Stirring

The power of hope through Jesus Christ is able to break through even the hardest heart, and we can be inspired that perhaps those who have been hostile toward Christianity will experience a breakthrough in the Holy Spirit. 1st Peter 3 states:
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.

It's quite stunning to see that even those who don't claim to know God, such as Richard Dawkins, and those who are seeking, like Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson, are acknowledging the power and influence of the Bible and Christianity.  Greg Laurie, according to a Movieguide article quoting from one of his videos posted on X, said:

“When someone says they’re a cultural Christian, especially an avowed atheist like Dawkins, or a man of such great influence and innovation and creativity as Elon Musk, I think it’s a step in the right direction, and I would encourage both of them — and anybody else who identifies himself as a cultural Christian — to come into a relationship with Christ himself. That’s what Christianity is.”

The article continued:

“Being a real Christian, which means having Christ in your life, that’s the ultimate answer,” Laurie concluded, asking viewers to pray for Musk, Dawkins and “anybody else that is truly searching for truth…that they will find that relationship with God.”

I found another article - granted, these are people with whom I have not been familiar - it was on The Guardian website, written by a man named John Harris, not to be confused with Christian podcast host, Jon Harris, of Conversations That Matter.  This Harris is a self-proclaimed agnostic, but wrote about a spiritual awakening apparently being experienced by a British singer-songwriter Nick Cave. He stated:

In 2015, he suffered the loss of his 15-year-old son Arthur; seven years later, another son, Jethro, died. And in the midst of an unimaginable level of grief, Cave has not only poured his thoughts and feelings into his art, but repeatedly spoken about the profound personal changes caused by outwardly senseless bereavement, as well as reflecting deeply on other people’s experiences. As a result, his audience has ballooned: as he turns 67, he is probably at the all-time pinnacle of his success.

Harris mentions Cave's Red Hand Files website where, "Most of what he posts combines his curious, questioning instincts with a deep humanity: recent editions have covered loneliness, parenthood and suicide. When he plays live, all of this is in the air: it seems to give everything even more meaning."

The writer also mentions Faith, Hope and Carnage, a bestselling book released in 2022 and "made up of dialogues with the Observer writer Sean O’Hagan. It looks ahead to Cave’s tentative return to the Anglicanism he was brought up with, and – among many other subjects – is full of insights about what happens when life fills up with grief and hurt. One of his key beliefs is that when we experience loss, we become more human: these things are universal, and therein lies the key to surviving them." Cave says, “This will happen to everybody at some point – a deconstruction of the known self...It may not necessarily be a death, but there will be some kind of devastation.”

Harris notes, "I don’t think I have ever read anything like it, which is a tribute to Cave and O’Hagan’s achievement – but also an illustration of what is missing from most of our culture."  Then, this agnostic write makes this remarkable statement:

It is telling that the militant atheism that peaked 20 years ago with the publication of such books as Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great now seems passé.

Harris also relates, "The historian Tom Holland – who, like Cave, has returned to the Christianity he was brought up with – says that in the way millions of us interpret world events there is something unspoken: the fact that 'at the heart of western culture is the image of someone being tortured to death by the greatest empire on the face of the Earth.'"
 

So this agnostic seems to be searching for something deeper, even more real or authentic, stating, "I am a devout agnostic. But as I get older, there are experiences and aspects of living that often open the way to a sense of the ineffable and mystical, and the need for something that may help me make sense of an increasingly chaotic world, and life’s ruptures and crises that seem to arrive with alarming regularity."

The writer relates about talking a walk with his children and stopping into a church on a Sunday afternoon, thinking about a response that Nick Cave gave to someone on his blog who was bewildered by his embracing of Christianity.  The article concludes:

“To my considerable surprise, I have found some of my truths in that wholly fallible, often disappointing, deeply weird and thoroughly human institution of the Church,” he wrote. “At times, this is as bewildering to me as it may be to you.” Here, I think, lies the faint outline of a journey that more people may sooner or later take, and something I can just about imagine: slowly increasing numbers of people being pulled away from their screens, towards something much more human and nourishing. Those pews, in other words, may not stay vacant for ever.

I believe God is up to something.  Think about Russell Brand, the comedian and commentator who has been public in his profession of faith in Christ and baptism.  A CBN.com article states that:

British-born actor Russell Brand has come a ways since his baptism by reality TV star Bear Grylls.

Just an aside: there was some doubt regarding who had baptized Brand in the Thames - Faithwire offered that story about Grylls.  CBN reported that...

The 49-year-old comedian turned cultural commentator joined Tucker Carlson for a live event in Phoenix, Arizona, last week, where the former Fox News host, who was raised Episcopalian, asked Brand to close the session in prayer.

The CBN story quoted from Brand's prayer:

“I call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Savior,” Brand began his prayer. “Lord, I humbly [ask], in this great congregation in Phoenix, Arizona, with my host, Tucker Carlson, in deference to him, but in ultimate deference to You, our Lord and Savior, to whom we are all Your younger siblings and Your children.”

He continued, “I pray in Your name that the forthcoming election be an opportunity for unity, for America and for Americans, for forgiveness and for grace; that the dark and demonic forces that appear to operate at the level of the state — the deep state and the corporate and global world — experience Your light, Lord.”

The actor petitioned God to “guide all of our tongues and all of our words and all of our hearts, that we feel Your forgiveness and that we feel Your grace.”

“Thank you, Lord, for the many gifts that you have bestowed upon us,” Brand added. “Thank You for the glory of consciousness itself, in which we can experience You and live You. Thank You for the beauty of nature, in which we see Your wisdom and Your creativity and Your infinite glory.” 

He concluded by saying, “For surely, all of us are fallen. But, in Your holy name, we are forgiven by Your act of redemption, by Your sacrifice. In Your name we pray, amen.”

Something is happening - can you feel it?  God is calling people to Himself, and while I believe He is doing incredible things in and through His Church, He is also using people outside the Church realm in order to proclaim His truth. The disillusionment and despair that is seemingly all around us is causing people to ask, "is there something more?"  And, this search for meaning can lead people right into the arms of our Savior. 

So, as we embark on the Christmas season, we can make sure we are ready to play our role in the harvest.  I contend that the celebration of the birth of Christ is a time of enhanced spiritual sensitivity, and we can seek to grow deeper in Him and be prepared to be used of God to share and live the gospel and lead others into a saving knowledge of Jesus.  

I believe that people are seeing that the ways of this world do not offer hope and are totally ineffective in providing the peace and hope that they are seeking.  We can be diligent to walk in and radiate the hope of knowing Jesus.