Mere Christianity - Inside Part of the Soul

"Remember, we Christians think that man lives for ever. Therefore, what really matters is those little marks, or twists on the central, inside part of the soul which are going to turn it in the long run into a heavenly or hellish creature."

It occurs to me that Lewis knew all too well, in his cultural context in England, the problem of people being outwardly civilized or moral,but still being "hellish creatures" on the inside. So, throughout the book he reinforces a spiritual formation concept like the quote above. After all, living out the Christian life depends on us being made into the image of Christ from the inside out.

"There is a difference between doing some particular just or temperate action and being a just or temperate man. Someone who is not a good tennis player might now and then make a good shot. What you mean by a good player is a man whose eye and muscles and nerves have been so trained by making innumerable good shots that they can now be relied on. They have a certain quality or tone when he is not playing, just as a mathematician's mind has a certain habit and outlook which is there even when he is not doing mathematics. In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when talk of virtue."

Mere Christianity - Marriage

Day two of the C.S. Lewis quotes puts into words something that I've personally thought for a while, where marriage in our general society is concerned. As Christians I think we always need to be careful not to expect or impose our morality on those who are not professing a saving faith in Jesus (much of our nation). See 1 Corinthians 5. Not that we want to discourage people from getting married, but we shouldn't put all our energy into forcing our society (who doesn't view the Bible as the truth) to abide by the same biblical standard that we do. Lewis says it better than me of course.

"If people do not believe in permanent marriage, it is perhaps better that they should live together unmarried than... make vows they do not mean to keep... they will be guilty of fornication. But one fault is not mended be another: unchastity is not improved by perjury."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Mere Christianity - Temperance

Many of the authors I've read lately quote C.S. Lewis multiple times throughout their books. They do this, I assume, because he had some intelligent things to say on matters of the Christian faith and was also great with words. So, I decided that as I work through the rest of his book Mere Christianity, I'd jump on the bandwagon and share some C.S. Lewis quotes for the next couple weeks till I finish the book. I'll do my best not to share too many of my own thoughts along with them.

This quote comes from a chapter on what Lewis calls the "cardinal virtues," specifically where he discusses the concept of temperance (self-control, moderation, etc.). This quote is a great modern day fit with Paul's teaching in Romans 14, and seeing as there are whole denominations based on people's personal choices to abstain from certain things, we ought to take this quote to heart.

"An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons- marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning."

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Desiring God and Suffering for It - Part 2

I ended my last post from the chapter entitled "Suffering" focusing on Piper's assertion that "Christianity is not a life that one would embrace as abundant and satisfying without the hope of fellowship with Christ in the resurrection."  I spent some more time looking through the scriptures for passages where Jesus spoke of suffering for following Him.  Jesus himself said that "You can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate.  The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way (Matt. 7:13-14 NLT)."  If our lives are set on taking the easy way, something incompatible with the Christian life described in the bible, Jesus is saying that we are not on the Kingdom path.    

Why do we try to dumb things down in many of our churches today, watering down the gospel and the call of Jesus on His people so that our sales pitch to unbelievers (or wavering Christians) sounds more enticing and not so costly and demanding of our lives? Jesus didn't hide the fact that following Him would cost us, He promised that we would have to stop relying on ourselves, stop pursuing wealth and status, that we needed to obey his commands (repenting of sins that we like to indulge in), that we would face rejection, persecution and sometimes even death for proclaiming that He alone is the Savior.  Look at Luke 14:25-34, Jesus made it clear that our lives are no longer our own if we are to be His disciples, so we most count the cost and give those we share the gospel with the same opportunity.  You can't come away from reading the New Testament and not get the sense that as followers of Christ we will have to choose a difficult path, one that involves suffering and sacrifice in this lifetime.  

