Today I read C.S. Lewis' sermon entitled "The Weight of Glory." While I will suggest that everyone should read this sermon, I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes with you. Here they are:
"The negative idea of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not other's happiness was the important point."
"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith."
"Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."
"If we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object, and will even appear as the rival of that object."
"If a transtemporal, transfinite good is our real destiny, then any other good on which our desire fixes must be in some degree fallacious, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy."
"We remain conscious of a desire which no natural happiness will satisfy."
"God will be our ultimate bliss."
"Perfect humility dispenses with modesty."
"In the end that Face which is the delight or terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or with the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised."
"Glory, as Christianity teaches me to hope for it, turns out to satisfy my original desire and indeed to reveal an element in that desire which I had not noticed. By ceasing for a moment to consider my own wants I have begun to learn better what I really wanted."
"We want...to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it."
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare."
"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal."
"It is with immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."
These are but a few quotes from this extraordinary sermon. If you have time I would highly recommend you find it on the internet or go to our local bookstore and pick it up so that you enjoy the full experience for yourself. It is one of the most challenging and encouraging writings I have ever read.
Bryan
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
A Tree is a Tree
I was watching a debate over the question of the existence Satan this morning and one of the two men who denies the existence of Satan kept making the following statement:
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
His point was that Satan is a figment of our imagination. While I disagree with his view of Satan, I also think there is a much deeper problem with his statement: Things do not change when you change the way you look at them. Our perspective changes, but the object of our site does not fundamentally change. While the statement about things changing when we change the way look at them changes is clever, and I would even say cute, it is fundamentally based on a lie.
A simple example should help. If I look at a tree from the base of the tree I will see what looks like a bunch of individual twigs and sticks and limbs intertwining. However, I will also see that there is space between the limbs where birds and squirrels make their homes. Now if I move 500 feet back from the tree and change the way I look at it my perception will be completely different. I may see a mass of leaves sitting atop a trunk coming from the ground. At this distance I may not even be able to see the limbs and twigs and sticks that I was able to see earlier, but that does not mean that the tree has changed just because I can't see the twigs, limbs, and sticks. It is still the same tree with all the same features, I just see those features differently, and I would say that my perspective has changed. But a tree is still a tree with limbs, sticks, and twigs no matter the way I look at it. My view cannot change what a tree is.
I know the man who made this statement was probably not necessarily referring to tangible objects such as trees, but the same can be said about the thoughts of our minds as well. This growing idea that we create knowledge and truth through experience is tearing down the foundations for all of life. When we remove a standard bearer of truth and lie, right and wrong, good and evil, then we are opening our lives to the rule of chaos, and in a chaotic society, the physically strong will rule the physically weak because there is no basis to tell the strong that they are wrong in their thoughts and their actions. Without a truth that transcends human thought and experience, the moral and ethical bounds of society collapse and fall back onto the strength of the mob to push their ideas on the smaller mobs.
Truth is truth, and it is beyond our thoughts and experiences and ultimately in my Christian thought truth is experienced by knowing the truth personally through Jesus. Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified by truth, and that truth is the Word of God. The Bible reveals the truth that transcends thought and experience and stands as the standard bearer for good and evil, truth and lie, right and wrong. We put our faith and trust in the truth of the man that the Bible tells the story of, Jesus Christ. Through His life, death, and resurrection He opened the way for man back to a right relationship with God, who is truth.
I can't change a rock to gold by thinking differently about it anymore than I can make God not exist by choosing to believe that He doesn't. God exists beyond my thought, and no matter what I think or perceive or experience, He will continue to be real. If you think that truth is only what you think or experience, then put it to the test and step out in front a moving car and just think that it won't hit you and kill you. However, if you want to live in reality, accept the fact that there are truths in this world that are beyond our thought and experience and therefore cannot be changed by the way we think.
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
His point was that Satan is a figment of our imagination. While I disagree with his view of Satan, I also think there is a much deeper problem with his statement: Things do not change when you change the way you look at them. Our perspective changes, but the object of our site does not fundamentally change. While the statement about things changing when we change the way look at them changes is clever, and I would even say cute, it is fundamentally based on a lie.
A simple example should help. If I look at a tree from the base of the tree I will see what looks like a bunch of individual twigs and sticks and limbs intertwining. However, I will also see that there is space between the limbs where birds and squirrels make their homes. Now if I move 500 feet back from the tree and change the way I look at it my perception will be completely different. I may see a mass of leaves sitting atop a trunk coming from the ground. At this distance I may not even be able to see the limbs and twigs and sticks that I was able to see earlier, but that does not mean that the tree has changed just because I can't see the twigs, limbs, and sticks. It is still the same tree with all the same features, I just see those features differently, and I would say that my perspective has changed. But a tree is still a tree with limbs, sticks, and twigs no matter the way I look at it. My view cannot change what a tree is.
