LESSONS FROM CHARLES SCHULZ

When I was growing up I loved the peanuts cartoons. I remember every holiday part of our celebration included  Charles Schultz creation: “peanuts.”

It’s Christmas Charlie Brown; A Charlie Brown Valentine; It’s the Easter Beagle Charlie Brown and, of course,  I can’t forget, ”  A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving! These were the ones I remember watching yearly with my siblings and friends.

Little did I know at the time, that Charles Schulz professed to be a Christian. 

How cool is that? As years went by and I began building my library from book sales and yard sales, I came across animated books he authored that were compilations of his religious cartoons.

I thought they were cute, but laid them aside for more meatier rewards, like Spurgeon or Ironside.

Today is Tuesday December 22nd. In just a few more days Christmas will be upon us, and I again just watched the Peanuts Christmas special!

It got me to thinking . . . So, I got online and began looking for those religious cartoons Charles drew. I found some but then I began researching him.

I was grieved as I read about his religious life. I found many articles from varied sources, so I believe what I am about to share with you is correct. This one seems to sum all the articles I read best.

“And I found a simple outline of his religious life. Schulz was raised a fundamentalist Christian within the warm embrace of the Church of God. Throughout his early adulthood he remained active in the church. However by the mid 1970s his views shifted significantly. He seems to have moved through a vague universalism, toward a form of deism, until finally he called himself a “secular humanist.” However, other than making that assertion once or twice he remained deeply private and did not discuss religion in the last several decades of his life” (Patheos article).

How sad from being a person fighting to have faith present on CBS, via his comics, from reading and studying the Bible voraciously, as his daughter in an  article I read stated, early on in his life, to finish it seemingly outside of the faith once professed.

As I ponder this I humbly and gratefully acknowledge that we do not know the “ultimate” fate of this man, only God does. I hope that he “he looked to Christ” and lives in His eternal presence!

However, there are points to ponder in this story that can be of great benefit to those who have “ears to hear.”

1. It is not our profession of faith in Christ that proves our salvation, rather, it is the fruit of the Spirit evidenced in our lives that testifies to the regenerating work of God within.

Visible morality, religious involvement, and even our own supposed “assurance” of salvation fall short of proving ones faith is genuine.

Fruit manifested in our lives that is a work of the Holy Spirit are the “proofs” that we should be looking for to know whether or not a work of God has been accomplished in our hearts.

Things such as, but not limited to:

Repentance from sin (Romans 7:14; 2 Corinthians is 7:10)

Devotion to God’s glory (Isaiah 43:7; 1corinthians 10:31).

Separation from the world (1 Corinthians 2:12; 1John 2: 15-17).

Obedient living (Matthew 7:21; Romans 16:26).

Spiritual growth(Luke 8:15; John 15: 1-6).

And,  remaining steadfast in Christ, not permanently turning away from Christ later in life (1John 2:19)

Charles Schulz may be one of an untold number that have at one time professed faith in Christ, to only later reject the Christ they once professed.

Let the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:5 be a regular part of our bible meditation. May they be a wake up call to the wavering.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas!