After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are where it is neither beautiful nor poetic nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the drab drudgery of the valley; but it is in the valley we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mount, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our true worth in God. That is where our faithfulness is revealed....
When you were on the mount, you could believe anything, but what about the time you were up against the facts in the valley? You may be able to give a testimony to sanctification, but what about the thing that is a humiliation to you just now? The last time you were on the mount with God, you saw that all power in Heaven and in earth belonged to Jesus - will you be skeptical now in the valley of humiliation?
- Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest", October 2
Friday, October 2, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Relationship Between Prayer and Living
"There is a two way relationship between prayer and life. Prayer can be seen as the focusing and redirecting of an attitude to God and to our fellow [human beings] that runs through all that we do. On the other hand we can see our daily life as something which prayer purifies, directs and consecrates. This interrelationship of prayer and life was expressed by William Temple in his well known saying "It is not that conduct is the end of life and worship helps it but that worship is the end of life and conducts tests it." Temple is here using worship in a broad sense to include all of life. For in worship, as the derivation of the work from worth implies, we declare what we value most. If in prayer I declare that I value God above all things and in my life I show that my own selfish interests come first I am making a nonsense of my praying. We declare how we value God as much by our actions, by the way we treat other people, by the manner in which we do our work, as by anything we say. If my actions are wrong or wrongly motivated prayer cannot make them right. If however, despite my failures and inconsistencies, I do on the whole want to put God above all things then prayer will help to purify my motives and clarify my judgment."
- Christopher Bryant, "The River Within"
- Christopher Bryant, "The River Within"
Friday, September 11, 2009
Things Ought Not To Be So
James 3:10
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Rivers of Living Water
'A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received His fullness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth. We have nothing to do with the outflow - "This is the work that ye believe." God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is.
Think of the healing and far-flung rivers nursing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up marvelous truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is an indication of the wider power of the river He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has nourished you in mighty torrents of blessing for others.'
- Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest", September 6
It seems so much of my life I have been asking, "What legacy will I leave to future generations? What purpose does my life serve? How will I be remembered? Does my life really matter in the grand scheme of things?"
This comment gives me hope that, though I may never know it, I can (and will) make someone's life better simply by getting as close to God as possible. It also challenges me. For if I want to truly make a mark on this rock that will last, I must remember from where that change comes and must be open for that changing force in my life as well.
Think of the healing and far-flung rivers nursing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up marvelous truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is an indication of the wider power of the river He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has nourished you in mighty torrents of blessing for others.'
- Oswald Chambers, "My Utmost for His Highest", September 6
It seems so much of my life I have been asking, "What legacy will I leave to future generations? What purpose does my life serve? How will I be remembered? Does my life really matter in the grand scheme of things?"
This comment gives me hope that, though I may never know it, I can (and will) make someone's life better simply by getting as close to God as possible. It also challenges me. For if I want to truly make a mark on this rock that will last, I must remember from where that change comes and must be open for that changing force in my life as well.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Fellowship and Solitude
This quote from a sermon by Mike Bullmore is worth meditating upon:
We need fellowship with others to be alone safely.
We need solitude to be with others meaningfully.
HT: Between Two Worlds
No Sin Too Small
"Your misdeeds and mine are nonetheless repellent because our opportunities for doing damage are less spectacular than those of some other people. Do you suggest that your doings and mine are too trivial for God to bother about? That cuts both ways; for, in that case, it would make precious little difference to His creation if he wiped us both out tomorrow."
Dorothy L. Sayers in Creed or Chaos?
Monday, August 31, 2009
The joy of Jesus Christ
What was the joy that Jesus had? It is an insult to use the word happiness in connection with Jesus Christ. The joy of Jesus was the absolute self-surrender and self-sacrifice of Himself to His Father, the joy of doing that which the Father sent Him to do...
The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had.... All that God has done for us is the mere threshold. He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witness and proclaim who Jesus is.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center for Jesus Christ to pour living water through.... The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of the most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 31
The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, and in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had.... All that God has done for us is the mere threshold. He wants to get us to the place where we will be His witness and proclaim who Jesus is.
Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, and out of you will flow rivers of living water. Be a center for Jesus Christ to pour living water through.... The life that is rightly related to God is as natural as breathing wherever it goes. The lives that have been of the most blessing to you are those who were unconscious of it.
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 31
Saturday, August 29, 2009
God’s grace comes from the outside
“The point I am making is quite offensive to us today. It is that God hides himself from us, that he cannot be had on our terms, and that he cannot be accessed from “below” through natural revelation. In the malls, and in much of life, we encounter nothing like this. We expect access. We expect to be able to get what we want, when we want it, and on our terms.
Here this is not the case. Here we have to be admitted to God’s presence, on his terms, in his way … or not at all. We cannot simply walk into his presence. Here nature does not itself yield grace. God’s grace comes from the outside, not the inside, from above and not from within. It is not natural to fallen human life. We enter the presence of God as those who have been estranged, not as those who have been in continuity with the sacred simply because we are human. We are brought into a saving relationship through Christ; we do not put this together from within ourselves.”
—David F. Wells, The Courage to be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 190
HT: Of First Importance
Choosing Life before Death - Choosing Thomas
Watch this for so many reasons, but be prepared to cry.
Denny Burk:
" Twenty weeks into their pregnancy, T. K. and Deidrea Laux found out that their son had Trisomy 13—a rare DNA abnormality. After being counseled that “terminating the pregnancy” would be an option, they chose life. In Deidrea’s own words:
“We didn’t not terminate because we were hanging on to some sort of hope that there was a medical mistake or there was gonna be some sort of medical miracle. We didn’t terminate because he’s our son.”
The Dallas Morning News has produced this video chronicling the birth and home-going of Thomas. The Laux’s are members of Paul Lindquist’s church (one of my former Criswell College students), and Paul is the one who alerted me to “Choosing Thomas.” This is an amazing story of love and life, and you need to watch it."
HT: Take Your Vitamin Z
Faith or common-sense?
"Every time you venture out in the life in faith, you will find something in your common-sense circumstances that flatly contradicts your faith. Common-sense is not faith and faith is not common-sense; they stand in relation to the natural and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common-sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture heroically on Jesus Christ's statements when the facts of your common-sense life shout - 'It's a lie?'...
Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams He will not stand by us."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 29
Faith is unutterable trust in God, trust which never dreams He will not stand by us."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 29
Friday, August 28, 2009
What's the good of prayer?
"It is not so true that 'prayer changes things' as that prayer changes me and I change things. God has no constituted things that prayer on the basis of redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man's disposition."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 28
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, August 28
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Shepherd or Hireling
The God of Calvin is the good shepherd, who names and numbers his sheep, who saves the lost sheep and fends off the wolf. The God of Wesley is the hireling, who knows not the flock by name and number, who lets the sheep go astray and be eaten by the wolf. Which is more loving, I ask?
Steve Hays
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Earthen Vessels
“Let us stand still, and admire and wonder at the love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners; that Christ should rather die for us, than for the angels. They were creatures of a more noble extract, and in all probability might have brought greater revenues of glory to God: yet that Christ should pass by those golden vessels, and make us vessels of glory, Oh, what amazing and astonishing love is this! This is the envy of devils, and the admiration of angels and saints.”
- Thomas Brooks, Christ’s Love for us
H.T.: Of First Importance
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thankful Discontentment
“The Christian life should be a state of thankful discontentment or joyful dissatisfaction! We live every day thankful for the amazing grace that fundamentally changes our lives, but we should not be satisfied. Why not? Because, when we look at ourselves honestly, we have to admit that there is still need for personal growth and change. We are not yet all that we could be in Christ. We are thankful for the many things in our lives that would not be there without His grace, but we should not settle for partial inheritance. We should want nothing less than all that is ours in Christ! In this sense, God does not want us to be content with less than what He wants for us. He calls us to continue to wrestle, meditate, look, consider, resist, submit, follow, and pray until we have been completely transformed into His likeness.”
- Paul David Tripp & Timothy S. Lane, “How Christ Changes Us By His Grace” in The Journal of Biblical Counseling (Spring 2005), 20.
H.T.: Of First Importance
- Paul David Tripp & Timothy S. Lane, “How Christ Changes Us By His Grace” in The Journal of Biblical Counseling (Spring 2005), 20.
H.T.: Of First Importance
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Packer on Humaness
Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
I was reading J. I. Packer's book Concise Theology and he wrote something that really hit home with me. It was in the chapter Humanness (page 71) which dealt with what it means to be human and man's role as the image bearer of God:
"The statement at the start of the Bible (Gen. 1:26-27, echoed in 5:1; 1 Cor. 11:7; James 3:9) that God made man in his own image, so that humans are like God as no other earthly creatures are, tells us that the special dignity of being human is that, as humans, we may reflect and reproduce at our own creaturely level the holy ways of God., and thus act as his direct representatives on earth. This is what humans are made to do, and in one sense we are human only to the extent that are doing it."
It made me think, "How well am I being "human" in the sense that Dr. Packer is speaking of?" The answer is I am not doing very well. I unceasingly fail to reproduce the holy ways of God.
May God grant me the ability to reproduce His holy ways.
RC
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
I was reading J. I. Packer's book Concise Theology and he wrote something that really hit home with me. It was in the chapter Humanness (page 71) which dealt with what it means to be human and man's role as the image bearer of God:
"The statement at the start of the Bible (Gen. 1:26-27, echoed in 5:1; 1 Cor. 11:7; James 3:9) that God made man in his own image, so that humans are like God as no other earthly creatures are, tells us that the special dignity of being human is that, as humans, we may reflect and reproduce at our own creaturely level the holy ways of God., and thus act as his direct representatives on earth. This is what humans are made to do, and in one sense we are human only to the extent that are doing it."
It made me think, "How well am I being "human" in the sense that Dr. Packer is speaking of?" The answer is I am not doing very well. I unceasingly fail to reproduce the holy ways of God.
May God grant me the ability to reproduce His holy ways.
RC
C.S. Lewis regarding one's life
"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or “real” life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one ...day by day; what one calls one’s “real life” is a phantom of one’s own imagination."
