We drove seventy miles to Bentonville, Arkansas and had an early lunch at Atlanta Bread. We spent four hours enjoying the wonderful art collection at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

The museum, founded in 2005 by youngest daughter of Sam Walton, Alice Walton, opened in November, 2011. The unique design by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie features a series of pavilions built around two creek-fed ponds, surrounded by 120 acres of forests and gardens with walking trails. We were impressed by the arched wooden beams in the pavilions.

Experts rate this museum as among the nation’s elite art museums. Walton, a billionare, spared no expense in assembling an outstanding collection. She paid a reported $35 million for Asher Durand’s “Kindred Sprits,” showing two men on a ledge in the Catskill Mountains. This painting shows amazing detail and impressive perspective. A reported $20 million acquired Thomas Eakins portrait of a medical professor. More than 400 works are on display, with 800 more in storage.

The permanent collection, “Celebrating the American Spirit,” features masterworks from the Colonial period through twentieth century contemporary art. Prominent in the Revolutionary War period are Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington (1796) (the one on a $1 bill) and Charles Wilson Peale’s of Washington (1779). As you move through the galleries you encounter early settlers, American Indians, Civil War paintings, landscape paintings, Rockwell’s “Rosie the Riveter” from World War II, paintings from the civil-rights era and twentieth century contemporary art.

We enjoyed James Henry Beard’s painting, entitled “It Is Very Queer, Isn’t It?” (1885). A chimp is pondering a human skull and an ape skull and holding a booklet titled Darwin’s Descent of Man. The artist seems to be questioning the validity of Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The museum will also feature special changing exhibits. Currently (November 11, 2011–May 5, 2012) “Wonder World” presents nature and perception in contemporary art. A painting of a clock repairman in his shop was my favorite here. Two items that caught my wife’s eye were an ear with an ear horn (inspired by Beethoven’s ear horn) and a figure with many antique toys attached to it. Very unusual was a picture of the Last Supper make up of 20,700 spools of thread. The upside-down picture turned right side up when you looked through a glass ball.

Due to a twenty million dollar grant from Walmart, the museum charges no admission fee. A restaurant is on site. We spent four delightful hours in the museum and did not get to all of the galleries. We plan on a return visit. For more information about the museum check out their website–www.CrystalBridges.org.

Lorelei emailed, “I fought back the tears.  As we approach yet another anniversary of God calling John home, it was such a blessing to know that his legacy of faith was being shared!!!”

John Ransom was a close friend of mine. He died of pancreatic cancer six years ago, February 25, 2006. The other day I was thinking I wish I could visit with him about something. In remembrance of John and his life, I shared the following comments at John’s memorial service.

I first met John at the bus station in Joplin, Missouri, August, 1957. I had ridden a bus from Indiana to Joplin to come to Ozark Bible College. John came with someone else to pick me up and take me to the college. We were both beginning our freshman year.

In some ways we were quite different. He was from the city; I was from rural Indiana. We had to learn each other language.  He said, “Soda.” And I said, “Pop.” He found it hilarious that I called a pot-luck dinner, a “pitch-in.” But we managed to communicate. He helped me learn some of the finer points of etiquette. John was an excellent musician with a broad appreciation of all kinds of music. My expertise in music is limited to playing classical music on the radio and CD player.

We had a lot in common too. We both were serious students. We were interested in learning the Bible and serving the Lord by preaching and teaching His Word.

Our first semester, we lived in rooms on the second floor of Brother Williamson’s house. I remember coming in late one night. I guess I was feeling ornery. I moved  John’s clocks and watch ahead to near the time for his alarm to go off. I prepared breakfast. His alarm went off. John got up and said it felt like he had just gone to sleep. I can’t remember how long it took him to catch on to the gag. I think he finally forgave me of my dirty trick.

