Nice, but still a rebel

Posted on April 20, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Some weeks ago I finished Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis and started writing a review, but got distracted and busy and haven’t gotten back to it. I do intend to finish it soon: one difficulty is that there are a number of good quotes from the book I want to use, but if I use all of them it would make for an exceptionally long post.

One quote, however, has been on my mind, and I wanted to go ahead and post it separately. It’s from the chapter “Beyond Personality” in a section that discusses the dilemma of how you can sometimes have an unsaved person who is actually nicer than some Christians. Lewis goes into many reasons for that which I won’t reproduce here, but one reason has to do with general disposition. Person A may be a quieter, calmer person and generally nice and personable, yet unsaved. Person B may have a more excitable personality and a fiery temper which the Lord has been giving him grace to overcome, and he may be a lot better than he was, yet compared with Person A he doesn’t seem as nice. Lewis then goes on to say (emphasis mine):

If you have sound nerves and intelligence and health and popularity and a good upbringing, you are likely to be quite satisfied with your character as it is. “Why drag God into it?” you may ask. A certain level of good conduct comes fairly easily to you. You are not one of those wretched creatures who are always being tripped up by s*x, or dipsomania, or nervousness, or bad temper. Everyone says you are a nice chap and (between ourselves) you agree with them. You are quite likely to believe that all this niceness is your own doing: and you may easily not feel the need for any better kind of goodness. Often people who have all these natural kinds of goodness cannot be brought to recognize their need for Christ at all until, one day, the natural goodness lets them down and their self-satisfaction is shattered….

If you are a nice person — if virtue comes easily to you — beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. If you mistake for your own merits what are really God’s gifts to you through nature, and if you are contented with simply being nice, you are still a rebel: and all those gifts will only make your fall more terrible, your corruption more complicated, your bad example more disastrous. The Devil was an archangel once; his natural gifts were as far above yours as your are above those of a chimpanzee.

….We must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls. A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world — and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is no redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

If what you want is an argument against Christianity (and I well remember how eagerly I looked for such arguments when I began to be afraid it was true) you can easily find some stupid and unsatisfactory Christian and say, “So there’s your boasted new man! Give me the old kind.” But if you once have begun to see that Christianity is on other grounds probable, you will know in your heart that this is only evading the issue. What can you ever really know of other people’s souls — of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbors or memories of what you have read in books. What will all that chatter and hearsay count (will you even be able to remember it?) when the anesthetic fog which we call “nature” or “the real world” fades away and the Presence in which you have always stood becomes palpable, immediate, and unavoidable?

Helping, not hurting

Posted on April 19, 2007 by Barbara Harper

This post by Yekwana Man is an excellent answer to those who think missionaries are having a negative impact on indigenous peoples.

I have known two missionaries, one in person and one through books, who ministered to primitive tribes who were killing each other off, the first by cannibalism and headhunting, the second because that tribe’s only way of dealing with any wrong was murder. This latter tribe was the Waodani, formerly known as the Aucas (an outside name given to them, not their name for themselves) of Ecuador. In the documentary Beyond the Gates of Splendor they told anthropologists that they had been almost down to two people before the missionaries came. Why would even any non-Christian want to see a whole people group extinguished due to infighting or disease? Especially these days when we clamor to save the spotted owl and other endangered species? Shouldn’t endangered people be at least equally as important as endangered animals?

Would anyone in their right minds really want such practices as burying a widow along with her husband or killing twins or deformed babies to continue? So many primitive tribes practice these kinds of things.

Why deny these people the choice of hearing that there are other ways? Why not allow them to hear the gospel and let them make their own choice? So many who bask in the multitudes of freedoms we have here in the US would rather keep people like this in darkness in the name of preserving their culture. Most missionaries I know of these days consciously and conscientiously try not to “Americanize” the native churches but rather try to respect their culture and form churches within that culture while introducing healthier ways of living and civil practices. Who could possibly have a problem with that?

Psalm Sunday: Psalm 14

Posted on April 17, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I am late with Psalm Sunday this week. We were busy til late Sunday evening, and I had fully planned to do this yesterday morning and just forgot, I guess because my Monday morning I usually already have it done.

Psalm 14

1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.

3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.

5 There were they in great fear: for God is in the generation of the righteous.

6 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.

7 Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
This is another of those Psalms that seems pretty straightforward — there is not much to say about it — it says it all! 🙂

Verse 1 did remind me of Romans 1:16-32, which traces the progression of people who “do not like to retain God in their knowledge” (v. 28) and are then “given over to a reprobate mind.” I used to think “reprobate” meant “really sinful” unto it was explained to me that it meant “unable to make sound judgment.” That explains some of the weird and unreasonable views and decisions in this day and age, I think. Sometimes I hear and read things that make me shake my head in wonder at the blindness. I think when people do not acknowledge God, as the first verse of this Psalm says, that opens them up to corruption, abominable works, and a lack of doing good.

Romans 1 also says,

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Man tends to glorify himself and his own “reasoning” powers these days. “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse…” God showed evidence of Himself clearly, yet people refuse to see it, choosing rather to explain away God’s majestic and marvelous creation by contrived theories of evolution.

Is there no hope then? There is always hope until the Lord returns again. “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three…” (I Cor. 13:13a). There is hope in the mercy of God, shown to all of us. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9). And there is hope in His Word: “The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” (Psalm 119:130). May we faithfully share God’s Word, praying that it will give light to darkened hearts just as it did to ours.

More thoughts on this Psalm can be found at Butterfly Kisses.

