”I think the wall we’ve made between the physical world and the spiritual world is a lot thinner than we realize.”
In November 2021, I had another lunch with someone who knows the Bible as well as anyone I have ever met personally (Dr. Channing Crisler at Anderson University). During our conversation, he said one sentence that has stuck with me, one of those simple one-liners with layers and layers of implications in it—a sentence you don’t forget though you easily could.
After that, I spent a few weeks reading something that has reference to one little verse in one little book in the New Testament. Of course, that opened up other curiosities.
Yesterday at church, last night before bed, and again this morning, I’m looking at stuff that is so, so consequential—if it means what I think it means. If so, then Jesus and Paul really meant what they said; they really meant it. And not only does “the Bible say it,” but material from a few centuries before the New Testament and a few centuries after the New Testament are “like well yea of course.” The one person I know to go to writing on the thought today also sounds like he is saying, in both an academic introduction and a popular mainstream book, “Yep.”
A few sentences can impact the course of a life and our Christian thought…
In 2001 in my backyard I said, “Lord, I’m sorry; please forgive me.”
In 2002 in our church’s choir loft I said, “Lord, if you want me to preach, I’ll preach.”
Around 2012–13 while listening to James Anderson iTunes U courses from a seminary in Charlotte on the way to work, he asked one question while I was on Sandy Springs Rd that changed my mind. He said, “How you answer this question will determine…” He was right.
In March 2014, Preacher Sam called and asked if I was interested in working for our church. I quickly answered, “Yes.”
A little after that, I started reading Jonathan Edwards. At night before bed, I read 100% and understood 1% of “The End for Which God Created the World.” The final paragraph made me say “wow,” and I guess you could say I’ve continued to want to know a bit of other stuff JE wrote, said, and did.
In April 2016, one paragraph at the end of an argument from John Owen blew my mind.
And it appears that on my 38th birthday, November 9, 2021, in the first table to the left at Davinci’s sitting across from the most humble scholar I have ever met, he gave me a one-sentence gift that I’ll unwrap the rest of my life and ministry. Maybe a decade from now I’ll be prepared to share what I have gleaned from it…
Jesus said for us to love God with all of our mind. And even if you, like me, think that you have a little mind that has lots of challenges, don’t be afraid to love God with whatever capacity mind he has given you. Over the course of the decades, every few years, God might let you read and hear little sentences and paragraphs that will grow, challenge, and form your mind for the decades ahead to love him and learn about him even more.
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