RESPONDING TO GOD’S TRUTH

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But what about you?’ Jesus asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’”  (Matthew 16:13-16 NIV)

What if Peter had not been receptive to the truth?  What if no one had been willing to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God?  For two years the trouble had not lain with the transmission of the Word of God, but with the reception of the instruments.  For two years Jesus had not forced His identity on the apostles.  He was not about to change His methods.  They must respond.  They must be open to God.  They must find God in Jesus.

When they do -- when we do -- meaning is found to the drama of the New Testament.  Unless they do -- unless we do -- that New Testament remains a mere collection of interesting stories and sayings.  But when we acknowledge God in Christ, when we know God sent His only Son into the world, then we find the key which unlocks all mysteries, to God and Jesus, to life and eternity.  Revelation is vital, but Jesus commends response to God's truth, and openness to that revelation.

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven." (Matthew 16:17 NIV) 

-- H.S. Vigeveno in “Jesus the Revolutionary” 

#5913

RESPONDING TO PEOPLE

Editor’s Note: This past Sunday our Pastor, in his sermon series on the Beattitudes, focused on Matthew 5:5. “Blessed are the meek/gentle/humble, for they will inherit the earth.” In his sermon he put up on the screen the following message from Paul:

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”

-- Paul, in his letter to Titus (3:1-11 NIV)

#5912

RESPONDING TO OBSTACLES

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take [this thorn in the flesh] away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”  (2 Corinthians 12:8-9 NIV)

When Paul ran into a brick wall, he did not quit. Instead, he began to look at his obstacle from God’s point of view. Paul saw his immovable roadblock as a motivation to trust God rather than to depend on his own abilities.

All of us will face some unchangeable life circumstances that will appear to hinder our achieving our goals. We have two choices in how to respond to such obstacles. We can give up. Or, we can choose to view those problems as brilliantly disguised opportunities to trust God.  

-- Robert Jeffress in “Choose Your Attitude, Change Your Life”

#5911

A MAN OF ONE BOOK

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105 NIV)

The Reformation slogan sola scriptura has power, clarity, and simplicity. Its power counters the authoritarian claims of church, later tradition, and all other competitors to the revealed Word of God. Its clarity shows others we are serious about basing all of our Christian faith and practice on this book of books. Its simplicity allows all Christians to understand the basis on which our claims to truth are made. We sing with understanding, “Jesus loves, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

John Wesley knew this and fully subscribed to the song’s sentiment. When challenged on his most controversial doctrines, he appealed to the Bible as the primary justification for his teachings. In the famous passage from the Preface to his sermons, he calls himself homo unius libri – a man of one book. Forty-one years later, in his sermon “On God's Vineyard,” he uses the phrase again to talk about the beginning of Methodism and its continuing commitment to Scripture:

“From the very beginning, from the time that four young men united together, each of them was homo unius libri -- a man of one book. God taught them all to make His Word a lantern unto their feet, and a light in all their paths. They had one, and only one rule of judgment with regard to all their tempers, words, and actions, namely, the oracles of God. They were one and all determined to be Bible-Christians. They were continually reproached for this very thing; some terming them in derision Bible bigots; others, Bible-moths -- feeding, they said, upon the Bible as moths do upon cloth. And indeed unto this day it is their constant endeavor to think and speak as the oracles of God.”

Any accurate understanding of Wesley’s view of the Bible must first start here, with a strong statement that Scripture alone is the authority for Christian faith and practice. On this point Wesley is definite. It is the Bible that serves as the final court of appeal. 

-- Scott J. Jones in “Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation” (1997)

#5910

RIGHT ABOUT WRONG

For me, one of the strongest, deepest, most compelling reasons for believing the Bible is because it has the most accurate explanation for what is wrong with us… I have never run into anything remotely like the Bible when it comes to an accurate fix on what is wrong with the human heart…

The New Testament Church got its definition of sin from the Old Testament, the only written Word of their day. It defines the problem for which the New Testament presents the solution. The Law and the Prophets relentlessly expose the nature of human sin from God’s perspective.

For several years now I have studied the last half of the Old Testament carefully, and from that reading I compiled a huge list of God’s creative descriptions of sin. I’ve boiled the essence of that list into the following descriptive phrases in the language of today:

• Going our own way
• Doing our own thing
• Defiantly resisting authority
• Stubborn disobedience
• Willful rebellion
• Defensive and antagonistic attitudes
• Self-centered focus
• Compulsively competitive nature
• Addiction to control

This analysis of sin… is as powerful in provoking the human conscience today as it was two thousand years ago.

