The Man in the Arena

"It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

- Theodore Roosevelt

 

 

P.S.  With that said:  To those of you who feel it your sacred duty to criticize, slander, and shun people who have been in the arena of a certain trial and made decisions you may not fully understand, maybe even fallen once or twice... you can really stop right now, because you weren't in the arena so what you have to say doesn't really count.  Perhaps, instead of throwing dirt, try extending the healing balm of grace or giving a cup of cold water to refresh the weary fighter, for a change.  That, after all, was Jesus' sacred duty, and aren't we called to be like Him?  

~Melanie

Trials

"Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.
Pressure by foes, and a pressure from friends.

Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.

"Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things.
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured."

The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.

There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."


Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves. --A. B. Simpson

"Out of the presses of pain,
Cometh the soul's best wine;
And the eyes that have shed no rain,
Can shed but little shine."

~excerpts from Streams in the Desert by L. B. Cowman

"The Screwtape Letters" by C. S. Lewis

"My Dear Wormwood,


"I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian.  Do not indulge the hope that you will escape the usual penalties; indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly even wish to do so.  In the meantime we must make the best of the situation.  There is no need to despair; hundreds of these adult converts have been reclaimed after a brief sojourn in the Enemy's camp and are now with us.  All the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in our favour."

Under this delusive hope, professional devil Screwtape begins a series of letters to his nephew, a learning devil, Wormwood, on how to tempt and snare a human soul away from God. A nameless young man comes to Christ for salvation, and Screwtape passes on his "expert" advice to Wormwood, teaching him to distract him from God by means of tension in the family, issues and divisions in the church, romantic interests, flippancy about spiritual matters, obsession with the Future or the Past, and so on.  He is convinced that they will prevail in the end over the work of God in the young Christian... but can they?

There is no doubt Clive Staples Lewis has become one of my most favorite authors in the last year.  This is not to say I agree with every point he makes, but overall his writings are so insightful, and his use of fantasy and speculative fiction to make such strong, valid Biblical points never ceases to amaze me.  In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis presents truth by the way of contrast.  The devil tempts the young man to do this or to think this way, in contrast to this or that which would bring glory to God.  In Lewis' preface, he reminds his readers that "the devil is a liar.  Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle."  In a later preface, someone explains it thus: "Screwtape's whites are our blacks and whatever he welcomes we should dread."  I found it very interesting and insightful, and it also helped to give me a fresh perspective on many things.  It's worth reading all the way to the end--despite it's being written from the perspective of a devil (wallowing in his defeat), the last chapter was so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes... but I can't tell you why.  You'll have to read it for yourself.  :-)

As I was reading the book, I wanted to re-post almost every chapter when I finished it, so even now I'm having a hard time deciding which excerpt to post for you.  I will share the excerpt I first read that made me want to pick up the book, and one chapter that particularly stood out to me as I read.

 ~~~~~~~~
Chapter XV

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I had noticed, of course, that the humans were having a lull in their European war—what they naïvely call "The War"!—and am not surprised that there is a corresponding lull in the patient's anxieties. Do we want to encourage this, or to keep him worried? Tortured fear and stupid confidence are both desirable states of mind. Our choice between them raises important questions.

The humans live in time but our Enemy destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being
concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.

Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the Past. But this is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the past and it has a determinate nature and, to that extent, resembles eternity.  It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities. In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time—for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays. Hence the encouragement we have given to all those schemes of thought such as Creative Evolution, Scientific Humanism, or Communism, which fix men's affections on the Future, on the very core of temporality. Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to
the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. Do not think lust an exception. When the present pleasure arrives, the sin (which alone interests us) is already over. The pleasure is just the part of the process which we regret and would exclude if we could do so without losing the sin; it is the part contributed by the Enemy, and therefore experienced in a Present. The sin, which is our contribution, looked forward.

To be sure, the Enemy wants men to think of the Future too—just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is not straw splitting. He does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do. His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation),
washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future—haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth—ready to break the Enemy's commands in the
present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other—dependent for his faith on the success or failure of schemes whose end he will not live to see. We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present.

It follows then, in general, and other things being equal, that it is better for your patient to be filled with anxiety or hope (it doesn't much matter which) about this war than for him to be living in the present. But the phrase "living in the present" is ambiguous. It may describe a process which is really just as much concerned with the Future as anxiety itself. Your man may be untroubled about the Future, not because he is concerned with the Present, but because he has persuaded himself that the Future is, going to be agreeable. As long as that
is the real course of his tranquillity, his tranquillity will do us good, because it is only piling up more disappointment, and therefore more impatience, for him when his false hopes are dashed. If, on the other hand, he is aware that horrors may be in store for him and is praying for the virtues, wherewith to
meet them, and meanwhile concerning himself with the Present because there, and there alone, all duty, all grace, all knowledge, and all pleasure dwell, his state is very undesirable and should be attacked at once. Here again, our Philological Arm has done good work; try the word "complacency" on him. But, of course, it is most likely that he is "living in the Present" for none of these reasons but simply because his health is good and he is enjoying his work. The phenomenon would then be merely natural. All the same, I should break it up if I were you. No natural phenomenon is really in our favour. And anyway, why should the creature be happy?

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE


 ~~~~~~~~
Chapter XXVII

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

You seem to be doing very little good at present. The use of his "love" to distract his mind from the Enemy is, of course, obvious, but you reveal what poor use you are making of it when you say that the whole question of distraction and the wandering mind has now become one of the chief subjects of his prayers. That means you have largely failed. When this, or any other distraction, crosses his mind you ought to encourage him to thrust it away by sheer will power and to try to continue the normal prayer as if nothing had happened; once he accepts the distraction as his present problem and lays that before the Enemy and makes it the main theme of his prayers and his endeavours, then, so far from doing good, you have done harm. Anything, even a sin, which has the total effect of moving him close up to the Enemy, makes against us in the long run.

A promising line is the following. Now that he is in love, a new idea of earthly happiness has arisen in his mind: and hence a new urgency in his purely petitionary prayers—about this war and other such matters. Now is the time for raising intellectual difficulties about prayer of that sort. False spirituality is always to be encouraged. On the seemingly pious ground that "praise and communion with God is the true prayer", humans can often be lured into direct disobedience to the Enemy who (in His usual flat, commonplace, uninteresting way) has definitely told them to pray for their daily bread and the recovery of their sick. You will, of course, conceal from him the fact that the prayer for daily bread, interpreted in a "spiritual sense", is really just as crudely
petitionary as it is in any other sense.

But since your patient has contracted the terrible habit of obedience, he will probably continue such "crude" prayers whatever you do. But you can worry him with the haunting suspicion that the practice is absurd and can have no objective result. Don't forget to use the "heads I win, tails you lose" argument. If the thing he prays for doesn't happen, then that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don't work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and "therefore it would have happened anyway", and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective.

You, being a spirit, will find it difficult to understand how he gets into this confusion. But you must remember that he takes Time for an ultimate reality. He supposes that the Enemy, like himself, sees some things as present, remembers others as past, and anticipates others as future; or even if he believes that the Enemy does not see things that way, yet, in his heart of hearts, he regards this as a peculiarity of the Enemy's mode of perception—he doesn't really think (though he would say he did) that things as the Enemy sees them are things as they are! If you tried to explain to him that men's prayers today are one of the innumerable coordinates with which the Enemy harmonises the weather of tomorrow, he would reply that then the Enemy always knew men were going to make those prayers and, if so, they did not pray freely but were predestined to do so. And he would add that the weather on a given day can be traced back through its causes to the original creation of matter itself—so that the whole thing, both on the human and on the material side, is given "from the word go". What he ought to say, of course, is obvious to us; that the problem of adapting the
particular weather to the particular prayers is merely the appearance, at two points in his temporal mode of perception, of the total problem of adapting the whole spiritual universe to the whole corporeal universe; that creation in its entirety operates at every point of space and time, or rather that their kind of consciousness forces them to encounter the whole, self-consistent creative act as a series of successive events. Why that creative act leaves room for their free will is the problem of problems, the secret behind the Enemy's nonsense
about "Love". How it does so is no problem at all; for the Enemy does not foresee the humans making their free contributions in a future, but sees them doing so in His unbounded Now. And obviously to watch a man doing something is not to make him do it.