C.S. Lewis
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
My walk with God
I was recently asked to give a talk at the WayFM Christian Business Leaders’ Breakfast on how my faith and career intersect. Afterwards some people asked for a copy of my notes and I thought I would write a narrative to make it easier to follow:
As you all know, my name is Larry Johnston and I run All Phase Painting. When Jennie first asked me to speak to you I told her I would be honored. I also said that I didn’t want to spend ten minutes boring you with all sorts of technical stuff about painting, but that I would rather talk about my job than the way I make a living. You see, I pay my bills by painting houses and offices, but my job is to be the hands and feet of Jesus to everyone I meet.
In order to tell you how my faith intersects with my career I have to take you back almost ten years. At that time I had a pretty good job – I worked as a telemarketing manager about 30 hours per week and was making about $35,000 per year. The only real drawback was I had to work nights until about 8:00 and missed spending time with my school-age children. My wife worked as a shift manager for a car rental company making about $38,000 and from the outside we looked like a happy family. In private, though, there was a lot of fighting. I went to church regularly and my boys were very active in Sunday school. I participated in bible studies and helped out wherever needed. Because of her schedule, my wife was rarely able to attend and this became one of the cracks in the facade of our marriage – she resented my deepening faith and relationship with God as well as the time away at the church. Even though I looked pretty together on the outside, I always was aware that something was missing in my life: I KNEW I needed to be home more with the kids; I KNEW my marriage was falling apart; I KNEW that, though I spent time at the church, I was never really known. I had a tendency to stay in the background because I didn’t feel like I fit in.
I asked God to help me make sense of my life, but I wanted Him to do it on my terms: I asked Him to fix my marriage; I asked Him to bless my career; I asked for guidance in raising my kids; I asked Him to make me feel like I belonged somewhere. He and I had this conversation for about two years before I finally relented and told God He could have control of it all. That’s when God’s wrecking ball leveled everything I valued in my life.
My oldest son suffered emotional trauma from the stress of my failing marriage and I took advantage of the Family Leave Act to stay home and care for him. While staying home, I came to realize my marriage was unfixable in its current state as long as I lived in the same house with my wife. I decided to end the toxicity of our relationship by moving out in the hopes of some distance helping to fix things. I had to move with a few boxes in my car and my clothes into a friend’s basement. With nowhere to set up house, I had to leave my kids behind. I went back to work to try and rebuild my life, but within a few weeks was diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells on my back and had to have a surgical biopsy done. During recovery I had an abscess that caused me to miss more work and I was let go. In less than ninety days I lost my house, my marriage, my kids, my job and my health. The only thing I had left was my relationship with God and I dove into that for all I was worth.
It was at this point God started to rebuild my life. I found a reduced-rent apartment through Colorado Homeless Families. Their organization not only allowed me to move into my own place with almost no money, they gave me furniture to furnish the place – some of which I still have today – and they allowed me to get food from their food pantry while I got back on my feet financially. I applied for and received unemployment, and since this happened around the time of 9-11 I also qualified for extended benefits. This was good because I seemed to work only sporadically over the next couple years as I tried to discern God’s will for my life and through His grace my bills always somehow got paid. It was during this time that I realized how much I enjoyed painting while working as a handyman. And I began to study God’s word daily. I dove into daily devotions and spent two years reading the entire Bible (at least most of it) with a class from church.
I also became involved in men’s ministry. I started with Promise Keepers, where I learned I had something more to offer my family than a paycheck. Promise Keepers created in me a strong desire to be a better man. The truth was I didn’t know what that looked like, so I continued to look to the Bible for examples. What I found was that every man God chose to use – Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Solomon, – all of them failed a LOT. This knowledge gave me hope that, though I had fallen, God could still use me in some way.
I then went on an experiential retreat created by my pastor and another man called Men of Faith in Mission which taught me that even before I was born, God had placed in me certain gifts (which I call my gold) that he wanted to me to use on Earth to further His Kingdom. I learned how the world in which I lived and my own shame and fear had caused me to bury my gold a long time ago. And I realized how a part of me still resisted God’s will for my life (see Romans 7:14-23). But I also saw how God could use the experiences of my broken life and the gold He had given me to glorify Him and His Kingdom on Earth. From these lessons I developed my mission statement, which I’d like to share with you:
I am Larry D. Johnston. I am a bold, caring, strong man. I have been called to use my empathy, my compassion and my strength to help create a world that fosters hope in one another, faith in God, and serenity for those around me.
I contemplated how to fulfill this mission and decided the best way would be to show other men what I had learned and help them become better husbands, better fathers and better workers and to show boys that being a man of God could be both rewarding and fun. So I started teaching other men (both young and old) these lessons in variety of ways: I became a leader for the same retreat that began my mission; I became a volunteer with our church’s high school ministry, and I try to lead by example by serving first as a deacon and then as an elder of our church.
Shortly after my first Men of Faith retreat I came up with the vision for All Phase Painting. My main motivation for opening a business had less to do with money as it did with the ability to set my own schedule – I wanted to have enough flexibility to be available for my middle-school-aged boys. As I began the process of starting the company, I realized early on that the company really isn’t mine, but belongs to God and I am just the steward of His gift. Every day I look for ways to glorify His Kingdom through the company, and ways are always coming up: from sending 75 gallons of paint to an orphanage in Mexico to painting a church office for the cost of materials, to painting a recently-retired pastor’s new home free with extra paint I had collected – I see all of these as a service that glorifies our Heavenly Father. There are other ways as well: praying with a customer preparing for surgery; taking time to tell a prospective client how God is changing me through missional work in Jamaica; sharing with people like you all the things He has done for me every opportunity I get; offering free painting certificates for fundraising at different charity events; and providing a positive, Godly environment for my employees.
I also feel very honored to be an Impact Partner with WayFM. Music was very important to me growing up (and still is). There were many years when I gave up listening to the radio because of the negative message and I wasn’t aware of stations that had an encouraging word. Knowing of a station like WayFM would have been an excellent outlet for filling that need had they been around then. It speaks to my heart to be able to help provide a positive message for today’s youth.
The last way I try to honor God through All Phase Painting is by sharing a simple message on how to live a good life. It comes from I Thessalonians 5: 16-18:
“Be joyful always” – No matter how good your circumstances, there are bad things as well; and no matter how bad your circumstances, there’s also good things. No matter how bleak your situation, there is always something to be joyful about. If you need an example, look at how children live.
"Pray continuously" – When you have a best friend, you make the time to talk to them, no matter what else is going on in your life. That’s how you become best friends. God wants to be your best friend. Get to know Him better the only way you can – by talking to Him through prayer.
“Give thanks in all circumstances” – When things are going your way it’s easy to be thankful, but it’s not during the good times we do most of our growing. We learn and grow and become stronger during the difficult times in our lives. It’s also when things are tough that we are given more chances to let God carry part of the load for us. We need to be thankful for these things too.
“This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” – If we can live out these three things, we will be living a fulfilled, joyous life, and that is all God wants for us.
Finally, I’d like to share a couple of the lessons I’ve learned over the last seven or eight years as I took this walk with God:
1. Never ask God to fix your life unless you really mean it – you never know what that might entail.
2. Realize that sometimes, in order to build the palace God has planned for you to live in He has to first tear down the shanty in which you currently reside.
3. God NEVER promises that, just because you choose to follow Him your life will be easy. In fact He promises quite the opposite – He promises that you will be reviled and hated for His name. But He also promises that He will always be with you to see you through.
4. No matter who we are, where we’ve been, or what we’ve done, we all have something to offer for the glory of God’s Kingdom – In fact sometimes it’s those very pasts that hold the key to our contribution.
5. When Jesus needed people to start His church, He didn’t look to professional priests or rabbis or Levites trained in the Torah. He chose common everyday people – laborers, shop keepers, small business owners – people like you and me. He even chose a reviled tax collector to help form His church. Perhaps He knew common people with common problems would be better suited to carry the Good News to other common people with common (and uncommon) problems and tell of the plans He has for us all.
As you all know, my name is Larry Johnston and I run All Phase Painting. When Jennie first asked me to speak to you I told her I would be honored. I also said that I didn’t want to spend ten minutes boring you with all sorts of technical stuff about painting, but that I would rather talk about my job than the way I make a living. You see, I pay my bills by painting houses and offices, but my job is to be the hands and feet of Jesus to everyone I meet.
In order to tell you how my faith intersects with my career I have to take you back almost ten years. At that time I had a pretty good job – I worked as a telemarketing manager about 30 hours per week and was making about $35,000 per year. The only real drawback was I had to work nights until about 8:00 and missed spending time with my school-age children. My wife worked as a shift manager for a car rental company making about $38,000 and from the outside we looked like a happy family. In private, though, there was a lot of fighting. I went to church regularly and my boys were very active in Sunday school. I participated in bible studies and helped out wherever needed. Because of her schedule, my wife was rarely able to attend and this became one of the cracks in the facade of our marriage – she resented my deepening faith and relationship with God as well as the time away at the church. Even though I looked pretty together on the outside, I always was aware that something was missing in my life: I KNEW I needed to be home more with the kids; I KNEW my marriage was falling apart; I KNEW that, though I spent time at the church, I was never really known. I had a tendency to stay in the background because I didn’t feel like I fit in.
I asked God to help me make sense of my life, but I wanted Him to do it on my terms: I asked Him to fix my marriage; I asked Him to bless my career; I asked for guidance in raising my kids; I asked Him to make me feel like I belonged somewhere. He and I had this conversation for about two years before I finally relented and told God He could have control of it all. That’s when God’s wrecking ball leveled everything I valued in my life.
My oldest son suffered emotional trauma from the stress of my failing marriage and I took advantage of the Family Leave Act to stay home and care for him. While staying home, I came to realize my marriage was unfixable in its current state as long as I lived in the same house with my wife. I decided to end the toxicity of our relationship by moving out in the hopes of some distance helping to fix things. I had to move with a few boxes in my car and my clothes into a friend’s basement. With nowhere to set up house, I had to leave my kids behind. I went back to work to try and rebuild my life, but within a few weeks was diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells on my back and had to have a surgical biopsy done. During recovery I had an abscess that caused me to miss more work and I was let go. In less than ninety days I lost my house, my marriage, my kids, my job and my health. The only thing I had left was my relationship with God and I dove into that for all I was worth.