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:21-24 NKJV) 

-- Adapted from “Follow Me: Experience the Loving Leadership of Jesus” by Jan David Hettinga

#5909

BEING REAL WITH GOD – Part 2 of 2

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28 NIV)

Our ingrained mask-wearing keeps us from having the authentic, intimate relationship that Jesus wants to have with us. What if you put on this kind of show with your spouse, dressing things up and trying to be someone you aren’t? A wife would feel she needed to be in her finest clothing with all her cosmetics on at every single moment. A husband would believe he had to put on a show as well. Both would speak to each other as they’d speak to someone on a first date, dancing around things, worried about saying the wrong words. Marriage would be totally exhausting and utterly unsatisfying. After a few weeks of it we’d be hiding from each other.

What we love in marriage is the utter relaxation, the complete intimacy we enjoy with each other. We let down our hair, we stop hiding our warts, and we say whatever is on our minds. Why can’t we be that way with God?

Getting to the end of me means I don’t need to hide my flaws because I know God’s love is unconditional. And we’ll be deeply satisfied, deeply fulfilled, because it’s so much easier to be one person than two – so much easier not to create and sustain a false identity…

Jesus wants a real, no-makeup relationship with you. He wants you to be pure in heart – unmixed and soul-sincere. 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: When Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

#5908

BEING REAL WITH GOD – Part 1 of 2

“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  (Matthew 6:5-6 NIV)

Many of us have struck spiritual poses in prayer. We have a hard time being ourselves. Praying before others, we have a tendency to talk more to people in the room than to God. Even in private prayer, sincerity doesn’t come easily. We talk to God as if He requires formal language, as we would talk to some governmental authority we didn’t know well. Or we speak in a kind of fake biblical language we’ve cobbled together from the Scriptures or other embellished prayers we’ve heard. Prayer becomes a performance, and we have to work at it.

God simply wants us to talk with Him. Talk is simple communication, and it doesn’t need to be dressed up. We should talk to Him as we’d talk to a best friend -- simply being ourselves, being totally honest without worrying how it might sound.

Have you ever listened to a public prayer and really liked a turn of phrase? And you thought to yourself, That’s awesome -- I’m going to put that into my prayer repertoire! We pick up phrases like these: traveling mercies; lead, guide, and direct; the nourishment of our bodies. Perhaps we believe those are special phrases that establish some kind of spiritual superiority. But it’s not God language. He wants to hear from the real me and the real you.

Who we’re pretending to be doesn’t match who we are on the inside. Yet what God asks could not be simpler. His invitation says, “Come as you are. Please don’t dress up. Don’t decorate your language. Don’t put on a show. Just be at home with Me. Be real. My place is your place.” 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: When Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

#5907

ONE HONEST LOOK

“He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”  (Romans 8:32 NKJV)

Nothing like one honest look, one honest thought of Christ upon His cross. That tells us how much He has been through, how much He endured, how much He conquered, how much God loved us, who spared not His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him for us. Dare we doubt such a God? Dare we murmur against such a God? 

-- Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

#5906

FINISHING WELL – Part 2 of 2

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day -- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for His appearing.”  (2 Timothy 4:7-8 NIV)

The Christian life is a long-distance journey. We need to finish well. Here is the second thing we need to say about that.

As you encounter people and culture around you, “give ‘em heaven.” You’ve heard the opposite phrase. That’s what many people give us. It is so easy to imitate them and do the same. But Jesus calls us to a better way. So give ‘em heaven!

It was sometimes said in the past that Christians were so “heavenly minded that they were no earthly good.” The story of church history has actually proved opposite. It is only when we have perspective, when we have the big story in mind, that we are so heavenly minded that we are most earthly good! Why? Because we know what values stand at the center of the universe and what really matters to God…

As we bless others in the name of Christ, may they catch a glimpse of a better land and a more lasting kingdom. By the grace of God and the Spirit’s power, may they be wooed through our lives and our corporate witness into joining us on this journey. Yes, yes… give ‘em heaven! Give ‘em heaven!

-- Adapted from “How to Finish the Christian Life: Following Jesus in the Second Half” by Donald W. Sweeting & George Sweeting

#5905

FINISHING WELL – Part 1 of 2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”  (Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV)

The Christian life is a long-distance journey that requires a marathon mind-set. There are challenges and opportunities in following Christ. We need to finish well. There are two things we need to say about that.

First, no matter your age, you’re not dead yet! There is still time to write the story of your life and build a legacy. Who knows how long you have. Is it one year? Is it five? Is it twenty? Is it forty? You do not know how many days God has numbered for you.

As long as you have today, make it count. Don’t wait for some future to start living for Christ. Do so now. You belong to Him. So, given all that He has done for you, give yourself wholeheartedly to Him. Find the joy that is found in Christ today! Use what you have left for Christ and His kingdom. Persevere. Go the distance. By the power of the Holy Spirit, commit yourself today to live the rest of your days without regret. 

