For our Sunday adult Bible studies at Brookside Baptist Church, we’re privileged every now and then to sit under the teaching of Dr. David Saxon, a Maranatha Baptist University professor with advanced degrees in church history. His lectures on great Christians of the past have inspired a number of us to seek out the books he recommends – five-star books from Here I Stand (about Martin Luther) to The Anabaptist Story (about the Radical Reformation). And his charming wife Jamie has added more to our Must Read lists, particularly with her glowing recommendations of the writings of British biographer Faith Cook.
 
But learning about these courageous people and their eras made me want to put it all in historical context. Dr. Saxon suggested The Story of Christianity by Justo L. Gonzalez – and I can add my enthusiastic endorsement to this recommendation.    
 
I recently finished Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. In it, Dr. Gonzalez takes the reader from Christianity’s early days in 1st century Palestine through the upheavals of the Renaissance, then crosses the Atlantic to describe the early days of colonial Christianity.  Every step of the way, he presents Christianity's theological and ecclesiastic development in the context of major events in world history.
 
What’s more, Dr. Gonzalez does it all in highly readable and compelling language. In fact, while I was reading it, I often woke up at 2 or 3 a.m. and, instead of turning over to slumber on, got up to read another chapter or two.
 
These middle-of-the-night reading binges have actually become a recurring problem with all of the books the Saxons have recommended. Right now, it’s To the Golden Shore, the story of 19th century missionary Adoniram Judson, that’s keeping me up at night.
 
One of these days I’m going to have to pick up some boring modern novel in order to get a good night’s sleep. But first, I really need to get ahold of Volume 2: The Story of Christianity, and maybe Fearless Pilgrim, Faith Cook’s reputedly stellar biography of John Bunyan, and then perhaps her books on Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, and on various hymn writers …  

The 1967 movie Camelot is one of my all-time favorites -- great story, wonderful acting, and oh, the music! I spent much of my childhood playing Lerner and Loewe’s original Broadway score on the piano, neglecting the exercises so meticulously prescribed by my piano teacher. Today, over a half century later, I still sing these numbers to myself regularly, forgetting not a word or a note or the raw emotion in every line.  
 
Lately, the song “What Do the Simple Folk Do?” has been haunting me. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s sung by Queen Guinevere and King Arthur (Vanessa Redgrave and Richard Harris in the movie; Julie Andrews and Richard Burton on Broadway). The catalyst is Guinevere’s secret love for Sir Lancelot du Lac, and Arthur’s unspoken knowledge of their affair.
 
Alone together, both of them heartsick but not speaking of the cause, Guinevere asks Arthur in song:
 
What do the simple folk do
To help them escape when they're blue?
The shepherd who is ailing, the milkmaid who is glum,
The cobbler who is wailing from nailing his thumb?
When they're beset and besieged –
The folk not noblessly obliged –
However do they manage to shed their weary lot?
Oh, what do simple folk do we do not?
 
Arthur offers her several solutions: They whistle. They sing. They dance a fiery dance. Arthur and Guinevere try each one, but find no relief. He has only one more solution to offer: “They sit around and wonder what royal folk would do.”
 
It strikes me that this song is really a profound analysis of very common human behaviors – for these are among the things most of us do to try to mend our hearts, to bury our troubles, to silence our consciences.  
 
We mask our sadness with happy music.
 
Steep our fears in frenetic exercise, wild dancing, morning-to-night activity.
 
Saturate ourselves with ultimately futile obsessions, from celebrity worship to non-stop pursuit of entertainment, education, art, travel, clothes, home-decorating. 
 
Anything to avoid being alone with our thoughts. And with the truth.
 
No wonder none of it works for long. A guilty conscience simply cannot be silenced. 
 
I find it interesting that Lerner and Loewe failed to offer one more possible cure for heartache in this song, the one cure that is both foolproof and permanent: turning from sin and to the Lord, asking Him for forgiveness, and consulting His word for the keys to eternal peace and joy.
 
Just think: If Guinevere, Arthur and Lancelot had done that, there could actually have been a happy ending to this tragic tale. And Camelot might have survived for more than "one brief shining moment." 

The Lord used Chris Carrillo once again this past Sunday to deliver powerful truths to the folks at Care-age of Brookfield, gathered together for the monthly Christian Music Hour. In a message entitled “Swept Away by Fear,” Chris shared some profound insights into the prophet Elijah’s plunge from godly victory into paralyzing fear, as reported in 1 Kings 17-19. The reason for Elijah’s fall? The wicked Jezebel had announced her murderous plans for him; he panicked and took his eyes off the Lord.
 
In this penetrating message, Chris makes five key observations about Elijah’s failure and divine deliverance – observations that have application today in the life of virtually every Christian. I hope you’ll take the time to listen, and to share this message with fellow believers who seem to be suffering the consequences of living by sight rather than by faith.