I know the man who made this statement was probably not necessarily referring to tangible objects such as trees, but the same can be said about the thoughts of our minds as well. This growing idea that we create knowledge and truth through experience is tearing down the foundations for all of life. When we remove a standard bearer of truth and lie, right and wrong, good and evil, then we are opening our lives to the rule of chaos, and in a chaotic society, the physically strong will rule the physically weak because there is no basis to tell the strong that they are wrong in their thoughts and their actions. Without a truth that transcends human thought and experience, the moral and ethical bounds of society collapse and fall back onto the strength of the mob to push their ideas on the smaller mobs.
Truth is truth, and it is beyond our thoughts and experiences and ultimately in my Christian thought truth is experienced by knowing the truth personally through Jesus. Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified by truth, and that truth is the Word of God. The Bible reveals the truth that transcends thought and experience and stands as the standard bearer for good and evil, truth and lie, right and wrong. We put our faith and trust in the truth of the man that the Bible tells the story of, Jesus Christ. Through His life, death, and resurrection He opened the way for man back to a right relationship with God, who is truth.
I can't change a rock to gold by thinking differently about it anymore than I can make God not exist by choosing to believe that He doesn't. God exists beyond my thought, and no matter what I think or perceive or experience, He will continue to be real. If you think that truth is only what you think or experience, then put it to the test and step out in front a moving car and just think that it won't hit you and kill you. However, if you want to live in reality, accept the fact that there are truths in this world that are beyond our thought and experience and therefore cannot be changed by the way we think.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Is it ok to be friends with people who aren’t Christians?
Yes, Jesus had many friends who were not Christians. In fact, this was the biggest criticism that religious people said about Him. He spent time with sinners and ultimately they began saying that Jesus himself was a sinner because He spent time with sinners. However, as we know from 1 Peter, Jesus never sinned. Therefore, while Jesus spent a lot of time with people who were not Christians He did not let them influence His life in any way. His closest friends loved Him and desired to follow Him. This is a good example for us. We should be influencing all of the non Christians around us to look to Jesus as our source of life. However, we should never be so close to a non Christian that we allow them to influence the direction of our life. This is why 2 Corinthians 6:14 is so important to live. We should not be in a close, intimate relationship with non Christians. However, having said that, Jesus also said that we should go and tell the world about Him and that starts in our neighborhoods, homes, and schools by living a life in front of non Christians that honors Jesus as our Lord and Savior. So ultimately I think Jesus expects us to have friends that are not Christians so as to allow God to work through our lives and our words to help a non Christian understand who Jesus is; but we should never allow a non Christian to influence our hearts and minds in any way.
How do you trust God if you can’t feel him around you?
You trust God the same way that you trust that you will have oxygen when you breathe. You can’t see oxygen or feel it emotionally (which is what most mean when they wonder why they can’t “feel” God) but every time you breathe, oxygen goes into your lungs and allows you to live until the next breath. It’s just a fact that oxygen is there when you breathe and that God is allows near.
All of us are going to experience valleys and mountaintops in our walk with God. In the valleys it can “feel” like God is far away. In these times we need to remind ourselves of the words of Jesus when He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” God does not go anywhere. Psalm 139 says that we can’t go anywhere to get away from God. He is wherever we go. These, like oxygen, are facts spoken to us by the most trustworthy source available, the mouth of God. So while science can prove that oxygen is always near us, the words of God can be trusted to be true even if we can’t “feel” the truth of them. God will give us mountaintop experiences of himself like He did for Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John, but it is in the valleys that He sustains with His word, the Bible.
Therefore, the way we trust Him when we can’t “feel” Him is to read and memorize his word. The Bible is full of people’s lives who trusted God when he felt close and when He didn’t feel close. The life of Moses is a good example. I doubt Moses felt God as closely as he did at the burning bush when he was talking to Pharaoh. But the fact remained that God had told Moses what to do, and God had said that He would be with Moses. It was a fact in Moses’s life, not a feeling only.
Faith in God and His word must stand in the gap of our emotional feelings about God. He is still our Savior, our King, and our Lord even if we don’t “feel” close to Him.