-- Adapted from “How to Finish the Christian Life: Following Jesus in the Second Half” by Donald W. Sweeting & George Sweeting

#5904

MAKING PLANS

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)

We often try to manipulate God to get what we want. We have our daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly agendas, and we try to forge God's signature on the paperwork. But God doesn't work that way. He can't be manipulated. What God wants is for us to commit our plans to Him, while always being open to the possibility that plans -- ours, not His -- can change.

It's not wrong to have plans, but why not try writing them in pencil? That way it's a whole lot easier to make changes.

-- Matt Donnelly, Christianity Online 

#5903

NEARNESS TO GOD

“I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.”  (Psalm 40:8 NKJV)

If you find, in the course of daily events, that your self-consecration is not perfect -- that is, that your will revolts at His will -- do not be discouraged, but fly to your Savior and stay in His presence till you obtain the spirit in which He cried in His hour of anguish, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42 NKJV) Every time you do this it will be easier to do it; every such consent to suffer will bring you nearer to Him, and in this nearness to Him you will find such peace, such blessed -- sweet peace as will make your life infinitely happy, no matter what may be its mere outside conditions. 

-- Elizabeth Prentiss in “Stepping Forward”

#5902

A SERIOUS CONCERN

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul says (in Eugene Peterson's translation The Message): "I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common." (I Corinthians 1:10)…

We live in a time when there are too many conflicts, too little cooperation, and too few people who are willing to get along. Simple courtesy, the ability to compromise, and the willingness to think of the larger good -- those things seem to be in short supply. We are reaching the point where the very social fabric is coming unraveled…

I suggest the following steps for each of us and all of us to take:

1. Start by saying "I could be wrong" when expressing your opinions. That simple caveat allows room for the other person to have a different opinion. And it is also the truth – we may well be wrong, even when we have a strong opinion.

2. Practice stating opposing opinions without labeling or cynicism. The ability to explain positions with which we disagree means that we have truly listened and learned. It also makes it more likely that we will convince others to consider our opinions.

3. Agree to disagree without becoming disagreeable. There is nothing which says we must always agree, but our disagreeing can be civil and polite.

4. Don't go thermo-nuclear on every issue. Most issues are not ultimate, so don't ramp up the rhetoric on every little thing.

5. Allow God to speak for Himself and don't presume God agrees with you on every one of your opinions.

Will these five steps eliminate all of the divisions and violence in our society and all the divisions in our churches? Of course not. But we must start somewhere. As the Apostle Paul says, "We must get along with each other." We must. 

-- U.M. Bishop Mike Coyner (1949-2020)

GOD’S INDIVIDUALIZED LOVE

“I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”  (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV)

How sad it is to realize that many people never come to Christ because they do not understand that God's love is individualized.  They never come to that sweet, liberating understanding that God calls them to faith as individuals – that He wants them just as they are.

Let me give the good news.  God's family is big enough for you.  God's love is wide enough, and complete enough for you, even if you don't look a bit like your preconceived notion of what a real Christian ought to look like.  You can come as you are as an individual, and God will accept you as an individual and work with you as an individual.  You may trust Him and live your life according to how the Holy Spirit leads you, and God will guide your way.  God loves us as individuals; it was He who created our uniqueness.  Each of us has a unique place and a unique purpose in His family and in His church. 

-- Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton in “More Jesus, Less Religion” 

#5900

 

GOD’S GRACIOUS ADOPTION

“Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ… and it gave Him great pleasure.”  (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT)

There is something in you that God loves. Not just appreciates but loves. You cause His eyes to widen, His heart to beat faster. He loves you. And He accepts you [in Christ]…

To live as God’s child is to know, at this very instant, that you are loved by your Maker not because you try to please Him and succeed, or fail to please Him and apologize, but because He wants to be your Father. Nothing more. All your efforts to win His affection are unnecessary. (John 1:12) All your fears of losing His affection are needless. (Isaiah 43:1) You can no more make Him want you than you can convince Him to abandon you. The adoption is irreversible. You have a place at His table. 

