C. S. Lewis - A Collection of Thoughts

Greetings All!

     Today you get another post of many different "thoughts" rather than one longer continuous thought.  Yet, unlike my last mailing sent out two weeks ago, these all come from one author - C. S. Lewis.  I've been going through three of his books lately and found them all very rewarding. This is just a sampling of short thoughts from him.  I trust you might find a few of these to be helpful as you mull them over, and that one or two might be used of God to encourage, challenge, or comfort you.

     At our men's group this morning we discussed our favorites from my previous mailing two weeks ago, and why each person found particular ones the most helpful. If you get a chance today, and would want to share with me what your particular favorites are from the list below, I'd be interested in receiving your feedback!  Enjoy.

"If everything comes simply by signing checks, you may forget that you are at every moment dependent upon God." 

"The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but God will make us good because He loves us."

"It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they will see God, for only the pure in heart want to."

"I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I knew that a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity." 

"We are not necessarily doubting God will do the best for us, we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be." 

"Don't shine so that others can see you. Shine, so that through you, others can see Him."

"Do not waste time bothering whether you "love" your neighbor; act as if you did."

"If God had granted all the silly prayers I've asked in my life, where would I be now?" 

"If you're thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you are embarking on something that will take the whole of you."

"Everyone thinks forgiveness is a wonderful idea until he has something to forgive."  

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... No one knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A man who gives into temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.  That is why bad people know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in." 

"If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world."

"God cannot give us happiness apart from Himself, because there is no such thing."

"It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God." 

"Life with God is not immunity from difficulties, but peace in difficulties."

"We must lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us."

With prayers for your continued growth in godliness, and your service in Jesus name, Pastor Jeff

The Reason For God - Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Greetings All!

     Today I bring you a selection from Tim Keller's best-selling book "The Reason For God - Belief in an Age of Skepticism."  If you have not read it, you have missed out on some very wise and convincing arguments for the Christian faith.  Many people have what we could call their "pat objections" for why they reject the Christian faith.  "There can't be just one true religion."  "How could a good God allow suffering."  "Science has disproved Christianity."   "How could a loving God send people to hell?"

     Keller takes on such objections and offers many well-reasoned responses to them.  In an age where people often tend to do little more choose a view that fits with their personal preferences (whether they've thought it through or not), Keller offers us some very logical and well-thought-through alternative perspectives, which challenge such pat objections to the core.  If you really want to be challenged to reconsider many issues from a fresh perspective, you will want to pick up a copy. For to miss out on this book is to miss out on an apologetic treat similar to that of reading C. S. Lewis, Os Guinness, Ravi Zacharias, and others.

       Our particular "thought" for today addresses the objection voiced by people who say, "I can't believe in Christianity because I believe in a God of love."  Enjoy.

I believe in a God of Love

       "During my college years and my early twenties, I, like so many others, questioned the Christian faith I was raised in. There were subjective reasons for my doubts. Christianity just didn't seem real to me experientially. I had not developed a prayer life and had never experienced God personally.  There were also intellectual problems I was having with Christianity, all of which I address elsewhere in this book. There was one, however, I will talk about here.  I was troubled by those Christians who stressed hellfire and damnation. Like so many of my generation I believed that if there was a core to all religions, it was a loving God. I wanted to believe in a God of love who accepted people regardless of their beliefs and practices.  So I began to take courses in the other major religions of the world -- Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Confucianism, and Judaism.  I have profited to this day from those studies. However, my explorations in other faiths proved me wrong on this particular point about the centrality of a loving God.

       I found no other religious text outside the Bible that said God created the world out of love and delight. Most ancient pagan religions believed the world was created through struggles and violent battles between opposing gods and supernatural forces. I turned to look more closely at Buddhism, the religion I liked the best at the time. However, despite its great emphasis on selflessness and detached service to others, Buddhism did not believe in a personal God at all, and love is the action of a person.

         Later on, after I become a minister, I was a speaker and panelist for several years in a monthly discussion program in Philadelphia between a Christian church and a mosque. Each month a speaker from the church and a speaker from the mosque would give a Biblical and Qu'ranic perspective on the topic. When we covered the topic of God's love, it was striking how different our conceptions were. I was told repeatedly by Muslim speakers that God was indeed loving in the sense of being merciful and kind to us. But when Christians spoke of the Lord as our Spouse, of knowing God intimately and personally, and of having powerful effusions of his love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, our Muslim friends balked. They told us that it was disrespectful, in their view, to speak of anyone knowing God personally.