John came home to Indiana with me during one of our school breaks. John and I liked to discuss and debate things–some would even call it arguing. My Dad sat us both down in our living room and read to us the passages in Timothy and Titus warning against endless quarreling and useless questioning. I’m not sure we were very repentant of our crime. Actually I think we sharpened each other as we challenged each other’s ideas.

For a while, John and I roomed together in a little house behind our landlord, Wayne Coggins. This worked out fine for me till John kicked me out and married Lorelei.

We had many classes together and studied together. We reviewed each other for tests. We both had weekend ministries and frequently worked on sermons together.

Often in college we form some of our closest and longest lasting friendships. This is certainly true of my friendship with John. We have visited and kept in touch through the years. I can remember visits to Rhinehart, where he had a student ministry. We visited in Russell, Kansas where he ministered and worked at a radio station and completed his master’s degree at Hays State. I remember his giving me a tour of his radio station at Bartlesville, Oklahoma. We visited the Ransoms here in Edmond. He talked of his jobs in business administration and human resource development and lately at Edmond Christian Church.

We talked about the beginning of Edmond Christian Church, which John and Lorelei helped start. This was a priority in their lives. John and I had many discussions about some serious difficulties the church has faced. One thing that impressed me was that when problems arose, John’s spirit was not so much to cast blame, but to ask “What can we, as leaders, do to help the church through this crisis?” He and others were driven to self-examination and study of the Scriptures in order to be leaders of the church. I have watched this church since its birth and our brother John was a tower of strength in this congregation. I am thankful for the contribution he made to the church through his selfless and faithful service.

In 2000, I was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. My only hope of surviving this disease was a lung transplant. I prepared for my death. John and many others prayed for me. God gave me a new lease on life when I received a double lung transplant a year and half before John’s death. The Ransoms visited me in the hospital in St. Louis. John came to Joplin to visit me and another time we met half-way at Tulsa. Our personal visits and phone visits meant a lot to me through my difficult times. In times of suffering close friends are invaluable.

In July, 2005, when Barbara and I learned of the seriousness of John’s illness we came to Edmond. Our conversation was unlike any other I have had. Barbara and Lorelei went out on their back patio to talk and left John and I alone. We both commented that it looked like I would be the first to leave this life. Now, I was doing well and barring a miracle from God it looked like he might be the first one to heaven. John said he had thought a lot about the fact that in a few weeks or months he would step through the gates and be in the very presence of God. We were good friends who had faced the real prospect of death sharing our deepest feelings about eternal matters.

About six weeks before his death, I was privileged to visit with John for a few hours. We reminisced about old times and many things. It was a precious time. I’m not a letter writer but these last few months John and I have shared our thoughts together over the phone.

In my study at home above my computer is a picture of a lighthouse at Portland, Maine. John took the picture when he and Lorelei were on a trip back east. The printing below the picture reads: “Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world’ ‘You are the light of the world.’” I like the symbolism of lighthouses. This picture is more precious to me because John gave it to me. John has been a clear and steady lighthouse to many during his sojourn in this world.

The legacy of a life lived well is to be seen in the influence for God in people’s life. I’m sure those who knew John appreciate the legacy he left in their lives. As an old friend and brother in Christ, I am deeply grateful for the legacy of John Ransom in my life.

in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

They go from strength to strength;

each one appears before God in Zion.”

Psalm 84:5, 7 (ESV)

            How dependent we are on roads so we can go places we need to go. Highways facilitate our travel to our destination. Our hearts are highways that encourage others to follow us on our journey to the destination we pursue. Is your heart a highway to God? Does it encourage and direct people to God or does it point to some other destination?

What do the signposts associated with your heart say? What signals do people receive from you? Does your general approach to life and its challenges reflect the joy of the Lord or a sour grumpiness?

One of the first things we notice about people is their passion in life. When people spend a few hours with you will they see a passion for God and life in his will? Some have a dominant passion for sports, entertainment, or one’s work. For others it is family and friends.

Is your most dominant passion in life for God or for self? If your greatest interest and desire in life to honor God or is it to bring honor and pleasure for self? We must not let temporary and transient interests sidetrack us from our passion for God. Let your enthusiasm for God be infectious leading others to follow your highway to God.