-- Max Lucado in “Grace: More Than We Deserve, Greater Than We Imagine”

#5899

GOD’S GRACIOUS GUIDANCE

“To you, O Lord, I offer my prayer; in You, my God, I trust… Teach me Your ways, O Lord; make them known to me. Teach me to live according to Your truth, for You are my God, who saves me. I always trust in you... He leads the humble in the right way and teaches them His will. With faithfulness and love He leads all who keep His covenant and obey His commands.”  (Excerpts from Psalm 25 GNT)

A letter came from a minister who, [after hearing a call to mission work}, felt obliged to leave his congregation and denomination, and now, like Abraham, goes out not knowing [to what place or situation]. In his letter, he quoted from a hymn by Charles Wesley on the sovereignty and security of God’s guidance. Guidance, like all God’s acts of blessing under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us His way, that we may tread it; He wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make we shall come safe home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God’s promise; this is how good He is… Here is the verse from Wesley:

“Captain of Israel’s host and Guide
Of all who seek the land above,
Beneath Thy shadow we abide,
The Cloud of Thy protecting love;
Our strength, Thy grace; our rule, Thy Word;
Our end, the glory of the Lord.”

 -- Adapted from J. I. Packer in “Knowing God” (1973)

#5898

THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESIP

“Wherever I go the people say,
‘What’s the news? What’s the news?
What is the order of the day?
What’s the news? What’s the news?’
Oh, I have got the Good News to tell.
My Savior has done all things well.
He triumphed over death and hell.
That’s the news. That’s the news.”
(from the old Welsh hymn “Beyond Live and Beckoning Stars”)

That’s the good news of the gospel wanting to be born in you…

Are you ready to say with Mary: “Let it be, to me, according to Thy word”? Are you ready to say with Jesus: “Not My will, but Thy will be done”? Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing else.

Are you ready to pray the greatest prayer ever uttered, the simple but great Amen… “So Be It”?

The symbol embodying the most fundamental meaning of discipleship is the cross, not the ladder. We glory in the cross of Christ, not the ladder of success, a ladder kicked away forever when Jesus slipped on the Via Dolorosa.

Remember this: There are no rungs, only nails, on the cross. 

-- Leonard Sweet in “A Cup of Coffee at the Soul Café”

#5897

MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take [a thorn in the flesh] away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10 NIV)

There is no ideal community.  Community is made up of people with all their richness, but also with their weakness and poverty, of people who accept and forgive each other, who are vulnerable with each other.  Humility and trust are more at the foundation of community than perfection.

-- Jean Vanier in “Community and Growth” 

#5896

MUTUALLY ENCOURAGED BY MEETING TOGETHER

“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24–25)

Here are two ways to pray as you head to church, regardless of how indifferent or even fearful you might feel about going.

First, pray that at least one thing would be a significant encouragement to you. Be open to being encouraged. Look for encouragement. It might be a lyric from one of the hymns or songs you sing. It might be someone’s prayer, or a line from a sermon. It might be something someone says to you before the service begins or after it ends. Ask God for this. He means to encourage you.

Second, pray that you would be a significant encouragement to at least one other person. It might be what you say to them. It might simply be seeing you there, faithfully attending even when you don’t fully feel like it. Stick around long enough to have one meaningful conversation. I’m shy; I don’t like moving into a crowded coffee space after church not knowing whom to talk to. But I love lingering in the pew talking to whoever’s around me.

God has designed us to be mutually encouraged by meeting together regularly as His people. To seek it is to go exactly with the grain of what God wants to do for us. These are prayers God means to answer. Trust Him as you walk into church again. 

-- Sam Allberry

#5895

THE FREEDOM IN CHRIST

“I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:19-23 NIV)

There are two freedoms -- the false, where a man is free to do what he likes, and that leads to death; the true, where he is free to do what he ought, and that leads to life. 

-- Adapted from Charles Kingsley

#5894

THE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST

“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which [God] has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in His holy people, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.”  (Ephesians 1:18-23 NIV)

When it comes to systemic change [in the church], all that matters is the Gospel. Either the system helps people experience the transforming power of God and walk daily with Jesus, or it does not. If it does not, then no matter how daring, fun, intriguing, or socially beneficial it might be, it does not fulfill the New Testament purpose of the church. If it does, then congregations can flourish and bear fruit (spiritual, social, and economic) to benefit all humankind.

...The real issue before the church is not merely theological. It is Christological – [relating to the person, nature, and role of Christ]. The key question... for church transformation is: What is it about our experience with Jesus that this community cannot live without?... No enduring change can happen in the church... without it being linked to continuing spiritual growth in one's relationship with Jesus.

-- Thomas G. Bandy in “Moving Off the Map” 

THE PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST

“[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”  (Colossians 1:15-18 NKJV)

[God] works on us in all sorts of ways.  But above all, He works on us through each other.  [We] are mirrors, or "carriers" of Christ to others…  Usually it is those who know Him that bring Him to others.  That is why the Church, the whole body of Christians showing Him to one another, is so important.  It is so easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objectives -- education, building, missions, holding services…The Church exists for no other purpose than to draw [people] into Christ, to make them little Christs.  If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.  God became man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other reason. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him.  

-- C.S. Lewis in “Mere Christianity”

#5892