It may be replied that some meddlesome human writers, notably Boethius, have let this secret out. But in the intellectual climate which we have at last succeeded in producing throughout Western Europe, you needn't bother about that. Only the learned read old books and we have now so dealt with the learned that they are
of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so. We have done this by inculcating The Historical Point of View. The Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement in an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true. He asks who influenced the ancient writer, and how far the statement is consistent with what he said in other books, and what phase in the writer's development, or in the general history of thought, it illustrates, and how it affected later writers, and how often it has been misunderstood (specially by the learned man's own colleagues) and what the general course of criticism on it has been for the last ten years, and what is the "present state of the question". To regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge—to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behaviour—this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded. And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another. But thanks be to our Father and the Historical Point of View, great scholars are now as little nourished by the past as the most ignorant mechanic who holds that "history is bunk",

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE

Character vs. Reputation

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, 

because your character is what you really are, 

while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

~James Wooden

30-Day Challenge, Day 5

A Favorite Quote

Listen, folks. I collect quotes. It's a hobby. I must have at least 500 quotes in my One Note quote collection. Anyway, here's just a sampler:

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

~George MacDonald

" "Trust Me, My child," He says. "Trust Me with a fuller abandon than you ever have before. Trust Me, as minute succeeds minute, every day of your life, for as long as you live. And if you become conscious of anything hindering our relationship, do not hurt Me by turning away form Me. Draw all the closer to Me, come, run to Me. Allow Me to hide you, to protect you, even from yourself. Tell Me your deepest cares, your every trouble. Trust Me to keep My hand upon you. I will never leave you. I will shape you, mold you, and perfect you. Do not fear, O child of My love, do not fear. I love you." "

-Amy Carmichael

"Courage, dear heart."

~C. S. Lewis

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

~Elisabeth Elliot

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

~Eric Liddell

(I just realized that all the quotes I just posted are by the favorite authors on my sidebar. :-P See, I told you they were my favorite authors. :-) ) Anyway, I thought I might mention a few more:

"Difficulties afford a platform upon which He can show Himself. Without them, we could never know how tender, faithful, and Almighty our God is."

-J. Hudson Taylor

"God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and work not to be made much of, but to make much of Him in every part of our lives."

~ John Piper

"What am I? Well, here is what I am. I am the worst sinner I know. And by the grace of God I am doing better than I deserve. For I deserve the righteous wrath of God because of my sin. I deserve to be punished eternally. But in the mystery of His mercy, God sacrificed and crushed His Son on the Cross--as my substitute--so that I might be forgiven of my sin and know God as my Father rather than my Judge. What am I? I am truly amazed by the grace of God. That's what I am."

~ C.J. Mahaney

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

~Paul the Apostle

Click the "quotes" label under this post to see a wider variety of my collection. ;-)

