The below excerpts are taken from "On Forgiveness" which can be found toward the end of a great book entitled "The Weight of Glory." As this year closes forgive all who have sinned against you--and you may have to keep forgiving the same sin over again and again. As Lewis says elsewhere forgiving 70 X 7 may not mean 490 different sins but the same one solo offense against you by another that keeps rising up in your heart as resentment and unforgiveness--and the enemy will do all in his power to keep you in this state of unforgiveness.
"We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer; it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don't, we shall be forgiven none of our own."
"Forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But it that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, 'But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.' Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn't mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart--every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.)"
This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life--to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son--how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us.' We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says."
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Best C.S. Lewis-- Putting Your Neighbor on Your Back for Splendour or Horror
The below comes from a sermon Lewis preached in 1941 to one of the largest congregations to ever gather at St. Virgin the Mary in modern times. It comes from The Weight of Glory. Walter Hooper, friend and personal secretary to Lewis during his last days, said that he puts this sermon and writing on par with some of the Church Fathers. I am no adequate judge of such things but the below really struck me. In my estimation, few write with such depth and humor as Lewis . . . too bad there is little of this type stuff coming out today. Alas . . .
From the Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis
"Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside. The following Him is, of course, the essential point. That being so, it may be asked what practical use there is in the speculations which I have been indulging. I can think of at least one.
It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hearafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.
The load, or weight, or burden on my neighbours glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
This does not mean that we are to perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love . . . next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."
From the Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis
"Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside. The following Him is, of course, the essential point. That being so, it may be asked what practical use there is in the speculations which I have been indulging. I can think of at least one.
It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hearafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.
The load, or weight, or burden on my neighbours glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations--these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
This does not mean that we are to perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love . . . next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses."
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Prayer is Irksome: Lewis Letters to Malcolm
The below is from chapter 21 of Letters to Malcolm by C.S. Lewis, being an excerpt. At the end is my short conclusion. It is not that we are all in the place Lewis describes all the time . . . at any rate the writings of Lewis are so good because they come from a man who never pretended to be a deep theologian--just a layman who had his share of struggles and was wide open honest about them. Though at times the man is hard to understand (because he was so dadgum intelligent), he was real. Not always right, not always agreed with . . . but willing to risk his words on paper. Hopefully you will be encouraged by the below. Keep praying and doing all the other things that discipleship under Jesus entails.
Well, let's now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a cross-word puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us.
The odd thing is that this reluctance to pray is not confined to periods of dryness. When yesterday's prayers were full of comfort and exaltation, today's will still be felt as, in some degree, a burden.
Now the disquieting thing is not simply that we skimp and begrudge the duty of prayer. The really disquieting thing is it should have to be numbered among duties at all. . . What can be done for--- or what should be done with--a rose-tree that dislikes producing roses? Surely it ought to want to?
Much of our backwardness in prayer is no doubt due to our sins, as every teacher will tell us; to our avoidable immersion in the things of this world, to our neglect of mental discipline. And also to the very worst kind of "fear of God." We shrink from too naked a contact, because we are afraid of the divine demands upon us which it might make too audible. As some old writer says, many a Christian prays faintly "lest God might really hear him, which he, poor man, never intended."
If we were perfected, prayer would not be a duty, it would be delight. Some day, please God, it will be. The same is true of many other behaviours which now appear as duties. . . here is the paradox of Christianity. As practical imperatives for here and now the two great commandments have to be translated "Behave as if you loved God and man." For no man can love because he is told to. . . if a man really loved God and man, once again this would hardly be obedience; for if he did, he would be unable to help it.
I am therefore not really deeply worried by the fact that prayer is at present a duty, and even an irksome one. This is humiliating. It is frustrating. It is terribly time-wasting--the worse one is praying, the longer one's prayers take. But we are still only at school. . . I have a notion that what seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling . . . these, perhaps, being nearly all will, come from a deeper level than feeling. . . God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when He catches us, as it were, off our guard.
My Conclusion: Though a bit simplistic it seems to me that we don't always feel like loving or praying or giving or doing a host of other things that are good and right to do, even required by God. But we do them as sheer acts of the will. If everything is left to our feelings (emotions) I am afraid that what will be left behind is a long line of shipwrecks and disasters for ourselves and others. Our faith will probably perish if left to our emotions. After all, it is doing the will of God that is all important and necessary according to Jesus. He says little or perhaps nothing at all about doing what is right and just because we feel like it-- though sometimes we do.
Well, let's now at any rate come clean. Prayer is irksome. An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome. When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day. We are reluctant to begin. We are delighted to finish. While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a cross-word puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us.
The odd thing is that this reluctance to pray is not confined to periods of dryness. When yesterday's prayers were full of comfort and exaltation, today's will still be felt as, in some degree, a burden.
Now the disquieting thing is not simply that we skimp and begrudge the duty of prayer. The really disquieting thing is it should have to be numbered among duties at all. . . What can be done for--- or what should be done with--a rose-tree that dislikes producing roses? Surely it ought to want to?
Much of our backwardness in prayer is no doubt due to our sins, as every teacher will tell us; to our avoidable immersion in the things of this world, to our neglect of mental discipline. And also to the very worst kind of "fear of God." We shrink from too naked a contact, because we are afraid of the divine demands upon us which it might make too audible. As some old writer says, many a Christian prays faintly "lest God might really hear him, which he, poor man, never intended."
If we were perfected, prayer would not be a duty, it would be delight. Some day, please God, it will be. The same is true of many other behaviours which now appear as duties. . . here is the paradox of Christianity. As practical imperatives for here and now the two great commandments have to be translated "Behave as if you loved God and man." For no man can love because he is told to. . . if a man really loved God and man, once again this would hardly be obedience; for if he did, he would be unable to help it.
I am therefore not really deeply worried by the fact that prayer is at present a duty, and even an irksome one. This is humiliating. It is frustrating. It is terribly time-wasting--the worse one is praying, the longer one's prayers take. But we are still only at school. . . I have a notion that what seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling . . . these, perhaps, being nearly all will, come from a deeper level than feeling. . . God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when He catches us, as it were, off our guard.
My Conclusion: Though a bit simplistic it seems to me that we don't always feel like loving or praying or giving or doing a host of other things that are good and right to do, even required by God. But we do them as sheer acts of the will. If everything is left to our feelings (emotions) I am afraid that what will be left behind is a long line of shipwrecks and disasters for ourselves and others. Our faith will probably perish if left to our emotions. After all, it is doing the will of God that is all important and necessary according to Jesus. He says little or perhaps nothing at all about doing what is right and just because we feel like it-- though sometimes we do.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Gethsemane and the Dark Night of the Soul
If you have not read Letters to Malcolm by C.S. Lewis chapter 8 of the book is worth whatever price you pay which won't be much as it is a very small book. Here are some excerpts which are particularly good.
"In Gethsemane a very strange and significant thing seems to have happened. . . Lest any trial incident to humanity should be lacking, the torments of hope--of suspense, anxiety--were at the last moment loosed upon Him--the supposed possibility that, after all, He might, He just conceivably might, be spared the supreme horror. There was precedent. Isaac had been spared: he too at the last moment, he also against all apparent probability. It was not quite impossible . . .
