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Recently I pulled from my shelf a compilation of his
thoughts, In Tune With Heaven. Whenever I
do that I find myself sitting next to a man who had a great start as a child
preacher, got caught up in the liberal theology of his day and eventually
returned with vigor to the freshness of the “old” Gospel.
Today, as we walk in the theological wasteland of the early twenty-first century with its sign posts pointing in all directions except to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is a reinvigorating opportunity to come up on the porch for a spell.
Today, as we walk in the theological wasteland of the early twenty-first century with its sign posts pointing in all directions except to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this is a reinvigorating opportunity to come up on the porch for a spell.
I wish my conversations with this grandfather of the faith could be give-and-take. Yet,
in a way they are. The conclusions he reached after stumbling badly in the
world’s philosophies, often resonate like those of a respected granddad who,
having let me sigh awhile, would tell me some of his stories and give me
handholds of truth to take with me when I have to get on with life in the noisy vacuum of as-it-were and after-a-fashion.
They tell me we are prosperous, he writes. So I’ll agree just to be
sociable. Suppose we are prosperous? I wonder if that is anything to brag
about. “To have is to owe, not own” and we should take it seriously as a sacred
trust and responsibility instead of something to crow about. (p. 174)
We are raving about assets that may be liabilities. (p. 175)
While our emotions make life rich and full and interesting,
they are not supposed to boss the deck.
(p. 100)
I am not saved by understanding Jesus but by trusting Him.
(p. 24)
Simple words. Ah yes! Simple words. No hyper-syllabic
contortions of thought that pass as insight while souls whiz by the exit signs on
the highway to hell.
Divided in twelve parts, the chapter titles invite me to
linger.
The Middle Mile
The Delusion of Leisure
Our Modern Nimrods
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My grandfather
Grover Cleveland Hamilton
1891-1968
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