Walking Through the Flames

Posted on April 16, 2007 by Barbara Harper

A young woman’s faith in the midst of finding out she had a brain tumor* reminded me of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s faith. They knew God could deliver them from the fiery furnace in and they resolved to believe in Him even if He didn’t. Since then a song has been running through my mind based on that passage in Daniel 3.

“Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).

Walking Through the Flames by Jeanine Drylie (words are here):

*I originally had links to her blog, but it is no longer online.

Easter poem

Posted on April 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Tomb, thou shalt not hold Him longer;
Death is strong, but Life is stronger;
Stronger than the dark, the light;
Stronger than the wrong, the right;
Faith and Hope triumphant say
Christ will rise on Easter Day.

– Phillips Brooks, An Easter Carol

Easter quotes 4

Posted on April 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.–Martin Luther

Spring bursts to-day,
For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.
— Christina Georgina Rossetti, Easter Carol

Was it not most meet that a woman should first see the risen Saviour? She was first in the transgression; let her be first in the justification. In yon garden she was first to work our woe; let her in that other garden be the first to see Him who works our weal. She takes first the apple of that bitter tree which brings us all our sorrow; let her be the first to see the Mighty Gardener, who has planted a tree which brings forth fruit unto everlasting life.

— Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Previous Easter quotes are here, here, here, and here.

Happy Easter!

Saturday Photo Scavenger Hunt: Clean

Posted on April 6, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Theme: Clean | Become a Photo Hunter | View Blogroll

Psalm 51:1-10:

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

I John 1:7: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

John 15:3: Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Psalm 119:9: Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Mine, mine was the transgression…

Posted on April 6, 2007 by Barbara Harper

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

Men mock and taunt and jeer Thee, Thou noble countenance,
Though mighty worlds shall fear Thee and flee before Thy glance.
How art thou pale with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How doth Thy visage languish that once was bright as morn!

My burden in Thy Passion, Lord, Thou hast borne for me,
For it was my transgression which brought this woe on Thee.
I cast me down before Thee, wrath were my rightful lot;
Have mercy, I implore Thee; Redeemer, spurn me not!

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

— Bernard of Clairvaux

Easter quotes 3

Posted on April 5, 2007 by Barbara Harper

We greatly need the cheer of this precious Easter truth. We make too little of the place our Lord has gone to prepare for us. We rob ourselves greatly when we try to reduce heaven to a mere state of ecstatic feeling. We need the cheer which comes of having the eye of faith fixed on the better country and the city that hath the foundations. Such a certainty of an inheritance that is real and that cannot fade away goes far to mitigate the pangs which come of the fires and floods and disasters and frauds which so often despoil God’s people of their earthly possessions; for we know that the things seen are temporal, but the things not seen are eternal, and they are only a few heart-beats away.
— E.P. Goodwin

IF you come to seek His face, not in the empty sepulchre, but in the living power of His presence, as indeed realizing that He has finished His glorious work, and is alive for evermore, then your hearts will be full of true Easter joy, and that joy will shed itself abroad in your homes. And let your joy not end with the hymns and the prayers and the communions in His house. Take with you the joy of Easter to the home, and make that home bright with more unselfish love, more hearty service; take it into your work, and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; take it to your heart, and let that heart rise anew on Easter wings to a higher, a gladder, a fuller life; take it to the dear grave-side and say there the two words “Jesus lives!” and find in them the secret of calm expectation, the hope of eternal reunion.
— John Ellerton

(Other Easter quotes are here, here, here, and here.)

Booking Through Thursday: Truly Biblical

Posted on April 5, 2007 by Barbara Harper

The questions for this week’s Booking Through Thursday are:

Just out of curiosity, as we enter into Passover and Easter season . . . have you ever read the Bible? Just the odd chapter or Psalm? The whole thing? (Or, almost the whole thing? It’s some heavy reading, of course, and those “begats” get kind of tedious.)

If so, was it from religious motivation or from a literary perspective? Stuck with nothing else to read in a hotel room the Gideon’s have visited? Any combination?

If not, why not? Against your religious principles? Too boring? Just not interested? Something you’re planning on taking care of when you get marooned on a desert island?

And while we’re on the subject . . . what about the other great religious works out there? Are they more to your liking?

My answers:

1. Yes, I have read the whole thing, several times. When I first became a Christian as a teen-ager, the pastor of the church I was in at the time encouraged his congregation to read the Bible through in a year. I don’t try to get it in in a year any more — I’m not quite sure how long it takes me, but I want to feel free to stop and ponder things along the way — but I think reading the Bible is the best way to get grounded spiritually and to grow. Romans 10: 17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

2. My motivation was to learn more about God, His character and works, the way of salvation, and what He expects of me. God speaks to us today through His Word — reading it and hearing it taught and applying it are the only ways to really get to know Him. But I do believe it is the highest and best of literary works as well.

3. Different times I have gone through where I haven’t read it have been mainly due to distraction and business. But when I don’t read it, even for a day, I feel out of kilter, and I can’t go too long without reading it without feeling the loss. It keeps me on track.

4. No, I’ve had no desire to.

Edited: When I first answered the last question, I was thinking of “sacred texts” of other religions, and so the answer would be no. But I saw some participants included any general religious works. In that case, I’ve read many: multitudes of Christian biographies and Christian fiction, some of Spurgeon and David Martin Lloyd-Jones and C. S. Lewis and others.

If anyone is interested, a few previous posts on this topic are Reasons to Read the Bible, Devotional Tips (ideas to enhance one’s Bible reading), and What Do You Say About This Book?