Faithfulness

Relationships are no longer for life. Percentages that are reported vary for new marriages ending in divorce, but they range anywhere from 20-45%. This is prevalent among born-again Christians as well as non-Christians. Christianity does not seem to matter much. Among marriages and committed relationships faithfulness is no longer a concept that enters into the long-term plan. No longer 'In love'? Then time to make a change and move on. Faithfulness also has changed in other areas of life. Whereas a man used to work for the same company for most of his life-time, the time spent with at one job has changed drastically. Every five years or so, it feels like it is time to make a change. Retirement pensions through companies are rare and you now have to fund your own retirement through careful planning and saving. Church hopping is common place. Don't like what your church has done in the last year? Find another one. Is the pastor being too judgmental about your lifestyle? Find another church. Just don't 'feel' fed anymore at your church? Time to look for a new one.

I have been looking at faithfulness and how absent it is. Absent in marriages, absent in families, absent in churches, absent in jobs, and absent in friendships. In a 'me' culture that puts everything at our finger tips, it is difficult to remain faithful when the next best thing is always right around the corner. Yet God is faithful. It is everywhere in scripture. Psalm 136 which repeats this phrase underscores how important it is: "for his steadfast love endures forever" No one wants love that is not steadfast or does not endure forever. If we knew that we would have love for five years after which it would turn to hatred, we would all run from it. No, faithfulness in love is fundamental to love. Without faithfulness, love is not love. Without faithfulness, any of the other fruit of the spirit is pointless. Being good for a few days does nobody any good. Loving your wife for four years is not a recipe for a life-time of marriage. Being kind for the morning of a day, leaves everyone in the afternoon to deal with the grouchy you.

But Israel was told at the beginning, "Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations." (Deuteronomy 7:9). God is your God. What type of God? The Faithful God. He keeps his covenant and has steadfast love. For how long? To a thousand generations. "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he." (Deut 32:4). "Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds." (Psalm 36:5) Let's meditate on his faithfulness and "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." (Hebrews 10:23). And finally, let us pray for strength to be faithful in all things.

“Present touches Eternity”

February 28

"The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them" CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, p227

February 27

Two quotes for today since the first one is rather short: "Why are nuns nicer than monks and school-girls nicer than schoolboys, when women are not in general nicer than men?" ~CS Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

The second one: "Remember what St. John says "If our heart condemns us, God is stronger than our heart'. The feeling of being, or not being, forgiven and loved, is not what matters. One must come down to brass tacks. If there is a particular sin on your conscience, repent and confess it. If there isn't, tell the despondent devil not to be silly." ~CS Lewis, Letters to an American Lady

War and Love

February 26

"All our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest, and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not. Christianity does not simply replace our natural life and substitute a new one; it is rather a new organization which exploits, to its own supernatural ends, these natural materials." ~CS Lewis, "Learning in war-time", p54

February 25

Since we are in university pursuing learning this quote seems quite appropriate. Lewis addresses the problem of studying at the university while the war is raging in Europe. "….every Christian who comes to a university must at all times face a question compared with which the question raised by the war are relatively unimportant. He must ask himself how it is right, or even psychologically possible, for creatures who are every moment advancing either to Heaven or hell to spend any fraction of the little time allowed them in this world on such comparative trivialities as literature or art, mathematics or biology." CS Lewis, "Learning in War-time", p48

February 24

"Nature never taught men that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me…. I do not see how the "fear" of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags. And if nature had never awakened certain longings in me, huge areas of what I can now mean by the "love" of God would never, so far as I can see, have existed" CS Lewis, The Four Loves, p20

– Couple comments for further thought… Does this connect with Romans 1 (particularly v 18-20)? Secondly – his comment about 'awakening certain longings' does this refer to the Joy he speaks of in this autobiography Surprised by Joy

The Weight of Glory

February 23

"If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power or both. This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form." CS Lewis, Problem of Pain p560

February 22

Lewis speculates about glory that is to come and then warns against too much of such thought. He provides this directive when contemplating glory. "It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's 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." CS Lewis, Weight of Glory, p45.

Once again Lewis compares self-reflection to reflecting on that which exists outside of oneself. This is a recurring theme in Lewis literature, and is indicative of Lewis practical and logical nature. Throughout his Letters to an American Lady he repeatedly gives advice, acknowledges the difficulty of following the advice, but nevertheless says – just follow it. In the beginning of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe the Faun has intentions of betraying Lucy to the Evil White Witch. The Faun, after spending time with Lucy, feels complete remorse and begins to break down in self-loathing. Lucy's advice (suggestive of Lewis) to the Faun is for him to simply do what is right. Yes, the Faun felt deeply, and yes Lucy is sympathizes, but the plan of action remains clear. The Faun himself recognizes this when in response to Lucy's request to let her go he says, "Of course I will, I've got to, I see that now." While Lewis has a phenomenal grasp on human intellect, emotion, and logic - and he loves to delve into the fantasy world – he continues to remain engaged with the reality of ethical obligations in his writings and the Platonic concept of morality, which for him flows from God.