But for this last (and erroneous) hope against hope, and the consequent tumult of the soul, the sweat of blood, perhaps He would not have been very Man. To live in a fully predictable world is not to be a man.
At the end, I know, we are told that an angel appeared "comforting" Him. But neither comforting in sixteenth-century English nor __________ in Greek means "consoling." "Strengthening" is more the word. May not the strengthening have consisted in the renewed certainty--cold comfort this--that the thing must be endured and therefore could be?
We all try to accept with some sort of submission our afflictions when they actually arrive. But the prayer in Gethsemane shows that the preceding anxiety is equally God's will and equally part of our human destiny. The perfect Man experienced it. And the servant is not greater than the master. We are Christians, not Stoics.
Does not every movement in the Passion write large some common element in the sufferings of our race? First, the prayer of anguish; not granted. Then He turns to His friends. They are asleep--as ours, or we, are so often, or busy, or away, or preoccupied. Then He faces the Church; the very Church that He brought into existence. It condemns Him. This also is characteristic. In every Church, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. But there seems to be another chance. There is the State; in this case, the Roman state. Its pretensions are far lower than those of the Jewish church, but for that very reason it may be free from local fanaticisms. It claims to be just on a rough, worldly level. Yes, but only so far as is consistent with political expediency and raison d'etat. One becomes a counter in a complicated game. But even now all is not lost. There is still an appeal to the People--the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom He had healed and fed and taught, to whom He Himself belongs. But they have become over-night (it is nothing unusual) a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. There is, then, nothing left but God. And to God, God's last words are "Why hast thou forsaken me?"
You see how characteristic, how representative, it all is. The human situation writ large. These are among the things it means to be man. Every rope breaks when you seize it. Every door is slammed shut as you reach it. To be like the fox at the end of the run; the earths all staked.
It is saints, not common people, who experience the "dark night."
"In Gethsemane a very strange and significant thing seems to have happened. . . Lest any trial incident to humanity should be lacking, the torments of hope--of suspense, anxiety--were at the last moment loosed upon Him--the supposed possibility that, after all, He might, He just conceivably might, be spared the supreme horror. There was precedent. Isaac had been spared: he too at the last moment, he also against all apparent probability. It was not quite impossible . . .
But for this last (and erroneous) hope against hope, and the consequent tumult of the soul, the sweat of blood, perhaps He would not have been very Man. To live in a fully predictable world is not to be a man.
At the end, I know, we are told that an angel appeared "comforting" Him. But neither comforting in sixteenth-century English nor __________ in Greek means "consoling." "Strengthening" is more the word. May not the strengthening have consisted in the renewed certainty--cold comfort this--that the thing must be endured and therefore could be?
We all try to accept with some sort of submission our afflictions when they actually arrive. But the prayer in Gethsemane shows that the preceding anxiety is equally God's will and equally part of our human destiny. The perfect Man experienced it. And the servant is not greater than the master. We are Christians, not Stoics.
Does not every movement in the Passion write large some common element in the sufferings of our race? First, the prayer of anguish; not granted. Then He turns to His friends. They are asleep--as ours, or we, are so often, or busy, or away, or preoccupied. Then He faces the Church; the very Church that He brought into existence. It condemns Him. This also is characteristic. In every Church, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. But there seems to be another chance. There is the State; in this case, the Roman state. Its pretensions are far lower than those of the Jewish church, but for that very reason it may be free from local fanaticisms. It claims to be just on a rough, worldly level. Yes, but only so far as is consistent with political expediency and raison d'etat. One becomes a counter in a complicated game. But even now all is not lost. There is still an appeal to the People--the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom He had healed and fed and taught, to whom He Himself belongs. But they have become over-night (it is nothing unusual) a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. There is, then, nothing left but God. And to God, God's last words are "Why hast thou forsaken me?"
You see how characteristic, how representative, it all is. The human situation writ large. These are among the things it means to be man. Every rope breaks when you seize it. Every door is slammed shut as you reach it. To be like the fox at the end of the run; the earths all staked.
It is saints, not common people, who experience the "dark night."
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
C.S. Lewis: Imaginary Daydreaming isn't worth . . . squat!
The below is from 1930, a letter from C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves
"We read of spiritual efforts, and our imagination makes us believe that, because we enjoy the idea of doing them, we have done them. I am appalled to see how much of the change which I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary. The real work seems still to be done. It is so fatally easy to confuse and aesthetic appreciation of the spiritual life with the life itself--to dream that you have walked, washed, and dressed, & then to find yourself still in bed."
Commentary: I am a big dreamer as are lots of people in the kingdom of God. The problem of course is that so much gets discussed and maybe even put down on paper. The result is that lots gets solved, fixed, and done for God and others (including myself) that is nothing more than smoke, mirrors, and illusion. In short, its all mental gymnastics and happy discussion. Is it not time to go beyond all this useless day-dreaming, throw in all our chips and go do the radical Jesus living that we have all talked of for so long? It is risky, it is scary, you will meet opposition, you will be ridiculed, etc. But someone has to go all in. It has to be me and it has to be you. Let's get out of bed and take the plunge for Him. And remember what was said of Aslan in another writing of Lewis: He's not safe, but He is good.
"We read of spiritual efforts, and our imagination makes us believe that, because we enjoy the idea of doing them, we have done them. I am appalled to see how much of the change which I thought I had undergone lately was only imaginary. The real work seems still to be done. It is so fatally easy to confuse and aesthetic appreciation of the spiritual life with the life itself--to dream that you have walked, washed, and dressed, & then to find yourself still in bed."
Commentary: I am a big dreamer as are lots of people in the kingdom of God. The problem of course is that so much gets discussed and maybe even put down on paper. The result is that lots gets solved, fixed, and done for God and others (including myself) that is nothing more than smoke, mirrors, and illusion. In short, its all mental gymnastics and happy discussion. Is it not time to go beyond all this useless day-dreaming, throw in all our chips and go do the radical Jesus living that we have all talked of for so long? It is risky, it is scary, you will meet opposition, you will be ridiculed, etc. But someone has to go all in. It has to be me and it has to be you. Let's get out of bed and take the plunge for Him. And remember what was said of Aslan in another writing of Lewis: He's not safe, but He is good.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Living Death: Who will die to Heal the Brokenness of others?
In the famous poem "Who Am I" quoted below I am reminded of one fact that is true in every person I meet. It is a truth that gives me comfort, hope, and the absence of all fear when dealing with all people. In spite of all the fronting and gaming and projecting that people may give us-- there is a life of brokenness (recognized or not) underneath the surface in all people that we meet. There are questions, doubts, insecurities . . . perhaps walls, fears, anxieties, regrets, real struggles and so much more. So we hide from community lest we be discovered. In being discovered is the fear of not being loved and perhaps rejected. Thus we play the game of life which hopes to convince others that we are better than we really are.
