Imagine that you live in a house with electricity in only one room. You call it “the electricity room.” You go there whenever you need to do something that requires electricity – dry your hair, blend a smoothie, drill a hole, send an email, or read a book by the light of anything brighter than a candle. In all the other rooms of your house, you get by without electricity. Sounds absurd doesn’t it? Not only would this be inconvenient and inefficient, it fails to grasp the very nature and value of electricity. It would be treating something that should be central as something marginal. Far bette ..read more

Introduction There are two groups of people in the world – those on the inside of the church and those on the outside. Another way of looking at this is to say there are those who need to live out and proclaim the gospel and those who need to hear and respond to it. Many on the inside have something in common with many on they outside – they all hate evangelism! Some on the inside certainly are evangelists – but they’re a rare breed. This paper is for the majority of Christians who would much rather leave the evangelizing to the evangelists. However, all Christians, even the timid ones, are ca ..read more

I’m delighted to tell you about a recent book written by my friend Tom Tarrants. It’s Consumed by Hate: Redeemed by Love – How a Violent Klansman Became a Champion of Racial Reconciliation and it’s well worth your reading time and energy. Tom and I have served together at The C. S. Lewis Institute for over five years and we regularly marvel at our unlikely friendship (often while enjoying corned beef sandwiches at our favorite deli). I have said many times (and I do not think I’m overstating), “Tom is the kind of guy that I grew up hating. And I’m the kind of guy that Tom grew up wanting to ki ..read more

  My delay in concluding this series on Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci comes from my not knowing how best to comment on the remaining lessons from the great artist’s life. In some ways, merely mentioning the lessons could suffice. For the most part, they’re self-explanatory. But I will add just a few reflections on the lessons I have not discussed up until now. • “Respect facts” – Of course! As Christians we must value truth. How could we not respect facts? • “Procrastinate” – No. That’s rarely a good idea. But I don’t think that’s a fair way to describe da Vinci’s pract ..read more

  I’m taking a break from my series on art to address a question I’ve been asked several times in just the past few days. Because I speak and write on evangelism, I’m invited to do radio and podcast interviews and the following question has been posed a lot lately: “Have you seen the new Barna research saying that millennials don’t believe in evangelism?” Sometimes the interviewer simply mentions it as established fact and asks me what we can do to reverse this horrible trend. Stated succinctly, I’m not convinced the research is valid. Or, if I need to tone that down a bit, I don’t think ..read more

I’m exploring observations Walter Isaacson has made about Leonardo da Vinci’s creativity. I’m applying them to Christian discipleship. I want to apply four of them to the specific task of Bible study. Isaacson suggests we interact with the world around us by: 1) Retaining a childlike sense of wonder 2) Observing 3) Starting with the details 4) Seeing things unseen. He illustrates these ideas in a wide variety of ways – asking why the sky is blue, noting that four-winged dragonflies’ wings move at varying speeds, slowing down while reading to consider each individual word, and imagining an ..read more

  In my previous blog, I listed twenty lessons Walter Isaacson highlighted at the end of his study of Leonardo Da Vinci. In this blog, I want to comment on three of them: • Seek knowledge for its own sake. • Go down rabbit holes. • Get distracted. I want to say, “Yes…and…” to all three. There is great value in exploring truth because God reveals truth in his word and his world. Knowing more about God and his creation leads us to love him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. This is our chief end and the very purpose we have been created. One way to reflect on this is to pond ..read more

Not too long ago I read Walter Isaacson’s bestselling Leonardo Da Vinci, a well-crafted account of the genius’ life and work. Isaacson explores and illumines fine details about advances in art and science in ways that most readers can find easy to grasp and insightful beyond the scope of fifteenth century Italy. A highlight of the book, making it far more than a mere biography or historical inquiry, came in the final five pages, in a section entitled “Learning from Leonardo.” Here Isaacson listed twenty ways readers could become more inquisitive, creative, and intelligent. I wondered, as I rea ..read more

I recently toured a botanical garden. I loved the array of colors and shapes. In fact, I marveled at the diversity of shades of just one color – green. I wondered how the designers of the garden decided to organize the space. I found it stimulating to observe different ways the same species could look, depending on location or exposure to sunlight or access to water. The whole experience elicited praise for our infinitely creative God and Maker. Our tour guide never mentioned God. Perhaps he was not allowed to. Or maybe he didn’t share my urge for doxology. He did talk a lot about science. He ..read more

I’ve been writing about how individual books of the Bible hit us as readers. I’m trying to process something different than what might first be addressed in commentaries – the structure or themes or message of the book. I realize I come close to speculation in this process. But I’m trying to express what we might experience when we read the book for the first time or after not having read it in a long time. I’m also trying to put myself in the shoes of a recent convert or seeking outsider who encounters the book for the first time. What strikes me most, while recently rereading Ezekiel, are al ..read more