C S Lewis' Faith - What was the starting point?

"Yes," said Queen Lucy, "In our world, too, a Stable  once had something inside that was bigger than our whole world."
   -- From Chronicles of Narnia, by C S Lewis



The  Stable on the inside was bigger than the Stable on the outside

C S Lewis' faith was founded on the reality of the Incarnation: that God Himself took on human form and came to live among us, purposing to die for our sins and pay the penalty for our sins  to God Himself.

Lewis was a renowned student of ancient literature and was familiar with the age-old theme of a dying god who is raised to life again.

What drew him to Christianity was the growing conviction that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the truth behind the myths.

The dreams of ancient pagan religions actually happened when God did in fact, take on human flesh, in the God-man of His Son, and then died for our atonement.

The Incarnation was not just a beautiful dream, a fantasy of human imagination, but was a historical reality.

In Lewis' day, and for years before, and now, the secular worldview of many scholars was to look at Jesus as a great teacher and a wise man, but certainly not the Son of God, God in the flesh.

But Lewis held at the doctrine of the Incarnation was an essential doctrine of he Christian faith.

"The central miracle asserted by Christians," he wrote, "is the Incarnation."

It is "the Grand Miracle," and the purpose of this Grand Miracle is to do for us what we could never do for ourselves."

Terry Glaspey comments on Lewis' view,

     But supposing God became a man -- suppose our human
     nature which can suffer and die, was amalgamated with God's
     nature in one Person -- then that Person could help us.

     He could surrender His will and suffer and die, because He
     was God.....But we cannot share God's dying unless God dies,
     and He cannot die except by being a man. That is the sense in
     which He pays our debt, and suffers for us what He Himself
     need not suffer at all.

     Some are willing to conceive of Him as a great religious
     genius, applauding His high ethical demands upon humanity
     and cheering His concern for justice and righteousness....
     But if this is all we understand of Jesus, we have failed to
     truly understand Him....

     To put Jesus on the same level with Mohammed, Confucius,
     or Buddha is not one of the options left open to us. By the
     claims He made, He significantly parted company with those
     whom we would consider great moral teachers.

     He claimed to be something more than that.  He claimed to
     be God in the flesh. If He is not who He said He was, then
     He is either an evil liar or a crazy person.

        -- From C S Lewis, His Life and Thought,                    by Terry Glaspey


The claims of Jesus Christ compel us to a make a decision -- was He who He said He was, or was He a great cosmic con-man?

He didn't give us any other option.

He didn't intend to. 

     Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No
     one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew
     me, you would know my Father as well..."
                                   -- John 14:6-7

Do we need to hang our harps?

I am back in Psalms this morning. Thinking how grateful I am there are 150 of them! The first verses of Psalm 137 surprised me today with these words that reflect so accurately our own current situation:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps, for
there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
They said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"

How can we sing the songs of the LORD
while in a foreign land?

I find myself, more and more, a stranger in a foreign land.

It isn't that the clash between biblical and anti-biblical worldviews is new to our generation. (Some people talk about our "non-biblical" culture. But I think it is worse than that. "Non-biblical" does not begin to describe it -- our culture is "anti-biblical!")

Christianity values human life -- from womb to tomb, as we used to say.
Modern culture does not.

It is almost like we are back in the Roman empire and struggling to survive.
The Romans, we are taught in school, are credited with strides in education, general prosperity, vigorous trade, the rule of law, and efficient government. But the dark side of their society reveals their rotten core: widespread slavery (30-40% of the population), brutality in controlling the provinces, reckless abortion and infanticide, gluttony, sexual perversions, violent entertainment.....

If a student were writing a paper on the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, he could just say, "The Roman Empire fell because it wasn't worth saving!"

Is that where we are today? In that dark and cruel world controlled by Ancient Rome, a bright light appeared the night Jesus was born in that little manger in the backwater village of Bethlehem. And that light entered hearts and began to change people throughout the Empire. Just as it does today.

