the words of a clergyman from a laurel bush

I believe that it is necessary that the Christian "community" stand up and walk away from this label that we are a people without reason, hippies, with purpose found only in feelings masquerading as faith

rather that it is impossible to separate God from science (as science can only be explained as an experiment seeking a theory deduced from a problem realized in the material created by God) that if we believe Christianity to be true, then it speaks to all of life and not only the believing few.

after all, belief does not create truth

truth demands belief

of course time allows that truth exist without belief

but I propose that the end of time will bring about a universal belief

benefits

"He is no respecter of persons but makes His sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good, and sends His rain on the just and on the unjust. The cause of His goodness is in Himself; the recipients of His goodness are all His beneficiaries without merit and without recompense." -A.W. Tozer

satisfaction

"Unto the preserver of men lift I my song of gratitude. The dove found no rest out of the ark, and therefore returned to it; and my soul has learned yet more fully than ever, this day, that there is no satisfaction to be found in earthly things- God alone can give rest to my spirit. As to my business, my possessions, my family, my attainments, these are all well enough in their way, but they cannot fulfil the desires of my immortal nature." -C.H. Spurgeon

something

"myth usually says something - it goes back to something- but it has also usually become perverted." -Francis A. Schaeffer

praise

"they who love Jesus purely for Himself and not for their own sake bless Him in all trouble and anguish as well as in time of consolation. Even if he never sent them consolation, they would still praise Him and give thanks." -Thomas a Kempis

growing up

"When the most important things in our life happen we quite often do not know, at the moment, what is going on. A man does not always say to himself, 'Hullo! I'm growing up.' It is often only when he looks back that he realizes what has happened and recognizes it as what people call 'growing up.'" -C.S. Lewis

light in the darkness

"Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the lamps of the past, they shall glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt trust in the Lord till the day break and the shadows flee away." -C.H. Spurgeon

*

"The Scotch catechism says that man's chief end is 'to glorify God and enjoy him forever.' But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him." -C.S. Lewis

freedom

"the truth will set you free" John 8:32

love

"we should love men enough not to envy" -Francis A. Schaeffer

place

"the inward area is the first place of loss of true Christian life, of true spirituality, and the outward sinful act is the result. If we can only get hold of this - that the internal is the basic, the external is always merely the result - it will be a tremendous starting place." -Francis A. Schaeffer

perspective

"blessed is the man who has ever before the eyes of his mind the remembrance of his sins and of the favors of God" -Saint Francis of Assisi

first

"Whatever we desire, whatever we love, whatever we find worth suffering for, will be Dead Sea fruit in our mouths unless we remember that God comes first." -Joy Davidman

benefits

"...worst of all is to advocate Christianity, not because it is true, but because it might be beneficial." -T.S. Eliot

a keeping of the law

"true Christian life, true spirituality, is not merely a negative no-doing of any small list of things. Even if the list began tas a very excellent list of things to beware of in that particular historic setting, we still must emphasize that the Christian life, or true spirituality, is more than refraining from a certain external list of taboos in a mechanical way." -Francis A. Schaeffer

"One mustn't make the Christian life into a punctilious system of law...Nothing gives one a more spuriously good conscience that keeping rules, even if there has been a total absence of all real charity and faith." -C.S. Lewis

do

"Do not seek all things to touch; Do not want to know too much." -Edgar A. Guest

cheer

"How to be cheerful, do you say, When the wind is cold and the skies are gray? How to be cheerful? Just one way: Forget yourself for awhile today." -Edgar A. Guest

fall

"we stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen." -Thomas Merton

peace

"we are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God" -Thomas Merton

love

"the beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." -Thomas Merton

more

"you say, 'if I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.' You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled." -C.H. Spurgeon

reminder

"as pastors, ministers heal the wounds of the past; as priests, they sustain life in the present; and as prophets, they guide others to the future. They do all of this in memory of Him who is, who was, and is to come. When I became aware of how traditional I had been, I felt a little embarrassed at first. But then I realized that, after all, my only real task had been to be a reminder of what we already know." -Henri J.M. Nouwen

only God

"if we want other people to give us something that only God can give, we become a demon. We say, "love me!" and before you know it we become violent and demanding and manipulative." -Henri J.M. Nouwen

my pretence

"The Christ Himself, the Son of God who is man (just like you) and God (just like His Father) is actually at your side and is already at that moment beginning to turn your pretence into a reality." -C.S. Lewis

sense

"the presence of God is not the same as the sense of the presence of God. The latter may be due to imagination; the former may be attended with no "sensible consolation". The Father was not really absent from the Son when He said "Why hast thou forsaken me?" You see God Himself, as man, submitted to man's sense of being abandoned. The real parallel on the natural level is one which seems odd for a bachelor to write to a lady, but too illuminating not to be used. The act which engenders a child ought to be, and usually is attended by pleasure. But it is not the pleasure that produces the child. Where there is pleasure there may be sterility: where there is no pleasure the act may be fertile. And in the spiritual marriage of God and the soul it is the same. It is the actual presence, not the sensation of the presence, of the Holy Ghost which begets Christ in us. The sense of the presence is a super-added gift for which we give thanks when it comes, and that's all about it."

-C.S. Lewis

VIII

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. (The Enemy's determination to produce such a revolting hybrid was one of the things that determined Our Father to withdraw his support from Him.) As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation - the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life - his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth, periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty.

Your affectionate uncle

Screwtape

XV

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 in 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.

Your affectionate uncle

Screwtape

poverty

"poverty merely reveals the helpless dependence which has all the time been our real condition." -C.S. Lewis

death

"If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell." -C.S. Lewis

Love and a Friend

"What did you gather of worth and pride?"

Said the Angel of the Lord.

"Little by skill," the soul replied

"And nothing by the sword;

I lived the span of my years and died,

And I gave when I could afford."

"You bring no more than you took away"

Said the Angel, soft and low,

"Neither fame nor fortune marks your stay

Of toil on the earth below;

And I fancy now you are going to say

It wasn't worth while to go."

"I saw the light in my baby's eye

And I felt her hand in mine;

I treasured her love as the days went by

Though I builded no lasting sign;

Of my time on earth, I should say that I

Had blessings nine times nine.

"And a friend I had who was tried and true

Who shared in my bit of woe;

He wept whenever a grief I knew

And smiled when the hurt would go,

And all that I suffered I'd brave anew

Another such friend to know.

"Oh, it's little I gathered of earthly pride

And it's little I did of worth;

But to sit again at my own fireside

I'd pass through another birth."

"Love and a friend," the Angel replied,

"Are the two great joys of earth."

-Edgar A. Guest

despair

"I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptations. It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience etc. don't get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence." -C.S. Lewis

MY CREED

To live as gently as I can;

To be, no matter where, a man;

To take what comes of good or ill

And cling to faith and honor still;

To do my best, and let that stand

And then, should failure come to me,

Still work and hope for victory.

To have no secret place wherein

I stoop unseen to shame or sin;

To be the same when I'm alone

As when my every deed is known;

To live undaunted, unafraid

Of any step that I have made;

To be without pretense of sham

Exactly what men think I am.

To leave some simple mark behind

To keep my having lived in mind;

If enmity to aught I show,

To be an honest, generous foe,

To play my little part, nor whine

That greater honors are not mine.

This, I believe, is all I need

For my philosophy and creed.

-Edgar A. Guest