Letting Go

The following text is an excerpt from Elisabeth Elliot's Passion and Purity.  In this chapter, she is speaking primarily of her separation from her future husband (Jim Elliot) as their preparation to serve the Lord took them different places after a short time spent near each other, studying in Quito.  However, what she says applies to more than just a person's love life.  I thought what she says here might be an encouragement to many of us who are going through the difficult process of "letting go", so I wanted to share it with you. May you be encouraged and blessed, as I was!

~~~~~~~

The growth of all living green things wonderfully represents the process of receiving and relinquishing, gaining and losing, living and dying.  The seed falls into the ground, dies as the new shoot springs up.  There must be a splitting and a breaking in order for a bud to form.  The bud "lets go" when the flower forms.  The calyx lets go of the flower.  The petals must curl up and die in order for the fruit to form.  The fruit falls, splits, relinquishes the seed.  The seed falls into the ground. . . .

There is no ongoing spiritual life without this process of letting go.  At the precise point where we refuse, growth stops.  If we hold tightly to anything given to us, unwilling to let it go when the time comes to let it go or unwilling to allow it to be used as the Giver means it to be used, we stunt the growth of the soul.

It is easy to make a mistake here.  "If God gave it to me," we say, "it's mine.  I can do what I want with it."  No.  The truth is that it is ours to thank Him for and ours to offer back to Him, ours to relinquish, ours to lose, ours to let go of-- if we want to find our true selves, if we want real Life, if our hearts are set on glory.

Think of the self that God has given as an acorn.  It is a marvelous little thing, a perfect shape, perfectly designed for its purpose, perfectly functional.  Think of the grand glory of an oak tree.  God's intention when He made the acorn was the oak tree.  His intention for us is "...the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."  Many deaths must go into our reaching that measure, many letting-goes.  When you look at the oak tree, you don't feel that the "loss" of the acorn is a very great loss.  The more you perceive God's purpose for your life, the less terrible will the losses seem...

...There must be relinquishment.  There is no way around it.  The seed does not "know" what will happen.  It only knows what is happening-- the falling, the darkness, the dying.  That was how it felt to be separated as we were-- as though we had been given no clues as to why this had to be.  "The wanting itself is good," Jim wrote, "it is right, even God granted, but now God denied, and He has not let me know all the wisdom of the denial."  We were yet far from the depth of spiritual perception Lilias Trotter had when she wrote those profound words quoted earlier: "The first step into the realm of giving is...not manward but Godward: an utter yielding of our best.  So long as our idea of surrender is limited to the renouncing of unlawful things, we have never grasped its true meaning: that is not worthy of the name for 'no polluted thing' can be offered." ...

...We were being asked to trust, to leave the planning to God.  God's ultimate plan was as far beyond our imaginings as the oak tree is from the acorn's imaginings.  The acorn does what it was made to do, without pestering its Maker with questions about when and how and why.  We who have been given an intelligence and a will and a whole range of wants that can be set against the divine Pattern for God are asked to believe Him.  We are given the chance to trust Him when He says to us, "...If any man will let himself be lost for my sake, he will find his true self."

When will we find it? we ask.  The answer is, Trust Me.

How will we find it? The answer again is, Trust Me.

Why must I let myself be lost? we persist.  The answer is, Look to the acorn and trust Me. 


~Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity, pages 163-166

~~~~~~~

May the Lord grow and bless and strengthen you all, and may each trial, each "letting go" He brings you to, serve to make you more like His Son Jesus Christ.

"Dare to be Alone"

"Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (John 16:32).

It need not be said that to carry out conviction into action is a costly sacrifice. It may make necessary renunciations and separations which leave one to feel a strange sense both of deprivation and loneliness. But he who will fly, as an eagle does, into the higher levels where cloudless day abides, and live in the sunshine of God, must be content to live a comparatively lonely life.

No bird is so solitary as the eagle. Eagles never fly in flocks; one, or at most two, ever being seen at once. But the life that is lived unto God, however it forfeits human companionships, knows Divine fellowship.
God seeks eagle-men. No man ever comes into a realization of the best things of God, who does not, upon the Godward side of his life, learn to walk alone with God. We find Abraham alone in Horeb upon the heights, but Lot, dwelling in Sodom. Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt must go forty years into the desert alone with God. Paul, who was filled with Greek learning and had also sat at the feet of Gamaliel, must go into Arabia and learn the desert life with God. Let God isolate us. I do not mean the isolation of a monastery. In this isolating experience He develops an independence of faith and life so that the soul needs no longer the constant help, prayer, faith or attention of his neighbor. Such assistance and inspiration from the other members are necessary and have their place in the Christian's development, but there comes a time when they act as a direct hindrance to the individual's faith and welfare. God knows how to change the circumstances in order to give us an isolating experience. We yield to God and He takes us through something, and when it is over, those about us, who are no less loved than before, are no longer depended upon. We realize that He has wrought some things in us, and that the wings of our souls have learned to beat the upper air.

We must dare to be alone. Jacob must be left alone if the Angel of God is to whisper in his ear the mystic name of Shiloh; Daniel must be left alone if he is to see celestial visions; John must be banished to Patmos if he is deeply to take and firmly to keep "the print of heaven."