All of us are going to experience valleys and mountaintops in our walk with God. In the valleys it can “feel” like God is far away. In these times we need to remind ourselves of the words of Jesus when He said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” God does not go anywhere. Psalm 139 says that we can’t go anywhere to get away from God. He is wherever we go. These, like oxygen, are facts spoken to us by the most trustworthy source available, the mouth of God. So while science can prove that oxygen is always near us, the words of God can be trusted to be true even if we can’t “feel” the truth of them. God will give us mountaintop experiences of himself like He did for Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John, but it is in the valleys that He sustains with His word, the Bible.
Therefore, the way we trust Him when we can’t “feel” Him is to read and memorize his word. The Bible is full of people’s lives who trusted God when he felt close and when He didn’t feel close. The life of Moses is a good example. I doubt Moses felt God as closely as he did at the burning bush when he was talking to Pharaoh. But the fact remained that God had told Moses what to do, and God had said that He would be with Moses. It was a fact in Moses’s life, not a feeling only.
Faith in God and His word must stand in the gap of our emotional feelings about God. He is still our Savior, our King, and our Lord even if we don’t “feel” close to Him.
How do you help one of your friends come to know Christ?
First, let me state that only God can bring your friends to the point where they desire to become a Christian. We cannot manipulate people, talk people into or argue people into a true, saving relationship with God. Our friends who are not Christians are dead people according to Ephesians 2:1 (as we all were before God saved us). This is referring to their spiritual life. They are dead spiritually, and dead people don’t make decisions (unless we are living in some kind of crazed zombie flick and even then I have to ask if zombies really do make decisions). God has to work in their lives and awaken their spirits to a need for Jesus and until God does this your friends will not become a Christian.
Having said that, there are some things we can do that God will use in our friends lives to cause them to see their need for Christ.
First, we must live lives that show the transforming power of Jesus. If we call ourselves Christians and make all the same choices morally and ethically that our lost friends make then we show that there is no difference between Christians and non Christians. This also paints Jesus in a bad light. Almost everyone knows someone who will not come to church on the basis that someone at church or who goes to church treats them poorly. This is offensive to Jesus if we act without love towards others. Our lives must show the power of God to change a person and take a broken life and make it whole.
Second, talk to your friends about Jesus and try to answer their questions. Don’t shy away from talking about Jesus just because someone has told you they have heard it all before or because they say they don’t want to talk about it. Jesus is the most important person in your life if you are a Christian and them asking you not to talk about Him is like you asking them never to mention their boyfriend or girlfriend again in your presence. If you asked them not to talk about people who were important to them they would be offended just as you should be if they tell you not to talk about Jesus.
Third, share your story of how you became a Christian. Be able to answer these three questions in one sentence each: 1) What was your life like before Jesus? 2) What happened that caused you to believe in Jesus? 3) How has your life been different since trusting Jesus with your life? Being able to answer these questions will help you shape your testimony, or the story of How Jesus has changed your life. No one can argue with the fact that God has changed your life. They may try to argue that there is no God or that Jesus was just a man, but they cannot argue with the fact that Jesus has changed your life.
Fourth, you should pray for your friends that are not Christians. Since only God can save your friends then you should be constantly asking Him to do so. There are people who have prayed for friends and loved ones for years before God answered that prayer. In God’s infinite knowledge He knows how and when to answer our prayers in the best way. Pray for your friends and then trust that God will answer that prayer.
Also, let me say a word to those of you who say you don’t talk to your friends about God because you don’t think it is right to push God on someone. As a Christian, and stating that you are a Christian you are essentially stating that there is only one way to God. Jesus said in John 14:6 that no one comes to God the Father except through Him (Him being Jesus). If no one can come to the Father except through Jesus, then stating that you don’t talk to your friends about Jesus because you don’t want to offend them or push God on them is essentially looking them in the face and saying, “You can go to hell and I don’t care as long as you are not offended by me.” Not only is this passive stance in talking about Jesus cruel to your friends, it is also a disobedience and therefore a sin to Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 that we are to go and make disciples, or Christ followers, of all those we come into contact with everyday. By not doing this we not obeying Jesus in the name of being politically correct. So who is your God, political correctness or Jesus? You can’t serve them both when it comes to talking to your friends about Jesus.
Lastly, to those of you who are still not convinced that you should talk to your friends about Jesus let me ask you this; what is so bad and terrible about Jesus? You are trying to introduce your friends to a God who loves them more than anyone else, will forgive their sins, heal their hurts, give them peace in life, guidance in life, and care for them, and will ultimately one day take them to heaven to live with Him forever. Yes that is your terrible agenda. Peace, joy and the unconditional love of God is the message that you are withholding from your friends.