       Today many of the skeptics I talk to say, as I once did, they can't believe in the God of the Bible who punishes and judges people, because they "believe in a God of Love."  I now ask, what makes them think God is love?  Can they look at life in the world today and say, "This proves that the God of the world is a God of love?"  Can they look at history and say, "This all shows that the God of history is a God of love?"  Can they look at the religious texts of the world and conclude that God is a God of love?  By no means is that the dominant, ruling attribute of God as understood in any of the major faiths. I must conclude that the source of the idea that God is Love is the Bible itself. And the Bible tells us that the God of love is also a God of judgment who will put all things in the world right in the end.

       The belief in a God of pure love -- who accepts and judges no one -- is a powerful act of faith.  Not only is there no evidence for it in the natural order, but there is almost no historical, religious textual support for it outside of Christianity.  The more one looks at it, the less justified [this objection] appears."

       Though many today will say, "all religions basically teach the same thing," all it takes is actually reading their religious texts to see that this is not so, as Keller, who has read them testifies.  In fact, when it comes to the issue of love, the Bible separates itself even further from the others by not only speaking of the love of God frequently, but even going as far as to declare that "God IS love" (I John 4:16).  God is not just loving, He is love.  In this regard as well, no other religion comes close.

       What many in western society today fail to see (disconnected as we are becoming from our past) is that our culture was influenced for two millennia by Christian thought and practice.  And, therefore, scores of the virtues that have come to be the rallying cry of our secular society, are not virtues our secular culture developed on it's own, but virtues our culture borrowed (or stole) from Christianity, washed of their rooting in Christianity, and tried to claim as their own.

       It's what could (or should) be called, cultural plagiarism -- with no credit given to the original author of those virtues.  Or as one friend put it, our culture has borrowed "lumber" it removed from the structural framework of the house called Christianity, but washed of all it's Christian moorings and meaning, and then made to fit a secularized ideal.  Other cultures stress honor and shame, compliance and conformity, obedience and punishment.  But in a culture influenced for many centuries by the teachings of Jesus Christ, and the redemption that came to us through the sacrifice of Himself for those who didn't deserve it; a culture influenced by the truth that love is the greatest of all gifts (I Corinthians 13), and that God himself is love (as His disciples alone declared), it is quite impossible for love not to be seen the queen of virtues.

In the Bonds of Christian Affection, Pastor Jeff

The Lessons of Saint Nicholas

Greetings and Merry Christmas to All!

     This week's "thought" follows the theme of Christmas. It's a selection I took from another Advent Devotional Series, this time sent out by my former alma mater, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where I received my MDiv.  It was on Day 4, December 6th, and written by Dr. Ken Barnes, Associate Professor of Workplace Theology and Business Ethics.  In it he gives us helpful historical insights into the part St. Nicholas has come to play in the Christmas celebration (at least here in the States) and how we could respond to his inclusion in it -- which is not likely to go away anytime soon.

     
     I would like to take this time to wish all my friends near and far a Merry Christmas and pray that no matter where you are, or how busy things get, you might keep your eyes on the all-important truth the day is meant to emphasize -- the incarnation of God in Christ.  As C.S. Lewis so poignantly reminded us: "The Central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man."  What truth could be more astounding or life-changing than that?  Enjoy.

The Lessons of Saint Nicholas

“…the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.” 

(Clement Clarke Moore, 1822)

     We’ve no doubt all have heard the famous poem attributed to the late Dr. Clement Clarke Moore, former Professor of Greek and Oriental Literature at New York’s General Theological Seminary, entitled “T'was the Night Before Christmas.”  Supposedly written as a holiday bedtime story for his own children (he had nine of them), the simple little ditty forever evokes our popular images of Santa Claus, the “jolly old elf,” complete with his white beard, rosy cheeks, plump belly and “bundle of toys.”

     Based on convoluted versions of Norse and British folklore, the latter producing “Father Christmas,” and the ancient Dutch story of “Sinterklass” (Saint Nicholas), the contemporary version of Santa Claus is sadly quite wide of the mark. Of course, if you had grown up in an Eastern European household as a child, you would know that today, December 6, and not Christmas day, is actually the day when children receive gifts in honor of the 4th Century Bishop of Myra, the actual Saint Nicholas.

     The Bishop, it is said, was born into a wealthy aristocratic family, and upon receipt of his inheritance considered quite literally the words of Jesus: “Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me,” (Matt 19:21). Legend has it that in response to God’s grace, he did just that, and gave his wealth not only to the poor,  but uniquely to poor children, especially young girls who would have otherwise experienced lives of destitution and exploitation. He was indeed a saint if ever there was one.

