The book The Problem of Pain, by CS Lewis was given to me to read recently, and several things have struck me recently as I have been going through it.
“There was a man born among the Jews who claimed to be, or to be the son of, or to be ‘one with’, the Something which is at once the awful haunter of nature and the giver of the moral law. The claim is so shocking — a paradox, and even a horror, which we may easily be lulled into taking too lightly — that only two views of this man are possible. Either he was a raving lunatic of an unusually abominable type, or else, He was, and is, precisely what He said. There is no middle way. If the records make the first hypothesis unacceptable, you must submit to the second. And if you do that, all else that is claimed by the Christians becomes credible. That this man, having been killed, was yet alive, and that His death, in some way incomprehensible to human thought, has effected a real change…”
- This reminds me of the old quote from Star Trek when Spock said (quoting Sherlock Homes), “If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” History itself has proves that Jesus was not a raving lunatic.
“The freedom of God consists in the fact that no cause other than Himself produces His acts and no external obstacle impedes them — that His own goodness is the root from which they all grow and His own omnipotence the air in which they all flower.”
- Sometimes we try to humanize God far too much because our finite brains can not wrap themselves around the reality that God is so far beyond our comprehension and He does not have the same limits that we do. Nothing other than Himself produces what He does and nothing stops them… It is His intrinsic holiness which causes all that is to be.
By the goodness of God, we mean nowadays, almost exclusively His lovingkindness… and by love, most of us mean kindness — the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven — a senile benevolence who, as they like to say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves,’ and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all.'”
- Many people’s view of God is so messed up. Failing to recognize His holiness and power He is mistakenly portrayed as the “old man upstairs,” doddering about heaven with a cane and a long white beard — like the old king in The Princess Bride — just smiling at our sin and shaking His head at our foolishness. God is none of that… Infinite love, yes. Infinite righteousness, yes. and Infinite power yes. He is not senile nor foolish. He is not mocked and God will take care of business when the day comes.
“When Christianity says that God loves man, it means that God LOVES man: not that He has some ‘disinterested’ really indifferent concern for our welfare, but that … we are the objects of His love. You asked for a loving God, you have one! The great spirit that you so lightly invoked, the lord of terrible aspect, is present: not senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way, not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate, nor the care of a host who feels responsible for the comfort of his guests… but the consuming fire Himself. The Love that made the worlds…”
- Wow. I love that statement! That’s the amazing thing about all this… in His infinite power and righteousness and holiness, God has infinite love and the object of His love is… us. It’s crazy, mind-blowing and horrible all at once to know that because of His great love for me, He sent His Son to die for me.
I love the song, See His Love, by Tim Hughes…
See His love nailed onto a cross
Perfect and blameless life given as sacrifice
See Him there all in the name of love
Broken yet glorious, all for the sake of us
This is Jesus in His glory
King of Heaven dying for me
It is finished, He has done it
Death is beaten, Heaven beckons me
Greater love no one could ever show
Mercy so undeserved, freedom I should not know
All my sin, all of my hidden shame
Died with Him on the cross, eternity won for us
Such love, such love
Such love is this for me
That’s really tkhinnig out of the box. Thanks!
hey was cool i always remember eating boiled potato chips with onions and french fries while reading all his comedies!!! cool guy!