This is the challenge -- the mission -- we have. To be "Light" in this dark
culture.

So I find myself not just "listening to a different drummer," but playing in a completely different band. And I notice in the Psalm, as the Jews were taunted (as we are by our own culture) and tormented by their captors, they hung up their harps.

But they didn't throw their harps in the trash, or into the river, or destroy them. They hung them up, saving them for that later day when they would be back home and could sing a new song to their God.

I'm not ready to hang up my harp. Sometimes when I am out on various errands I feel a surge of joy and want to begin singing loudly God's praises. I wait until I am back in the car. As I wander down aisles of the grocery store praying, people
think I am talking to myself. Sometimes I tell them the truth: That it is a cold, lonely world we live in, and I am grateful I have a God who is with me.

On Sundays I can escape--retreat--from the world and rejoice with others
and enjoy His presence. It is safe to do this in the church.

And isn't that our purpose? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Kicking and Screaming - C S Lewis

In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.

I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing: the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms.

The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet.

.... that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal son also opens to one who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful and darting his eyes every direction for a chance of escape?

The words compelle intrare, (compel them to come in), have been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy.

The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.

   -- From Surprised by Joy, by C S Lewis

What Do I Need?

I'm reading 2 Peter .....look at these verses:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and goodness...that you may participate  in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love...

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive....

But if anyone does not have them he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins...2 Peter 1:3-9

All the times I have read this passage -- and now this thought jumps out at me: To lead holy lives we must constantly remember that we have been cleansed of all our sin -- I'm doing that this week - reflecting, not on my own failures and weaknesses, but on His perfect atonement -- remembering, not where I am, but where I came from - not wallowing in it - but glorifying in it!

That's how we 'participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption of the world'!

The key to acquiring those godly qualities listed, in increasing measure, is to remember where we came from and the price our Redeemer paid!

So those times I recognize that  I am not growing in those areas of holy living, then I must stop and ponder: He has given us everything we need to live
the life He wants us to live. He brought us from where we were for that purpose.

It's all about the cross. That's where I came from and where He found me.


Participating in the 'divine nature' - just how amazing is that?

Near the cross, O Lamb of God

Bring its scenes before me

Help me walk from day to day

With its shadow o'er me.

What Happens When He Speaks

"He speaks and the sound of  His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing...."*

Picture it....imagine it.....Back there in Eden....He walked and talked with them. And the birds stopped their own joyous singing to listen to His beautiful voice and to hear His words!

May I be that eager today to listen....

And eager to experience it just like Adam and Eve did when we get to be with Him in heaven!

Doxology and Maranatha!!!!




*From In the Garden by Charles Austin Miles, 1912

How To Celebrate the Sabbath

 

"It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High,

 proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, 

to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. 

For you make me glad by your deeds, LORD; 

I sing for joy at what your hands have done."

                                                                            -- Psalm 92:1-4

The psalmist  titled this psalm as "A Song for the Sabbath Day."

We think of the Sabbath as a special day of rest. (To be honest, we usually don't practice it that way, though.)

What strikes me is that this Biblical Sabbath day renews strength and joy, not just through idleness and relaxation, but through energetic, joyful worship!

Celebrating His love and His faithfulness! HE makes us glad!

That's what RESTores us! 

Are we missing something?

An ordinary, simple act...? C.S. Lewis

What I mean is this: An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get in touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God---God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God--that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him.

You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying--the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So the three-fold life of the three-personal Being is actually there in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.

C. S. Lewis, The Business of Heaven

Outside of the incarnation itself, this must be the most incredible fact of our Christian life.

Great news!

My sin - oh the bliss of this glorious thought -

My sin - not in part, but the whole -

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! O My soul!*

Just think about it - all my sin - not just some of it - all of it -

 taken care of by Jesus at the cross!

God doesn't look at our sins - categorize them - maybe putting some of them in one pile and some in another, and saying, "OK, I'll take care of this stack...but that stack, well, you knew better, Glorya, you'll have to take care of them yourself!"