You carry the gift of God in your words, and God can use your words to work in the life of your friends so be bold about Jesus, and talk to everyone you can about Him.
Having said that, there are some things we can do that God will use in our friends lives to cause them to see their need for Christ.
First, we must live lives that show the transforming power of Jesus. If we call ourselves Christians and make all the same choices morally and ethically that our lost friends make then we show that there is no difference between Christians and non Christians. This also paints Jesus in a bad light. Almost everyone knows someone who will not come to church on the basis that someone at church or who goes to church treats them poorly. This is offensive to Jesus if we act without love towards others. Our lives must show the power of God to change a person and take a broken life and make it whole.
Second, talk to your friends about Jesus and try to answer their questions. Don’t shy away from talking about Jesus just because someone has told you they have heard it all before or because they say they don’t want to talk about it. Jesus is the most important person in your life if you are a Christian and them asking you not to talk about Him is like you asking them never to mention their boyfriend or girlfriend again in your presence. If you asked them not to talk about people who were important to them they would be offended just as you should be if they tell you not to talk about Jesus.
Third, share your story of how you became a Christian. Be able to answer these three questions in one sentence each: 1) What was your life like before Jesus? 2) What happened that caused you to believe in Jesus? 3) How has your life been different since trusting Jesus with your life? Being able to answer these questions will help you shape your testimony, or the story of How Jesus has changed your life. No one can argue with the fact that God has changed your life. They may try to argue that there is no God or that Jesus was just a man, but they cannot argue with the fact that Jesus has changed your life.
Fourth, you should pray for your friends that are not Christians. Since only God can save your friends then you should be constantly asking Him to do so. There are people who have prayed for friends and loved ones for years before God answered that prayer. In God’s infinite knowledge He knows how and when to answer our prayers in the best way. Pray for your friends and then trust that God will answer that prayer.
Also, let me say a word to those of you who say you don’t talk to your friends about God because you don’t think it is right to push God on someone. As a Christian, and stating that you are a Christian you are essentially stating that there is only one way to God. Jesus said in John 14:6 that no one comes to God the Father except through Him (Him being Jesus). If no one can come to the Father except through Jesus, then stating that you don’t talk to your friends about Jesus because you don’t want to offend them or push God on them is essentially looking them in the face and saying, “You can go to hell and I don’t care as long as you are not offended by me.” Not only is this passive stance in talking about Jesus cruel to your friends, it is also a disobedience and therefore a sin to Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20 that we are to go and make disciples, or Christ followers, of all those we come into contact with everyday. By not doing this we not obeying Jesus in the name of being politically correct. So who is your God, political correctness or Jesus? You can’t serve them both when it comes to talking to your friends about Jesus.
Lastly, to those of you who are still not convinced that you should talk to your friends about Jesus let me ask you this; what is so bad and terrible about Jesus? You are trying to introduce your friends to a God who loves them more than anyone else, will forgive their sins, heal their hurts, give them peace in life, guidance in life, and care for them, and will ultimately one day take them to heaven to live with Him forever. Yes that is your terrible agenda. Peace, joy and the unconditional love of God is the message that you are withholding from your friends.
You carry the gift of God in your words, and God can use your words to work in the life of your friends so be bold about Jesus, and talk to everyone you can about Him.
So if I surrender my life to God, will my life be easier?
Yes, in a way. Jesus never promises us that we won’t have pain again once we trust Him with our lives. In fact Jesus actually promised the opposite. He said that the world will hate you and persecute you because of your love for Jesus. Not exactly what we would call easy. However, God does promise care, guidance, and peace when you trust Him with your life. Proverbs 3:6 says that God will make your paths straight. He will guide you in the decisions and choices of life and lay out the path for you. Philippians 4:7 promises peace in all circumstances of life, even pain. And the care comes from a loving Father in Heaven who cares for his children so much that He knows how many hairs we have on our head. He knows us better than we know ourselves and that gives Him the ability to care for us in our lives. So while trusting in Jesus will not take away pain in life, it will be easier with the guidance, love, and care of the Father in heaven to live life. And this is the way that I can answer, “Yes your life will be easier when you trust God.” But please don’t think I have said that you will never have pain, struggles, or hard decisions again. With God these moments of pain in life become easier.
Will God put me back on the right track if I get off?
I would refer you to my answer for question to the question, “How can I work with God to straighten my life out if I mess up,” here. God will work in your life, but there is also a sense of personal responsibility in the Bible that we cannot get around. We must be active in our desire to straighten our lives out. God will work and move and do so when and how He wishes and our response as a Christian to his work in our lives will determine the path of our lives.
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