It was at this point God started to rebuild my life. I found a reduced-rent apartment through Colorado Homeless Families. Their organization not only allowed me to move into my own place with almost no money, they gave me furniture to furnish the place – some of which I still have today – and they allowed me to get food from their food pantry while I got back on my feet financially. I applied for and received unemployment, and since this happened around the time of 9-11 I also qualified for extended benefits. This was good because I seemed to work only sporadically over the next couple years as I tried to discern God’s will for my life and through His grace my bills always somehow got paid. It was during this time that I realized how much I enjoyed painting while working as a handyman. And I began to study God’s word daily. I dove into daily devotions and spent two years reading the entire Bible (at least most of it) with a class from church.
I also became involved in men’s ministry. I started with Promise Keepers, where I learned I had something more to offer my family than a paycheck. Promise Keepers created in me a strong desire to be a better man. The truth was I didn’t know what that looked like, so I continued to look to the Bible for examples. What I found was that every man God chose to use – Abraham, Isaac, Moses, David, Solomon, – all of them failed a LOT. This knowledge gave me hope that, though I had fallen, God could still use me in some way.
I then went on an experiential retreat created by my pastor and another man called Men of Faith in Mission which taught me that even before I was born, God had placed in me certain gifts (which I call my gold) that he wanted to me to use on Earth to further His Kingdom. I learned how the world in which I lived and my own shame and fear had caused me to bury my gold a long time ago. And I realized how a part of me still resisted God’s will for my life (see Romans 7:14-23). But I also saw how God could use the experiences of my broken life and the gold He had given me to glorify Him and His Kingdom on Earth. From these lessons I developed my mission statement, which I’d like to share with you:
I am Larry D. Johnston. I am a bold, caring, strong man. I have been called to use my empathy, my compassion and my strength to help create a world that fosters hope in one another, faith in God, and serenity for those around me.
I contemplated how to fulfill this mission and decided the best way would be to show other men what I had learned and help them become better husbands, better fathers and better workers and to show boys that being a man of God could be both rewarding and fun. So I started teaching other men (both young and old) these lessons in variety of ways: I became a leader for the same retreat that began my mission; I became a volunteer with our church’s high school ministry, and I try to lead by example by serving first as a deacon and then as an elder of our church.
Shortly after my first Men of Faith retreat I came up with the vision for All Phase Painting. My main motivation for opening a business had less to do with money as it did with the ability to set my own schedule – I wanted to have enough flexibility to be available for my middle-school-aged boys. As I began the process of starting the company, I realized early on that the company really isn’t mine, but belongs to God and I am just the steward of His gift. Every day I look for ways to glorify His Kingdom through the company, and ways are always coming up: from sending 75 gallons of paint to an orphanage in Mexico to painting a church office for the cost of materials, to painting a recently-retired pastor’s new home free with extra paint I had collected – I see all of these as a service that glorifies our Heavenly Father. There are other ways as well: praying with a customer preparing for surgery; taking time to tell a prospective client how God is changing me through missional work in Jamaica; sharing with people like you all the things He has done for me every opportunity I get; offering free painting certificates for fundraising at different charity events; and providing a positive, Godly environment for my employees.
I also feel very honored to be an Impact Partner with WayFM. Music was very important to me growing up (and still is). There were many years when I gave up listening to the radio because of the negative message and I wasn’t aware of stations that had an encouraging word. Knowing of a station like WayFM would have been an excellent outlet for filling that need had they been around then. It speaks to my heart to be able to help provide a positive message for today’s youth.
The last way I try to honor God through All Phase Painting is by sharing a simple message on how to live a good life. It comes from I Thessalonians 5: 16-18:
“Be joyful always” – No matter how good your circumstances, there are bad things as well; and no matter how bad your circumstances, there’s also good things. No matter how bleak your situation, there is always something to be joyful about. If you need an example, look at how children live.
"Pray continuously" – When you have a best friend, you make the time to talk to them, no matter what else is going on in your life. That’s how you become best friends. God wants to be your best friend. Get to know Him better the only way you can – by talking to Him through prayer.
“Give thanks in all circumstances” – When things are going your way it’s easy to be thankful, but it’s not during the good times we do most of our growing. We learn and grow and become stronger during the difficult times in our lives. It’s also when things are tough that we are given more chances to let God carry part of the load for us. We need to be thankful for these things too.
“This is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” – If we can live out these three things, we will be living a fulfilled, joyous life, and that is all God wants for us.
Finally, I’d like to share a couple of the lessons I’ve learned over the last seven or eight years as I took this walk with God:
1. Never ask God to fix your life unless you really mean it – you never know what that might entail.
2. Realize that sometimes, in order to build the palace God has planned for you to live in He has to first tear down the shanty in which you currently reside.
3. God NEVER promises that, just because you choose to follow Him your life will be easy. In fact He promises quite the opposite – He promises that you will be reviled and hated for His name. But He also promises that He will always be with you to see you through.
4. No matter who we are, where we’ve been, or what we’ve done, we all have something to offer for the glory of God’s Kingdom – In fact sometimes it’s those very pasts that hold the key to our contribution.
5. When Jesus needed people to start His church, He didn’t look to professional priests or rabbis or Levites trained in the Torah. He chose common everyday people – laborers, shop keepers, small business owners – people like you and me. He even chose a reviled tax collector to help form His church. Perhaps He knew common people with common problems would be better suited to carry the Good News to other common people with common (and uncommon) problems and tell of the plans He has for us all.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Battlefield
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."
Attributed to Martin Luther
Attributed to Martin Luther
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Journey IS the Destinantion
"The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process God calls the end." Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 28
We are so goal-oriented in our culture. It seems like I am always looking for some destination or another - some benchmark that denotes my 'reaching' something : prosperity; fulfilment; success; retirement; etc. A good example for me is weddings... I remember when I was getting married how the wedding itself seemed like a destination - we spent so much time and preparation getting ready for the "Big Day" with little concern with what would follow. The reality is that day means little if the years to follow are not spent in constant care of the relationship that day celebrates.
I think all the little 'destinations' in my life are much the same. I don't think God sees my life as a series of endings so much as the process of becoming. As I do more 'becoming', I get to do more 'reaching' - as I grow deeper in my faith now, I feel more fulfilment in my life; as I stay more focused on the time and space I occupy now' I feel the success of navigating this moment; As I focus on the relationships in my life in the now, I feel prosperous in the ways I can touch the lives of those I care about.
Because when I finally do reach the ultimate destination, it won't matter how much money I made, how many toys I own, how many check marks are on my list. The only thing that will matter then is how I went through the process of living and relating with those around me and with God.
We are so goal-oriented in our culture. It seems like I am always looking for some destination or another - some benchmark that denotes my 'reaching' something : prosperity; fulfilment; success; retirement; etc. A good example for me is weddings... I remember when I was getting married how the wedding itself seemed like a destination - we spent so much time and preparation getting ready for the "Big Day" with little concern with what would follow. The reality is that day means little if the years to follow are not spent in constant care of the relationship that day celebrates.
I think all the little 'destinations' in my life are much the same. I don't think God sees my life as a series of endings so much as the process of becoming. As I do more 'becoming', I get to do more 'reaching' - as I grow deeper in my faith now, I feel more fulfilment in my life; as I stay more focused on the time and space I occupy now' I feel the success of navigating this moment; As I focus on the relationships in my life in the now, I feel prosperous in the ways I can touch the lives of those I care about.
Because when I finally do reach the ultimate destination, it won't matter how much money I made, how many toys I own, how many check marks are on my list. The only thing that will matter then is how I went through the process of living and relating with those around me and with God.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Lessons learned from helping others
I recently returned from my second mission trip to Jamaica and wanted to tell you about my experiences there. If I could live anywhere else but Colorado, it would be Jamaica. There are many reasons I feel so strongly, but most of them I can’t really put into words. There are two things, though that come to mind: First, there’s the beauty of the island itself – everywhere you look, it’s green. It seems every natural surface in Jamaica is alive with some kind of growth. It’s almost as if nature itself is challenging mankind to push it back to make room for human development. And I truly believe that man has only reached a temporary cease-fire in that battle. Secondly it’s the people – I have never been in a place where EVERYONE is so happy to see you. Nor have I ever been to a place where the quality of relationships are more important than the things you own.
Since this was a mission trip, I could stand up here and talk about the things we did and how we helped others, but instead I want to talk about how God helped us. The theme for this year’s trip was ‘be real’. Son Servants chose this theme to describe what our relationship to God and others should look like (real faith, real love, real devotion). We spent a little time every day learning how to have a more real relationship with God and the people in our lives.
I’d like to share some of the ‘real’ stuff I saw on the trip:
Real caring from the staff – We didn’t arrive at the camp until 12:30 AM on Wednesday after traveling 19 hours. The work was to begin that very morning with a wake-up call at 6:30. The staff, obviously, would need to be up prior to that, and yet everyone was awake and greeted us when we arrived. They fed us and sat with us and showed us to our rooms before they themselves went to sleep.
Real growth – some of the quieter members of our group really began to participate and share for the first time since joining Youth Group a year ago during family time. It was amazing to hear how God was touching the lives of kids who I hardly knew though we had spent some time nearly every week together.
Real love – one of the girls came back from the infirmary with tears in her eyes as she talked about one of the residents praying over her. She talked about how she had gone to this VERY sad place to bring comfort to those in need and yet SHE had been comforted. The infirmary in Mandeville, Jamaica completely changed her world-view. Now she is looking for a retirement village in her neighborhood that she can ride her bike to in order to visit the forgotten here in Denver.
Real joy – there is nothing like seeing a bunch of teenagers, covered from head to toe with dirt that stains EVERYTHING, exhausted from digging a hole 6 feet by 8 feet by 8 feet, so happy to work so hard and excited to know they’ll be doing it again tomorrow. It was very apparent that doing God’s work creates in us a joyful heart.
Real community – we not only grew closer to each other as we relied on each other, but created relationships with people we had never met – most of whom we’ll never see again – that we will continue for years to come. We overcame regional barriers with those from other parts of the country and language barriers from those in another country to touch their lives and allow ours to be touched. It was amazing to see people stop what they were doing when a neighbor came walking down the road and REALLY talk to them about their life – not just a quick “how are you” and “I’m fine” before getting back to whatever business was at hand.
Real faith – one of the members of our team shared how he had been wrestling with God about trusting God to care for him and found a peace in that relationship.
Real devotion – When one of our kids got hurt our leader dropped everything to give aid and comfort to that boy, forsaking his own need to eat to care for his wounds.
