New video

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End of Days...

In the end, there will only be two kinds of people-those that say to God, "thy will be done", and those whom God says, "Thy will be done."  

Those words should scare you just a little bit. You are going to die and be judged one day. Also, there will be a time when this world will end as we know it. What's going to happen, where will you be?  There's just two choices, right? Heaven or hell. Where will you be?

I do believe in these places literally.

Where are they?  What are they for?  Who decides who goes where?


Imagine (some easier than others) if you have an anger problem.
Anger problems would be all about your problem, because you can't control yourself. Too inwardly focused. Day by day this steadily gets worse and worse. Years go by and you choose not address it, maybe in 20-50 it's not too bad, but could you imagine a million, it would literally be hell.  It's you totally focused on yourself.  Your really a shadow of a human at this point, but a you are totally focused on you and you alone.  Think of Lot's wife, she wasn't human after God's judgement.

So who goes to hell?  Does God send people to hell?

Again, think of the person with the anger problem.  There's so many other problems that come with anger, such as road rage, child abuse, treating employees poorly, etc...These could all qualify as being sins.  These get worse as time goes on, and the person never wants help from his anger problem. He keeps on sinning against God.  He can hear about Jesus forgiveness, but never can accept it.  He doesn't want forgiveness. He likes his anger more. It has in fact become his identity.  So this person
out rightly rejects the Gospel. As I said though, this happens over time.  In Screwtape Letters, I wrote this, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.”  You see my friends, you choose to go to hell, you reject the gospel because of self sufficiency. Total reliability on your own part. Lace up your own boot straps.  The door to hell is locked, but from the inside. So who goes to hell, the person who loves himself more than God.  A person who denies God's help, a person who loves self more than anyone or anything else.  A person to whom God says, "Thy will be done."  


What about the person who bends the knee to Jesus?  What awaits a Christian?  Heaven of course. Don't worry about what some people call it "the pie in the sky" and other names as such. If there is no heaven, there is no Christianity. It is woven all throughout the scriptures. But also, it is not a bribe. Nobody can bribe you to heaven. You get it when you get God. And only the pure in heart want God.

What do love about life? Is it hobbies, the love of a great woman, food, or sex?  I might say these are just glimpses into heaven. You desire more than just what you can see, taste, smell, or touch. You desire something outside you.  That is heaven. You've never seen it, but you want it deeply. This is also called the God shaped hole in your heart.



Do you want to sing to and worship Jesus?  Do you find yourself drawn to church? Do you know there's something more than just self to be fulfilled?  There is something out there for you.  There is an ultimate city of different members of one society. We will get to praise God with each other as one voice.

How do we find heaven?  If we loved Jesus, we will go to a place inside heaven and have our sins be taken away.  It is called purgatory. It is not like the Roman Catholic Church explains it as a place of suffering, but it is a a place of more magnificent than earth.  We should want a place like to as we
should not want to enter the city with the stench of our past sins.  We will enter the Great City pristine and white as the scriptures reveal. It will be glorious. God himself will guide us there.  This is the person who says to God, "Thy will be done".

At the end of the Narnian series (I won't give everything away, just encourage you to read those books) I write, "But for them it was just the beginning of the real story...now at last they are beginning chapter one."

If you are interested in this subject let me encourage you to read the "The Problem With Pain" and "The Great Divorce".  You will not be disappointed.

Your Friend Jack
Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither

CHURCH is...

OK when we say church, I think there can be 2 meanings.  I'll describe the one not really thought of first. Church can mean the body of Christ, all the Christians of all time. The church that is invisible to humans, and that Christ calls his own bride. The second more meaningful for today, and is just place of worship. The word church can be summed as either the church eternal or the church building

Why the 2 meanings, I think this word has been thrown around so much it has lost it's meaning. Guided by the enemy, people have changed what the word should be defined by Scripture.  

The enemy wants to distort our our understanding of why we go to a building for worship. The enemy wants us to pick a building to suit our own likes and wants. I like this music at this place, but I like the teaching of that one better. There's a woman who always wants to sit in MY seat at MY church. There's a man who sits 2 rows in front of me who irks ME as he sings off key. The woman who sits in the front distracts ME because she always raises her hands at the wrong time during worship.