And the cool thing is that this is where the gospel can come in with full force and power. The holidays are upon us now and with that is the reminder that Jesus has come not to break the bruised reed nor to put out the dimly burning candle. After all, if I am honest that is often what I feel like-- someone on the brink of breaking, a man whose candle seems to be burning dimly and nearly extinguished. But Jesus came for me and you and others-- to restore, to heal, to brighten our lives. He died for this. And if we are to see this same healing and brightening in the lives of others we must face the question of Jesus: ARE YOU WILLING TO DIE FOR OTHERS like he did? What Bonhoeffer said is absolutely true: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." It is the only forward for us, for the churches, for the people of God. Who will answer the call with a firm: "Yes, I will die for others around me so that they can be healed?" It is the only way to bring people into an encounter with the resurrected Jesus and His power.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Who Am I? (written in Tegel Prison)
Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell's confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
equally, smilingly, proudly
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which others tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness
Tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? a hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already acheived?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou Knowest, O God, I am Thine!
And the cool thing is that this is where the gospel can come in with full force and power. The holidays are upon us now and with that is the reminder that Jesus has come not to break the bruised reed nor to put out the dimly burning candle. After all, if I am honest that is often what I feel like-- someone on the brink of breaking, a man whose candle seems to be burning dimly and nearly extinguished. But Jesus came for me and you and others-- to restore, to heal, to brighten our lives. He died for this. And if we are to see this same healing and brightening in the lives of others we must face the question of Jesus: ARE YOU WILLING TO DIE FOR OTHERS like he did? What Bonhoeffer said is absolutely true: "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." It is the only forward for us, for the churches, for the people of God. Who will answer the call with a firm: "Yes, I will die for others around me so that they can be healed?" It is the only way to bring people into an encounter with the resurrected Jesus and His power.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Who Am I? (written in Tegel Prison)
Who am I? They often tell me I stepped from my cell's confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
equally, smilingly, proudly
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which others tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness
Tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? a hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already acheived?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou Knowest, O God, I am Thine!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
C.S. Lewis Teaches Us How to Avoid God
Taken from C.S. Lewis "The Seeing Eye" in Christian Reflections
"The avoiding, in many times and places, has proved so difficult that a very large part of the human race failed to achieve it. But in our own time and place it is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in the crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you'd be safer to stick to the papers. You'll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal."
Commentary: Perhaps we could add a few other suggestions for how to avoid God in the present days of the 21st Century. Below are 10 additional ways to try and keep God at bay. Add your own. (In addition, many of the things below are also helpful in killing relationships).
1. Lose yourself on facebook and keep on the internet as much as possible
2. Keep the TV on as much as you possibly can
3. In fact, the more technology you can keep active in your life the better: Even texting as much as possible will do the trick. To help kill relationships text others at the same time you are sitting and talking with others.
4. Work as many hours as possible and burn the candle at both ends as much as possible. Do you seriously believe that God can give to you even in your sleep?
5. Sacrifice as much as possible to ensure your kids get good experience in their sports activities. Foregoing Christian fellowship for the sake of sports is no problem. Everyone else is doing it.
6. Obsess over any kind of hobby such as fantasy sports or other things.
7. Keep as much entertainment going in your life as is humanly possible
8. Think on the will of God as little as possible, read the Bible and pray as little as possible. If you do these things God may creep in and turn your world in a direction where He becomes primary.
9. Keep your social standing before others as high as possible. Compromising with the world helps here.
10. Take no risks, take no chances. Never put yourself in a position of vulnerability where you might fail or be broken. In short, the less you attempt to do for God or others the better.
"The avoiding, in many times and places, has proved so difficult that a very large part of the human race failed to achieve it. But in our own time and place it is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in the crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you'd be safer to stick to the papers. You'll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal."
Commentary: Perhaps we could add a few other suggestions for how to avoid God in the present days of the 21st Century. Below are 10 additional ways to try and keep God at bay. Add your own. (In addition, many of the things below are also helpful in killing relationships).
1. Lose yourself on facebook and keep on the internet as much as possible
2. Keep the TV on as much as you possibly can
3. In fact, the more technology you can keep active in your life the better: Even texting as much as possible will do the trick. To help kill relationships text others at the same time you are sitting and talking with others.
4. Work as many hours as possible and burn the candle at both ends as much as possible. Do you seriously believe that God can give to you even in your sleep?
5. Sacrifice as much as possible to ensure your kids get good experience in their sports activities. Foregoing Christian fellowship for the sake of sports is no problem. Everyone else is doing it.
6. Obsess over any kind of hobby such as fantasy sports or other things.
7. Keep as much entertainment going in your life as is humanly possible
8. Think on the will of God as little as possible, read the Bible and pray as little as possible. If you do these things God may creep in and turn your world in a direction where He becomes primary.
9. Keep your social standing before others as high as possible. Compromising with the world helps here.
10. Take no risks, take no chances. Never put yourself in a position of vulnerability where you might fail or be broken. In short, the less you attempt to do for God or others the better.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Shooting at the Hero in the Story- Bonhoeffer on Jeremiah
The following is taken from Eric Metaxas's book on Bonhoeffer and tells about Bonnie's famous Jeremiah sermon. It is a good reminder that once we are purchased by God we are His to do with whatever He wants, regardless of human comforts, prejudices, what others think, what we think, etc. . . so no matter what you are going through just now take courage from the below.
"The picture that Bonhoeffer painted of Jeremiah was one of unrelieved gloom and drama. God was after him, and he could not escape. Bonhoeffer referred to the 'arrow of the Almighty' striking down its 'hunted game.' But who was the 'hunted game?' It was Jeremiah! But why was God shooting the hero of the story? . . . Jeremiah is 'a prisoner and he has to follow. His path is prescribed. It is the path of the man whom God will not let go, who will never be rid of God.' The sermon began to get seriously depressing. What was the young preacher getting at? Perhaps he was reading too many books. A little fresh air and fun now and again, that's what a man wants! As for Jeremiah, he could certainly use a little cheering up. But surely things would begin to look up for him soon! They continued listening, hoping for an upturn in Jeremiah's fortunes.
But alas, Pastor Bonhoeffer delivered an unrelenting homiletic bummer. He marched further downhill.
'This path will lead right down into the deepest situation of human powerlessness. The follower becomes a laughingstock, scorned and taken for a fool, but a fool who is extremely dangerous to people's peace and comfort, so that he or she must be beaten, locked up, tortured, if not put to death right away. That is exactly what became of this man Jeremiah, because he could not get away from God.'
If Bonhoeffer wanted to ensure that his congregation would never dream of following God too closely, this sermon was just the ticket. He then spoke of God driving Jeremiah 'from agony to agony.' Could it get worse?
And Jeremiah was just as much flesh and blood as we are, a human being like ourselves. He felt the pain of being continually humiliated and mocked, of the violence and brutality others used against him. After one episode of agonizing torture that had lasted a whole night, he burst out in prayer: 'O Lord, you have enticed me and I was enticed, you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.'
Bonhoeffer's congregation was lost. God maneuvered his beloved servant into imprisonment and agony? Somewhere along the line they must have missed a crucial sentence! But they hadn't.
Bonhoeffer was beginning to understand that he was God's prisoner, that like the prophets of old, he was called to suffer and be oppressed--and in that defeat and the acceptance of that defeat, there was victory. It was a sermon that applied to anyone with ears to hear, but few could actually hear it.