Real grace – When one of our kids’ luggage was lost in Miami for three days, not once did he complain. Not once did he remark about missing this or that, he just went on with the job at hand, and as an example of real compassion, the rest of our team banded together to make sure he had clothes to wear to the worksite, soap, shampoo, toothpaste to stay clean, blankets to use as bedding. We did our best to insure his hardship was minimized completely.
Real patience - even as the trip was winding down, with 100 tired kids and adults stretched to the end of their rope, even when nerves were wearing thin, not once did we have so much as an argument amongst ourselves. Not once were voices raised in anger. Not once were the lines of right and wrong behaviour so much as grazed, let alone overstepped.
When I went to Jamaica last time, I knew I was going down to help people who had a lot less than I did. What I didn’t realize was how these people had so much more than me in ways that really counted:
They taught me to place my worth not on what I own but on who I’ve touched in a positive way; about counting success not in how many things I scratch off my to do list but in who I’ve spent time with; That God is not found in my schedule, or my phone, or my stuff, but in the faces of every living thing He puts in front of me; That in order to receive God’s grace I must learn to hold everything else in my life lightly; That the most valuable thing I will do today (and every day) is to stop what I’m doing, no matter how important I think it to be, when God calls me through one of His creations to take a moment and share myself with that person.
One of my most poignant memories of this trip was an experience I had with our team’s mason (foreman) on the last day: WE had only known each other for six days. We had shared a little about our lives and gotten to know each other some, but not deeply, yet after we said our goodbyes, I went to get on the bus to go back to camp; Paul stood there and waited like a kid watching his best friend move away. He had concrete mixed and waiting for him to be applied to the wall – it was drying as he stood there, but watching me roll away was more important, meant more to him than doing the job that had to be done before he could go home. You see, in Jamaica they don’t own a bunch of stuff to distract them from what’s important – not the houses, not the water tanks, not the septic systems, not the concrete we poured, but the relationships we built.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
All Noble Things are Difficult
"Thank God He does give us difficult things to do...[they] test us for all we are worth...God's grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milksops." - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 7
On more than one occasion, I have heard somebody say, "Why does life have to be so hard?" or something similar. It seems many (including myself) wish life could always be simple, always be easy, always be fun. The truth is, as I follow Jesus, life is often more difficult than I ever imagined. I am tested in ways that often make me question whether it is worth it or not. I often ask myself why God puts such a hard road in front of me.
Many live the the mistaken idea that, by accepting Christ in their lives, their lives will be easier, but that is not what Christ promised. In fact he promised the exact opposite: "You will be universally hated for my name, but anyone who stands firm will be saved." This says to me, "The world will be against you if you stand up for me." It's not that God is making my life hard, the world and all that is not of God is fighting against my determination to keep God at the center of my life.
What God does promise is He will be with me and, if I do make my stand in Him, He will help me through all that comes at me, and He has ALWAYS been faithful to that promise
On more than one occasion, I have heard somebody say, "Why does life have to be so hard?" or something similar. It seems many (including myself) wish life could always be simple, always be easy, always be fun. The truth is, as I follow Jesus, life is often more difficult than I ever imagined. I am tested in ways that often make me question whether it is worth it or not. I often ask myself why God puts such a hard road in front of me.
Many live the the mistaken idea that, by accepting Christ in their lives, their lives will be easier, but that is not what Christ promised. In fact he promised the exact opposite: "You will be universally hated for my name, but anyone who stands firm will be saved." This says to me, "The world will be against you if you stand up for me." It's not that God is making my life hard, the world and all that is not of God is fighting against my determination to keep God at the center of my life.
What God does promise is He will be with me and, if I do make my stand in Him, He will help me through all that comes at me, and He has ALWAYS been faithful to that promise
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Looking for justice in an unjust world
"Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it" - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost of His Highest, June 27.
It seems to me that to be a true follower of Jesus means to accept the fact that I am going to be treated badly, partly because of what I believe, by those that don't follow Him. That those who follow the ways of the world are not going to be concerned with my welfare or my well being. Yet I am compelled by the One who gives me life to treat them fairly and honestly. I am to be concerned about their welfare as much (or more) than I am about mine.
How is that fair? Where is the justice in that? The simple answer is this: It's not and it isn't. Jesus, when He walked on this earth, knew he would be betrayed by the ones who loved Him. He knew He would be rejected by the ones He came to save. He didn't worry about justice. If He had, we would not have His example to follow because He wouldn't have come to earth in the first place.
In order to be an example of the man Jesus wants me to be I, too, must learn to treat people not as they treat me, but as Jesus dealt with everyone He came into contact with - with love, generosity, compassion. In doing so, I show others the peace I have found in Him. I glorify His kingdom and, hopefully, help it grow right here on this rock we call earth.
It seems to me that to be a true follower of Jesus means to accept the fact that I am going to be treated badly, partly because of what I believe, by those that don't follow Him. That those who follow the ways of the world are not going to be concerned with my welfare or my well being. Yet I am compelled by the One who gives me life to treat them fairly and honestly. I am to be concerned about their welfare as much (or more) than I am about mine.
How is that fair? Where is the justice in that? The simple answer is this: It's not and it isn't. Jesus, when He walked on this earth, knew he would be betrayed by the ones who loved Him. He knew He would be rejected by the ones He came to save. He didn't worry about justice. If He had, we would not have His example to follow because He wouldn't have come to earth in the first place.
In order to be an example of the man Jesus wants me to be I, too, must learn to treat people not as they treat me, but as Jesus dealt with everyone He came into contact with - with love, generosity, compassion. In doing so, I show others the peace I have found in Him. I glorify His kingdom and, hopefully, help it grow right here on this rock we call earth.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Life changing lessons of missional work - Pt 2
Two years ago I went to Jamaica on this same mission project with Son Servants and while there, as we always do, we went to the local infirmary. Jamaica is broken down into provinces like our states and each province has a state-run infirmary. From what I understand, the infirmary in Manchester (where we work) ranks low in quality compared to others. Now just so you understand, the infirmaries are not a place people go to heal - they are where people wind up who cannot take care of themselves and have no family or friends to care for them. Many are mentally handicapped - some very much so - and others suffer from physical disabilities that make living alone impossible. A few are very rarely even out of their bed. But for all of them, this is most probably their last stop before returning to their Creator. Son Servants visits the infirmary every year, partly to do minor work projects, but mainly to visit with the residents - many of whom never have visitors.
So two years ago, I was helping to organize a bunch of teenagers to paint a couple of buildings, since that is my profession anyway, and was working mainly in two areas about 150 feet apart. I had a fanny pack on me that carried my camera, my wallet, and all our traveler's checks (my two younger sons were with me) and I took it off to move a bunch of stuff. I asked the kids in that building to keep an eye on it for me (a bad idea at best). A few minutes later, I realized the kids I left with my pack were now with me and they didn't have my pack! As I rushed back to look for it, panic started to set in: All our money for the trip was in there, and my ID, and my credit cards, all the photos of the trip in my camera...
Then a voice in my head (the cynic will say it was just me talking to myself - the romantic in me says it was the Holy Spirit) said, "Larry, you came here to work with these people, to show the love of Jesus Christ to those in need, to build relationships. Now you can focus on your stuff and ruin your day, and possibly your trip, or you can get back to the work you came here to do." And an odd sense of peace fell over me. I went back to work until I saw someone in charge, then told them what had happened and accepted I would have to deal with the consequences of my stupidity when I got back to the States. While I continued to work, those in charge did all the right things - they called the police, searched the area, had me speak to the police, etc., and I continued to work. Thirty minutes later, I was shocked to get my pack with my wallet (and all its contents, including my traveler's cheques receipt) back. I spent much of the next day at the local bank replacing my traveler's cheques and pondering the lesson I was privileged to receive:
So much of our lives in the U.S. are wrapped up in the acquiring of stuff. The ads on TV tell us we need more stuff, better stuff, newer stuff. We measure our success by the amount and quality of our stuff. we build houses to hold all our stuff and build fences to protect our stuff and lock it away so no one can steal our stuff. By the time we are in our prime, we have so much stuff that we spend our time worrying about our stuff and not focusing on what's important - people, and the grace of God that he rains down on us every day. There are people in our families, living on our streets, going to our churches that are much more important than any of our stuff, and we ignore them because our focus is on stuff - the stuff we have and the stuff we want. The visual I have in my head is of the person walking out of a store with so many packages they can't hardly hold all of them, piled so high they can't see where they are walking. In essence, that is each of us, and we hold all our stuff close so we don't loose it or have it taken from us. Our hands are so full we couldn't possibly hold one more thing.
Here's the problem: with our hands so full, we can't possibly reach out for the grace of God. We can't grasp the peace He wants each of to own in our lives. We can't hold those around us who need our love. In order to truly enjoy the abundance of the One who created us, we must be willing to let go of all that stuff and trust Him to give us what we need. We need to re-prioritize what is really important and know that everything else is just... stuff.
So two years ago, I was helping to organize a bunch of teenagers to paint a couple of buildings, since that is my profession anyway, and was working mainly in two areas about 150 feet apart. I had a fanny pack on me that carried my camera, my wallet, and all our traveler's checks (my two younger sons were with me) and I took it off to move a bunch of stuff. I asked the kids in that building to keep an eye on it for me (a bad idea at best). A few minutes later, I realized the kids I left with my pack were now with me and they didn't have my pack! As I rushed back to look for it, panic started to set in: All our money for the trip was in there, and my ID, and my credit cards, all the photos of the trip in my camera...
Then a voice in my head (the cynic will say it was just me talking to myself - the romantic in me says it was the Holy Spirit) said, "Larry, you came here to work with these people, to show the love of Jesus Christ to those in need, to build relationships. Now you can focus on your stuff and ruin your day, and possibly your trip, or you can get back to the work you came here to do." And an odd sense of peace fell over me. I went back to work until I saw someone in charge, then told them what had happened and accepted I would have to deal with the consequences of my stupidity when I got back to the States. While I continued to work, those in charge did all the right things - they called the police, searched the area, had me speak to the police, etc., and I continued to work. Thirty minutes later, I was shocked to get my pack with my wallet (and all its contents, including my traveler's cheques receipt) back. I spent much of the next day at the local bank replacing my traveler's cheques and pondering the lesson I was privileged to receive:
So much of our lives in the U.S. are wrapped up in the acquiring of stuff. The ads on TV tell us we need more stuff, better stuff, newer stuff. We measure our success by the amount and quality of our stuff. we build houses to hold all our stuff and build fences to protect our stuff and lock it away so no one can steal our stuff. By the time we are in our prime, we have so much stuff that we spend our time worrying about our stuff and not focusing on what's important - people, and the grace of God that he rains down on us every day. There are people in our families, living on our streets, going to our churches that are much more important than any of our stuff, and we ignore them because our focus is on stuff - the stuff we have and the stuff we want. The visual I have in my head is of the person walking out of a store with so many packages they can't hardly hold all of them, piled so high they can't see where they are walking. In essence, that is each of us, and we hold all our stuff close so we don't loose it or have it taken from us. Our hands are so full we couldn't possibly hold one more thing.