BUT we should look at Church from God's point of view.

God's view is more like the first definition.  I will explain more if there are questions

Screwtape and Wormwood

I don't want to spend too much time speaking on the enemy, but what do you think the enemies job is? Do you think demons and satan are there to put things in our minds, or keep them out?
What is the best way to defeat the enemy depending on your answer?

Holy Spirit is...

Here is my post on the Holy Spirit... This is from Mere Christianity.

In Christianity God is not a static thing – not even a person – but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person. I know this is almost inconceivable, but look at it thus. You know that among human beings, when they get together in a family, or a club, or a trade union, people talk about the ‘spirit’ of that family, club, or trade union. The talk about its ‘spirit’ because the individual members, when they are together, do really develop particular ways of talking and behaving which they would not have if they were apart (this corporate behavior may, of course, be either better or worse than their private behavior). It is as if a sort of communal personality came into existence. Of course, it is not a real person: it is only rather like a person. But that is just one of the differences between God and us. What grows out of the joint life of the Father and Son is a real Person, this Person is in fact the Third of the three Persons who are God. 

Also This

This third Person is called, in technical language, the Holy Ghost or the ‘spirit’ of God. Do not be worried or surprised if you find it (or Him) rather vaguer or more shadowy in your mind than the other two. I think there is a reason why that must be so. In the Christian life you are not usually looking at Him. He is always acting through you. If you think of the Father as something ‘out there’, in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another son, then you have to think of the third Person as something inside you, or behind you. Perhaps some people might find it easier to begin with the third Person and work backwards. God is love, and that love works through men—especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and the Son.


but not this...
Holy Ghost Shake

What are your views on the Holy Spirit?
Let me know what you think.

Your Friend Jack-
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.

Jesus is...

In my book,"The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe", we see the lion Aslan give his life for the betrayer Peter to the White Queen. You could say he sinned, and when he did, he became a slave to the White Witch. But, the great and mighty Aslan gave himself up for the sins of Peter. She takes him to the stone tablet and kills him. She thinks she has completely won the Land of Narnia. There will always be winter, but no Christmas! Then three days later, Aslan returns with a fierce GROWL that shakes the whole country of Narnia. He defeats death, and then defeats the queen. Peter and his three companions become Kings and Queens of Narnia, of course all thanks to Aslan.

Narnia is a world in which I thought up which could be like our world, but with talking animals and interesting things of this sort. The role of Jesus in our world would be played by Aslan in Narnia. I thought what would Jesus be like in this world? It was necessary for him to be the most powerful and graceful of all the creatures in Narnia. Naturally a lion fit this description. When he roars, the whole creation shakes!

At the end of the big battle in the book, Aslan walks away from the victors over the White Witch and her minions. It is not understood why he is leaving, and Mr. Beaver (A Narnian) explained why. "He warned them saying, "He'll be coming and going. One day you'll see him, and the next day you won't." He'll often drop in. "Only you mustn't press him. He's wild you know. Not a tame lion."

Jesus was tame tame in our world either (when he was walking around in it). What makes me say this? People in his day and ours say he's a good teacher, a prophet, or a way to God. He will not agree with what people say about him. We must.listen to him what he says about himself in the four Gospels in the Bible. He stated over and over I am God. We can conclude no sane mere mortal would say, "I am God." So, my famous say is Jesus is either a Liar, a Lunatic, or he is LORD!

When I read the Gospels, he clearly calls himself Lord and accepts worship, and no good Jew of his time would accept the worship of people. Not even the angels in the Bible would accept worship either. My conclusions again, Jesus is exactly who is said he was.  The Lord of all creation, God.

What are your thoughts, Do you agree, Disagree, Unsure???  Let's discuss this most important matter.

Jack-
“I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.” 

Your thoughts on...