More Lewis Quotes

February 21

I will use one more quote from the "Efficacy of Prayer". I do this because Lewis states that we can't stay at the question "Does Prayer work?" Lewis continues to give us a more definite answer. "Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctuary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In it God shows Himself to us. That He answers prayers is corollary – not necessarily the most important one – from that revelation. What He does is learned from what He is." And just in case we fall into the temptation to place people on different levels of prayer and influence (Mr. So and So is a prayer warrior, when he prays you know God will answer) Lewis leaves us with this statement – "When God becomes man, that Man, of all others, is least comforted by God, at His greatest need. There is a mystery which, even if I had the power, I might not have the courage to explore." CS Lewis, "The Efficacy of Prayer"

February 20

This quote I found in an essay entitled "The Efficacy of Prayer". It builds on the quotation from February 12. Lewis is introducing the concept of prayer and its efficacy. He states, "Now even if all the things that people prayed for happened, which they do not, this would not prove what Christians mean by the efficacy of prayer. For prayer is request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them." CS Lewis, "The Efficacy of Prayer"

February 19

"No man who says I'm as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy do, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority which the patient refuses to accept." ~CS Lewis, The Screwtape Proposes a Toast, p291

February 18

"Of course we have all been taught what to do with suffering – offer it in Christ to God as our little, little share of Christ's suffering – but it is hard to do. I am afraid I can better imagine, than really enter into, this. I suppose that if one loves a person enough one would actually wish to share every part of his life; and I suppose the great saints thus really want to share the divine sufferings and that is how they can actually desire pain." ~CS Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, p53

Bread of Life

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." John 6:35

I have been blessed tremendously in my current living situation. I live with a pastor and his wife, renting an upstairs room from them. Part of the agreement is home-cooked meals that I may enjoy with them each evening. For those of you who know me (or have lived with me), this is a genuine blessing. My cooking skills leave a lot to be desired, and on Hoyt Street I was banned from using the kitchen to cook for the guys. So for several evening every week I sit down at the table and enjoy a wonderful home cooked meal. Last night was no exception - Ham, home-made applesauce with cinnamon, fried succulent plantains, spicy pasta with asparagus, and chocolate pudding with spiced whip cream for dessert! It was a true delight and I savored every bite, went back for seconds, and even some thirds. I was content and satisfied. I love these dinners and have time to sit down and enjoy the meal.

Afterward dinner, cleaning up, and doing some dishes, we went to Campus Church at Liberty University. Sitting in the energetic Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC) sanctuary, we were witnesses to baptisms. How wonderful it is to see friends public confessing their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and receiving the sign of his covenant with them. "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" Romans 6:4. Walk in newness of life. I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger.

Two pictures of bread. One satisfies my physical body, one my spiritual. Without physical bread and water I quickly become irritable, in 24 hours I may begin have light headaches, and fatigue may quickly follow. Yet, that is only my physical body. The spiritual hunger is much more important. CS Lewis says if we look at death as the end of your life, we miss the whole dimension of the promises of God. But is that not what many of us do each day? "I have to make sure I eat, otherwise I get headaches" – "What's for dinner tonight" – "I am really looking forward to dinner tomorrow, we are having Thai" – "I would love to have a Hardees burger right now" – Legitimate statements, but is the spiritual cravings addressed in the same way?

I make a point to read my Bible at minimum a couple times a day. I meditate on Scripture and patch my free time with diverse readings. But this morning I ask myself if I crave the bread Christ promises to us more than my daily bread. O Lord, give me strength to guard my devotions like I guard my meals. To make reading, prayer, and meditation as regular as a breakfast, a lunch, or a dinner. Taste, savor, and explore the word of my Father with the much greater delight as when I experience a new dish of plantains. "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!" (Psalm 34:8) or "For he satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness" (Ps. 107:9)

Joy in Service

February 17

Looking for God – or Heaven – by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters or Stratford as one of the places. Shakespeare is in one sense present at every moment in every play. But he is never present in the same way as Falstaff or Lady Macbeth. Nor is he diffused through the play like a gas." ~Christian Reflections, "The Seeing Eye" p168, CS Lewis

February 16

"I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at the first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes." MC, p123 – CS Lewis

