January 25, Growing up

In one sense the road back to God is a road of moral effort, of trying harder and harder. But in another sense it is not trying that is ever going to bring us home. All this trying leads up to the vital moment at which you turn to God and say, 'You must do this. I can't.'
-C.S. Lewis

One thing I see that differs greatly between Christianity and other religions is that at the core of Christianity you have Christ: the Redeemer who came to cleanse humanity of their sins, and sinful nature because we, no human being will ever be good enough, or perfect enough, or righteous enough to bring themselves into right relationship with God. Other religions have people trying their very hardest to be good enough. And at the very start of Christianity you flat out declare, "I am not good enough nor will I ever be. I need Jesus." Christians cannot be good enough to get to God. I suppose that makes us all look pretty pathetic and maybe a tad bit lazy but I certainly am NOT good enough, nor will I ever be. Praise the Lord for Jesus.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way we begin the delicate dance of trying to balance two simple truths that don't seem to go together all that well.
1.) I am not good enough. I need Jesus.
2.) I love Jesus and I desire and intend to follow His commands. (Jn 14:15)

(continuation from quote above) Do not, I implore you, start asking yourselves, 'Have I reached that moment?' Do not sit down and start watching your own mind to see if it is coming along. That puts a man quite on the wrong track. When the most important thing in our life happens we quite often do not know, at the moment, what is going on. A man does not always say to himself, 'Hullo! I'm growing up now.' It is often only when he looks back that he realizes what has happened and recognizes it as what people call 'growing up.' You can see it even in simple matters. A man who starts anxiously watching to see whether he is going to sleep is very likely to remain wide awake. As well, the thing I am talking of now may not happen to every one in a sudden flash - as it did to St. Paul or Bunyan: It may be so gradual that no one could ever point to a particular hour or even a particular year. And what matters is the nature of the change in itself, not how we feel while it is happening. It is the change from being confident about our own efforts to the state in which we despair of doing anything for ourselves and leave it to God.
-C.S. Lewis
The Business of Heaven

January 23, Thirsty

I'm falling significantly behind in this task I've undertaken. But as I said before, I'm really in no hurry.

If we had noticed that the young men of the present day found it harder and harder to get the right answers to sums, we should consider that this had been adequately explained the moment we discovered that schools had for some years ceased to teach arithmetic. After that discovery we should turn a deaf ear to people who offered explanations of a vaguer and larder kind - people who said that the influence of Einstein had sapped the ancestral belief in fixed numerical relations, or that gangster films had undermined the desire to get right answers, or that the evolution of consciousness was now entering on its post-arithmetical phase. Where a clear and simple explanation completely covers the facts no other explanation is in court. If the younger generation have never been told what the Christians say and never heard any arguments in defense of it, then their agnosticism or indifference is fully explained. There is no need to look any further: no need to talk about the general intellectual climate of the age, the influence of mechanistic civilization on the character of urban life. And having discovered that the cause of their ignorances is lack of instruction, we have also discovered the remedy. There is nothing in the nature of the younger generation which incapacitates them for receiving Christianity. If any one is prepared to tell them, they are apparently ready to hear.... The young people today are un-Christian because their teachers have been either unwilling or unable to transmit Christianity to them.... None can give to another what he does not possess himself.
-C.S. Lewis
The Business of Heaven

I find myself, especially as of late, feeling spiritually thirsty rather often. I like to think I'm a bit like David, the psalmist, in that he was constantly worshiping the Lord (or needing to worship the Lord). I can practically guarantee you that David's cup overfloweth-ed when he was meeting the Lord in praise and worship. For crying out loud his wife rebuked him at one point for praising the Lord in a way she believed to be unproper. And God rewarded her for looking out for David's propriety by closing her womb. Oops.

David could not help but cry out to God, to praise, and to worship our Lord. It's what fueled him. I'm fueled in this same way. I honestly believe that we all are, at our core, made to worship the Heavenly Father and spending time in His presence is the only way to feel really whole. My spiritual thirstiness, sadly, and I don't enjoy admitting it comes from not reading the Word, not praying, not seeking the Lord, and not worshiping as regularly as I should be. I truly feel a sense of thirst, a need that sits at the core of who I am to meet up with my Creator and have Him fill my cup back up.

Here's what I've been thinking a good deal lately as I've been thirsty and needing to carve out time to meet with Him: what about all the people out there who don't know how? I imagine, even of people who are confirmed believers there must be a good deal who don't know how to really seek Him and be re-fueled, have that inner thirst quenched. And for anyone who isn't even aware of His reality, oh my. No wonder people seek out all this other nonsense to fill themselves up, to try and get rid of that void. Yikes!

Do you know that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour when I was six years old? And I meant it. I've loved Him since before then. But I did not know what He meant by "the living water" until I was probably in my 20's, maybe just a little before that... I think I'm rambling now, but if nothing else I'd like to encourage you to seek Him. He'll meet you, fill you up, and wrap His arms around you no matter where you're at if you do like David did. Just tell Him what's on your heart and let Him know you want Him around.