Why would we choose to follow Him then?  According to Paul, the reason we should choose this path is because we have the hope of eternal life in God's Kingdom, with a particular desire for God Himself.  How could we truly follow Christ if He is not what we long for?  Why would we follow Him no matter what, at great cost, unless he was more desirable to us than any of the things we might lose in following Him?  As we walk with Christ in this fallen world, we see and know only in part (1 Cor. 13:12), but that gives us a taste of the riches of Christ. The thing that makes Christianity "worth it"  is the reward that is yet to come, the one we get a picture of in Revelation 22.  If that is not our ultimate longing, the motivation that keeps us going on this journey as part of God's church, then we will end up choosing the easy way and never truly follow Jesus.  We'll settle for less.

Does Revelation 22 excite you?  Is the hope of eternity with God directing your life?  Or are you settling for less?  

I haven't been able to stop thinking thinking about this idea of the easy way vs. choosing a life where we will suffer and sacrifice that we might gain Christ.  I think it's fair to say that without a love and desire for God that shapes our lives we will inevitably settle for less and choose the world over Jesus.  It occurs to me that worship can help stir up our affections for God, especially when it is balanced with an equal amount of truth and heart.  And it would seem imperative that our worship must consistently anticipate the hope of eternal life, the world to come, the return of Jesus and the establishment of His kingdom, that we might cultivate a hope that can withstand any amount of suffering or sacrifice.

   

God, would you help me, help us, to stop pursuing goals and lifestyles that have no eternal value, or even mixing them with some elements of being a Christian, and instead help us to be willing to "give up everything we have" to follow after You (Luke 14:33), knowing that the cost is worth it because of the promise of the "joy in Your presence and eternal pleasures at Your right hand (Psalm 16:11)." 

I've still got more from this chapter, so look for part 3 soon.

Desiring God and Suffering for It - Part 1

Persecution is the kind of suffering that is directly linked to a believer's faith in Christ. However, in Desiring God Piper points out that "All experiences of suffering in the path of Christian obedience, whether from persecution or sickness or accident, have this in common: They all threaten our faith in the goodness of God and tempt us to leave the path of obedience..."  They are all "intended by Satan for the destruction of our faith and governed by God for the purifying of our faith." Though Piper does not see eye to eye with Gregory Boyd (see my post on the book God at War) I think these quotes reinforce the reality of a demonic realm that is actively waging war against mankind, and is certainly bent on destroying the faith of those trying to follow Jesus.  So regardless of the kind of suffering, we need to be on our guard against the enemy's plan to wreck our faith.

After comparing various ways we might suffer, Piper moves on to Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15:32, "If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'"  The hope of the resurrection (being raised from the dead and being united with Christ in glory) is the only reason worth the suffering that we choose to face as believers.  If the dead are not raised, if there is no hope of enjoying God forever in eternal life, then we should just seek to live a "normal, simple, comfortable ordinary life of human delights that may enjoy with no troubling thoughts of heaven of hell or sin or holiness or God."  Then the all too convicting remark.  "...many... professing Christians seem to aim at just this - and call it Christianity."

If we're honest, Piper is dead on with that comment, and if we're even more honest, a lot of us are in that boat, more concerned with living comfortably than choosing a path where we will suffer some kind of loss in order that we may gain Christ (Phillipians 3).  I would add that this is not just referring to those "health and wealth gospel" people, but is very inclusive of your average professing Christian in America.  

Piper continues, "Am I overstating this?  Judge for yourself.  How many Christians do you know who could say, "The lifestyle I have chosen as a Christian would be utterly foolish and pitiable if there is no resurrection?"  I'm convicted, are you?  I'm asking God to help me to not just walk the path of least resistance and most comfort, but instead help me to seek first His Kingdom and take up my cross, whatever suffering or sacrifice that might entail.

There's still more to share and consider from this chapter, so I guess there's a Part 2 coming...     

Nepal - Hindu Radicals Threaten More Attacks

During our worship service at CCA this past weekend we prayed for the country of Nepal and specifically for a group of believers at a  church that had been bombed in late May.  Three people were killed and many more injured.  This is an update to that news/prayer request.  I encourage you all to bring this matter before the Lord in prayer.