"The picture that Bonhoeffer painted of Jeremiah was one of unrelieved gloom and drama. God was after him, and he could not escape. Bonhoeffer referred to the 'arrow of the Almighty' striking down its 'hunted game.' But who was the 'hunted game?' It was Jeremiah! But why was God shooting the hero of the story? . . . Jeremiah is 'a prisoner and he has to follow. His path is prescribed. It is the path of the man whom God will not let go, who will never be rid of God.' The sermon began to get seriously depressing. What was the young preacher getting at? Perhaps he was reading too many books. A little fresh air and fun now and again, that's what a man wants! As for Jeremiah, he could certainly use a little cheering up. But surely things would begin to look up for him soon! They continued listening, hoping for an upturn in Jeremiah's fortunes.
But alas, Pastor Bonhoeffer delivered an unrelenting homiletic bummer. He marched further downhill.
'This path will lead right down into the deepest situation of human powerlessness. The follower becomes a laughingstock, scorned and taken for a fool, but a fool who is extremely dangerous to people's peace and comfort, so that he or she must be beaten, locked up, tortured, if not put to death right away. That is exactly what became of this man Jeremiah, because he could not get away from God.'
If Bonhoeffer wanted to ensure that his congregation would never dream of following God too closely, this sermon was just the ticket. He then spoke of God driving Jeremiah 'from agony to agony.' Could it get worse?
And Jeremiah was just as much flesh and blood as we are, a human being like ourselves. He felt the pain of being continually humiliated and mocked, of the violence and brutality others used against him. After one episode of agonizing torture that had lasted a whole night, he burst out in prayer: 'O Lord, you have enticed me and I was enticed, you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed.'
Bonhoeffer's congregation was lost. God maneuvered his beloved servant into imprisonment and agony? Somewhere along the line they must have missed a crucial sentence! But they hadn't.
Bonhoeffer was beginning to understand that he was God's prisoner, that like the prophets of old, he was called to suffer and be oppressed--and in that defeat and the acceptance of that defeat, there was victory. It was a sermon that applied to anyone with ears to hear, but few could actually hear it.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Let's Abandon "Sham Christianity": Bonhoeffer and Chambers
From the Bonhoeffer biography by Metaxas, quoting Bonhoeffer
Note: If you have not read this book you should. Discussing it with a pastor friend of mine today he called the book prophetic for our times. I agree.
"But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament . . ."
Comment: Living out the cross of Jesus is unavoidable if we would wish to count ourselves as true Christians, real followers of the Lord. Yet it seems to be this cross that much of western Christendom is seeking to avoid. Try to live the sermon on the mount, try to relinquish all your rights, try to live like Jesus lived. What might you find? Folks will try to talk you out of it. You will find that many are not up for this sort of Christianity, preferring rather the false kind that is wed to western materialism, that insists on being comfortable, one that has me standing up for my own rights--all with that independent spirit that says, "I am a Christian, yet I own myself. I will do what I want and call it following Jesus." It's high time we abandoned this bunk and got serious about following Jesus as He laid it out. Or else let's stop calling ourselves His disciples. It's time to count the cost and decide once for all if we will own ourselves or be owned and ruled by Him--which of course means doing His will at all costs--and it will be costly in terms of suffering and rejection.
Bonhoeffer and Chambers would have perhaps gotten along well in their no-nonsense approach to real discipleship. Consider what Chambers says regarding following Jesus.
1. "We put sensitive loyalty to relatives in place of loyalty to Jesus Christ and Jesus has to take the last place. In a conflict of loyalty, obey Jesus Christ at all costs."
2. "Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself."
3. "If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze."
4. "I must reduce myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul--but in order to follow Jesus."
5. "There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus."
Note: If you have not read this book you should. Discussing it with a pastor friend of mine today he called the book prophetic for our times. I agree.
"But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me. This place is the Cross of Christ. And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament . . ."
Comment: Living out the cross of Jesus is unavoidable if we would wish to count ourselves as true Christians, real followers of the Lord. Yet it seems to be this cross that much of western Christendom is seeking to avoid. Try to live the sermon on the mount, try to relinquish all your rights, try to live like Jesus lived. What might you find? Folks will try to talk you out of it. You will find that many are not up for this sort of Christianity, preferring rather the false kind that is wed to western materialism, that insists on being comfortable, one that has me standing up for my own rights--all with that independent spirit that says, "I am a Christian, yet I own myself. I will do what I want and call it following Jesus." It's high time we abandoned this bunk and got serious about following Jesus as He laid it out. Or else let's stop calling ourselves His disciples. It's time to count the cost and decide once for all if we will own ourselves or be owned and ruled by Him--which of course means doing His will at all costs--and it will be costly in terms of suffering and rejection.
Bonhoeffer and Chambers would have perhaps gotten along well in their no-nonsense approach to real discipleship. Consider what Chambers says regarding following Jesus.
1. "We put sensitive loyalty to relatives in place of loyalty to Jesus Christ and Jesus has to take the last place. In a conflict of loyalty, obey Jesus Christ at all costs."
2. "Our Lord never puts personal holiness to the fore when He calls a disciple; He puts absolute annihilation of my right to myself and identification with Himself."
3. "If you are hard and vindictive, insistent on your own way, certain that the other person is more likely to be in the wrong than you are, it is an indication that there are whole tracts of your nature that have never been transformed by His gaze."
4. "I must reduce myself until I am a mere conscious man, I must fundamentally renounce possessions of all kinds, not to save my soul--but in order to follow Jesus."
5. "There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus."
Monday, September 26, 2011
Remaining Confident Under Threat of Ruination- Lewis and Psalm 27
Lewis writes the below from "On living an an Atomic Age" Present Concerns:
"If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible things--praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts--not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (any microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."
Comments: There are many trials that we might call "life stoppers." They can lead to depression and immobility. I speak of things like an un unexpected illness, the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, rejection and misunderstanding by others, the killing of a dream, death of a loved one, things like that. Lewis makes a good point here, taken from Psalm 27 (quoted below): regardless of what happens to us we must prove through Christ to be overcomers and press on with life. Regardless of the cost, we must follow Him and do His bidding, walking among men and women as He Himself walked. Of course, in doing this you will pay a price--a price many are no longer willing to pay in our age.
Remember, the Holy Spirit is a comforter. If you need no comfort you may not need Him. Likewise the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and self-control) is going to be most evidenced at times when the very opposite of such fruit is more likely to reveal itself in the natural. The supernatural life is not needed by those who have it all together. Nay, the Holy Spirit is for those facing trial and ruin in the hardships of life, whatever these may be.
Psalm 27:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh--my adversaries and foes--they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing I asked of the Lord; that will I seek after; to live in the house all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
For He will hide me in the His shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of His tent:
He will set me high on a rock.
Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
"Come," my hearts says, "seek His face!"
Your face, Lord, do I seek. Do not hide Your face from me.
Do not turn Your servant away in anger, You who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.
Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path.
"If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible things--praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts--not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (any microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."