Here's the problem: with our hands so full, we can't possibly reach out for the grace of God. We can't grasp the peace He wants each of to own in our lives. We can't hold those around us who need our love. In order to truly enjoy the abundance of the One who created us, we must be willing to let go of all that stuff and trust Him to give us what we need. We need to re-prioritize what is really important and know that everything else is just... stuff.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Man Describes Heaven
Tim Challies reviewed Don Piper's '90 Minutes in Heaven.' He made a statement that really struck home with me.
"Piper’s description of heaven left me cold. I was dismayed to find that his heaven seems largely man-centered. In fact, if you were to ask your unbelieving friends and neighbors to describe heaven, they would probably create a place very much like this. Piper did not see Jesus, nor did he see God, though, to be fair, he saw only the “outskirts” and did not pass through the gates. Despite this, he was exceedingly joyful and feels that he experienced the very joys of paradise. For ninety minutes he walked through heaven, greeted by those he knew in this life, all of whom were (quite conveniently), the same age they were when he had last known them.
Piper’s heaven was a place of reunion with loved ones, a place of beautiful music and a place of literal pearl (or “pearlescent”) gates and literal streets of gold. It is a heaven that can be so easily described to a human mind using mere human words, as if it had originated in a human mind. Piper is able to describe it in some detail, but what he presents is surely far too human to be heaven."
How often do we humanize God and the things of God? When we reduce God to human terms we reduce God. Glorify God and do not reduce him to your level.
"Piper’s description of heaven left me cold. I was dismayed to find that his heaven seems largely man-centered. In fact, if you were to ask your unbelieving friends and neighbors to describe heaven, they would probably create a place very much like this. Piper did not see Jesus, nor did he see God, though, to be fair, he saw only the “outskirts” and did not pass through the gates. Despite this, he was exceedingly joyful and feels that he experienced the very joys of paradise. For ninety minutes he walked through heaven, greeted by those he knew in this life, all of whom were (quite conveniently), the same age they were when he had last known them.
Piper’s heaven was a place of reunion with loved ones, a place of beautiful music and a place of literal pearl (or “pearlescent”) gates and literal streets of gold. It is a heaven that can be so easily described to a human mind using mere human words, as if it had originated in a human mind. Piper is able to describe it in some detail, but what he presents is surely far too human to be heaven."
How often do we humanize God and the things of God? When we reduce God to human terms we reduce God. Glorify God and do not reduce him to your level.
Reconciling one's self to the fact of sin
In 'My Utmost for His Highest', Oswald Chambers wrote for today: "The recognition of sin does not destroy the basis of friendship, it establishes a mutual regard for the fact that the basis of life is tragic."
So many times in my life I have been hurt, let down, or betrayed by the people I love. At this stage in my walk with Christ, I have come to realize that will always be the case. It's not that I am a cynic, it is just that I realize that man is a sinful, self-centered beast (and being one, so am I) and will, at some time, fall back on his humanity. In the process, someone is going to be hurt.
When Christ was on the earth, He knew He would be betrayed. He knew he would suffer at the hands of men. And yet He loved fully. He was fully present and giving in every way to everyone He met.
I guess what I am trying to say is: I need to be aware that in my relationships I am bound to be hurt either on purpose or by accident, but that in spite of that I need to love my fellow man as completely as I can and trust God to make those pains okay instead of holding back from those around me lest I have to suffer at all.
So many times in my life I have been hurt, let down, or betrayed by the people I love. At this stage in my walk with Christ, I have come to realize that will always be the case. It's not that I am a cynic, it is just that I realize that man is a sinful, self-centered beast (and being one, so am I) and will, at some time, fall back on his humanity. In the process, someone is going to be hurt.
When Christ was on the earth, He knew He would be betrayed. He knew he would suffer at the hands of men. And yet He loved fully. He was fully present and giving in every way to everyone He met.
I guess what I am trying to say is: I need to be aware that in my relationships I am bound to be hurt either on purpose or by accident, but that in spite of that I need to love my fellow man as completely as I can and trust God to make those pains okay instead of holding back from those around me lest I have to suffer at all.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
The Life-Changing Lessons of Missional Work
I just returned from Jamaica for the second time since 2007. As part of a team working with Son Servants – a missional arm of Youth Conference Ministries (ycmhome.org) – I had the privilege of being an adult volunteer leader for our senior high youth group. I say privilege because it seems that each time I go to ostensibly do something for others, namely build houses for the poor of that nation, something is done to me. I am permanently and indelibly altered in my thinking and value system. In essence, the very meaning for living my life is challenged by simply meeting and interacting with the people of this beautiful island.
One of the first things you will hear from the veterans of this trip is when we are in Jamaica, we will be working on ‘Jamaica Time’. What that basically means is, “It will get done when it gets done,” or, “the schedule is VERY flexible.” Since we are working in a third-world country, there are always unforeseen difficulties – broken-down busses, failing equipment, lack of manpower, missing materials, etc. – that make adaptability a much needed gift to have. As Americans, so much of our lives are schedule-driven that trying to stay on task in Jamaica can drive you crazy if you let it. Yet, for the Jamaicans, this is business-as-usual. They live with these problems everyday and yet, I could see no signs of stress in the locals I was working with on either trip. I have no proof to back up my theory, but I would hazard a guess that heart disease and hypertension are not common ailments in Jamaica. So why would a nation that can’t stay on track the way we can not suffer from these problems when they are so prevalent in the US? Why would a people that have so much difficulty simply having enough food and water to provide for their families not be wringing their hands and dropping like flies of stress-related disorders? I have prayed long and hard for an answer to this question and I think the answer can be summed up in a very simple statement – “God is not found in a schedule.” We spend so much time here worrying about whether we will accomplish this or that goal that we completely miss the grace that God pours out to us every day. We are unable to see past our daytimers and PDA’s and cell phone calendars to the gifts God leaves for us in our daily walk – Things like a beautiful sunset, or the child amusing himself with a simple cardboard box, or the love of our families. We spend so much time trying to stay ahead of the clock that we run right past the truly important things in life – a family dinner, a bedtime story with our kids, a much-needed phone call to a hurting friend, a moment of quiet with our God and Creator.
When I go to Jamaica for these mission trips, I go planning to work HARD, to do whatever is asked of me to the very best of my ability with absolutely no expectations or preexisting biases. I go knowing I will come back exhausted and used up. Yet, I go knowing I will be refreshed in spirit in a way I cannot anywhere in the US. I know this because I go without my cell phone. I leave behind my watch. I don’t take a calendar. I go planning to be told where to be, what to do, and how to do it as need be for ten days. And when I get back I realize just how much I hate my electronic leash, how much I despise my over-filled calendar, and how much I long for the peace of truly living in the moment – whatever that moment brings.
There are other lessons I wish to share, but I am still on Jamaica time. I will get to them when I get to them.
One of the first things you will hear from the veterans of this trip is when we are in Jamaica, we will be working on ‘Jamaica Time’. What that basically means is, “It will get done when it gets done,” or, “the schedule is VERY flexible.” Since we are working in a third-world country, there are always unforeseen difficulties – broken-down busses, failing equipment, lack of manpower, missing materials, etc. – that make adaptability a much needed gift to have. As Americans, so much of our lives are schedule-driven that trying to stay on task in Jamaica can drive you crazy if you let it. Yet, for the Jamaicans, this is business-as-usual. They live with these problems everyday and yet, I could see no signs of stress in the locals I was working with on either trip. I have no proof to back up my theory, but I would hazard a guess that heart disease and hypertension are not common ailments in Jamaica. So why would a nation that can’t stay on track the way we can not suffer from these problems when they are so prevalent in the US? Why would a people that have so much difficulty simply having enough food and water to provide for their families not be wringing their hands and dropping like flies of stress-related disorders? I have prayed long and hard for an answer to this question and I think the answer can be summed up in a very simple statement – “God is not found in a schedule.” We spend so much time here worrying about whether we will accomplish this or that goal that we completely miss the grace that God pours out to us every day. We are unable to see past our daytimers and PDA’s and cell phone calendars to the gifts God leaves for us in our daily walk – Things like a beautiful sunset, or the child amusing himself with a simple cardboard box, or the love of our families. We spend so much time trying to stay ahead of the clock that we run right past the truly important things in life – a family dinner, a bedtime story with our kids, a much-needed phone call to a hurting friend, a moment of quiet with our God and Creator.
When I go to Jamaica for these mission trips, I go planning to work HARD, to do whatever is asked of me to the very best of my ability with absolutely no expectations or preexisting biases. I go knowing I will come back exhausted and used up. Yet, I go knowing I will be refreshed in spirit in a way I cannot anywhere in the US. I know this because I go without my cell phone. I leave behind my watch. I don’t take a calendar. I go planning to be told where to be, what to do, and how to do it as need be for ten days. And when I get back I realize just how much I hate my electronic leash, how much I despise my over-filled calendar, and how much I long for the peace of truly living in the moment – whatever that moment brings.
There are other lessons I wish to share, but I am still on Jamaica time. I will get to them when I get to them.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Satire Saturdays / 5-16-09
Emerjeans
From The Sacred Sandwich.
Emergent Postmodern Church Motivational Video
From the Pyromaniacs.
You might be Emerging if...
From Purgatorio.
From The Sacred Sandwich.
Emergent Postmodern Church Motivational Video
From the Pyromaniacs.
You might be Emerging if...
From Purgatorio.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Enemy at the Gates
"Admitting that scientific objections may arise against the particularities of the Christian religion-- against the Christian doctrines of the person of Christ, and of redemption through His death and resurrection--the liberal theologian seeks to rescue certain of the general principles of religion, of which these particularities are thought to be mere temporary symbols, and these general principles he regards as constituting "the essence of Christianity."
