In Buddhist tradition, Gautama once preached what is known as the “Flower Sermon,” which consisted of simply holding up a single flower and saying not one word. Through this silent, direct pointing to reality, one of his disciples instantly attained enlightenment. It was this disciple who went on to bring Buddhism to China and so became the first patriarch of Zen.
If you’re a fan of Star Trek, have you ever wondered where Spock got the idea for his famous Vulcan salute, accompanied by the phrase, “Live long and prosper”? Like everything else important in life, it’s from the Bible. Here’s the story.
Nearly twenty years have passed since I completed the experiment in joy that changed my life, which I wrote about in my book Champagne for the Soul. Sometimes I’m asked whether the joy I discovered back in 1999 really has continued, every day, down to this present day. The answer is yes, and I want to say something about how this works in practice.
My daughter Heather is a blogger. For several years I’ve noticed what a fine writer she is, but now she’s really hit her stride and found her voice. It’s a deep voice, deeply thought and felt, and she expresses herself beautifully and in surprising ways.
In the wake of the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks on churches in Sri Lanka, my thoughts turned to the grim reality of Christian martyrdom in modern times.
I’ve always wondered about John’s use of the word Logos in the first verse of his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” What exactly does this mean? Of all the terms John could have used to refer to Jesus Christ, why call Him Logos?
When Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, the Lord installed cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the entrance, and He also “made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them” (Gen 3:21). That these two events coincided is not coincidental.
I can never make love to my wife without thinking what a crazy, preposterous, utterly unlikely thing is this business of sex. Who ever dreamed it up?
The religion of Christianity is full of extraordinary beliefs: that an invisible God created the entire universe; that this God became a man who lived and died on earth; that this dead man was resurrected to live forever; that we too, through belief in Him, gain eternal life, and can look forward to a heaven with no suffering, only joy and love; and so on.
The reason it is so vital for Christians to focus on the ordinary is that the Christian life cannot be understood in extraordinary terms. Who was looking for the Messiah to be born as a baby in a manger? Or who could have expected that He would die the common death of a criminal? If we’re looking for the extraordinary, we’ll miss the hand of God.