All Posts Tagged With: "hope"

The Numbers of Hope 3:16 - Week 2

June 9th, 2008 • stephenlawes • 2 comments • Related • Filed Under

We are going to be reading chapters 4 - 6 of The Numbers of Hope on Christian Book Club this week. I have been trying to write this article all day and have been dealing with a slow Internet connection. I was getting really frustrated so I had to just give it a break for a while. As I was waiting I was thinking about how silly it is to get frustrated over something like the speed of my Internet connection. Of course, it took me a little while to get there. I initially wanted to call my provider and complain to someone. “What is wrong with your Internet Service today?” “Don’t you realize how important what I have to do is?” “How could anything move so slowly?” Sometimes I am amazed at my own self-importance!

Keep reading the daily devotionals. I am really enjoying them. I like Chapter 6. I am glad that Jesus is a heart transplant specialist! I will comment more during the week! Look forward to reading your comments as well.

The Numbers of Hope 3:16

June 1st, 2008 • stephenlawes • 2 comments • Related • Filed Under

This month at Christian Book Club we will be reading Max Lucado’s 3:16 The Numbers of Hope. I always enjoy reading Max Lucado. His writing style flows in a way that makes reading the book very enjoyable. He is an amazing storyteller. There is so much power in story. Here is how we will read the book:

  • Week 1 - Chapters 1 - 3
  • Week 2 - Chapters 4 - 6
  • Week 3 - Chapters 7 - 9
  • Week 4 - Chapters 10 - 12

I would also suggest reading the 40 day devotional that begins on page 135. I know that there are only 30 days in June but we could discuss the first 30 days and I think we will enjoy the extra discussion. As always I look forward to reading your comments. Your insight really adds to reading the book.

A Personal Note

I am sorry I didn’t post sooner. At the church I pastor we had one of our members get hit by a car while she was running on Thursday morning and she went to be with Jesus. Her name was Dawn. She was really quite an amazing woman. She had a very difficult past, drugs and alcohol and a lot of personal tragedy. Five years ago she gave her life to Jesus and she had a huge impact on people. She was an amazing example of what it means to be “Born Again”. I have been ministering to her friends and family and hearing about the impact she has had on them. I had just finished reading Your God is Too Safe when I got the phone call Thursday morning.All I could think about was the C.S. Lewis scene that Buchanan had talked about at the end of the book. Where the children are with Aslan and they find out that they had been in a train wreck and that they had died and were going to stay with Aslan. This was the quote that really stuck with me.

“All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever and ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Dawn is beginning Chapter One of the Great Story. She will be missed but I am glad that she is with Jesus in the for ever story.

Mere Christianity - Week 3

March 15th, 2008 • stephenlawes • 0 comments • Related • Filed Under

Week three in the Christian Book Club brings us to “Book 3 - Christian Behaviour”. CS ends chapter 5 with an interesting statement: “…a cold self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute” (p. 103). Lewis obviously believes that spiritual sin is worse than sins of the flesh. How do you feel about that?

On page 121 Lewis sees pride as “the utmost evil”. Why is pride such a huge problem for the Christian?

Do you think CS Lewis is doing a good job in presenting Christianity in a way that unbelievers might get it?

I like what Lewis says about love on page 131; “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did…. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him”.

In the chapter on Hope CS talks about people who reject the Christian idea of heaven as spending eternity playing harps. What do you think heaven will be like?