No, He put them all together in one large (really extra-large cosmic garbage bag) and hurled them into the depths of the deepest sea....out of His memory forever -

"Who is a God like You, who pardons sin and forgives transgression....You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy....You will hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea." Micah 7:18-19

Who can imagine it? He delights to show mercy!

Yes, I believe in God - but not in just any god - I believe in THIS GOD! A God who delights to give me His mercy and forgives me 

all my sins!

"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

*{Great words from It Is Well With My Soul, written by Horatio Spafford around 1875...}

Promoted to Servanthood

And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said.

He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.

Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone.

The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.


Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him.

So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD commanded Moses.

Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the LORD sent him to do in Egypt -- to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land.

For no one has ever shown the mighty power and the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
                                                     -- Deuteronomy 34:5-12

This is the only passage where Moses is called "the servant of the LORD."

Just a few verses before, in Chapter 33:1, he is called "the man of God."

Being called a "man of God" is a high calling -- reflecting exacting standards and lofty position.

But is being titled "servant of God" an even greater
distinction?

In the Chumash (a traditional Jewish commentary)
the sages write:

     When he was alive he was called man of God,
     but in death he is called servant for the first time,
     to allude to a new and higher status, for a  
       servant is permitted, as it were, to enter the
     chamber of the king.

     So, too, once the impediment of his body was
     removed from him, Moses' soul was able to
     perceive even more than before.

     A servant, literally a slave, is unique in that
     he is the property of his master and has no
     independent identity or legal status, for he
     lives totally for his owner.

     In receiving this title, Moses was given the
     highest possible compliment: he lived
     completely and solely for the sake of God.

His Banner of Love

He has taken me to the banqueting hall,

and his banner over me is love.

  -- Song of Songs 2:4

So many vibrant images in this single verse - we see  the "not so special" Shulamite girl who gave her heart to the young shepherd. When he returns for her she realizes that he is King Solomon, and he takes her back to the palace, into the banqueting hall, and she sits under his banner.

We also imagine great celebrations throughout history when the conquering armies sat in castles, enjoying feasts of victory, with their colorful banners posted all around them.

And on battles fields, banners flying high over the hastily erected tents and barracks of the invading and defending armies.

Sometimes the banners bore family crests, or special symbols of power and feats of valor - like St. George and the Dragon.

We picture great armies going into battle with their banners waving proudly above them.

(Has an army ever marched without its own banner?)

Maybe we see soldiers hoisting the flag at Iwo Jima,
or the dusty, shell-scorched dawn sky over Ft. McHenry when Francis Scott Key waited anxiously to see if "that star-spangled banner" still waved "o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

Ever notice in Texas how often you see the "Lone Star" displayed, not only on flag poles but in frames on walls and on license plates and fences and barns and buildings...even painted by pedicurists on my sister's big toe nail?

Is there anyone in the whole world who does not recognize the symbol of the Lone Star State? (I mean, who even knows what the flags other states look like?)

In earlier times, an army's banner was its symbol of conquest.  In 1865, the Confederate flag was lowered in Richmond, Virginia, and the Union US flag hoisted in its place.

The banner is also a symbol of protection. A tourist or ex-patriot in a foreign land looks to the US Embassy and its American flag for help and protection. The US embassy is supposed to be a refuge for Americans, and often for others who need a place of safety.

And the flag is also the emblem of enlistment, flying proudly over the place where volunteers can join the army. 

That "banner of love" the Shulamite girl sat under at King Solomon's banqueting table is floating over us today.

It is still a symbol of conquest. Christ has won us in a great battle for our souls. We now belong to Him.

     For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this
       is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith. Who is
       he that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus
       is the Son of God.
                      -- 1 John 5:4-5

It is still a symbol of protection. "My sheep listen to My voice," Jesus said.

