Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A Grief Observed
A few excerpts from C.S. Lewis' book, A Grief Observed:
From pg. 34
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn't you then first discover how much you really trusted it? ... Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.
From pg. 49
Bridge-players tell me that there must be some kind of money on the game 'or else people won't take it seriously.' Apparently it's like that. Your bid - for God or no God, for a good God or the Cosmic Sadist, for eternal life or nonentity - will not be serious if nothing much is staked on it. And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high; until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world. Nothing less will shake a man - or at any rate a man like me - out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.
From pg. 55
The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed - might grow tired of his vile sport - might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. But is it credible that such extremities of torture should be necessary for us? Well, take your choice. The tortures occur. If they are unnecessary, then there is no God or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary. For no even modestly good Being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren't.
Monday, December 7, 2009
All Things for Good
There is a great section on the absolute necessity for believers to trust in the Providence of God. From page 56:
Learn to adore providence. Providence has an influence upon all things here below. Observe the happy condition of every child of God. All things work for his good, the best and worst things.'Unto the upright ariseth light in darkness' (Psalm 112:4). The most dark, cloudy providences of God have some sunshine in them. What a blessed condition is a true believer in! When he dies, he goes to God; and while he lives, everything shall do him good. Affliction is for his good. What hurt does the fire to the gold? It only purifies it. What hurt does the fan to the corn? It only separates the chaff from it. What hurt do leeches to the body? They only suck out the bad blood. God never uses His staff, but to beat out the dust.Affliction does that which the Word many times will not, it 'opens the ear to discipline' (Job 36:10). When God lays men upon their backs, then they look up to heaven. God's smiting His people is like the musician's striking upon the violin, which makes it put forth a melodious sound. How much good comes to the saints by affliction! When they are pounded and broken, they send forth their sweetest smell.Affliction is a bitter root, but it bears sweet fruit. 'It yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness' (Heb. 12:10). Affliction is the highway to heaven; though it be flinty and thorny, yet it is the best way.
Comfort
Believer, just because it's so encouraging.... Heidelberg's question #1:
Q. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
A. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Christmas Knight
One of the bonuses of marrying an English major is all of the great books she brings into our lives. Especially children's stories. One night this past week, we all gathered on Nicholas' bed as Kristin read us The Christmas Knight by Jane Louise Curry. What a great book.
It's a story about a well-loved knight named Sir Cleges and his wife who each year gave a Christmas feast to all of their neighbors in their village. As years went by, they began running out of money, but instead of stopping the tradition, they mortgaged their farm to continue the feasts until one day they were forced to sell their farm to pay their debts.
When the Christmas feasts ended, all of their friends one-by-one turned up their noses when they met Sir Cleges in town. And as is often true in life, the Cleges' found themselves alone when their ability to provide the great feasts ended.
The next page is my favorite. It's an illustration of a kind faced Cleges kneeling in the snow beneath a cherry tree with the following words:
On Christmas Day in the morning Sir Cleges went out into the garden and knelt in the snow under a bare cherry tree to bow his head and pray."I thank you, sweet Christ Child, that I am poor," he said. "For when I was rich I was proud. I loved the praise my good deeds earned near as much as I loved doing good."
These simple words summarize many chapters in a book I recently read by John Flavel called All Things for Good. Flavel convinces you in his book, that God often times brings great trials into the lives of His children to wean us of excessive love of ourselves and to bring us to a deeper dependence on Jesus and a deeper yearning for Home.
What may appear to be difficulties that unravel our lives - are many times the very things that God uses to bring about our salvation. Though we may not believe it at the time, may we say as Joseph did in his trials, 'Lord, thou hast said that thou wilt do me good' (Gen. 32:12).
I thank you sweet Christ Child that I am poor. For when I was rich, I was proud. I loved the praises my good deeds earned near as much as I loved doing good.
