Yesterday at 30 Minutes Offline, Pastor Bobby shared that our prayer and vision for NSCBC at this time is that we would rediscover the Gospel – that our own hearts would be awakened to the living hope that we have in Christ. He shared some of the story of Francis Schaeffer, a modern theologian and philosopher, that he writes in the preface of his book True Spirituality. Following is the expanded preface. As we grow in the Gospel, may we truly understand the meaning of Christ’s work for our present lives and may we live with confident joy and humble gratitude because of the hope we have.
Preface to True Spirituality by Francis A. Schaeffer
…In 1951 and 1952 I faced a spiritual crisis in my own life. I had become a Christian from agnosticism many years before. After that I had become a pastor for ten years in the United States, and then for several years my wife and I had been working in Europe. During this time I felt a strong burden to stand for the historical Christian position, and for the purity of the visible church. Gradually, however, a problem came to me—the problem of reality. This had two parts: first, it seemed to me that among many of those who held the orthodox position, one saw little reality in the things that the Bible so clearly says should be the result of Christianity. Second, it gradually grew on me that my own reality was less that it had been in the early days after I had become a Christian. I realized that in honesty I had to go back and rethink my whole position.
We were living in Champery [Switzerland] at the time, and I told Edith that for the sake of honesty I had to go all the way back to my agnosticism and think through the whole matter. I’m sure that this was a difficult time for her, and I’m sure that she prayed much for me in those days. I walked in the mountains when it was clear, and when it was rainy I walked backward and forward in the hayloft of the old chalet in which we lived. I walked, prayed, and thought through what the Scriptures taught, as well as reviewing my own reasons for becoming a Christian.
As I rethought my reasons for becoming a Christian, I saw again that there were totally sufficient reasons to know that the infinite-personal God does exist and that Christianity is true. In going further, I saw something else which made a profound difference in my life. I searched through what the Bible said concerning reality as a Christian. Gradually I saw that the problem was that with all the teaching I had received after I was a Christian, I had heard little about what the Bible says about the meaning of the finished work of Christ for our present lives. Gradually the sun came out and the song came. Interestingly enough, although I had written no poetry for many years, in that time of joy and song I found poetry beginning to flow again—poetry of certainty, and affirmation of life, thanksgiving, praise. Admittedly, as poetry it is very poor, but it expressed a song in my heart which was wonderful to me.
