If Our God is for Me then who can be against me

Lent 2012   A Clean Heart, Create in Me      C.S.Lewis

Wednesday  March 7                                   Matthew 25:45-46

Disconnect.  Disconnect.  What does the scripture have to do with the devotional?  I agree with the statement, “SERVILE FEAR IS the lowest form of religion.” Blind slavery to an unfeeling unmerciful tyrant of a God is the cruelest form of devotion.   But what is C.S. trying to say?  I think that the scripture is talking about us serving the least and the last and the lost.   I think that the eternal punishment is us realizing all the opportunities we had to work with God for the transformation of the world and all the times we chose something else.  A cosmic size: DOH!  Those that are living in right relationship with God are already living in that eternal life.   C.S. Lewis chooses to focus on the issues of heaven and hell.    

I have read Rob Bell’s Love Wins.  In it he discusses his understanding of Heaven and Hell.  This spawned all sorts of discussion and disagreements and response books.  I believe that we create our own hell that starts right now and we can choose to stay there forever.  I also believe that the Kingdom of Heaven is now and we can participate in it fully now.   I love that Lewis says, “The soul that has once wakened, or stung, or uplifted by the desire of God, will inevitably (I think) awake to the fear of losing Him.”  But this seems like an incomplete faith.  Even if I think that I can do something that will so estrange me from the presence of God that I am lost, God does not abandon me.  Part of the freedom of salvation is the assurance of God’s presence no matter what.  Hell is when we choose to deny that presence.  Heaven is when we seek to live in that presence. 

The fear that Lewis talks about is a belief that we can lose God.  I would rather focus on fear being a deep knowing of God that inspires us.  Knowing that God is essential to abundance, growth, happiness and hope is what helps us devote ourselves daily to our spiritual journey.  God is not about loss but healing.   Dear God, may my fears diminish and never stand in my way of pursuing Your Will.  May my confidence in your steadfast love, inspire me to take risks for the kingdom.

Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

Lent 2012     A Clean Heart, Create in Me   C.S.Lewis
Tuesday March 6                                            Matthew 23:11-12

This devotion at first seems to skip the issue of pride.  I was expecting those mighty to be struck down so I could humbly dance.  And then C.S.Lewis drops this bomb: "God wants you to know God's very nature: God wants to give his very self to us."  Pride and humility is not about our position in the world but our right relationship with God.  A right relationship with God  may mean that we sacrifice dignity. According to 1 Corinthians 3:19:" For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, "He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness."  A right relationship with God is a relief from the need and stress of achieving success in the world's system.  Humility is putting the needs of God's will and God's people before our own.  What I thought was Lewis missing the mark was actually him hitting the bull's eye with brevity.  Lord, help me change my focus so that I am not filled with pride but with a healthy respect for you.  Each day help me move closer to a right relationship with you.

With a rebel yell, we cry more! more! MORE!

Lent 2012  A Clean Heart, Create in Me  C.S.Lewis
Monday March 5                                   Daniel9:9-10

Ol' C.S. quotes John Henry Newman to help us understand that we are not merely disobedient 3 year olds or pierced and tatooed adolescents but we have taken up weapons to rebel and fight against our God.  I hadn't considered our behavior that extreme before.  No wonder cleansing our hearts will be compared to death.  We have made self-reliance, self-determination and independence our platform.  We must lay down our weapons and submit.  OW!  It goes against all of my learned beliefs, save one.  I believe that God has my best interest at heart.  I can submit because I believe that God will take care of me.  When I stop my tantrms and my rebellion I can receive all that God has imagined for me.  When I realize that I am that beloved, it is easier for me to release the strident alarms of my ego and rely on the expertise of a big living God.  When I look back on these paragraphs and see all the "I"s, it is the perfect symptom of this problem.  Instead of more, more, more, I need to hope for less.  Lord,
Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee. let this song be my prayer.
)Words: Fran­ces R. Ha­ver­gal, Feb­ru­a­ry 1874.
Music: Messiah, Lou­is J. Hér­old, 1830; ar­ranged by George Kings­ley)  Amen.