So before I write on Jesus, I was wondering what your thoughts on Screwtape Letters.  Obviously if you are a Naturalist, you will doubt anything such thing as Angels and demons. A Bible believing Christian should have no doubt we are in a war between good and evil (although the ultimate battle has already been won of course by Jesus).  How do you have a balance between knowing that there are are demons who infiltrate our lives, and they can only do do so much if we battle them with the Word?

Jack
“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out...” 

In the meantime...

My next post will be on Jesus so be on the lookout for that, but I would like to keep the conversations going. So many people seem to know lots about me, but I was wanting to know more about you.  Maybe you could tell me your story about God's goodness, or graciousness.  Maybe you have a certain prayer request. Or maybe you could tell me about how God surprised you by joy (your Christian conversion).

Is Naturalism the answer?

Let's get down to business today.

Before we can talk about man, I'd like to say a few words of how man was able to be on this planet at all. I will attempt to show that this world is not all there is. I am not a naturalist, but I do believe in, if I may say it like this, Theistic Evolution. You see I do not have a problem with religion and science working together. But I also believe that there was something bringing about evolution. You see, something had to be the first cause to start the process. There has to be an unmovable first cause. Impersonal + chance + time does not equal the cosmos. 

Furthermore, I would not even be able to trust my own brain if everything that happened in the world was just time and chance. Let me summarize what I wrote in my essay named Miracles, "For our brains to be trusted, reason must come from outside itself. Rational thought cannot come from irrational causes." If Naturalism is true saying the words "I ought" is the same thing as "I itch." I can never say you ought not do that. My opinion is greatest. There is nothing outside people's opinion of right and wrong.

Just a quick note, in Pantheism, you would have no way of distinguishing right from wrong. There can be morals this way. If God is in everything, then you have no basis for right and wrong.

Here is a question for you, if you are a Naturalist. Why do humans imagine a transcendent God outside of ourselves? If we get hungry, we could imagine food to quench this hunger. That doesn't mean there is such a thing as food, but it does make it more probable. if we can have a hunger for something beyond ourselves, there is probably such thing as God.  

I made a mistake on my first post saying I only worked for Oxford, chalk it up to old age.  I did work at Cambridge for awhile. In 1954 the university made up a post for me named Medieval and Renaissance Literature. My first lecture was named, "Describing the Times", I wrote the following, "The gap between those which worship different Gods is not as wide as those that worship Gods and those which do not. Many people through time have worshiped some type of God. This also leads to me as to believe there is a God. This is not just a belief, but a hunger. I would say this God has left a God shaped whole in our hearts that he made for him to fill. This God would ten be outside our time, space, and I might even say loving. It cannot be impersonal force +time + chance. The universe, logic, and even the cosmos itself would not exist.

So, I am to say the Christian God must be the real God. The Bible tells us he made us in his own image. So, logically, people should want to image God. With the Christian God, we find logic, reasons for life and death, and love itself. Man is made in the image of God, and we get to mirror him. Without God, let me say again, there is no such thing as morals, basis for knowledge, or life itself.

Conclusion...what do we do?

Although some people who are told exactly what the Christian Doctrine is, will fight it, and deny it. I do think there are those whom will come to the table of Christ as a starving man before a hearty meal. When I write, my life is evangelism, not just apologetic. In my book "God in the Dock," I quote, "Most of my books are evangelistic...It would have been inept of me to preach forgiveness and a Savior to those who did not know they needed either." It is more important to bring one lost soul to salvation than to save all the books of medieval past. Humans are made Christians to pass on God's love to others. That is what humanity was created for.

What do you say? Agree...Disagree

Please let me know your feelings, I love to discuss Theology with others.  

 

God is

January 22, 2014

God is…Relational…Creator

I’ll give you some of my excerpts from the book I wrote named Mere Christianity to try to explain some things about God.

January 23, 2014

God…Creator…Relational

As a Christian you do not have to reject every point of all religions. There may be some hints of God in them. As in mathematics, there is only one correct answer some wrong answers are closer than others. There is a big division in humanity, which are those who believe in God and those whom do not. Then there’s a smaller of division in which God or Gods do you believe in?