He trod the wine-press alone. Are we prepared for a "splendid isolation" rather than fail Him?


~Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, Streams in the Desert


(Very timely!)

"Stick with your work. Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil’s dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the devil’s rabbits. Do your work. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let critics malign, let enemies accuse, let the devil do his worst; but see to it nothing hinders you from fulfilling with joy the work God has given you.  He has not commanded you to be admired or esteemed. He has never bidden you to defend your character. He has not set you at work to contradict falsehood about yourself which Satan’s or God’s servants may start to peddle, or to track down every rumor that threatens your reputation. If you do these things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself and not for the Lord. Keep at your work. Let your aim be as steady as a star. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded and rejected, misunderstood, or assigned impure motives; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and rejected of men. But see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being until at last you can say, 'I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.'"

-Anonymous

Living Christianity

"This church stands here in the name of Christianity.  But what is Christianity?  I know but one definition.  Christianity does not mean what you think or what I think concerning Christ, but who Christ is. . . . I tell you what I have learned only that I may stir you up to ask yourselves, as I ask myself, 'Do I then obey this word?  Have I ever, have I once, sought to obey it?  Am I a pupil of Jesus?  Am I a Christian?'  Hear then His words.  For me, they fill my heart with doubt and dismay.

"The Lord says, 'Love your enemies.'  Do you say, 'It is impossible'?  Do you say, 'Alas, I cannot'?  But have you tried to see whether He who made you will not increase your strength when you step out to obey Him?

"The Lord says, 'Be perfect.' Do you then aim for perfection, or do you excuse your shortcomings and say, 'To err is human'?  If so, then you must ask yourself what part you have in Him.

"The Lord says, 'Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.' My part is not now to preach against the love of money, but to ask you, 'Are you laying up for yourselves treasures on earth?'  As to what the command means, the honest heart and the dishonest must each settle in his own way.  No doubt you can point to other men who are no better than you, and of whom yet no one would dare question the validity of their Christianity.  But all that matters not a hair.  All that does is confirm that you may all be pagans together.  Do not mistake me.  I am not judging you.  For my finger points at myself along with you.  But I ask you simply to judge yourselves by the words of Jesus.

"The Lord says, 'Take no thought for your life.  Take no thought for tomorrow.' Explain it as you may, but ask yourselves, 'Do I take no thought for my life?  Do I take no thought for tomorrow?'

"The Lord says, 'Judge not.'  Did you judge your neighbor yesterday?  Will you judge him again tomorrow?  Are you judging him now in the very heart that sits hearing the words, 'Judge not'?  Or do you side-step the command by asking, 'Who is my neighbor?'  Does not your own profession of Christianity counsel you to fall upon your face, and cry to him, 'I am a sinful man, O Lord'?

"The Lord said, 'All things you would that men should do to you, do also to them.' You that buy and sell, do you obey this law?  Examine yourselves and see.  You would want men to deal fairly to you: do you deal just as fairly to them as you would count fairness in them toward you?  If conscience makes you hang your head inwardly, however you sit with it erect in the pew, can you dare to add to your crime against the law and the prophets the insult to Christ of calling yourselves His disciples?

" 'Not everyone that says unto me, "Lord, Lord", shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven.' "

-from a sermon by fictional character Thomas Wingfold in The Curate's Awakening by George MacDonald pages 104-106

( My apologies for any typos :-)  )

I am re-reading one of my favorite fictional books and my favorite book by my favorite author George MacDonald. ;-)  And once again I am being challenged and convicted.  Is my Christianity real?  Am  I really living, thinking, breathing, in a way that glorifies my Lord?  Do my life patterns reflect Christ in me, or do I act as anyone else in the world would act? 


To read my review on the book I quoted from, The Curate's Awakening, click here.  And if you can, get a copy.  It's one of the best books I've read!! (I'm sure all the self-sufficient, got-it-all-together editors of today would have a hard attack how MacDonald "tells" rather than "shows" and breaks off into what they'd call "lectures" (rather musings on Biblical truth and encouragements to the reader), but if you are interested in growing in your life in Christ and knowing Jesus better, you'll love this book!)