Are you investing in temporary securities or in eternal investments? When people observe how you use your time, money, abilities, what do they conclude about the direction and destination of the highway of your heart?

Where are you going with your life? Does your spirit point people to or away from God? What is most important to me–self, money, sex, pleasure, power of some other false god. What your heart worships is your god.

Not long before my friend, Jim Taylor, moved from a preaching ministry in a western state, a couple of middle-aged people living together unmarried commented to Jim’s wife. They said, “We decided to become Christians after watching how your husband lived his life.” Being around Jim and watching his life convicted them that they were not living the way they should and they determined to get married. His heart was a highway to God.

Take an inventory of your heart. Is it a highway directing others to God?

 “And liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people who have a right from the frame of their nature to knowledge, as their great Creator who does nothing in vain has given them understandings and a desire to know.” ((The numbers document the page for the quote in John Adams by David McCullough, 2001. 60)

“Statesmen, my dear Sir, plan and speculate for Liberty but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom securely stand.” (Letter to Zabdiel Adams, June 21, 1776)

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”  (Message to Massachusetts’ military officers, October 11, 1798)

“Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.”  (Article III of the Northwest Ordinance)

“The preservation of liberty depends upon the intellectual and moral character of the people. As long as knowledge and virtue are diffused generally among the body of a nation, it is impossible they should be enslaved. . . .”

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”  (70)

“. . . that form of government with virtue as its foundation was more likely than any other to promote the general happiness.” (102)

In his Thoughts on Government, he called for a “government of laws, and not of men.”

Advocating the principle of separation and balance of powers, he wrote in A Constitution or Form of Government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, “. . . the legislative, executive and judicial power shall be placed in separate departments, to the end that it might be a government of laws, and not of men.” (223)

“Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in visionary parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislators and magistrates in all future periods of this commonwealth to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them, esp. the university at Cambridge, public schools, grammar schools in the towns; to encourage private societies and public institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their dealings, sincerity, good humor, and all social affections, and generous sentiments among the people.” (223)

Adams has no illusions about what determined the actions of nations. “It is interest alone which does it,” he had once told Congress, “. . . and it is interest alone which can be trusted.” (233)

In 1787 Adams published A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America in which he continued to make his case for checks and balances in government. He said that the people of America now had “the best opportunity and the greatest trust in their hands” that Providence had given any since Adam and Eve. He stated that there must be three branches of government–executive, legislative, and judicial–and to achieve balance it was essential that it be a strong executive, a bicameral legislature, and an independent judiciary.” He said that the “people’s rights and liberties, and the democratical mixture in a constitution, can never be preserved without a strong executive, or, in other words, without separating the executive from the legislative power.” Still the legislative power was to be “naturally and necessarily sovereign and supreme over the executive.  (374-375)

He opposed hereditary monarchy and hereditary aristocracy in American, as well as hereditary titles and distinctions of any kind. (375)

He believed reliance on a single executive or single legislature would result in ruin and despotism. If the single legislature has all power, “What was there to restrain it from making tyrannical laws, in order to execute them in a tyrannical manner?” He emphasized balance in the branches of government.  (376)

After the French revolutionaries beheaded Louis XVI Adams wrote a correspondent in England, “Mankind will in time discover that unbridled majorities are as tyrannical and cruel as unlimited despots.” (443-444). Adams agreed with Edmund Burke’s prediction that the French Revolution would end in dictatorship. (535)

Adams rejected the perfectibility of man advocated by the eighteenth-century philosophers. He considered unacceptable any perfectibility “abstracted from all divine authority.” He recognized that all men had sins that needed repentance. “I consider the perfectibility of man as used by modern philosophers to be mere words without a meaning, that is mere nonsense.” (590-591)

“The doctrine of human equality in the Christian doctrine that we are all children of the same Father all accountable to Him for our conducts to one another, all equally bound to respect each other’s self-love.” (619)

In 1820, at age eighty-five, Adams was a delegate to a state convention to revise the Massachusetts constitution he wrote forty years before. He offered an amendment guaranteeing complete religious freedom in the commonwealth. Believing all men were equal before God, he believed they should be able to worship God as they pleased. (631)

Adams asked what are “the general principles on which the fathers found independence?”