     So how did we go from celebrating the benevolence of St. Nicholas on his traditional feast day (December 6) to giving gifts on Christmas Day?  The answer, it would seem, rests with none other than Martin Luther, the progenitor of the Reformation itself, the 500th anniversary of which we celebrated earlier this year. As legend has it, Luther found the veneration of saints to be unhelpful and a distraction to the proper worship of Christ alone.  So, he sought to redirect the popular tradition of exchanging gifts on the feast of St. Nicholas to the feast of the “Christkind” (the feast of the Christ child), a.k.a. Christmas.

     In some respects, it wasn’t a bad idea. Surely we should focus our attention on the work of Christ and not the work of others.  But in two very important ways, it turns out to have been folly.  FIRST, it backfired quite spectacularly.  Instead of turning our attention to the great gift-giver himself, Jesus Christ, gift-giving in the form of crass consumerism has appropriated one of our highest holidays. Luther would be nothing less than scandalized to see what has become of Christmas.

     SECOND, we lost the truly inspirational story of the real St. Nicholas, whose retelling may inspire us to follow his example and use our material goods to bless the lives of others in devotion, and in response, to the grace of the “Christkind.”

     As a pastor, I know how easy it is to critique the way Christmas is observed in many places around the world (not just America). The commercialization of the holiday has spread far and wide and made it difficult to simply focus on Jesus' coming, offer Him our grateful praise, and kneel in heartfelt adoration before the One who was "the Word made flesh."  And that's the truth that's so life-changing. The other more superfluous aspects of the celebration can, and undeniably do, generate fond memories and sentimental feelings in believers and unbelievers alike. And that's fine I guess (though it can turn into idolatry when one seeks, desires, and delights in those things more than Jesus.)

     Yet, what I've found to be true is that unless our primary focus is on Jesus and the miracle of His incarnation -- what C. S. Lewis rightly calls the "central miracle asserted by Christians" -- our holy endeavors will often end by New Year's Eve, or shortly thereafter. They tend to "lose the feeling of Christmas"  once they take down the tree and put Jesus, the lights, the creche scenes, and decorations, back into the closet until next Christmas.

     That's why it's so important to remember that the truth we celebrate at Christmas is not simply for Christmas!  It's a truth that should change the way we view everything and do everything, every day of the year!  For how can one believe that God the Son, the Word (ie: the Logos, or Wisdom of God, who was with God and was God from the beginning -- John 1:1-4) actually became flesh in the Christ child and not see the incredibly profound implications that has for all of life? 

     For is Jesus was a man, and nothing more, then the rest of the Gospel story is emptied of all its life-changing power and life-saving significance. If the baby in the manger was a mere human child and no more, the story is quaint, but no more worthy of our notice than the story of any other child, born in any other place, under adverse conditions.

     Surely the Christmas celebration should involve JOY (who wouldn't rejoice that our Savior came to earth!), and it should also involve GIVING (after all, God gave His son), and it should invoke a sense of REVERENCE at the glories of heaven revealed in the birth of Jesus (as the Shepherds discovered).  But most of all (if it's effect is to be lasting) it should be centered upon Jesus and lead the heart to worship and adore Him as the Christ. For it's only when the heart is driven to kneel in worship before Jesus, and see Him as the object of that worship, that we show we really comprehend what took place at Christmas.

Merry Christmas!  Pastor Jeff

C. S. Lewis - Faith, Christianity and the Church

Greetings All!

A post by a friend on Facebook yesterday reminded me of the wisdom of C. S. Lewis and how I have not delved into one of his books for quite some time. So, to correct such an inexcusable oversight, I decided to share this excerpt from his books, "Selected Literary Essay, De Descriptione Temporum" (#1)  and  "Letters: C.S. Lewis/Don Giovanni Calabria" (#2). Though both written in 1953, Lewis simply points out a biblical truth spoken of by both Jesus and the apostle John (Matthew 12:43-45 / I John 2:18-19). I hope one might see how it applies to our present day situation. Enjoy.

"Whereas all of history was for our [European] ancestors, divided into two periods, the pre-Christian and Christian, for us it falls into three -- the pre-Christian, Christian and what may reasonably be called the "post-Christian." This surely must make a momentous difference... [for] it appears to me that the second change is even more radical than the first. Christians and Pagans had much more in common than either has with post-Christian.  The gap between those who worship different gods is not as wide as that between those who worship and those who do not... That Europe [and I will add America] can come out of Christianity "by the same door as she went in" and find herself back where she was, is not what happens. A post-Christian man is not a Pagan.  You might as well think that a married woman recovers her virginity by divorce.  The post-Christian is cut off from the Christian past, and therefore cut off doubly from the Pagan past..."