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat.  His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon.  Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"
~Elisabeth Elliot, Passion and Purity, page 50

Quote

“God made us: invented us a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

- C.S. Lewis

A Chance to Die...

"One day, in this woman's hearing, something was said to a younger helper which almost drew from her a flashing, angry remark.  But at that moment, a word was spoken to her inwardly: 'See in this, a chance to die.'

"And though spoken inwardly, it was far more clearly heard than many a word addressed to the outward ear.

"'See in this'-- this provoking, this rebuke that should not have been-- 'a chance to die.'  To self, and the pride that comes from defending self.

"'See in anything'-- anything that rouses you to claim your 'rights', or even to consider them at all-- 'a chance to die.'

"Welcome anything that calls you to your only true position: 'I have been crucified with Christ...' (Galatians 2:20).

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive.  It cannot protect itself.  It cannot be startled into resentful words.  The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

-Amy Carmichael, Gold by Moonlight

A Quotation by J. O. Fraser

"It has come home to me very forcibly of late that it matters little what the work is in which we are engaged so long as God has put it into our hands. . . .

"The temptation I have often had to contend with is persistent under many forms: 'If only I were in such and such a position' for example, 'shouldn't I be able to do a great work! Yes, I am only studying engineering at present, but when I am in training for missionary work things will be different and more helpful.' Or, 'I am just in preparation at present, taking Bibles courses and so on, but when get out to China my work will begin.' 'Yes, I have left home now, but I am only on the voyage, you know; when I am really in China, I shall have a splendid chance of serve.' Or, 'Well, here in the Training Home, all my time must be given to language study-- how can I do missionary work? But when I am settled down in my station and able to speak freely, opportunities will be unlimited!' etc., etc.

"It is all if and when. I believe the devil is fond of those conjunctions... The plain truth is that the Scriptures never teach us to wait for opportunities of service, but to serve in just the things that lie next to our hands . . . The Lord bids us work, watch, and pray; but satan suggests, wait until a good opportunity for working, watching, and praying presents itself-- and needless to say, this opportunity is always in the future...

"Since the things that lie in our immediate path have been ordered of God, who shall say that one kind of work is more important and sacred than another?" . . . . 

"I am no more doing the Lord's work in giving the Word of God to the Chinese than you are, for example, in wrapping up a parcel to send to the tailor. It is not for us . . . to choose our work. And if God has chosen it for us, hadn't we better go straight ahead and do it, without waiting for anything great, better, or 'nobler'?"

-James O. Fraser

Humility and Happiness

"The highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility. Oh that every Christian who seek to advance in holiness may remember this well! There may be intense consecration, and fervent zeal and heavenly experience, and yet, if it is not prevented by very special dealings of the Lord, there may be an unconscious self-exaltation with it all. Let us learn the lesson,--the highest holiness is the deepest humility; and let us remember that comes not of itself, but only as it is made matter of special dealing on the part of our faithful Lord and His faithful servant.

"Let us look at our lives in the light of this experience, and see whether we gladly glory in weakness, whether we take pleasure, as Paul did, in injuries, in necessities, in distresses. Yes, let us ask whether we have learnt to regard a reproof, just or unjust, a reproach from friend or enemy, an injury, or trouble, or difficulty into which others bring us, as above all an opportunity of proving Jesus is all to us, how our own pleasure or honor are nothing, and , how humiliation is in very truth what we take pleasure in. It is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of heaven, to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up, in the thought that Jesus is all."

~Andrew Murray in Humility, Chapter 11

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." 

~ Corrie Ten Boom

photo by Ruby Hopkins

A Quote

"Let us not cease to do the utmost, 

that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; 

and let us not despair of the smallness of our accomplishments." 

~John Calvin

More Quotes from the Biography on Eric Liddell

I continue to be inspired and challenged by the life of my favorite missionary hero, Eric Liddell. (If I ever have a son, his name is already ERIC! :-D )

I am enjoying the book so much that I can't help but share quotes, and will just do so all at once here (that is, until I find more and have to write another post. ;-) )

~*~*~*~*~*~

The following was included in Eric's annual report for 1938:

HAPPINESS is to have enough for the day's needs with always some to spare for those who have not.