     I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life and   
      they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My
      My Father's hand.
               -- John 10:27-28

And it is still the emblem of enlistment.  God's army
is a volunteer regiment. Banners are not hidden - they are waved proudly!

     I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
       bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God --
       this is your spiritual act of worship.
                    -- Romans 12:1

What's on His banner? A simple cross - the cross of love.

"His banner over me is love."

And the banqueting hall? It's in our future.

     Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage feast of  
       the Lamb....Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
       Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the
       wedding of the Lamb has come and His bride has made
       herself ready.....
                -- Revelation 19

I opened my invitation and sent in my RSVP -- I will be there at the marriage feast under His banner of love -- will I see you there?
               

    

How to Please God!

'I will praise God's Name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD...' 
Psalm 69:31

'LORD delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.'  
Psalm 147:11.

'If anyone wants to boast, they should boast that they know and understand Me...These are the things that please me."  
Jeremiah 9:24.

'Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please Him.' Hebrews 12:28...'True worshippers must worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.' 
John 4:23

'The LORD detests lying lips, but He delights in those who are trustworthy.'
Proverbs 12:22

'Let Israel rejoice in their Maker...Let them praise His Name with dancing and make music to Him with timbrel and harp. For the LORD takes delight in His people...Let His faithful people rejoice in this honor'.  Psalm 149:3-5



How do we please God? 

This is what I have learned...

     We please God when we thank Him!

     When we praise Him!

     When we seek to Know Him and understand Him!

     When we worship Him and put our trust in His           unfailing love!

Look how easy and simple He has made it! Like a wonderful, kind Parent. 

How blessed we are.


BUT I usually just want Him to please me..

I need to change that....

Faith not Moods - C S Lewis

Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes.

I know that by experience.

Now that I am a Christian,  I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway.

That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods 'where they get off', you will never be a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but a creature of dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.

Consequently one must train their habit of Faith.

The first step is to recognize the fact that your moods change.

The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day.

That is why daily prayers and religious reading and church-going are necessary parts of the Christian life.

We have to be continually reminded of what we believe.

Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind.

It must be fed.

And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?

--From Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 11,
                  by C S Lewis

In ALL Things?

 

                                                 In ALL Things? Really?

Good to remember today -- that in ALL things God works for our good - Romans 8:28.

So the God of the universe, the sovereign Creator of everything, plans every circumstance to bring us good.

Even when we mess up, He rearranges things to work out for our good.

There are devastating wildfires ravaging vast areas of our country today. We will see ashes and cinders, destruction and heartbreak everywhere.

Even the harsh acrid smell permeates everything for miles!

But in due time the ground will bring forth new, fresh, vibrant vegetation and new life!

God wastes nothing and redeems everything!

We can sing joyfully with Sarah Groves, "I can't remember a trial or a pain He did not recycle to bring me gain...He's always been faithful to me."

No Better News!

                                                                

                                                         There is no better news!

Perfect day to read these words:

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.

Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.

God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesús Christ.

This is what He wanted to do and it gave Him great pleasure.

So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong  to His dear Son."

                                --- Ephesians 1:3-6

(I told you - perfect message for this day and every day!)

Being Really Nice - C S Lewis

"Niceness" -- wholesome, integrated personality -- is an excellent thing.

We must try by every medical, educational, economic and political means in our power, to produce a world where as many people as possible grow up "nice" just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat.

But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls.

A world of nice people, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world--and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine.

God became man to turn creatures into sons; not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better, but like turning a horse into a winged creature.             
                              C S Lewis, Mere Christianity

Small Talk: What comes first?

We can't become holy to make God love us.

God loves us and wants to make us holy.

Remember, the Law came after redemption. 

The Hebrew slaves were freed and saved (brought out of bondage in Egypt) before the Law was given to them. 

It's the same with us.

 It is His grace that saves us.


We then show our love to Him by obeying Him.


"If you love Me, you will obey Me," He said (John 14:23).