Comments: There are many trials that we might call "life stoppers." They can lead to depression and immobility. I speak of things like an un unexpected illness, the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, rejection and misunderstanding by others, the killing of a dream, death of a loved one, things like that. Lewis makes a good point here, taken from Psalm 27 (quoted below): regardless of what happens to us we must prove through Christ to be overcomers and press on with life. Regardless of the cost, we must follow Him and do His bidding, walking among men and women as He Himself walked. Of course, in doing this you will pay a price--a price many are no longer willing to pay in our age.
Remember, the Holy Spirit is a comforter. If you need no comfort you may not need Him. Likewise the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness and self-control) is going to be most evidenced at times when the very opposite of such fruit is more likely to reveal itself in the natural. The supernatural life is not needed by those who have it all together. Nay, the Holy Spirit is for those facing trial and ruin in the hardships of life, whatever these may be.
Psalm 27:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh--my adversaries and foes--they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing I asked of the Lord; that will I seek after; to live in the house all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
For He will hide me in the His shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of His tent:
He will set me high on a rock.
Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
"Come," my hearts says, "seek His face!"
Your face, Lord, do I seek. Do not hide Your face from me.
Do not turn Your servant away in anger, You who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.
Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Give Everything Over to Death: C.S. Lewis on Romans 12:1
In Mere Christianity Lewis writes: "Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the death. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in."
Comments: What is all this business we talk about defending our rights and being in charge of our lives? Are we not trying to lead a double life? On the one hand we want Jesus; we want to be Christian . . . we want Him to rule us. And yet, on the other hand we would go to the death to preserve our independence and the rights we have to pursue liberty and happiness. We strive to fulfill our dreams. We rule our lives and give lip service to being ruled by Another. Yet all along the secret to the resurrection of our very lives in the here and now is crucifixion. Without voluntary death right now none of us shall ever enjoy His resurrection life as it was meant to me--right now. In the Christian realm death as spoken here always leads to abundant life. Be warned: The devil is trying to keep you from it.
Eternal life is about today-- your present existence on September 20, 2011. It is a quality of life that you will have if you will lay down your life. My passions, my dreams, my own will and plans must be relinquished to Him. This is what it means to seek first God's kingdom. It is to go all in. It is to adapt the sermon on the mount as a real ethic. It is to reject every false brand of Christianity which says we can live for Jesus and somehow be in charge of our lives. You want to see God? You want to experience His resurrection? Then you and everything in you must die. His will, His ways, His power will only come to the front of your life when you voluntary sacrifice all to God--including those things that we have been fooled into thinking we had a right to have.
Comments: What is all this business we talk about defending our rights and being in charge of our lives? Are we not trying to lead a double life? On the one hand we want Jesus; we want to be Christian . . . we want Him to rule us. And yet, on the other hand we would go to the death to preserve our independence and the rights we have to pursue liberty and happiness. We strive to fulfill our dreams. We rule our lives and give lip service to being ruled by Another. Yet all along the secret to the resurrection of our very lives in the here and now is crucifixion. Without voluntary death right now none of us shall ever enjoy His resurrection life as it was meant to me--right now. In the Christian realm death as spoken here always leads to abundant life. Be warned: The devil is trying to keep you from it.
Eternal life is about today-- your present existence on September 20, 2011. It is a quality of life that you will have if you will lay down your life. My passions, my dreams, my own will and plans must be relinquished to Him. This is what it means to seek first God's kingdom. It is to go all in. It is to adapt the sermon on the mount as a real ethic. It is to reject every false brand of Christianity which says we can live for Jesus and somehow be in charge of our lives. You want to see God? You want to experience His resurrection? Then you and everything in you must die. His will, His ways, His power will only come to the front of your life when you voluntary sacrifice all to God--including those things that we have been fooled into thinking we had a right to have.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Following God's Clear Path Come What May- Bonhoeffer
Quoted from a letter in Bonhoeffeer by Eric Metaxas, Dietrich writes in a letter:
"My calling is quite clear to me. What God will make of it I do not know . . . I must follow the path."
Commentary: Although Dietrich was writing this in reference to his pastoral calling is the same not true for all of us so called Christians in every area of life? We have no idea where obedience to the revealed will of God may take us. The Lord has called us to believe certain truths, to act in a certain way, and to stand to the death for what is right-- even when the tide of the world and even friends may go against us. The trick is to make sure our convictions and stances that follow come from a clear understanding of the word of God--as well as a refusal to compromise. We cannot stand on our feelings nor can we advise people based on our feelings about their situation. We must stand on the revealed will of God and encourage others to do the same. You will be called narrow for doing this and you will more than likely be in the minority--perhaps even among contemporary Christians. Yet, you need not apologize for the way things are as revealed by God. He can defend Himself. What you must do is to count the cost and ask yourself if you are willing to pay the high price that will likely be exacted from you if you stand with Jesus. Remember, to stand with Jesus is to inevitably stand against others, perhaps even those closest to you. It is high time we dismiss the worldly culture and resist the temptation to confirm to that culture that is even infiltrating into our churches. Like Luther let us say "Here I stand, I can do no other." Make sure of what He has called you to do and follow the path, not straying to the right or to the left.
"My calling is quite clear to me. What God will make of it I do not know . . . I must follow the path."
Commentary: Although Dietrich was writing this in reference to his pastoral calling is the same not true for all of us so called Christians in every area of life? We have no idea where obedience to the revealed will of God may take us. The Lord has called us to believe certain truths, to act in a certain way, and to stand to the death for what is right-- even when the tide of the world and even friends may go against us. The trick is to make sure our convictions and stances that follow come from a clear understanding of the word of God--as well as a refusal to compromise. We cannot stand on our feelings nor can we advise people based on our feelings about their situation. We must stand on the revealed will of God and encourage others to do the same. You will be called narrow for doing this and you will more than likely be in the minority--perhaps even among contemporary Christians. Yet, you need not apologize for the way things are as revealed by God. He can defend Himself. What you must do is to count the cost and ask yourself if you are willing to pay the high price that will likely be exacted from you if you stand with Jesus. Remember, to stand with Jesus is to inevitably stand against others, perhaps even those closest to you. It is high time we dismiss the worldly culture and resist the temptation to confirm to that culture that is even infiltrating into our churches. Like Luther let us say "Here I stand, I can do no other." Make sure of what He has called you to do and follow the path, not straying to the right or to the left.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Have We Been Fooled into Following a Different Jesus?
Chapter 4 of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's book The Cost of Discipleship is fairly spectacular. I have included an excerpt below which is broken up by two sections of comment.
"To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se but suffering-and-rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ. If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplift which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trials and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and shame as well as suffering. The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. But this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ. The cross means sharing the suffering of Christ to the last and to the fullest."
Comment Section 1: We are reminded here of what we are really signing up for when we tell Jesus that we will follow Him-- suffering-and-rejection for the sake of Christ. Those who have followed Jesus for "emotional uplift" or other reasons have probably already stopped following Him. Many feel cheated and disillusioned when they find that a comfortable "American" or "Western" style Christianity is not found among the sacred pages. If they have not left Him they are left with a non-intelligible Christianity which worships a God of their own making. Real Christianity is wedded to suffering-and-rejection. It is this kind of life which Jesus has promised to all his would be followers as we see from even a shallow reading of the new testament. Are our lives just ordinary human lives, no different than those around us? Is the only difference that I have drug Jesus out in front of my name and labeled myself a Christian?