It may well be questioned, however, whether this method of defense will really prove to be efficacious; for after the apologist has abandoned his outer defenses to the enemy and withdrawn into some inner citadel, he will probably discover that the enemy pursues him even there."
J. Gresham Machen from the introduction to'Christianity and Liberalism'
Inpertinent Intruder?
Psalm 119:105 (English Standard Version)
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
"Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end. The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from "controversial" matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight."
J. Gresham Machen, From the introduction to 'Christianity and Liberalism.'
Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
"Light may seem at times to be an impertinent intruder, but it is always beneficial in the end. The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from "controversial" matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight."
J. Gresham Machen, From the introduction to 'Christianity and Liberalism.'
Come Read With Me
First published in 1923, Christianity and Liberalism was one of the first -- and, to many, still the best -- critique of liberal Christianity from an orthodox Christian perspective. Written at the height of the battle for control over the Presbyterian Church USA, Christianity and Liberalism brilliantly defines -- and definitively refutes -- the theological liberalism that manifests itself chiefly in the rejection of Scripture as infallibly inspired, the denial of the doctrines of the Fall and of Hell, and the mistaken belief in man's "evolutionary" self-perfection. Machen contrasts these errors with the basic foundational truths of Biblical Christianity on God, man, the Bible, Christ, Salvation, and the Church.
Come read 'Christianity and Liberalism,' arguably Machen's greatest work, with me.
From Christ the King Presbyterian Church where the Reformed Parishioner listens to the Word of God spoken.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Matthew West's 'The Motions'
So often it seems to take a major crisis in my life to help me see what's important. It's only when I am stripped bare and too weak to stand that I finally will allow God sovereignty in my life. It's at that moment I am willing to truly search for God's will and act on it - until I get strong enough and prideful enough and foolish enough to think I can stand on my own again. Then God and I start the process all over.
So often it seems to take a major crisis in my life to help me see what's important. It's only when I am stripped bare and too weak to stand that I finally will allow God sovereignty in my life. It's at that moment I am willing to truly search for God's will and act on it - until I get strong enough and prideful enough and foolish enough to think I can stand on my own again. Then God and I start the process all over.
The way God molds us into the creation He wants us to be:
I certainly find that, in my life, the harder I hold on to those things I know are bad for me the more it hurts when it's time have them removed. I also find that, after those imperfections are gone, there was more pain from having them than from the removal and the freedom that comes from letting God take them makes it all worth it!
I certainly find that, in my life, the harder I hold on to those things I know are bad for me the more it hurts when it's time have them removed. I also find that, after those imperfections are gone, there was more pain from having them than from the removal and the freedom that comes from letting God take them makes it all worth it!
NO! It is not a private family matter, Mr. President
It's a magnificent thing: The only newly-originating life in the universe that comes in the image of God is Man.
The only newly-originating life in the universe that lasts forever is Man.
This is an awesome thing. And, as everyone knows, that reverence is not shared by our new President, over whom we have rejoiced.
He is trapped and blind in a culture of deceit. On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, he released this statement,
We are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters.
To which I say:
No, Mr. President, you are not protecting women; you are authorizing the destruction of 500,000 little women every year.
No, Mr. President, you are not protecting reproductive freedom; you are authorizing the destruction of freedom for one million little human beings every year.
No, Mr. President, killing our children is killing our children no matter how many times you call it a private family matter. You may say it is a private family matter over and over and over, and still they are dead. And we killed them. And you, would have it remain legal.
Mr. President, some of us wept for joy at your inauguration. And we pledge that we will pray for you.
We have hope in our sovereign God.
HT: Take Your Vitamin Z
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Deeps: A Puritan Prayer
Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance, a horror of sin, a dread of its approach. Help me chastely to flee it and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be Thine alone.
Give me a deeper trust, that I may lose myself to find myself in Thee, the ground of my rest, the spring of my being. Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself as saviour, master, lord, and king. Give me deeper power in private prayer, more sweetness in Thy Word, more steadfast grip on its truth. Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.
Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly husbandman, that my being may be a tilled field, the roots of grace spreading far and wide, until Thou alone art seen in me, Thy beauty golden like summer harvest, Thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.
I have no master but Thee, no law but Thy will, no delight but Thyself, no wealth but that Thou givest, no good but that Thou blessest, no peace but that Thou bestowest. I am nothing but that Thou makest me. I have nothing but that I receive from Thee. I can be nothing but that grace adorns me. Quarry me deep, dear Lord, and then fill me to overflowing with living water.
HT: Puritan prayers taken from 'The Valley of Vision'
"The Stranger"
Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise:
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small Tennessee town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later.
As I grew up I never questioned his place in our family. In my young mind, each member had a special niche. My brother, Bill, five years my senior, was my example. Fran, my younger sister, gave me an opportunity to play 'big brother' and develop the art of teasing. My parents were complementary instructors-- Mom taught me to love the word of God, and Dad taught me to obey it.
But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spell-bound for hours each evening.
If I wanted to know about politics, history, or science, he knew it all. He knew about the past, understood the present, and seemingly could predict the future. The pictures he could draw were so life like that I would often laugh or cry as I watched.
He was like a friend to the whole family. He took Dad, Bill and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. My brother and I were deeply impressed by John Wayne in particular.
The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn't seem to mind, but sometimes Mom would quietly get up-- while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places-- go to her room, read her Bible and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave.
You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house-- not from us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm. To my knowledge the stranger was never confronted. My dad was a teetotaler who didn't permit alcohol in his home - not even for cooking. But the stranger felt like we needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often.
He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (probably too much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man-woman relationship were influenced by the stranger.
As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents. Yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave.
More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive. He is not nearly so intriguing to my Dad as he was in those early years. But if I were to walk into my parents' den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
His name? We always just called him TV.
Anonymous.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Mere Christianity / Preface and Forward Part 1
Firemen battle the flames of a German bombing attack on London, 1941.Origins of the Book:
"THE CONTENTS of this book were first given on the air, and then published in three separate parts as Broadcast Talks (1942), Christian Behaviour (1943), and Beyond Personality (1944). In the printed versions I made a few additions to what I had said at the microphone, but otherwise left the text much as it had been. A 'talk' on the radio should, I think, be as like real talk as possible, and should not sound like an essay being read aloud. In my talks I had therefore used all the contractions and colloquialisms I ordinarily use in conversation."
C.S Lewis: 'Mere Christianity' Page VII of the Preface
These talks were made during the hardship of World War II.
One author reflects:
" The original setting of Mere Christianity was some of the darkest days of World War II. London was bombed every night from September 7, 1940 to November 2, 1940. On the night of November 14th, 30,000 incendiaries and 500 tons of bombs and landmines dropped on Coventry. It was a time of blackouts, bomb shelters, shortages, and rationing—and a time of personal searching, wondering, and questioning." [1]
It was a time of struggle and confusion.
The British Broadcast Corporation asked C.S. Lewis to give a series of radio talks to discuss Christianity.
"Mere Christianity was originally four series of radio broadcasts on the BBC between 1941 and 1944. Rev. James Welch, Director of Religion for the BBC, had read C. S. Lewis's book The Problem of Pain (1940) and, without ever hearing Lewis's voice, approached him about doing a radio series."
"During the war, programs had to be cleared by a censor before airing. In addition, the timing had to be exact, as the BBC feared that a German transmission could break in if there were an extended pause or silence. This forced Lewis to write scripts for each talk that filled a precise amount of time (usually 10 or 15 minutes), no more, no less. Moreover, a radio listener cannot flip back a page to re-read a point missed the first time, the way readers of a book can. This meant Lewis's message had to be simple and clear so the audience would grasp it in a single passing." [2]
Lewis discussed the thought behind his selection as an emissary of Christianity:
"It’s not because I’m anybody in particular that I’ve been asked to tell
you what Christians believe. In fact it’s just the opposite. [The British
Broadcasting Corporation] have asked me, first of all because I’m a layman
and not a parson, and consequently they thought I might understand the
ordinary person’s point of view a bit better. Secondly, I think they asked me
because it was known that I’d been an atheist for many years and only became
a Christian fairly recently. They thought that would mean I’d be able to see
the difficulties – able to remember what Christianity looks like from the
outside. So you see the long and the short of it is that I’ve been selected for
this job just because I’m an amateur and not a professional, and a beginner
not an old hand. Of course this means that you may well ask what right I have
to talk on the subject at all.
Well, when I’d finished my scripts I sent them round to various
people who were professionals: to one Church of England theologian, one
Roman Catholic, one Presbyterian, and one Methodist. The Church of England
man and the Presbyterian agreed with the whole thing. The Roman Catholic
and the Methodist agreed in the main, but would have liked one or two places
altered. So there you’ve got all the cards on the table.
What I’m going to say isn’t exactly what all these people would say;
but the greater part of it is what all Christians agree on… One thing I can
promise you. In spite of all the unfortunate differences between Christians, what
they agree on is still something pretty big and pretty solid: big enough to blow
any of us sky-high if it happens to be true..." [3]
This book is literally a series of radio talks converted to text form. These talks were given by a layman. He was selected precisely because he was a layman It would do our study harm to focus too much on the theological defects of the work. It is my desire to accentuate the positives. I will discuss the negatives as they arise, but to a lesser degree. I pray that each of us will find this study to be fruitful.
RC
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Pagan Christianity
As some of you guys know, I work at a christian bookstore. There is a book that tells of the paganism that is pervasive in the Modern Christian Church. I cannot go into too much detail right now because I am using a school computer. But the book tells of pagan traditions that have been integrated into some churches. Some of these traditions are: drum circles, labyrinths, yoga, etc. There is even a book that I've seen called "Christian Yoga." As a future seminarian, I am quite appalled at the debasing of Christianity. There are even CLASSES in seminaries around the world about these types of things! People had better be careful what they allow in their households, or their spiritual welfare could be diluted or, at worst, in serious danger.
ErikC
ErikC
Saturday, January 31, 2009
What American Christianity Needs
"American Christianity needs leaders. American Christianity needs Christian leaders. Christian leaders explain the Scriptures, bringing them to bear upon life's urgent questions. Christian leaders exemplify the life of faith, finding their ultimate satisfaction in God alone. They unite intellectual discipline with ordinate affection, turning their entire being toward the love of God."
Kevin T. Bauder
You can get his articles entitled "In the Nick of Time" e-mailed to you.
