I spent the past couple of weeks with three dear friends (whom I’ve never actually met). The time spent was vicarious in nature; I spent it by reading from their written pages. Each one treated Christianity from a different point of view and each one stimulated me to think about Christ in ways not previously considered. C S Lewis is always stimulating. He is probably one of the best apologists of the faith from the 20th century that I know. Being from Ireland, his writing can be considered “quaint” but it is always thought-provoking. On this occasion he wrote about miracles. And in very Lewis-like fashion, came at the subject like solving a 1,000 piece puzzle without having any border pieces in the set. Alistair McGrath, now there’s a great name! It was my first time with him, and did he ever s-t-r-e-c-h my mind! The scope of his book dealt with the theological and historical setting for the journey Martin Luther took in coming to his profound understanding of justification by faith. McGrath referred to and used more Latin sources than I knew existed. Since my current understanding of Latin is two shakes short of carpe deum, I have new appreciation for my eighth grade Latin teacher. It was a good thing I was reading McGrath pool-side; at least I could cool off my aching head from time to time. And then there is dear old F W Boreham. He is my favorite down-on-the-farm-proper-English-prose writer of all time. Frank never met a person or observed an event that he couldn’t turn into a great short-story with a considerable spiritual lesson. So I thought my plate was full with a delightful selection of spiritual smorgasbord until I arrived at my sister’s place. There, sitting innocently on the top of other stacked magazines was a recent edition of Decision Magazine. As I perused it, an article about a recently held evangelism conference in Ireland caught my eye. As part of the article, various participants were interviewed for their take on the conference. Each had stimulating comments to make. But then one jolted my spiritual eye-teeth: “We need a fresh vision of Jesus [in Ireland].” In one statement, this Irish believer had summarized all I had read in two weeks. In one statement, I was humbled into renewed clarification for ministry. In one statement, the life of Christ took on new meaning to me. How’s your vision of Jesus these days?