HAPPY 119TH BIRTHDAY, J.R.R. TOLKIEN

   He was born on a Sunday on the third day of the month of January, in Bloemfontein in Orange State (now Free State Province, part of South Africa), under the name of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, in the year of our Lord 1892.

   Tolkien would later go on to serve in the British Army in World War I, and in that conflict serve as a singles officer at the battle of the Somme.

   Between 1925 to 1945, Tolkien would serve as Rawlinson and Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, and from 1945 to 1959 would serve as Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the same university.

   He became a member of an informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings, and it was there that he developed a close friendship with C.S. Lewis.

   One day during a walk together, Lewis confided to Tolkien that one of the major problems that he had with accepting the truth claims of Christianity was that there were too many similarities between the accounts that were written in the Bible and of those written in the ancient myths and legends of other cultures.  Tolkien explain to Lewis that the reason for this was that Christianity was "the one true myth."  By saying this, he meant that the accounts that were found in the Bible were the true record of things that happened, and the other stories were just variations of that one account.  C.S. Lewis would later come to put his trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

   Today, J.R.R. Tolkien, is mostly known as the author of  The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.  All three of the Lord of the Rings trilogy have been made into major motion pictures. As of this date, plans are underway to film a major motion picture based on The Hobbit.

SELAH

   God used J.R.R. Tolkien as one of His instruments in leading C.S. Lewis to faith in Jesus Christ.  God would later use the writings of C.S. Lewis as one of His instruments in leading many throughout the world to Christ, and for the edification of His saints.

   When we bring the Gospel to the lost around us, and God uses that seed to bring a person to Christ as their Lord and savior, we have no idea how far God will use that person to bring others to salvation and into His kingdom.