seeing in a mirror dimly » schaeffer

Not little or big people

Mark — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:43:50 +0000

This week I’m preaching through my first ever sermon series – it’s on 1 Corinthians, a great book to begin my ministry with!

What I’ve been struck by is the fact that in God’s Church there are no little people, and no big people. That is, there are no little people who lack any spiritual gift required for the Church of God (1 Cor. 1:4-7). And there are no big people who command there own allegiance in the God of Church (1 Cor. 1:11-13). We are all simply, God’s Chosen People. We are the people for whom Christ died, and who have been baptised into Christ’s name. That is who we are, and that is what gives us significance. Moreover, that is what frees us from celebrity preacher worship, and the sense of inferiority.

In Francis Schaeffer’s wonderful little book, No Little People, he reminds us that we are significant because of our Creator and Redeemer. He writes:

To eat, to breathe
to beget
Is this all there is
Chance configuration of atom against atom
–of god against god
I cannot believe it.
Come, Christian Triune God who lives,
Here am I
Shake the world again.
(Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People, Introduction)

Schaeffer on the Unease of the Next Generation

Mark — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:48:00 +0000

Over at the Sola Panel, Andrew Barry has written a gracious and thoughtful short piece on some of the dangers in the current wave of Unease in the Next Generation. If you haven’t read them, can I encourage you to. In fact, I think they are applicable to the current generation too!

From the many young Christians I’ve worked with over the last years, I’ve not seen many putting substance over style, or commending rather than contending – though I must admit that some I’ve come across do those things. Actually, some of the most passionate advocates of this New Calvinism are serious readers and thoughtful Christians. And where there is a disdain for previous generations (and I know that exists), perhaps a healthy dose of some of Robert E. Webber and a short trip to L’Abri UK might help…? I’ve found that using the Prayer Book in creative ways is seriously appreciated by the younger evangelicals!

Anyway, I’m not so sure that the current movement of younger Evangelicals is just reacting against Evangelical culture, but mainly acting from the external forces coming from society at large. Whether it’s an anti-institutionalism, or anti-simplistic-meganarratives, or anti-propositionalism – the last thing we want to do is to convey a message of “Shut-up and sit-down, Billy.” That’s why I think it’s a great start that Moore College has tried to listen to some of the younger evangelicals and enable them. Wouldn’t it be great to see this energy and enthusiasm channelled in a good direction for the Lord!

This quote of Francis Schaeffer from The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century, is helpful here:

“One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity today is not conservative by revolutionary. To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo, and the status quo no longer belongs to us. Today we are a minority. If we want to be fair, we must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo.”

Doug Groothuis on Schaeffer

Mark — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:18:00 +0000

Douglas R. Groothuis reviews two recent Schaeffer biographies (which I haven’t yet read) and provides an interesting commentary on how Schaeffer speaks to contemporary society as it looks for “authenticity”:

“I fear that the younger generation of evangelicals do not know enough about the remarkable life and achievements of Francis Schaefer; instead they are opting for the trendy but intellectually barren hype of much of the emergent church movement-which claims to be “authentic.” (“Authentic” often means little more than emotional, unconventional, and obsessively autobiographical.) Many older evangelicals may have forgotten many of the salient lessons from his life and teachings as well. Reading these two new biographies can help rectify this problem.”

http://www.denverseminary.edu/news/francis-schaeffer-and-the-shaping-of-evangelical-america-and-francis-schaeffer-an-authentic-life/

Do Not Be Afraid of Past Sins Remembered

Mark — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:35:00 +0000

This is a letter from Francis A. Schaeffer to Eleanore, she was a radical student in the 1960′s. She has moved from drugs, to free sex, to terrorist politics, to Eastern religion. She tried everything before coming to Christ, and now her past ideas and actions are giving her a sense of grief and guilt. This is a beautiful reminder of a) the application of the cleansing blood of Christ, and b) how to lovingly write a letter!

January, 1975.

Dear Eleanore:

Thank you for your recent letter. I am glad that my previous letter was helpful to you. I cannot write a long letter this time as i just got back from the State and I am drowning in correspondence, but I did want to to write to you without too long a gap.

I do want you to know that I read your letter with much interest, and I was touched by it. I am so glad that the Lord has led you along as He has. You are so right that when we get started in non-Christian framework, whether it is in our thought form or in our life form, we rapidly get into very deep waters.

The sixties was a hard time, and of course we here at L’Abri have seen so many who have been wiped out through drugs, through Easter religious thought forms, and through the promiscuous sex life. Yet we have seen many here whom the Lord has touched and healed, and we can only be thankful.

On the other hand, it seems to me that with many young people it is even worse now, with apathy ruling everywhere and then not even having the hope of answers.

Coming back to your letter, I do want to say again that it deeply touched me, and I am glad that you felt like writing your history to me. The Lord really is so gentle to us. He certainly makes His promise more than true – that when we ask Him, He is gracious in putting His hand upon us.

Do not be afraid because these things regurgitate in your mind. (I wonder if you have read my book True Spirituality? If you have not, I would urge you to do so.) Each time these things come into your mind, bring the specific thing under the blood of Christ and know that, because His death has infinite value, you have a new beginning and can begin again. I too understand your sentence about “willing that you have faith.” I really understand that, and I would just say, do not be afraid. On the othe hand, be sure to do what I have said – and this is in each case to bring these things udner the work of Christ that, on the basis of His finished work, He might forgive you for what is wrong. Then you can have a quiet mind, knowing that whatever [temptation] is left over is a matter of weakness, and by claiming the Lord’s promise that He understands because Christ was tempted in every point like as we are, yet without sin.

You are totally right that the greatest test of faith is not the acceptance of Christ for justification, but living like this moment by moment throughout our lives (As I say, if you have not read True Spirituality, please get hold of a copy and read it.) . . .

I am glad you do feel free to write as you did, and would especially say that I will be glad if you would pray for me and for Edith in the midst of our work.

With warm personal greetings in the Lamb,

Francis A. Schaeffer.

Francis Schaeffer Video – A Christian Manifesto

Mark — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:47:00 +0000

“Where have all the Bible-believing Christians been in the last 40 years?” asks Schaeffer.

This snippet of video is from his “A Christian Manifesto” sermon preached only a few years before his death.

You can really appreciate his passion and zeal for God, and His creation!

What an encouragement and exhortation to live for Christ in all vocations of life!

No Little People

Mark — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:12:00 +0000

From Francis Schaeffer’s No Little People:

“We must remember throughout our lives that in God’s sight there are no little people and no little places. Only one thing is important: to be consecrated persons in God’s place for us, at each moment.”