IT is to possess the love of friends and to have the knowledge that all is well with them.

IT IS TO LIVE IN PEACE WITH ALL MEN.

HAPPINESS is to have the strength to face with courage all that the day may bring.

IT is to cherish the gift of laughter, to be quick to note all that is lovely and of good report.

HAPPINESS is to find our joy in the common things of life for so will youth abide in our hearts till the end of our days.

Thank God for the gift of happiness.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"The kingdom is where the King reigns. If He is reigning in my heart, then the Kingdom of Heaven has come to me." -Eric Liddell

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Regarding Bible reading:

"READ ACCURATELY,

INTERPRET HONESTLY,

APPLY DRASTICALLY."

~*~*~*~*~*~
From his Morning Prayers for School and Family:

One word stands out from all others as the key to knowing God, to having his peace and assurance in your heart; it is OBEDIENCE.

To OBEY God's will was like food to Jesus, refreshing His mind, body and spirit. 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.'

Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty.

'If any man will do (obey) His Will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.'

OBEDIENCE IS THE SECRET OF GUIDANCE. Every Christian should live a God-guided life. If you are not guided by God, you will be guided by something else.

The Christian that doesn't know this sense of guidance in his life is missing something vital.

Take OBEDIENCE with you into your prayer hour, for you will know as much of God, and only as much of God, as you are willing to put into practice.

~*~*~*~*~

From Eric's Discipleship manual:

Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions.

Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them.

Father, I pray that no circumstance however bitter or however long drawn out, may cause me to break Thy law, the Law of Love to Thee and to my neighbor. That may not become resentful, have hurt feelings, hate, or become embittered by life's experiences, but that in and through all I may see Thy guiding hand and have a heart full of gratitude for Thy daily mercy, daily love, daily power, and daily presence.

Help me in the day when I need it most to remember that:

• All things work together for good to them that love the Lord.
• I can do all things through Him that strengthened me.
• My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.

'Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever, Amen.'

~*~*~*~*~

From his book on discipleship:

 

As we start this course of readings we should first surrender our lives to God and dedicate ourselves to doing His will.  God's Will is only revealed to us step by step.  He reveals more as we obey what we know.  Surrender means that we are prepared to follow God's guidance, wherever or however He guides, no matter what the cost.

An Interesting Quote I Read....

...I don't know who the writer is but the quote was good. :-)

I've decided that I don't like the word "rejection" as an author. I'm going to start calling it "redirection," as in "I just received a redirection." That way, it reminds me that God's ultimately in charge of my career--not editors!

~ Dena Ratliff Dyer

Sincerity

The following passage is part of a Sunday School Bible lesson taught by Eric Liddell in China.


"[Sincere] means genuine, honest, and free from hypocrisy-- the real thing.  And it comes from two Latin words: sine--without, and sere--wax.  Without wax?  What's that got to do with anything?  Well, I'll tell you.

"Many years ago in the time of the Roman Empire marble was a very popular, beautiful stone.  Large slabs were cut out of the ground and skilled craftsmen shaped them into pillars, statues, vases, and many beautiful things.  Sometimes if the marble was of inferior quality it would develop a crack and consequently become of little value.

"To avoid losing income, some unscrupulous craftsmen would fill the crack with wax, smooth it off, then polish the surface to a high gloss and pass it off as an unblemished piece.  Unfortunately, at a later date, the wax would shrink and split and the unfortunate purchaser would realize that he had a worthless piece of marble on his hands.

"Buyers eventually got wise to the fraud, and when purchasing anything made of marble, they demanded assurance that the product was the real thing, namely pure marble without hidden flaws or imperfections filled with wax.  The real thing: sine--without; sere--wax.  From this we get our English word 'sincere'-- being in reality as it is in appearance--real--honest.

"Now then, boys and girls, what about you?

"Are you the real thing?  Or do you have some flaws or cracks that you think you have successfully hidden from others?"

-Eric Liddell: Pure Gold by David McCasland, pages 141-142

Thought-Provoking Quote

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

-C. S. Lewis