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     "What you (Don Giovanni) say about the present state of mankind is true; indeed, it is even worse than you say. For [present day people] not only neglect the law of Christ, but even the Law of Nature as known by the Pagans. For now they do not blush at adultery, treachery, perjury, theft, and other crimes which not only Christians, but the pagans and the barbarous, have themselves denounced.  They err who say "the world is turning pagan again." I wish that it were!  The truth is that we are falling into a much worse state.  "Post-Christian man" is not the same as "pre-Christian man."  He is as far removed as a virgin from a widow...

    Regarding the moral condition of our times (since you bid me prattle on) I think this: Older people, as we both are, are always "praisers of times past." They always think the world is worse than it was in their younger days. Therefore we ought to take care lest we go wrong.  But with that proviso, certainly I feel that very grave dangers hang over us. This results from the apostasy of the great part of Europe [and America, I might add] from the Christian faith.

     Hence we are in a worse state than the one we were in before we received the Faith. For no one returns from Christianity to the same state they were in before Christianity, but a worse state; the difference between a pagan and an apostate is the difference between an unmarried woman and an adulterous. For faith perfects nature, but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light, but also the natural light which pagans possessed.

     But God, who is the God of mercies, even now has not altogether cast off the human race. In younger people, although we may see much cruelty and lust, yet at the same time do we not see very many sparks of virtues which perhaps our own generation lacked? How much courage, how much concern for the poor do we see!  We must not despair. And (among us) a not inconsiderable number are now returning to the Faith." 

     I have seen what Lewis (and Jesus) are speaking about. The "pagan," be that person polytheistic or monotheistic, has some semblance of a code of virtues based on that belief in a divine being.  It's a pre-Christian similarity to the Christian faith which makes the true pagan open to the teachings of Jesus.  In fact, the pagan who is attracted to Christianity is generally drawn to it because he is moved by the hope he sees for redemptive change.

     But the disillusioned post-Christian is not in that category. The post-Christian has turned against the Christian faith and frequently becomes hostile to it. This is a group which has as some of it's most avid adherents, those raised in the church (or those who simply tasted of the cultural aspects of Christianity, without ever truly embracing Christ) and found mere Christian moralism lacking or unloving.  Such a person often refuses to even entertain the thought that Christianity can bring about positive change. Their nominal associations with the faith, as the old saying goes, gives them "an ax to grind."   Some of the most anti-Christian people I've ever met are not unbelieving pagans, but those who "went out from us" (I John 2:19). They were people who were somehow connected to the Church and found it lacking.  Yet as John goes on to point out:  "They did not really belong to us, for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. Their going out showed that none of them belonged to us"  (I John 2:19b).

     Unlike the pagan who still has the hope of change, they have turned against any hope in redemptive change, and in losing it, feel the grace of Jesus is ineffective.  And when one gives up on redemptive change, they resort to other methods to bring about change -- including the use of power -- which is often aimed at the church to demean or suppress it.  (And yes, I am well-aware that earnest Christian people impatient for change, have also fallen prey to the use of power instead of grace). Which brings us to another insight of Lewis: "The descent to hell is easy, and those who begin by worshipping power soon worship evil."  May that never be true of us!

     Just some food for thought.

In the Service of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Thought-Provoking one-liner's from C.S. Lewis

Greetings All,

     Today's "thoughts" are all short, sweet, thought-provoking one-liner's from C.S. Lewis.  I trust one, two or more might speak truth to your heart. Enjoy!

"The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self -- all your wishes and precautions -- to Christ."

Mere Christianity (1952)

"When Christ died, he died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only person in the world."

Mere Christianity (1952)

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

The Problem of Pain (1940)

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis  (2006)

“A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.”

The Great Divorce  (1945)

"There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."

The Great Divorce (1945)

“The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred.” 

Mere Christianity (1952)

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."

Mere Christianity (1952)

"We do not want merely to see beauty . . . We want something else which can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it." 

Transposition and Other Addresses (1949) 

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

Mere Christianity (1952)

"The sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal."

The Weight of Glory (1949)

“It is safe to tell the pure in heart that they shall see God, for only the pure in heart want to.”

The Problem of Pain (1940)

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."

God In The Dock (1970)

"When we Christians behave badly, or fail to behave well, we are making Christianity unbelievable to the outside world."

Mere Christianity (1952)

“Each day we are becoming a creature of splendid glory or one of unthinkable horror.” 

Mere Christianity (1952)

"To love at all is to be vulnerable." 

The Four Loves (1960)

“I sometimes wonder if all pleasures are not substitutes for joy.” 

Mere Christianity (1952)

May the Joy of the LORD be your strength, Pastor Jeff

I would simply like to wish everyone a joyful, blessed, and soul-enriching Christmas celebration!