RC
Not For Sale - Free Audio Book
Each month Christian Audio offers one free downloadable audio book. This month's book is aptly entitled 'Not for Sale.'
"Award-winning journalist David Batstone reveals the story of a new generation of 21st century abolitionists and their heroic campaign to put an end to human bondage. In his accessible and inspiring book, Batstone carefully weaves the narratives of activists and those in bondage in a way that not only raises awareness of the modern-day slave trade, but also serves as a call to action."
I hope you will avail yourself of their free offers.
RC
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Christian Community Revisited
"As Christians, we are often filled (and thus blinded) with a sense of our own goodness, such that, genuine community remains elusive. Self-righteousness and self-sufficiency disables our love to others and painfully robs us of any sense of community. Christian brothers fight and are envious (James 4:1-10) because we easily forget that it is the grace and mercy of God in Christ alone that we are what we are. Oh, if those of us who confessed Christ were humbled under the corruption of our own hearts, how merciful, how tender and how charitable we would be to others. We would forbear and forgive, not censuring or striving but would be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If we would simply gain a better understanding of the sinfulness of our own hearts and it’s bent on evil in light of God’s majesty, we would trust less in our own judgments. If we spent more time digesting the truth that God, not because of some potential He saw in us, but in spite of ourselves, chose us for no other reason than His love alone, it would begin to enlarge our hearts and lead to compassion toward others because we would see them, not from above, but as broken, sinful people, just as we are. Although modern psychology seems to be obsessed with our self-esteem, the fact is that when we think we are good compared to others we become self-centered and grow increasingly difficult to live with. Too much self-love is actually community-destroying behavior. The better we think we are, the smaller our heart becomes. But Christ would have us “do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than [our]selves; … not merely look[ing] out for [our] own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”(Phil 2) If we would but continually place before ourselves our own desperate spiritual need who owes a debt that only Jesus can repay, we would start to be more willing to move out toward others with encouragement, patience and a helping hand."
J.W. Hendryx
You can read more of his thoughts in his article
The Predestinating Love of Christ: A Foundation of Christian Community
at Monergism.
Hopefully you will enjoy it.
RC
Mere Christianity Resources
A Study Guide to C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity
Stanford Small Group Study Guide to Mere Christianity
CSL Book Club Study Guide
Cokesbury Discussion Guide
CSLewis.org Study Guide
Resources from Gordy-Stith.com
MC Study Guide
Grace of God Lutheran Church Study Guide
OpenDiscipleship.org Leaders' Notes
Mere Christianity Notes
The Writings of Michael L. McCoy
There is a link on this page to a PDF file.
Tim Challies Group Discussion
Mere Christianity Audio Book
Mere Christianity Concordance
There are numerous text versions of the book on-line. While this is a copyright infringement they are available.
I have not read all of the content of each resource. I will read it as we go along. Subsequently I may not agree with everything discussed in each resource. The resources should be valuable to your/our study, but must be read carefully using discernment.
I hope you find them useful. I will add resources as I find them.
RC
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity Book One, Chapters 1-3
Unfortunately, as we humans muddle through life and think we have a good plan worked out, God has a way of changing things mid-stream. Such a situation has obviously arisen for RC and myself too, to a smaller degree. Even so, this book deserves to be looked at and discussed in order that we may all get a better grasp of what Mr. Lewis describes as 'Mere Christianity'. RC, you will be in my prayers as you face whatever trials may be befalling you.
For those of you that would prefer, a downloadable audio version of this book, including the preface, is available at: http://www.apollos.ws/blog/mere-christianity-audio-book.html
Before I begin in earnest, I think it would be worth mentioning that Lewis doesn't use the word 'mere' as we usually intend it in modern language, meaning 'nothing more than' or 'only', but as the exact opposite, meaning 'nothing less than' or 'absolute'. So, in essence, Lewis is trying to describe for us what he sees as his absolute meaning of what it means to be a Christian. He is trying to describe what he calls 'the great hall' that all Christians start in before they find the rooms of their own faith and denominations. I found it very eloquent the way he describes us moving from room to room and waiting to find the right room for ourselves and his beseeching that we be charitable to those who have chosen another room than our own. So to those who have chosen a different room than my own, I thank you for coming to visit and to share what you have learned where you reside. And to those still searching, please come in and warm yourself and enjoy some conversation.
In Chapter One, Lewis lays the groundwork for his entire argument by introducing the law of Human Nature. He describes this 'law' as a standard of behavior that we all understand. He says this isn't a natural Law such as gravity because we can either choose to follow the rules of behavior or not. Natural Laws like gravity work on us even if we choose not to accept them. He goes on to say that this law is present in all of us regardless of our predisposition to follow them. He explains that even the person who does not act 'fairly' will try to justify why the law does not apply to his specific situation and he is, therefore, not required act accordingly - thus proving the standard exists. I thoroughly enjoyed how Lewis explained that even the man who says he does not believe in absolute right and wrong will change his tune when he feels he is the one being treated 'unfairly'.
Chapter Two covers some of the objections people might have to accepting this law of Human Nature. Lewis starts by making the distinction between instinct and Moral Law by making the argument that often Moral Law contradicts instinct or governs over two contradicting instincts - as when we place ourselves in danger to help someone else. He also shows the difference between social convention and Moral Law by making the argument that conventions may differ and change, but the Moral Law crosses social lines. He concludes by making the case for our evolving Code of Decency - saying that, yes, it has evolved, which goes to show our growth in knowledge as well as finding better ways to interact with one another.
Chapter Three opens with a profound statement: That we all know there is this Moral Law and that we all know we should be following it, but nevertheless we do not. Lewis makes the point that, though we know it is better for society as a whole to act in a just way with one another, none of us do so all the time. Some do so more than others, but we all fail to meet the standard we set for ourselves and our neighbors.
Since this blog was envisioned as a forum to study together and have discourse, please share your thoughts!
For those of you that would prefer, a downloadable audio version of this book, including the preface, is available at: http://www.apollos.ws/blog/mere-christianity-audio-book.html
Before I begin in earnest, I think it would be worth mentioning that Lewis doesn't use the word 'mere' as we usually intend it in modern language, meaning 'nothing more than' or 'only', but as the exact opposite, meaning 'nothing less than' or 'absolute'. So, in essence, Lewis is trying to describe for us what he sees as his absolute meaning of what it means to be a Christian. He is trying to describe what he calls 'the great hall' that all Christians start in before they find the rooms of their own faith and denominations. I found it very eloquent the way he describes us moving from room to room and waiting to find the right room for ourselves and his beseeching that we be charitable to those who have chosen another room than our own. So to those who have chosen a different room than my own, I thank you for coming to visit and to share what you have learned where you reside. And to those still searching, please come in and warm yourself and enjoy some conversation.
In Chapter One, Lewis lays the groundwork for his entire argument by introducing the law of Human Nature. He describes this 'law' as a standard of behavior that we all understand. He says this isn't a natural Law such as gravity because we can either choose to follow the rules of behavior or not. Natural Laws like gravity work on us even if we choose not to accept them. He goes on to say that this law is present in all of us regardless of our predisposition to follow them. He explains that even the person who does not act 'fairly' will try to justify why the law does not apply to his specific situation and he is, therefore, not required act accordingly - thus proving the standard exists. I thoroughly enjoyed how Lewis explained that even the man who says he does not believe in absolute right and wrong will change his tune when he feels he is the one being treated 'unfairly'.
Chapter Two covers some of the objections people might have to accepting this law of Human Nature. Lewis starts by making the distinction between instinct and Moral Law by making the argument that often Moral Law contradicts instinct or governs over two contradicting instincts - as when we place ourselves in danger to help someone else. He also shows the difference between social convention and Moral Law by making the argument that conventions may differ and change, but the Moral Law crosses social lines. He concludes by making the case for our evolving Code of Decency - saying that, yes, it has evolved, which goes to show our growth in knowledge as well as finding better ways to interact with one another.
Chapter Three opens with a profound statement: That we all know there is this Moral Law and that we all know we should be following it, but nevertheless we do not. Lewis makes the point that, though we know it is better for society as a whole to act in a just way with one another, none of us do so all the time. Some do so more than others, but we all fail to meet the standard we set for ourselves and our neighbors.
Since this blog was envisioned as a forum to study together and have discourse, please share your thoughts!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Day 4: The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards
Number 6:Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.
Mere Christianity Book Study Calendar
Each item links to a blog post which covers that segment of the book. As posts are added items will be converted to links.
Mere Christianity: Preface and Forward Part 1 / RC / 2-08-09
Book One: Chapters 1-3 - 5-8-09
Book One: Chapters 1-3 / Larry / 1-27-09
Book One: Chapters 4-5 - 5-15-09
Book Two: Chapters 1-3 - 5-22-09
Book Two: Chapters 4-5 - 5-29-09
Book Three: Chapters 1-3 6-5-09
Book Three: Chapters 4 - 6 6-12-09
Book Three: Chapters 7 - 9 6-19-09
Book Three: Chapters 10 - 12 6-26-09
Book Four: Chapters 1-3 7-3-09
Book Four: Chapters 4-6 7-10-09
Book Four: Chapters 7-9 7-17-09
Book Four: Chapters 10-11 7-24-09
Mere Christianity: Preface and Forward Part 1 / RC / 2-08-09
Book One: Chapters 1-3 - 5-8-09
Book One: Chapters 1-3 / Larry / 1-27-09
Book One: Chapters 4-5 - 5-15-09
Book Two: Chapters 1-3 - 5-22-09
Book Two: Chapters 4-5 - 5-29-09
Book Three: Chapters 1-3 6-5-09
Book Three: Chapters 4 - 6 6-12-09
Book Three: Chapters 7 - 9 6-19-09
Book Three: Chapters 10 - 12 6-26-09
Book Four: Chapters 1-3 7-3-09
Book Four: Chapters 4-6 7-10-09
Book Four: Chapters 7-9 7-17-09
Book Four: Chapters 10-11 7-24-09
C.S. Lewis Chronology and Biography
"The Inklings" Met at The Eagle and Child. This pub, also dubbed "The Bird and Babe" by some, is where Lewis met in a back room with his literary friends such as J. R. R. Tolkein.
