Some thoughts from Mere Christianity

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Book 3 Chapter 4

Lewis makes an interesting point about why Christians are called not to judge. He explains that we do not see where the person is coming from. We may have been brought up in a good home, learning a virtuous life and proper manners, loving mercy, etc, while the other person may have learned only to perform vices and cruelty. Lewis says

When a man who has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at by his companions, ha may, in God’s eyes, be doing more good than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.

That is an interesting theory, and does relate to the nurture vs nature debate, though very indirectly. What I really want to focus on is

The California Sun

California is the land of sunshine, beaches, trends, and fun. We have Disneyland, Biola, Magic Mountain, Knotts, and fine gentlemen.

Good Friday

Today is a good day. Today is Good Friday. This is the day that celebrates the propitiation and expiation of our sins. Our sins are paid for and taken away from us. This was done on the cross that Jesus died on. As all men fell through the first Adam, so we are save through the second Adam. As we died through one man’s sin, so are we saved through one’s righteousness. As men fell by the temptation and disobedience of the tree, so man is saved by the willingness and obedience on a tree.  This is the day that had been promised since the fall. The Old Testament points to it and the New Testament reflects on it.

It was on this day that the prophecy in Isaiah was fulfilled.

Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men;a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

The Tier System

In SOS we have a rating system called the “tier system”. The tier system is a measuring system to rate the level of depth of a conversation. It can be used to measure the depth of any conversation at any point. It starts at 1, the lowest, and works its way up to 5, the highest a normal conversation can go. There are two higher levels, but they are separate from the normal scale.

History 

The tier system was not in place my first year of SOS, but I learned about it during drew retreat my second year. It was used to rate car questions on the way to the first retreat. There was no definite system, nor was it a big deal, but this year I revived it and revamped it. Somehow it has gotten popular and people are beginning to refer to it.

Tier 1

The first and lowest of the tiers. Tier one focuses on introductions. On the question sheet it is defined as introduction questions, and is best defined at the immediate level of introduction used to start small talk. This is the tier that

Death by George Herbert

Over the past few weeks I’ve known four friends of mine lose their grandparents. Death is tough and their pain has touched me. One of them was my grandma’s best friend. As I ponder these things I remember the poem Death by George Herbert. He paints death not as a defeated fiend but as a redeemed and converted friend.

Death, thou wast once an uncouth hideous thing,

Nothing but bones,

The sad effect of sadder groans:

Thy mouth was open, but thou couldst not sing.

For we considered thee as at some six

Or ten years hence,

After the loss of life and sense,

Flesh being turned to dust, and bones to sticks.

We looked on this side of thee, shooting short;

Where we did find

The shells of fledge souls left behind,

Dry dust, which sheds no tears, but may extort.

My Idol: Time

Time. It’s something that we spend so much of and we can never get back. There are so many sayings about how life is too short, how time is of the essence, that time is ticking, time is precious, etc. We are a culture that runs off of time. We have subways that arrive at exact times every seven minutes. Papers are turned in online at specific times, to the second. Classes start at specific times and then you are late. The library is only open during certain hours of the day. Classes start and get out at certain times. We measure everything by time. It is something that seems more than a necessity, but then what does that make it?

I know that I idolize time. God has convicted me of this as I stress out about

Un9ted Devotional: The Jealousy of God by Jordan

In my senior year, one of our English projects was to write a sermonette. These sermons, about 2-3 pages, were spoken in class then collected into a devotional book. As getting ideas for blogging constantly is difficult, I decided to go through this devotional and write a post about some of the ideas that come up in each of them, with some of my input added.

Jordan wrestles with the idea of a jealous God. Our jealousy is sinful and evil. It leads to death and destruction, and no good can come out of it. The dictionary defines it as, “envious: feeling bitter and unhappy because of another’s advantages, possessions, or luck”. Jordan says that it is a sin. So can God do it because he is God and it isn’t a sin for him to do it? No, but rather Jordan shows what kind of jealously God has. It is not a jealousy of someone or thing, but a jealousy for something. A husband is jealous for his wife’s love as a representation of God’s jealousy for us. He is not jealous of us, nor could he ever be for we have nothing that he lacks for he lacks nothing. Rather, he is jealous for our affection, worship, and praise, the things that are already due to him and are his. It is this jealousy that is good and righteous and protects us from being let go by God into the chaos and destruction of being outside of him. This is the jealousy of the Lord. Simple, but so complex. Strange, but beautifully wonderful and natural.