CCW Family Letters (Page 2)

Dear CCW family, All people without Christ walk in darkness, but few perceive it. Some do however. To them, the story below will seem abstract yet real. Here is that person’s testimony: I went to the subway as I had been told. I rode to the far east of the city, to the last stop. I got out. The train left, and I felt along the moist wall until I found the opening I had been told about. I stepped…

Dear CCW family, It was 55 years ago that I first read the book, George Muller of Bristol, by A. T. Pierson. I remember where I sat to read it. It was my sophomore year at Ouachita Baptist University. I had borrowed the book from my father’s library and was sitting in the sun outside of my apartment. As I read the words and imagined the actions of Muller, I was moved deeply. Muller had fed and clothed over 10,000…

Dear CCW family, Like many of you, we are aware of the battle for the mind. We are especially concerned that those who profess to know Christ do indeed know him. As we write and speak, we are always aware of deception. “These things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you,” John said in the epistle of 1 John. Paul told Timothy about those who were deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim 3:13). This…

Some of you will know that Pam and I have often been inspired by reading Francis and Edith Schaeffer’s works. I’ve been thinking of them again today. I believe we have read most if not all of their published works and also watched “How Shall We Then Live” numerous times over the years, plus heard various interviews and teachings online. We have been guided in some key ways by “the Schaeffer apologetic,” like so many others, mainly because his approach…

Dear CCW family, Several years ago, I watched two angry yard workers in my front lawn screaming at each other. One man got into such a rage that he threw his machete directly at his adversary. He missed, but it came way too close. Then, just as the assailant jumped in his truck to escape, the second man slammed a baseball bat against his truck’s windshield, shattering it. The driver burned rubber as he took off. The man with the…

Greed is an aggravation. It shows up everywhere. It is a mother sin, birthing mischievous and malevolent children. When Paul said that “our sins are common to man,” perhaps many of us should admit that greed is more common in us than most other sins. Greed’s reign commenced in the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were not content with perfection and unfiltered fellowship with God (imagine the weight of that idea), but ate the forbidden fruit from a…

We have the privilege of keeping Pam’s mother in our home. She is 95 years old and adds a new and sometimes spirited difference behind our walls.  Doris Knight has always been a bright person, especially when it comes to numbers. As an illustration, many of her last years she has worked a difficult Sudoku puzzle every day. I have yet to do one!  Doris went to Ouachita Baptist College (now University) in Arkansas when she was just 16. She…

I don’t watch television often, so for diversion I have become accustomed to reading classical literature. I’m enchanted again with a second read-through of David Copperfield by Dickens, a master at crafting personality types that we in some way identify with. Here, David is with his aged friend who likes to be called “Mr. Dick” instead of Richard. He is something of a project for David’s aunt who has become his rescuer . . . and David’s. Mr. Dick is…

Since I wrote you last, we’ve made a big decision as a ministry. We’ve decided that we will give our books and other materials away gratis. Below is an explanation we have posted online. I hope you will not only read it, but will also order those items you wish to read and to use strategically for the expanse and maturing of Christ’s kingdom. In this way, we share in your lives and ministry to others, and you in ours. Together…

My oldest son, Benjamin, and I just finished simultaneously reading the classic, Moby Dick, by Herman Melville. We read individually, slowly, in spare moments, and sometimes in strange places, but with sustained interest. It was R. C. Sproul’s favorite book (see here). Behind his desk was an oil painting of Moby Dick, the indomitable white whale, himself.   I often read single paragraphs in the book containing several words I did not know, but were inviting to learn. Among them were numerous terms…

I queried an older man who has become a dear friend with a pointedly stark question: what is your purpose in life? He is advanced in years. He ought to know by now. The question struck home, and he teared up trying to answer it.  He failed. He had nothing much to say. And he felt the pain of the emptiness that lingered in the air as he tried. He seemed not to like what fumbled out and admitted he…

I could walk to the museum when I was a boy in Kansas City. Of all the wonders I saw there, the shrunken head was the most alluring. I could envision how it was made to shrink to the size of a hand. It was inset in the wall, darkened, menacing, exotic, jaw-dropping, and . . . fake. It was years later that scientists discovered that 80% of the shrunken heads displayed around the country were not human heads, but…

Dear CCW family, Let me remind you of an experience I had before COVID-19, when you could sit very closely together . . . Christmas Tradition: Singing Carols to the One They Don’t Love “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.” Jn 15:18 “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds . . .” Col 1:21-22 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and…

Ron Owens shares our experiences in Slovakia just after the Velvet Revolution. We had planned the trip when Communists were in charge, but everything changed, and we were privileged to be among the first Christian leaders in 42 years to openly proclaim Christ in theaters and meeting halls wherever we went. Read about our experiences in “The Communist White House.” I still am amazed when I recall those days. Thanks, Ron, for reminding me of that beautiful time. I think…

I stood before Michelangelo’s David in Florence, Italy. No one questioned that an artist had sculpted this magnificent piece of Renaissance art. It was the work of a genius. Yet, in the same room, no doubt, there were persons called “atheists” who would deny that a greater Artist was also necessary to create the original David that Michelangelo attempted to imitate.  The true David, like other creations of God, was far more difficult to make than what Michelangelo crafted out of stone.…

Dear CCW family, George Muller and I are old friends. My first serious look into his life came from a book from my father’s library which I read in College, Pierson’s George Muller of Bristol. I can distinctly remember where I sat and how I felt while reading those chapters. I thought, “I would like to live a life like this.”  Since those days, I’ve had many encounters with the kind old Muller. His life and words have guided me over…