How much time do you spend analyzing our own situation? Every human has this thing called conscience - a little voice, a nagging feeling, a gentle tug guiding your action, your speech, your daily interactions. – You may listen to it, you may ignore it. You may understand it, be 'in tune' with it, or you may scoff at it. Nevertheless, at some level it is there. When first encountering Christianity – you hear about Christ, but inevitably reading through the scripture containing words from God, the one who created the conscience – you encounter a way of life. You shall not kill, you shall not steal, love the Lord your God, no idols, love your neighbor as yourself, be merciful, show humility, honor your parents. A short list of just some things you find all throughout the Bible. It is tempting to begin working on these principles, setting up goals, creating progress plans, and scheduling periodical assessments. Read the quote by Lewis again. Knowledge is there, but the light points to something brighter - a mirror filled with light. Do not waste time trying to create energy from nothing, recognize the power is already there. Focus on connecting, identifying with the source and become a conduit of the light.

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

Love

February 15

"If anyone had… been watching the course of Evolution he would probably have expected that it was going to go on to heavier and heavier armor. But he would have been wrong. The future had a card up its sleeve which nothing tat that time would have led him to expect. It was going to spring on him little, naked, unarmored animals which had brains: and with those brains they were going to master the whole planet." Mere Christianity, p172 CS Lewis

February 14

Since today is Valentine's Day, it only seems right to have a quote on Love. CS Lewis wrote a classic work called The Four Loves. In that book is one of his most famous and popular quotes:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable." The Four Loves, CS Lewis

Joy and Prayer

February 13

"Those who have attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless attained everlasting life in the vision of God doubtless know very well that it is no mere bribe, but the very consummation of their earthly discipleship; but we who have not yet attained it cannot know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know this in the same way, and cannot even begin to know it at all except by continuing to obey and finding the first reward of our obedience in the our increasing power to desire the ultimate reward." The Weight of Glory (p28) CS Lewis

February 12

In addressing the junior devil about the problem of distraction in the humans mind, the senior devil argues that he must encourage maintaining the status quo throughout. Quickly, we are able to get fixed into a rhythm of prayer that includes certain key elements that we find essential. Our prayer cycles around these items. However, we should examine ourselves, prepare ourselves before prayer, focus on the time that has passed since we have last prayed, and examine that period. What sin occurred? What temptations were fought? What worries presented themselves? Pray specifically and prayer becomes effective. Ask and it will be given. I have heard of the analogy of prayer and darts and I think it may be useful. When playing darts, the player does not blindly close his eyes and throw the darts hoping to hit the target. No. The player focuses on the bulls eye, he knows his target, takes aim, and shoots. So it must be with prayer.

"When this, or any other distraction, crosses his mind you ought to encourage him to thrust it away by sheer will power and to try to continue the normal prayer as if nothing has happened; once he accepts the distraction as his present problem and lays that before the Enemy and makes it the main theme of his prayers and endeavors, then, so far from doing good, you have done harm. Anything, even a sin, which has the total effect of moving him close up to the Enemy, makes against us in the long run." Screwtape Letters Ch27, CS Lewis

February 11

"Again, in a sense, you may say that no temptation is ever overcome until we stop trying to overcome it – throw up the sponge. But then you could not 'stop trying' in the right way and for the right reason until you had tried your very hardest. And, in yet another sense, handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, meant that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says." ~Mere Christianity p121, CS Lewis

February 10

"That walk I now remembered. It seemed to me that I had tasted heaven then. If only such a moment could return! But what I never realized was that it had returned – that the remembering of that walk was itself a new experience of just the same kind. True, it was desire, not possession. But then what I had felt on the walk had also been desire, and only possession in so far as that kind of desire is itself desirable, is the fullest possession we can know on earth; or rather, because the very nature of Joy makes nonsense of our common distinction between having and wanting. There, to have is to want and to want is to have."

This section is found in a chapter of Miracle of Joy – in one of the sections where Lewis clearly addresses the concept of Joy and focuses on it's elusive aspect. Even the senior devil is not able to define Joy. In letter 11 of The Screwtape Letters the author of the letter explains that that the causes of laughter stems from Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy. "Laughter at such a time [Joy] shows that they are not the real cause. What that real cause is we do not know. Something like it is expressed in much of that detestable art which the humans call Music, and something like it occurs in Heaven – a meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience, quite opaque to us." Joy does not necessarily need an identifiable earthly cause. For Lewis Joy does not have a direct cause and effect on this earth. There is something additional that needs to be there. In some sense, I believe, this component would be the feeling within humans that their purpose includes something which is not part of the physical world. Joy [or possibly gratitude and praise?] comes when things are experienced in their true setting understanding that something else must be the source of the beauty.

