Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
-Hebrews 12:2 BSB
Last week one of our contributing writers reminded me of a paragraph on our “about” page, I had forgotten,
Why “201” – A lot of energy is expended in the Christian blogosphere debating and discussing things that are either divisive or fleeting. I wanted this particular voice to be about things that were more lasting, and the possibility of God’s blessing on those who read this to be a realistic expectation.
That sums up why I started Christianity 201 on April 1, 2010, and it remains its purpose today.
The original articles weren’t formatted the same however. I didn’t demand of myself that each day include scripture — that came months later — but only that the focus be centered on Christ and His Church. So there were a lot of quotations. Here are some excerpts from some of the early posts:
On the first day of C201, April 1, 2010:
When we say we begin with God, we begin with our idea of God, and our idea of God is not God. Instead, we ought to begin with God’s idea of God, and God’s idea of God is Christ. – E. Stanley Jones.
On the uniqueness of Christ:
If Jesus had never lived we never would have been able to invent him. – Walter Wink
On staying the course spiritually:
Collapse in the Christian life is rarely caused by a blowout. It is usually the result of a slow leak. – unknown
On the cross:
“I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace, as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a high cross between two thieves: on the town garbage heap; at a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write His title in Hebrew, in Latin and in Greek…. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse and soldiers gamble. Because that’s where He died. And that is what He died about. And that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.” – George MacLeod
On Grace vs. Scripture:
The thing about grace is that it makes religion totally redundant. – Bruxy Cavey
On treasuring scripture:
“You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of good literature.“ – Ghandi
On the Holy Spirit:
The Ten Commandments… are impossible to fallen people, but not God whose nature they are. …It is the indwelling Spirit of God who, alone, can reproduce and express the moral character of God within us. – Charles Price
On intimacy with God:
There is a way to read the Bible that keeps God at an arm’s length. If you primarily read the Bible as a book of principles to follow and people to imitate then your relationship with God won’t be intimate, it will be contractual. – David Paul Door
A guide for those who preach:
1. How often is Jesus mentioned?
2. If Jesus is mentioned, is he the subject of the verbs? In the sermon is Jesus and his work proclaimed… or is someone else and their work proclaimed?
3. What are those verbs? Are they that Jesus came, lived, died, rescued, saved, and the like? Are they biblical terms? – R. Alan Cole
On the nature of sin:
We never see sin correctly unless we see it as against God. – Jerry Bridges
On evaluating ourselves:
I don’t want to underestimate my sinfulness because all that does is cheapen the grace of God! But more importantly, I don’t want to underestimate the grace of God. We need to be reminded over and over again that the grace of God is so much bigger than our biggest failure! – Mark Batterson
On not worrying about what others see:
Both Blaise Pascal and Jonathan Edwards were known to arrive home with a couple dozen hand written notes pinned to their jackets. Yes, they looked like dorks, but we remember them hundreds of years after their deaths and don’t even know the names of the cool people anymore. – Tim Keller
The other thing that struck me about the early days of Christianity 201 was the use of music. Sometimes, in the early days, a post was simply an embedded video and a reflection on the lyrics. Ten years later, we have “the worship industry” and it’s far too easy for writers to be dismissive of the power a Christian song can have in the life of a believer, so few devotional writers include music. For an index of the songs we’ve used — updated last about a year ago — click this link.
I want to especially thank those who granted us permission to continually use their material here, and those who forgave us for the times we were on deadline and saw something we felt worth highlighting and pilfered it!
While some authors appear here with great regularity, I also want to express my special thanks to Rev. Clarke Dixon, whose material is featured here every Thursday. It’s such a good fit for C201 in many different ways.
Also, I want to thank my wife Ruth who at least once a month transcribes something out of a print resource that doesn’t exist online and is also a frequent contributor here. Click here for all her posts.
…Moving forward, we will eventually be converting to a five-days-per-week format, as do many other devotional bloggers. But in the present circumstances, I want to continue to be here for people 7-days-a-week if I am able.
Thanks again to readers and subscribers for your support over the past 120 months.
–Paul Wilkinson
Christianity 201 