“I answer, the general principles of Christianity, in which all those sects were united, and the general principles of English and American liberty, in which all these young men united, and which united all parties in America, in majorities sufficient to assert and maintain her independence. Now I will avow, that I then believed and now believe that these general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God; and that those principles of liberty are as unalterable as human nature and our terrestrial mundane system.” (Letter to Jefferson, June 28, 1813, in The Works of John Adams Second President of the United States, Vol. 10, 45-56)

Baker, Hunter. The End of Secularism. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009. $17.99.

Beilby, James. Thinking About Christian Apologetics: What It Is and Why We Do It.

Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011. $17.00.

Berlinski, David. The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretentions, reprint edition.  Basic Books, 2009. $16l.95.

Blomberg, Craig L. The Historical Reliability of John’s Gospel: Issues & Commentary.

Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011. Paperback ed., $24.00.

Copan, Paul. Contending with Christianity’s Critics: Answering New Atheists and Other Objectors. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2009. $19.99.

Copan, Paul. Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011. $14.99.

Copan, Paul. Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion. Routledge, 2012. $55.42.

Copan, Paul. True for You, But Not for Me: Overcoming Objections to Christian Faith,  rev. ed.  Bethany House, 2009. $14.99.

Copan, Paul and William Lane Craig, eds. Come Let Us Reason: New Essays in Christian Apologetics.  Nashville: B & H Academic, (April) 2012. $24.99.

Coppenger, Mark. Moral Apologetics for Contemporary Christians: Pushing Back Against Cultural and Religious Critics. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2011.  $24.99

Cowan, Steve and James Spiegel. The Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy: A Christian Introduction to Philosophy. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2009.

Craig, William Lane. On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2010. $16.99.

Craig, William Lane and Chad Meister, eds. God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible. Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2009. $19.00.

Craig, William Lane and J. P. Moreland, eds. A Companion to Natural Theology. Blackwell, 2011. $44.95.

Demski, William A. The End of Christianity: Finding a Good God in an Evil World. B & H. Academic, 2009. $22.99.

Demski, William and Thomas Schirrmacher, Paige Patterson, eds. Tough-Minded Christianity: Honoring the Legacy of John Warwick Montgomery. Nashville: B & H Publishing, 20009. $31.99.

DeWeese, Garrett J. Doing Philosophy as a Christian.  Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011. $22.00.

Downey, Patrick. Desperately  Wicked: Philosophy, Christianity and the Human Heart.

Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2009.  $18.00.

Edgar, William and K. Scott Oliphint, eds. Christian Apologetics: Past and Present: A Primary Source Reader (Volume 1, To 1500). Wheaton: Crossway, 2009. $39.00.

Edgar, William and K. Scott Oliphint, eds. Christian Apologetics: Past and Present: A Primary Source Reader (Volume 2 From 1500). Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. $55.00.

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Geisler, Norman L. and William C. Roach. Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scripture for a New Generation. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2012. $21.99.

Geisler, Norman L. and Patrick Zukerran. The Apologetics of Jesus: A Caring Approach to Dealing with Doubters. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009. $16.99.

Groothuis, Douglas. Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith. Downers Grove: IVP Academic,  2011. $40.00.

Habermas, Gary R. and Antony Flew. David J. Baggett, ed. Did the Resurrection Happen? A Conversation with Gary Habermas and Antony Flew. Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2009. $16.00.

Horner, David A. Mind Your Faith: A Student’s Guide to Thinking and Living Well. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011. $20.00.

House, Wayne House and Dennis W. Jowers. Reasons for Our Hope: An Introduction to Christian Apologetics. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2011. $39.99.