January 22, Who He is

Speak about beauty, truth and goodness, or about a God who is simply the indwelling principle of these three, speak about a great spiritual force pervading all things, a common mind of which we are all parts, a pool of generalized spirituality to which we can all flow, and you will command friendly interest. But the temperature drops as soon as you mention a God who has purposes and performs particular actions, who does one thing and not another, a concrete, choosing, commanding, prohibiting, God with a determinate character.
-C.S. Lewis

We are creatures of change even if we are creatures of habit. God is constant, always the same, never changing. He's so much larger, mightier, bigger; there aren't even words, God is beyond comprehension. We can't draw boundaries for Him to fit into. We see knew facets of Him regularly; His character, His presence, more of His will and plans are regularly revealed to each of us individually depending on our paths and certainly on our choices. But He does not change. And there are things about God that we'd all love to wax over, or erase: His passion, His jealousy, His fury, His wrath... "but God is 'love.' How could He..."

God is not simply a great spiritual force. He is the Author, the Creator, the Lord of all. There's a lot to that. I've a dear friend who believes God is something having to do with a strong force of light and love. But that's entirely how she sees Him. Her view of God takes His character away from Him. My God encompass absolute truth and power and beauty and perfection and wisdom. He has a character and is a Being, not just a spiritual force. Oh, He is a Spiritual force but He's not just this huge mighty spiritual force. He is God. I don't think anyone should even begin to narrow that down even if a God who is simply the indwelling principle of beauty, truth, and goodness sounds like such a grand thing. Let's not start trying to fit God in boxes we've made for Him.

I think my friend would say I'm the one who's shoved Him into a box by calling Him the "Christian" God. But identifying truths about Him, like how I believe He sent His Son to draw humanity back into right relationship with Him after they walked away, I don't see that as putting God into a box. I see that as seeking out who He is.

We who defend Christianity find ourselves constantly opposed not by the irreligion of our hearers but by their real religion. Speak about beauty, truth and goodness, or about a God who is simply the indwelling principle of these three, speak about a great spiritual force pervading all things, a common mind of which we are all parts, a pool of generalized spirituality to which we can all flow, and you will command friendly interest. But the temperature drops as soon as you mention a God who has purposes and performs particular actions, who does one thing and not another, a concrete, choosing, commanding, prohibiting, God with a determinate character. People become embarrassed or angry. Such a conception seems to them primitive and crude and even irreverent. The popular 'religion' excludes miracles because it excludes the 'living God' of Christianity and believes instead in a kind of God who obviously would not do miracles, or indeed anything else.
-C.S. Lewis
The Business of Heaven

January 21, My Religion

The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it is good for society or something of that sort.
-C.S. Lewis

I suppose you could say that I didn't choose Christianity. Christianity chose me. I've known it to be true ever since I was a child. At any point in time I could have made up my mind to the contrary but everything about the Holy Bible has always been truth to me and there's never been a single thing to sway me. I can re-count to you many moments in my life that solidify my belief in Jesus and the Christian God.

The same could be said about others born into other religions and I'm sure they feel the same way as I do. "This is my truth." But since it is my truth as far as I'm concerned it is thee truth. I can't be open minded enough to say or to think "well maybe your truth is true." If I were to even begin to think upon those lines then what truth would there be in anything I believe? Thus, I hold that Christianity is thee truth. I will profess this until the very end. I don't wish to offend anyone but I can't stand against what is at the very core of who I am.

It seems more and more we're being asked to do just that. There is much talk today about "accepting" other views, and about understanding where others are coming from, and about everyone having equal representation. I get it. Especially since Christ preached love and Paul preached against causing anyone to stumble but you can only go so far with your "acceptance." Truth is truth. I'll love you no matter what you believe but that does not mean that I will agree with you and acknowledge, "well, you could be right." I believe Christianity to be truth. I haven't chose "my" religion because I like it or because it appeared better to me than yours. Not at all. I've stuck with it because I believe it is true.

We are to defend Christianity itself - the faith preached by the Apostles, attested by the Martyrs, embodied in the Creeds, expounded by the Fathers. This must be clearly distinguished from the whole of what any one of us may think about God and Man. Each of us has his individual emphasis: each holds, in addition to the Faith, many opinions which seem to him to be consistent with it and true and important. And so perhaps they are. But as apologists it is not our business to defend them. We are defending Christianity: not 'my religion.' When we mention our personal opinions we must always make quite clear the difference between them and the Faith itself....
     This distinction, which is demanded by honesty, also gives the apologist a great tactical advantage. The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it is good for society or something of that sort.... This immediately helps them to realize that what is being discussed is a question about objective fact - not gas about ideals and points of view.... Do not attempt to water Christianity down. There must be no pretense that you can have it with the Supernatural left out. So far as I can see Christianity is precisely the one religion from which the miraculous cannot be separated. You must frankly argue for supernaturalism from the very outset.
-C.S. Lewis
The Business of Heaven