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In the face of this relentless information storm, this is no time for Christians to give up on reading. We need to equip ourselves to weather this information storm, and The Fellowship of Ailbe wants to help.
“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12.27
Susie and I are PBS fans and supporters. Not big supporters, mind you, but supporters. What we benefit from we generally try to support when we can.
Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts! Psalm 148.1, 2
As we saw in Psalm 104, as well as in the poem, “Pied Beauty,” the common grace of God leads those who observe it to worship and praise the Lord. This is precisely as God intends. The end for which God does anything, including pervade and sustain the world with common grace, is to glorify Himself.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard. Psalm 19.1-3
I suppose I could muster several convincing arguments for why you should spend more time reading and contemplating poetry.
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5.44, 45
In his 1903 novella, “The Beast in the Jungle,” Henry James tells the story of John Marcher, a young man persuaded that something amazing or catastrophic lay ahead for him in life. One day it would leap out at him, like a beast in the jungle, and he would either wrestle it into submission or be overwhelmed and destroyed by it.
“Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” Acts 14.17
We have been considering the Biblical teaching concerning the doctrine of common grace.
In the face of this relentless information storm, this is no time for Christians to give up on reading. We need to equip ourselves to weather this information storm, and The Fellowship of Ailbe wants to help.