Johnson, Phillip. Darwin on Trial, 20th anniversary edition. Downers Grove: IVP Books, 2010. $17.00.

Keener, Craig S.  Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, 2 vols. . Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011. $59.99

Kelly, Stewart E. Truth Considered and Applied: Examining Postmodernism, History, and Christian Faith. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2011. $29.99.

Koukl, Gregory. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. $14.99.

Licona, Michael R. The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2010. $40.00.

Little, Bruce A. and Mark D. Liederbach, eds. Defending the Faith, Engaging the Culture: Essays Honoring L. Russ Bush. Nashville: B & H Academic, 2011, $24.99.

MacArthur, John.  Think Biblically!  Recovering a Christian Worldview.

By MacArthur and the faculty of Master’s College, paperback edition. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009. $17.99.

McDowell, Josh and Dave Sterrett. Is the Bible True . . . Really? A Dialogue on Skepticism, Evidence and Truth.  Chicago: Moody Publishing, 2011. $6.99.

McDowell, Josh and Sean McDowell. More Than a Carpenter, rev. ed. Living Books,, 2009. $6.99.

McDowell, Josh and Sean McDowell. The Unshakable Truth: How You Can Explain the 12 Essentials of a Relevant Faith. Eugene: Harvest House, 2010. $24.99.

McDowell, Sean. Apologetics for a New Generation: A Biblically and Culturally Relevant Approach to Talking about God. Eugene: Harvest House, 2009. $13.00.

McDowell, Sean and Stan Jantz. God Quest. Outreach Publishing, 2011. $14.99

McGrath, Alister. Why God Won’t Go Away, Is the New Atheism Running on Empty?  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010. $15.99.

Meister, Chad V. and Khaldoun A Sweis, eds. Christian Apologetics: An Anthology of Primary Sources. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012. $29.99.

Meyer, Stephen C. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design., reprint edition. HarperOne, 2010. /$19.99.

Mittelberg, Mark. The Questions Christians Hope No One Will Ask (With Answers). Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2010. $14.99.

Moreland, J. P. The God Question: An Invitation to a Life of Meaning. Eugene: Harvest House, 2009.

Moreland, J. P. The Recalcitrant Image Dei: Human Persons and the Failure of Naturalism. SCM Press, 2009. $60.00.

Morey, Tim and Eddie Gibbs. Embodying Our Faith: Becoming a Living, Sharing, Practicing Church. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009. $16.00.

Morrow, Johathan. Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture.  Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011. $16.99.

Nevin, Norman C. Should Christians Embrace Evolution? Biblical and Scientific Responses. P&R Publishing, 201  $14.99.

Nichols, Stephen J. and Eric T. Brandt. Ancient Word, Changing Worlds: The Doctrine of Scripture in a Modern Age. Wheaton: Crossway, 2009. $15.99.

176 pages, 978-1-4335-0260-6, paper, $15.99.  Available March 31, 2009.

Richards, Jay W. God and Evolution. Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2010. $24.95.

Sire, James W. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 5th edition. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009. $22.00.

Stackhouse, John G. Jr. Can God Be Trusted? Faith and the Challenge of Evil. 2^nd ed.

Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2009.  $16.00.

Strobel, Lee. The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist’s Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009. $14.99.

Wells, Jonathan. The Myth of Junk DNA. Seattle: Discovery Institute Press, 2011. $14.95.

Whitcomb, John C. and Henry M. Morris. The Genesis Flood, 50th anniversary edition.

P & R. Publishing, 2011. $16.99.

Wilkeens, Steve and Mark L. Sanford. Hidden Worldviews: Eight Ccultural Stories that Shape Our Lives. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2009. $22.00.

Zacharias, Ravi. Has Christianity Failed You? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010. $19.99.

Zacharias, Ravi. Why Jesus? Rediscovering His Truth in an Age of Mass Marketed Spirituality. FaithWords, (January) 2012. $21.99.