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Slow Beautiful Germination

John Parenteau October 22, 2015 Authors, Blogs, Wayne Braudrick 0

By Wayne Braudrick

“But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.”
(2 Thessalonians 3:13 NASB)


Joe Kennedy

Bremerton High School in Washington has threatened to fire football coach Joe Kennedy if he continues to pray on his own in public after every game. Kennedy has not invited anyone to join him nor has he used his position to force his beliefs on his students. The coach has merely lived out who he is.

Amazingly, he has received support from very unexpected places. The Seattle Times ran a column which supported the coach’s stand for his prayer after games. Good Morning America ran a very positive story, as have most news organizations. Last weekend the short video from KIRO 7 News in Seattle went viral. It showed Kennedy surrounded by fans, players, and coaches from the team they had just played – all taking a knee with Coach Joe.

While all that is beautiful and encouraging, the backstory is even more incredible. Wait until you hear…the rest of the story [we miss you, Paul Harvey.]

The full backstory

I am blessed to worship every week with some attorneys from Liberty Institute – a bold and brilliant firm that fights for American’s religious freedom. My friend Hiram Sasser is their amazingly successful chief litigator. Hiram is serving as Joe Kennedy’s counsel in this case and was there last Friday as the other team and fans surrounded Kennedy while he silently prayed. Yet between that scene and the post-game press conference, something remarkable happened, something that shows the power of long-term commitment.

Hiram tells the story:

“We were walking from the field toward the press conference and came up to an old man standing in Coach Joe’s path. Joe didn’t immediately recognize the man. The old man called out his name and Joe immediately embraced the man and began crying. It seemed the elderly fellow could hardly hold the coach up.

Turns out this man was a counselor at the boys’ home where Joe Kennedy spent his teens years. Joe had a difficult childhood spent mostly in foster homes and was always in trouble. He was so troubled that Joe ended up in a boys’ home. The counselor was a Christian. He loved Joe and tried to reach him by sharing God’s truth and love, but Joe wasn’t ready.

Joe entered the Marines and many years later became a Christian when those old dormant seeds of God’s love burst forth and took root. God had used the love of an old guy – a man who saw no visible fruit of his efforts for years – to change an troubled young man into a godly leader of young men.

As the two men hugged, Joe’s old mentor said, “I drove six hours to see you tonight because I thought you might need a little support.”

Many of the Christians I know are investing in the lives of people all around them. Some of those brethren are weary. They feel stuck in a rut or see no visible change. I pray for each of us that we will not grow weary in doing good, that we will not stop driving long distances to offer support. We never know when the eventual fruit of our investment may become viral.

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Aslan

John Parenteau October 18, 2015 Authors, Blogs, Louis Markos 0

By Louis Markos

ASLAN is not an allegory for Christ but the Christ of Narnia.

Louis Markos talks about the first chapter of his recently released book “From A to Z in Narnia with CS Lewis”, in which he relates an idea or aspect of CS Lewis’ writing to a unique letter in the alphabet.

Click ‘play’ on the video below to watch.

View “From A to Z in Narnia With CS Lewis” here

View the the Lampion Press YouTube channel here

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvGd_p96g6w[/youtube]

 

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Inner Beauty

John Parenteau October 15, 2015 Authors, Blogs, Wayne Braudrick 0

By Wayne Braudrick

“Your beauty should not consist of outward things like elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold ornaments or fine clothes. Instead, it should consist of what is inside the heart with imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very valuable in God’s eyes.”

(1 Peter 3:3-4 HCSB)

Inner beauty

I recently taught through Peter’s brilliant scripture on inner beauty and received this great note from a friend on the subject:

“Love the ideas here. I was thinking about an English professor I had in college who we called “La Bruja,” (witch in Spanish). She had severe black hair parted down the center, wore only business suits and black pumps and even had a large nose and beady eyes. She was to say the least, intimidating! However, over the course of the semester, she became to me an enchantress of the highest order, my Galadriel! Her beautiful mind opened up for me the glories of the Bronte sisters, Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens. By the end of that class, not only did I find her one of the most fascinating, brilliant and poetic persons that I had ever met, but also one of the most beautiful! Her inner intellectual light and delight completely transformed her rather severe features into a medium of grace to me and to my classmates. We had all been afraid of our prof because of her stern appearance, but after being confronted by her greater mind and heart, we all thought her thoroughly lovely. This was the first time in my life that I understood true beauty’s source was the spirit.”

That note moved me to pray for myself and each of us: that through God’s work in us many more people would understand that beauty’s true source is the spirit.

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Lampion Conversations: Louis Markos

John Parenteau October 13, 2015 Lampion Conversations, Louis Markos 0

Recently I spent the evening in Houston, Texas with Louis Markos, professor of literature at Houston Baptist University. I was well aware of his reputation and writings, and was eager to get to know him. He and his son, a classics major in college, met me at the Olive Garden. What I had assumed would be a couple hours of food, fellowship, and fun, and also business, turned into a wonderful four hours of stimulating conversation.

Lou is a unique person with lots of energy and a very fertile mind. We discussed the world of publishing, including his experiences and perspectives, and then launched into a discussion of projects that he had completed, and wanted to do. He had already written From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis, a fascinating and well-written interaction with C. S. Lewis and his works, but really wanted Lampion Press to publish his Letters to My Son and Letters to My Daughter, but by the time our evening ended, we had made plans for a series of works with him.

In addition to the Letters mentioned above (to be released in March 2015), the first of his fiction trilogy on ancient Greece, Narniaesque, called The Stepping Stone. This is intended for children but adults will enjoy reading it. Markos is prolific in his writing and has varied interests, as will be apparent with some of his titles being released in the next two to three years. I had a well known person say to me a while back, when I mentioned Markos writing From A to Z to Narnia with C. S. Lewis, “If you have Markos, you don’t need anyone else,” and I am beginning to understand his words.

 

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Lampion Conversations: Elliott E. Johnson

John Parenteau October 12, 2015 Lampion Conversations 0

In the area of theology, my concentration was in the area of hermeneutics (this served me well also when I was a professor of constitutional law) during my doctoral program at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.  I had the privilege of taking a doctoral course away from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, where I did my Th.D. This was very important to my growth as a scholar, forcing me to pay special attention to the meaning of textual material, whether it be the Bible, literature, the law, and other works.

In regards to the above, I want to let you know about Elliott E. Johnson, who was an important person in my development in the area of hermeneutics. I have known Dr. Johnson, Professor of Bible Exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary, for a number of years. During my seven years at LeTourneau College, in Longview, Texas, as a professor of Bible and theology, I had the opportunity, often with the company of my daughter Carrie, to spend pleasant hours with him when I visited Dallas Seminary. He was always gracious and pleasure to talk to. A number of his students desired to produce a book on biblical interpretation, titled The Theory and Practice of Biblical Interpretation, in honor of this wonderful scholar and man of God, which will be released by Lampion Press in early November of this year, edited by Dr. Forrest Weiland, of Veritas Evangelical Seminary, and myself.