Greetings All,

     This week I would simply like to wish everyone a joyful, blessed, and soul-enriching Christmas celebration!
     My prayer for each one of you is that one night this week (before Friday comes) --

After friends have left, and the all the kids have headed to bed;

After all the electronic devices have been turned off,

And the lights have been dimmed,

And all is quiet...

May you find the time to spend just a few moments earnestly focusing on the miracle,

Offering God your grateful praise for the unspeakable gift of His Son,

And silently worshiping Him who took on human flesh

to redeem us from sin and make us His own.

"Sweet hymns of praise,

In grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise His holy name!

Christ is the LORD! Oh praise His name forever!

His pow'r and glory evermore proclaim!"

Adolphe C. Adam

(Translated from the French by John S. Dwight)

"The Son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God."

C. S. Lewis

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

10 Authors from "101 Quotable Christians"

Greetings All,

     Unlike the more lengthy "thoughts" of the last two weeks, I chose to offer you a few smaller thoughts that I came across while reading a book entitled, "101 Quotable Christians," published by Barbour Publishing and listing no author.  I trust you might find some of them to be insightful and encouraging as I myself did when I first read them. They cover a variety of topics, and come to you from ten of the 101 different authors. Enjoy!

"The goodness of God breaking forth into a desire to communicate good, was the cause and beginning of the creation."  William Law (1686 - 1761)

"Catch a man at the moment when he is really poor in spirit, and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, "By love! I'm being humble," and almost immediately pride -- pride at his own humility -- will appear."   C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)

"I need Christ, not something that resembles Him."   C. S. Lewis

"If our lives are easy, and if all we ever attempt for God is what we know we can handle, how will we ever experience His omnipotence in our lives?" Anne Graham Lotz (1948 -     )

"Satan cannot create anything new, cannot create anything at all. He must steal what God has created. Thus he twists love and God's wonderful gift of sex into lust and sadism and myriad perversions.  He disfigures the heart's deep desire to worship God and persuades us to bow before lesser gods of lust, power or money."     Catherine Marshall  (1914 - 1983)

"Truth is objective because God exists outside ourselves; it is universal because God is above all; it is constant because God is eternal.  Absolute truth is absolute because it originates from the Original."   Josh McDowell  (1939 -      )

"Because God is holy, He cannot look on sin with indifference."   Josh McDowell

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D. L. Moody (1837 - 1899)

"The moral man is as guilty as the rest. His morality cannot save him... It is a favorite thing with infidels to set their own (moral) standard and to measure themselves by other people. But that will not do in the Day of Judgment. That aside, now let us use God's law as a balance weight..." 

"Satan is willing to have us worship anything, however sacred -- the Bible, a crucifix, the church -- if only we do not worship God Himself." 

"I believe the memory is "the worm that never dies"... the memory is never cleansed (entirely) of obscene stories and unclean acts.  Even if a man repents and reforms, he often has to fight the past."

"Just like the moon's light, our light is borrowed light."

"The world can get on very well without you and me, but the world cannot get on without Christ, and therefore we must testify of Him... It seems to me that if we get one look at Christ in His love and beauty, then the world and its pleasures will look very small to us."

"Some people tell us that it does not make any difference what a man believes if he is only sincere.  One church is just as good as another if you are only sincere.  I do not believe that any greater delusion ever came out of the pit of hell than that."

"Pentecost isn't over yet."

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"Christ counted it no humiliation to be able to do nothing of Himself, but to be always and absolutely dependent on the Father."   Andrew Murray (1828 - 1917)

"You are in danger of substituting prayer and Bible study for living fellowship with God, the living interchange of giving Him your love, your heart, your life, and receiving from Him His love, His life, His Spirit.  Your needs and their expression, your desire to pray humbly and earnestly and believingly may so occupy you, that the light of His countenance and the joy of His love cannot enter you."  Andrew Murray

"If our hearts are full of our own wretched, "I am________...," we will have no ears to hear His glorious, soul-satisfying, "I AM."   Hannah Whitall Smith (1832 -1911)

"Put together all the tenderest love you know of, multiply it by infinity, and you will begin to see glimpses of the love and grace of God."  Hannah Whitall Smith

"The only thing of my very own that I contribute to my redemption, is the sin from which I need to be redeemed."   William Temple (1881 - 1944)

"Before the first star was kindled, before the first living creature began to sing the praise of its Creator, he loved His Church with an everlasting love."  Charles Spurgeon (1834 - 1892)

I trust that that a few were helpful or encouraging!     In His Service, Pastor Jeff