Michael Spencer, 1956-2010

My all-time favorite Christian blogger, Michael Spencer, who called himself the Internet Monk even though he was a Baptist, died last evening in Oneida, Kentucky. He had cancer. He was only 53. Michael was an incredible writer, essayist, teacher, and blogger. The masthead on his blog called his posts “dispatches from the post-evangelical wilderness” and he helped so many of us find our way through it. He is survived by his wife, Denise, their son Clay and their daughter Noel.

But we sorrow not as others who have no hope.

Listen to these words of St. Paul in Second Corinthians, chapter 4:

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

RIP, Michael.