Bonhoeffer continues:
"The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death - we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. . . If we refuse to take up our cross and submit to suffering and rejection at the hands of men, we forfeit our fellowship with Christ and have ceased to follow him. But if we lose our lives in his service and carry our cross, we shall find our lives again in the fellowship of the cross with Christ. Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer."
Comment Section Two: Those who are most intimate with Jesus are those who have walked along the road of suffering-and-rejection with and for the Messiah. Again, read about all your heroes in the Scriptures. What do you find? Hmmmm. A pattern, a template for communion with God. And in each case is suffering-and-rejection. Will we shed our comfortable discipleship of cheap grace, self-will, and comfort (this popular yet false gospel is an empty illusion) and embrace a Christ-centered discipleship which is a walking straight into the death of ourselves? Remember, resurrection (or resurrection power) is only for those who have died. By the same token the comfort promised by the Holy Spirit is not needed by those who are already comfortable. Well, what am I to do now? Perhaps I need to reconsider whether or not I am willing to follow Jesus at all. If Bonhoeffer is right then it could be that you or I have been following a different Jesus than the one we meet in the gospels and books that follow them in our Bibles.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Dozens of Views About Everything . . . Go Play in the Rain
This double entry comes from perhaps my favorite fiction book of all time: That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis.
Excerpt 1
Mark says: "I suppose there are two views about everything."
Hingest replies: "Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
Comment: People are full of opinions and advice and your head may be rattling and your brain scrambled if you do not come to convictions that you can stand on--on your own. Of course, just because you have an opinion/conviction does not mean you are right. However, God's truth is absolute truth and if we can get an accurate hold of His truth we have to stand on it even it means others disagree or we die for it. The thing we must not do is compromise known truth. Sometimes I get advice from well meaning Christians about behaving in ways that seem totally contrary to a Christian ethic (Sermon on Mount for instance). I reject their advice and decide I am gonna stand on what I believe God has said come hell or high water. I encourage you to do the same. The trick is not to be arrogant and to be humble enough to correct your version of the truth when you come to the realization that God's truth means something else entirely.
Excerpt 2
"That's why Camilla and I got married," said Denniston as they drove off. "We both like Weather. Not this or that kind of weather, just Weather.
"How ever did you learn to do that, Mr. Denniston?" said Jane. "I don't think I should ever learn to like rain and snow."
"It's the other way round," said Denniston. "Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven't you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children--and the dogs. They know what snow's made for."
"I'm sure I hated wet days as a child," said Jane.
"That's because the grown-ups kept you in," said Camilla. "Any child loves rain if it's allowed to go out and paddle about in it."
Comment: It has been raining cats and dogs here in Virginia for the last day. I remember playing in the rain to soaking as a kid and at times I long to get out there and do it just the same. Become a child again; go play in the rain and lift your hands to the sky in jubilation like Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption? And if you are a parent encourage your kids to play in the rain. Or if you want to apply a metaphor to the whole bit-- when life is raining hard on you get out and give thanks and praise to the Lord for watering your life for the good things He has ahead of you.
Excerpt 1
Mark says: "I suppose there are two views about everything."
Hingest replies: "Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one."
Comment: People are full of opinions and advice and your head may be rattling and your brain scrambled if you do not come to convictions that you can stand on--on your own. Of course, just because you have an opinion/conviction does not mean you are right. However, God's truth is absolute truth and if we can get an accurate hold of His truth we have to stand on it even it means others disagree or we die for it. The thing we must not do is compromise known truth. Sometimes I get advice from well meaning Christians about behaving in ways that seem totally contrary to a Christian ethic (Sermon on Mount for instance). I reject their advice and decide I am gonna stand on what I believe God has said come hell or high water. I encourage you to do the same. The trick is not to be arrogant and to be humble enough to correct your version of the truth when you come to the realization that God's truth means something else entirely.
Excerpt 2
"That's why Camilla and I got married," said Denniston as they drove off. "We both like Weather. Not this or that kind of weather, just Weather.
"How ever did you learn to do that, Mr. Denniston?" said Jane. "I don't think I should ever learn to like rain and snow."
"It's the other way round," said Denniston. "Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven't you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children--and the dogs. They know what snow's made for."
"I'm sure I hated wet days as a child," said Jane.
"That's because the grown-ups kept you in," said Camilla. "Any child loves rain if it's allowed to go out and paddle about in it."
Comment: It has been raining cats and dogs here in Virginia for the last day. I remember playing in the rain to soaking as a kid and at times I long to get out there and do it just the same. Become a child again; go play in the rain and lift your hands to the sky in jubilation like Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank Redemption? And if you are a parent encourage your kids to play in the rain. Or if you want to apply a metaphor to the whole bit-- when life is raining hard on you get out and give thanks and praise to the Lord for watering your life for the good things He has ahead of you.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Cheap Grace and Fake Discipleship
In his book The Cost of Discipleship Dietrich Bonhoeffer suggests that perhaps we have secularized the Christian religion as never before. Here is what he says about Cheap Grace, what I am calling here Fake Discipleship:
"The Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world, in fact, in being prohibited from being different from the world for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that all my sins are all forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loathe and detest, has freed me from that . . . The only man (or woman) who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man (or woman) who has left all to follow Christ . . . It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting our Church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?"
Comment: What kind of grace have you found in Christ? If you have the cheap kind or you willing to trade it in for the costly kind? Bonhoeffer defines it this way:
Cheap Grace: the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly Grace: the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
"The Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world, in fact, in being prohibited from being different from the world for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that all my sins are all forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loathe and detest, has freed me from that . . . The only man (or woman) who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man (or woman) who has left all to follow Christ . . . It is becoming clearer every day that the most urgent problem besetting our Church is this: How can we live the Christian life in the modern world?"
Comment: What kind of grace have you found in Christ? If you have the cheap kind or you willing to trade it in for the costly kind? Bonhoeffer defines it this way:
Cheap Grace: the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly Grace: the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The Lights Are On But . . .
There is nobody home. Very good. That was easy. And there is perhaps only one thing worse than that! How about this-- The Lights are OFF and there is nobody home. I recently came across a reading of C.S. Lewis while reading of our Lord's Passion, his road to suffering and death on the cross. I have edited Lewis' writing to make it a bit more understandable to the modern ear. (Any Purists please forgive me) It is from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer:
Does not every movement in the Passion of our Lord register a common element in either our own suffering or the suffering of those around us? First, the prayer of anguish (Garden of Gethsemane): Not granted. Then Jesus turns to His friends. They are asleep--as are our friends at times or perhaps we ourselves-- asleep, or busy, or away, or preoccupied. Then He faces the Church; the very Church that He brought into existence. It condemns Him. This also is characteristic. In every Church, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. But there seems to be another chance. There is the State . . . its pretensions are far lower than those of the Church, but for that very reason it may be free from local fanaticism's. It claims to be just on a rough, worldly level. Yet, but only so far as is consistent with political expediency. Other factors may come in and override all legal and moral considerations. One becomes a counter or a mere chip in a complicated game. But even now all is not lost. There is still an appeal to the People-- the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom He had healed and fed and taught, to whom He Himself belongs. But they have become over-night (it is nothing unusual) a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. There is then, nothing left but God. And to God, God's last words are "Why hast thou forsaken me?"
