made in India: a poor woman, a poor man, and a small child between them. The carving is simple, nearly primitive. No eyes, no ears, no mouths, just the contours of the faces. The figures are smaller than a human hand - nearly too small to attract attention at all. "But then - a beam of light shines on the three figures and projects large shadows on the wall of the sanctuary. That says it all. The light thrown on the smallness of Mary, Joseph, and the Child projects them as large, hopeful shadows against the walls of our life and our world. "While looking at the intimate scene we already see the first outlines of the majesty and glory they represent. While witnessing the most human of human events, I see the majesty of God appearing on the horizon of my existence. While...

Glenmerle

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A good crowd gathered at the White Hart Cafe in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday, February 7 for a powerpoint presentation I gave on the life and work of Sheldon Vanauken. Van, as he was known to family and friends, was best known as the author of A Severe Mercy , the autobiography of his love relationship with his wife Jean "Davy" Palmer Davis. While living in Oxford, England in the early 1950's, Van and Davy came to faith in Christ through the influence of C. S. Lewis. Van was a professor of history and English literature at Lynchburg College from 1948 until his retirement around 1980. A Severe Mercy tells the story of Davy's death from a mysterious liver ailment in 1955 and Van's subsequent dealing with grief. Van himself died from cancer in 1996. It was my privilege to know Van for a brief period of time during the last year of his life. However, present at the White Hart on February 7 were some who knew Van far better than I did--Floyd Newman, one of Van...

Will Vaus

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