A Chronology of Important Dates in the Life of C.S. Lewis
(Source: C.S. Lewis: A Companion & Guide by Walter Hooper; HarperSanFrancisco, © 1996)
1898
Clive Staples Lewis was born on November 29 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Albert J. Lewis (1863-1929) and Florence Augusta Hamilton Lewis (1862-1908). His brother Warren Hamilton Lewis had been born on June 16, 1895.
1905
The Lewis family moved to their new home, "Little Lea," on the outskirts of Belfast.
1908
Flora Hamilton Lewis died of cancer on August 23, Albert Lewis's (her husband's) birthday. During this year Albert Lewis's father and brother also died. In September Lewis was enrolled at Wynyard School, Watford, Hertfordshire referred to by C.S. Lewis as "Oldie's School" or "Belsen." His brother had entered in May 1905
1910
Lewis left "Belsen" in June and, in September, was enrolled as a boarding student at Campbell College, Belfast, one mile from "Little Lea," where he remained until November, when he was withdrawn upon developing serious respiratory difficulties.
1911
Lewis was sent to Malvern, England, which was famous as a health resort, especially for those with lung problems. Lewis was enrolled as a student at Cherbourg House (which he referred to as "Chartres"), a prep school close by Malvern College where Warnie was enrolled as a student. Jack remained there until June 1913. It was during this time that he abandoned his childhood Christian faith. He entered Malvern College itself (which he dubbed "Wyvern") in September 1913 and stayed until the following June.
1914
In April, Lewis met Arthur Greeves (1895-1966), of whom he said, in 1933 "After my brother, my oldest and most intimate friend." On September 19, Lewis commenced private study with W.T. Kirkpatrick, "The Great Knock," in Great Bookham Surrey, with whom he was to remain until April 1917. William T. Kirkpatrick (1848-1921) was former Headmaster of Lurgan College, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, from 1874-99. Albert Lewis had attended Lurgan from 1877-79 and later was Kirkpatrick's solicitor. After Kilpatrick retired from Lurgan in 1899, he began taking private students and had already successfully prepared Lewis's brother, Warnie, for admission to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.
1916
In February, Lewis first read George MacDonald's, Phantastes, which powerfully "baptized his imagination" and impressed him with a deep sense of the holy. He made his first trip to Oxford in December to take a scholarship examination.
1917
From April 26 until September, Lewis was a student at University College, Oxford. Upon the outbreak of WWI, he enlisted in the British army and was billeted in Keble College, Oxford, for officer's training. His roommate was Edward Courtnay Francis "Paddy" Moore (1898-1918). Jack was commissioned an officer in the 3rd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry, on September 25 and reached the front line in the Somme Valley in France on his 19th birthday.
1918
On April 15 Lewis was wounded on Mount Berenchon during the Battle of Arras. He recuperated and was returned to duty in October, being assigned to Ludgerhall, Andover, England. He was discharged in December 1919. His former roommate and friend, Paddy Moore, was killed in battle and buried in the field just south of Peronne, France.
1919
The February issue of Reveille contained "Death in Battle," Lewis's first publication in other than school magazines. The issue had poems by Robert Bridges, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Hilaire Belloc. From January 1919 until June 1924, he resumed his studies at University College, Oxford, where he received a First in Honour Moderations (Greek and Latin Literature) in 1920, a First in Greats (Philosophy and Ancient History) in 1922, and a First in English in 1923. His tutors during this time included A.B. Poynton for Honour Mods, E.F. Carritt for Philosophy, F.P. Wilson and George Gordon in the English School, and E.E. Wardale for Old English.
1920
During the summer, Paddy Moore's mother, Mrs. Janie King Moore (1873-1951) and her daughter, Maureen, moved to Oxford, renting a house in Headington Quarry. Lewis lived with the Moores from June 1921 onward. In August 1930, they moved to "Hillsboro," Western Road, Headington. In October 1930, Mrs. Moore, Jack, and Major Lewis purchased "The Kilns" jointly, with title to the property being taken solely in the name of Mrs. Moore with the two brothers holding rights of life tenancy. Major Lewis retired from the military and joined them at "The Kilns" in 1932
1921
W.T. Kirkpatrick died in March. Lewis's essay "Optimism" won the Chancellor's English Essay Prize in May. (No copy of "Optimism" has been found as of this date.)
1924
From October 1924 until May 1925, Lewis served as philosophy tutor at University College during E.F. Carritt's absence on study leave for the year in America.
1925
On May 20, Lewis was elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, where he served as tutor in English Language and Literature for 29 years until leaving for Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1954.
1929
Lewis became a theist: "In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed...." Albert Lewis died on September 24.
1931
Lewis became a Christian: One evening in September, Lewis had a long talk on Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien (a devout Roman Catholic) and Hugo Dyson. (The summary of that discussion is recounted for Arthur Greeves in They Stand Together.) That evening's discussion was important in bringing about the following day's event that Lewis recorded in Surprised by Joy: "When we [Warnie and Jack] set out [by motorcycle to the Whipsnade Zoo] I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did."
1933
The fall term marked the beginning of Lewis's convening of a circle of friends dubbed "The Inklings." For the next 16 years, on through 1949, they continued to meet in Jack's rooms at Magdalen College on Thursday evenings and, just before lunch on Mondays or Fridays, in a back room at "The Eagle and Child," a pub known to locals as "The Bird and Baby." Members included J.R.R. Tolkien, Warnie, Hugo Dyson, Charles Williams, Dr. Robert Havard, Owen Barfield, Weville Coghill and others. (See Humphry Carpenters The Inklings for a full account of this special group.)
1935
At the suggestion of Prof. F.P. Wilson, Lewis agreed to write the volume on 16th Century English Literature for the Oxford History of English Literature series. Published in 1954, it became a classic.
1937
Lewis received the Gollancz Memorial Prize for Literature in recognition of The Allegory of Love (a study in medieval tradition).
1939
At the outbreak of World War II in September, Charles Williams moved from London to Oxford with the Oxford University Press to escape the threat of German bombardment. He was thereafter a regular member of "The Inklings."
1941
From May 2 until November 28, The Guardian published 31 "Screwtape Letters" in weekly installments. Lewis was paid 2 pounds sterling for each letter and gave the money to charity. In August, he gave four live radio talks over the BBC on Wednesday evenings from 7:45 to 8:00. An additional 15-minute session, answering questions received in the mail, was broadcast on September 6. These talks were known as "Right and Wrong."
1942
The first meeting of the "Socratic Club" was held in Oxford on January 26. In January and February, Lewis gave five live radio talks on Sunday evenings from 4:45 to 5:00, on the subject "What Christians Believe." On eight consecutive Sundays, from September 20 to November 8 at 2:50 to 3:05 p.m., Lewis gave a series of live radio talks known as "Christian Behavior."
1943
In February, at the University of Durham, Lewis delivered the Riddell Memorial Lectures (Fifteenth Series), a series of three lectures subsequently published as The Abolition of Man.
1944
On seven consecutive Tuesdays, from February 22 to April 4 at 10:15 to 10:30 p.m., Lewis gave the pre-recorded talks known as "Beyond Personality." Taken together, all of Lewis's BBC radio broadcast talks were eventually published under the title Mere Christianity. From November 10, 1944 to April 14, 1945, The Great Divorce was published in weekly installments in The Guardian. (The Guardian was a religious newspaper that ceased publication in 1951; it had no connection with the Manchester Guardian.)
1945
Charles Williams, one of Lewis's very closest of friends, died on May 15.
1946
Lewis awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
1948
On February 2, Elizabeth Anscombe, later Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, read her "Reply to Mr. C.S. Lewis's Argument that 'Naturalism is Self-refuting'" to the Socratic Club; Anscombe's argument caused Lewis to revise Chapter 3 of Miracles when it was reprinted by Fontana in 1960. Later in the year, Lewis was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
1951 Mrs. Moore died on January 12. Since the previous April, she had been confined to a nursing home in Oxford. She is buried in the yard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford. Lewis lost the election for the position of Professor of Poetry at Oxford to C. Day Lewis. In December, he declined election to the Order of the British Empire.
1952
Lewis was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by Laval University, Quebec. In September, he met Joy Davidman, fifteen years his junior (b. April 18,
1915 - d. July 13, 1960), for the first time.
1954
In June, Lewis accepted the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge. He gave his Inaugural Lecture, "De Description Temporum," on his 56th birthday and gave his last tutorial at Oxford on December 3. His review of Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring appeared in Time and Tide in August.
1955
Lewis assumed his duties at Cambridge in January. During his years at Cambridge, he lived at Magdalene College, Cambridge, during the week in term and at The Kilns in Oxford on weekends and during vacations. Lewis was elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, and was also elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
1956
Lewis received the Carnegie Medal in recognition of The Last Battle. On April 2 he entered into a civil marriage with Joy Davidman at the Oxford Registry Office for the purpose of conferring upon her the status of British citizenship in order to prevent her threatened deportation by British migration authorities. In December, a bedside marriage was performed in accordance with the rites of the Church of England in Wingfield Hospital. Joy's death was thought to be imminent.
1958
Throughout 1957, Joy had experienced an extraordinary recovery from her near terminal bout with cancer. In July of 1958, Jack and Joy went to Ireland for a 10-day holiday. On August 19 and 20, he made tapes of ten talks on The Four Loves in London. Lewis was elected an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford.
1959
Lewis was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University of Manchester.
1960
Subsequent to learning of the return of Joy's cancer, Jack and Joy, together with Roger Lancelyn Green and his wife, Joy, went to Greece from April 3 to April 14 visiting Athens, Mycenae, Rhodes, Herakleon, and Knossos. There was a one-day stop in Pisa on the return. Joy died on July 13 at the age of 45, not long after their return from Greece.
1963
Lewis died at the Kilns at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, November 22-one week before his 65th birthday-the same day on which President Kennedy was assassinated and Alduous Huxley died. He had resigned his position at Cambridge during the summer and was then elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. His grave is in the yard of Holy Trinity Church in Headington Quarry, Oxford. Warren Lewis died on Monday, April 9, 1973. Their names are on a single stone bearing the inscription "Men must endure their going hence." Warnie had written, "...there was a Shakespearean calendar hanging on the wall of the room where she [our mother] died, and my father preserved for the rest of his life the leaf for that day, with its quotation: 'Men must endure their going hence'." -W.H. Lewis, "Memoir," in Letters of C.S. Lewis).
Chronology and C.S. Lewis' Biography courtesy of The C.S. Lewis Institute.
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