Time with C.S. Lewis

I am currently studying C.S. Lewis in class, and I am going through his book Mere Christianity. I will be posting my papers here as some of you have asked to see what I am learning about. This paper is meant to pull one substantial observation from each of the five chapters of book two of Mere Christianity and comment on it.

In book one, Lewis makes the statement that his, “…argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how ad I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called in unjust?” (Lewis, 1943, p.38) This argument alone is a great concept for one to investigate.

Romans 5:12-13 says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned; for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.” (NIV) Because the law was brought into the world to expose our sin, begs the question or argument that our sin is in contention with something. The notion that our sin needs to be pointed out and exposed, suggests that our sin goes against a presupposed condition, that condition being goodness or right standing with a higher power (God). If the Law was given by God or determined by God to hold us accountable of our sin, and to bring us back to our previous position with Him, it stands to reason that God is good, sin is bad and the law helps us determine between the two. Without the law how would one know that they are in sin?

Chapter two speaks about good verses evil and how people view the two. Lewis states that the moment we say one is wrong and the other is right, we insert a third qualitative element that determines the difference between them. “But since the two powers are judged by this standard, then this standard, or the Being who made this standard, is further back and higher up than either of them, and He will be the real God. In fact, what we meant by calling them good and bad turns out to be that one of them is in a right relation to the real ultimate God and the other in a wrong relation to Him.” (Lewis, 1943, p.43) How could we know good to be right unless there is something to match it up against? Without light, one would not know what darkness is.

In chapter three, Lewis speaks about some people that say things like, “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” Lewis so wittingly points out how absurd and shallow this statement is. Understanding the context of this statement and the ramifications of such a claim do much to back up the claim. A “great” moral teacher would never be so foolish as to claim to be something he is not let alone God. It would go against his morality to do so.

Lewis goes on in chapter four about how we need God to help us walk the road of redemption back to him because the very “badness” that took us away or separated us from God, keeps us from walking that road on our own. But because that road of surrender, repentance, and dying to our sinful nature go against God’s character and nature, he could not walk that road. It then became necessary for God to become man thus the birth of Jesus Christ. Although fully God, He lived as man in the flesh, subjected to the same temptations and suffering that we are. Through Christ in the flesh, God was and is able to walk us down that road of redemption. Christ acts as the tour guide to show us the way, and walk with us as we go.

Finally in chapter five, Lewis makes the fundamental distinction between salvation by works verses salvation by grace through faith. It is important for us to understand this because it is a bedrock teaching of Christianity. “…the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one; or, if they think there is not, at least they hope to deserve approval from good men. But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.” Lewis, 1943, p.63) It is through the life of Christ that lives in us that God would be willing to grant us salvation and remove our deserved punishment of death and eternal separation from Him.



Resources
Lewis, C. S. (1952). Mere christianity. New York: HarperCollins

Rejoicing in Heaven

For the past two weeks I have sent out a worship devotional for our music and arts team that correspond with our songs for the week. It is designed to help us understand what we are singing about and how the songs tie in with scripture. Last week it made a big impact on me and some of the others in the team when it came to singing the songs during the service. As we sang and played our instruments, scripture was bouncing in my head and when it came to the tag line I used to tie the song to scripture it had a whole new meaning.

This week we are in Luke 15 talking about finding lost stuff, sheep, coins and people. All the stories are designed to teach us how Christ is searching for His lost sheep, His lost children. The thing that struck me this week while preparing the devotional, is the celebration that happens in Heaven when a sinner repents and comes home.

Luke 15:7 says this; "I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

If this is what pleases God's heart, if this is what shakes the mountains and rattles the rafters, then this is what we are to be about. As we choose to follow Christ and become more like him, we also must be passionate about what He is passionate about, and that is finding his lost sheep, those who don't know him yet.

This week let us learn to be passionate about the lost, let us desire to seek after them, as Christ desires them to be found. He has called on us to help him in this search, to join in the celebration when they are found and to go out and search for more. Be Christ’s hands and feet this week, in your relationships at work and at home. Make sure you are looking, watching, searching for those opportunities. Let’s help cause the mountains to tremble and the rafters to rattle as heaven rejoices over the found children of God.