Commentary: Hmmmm. The above is to go darker than dark, a darkness as occurred during the Passover night that turned bad for the Egyptians. It was said to be a darkness that can be felt. Indeed . . . and it was worse for our Lord as the Father actually turned His back on His own Son as He poured out holy wrath upon Him. Dark as Pitch. Well, what about us in our times of utter darkness?
Consider Isaiah 50:10a: "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?" Now consider this: a faithful servant of God in the dark and can see no way out. There are many people around us that this describes--or perhaps it is you. Following God but He is seemingly gone and the temptation is to curse God and die. Well, there are two choices given in this passage for Isaiah for them (or us) during these times:
1. "Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on His God. " (Isaiah 50:10b) Yes, even when it is pitch black and everyone, including God seems to have vacated your life. This is the way to go. Or . . .
2. "Kindle a fire, encircle yourself with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and among the brands that you have set ablaze." (Isaiah 50:11) In other words, rather than wait for God create your own light and solution. This is an option but be warned: such will lie down in torment according to Isaiah 50:11b.
Even when all is dark, when the lights are out and there seems to be nobody within miles and miles . . . though the fig tree does not blossom, though there be no fruit on the vine, though the flocks are cut off, though there are no cattle in the stalls, though you have lost a job or a friend . . . or whatever your loss . . . Yet, Yet, Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Let Him make your feet like hinds' feet and make you to walk on your high places. See Habakkuk 3:17-19
Does not every movement in the Passion of our Lord register a common element in either our own suffering or the suffering of those around us? First, the prayer of anguish (Garden of Gethsemane): Not granted. Then Jesus turns to His friends. They are asleep--as are our friends at times or perhaps we ourselves-- asleep, or busy, or away, or preoccupied. Then He faces the Church; the very Church that He brought into existence. It condemns Him. This also is characteristic. In every Church, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. But there seems to be another chance. There is the State . . . its pretensions are far lower than those of the Church, but for that very reason it may be free from local fanaticism's. It claims to be just on a rough, worldly level. Yet, but only so far as is consistent with political expediency. Other factors may come in and override all legal and moral considerations. One becomes a counter or a mere chip in a complicated game. But even now all is not lost. There is still an appeal to the People-- the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom He had healed and fed and taught, to whom He Himself belongs. But they have become over-night (it is nothing unusual) a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. There is then, nothing left but God. And to God, God's last words are "Why hast thou forsaken me?"
Commentary: Hmmmm. The above is to go darker than dark, a darkness as occurred during the Passover night that turned bad for the Egyptians. It was said to be a darkness that can be felt. Indeed . . . and it was worse for our Lord as the Father actually turned His back on His own Son as He poured out holy wrath upon Him. Dark as Pitch. Well, what about us in our times of utter darkness?
Consider Isaiah 50:10a: "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?" Now consider this: a faithful servant of God in the dark and can see no way out. There are many people around us that this describes--or perhaps it is you. Following God but He is seemingly gone and the temptation is to curse God and die. Well, there are two choices given in this passage for Isaiah for them (or us) during these times:
1. "Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on His God. " (Isaiah 50:10b) Yes, even when it is pitch black and everyone, including God seems to have vacated your life. This is the way to go. Or . . .
2. "Kindle a fire, encircle yourself with firebrands, walk in the light of your fire and among the brands that you have set ablaze." (Isaiah 50:11) In other words, rather than wait for God create your own light and solution. This is an option but be warned: such will lie down in torment according to Isaiah 50:11b.
Even when all is dark, when the lights are out and there seems to be nobody within miles and miles . . . though the fig tree does not blossom, though there be no fruit on the vine, though the flocks are cut off, though there are no cattle in the stalls, though you have lost a job or a friend . . . or whatever your loss . . . Yet, Yet, Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Let Him make your feet like hinds' feet and make you to walk on your high places. See Habakkuk 3:17-19
Sunday, August 28, 2011
On Perelandra: When Your Darkness is "Packed Quite Full"
The setting below is of the evil one going to Venus (Perelandra) in order to bring the Mother of all living there (like Eve for us) into disobedience against Maleldil (God). The Evil One has been working on the lady for days now and it looks like Evil is going to win. Ransom (the main character in the book) has been sent to Perelandra (Venus) but he is not sure why. In the context of below, He has been listening to the enemies temptations to the Lady for days now. He is distraught at the thought that the woman might give in to the enemies constant temptations to disobey--and thus Venus would have a fall . . .
"The Enemy was using Third Degree methods. It seemed to Ransom that, but for a miracle, the Lady's resistance was bound to be worn away in the end. Why did no miracle come? Or rather, why no miracle on the right side? For the presence of the Enemy was in itself a kind of Miracle. Had Hell a prerogative to work wonders? Why did Heaven work none? Not for the first time he found himself questioning Divine Justice. He could not understand why Maleldil should remain absent when the Enemy was there in person."
"But while he was thinking this, as suddenly and sharply as if the solid darkness about him had spoken with articulate voice, he knew that Maleldil was not absent. . . the darkness was packed quite full. It seemed to press upon his trunk so that he could hardly use his lungs: it seemed to close in on his skull like a crown of intolerable weight so that for a space he could hardly think."
Faced with this situation Ransom begins to ask the question as to what he can possibly do to help in this monumental situation. He doubted that he was the representative of Maleldil or that he could stand up to the evil one-- now possessing and using the body of the character Weston. Yet, all his arguments were flung back in his face and in the end he realized he had to do something or there would be the entrance of evil into Perelandra and the necessity of another Ransom taking place to deliver Venus.
In the end Ransom decides to take on the Un-Man (The body of Weston possessed) in hand to hand combat, in a fight to the death.
Commentary: When faced with the seeming victories of evil in our own current day perhaps you have oft thrown up your hands and asked what you could possibly do? Perhaps it seems to you like evil is winning and that perhaps God is nowhere present or at best an uninterested observer watching to see how things will play out. Maybe your own life is being stretched to the breaking point as you feel a darkness that is "packed quite full." What can you do? Here are some options:
1. Do nothing. Give up in despair.
2. Pray like crazy with little hope of the good side winning out. This is like number one above in some ways!
3. Pray and tell God that things have to work out according to your plan or you will sulk!
3. Pray with faith being willing to get out of the boat and get wet or to get dirty in the mud, taking on the enemy in practical combat. This would include a joyful relinquishment of all things to God, the return of thankfulness, and certain actions of living on your part-- and the possibility of God doing something amazingly different that is better than your wildest dreams.
Consider: Psalm 126:6 "He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him." Those crushed with the difficulties of life in this passage are actually still sowing seed IN THE MIDST OF THEIR WEEPING--still working, still sowing, still living-- rather than giving in to despair and doing nothing at all. Do that! Pray, Trust, and Go forward sowing in spite of what is going on around you-- then you will have a joyful time of reaping in your future.