Then there are numerous ways to break up the God or Gods.  There is Christianity, Muslim, and Judaism who believe in one God and good and evil. There is Pantheism that goes beyond good and evil, and basically says God and universe are one.  Then there are Greeks, Romans, and Pagans with multiple Gods.  Everybody has a different idea about God.

The Christian though think God made the world and EVERYTHING in it. God made this world up as man makes up a story. But a Christian also knows something went wrong, very wrong. God is there to save us to put everything right again.

The Apostles Creed stated that before the foundation of the world, the Father beget the Son. I would like to explain the difference between making and begetting.  Beget is not a word that gets used much anymore, but it means, “To become the father of.” A father can beget a son, but he can only make a statue.  You beget the same thing as yourself. Let me clarify this thought. “God begets god, and man begets man. God cannot create God. Man cannot make man.” So the point is God beget Christ, but he made man.

So hopefully I have made that clear, now let us move on. “A good many people nowadays say, “I believe in a God, but not a personal God.” They feel there is something beyond the natural, but just not personal. The Christian idea of God is the only one who is personal. Even after death some people have the idea that we are absorbed into God, but again only a Christian understanding of the afterlife is you are a person true again. 

Moreover, let us say you and your best friend are both scientists. You study rocks, and he studies animals. You can just walk up to the rock and study it, as it does not move or talk. If you want to study them, it’s up to you. Your friend to study animals in the wild, on the other hand, must take more initiative. He must go to the animal, but it can run away. He must be still, but the animal knows your there.  “There is beginning to be a tiny little trace of initiative on their side.” But how do you become best friends with him? Well first you must become known to each other, and then become friends. This takes initiative on both people. In order to know something or someone the higher being must take initiative.

So I hope this obviously brings to your mind, “What about God?” He is the higher being in this, so the initiative is solely up to him. It’s up to him to find you. Sometimes he shows more of himself more too some people than others. He shows himself more to a man who has a clean mind and heart. “Just as the sunlight, though it has no favorites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as a clean one.

What do we use to relate to God? We must use our whole self. Our clean hearts and minds are used to see God. If we are not clean, we see God through a dirty instrument, as looking at the moon through a dirty telescope. “That’s why horrible nations have horrible religions: they've been looking at God through a dirty lens.”

God will only show himself to men who are part of a community, and they are doing what God made them to do.  So this means God shows himself ultimately through community. If we were to make up Christianity, it would be made up as something much easier. But Christianity is about Facts, not made up religion.

Hopefully your asking, “Now what?” I say Theology should be practical.

Men are mirrors of Christ, some are reluctant. You see some non-Christians helped bring me to Christ. But it is usually those who know him, reflect him better. This is why the church as a whole is so important to Christ.  We reflect Christ better as a team effort, rather than as an individual.   

I hope you find this helpful, and I am hoping you will join in the conversation about what God is. What is he to you? Do you agree or disagree with me? Please share, as Christians in community we can help each other reflect God.

Jack-“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” 

Getting started

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog. This is my first time blogging, so I hope this will be fun and informative for you. My full name is Clive Staples Lewis, but you may call me “Jack” as my friends and family do. I guess you would like to know about me, that is why you are here. Let’s see, I was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast Ireland, and I work at Oxford University. Before Oxford, I served in the English Army but I was wounded in WWI. I was sent home after receiving a wound from shrapnel. I started my university years at Oxford, and then I was awarded a fellowship teaching position at Magdelon College, which is part of the University.

First and foremost, I am a Christian. You will see this all throughout my writings.  But I was not born as a Christian; it was a long journey as God was hunting me to become one. I’m sure I will go deeper into this as I create more postings. Not only am I employed with the university, but I love to write books. I write fiction and non-fiction books. I love reading the bible, and often imagine a world outside of this realm of earth.  I even wrote about another world known as Narnia. I wrote plenty of stories about this world are full of bravery, evil, talking animals, and a large lion named Aslan. I will explain more of this world later on also.

I hope you will all enjoy my blogs, as I hope to inspire you.  I hope to provoke your imagination to know God more and more each day. I encourage you to comment, and let’s have some great discussions.

Jack-“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”