Lesson from the Talking Beasts and Israel

From the Chronicles of Narnia, by C S Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, Chapter 10.



Aslan, after creating Narnia and  distinguishing some of the animals as "Talking Beasts", told them:


"Creatures, I give you yourselves." said the strong, happy voice of Aslan.

"I give to you forever this land of Narnia. I give you the woods, the fruits, the rivers. I give you the stars and I give you Myself. The Dumb Beasts who I have not chosen are yours also. Treat them gently and cherish them but do not go back to their ways lest you cease to be Talking Beasts. For out of them you were taken and into them you can return. Do not so."

"No, Aslan, we won't," said everyone.

But they did go back....


The Israelites, were chosen by God to be His witness and testimony of light in a dark world,

but they also went back...

    He saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of
     the enemy he redeemed them...

     Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.

     But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for
     his counsel...
    
     They forgot the God who saved them...they mingled with the
     nations and adopted their customs...They worshipped  their
     idols, which became a snare to them.
                                        -- Psalm 106



 And the prophet Zechariah reminded them again --

     This is what the LORD God Almighty says: Administer true
     justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.

     Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the
     poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.

     But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned
     their backs and stopped their ears.

     They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen
     to the law or to the words that the LORD God Almighty had
     sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets.

     So the LORD Almighty was very angry.

     'When I called, they did not listen; so when they called I
     would not listen,' says the LORD Almighty.

     'I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations,
     where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate
     behind them that no one could come or go.

     'This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.'
                                      -- Zechariah 7:8-14


Is this our story?

We can learn much about the character of God from the way He deals with His people.

Words of great mercy and grace are being whispered to us from His Word:

     But he took note of their distress and he heard their cry;
       for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great
       love he relented...Psalm 106:45

He saved them again!

     Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the
       great love of the LORD.  Psalm 107:43


    

What Makes Us Different?

 

                                                     What Makes Us Different?

Other religions tell their adherents to practice righteousness, to try to be good, and then maybe God will then allow you to approach Him. Our God tells us to come as we are, sinful and needy.  Now.  And He will make us good. 

We  don't try to make ourselves good to come to God. We come to Him and He makes us good!

And He is reaching out to us, drawing us to Him. Coming to rescue us.

What a contrast! What an offer!

There is an old hymn, written almost 300 years ago, a favorite among our pioneer  ancestors, that described in detail that message. It was a favorite of Daniel Boone and his people.

It is titled, "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" -- here are some of my favorite lines - -- "Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and power. Come, ye weary, heavy-laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you're better, you will never come a all! Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness He requireth, is to feel your need of Him!"

Chorus: "I will arise and go to Jesus -- He will embrace me in His arms..."

I love this old hymn . Wish I could hear it sung today just as generations did in the past.

We need to remind each other of what it reminds us of.......Now is the day of salvation....don't wait. Come just as we are.

(We would never be good enough! And we can never be too bad!)

What's so good about being poor?

Monika Hellwig gives us some advantages of being poor:

 1. The poor know they are in urgent need of redemption.
 2. The poor know not only their dependence on God and on
     powerful people, but also their interdependence with one
     another.
 3. The poor rest their security, not on things, but on people.
 4. The poor have no exaggerated sense of their own importance
     and no exaggerated need for privacy.
 5. The poor expect little from competition and much from
     cooperation.
 6. The poor can distinguish between necessities and luxuries.
 7. The poor can wait, because they have acquired a kind of dogged
     patience born of acknowledged dependence.
 8. The fears of the poor are more realistic and less exaggerated,
     because they already know that one can survive great suffering
     and want.
 9. When the poor have the Gospel preached to them, it sounds
     like good news, and not like a threat or a scolding
10.The poor can respond to the call of the Gospel with a certain
     abandonment and uncomplicated totality because they have so
     little to lose and are ready for anything.


--This list is found in The Jesus I Never Knew, by Philip Yancey

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.....today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing....    Isaiah 6l:1-2; Luke 4:18, 21