Remember, the enemy wants you totally sidelined as in option 1 above. He hates option 2 but if he can make you a worried and hopeless pray-er all the better. Option 3 is quite acceptable to the enemy. However, if you will go all-in with God in total relinquishment and submission with joyful living then the doom of the enemy is at hand. Remember this about Jesus:
1. He prayed with loud cries and tears to His Father that the cup of wrath to be poured out on the cross might pass Him by. He was hoping for another way.
2. Jesus not only said but meant "Your will be done, not mine."
3. Our Lord went in full joy to the cross (taking on the enemy) due to the "joy that was set before Him." His trust and confidence in the midst of absolute darkness resulted in a joy unspeakable for Himself and others across the ages.
"The Enemy was using Third Degree methods. It seemed to Ransom that, but for a miracle, the Lady's resistance was bound to be worn away in the end. Why did no miracle come? Or rather, why no miracle on the right side? For the presence of the Enemy was in itself a kind of Miracle. Had Hell a prerogative to work wonders? Why did Heaven work none? Not for the first time he found himself questioning Divine Justice. He could not understand why Maleldil should remain absent when the Enemy was there in person."
"But while he was thinking this, as suddenly and sharply as if the solid darkness about him had spoken with articulate voice, he knew that Maleldil was not absent. . . the darkness was packed quite full. It seemed to press upon his trunk so that he could hardly use his lungs: it seemed to close in on his skull like a crown of intolerable weight so that for a space he could hardly think."
Faced with this situation Ransom begins to ask the question as to what he can possibly do to help in this monumental situation. He doubted that he was the representative of Maleldil or that he could stand up to the evil one-- now possessing and using the body of the character Weston. Yet, all his arguments were flung back in his face and in the end he realized he had to do something or there would be the entrance of evil into Perelandra and the necessity of another Ransom taking place to deliver Venus.
In the end Ransom decides to take on the Un-Man (The body of Weston possessed) in hand to hand combat, in a fight to the death.
Commentary: When faced with the seeming victories of evil in our own current day perhaps you have oft thrown up your hands and asked what you could possibly do? Perhaps it seems to you like evil is winning and that perhaps God is nowhere present or at best an uninterested observer watching to see how things will play out. Maybe your own life is being stretched to the breaking point as you feel a darkness that is "packed quite full." What can you do? Here are some options:
1. Do nothing. Give up in despair.
2. Pray like crazy with little hope of the good side winning out. This is like number one above in some ways!
3. Pray and tell God that things have to work out according to your plan or you will sulk!
3. Pray with faith being willing to get out of the boat and get wet or to get dirty in the mud, taking on the enemy in practical combat. This would include a joyful relinquishment of all things to God, the return of thankfulness, and certain actions of living on your part-- and the possibility of God doing something amazingly different that is better than your wildest dreams.
Consider: Psalm 126:6 "He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him." Those crushed with the difficulties of life in this passage are actually still sowing seed IN THE MIDST OF THEIR WEEPING--still working, still sowing, still living-- rather than giving in to despair and doing nothing at all. Do that! Pray, Trust, and Go forward sowing in spite of what is going on around you-- then you will have a joyful time of reaping in your future.
Remember, the enemy wants you totally sidelined as in option 1 above. He hates option 2 but if he can make you a worried and hopeless pray-er all the better. Option 3 is quite acceptable to the enemy. However, if you will go all-in with God in total relinquishment and submission with joyful living then the doom of the enemy is at hand. Remember this about Jesus:
1. He prayed with loud cries and tears to His Father that the cup of wrath to be poured out on the cross might pass Him by. He was hoping for another way.
2. Jesus not only said but meant "Your will be done, not mine."
3. Our Lord went in full joy to the cross (taking on the enemy) due to the "joy that was set before Him." His trust and confidence in the midst of absolute darkness resulted in a joy unspeakable for Himself and others across the ages.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
"Follow Me!: The Gracious and Loving Command of Jesus
In The Cost of Discipleship Bonhoeffer writes: "On two separate occasions Peter received the call, 'Follow me.; It was the first and last word Jesus spoke to the disciple. A whole life lies between these two calls. The first occasion was by the lake of Gennesareth, when Peter left his nets and his craft and followed Jesus at his word. The second occasion is when the Risen Lord finds him back again at his old trade. Once again it is by the lake of Gennesareth, and once again the call is: "Follow me.""
Commentary: Is it not indeed true that the profound call to follow Jesus is a command to be obeyed based on the call of Jesus rather than an invitation to be considered, weighed and possibly accepted? As Bonhoeffer says: Peter, James, John, and Matthew all got the same command and they instantly obeyed. Why? Because they recognized they were in the presence of one who had the authority to demand their life. They immediately left everything and followed, having no idea where Jesus was going to lead them. No debate, no hesitation. And how gracious that our Lord may repeat the command in our own journey--perhaps on the tail of various trials and failures in life. It is a call of love and it is a call that demands that we also drop "our life" and jump with both feet into His.
I cannot help but be moved by the second call to follow given to Peter in John 21--following Peter's rejection and denial of Jesus. There is a beach party and Jesus and Peter go for a restoration walk on the beach. (Note that Jesus often did His most serious work one on one, away from others.) Well, John is following them. Is he trying to eaves-drop or is He just hoping to be close to His Lord also? Whatever the case, Peter has been given some insight into his future prior to his second "Follow Me!" And so Peter, knowing John is following, asks Jesus, "What about John?" And Peter gets the answer we all get when we are considering what others are going to do. Jesus says, "Don't consider or concern yourself with ___________. I am commanding YOU to follow me. And you must follow, no matter what others do."
Has Jesus told you to follow Him? What are you going to do? Will you obey in the face of not knowing where He might take you or what others might be doing?
Commentary: Is it not indeed true that the profound call to follow Jesus is a command to be obeyed based on the call of Jesus rather than an invitation to be considered, weighed and possibly accepted? As Bonhoeffer says: Peter, James, John, and Matthew all got the same command and they instantly obeyed. Why? Because they recognized they were in the presence of one who had the authority to demand their life. They immediately left everything and followed, having no idea where Jesus was going to lead them. No debate, no hesitation. And how gracious that our Lord may repeat the command in our own journey--perhaps on the tail of various trials and failures in life. It is a call of love and it is a call that demands that we also drop "our life" and jump with both feet into His.
I cannot help but be moved by the second call to follow given to Peter in John 21--following Peter's rejection and denial of Jesus. There is a beach party and Jesus and Peter go for a restoration walk on the beach. (Note that Jesus often did His most serious work one on one, away from others.) Well, John is following them. Is he trying to eaves-drop or is He just hoping to be close to His Lord also? Whatever the case, Peter has been given some insight into his future prior to his second "Follow Me!" And so Peter, knowing John is following, asks Jesus, "What about John?" And Peter gets the answer we all get when we are considering what others are going to do. Jesus says, "Don't consider or concern yourself with ___________. I am commanding YOU to follow me. And you must follow, no matter what others do."
Has Jesus told you to follow Him? What are you going to do? Will you obey in the face of not knowing where He might take you or what others might be doing?
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