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Taking a break from C.S. Lewis, I heard this quote last night from Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of China Inland Mission. He spent 51 years in China and was well respected for his sensitivity to the Chinese culture and revered for the incredible impact that God had through him. He said…
“If the enemy can destroy the Christian’s passion for America, then he has won the major battle for the soul of this nation.”
Although this was written many years ago, (Hudson died in 1905) I think there is validity ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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The Screwtape Letters are one of my favorites of Lewis. Part of the 'fun' is constantly remembering that the enemy to Screwtape is God. If you haven't read Screwtape, this may take a few readings.
"Think of your man as a series of concentric circles, his will being the innermost, his intellect coming next, and finally his fantasy. You can hardly hope, at once, to exclude from all the circles everything that smells of the Enemy: but you must keep on shoving all the virtues outward till they are finally located in the circle of fantasy, and all the desirable qualities inward into the will. It is only in so far as they reach the will and are there embodied in habits that the virtues are really fatal to us."
This seems to be an apt description of how our real enemy would work. Conversely then, it seems to be the Holy Spirit's role to take those things like being loving, kind, and generous and move them from wondering to really thinking about them to actually doing them. At the same time to drive out all the sinful attitudes. Consequently it would become easier to recognize whose voice I'm listening to by looking at what is becoming more of my will and what is becoming more of just fantasy.
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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From Mere Christianity, Lewis writes...
"I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small."
There are a couple things I like about Lewis' rule. One it is difficult to settle on a percentage or standard that is common to everyone. While 10% seems like a good guideline, as Cindy and I began making more money 10% didn't seem to pinch or hamper us in those items that were not necessities. That's the other thing I like about the rule is that it makes it culturally relevant as to what it costs to live where you are at.
The question I ask myself this morning is what comforts, luxuries and amusements am I spending money on that would be wiser spent on others, who have less?
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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Ran across this today from Mere Christianity... fascinating little tidbit on Lewis' take on what a fully Christian society would look like and how we would respond to it. What do
you think???
"The N.T., without going in to details, give us a pretty clear hint of what a fully Christian society would be like. Perhaps it gives us more than we can take. It tells us that there
are to be no passengers or parasites: if a man does no work, he ought not to eat. Everyone is to work with his own hands, and what is more, everyone's work is ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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Took last week off for the holiday... took the past two days off just because... : )
This is from Mere Christianity and one of my favorite pictures of how many of us view or have viewed God.
"There is a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was 'The sort of person who is always snooping round to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it.' And I am afraid that is the sort of idea that the word Morality raises ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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Forgiveness was a topic that C.S. Lewis devoted a good amount of writing to. In work "On Forgiveness" he writes the following:
"We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer: it was emphatically stated by Our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of His teaching is clearer: and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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When you read a title like this what runs through your mind? Depending on who's saying it to me, a range of thoughts might run through my mind. "I'm thankful" "What now?" "Uh-OH!" In 'Miserable Offenders' C.S. Lewis writes the following:
"It is not for me to decide whether you should confess your sins to a priest or not... but if you do not, you should at least make a list on a piece of paper, and make a serious act of penance about each one of them. There is something about the mere words, you know, provided you avoid two ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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In addition to the inordinate amount of Beatle lyrics rolling around in my brain, I've had this opening thought from Lewis occupy and befuddle my mind more than once. I love how he cuts to the heart of the argument and closes with a powerfully applicable truth regarding 'Help'.
"I have heard some people complain that if Jesus was God as well as man, then His suffering and death lose all value in their eyes, 'because it must have been so easy for him'. Others may (very rightly) rebuke the ingratitude and ungraciousness of this objection; what staggers me is the ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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I'm really sorry about... you know... that thing. Really!
When someone has hurt us and wants to be back in a restored relationship with us, how do we know when they are sincere? It is impossible to see the heart, so we must rely on their words and actions. However because God does see our hearts, this makes C.S. Lewis' quote all the more intriguing to me on repentance.
"This repentance, this willing submission to humiliation and a kind of death, is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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From Mere Christianity, CS Lewis writes...
"In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor - that is the only way out of a 'hole'. This process of surrender - this movement full speed astern - is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating ... |
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| Posted by Mike Heiniger at | | | |
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