Satan’s Joy

From The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis, in which one demon speaks to another:

All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy* has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden. Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.

An ever increasing craving for an ever diminishing pleasure is the formula. It is more certain; and it’s better style. To get the man’s soul and give him nothing in return – that is what really gladdens Our Father’s** heart.

* for the demon, the Enemy is, of course, God.

** for the demon, Our Father is, of course, Satan.

Power And Authority

Don’t make the mistake of believing that promises like the one from Jesus below are locked in the past, only true for the twelve men who followed him when he walked this earth.

He has washed you with the water of his word, he has given to you his authoritative word, he has placed in you his Spirit. Now go. Enter your day, your tasks, your community, your world – with power and authority! – to beat back the darkness, and proclaim and usher in the kingdom of God.

One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Luke 9:1-2, New Living Translation

What Do You See?

Sun Spots

“We should be merciful to one another in seeking never to look at the worst side of a brother’s character.  Oh, how quick some are to spy out other people’s faults!  They hear that Mr. So-and-so is very useful in the church, and they say, ‘Yes, he is, but he has a very curious way of going to work, has he not?  And he is so eccentric.’  Well, did you ever know a good man who was very successful, who was not a little eccentric? . . .

Do you go out when the sun is shining brightly and say, ‘Yes, this sun is a very good illuminator, but I remark that it has spots’?  If you do, you had better keep your remark to yourself, for it gives more light than you do, whatever spots you may have or may not have.  And many excellent persons in the world have spots, but yet they do good service to God and to their age.

So let us not always be the spot-finders, but let us look at the bright side of the brother’s character rather than the dark one, and feel that we rise in repute when other Christians rise in repute, and that, as they have honor through their holiness, our Lord has the glory of it, and we share in some of the comfort of it.”

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, n.d.), I:65.

(HT: Ray Ortlund)

How Do You Remember?

The Crossing of the Jordan (Raphael, 1780)

I was reading in the book of Joshua this morning. Chapters four through six, to be specific. And what is recounted there is an event that took place immediately after the entire people of Israel, hundreds of thousands of them, had been miraculously brought through water yet again (this time the Jordan River) to enter into the land that God had promised to them.

And I was struck by what God told Joshua to do after the event.

When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” (Joshua 4:1-3, ESV)

Hmmm..what is that about? Seems a weird request to make of Joshua after such a stunning event. Ah, but there is great wisdom in this command from the Lord – he is telling Joshua to do this as a sign of remembrance. Later in the story, he explains…

The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

Do you see? God wanted to make sure that they didn’t forget how good and gracious and mighty he had been. So everytime a father was passing by this pile of stones with his son, and his son asked, “What are those there for?”, the father would reply, “Son, wait until you hear this! Do I have a story for you! It is about how great, and mighty, and generous our God has been to us, and our fathers before us. Listen…”

And it got me to thinking – we should do this.

Consider – how many times has God come through remarkably for you? Maybe in answer to a request you made of him. Maybe because he just did, without you even asking. What have you done to remember that? Imagine what it would be like to create something – as simple as a note in a journal, or as detailed as some object you made to represent the occasion of blessing. Then, every time you looked at it, you would be reminded of how great, how mighty, how loving, how gracious God had been to you.

And imagine if you placed it in a very public place, so that if your family, or friends, or a guest asked you, you could share the story. “Oh yeah, wait until you hear this! Do I have a story for you! It is about how great, and mighty, and generous our God has been to us, and our fathers before us. Listen…”

All this, so that your children, and all those around you, would know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and that we would fear the LORD our God forever.

Just imagine…

The Truth About Ourselves

Clive Staples Lewis

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NLT-SE)

We don’t like to ponder a verse like this, nor the truth of it. I think the reason is pretty obvious – who wants to think about how bad they are? Who wants to consider what they are capable of?

C.S. Lewis may be the most insightful author I’ve read. In this brief section from The Problem of Pain, he ponders in the manner of Jeremiah. And I mean it, he really presses in. Deeply. Richly. So much so, it will take you at least two to three times slowly reading through to get the full benefit from what he is saying here.

To what end? I leave the application to you.

Every man, not very holy or very arrogant, has to ‘live up to’ the outward appearance of other men: he knows there is that within him which falls far below even his most careless public behaviour, even his loosest talk. In an instant of time – while your friend hesitates for a word – what things pass through your mind?

We have never told the whole truth.

We may confess ugly facts – the meanest cowardice or the shabbiest and most prosaic impurity – but the tone is false. The very act of confessing – an infinitesimally hypocritical glance – a dash of humour – all this contrives to dissociate the facts from your very self. No one could guess how familiar and, in a sense, congenial to your soul these things were, how much of a piece with all the rest: down there, in the dreaming inner warmth, they struck no such discordant note, were not nearly so odd and detachable from the rest of you, as they seem when they are turned into words.

We imply, and often believe, that habitual vices are exceptional single acts, and make the opposite mistake about our virtues – like the bad tennis player who calls his normal form his ‘bad days’ and mistakes his rare successes for his normal. I do not think it is our fault that we cannot tell the real truth about ourselves; the persistent, life-long, inner murmur of spite, jealousy, prurience, greed and self-complacence, simply will not go into words. But the important thing is that we should not mistake our inevitably limited utterances for a full account of the worst that is inside.  (paragraphing mine)

The Devil You Know

The next time the devil reminds you of your past, remind yourself of his future.

(Sam Crabtree)

Striking Statements

strik * ing. (adjective). the attracting of attention by use of the unusual, extreme, or prominent.

Yes. That is exactly how I’ve heard Jesus talking over a couple of mornings this week. He has a wonderful habit of piercing the heart and exposing motives and getting one to think by the way that he talks. He says things you wouldn’t expect. Striking statements…

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.  (Mark 10:21-22, ESV)

You’ve probably heard this story before. It is Jesus talking to the rich young ruler. This young man has just run up on Jesus, cast himself before him on his knees, and wants to know what he needs to do to live forever.

Consider Jesus’ words. Seen with the right heart, with a receptive mind, how could they possibly be disheartening!? How could they cause someone to go away sorrowful!? Jesus has just told this young man how to have treasure in heaven and eternal life. What’s more, he has personally invited him to come with him, hang out with him, follow him, learn from him, get to know him, be present with him. A personal invitation from the Son of God to be his traveling companion and disciple!

But possessions and money held too much of a pull. They were the center of gravity in this young man’s world. So he just…walked…away. From Jesus. To things.

Yeah, I’m going to go there — How often do we walk away to other things? How often do we let other things replace the opportunity to hang out with Jesus?

  And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus.

And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Goodness, so much could be said here about the awesomeness of Jesus. But I just want to point your attention to that middle sentence. Consider the simple way that Jesus speaks with this man, which is the way he so often speaks with people in his ministry, which is the way I think he speaks toward us. You see, I believe Jesus still asks us: “What do you want me to do for you?”

Why would it be different? Why wouldn’t he still be engaging with you this way? After all, he is the one who said, “Ask, and it will be given to you” (Mt. 7:7; Lk. 6:38; 11:9).

The implication is simple but powerful. This means something for prayer. It should change the way we approach our God.

Go to Jesus. There he sits, at the right hand of the Father, waiting.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Beloved, we have a beautiful, stunning, striking Savior. I pray his words have increased your love for him. I know they have for me.