Glorifying God in the Everyday

The tendency in early Christian experience is to look for the marvelous. We are apt to mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but a different thing to go through everyday glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying the remotest attention to you. If we don't want medieval haloes, we want something that will make people say - What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious, devoted woman she is! If anyone says that of you, you have not been loyal to God!

-Oswald Chambers

Covenant's, do they mean anything anymore?

Tonight I lead worship at College Park UB church in Huntington. It was a blessing to be able to provide some music and to worship with them. The focus of the evening was on God's covenant and it helped me to realize that there are covenants all around. Some of you have a covenant, that being the covenant of marriage. You stood before God and many guests and promised that you would love, cherish and protect your spouse till death do you part. The problem with this is it isn't taken seriously anymore.

I know many couples who are struggling with their marriage and some who have given up and taken the easy way out and filed. I don't say that flippantly. I understand that both parties have to work to make it work, and that for some, it is a gut wrenching decision to make, but it seems all too often, papers are filed and mostly for reasons that don't warrant such action.

When I look at the church in general, I wonder if we have filed the divorce papers a little too early. Do we value and honestly believe to be true the covenant we made with God when we became Christians and said to him, yes I want to live my life for you. At the time we may have been serious, but what happens over time when the relationship starts to get stale and unfulfilling? We start looking for something new, for a way out.

As I listened to the message tonight and upon reflecting on it, I realize that everyday is a choice. Everyday in our relationships with our spouse and our relationships with God, we must choose to serve. We promised, we gave our word, we committed ourselves to this covenant for better or for worse, and we placed our lives in the hands of God. It's time we make good on that promise and start serving with all of us, with everything we have and everything we are. No reservations!

Psalm 89:20-37
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
Ephesians 2:11-22
MArk 6:30-34; 53-56

withdraw

For the past year or so, I have been meticulously planning for the US National Conference for the United Brethren In Christ denomination. Through that year or so, there were many meetings, many many emails and a lot of phone calls. Lot's of decisions had to be made, lot's of hurdles had to be crossed, and lot's of time was spent in vision planning, thinking, and dealing with vendors. All in all there was a lot of communication going on. The conference went great, there was much to be satisfied with as far as how things came off. I made many friends, was reacquainted with old ones and met some really neat people, some of whom I would love to get to know better.

So here it is three weeks later, and I am going through communication withdraw. I find myself looking at my email several times a day and checking Facebook in hopes that someone has decided to send me a message. I find it all really disturbing that I crave people asking me to do something or asking me to figure something out. In the absence of that, sometimes I feel like I am just existing. It is all really sad when I think about it. And to top it all off, I am off of school this week. OH NO what shall I do with no homework............

Just so you don't read this and shake your head in pity or any other form of "He's a wacko" thought, I will tell you I am learning something from it. Even though I love communication with people, even though I rather enjoy my life being somewhat busy and on the go a lot, I am starting to realize something. So here it is, check it out; I am starting to communicate with God more.

I KNOW right? It's an amazing thing, when I shut up and stop talking and listening to other people, and I sit in the quiet and absence of the hustle and bustle of life, I feel like I can hear God's still small voice calling to me, telling me He want's to talk.

Now I don't always know what He is saying, but I feel Him speaking to me. I appreciate the time to listen to what He wants to tell me. I know that I can be busy in busy work, thinking that I am doing God a favor by working so hard trying to do stuff for Him; but if I am too busy to listen to Him, how will I know what He wants me to do?

My passion to serve Him can also be a distraction from my communication with Him. I need times like this, as hard as they are on me, to have the quiet to listen to His words.

The other plus to this down time, is that I am having a blast with my boys and beautiful wife. Being able to sit in the same room with them with nothing else calling my name is a nice break. My kids are getting so big so quickly and my wife gets more and more beautiful everyday. I really don't know how I got this lucky, and this blessed. I really don't.

So the moral of my little story, is in the absence of all the noise, listen for the most important sound, God's voice.