As you may know, when Chuck Colson passed away I was asked to become co-host of “BreakPoint” along with my friend John Stonestreet.
At least for me, anyway, it’s been great. I love working and talking with John: He’s a clear thinker, he loves Christ, and he has an absolute passion and talent for teaching Christian worldview. Sort of like the guy who started BreakPoint 20 some years ago.
In fact, John’s passion made him the natural choice to pick up another of Chuck’s favorite projects, the “Two-Minute Warning” video commentaries posted each week at BreakPoint.org.
And while Chuck loved commenting about hot-button issues on the “Two-Minute Warning,” toward the end he more and more wanted to return to fundamental worldview teaching.
So that’s just what John Stonestreet is doing now with his new weekly video commentary called “ReEngage.” It’s fantastic.
John’s premise is simple and powerful: Every square inch of creation and human endeavor belongs to God. From the very moment of the Fall, God has been passionately active in the world — renewing creation, reconciling and redeeming mankind to Himself in Jesus Christ.
Of course, you’ll recognize that John is echoing and carrying on the teaching of Chuck and one of Chuck’s favorite theologians, Abraham Kuyper.
And with “ReEngage,” John’s doing it in a way that is, well, engaging! I would urge you to visit BreakPoint.org and check it out today — you can subscribe to get the videos each week. And please share them! We’ve made that easy to do through Facebook, Twitter or email — especially with those college-age and 20-somethings in your life. Through his work at Summit Ministries, John knows how to connect them to the timeless truths of the faith.
John will look at everything — culture, politics, art, family, government — as if it belongs to God, because, as John says, it does.
Take this week’s episode for example, which airs today at BreakPoint.org. John talks about Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, which we’ve just entered.
Almost all of us think of Ash Wednesday as the day when people get ashes smudged on their heads in the form of a cross as a sign of repentance — and of course it is. But as John tells us, Ash Wednesday is also a bold proclamation of the human condition — as well as a bold condemnation of the most cherished values and assumptions of modern secularism.
First, it’s a reminder that we are sinful people who have strayed from God’s plan. This of course is the polar opposite of the modern therapeutic view of spirituality that urges people to, well, give in to their urges.
Second, Ash Wednesday is a reminder of our mortality. When the priest or pastor places ashes on a person’s forehead on Ash Wednesday, he says, “Thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return.” Contrast this view with today’s culture that wants us to deny or ignore our mortality at all costs, that tells us we can control our own destinies, even though we cannot.
Third, Ash Wednesday is a reminder that our greatest needs as human beings are spiritual needs. It’s a day of fasting and self-denial at the beginning of an entire season of fasting and self-denial. Not exactly the “if it feels good, do it” mentality of modern culture.
This is just the kind of worldview teaching that you’ll find every single week when you watch John Stonestreet’s “ReEngage.” I’m hoping you’ll do that; I’m hoping that you’ll tune in at BreakPoint.org, because I know that I will.
Eric Metaxas is a co-host of BreakPoint Radio and a best-selling author whose biographies, children's books, and popular apologetics have been translated into more than a dozen languages.
BreakPoint commentary airs each weekday on more than one thousand outlets with an estimated listening audience of one million people. BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends via radio, interactive media, and print.
Publication date: February 14, 2013