Lewis – Morality, Love, and weeping

February 9

St. John's saying that God is love has long been balanced in my mind against the remark of a modern author (M. Denis de Rougemont) that "love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god"; which of course can be re-stated in the form "begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god." This balance seems to me an indispensable safeguard. If we ignore it the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God. ~The Four Loves (p7) CS Lewis

February 8

I am very sorry indeed to hear that anxieties again assail you. (By the way, don't "weep inwardly" and get a sore throat. If you must weep, weep: a good honest howl! I suspect we – and especially, my sex – don't cry enough now-a-days. Aeneas and Hector and Beowulf, Roland and Lancelot blubbered like schoolgirls, so why shouldn't we?). Letters to an American Lady, (p25) CS Lewis

February 7

"At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingles with the splendors we see. But all the leaves of the New testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in." ~The Weight of Glory (p43), CS Lewis

February 6

So six entries have already gone by and I still have not used a quote from the Chronicles of Narnia. Much too long. After Aslan had revived from the stone table, the battle is over and Lucy and Susan are discussing what just happened and speaking about Edmund:

"Does he know," whispered Lucy to Susan, "what Aslan did for him? Does he know what the arrangement with the Witch really was?"

"Hush! No. Of course not," said Susan.

"Oughtn't he to be told?" said Lucy.

"Oh, surely not," said Susan. "It would be too awful for him. Think how you'd feel if you were he.

"All the same I think he ought to know," said Lucy. But at that moment they were interrupted.

CS Lewis – Quotes and Thoughts

February 2

In letters to an American Lady, Lewis responds to a letter that [presumably] relates a story about job-hunting and the difficulty that comes with that. Lewis muses:

"I suppose – tho' the person who is not suffering feels shy about saying it to the person who is – that it is good for us to be cured of the illusion of "independence". For of course independence, the state of being indebted to no one, is eternally impossible. Who, after all, is more totally dependent than what we call the man "of independent means". Every shirt he wears is made by other people out of other organisms and the only difference between him and us is that even the money whereby he pays for it was earned by other people." ~Letters to an American Lady, CS Lewis, P20

February 3

Speaking on the subject of glory:

"The sense that in this universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, to bridge some chasms that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret. And surely, from this point of view, the promise of glory, in the sense described, becomes highly relevant to our deep desire. For glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgement, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last." ~Weight of Glory, p40-41

February 4

On Christian behavior and morality:

"Morality, then, seems to be concerned with three things. Firstly, with fair play and harmony between individuals. Secondly, with what might be called tidying up or harmonizing the things inside each individual. Thirdly, with the general purpose of human life as a whole: what man was made for: what course the whole fleet ought to be on: what tune the conductor of the band wants it to play." ~Mere Christianity, CS Lewis, Book 3, p67

February 5

The Senior Devil's advice to a junior on how to allow Christianity in the life of his target. He says:

"What we want, if men become Christians at all, is to keep them in the state of mind I call 'Christianity And'. You know – Christianity and the Crisis,…. Christianity and Physical Research…. If they must be Christians let them at least be Christians with a difference. Substitute for the faith itself some Fashion with a Christian colouring. Work on their horror of the Same Old Thing." ~The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis, Ch25 p257

CS Lewis – Day One

I am registered for a class this semester entitled "Thought of CS Lewis". In this class we will be exploring Lewis' writings as it relates to philosophy and theology, and part of the assignment is keeping a daily journal on notable quotes from his works. I am a big fan of the Screwtape Letters and give you this quote for February 1, 2010.

"And now for your blunders. On your own shoing you first of all al-lowed the patient to read a book he really enjoyed, because he enjoyed it and not in order to make clever remarks about it to his new friends. In the second place, you allowed him to walk down to the old mill and have tea there – a walk through country he really likes, and taken alone. In other words you allowed him two real positive Pleasures." ~CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters, 13

This quote from the screwtape letters, from a senior 'devil' to a young understudy, highlights CS Lewis understanding of Joy and pleasure. There is happiness, fleeting pleasures, and there is a true joy and pleasure that satisfies the created human. It satisfies the pleasure that a man can find in God's pure creation, and this as the senior 'devil' rightly understands is dangerous. In Lewis' own description of his conversion, he repeatedly highlights this concept of joy – ever elusive to him, but always there. What does this mean? When we read, do we read for the pure enjoyment of reading? When we pray, do we draw close to God for the peace and joy it brings? When we study God's word, do we study to grow in knowledge of our creator? Live in this creation, enjoying the revelation as a precious gift from God.