NEPAL - Hindu Extremist Threaten More Bombings – VOM Sources UPDATE – The leader of the Hindu extremist group, Nepal Defense Fund (NDF), has threatened to bomb the homes of all Christians if they do not stop spreading the gospel within one month, according to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts. In a letter received by local newspapers in Nepal, R.P. Mainali, the supreme commander of the NDF, demanded that Nepal be declared a Hindu state and Christians should not be allowed to worship freely. He said Hindu groups would not allow foreign missionaries and if the government did not comply, “they would fight the government.” NDF was responsible for the May 23 bombing of a Catholic church in Kathmandu that killed three believers and wounded 15 others. VOM is assisting six injured believers with medical treatment through VOMedical. Ask God to heal those who were injured. VOM encourages you to pray for believers in Nepal who face increased persecution and uncertainty. Ask God to protect and encourage them. Pray their testimonies will draw others into fellowship with him.

Are we supposed to enjoy worship?

A good friend of mine recently wrote a short e-mail to me after playing music together in a worship service.  He said that he had fun being a part of the service and asked if it was okay to enjoy times of worship or if those kinds of feelings should be kept separate in the context of worshiping.  

Since that e-mail, I've started reading Desiring God by John Piper.  There is a chapter on worship that speaks to this question about the heart, feelings, pleasures, thoughts that we should have in regards to worship, which is relevant to what my friend asked, and surely something most of us have wondered about before.

Piper starts this chapter on worship looking at John 4, where Jesus' conversation with a Samaritan women starts with asking for water, moves to her issue with sexual immorality, and then ends up talking about worship.  This is the chapter where we find the well-known phrase, "worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24).  Piper focuses on the "spirit" and heart element of worship, because he is concerned about the influence of Immanuel Kant on Christianity over the last few centuries.  His philosophy says that an action is moral only if one has no desire to perform it.  Piper particularly disagrees with this idea in regards to Christian worship.

In defining what "spirit" means in this context, Piper says he has taken it to primarily mean our spirits, our hearts engaged in worship, but also recognizes that the Holy Spirit has to be taken into account here.  So, his conclusion is that Jesus saying "that true worship comes only from our spirits made alive and sensitive by the quickening of the Spirit of God" (p.82).  Without the Holy Spirit, he says, our spirits will be dead and unresponsive to God and can't truly worship. Here are a few spirit/heart quotes from this chapter that stood out to me.

"An act of worship is vain and futile when it does not come from the heart"

"Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead"

"Worshiping in the spirit is the opposite of worshiping in merely external ways"

The "truth" element in worship is essential to balance out our spirits, otherwise we will be like the Samaritans in John 4, who according to Jesus worshiped who/what they did not know.  If who God is and what he has done and all the other truth He has revealed to mankind didn't matter in worship, it wouldn't be wrong to think that God accepted the worship of all religions (sort of a unitarian view).  But Jesus Himself affirmed that truth was imperative to worship, which is why our songs and prayers and creeds and sermons must be weighed against God's truth as revealed in scripture.  A few more quotes to share, putting Piper's perspective on spirit and truth together.

"Worship must engage emotions and thought."

"How and whom are crucial, not where (referencing Jesus conversation with the Samaritan).  Worship must be vital and real in the heart... and rest on a true perception of God."

 

"Strong affections for God rooted in truth are the bone and marrow of biblical worship." 

I felt like God used this chapter to remind of the importance of our hearts and even emotions in worship because I've been focused mostly on the truth factor lately in my thinking and implementation.  The truth has to lead us to a place of not just knowing it, but being satisfied with the excellency of God and overflowing with the joy of His fellowship.  I'll sum up this post with Piper's analogy of how worship, in spirit and truth, works like a furnace.  

Our fuel is a true vision of God's greatness, our fire is the quickening of the Holy Spirit, the furnace is our spirit made alive and warm by the flame of truth, the heat that comes out is the resulting affections from us that result in powerful worship via confessions, longings, acclamations, tears, songs, shouts, bowed heads, lifted hands and obedient lives.  I don't think any of us could find fault in worship that works like that.