Innumerable

Lent 2012  A Clean Heart, Create in Me  C.S.Lewis
Sunday, March 4                                        Genesis 15:5

How many people are in your family?  If we consider our family of birth, our family by marrige, our family of friends, our family at work and play, our church family, our faith family, and the family of humanity are we truly innumerable?  7,026,173,100 is the population when this blog was written.  How can we be innumerable if I can find a number to quantify us?  God promises that Abram's descendents will be more plentiful than the stars in the night sky.  Okay so maybe we are counting generationally. 107,602,707,791 people are estimated to have ever lived on earth, so again is this innumerable? 
Perhaps God's promise to Abraham is bigger than data and statistics.    How often has numerical growth led to suffering? C.S. tells us that this blessing is about suffering and redemption healing.  "All nations will be blessed by God's chosen people."  Perhaps this blessing of God is where numbers fail us.  We cannot count or even begin to understand where the seeds of God's promises and blessings will land and flourish.  Perhaps the point is that we are not to try to count.  I think when we get caught up in counting we start to compare.  
How often are churches judged by the size and scope of their ministry?  Is this scripture the source of this practice?  Maybe we sound concede that God's chosen people and their blessings are innumerable are get on with being a blessing to all nations.   

If you're not for me

Lent 2012  A clean Heart, Create in Me   C.S. Lewis
Saturday, March 2     Matthew 5: 44-45

Love your enemies.  Three simple words.  A lifetime to master.  I have tried this and seen some amazing changes... in me.  Anger and enemies is mostly about self anyway.  We hold on to the anger and resentment that creates an enemy.  Can we maintain that anger when it is met by grace?  And what do we have to be so angry about?  Lewis slaps us in the face with those survivors of the holocaust that forgave their tormenters, the slayers of their families, the rapers of all that they considered sacred home. 
When I get angry I try first to change my breathing.  Then I focus on giving the injustice, the hurt, the wrongness to God and praying for the strength to leave it there.  Then I seek to find something positive to pray for with my enemies in mind.   At first I devise prayers that were retribution for the wrongs I had perceived.  For that person, that drives me crazy, I prayed that God give them patience.  I knew that God would give them situations where they had to develop patience.  I giggled at what "I" had inflicted.  When I matured a little, I prayed for my enemies safety and deliverance.  For the impossible driver who cut me off, I prayed for them to arrive safely becase obviously there was some emergency that I was not aware of and they needed God's protection to make it wherever they were going.  But then I sounded haughty, like I knew better.  So finally I have settled on asking to be part of God's will either because of this situation or in spite of this situation.  By praying myself out of the center of this struggle, the angry energy dissipated and I found myself forgiving as (in the same manner) I would like to be forgiven.  I had not changed the reasons and people involved in my struggle, but I had changed.
And as for that saying: "either you are for me or against me,"  well I'd like you to consider gravity.  It is by definition, a force that acts against us every moment of our lives and yet, we would not have an atmosphere, or the ability to move without it.  Maybe our enemies are teaching us how to breathe and allowing us to be strong enough to move. 
Dealing with our enemies is similar to cleaning our closets.  How can we have a clean heart with dirty packed closets?  So, a clean heart, create in me by helping me love my enemies.

Our Best Effort

Lent 2012 A Clean Heart, Create in Me  C.S.Lewis
Friday, March 2                                                            Matthew 5:20

Mom always said,"Honey, all your father and I want is for you to try your best and we will be proud of you."  But if you keep improving and growing how can you ever know when you've done your best?  In my youth I felt I could never do enough to earn their pride because I couldn't understand the difference between my best and the best.  I was on a sliding scale where noone would or could share the scale with me.  Now C.S. Lewis sets up the same no-win situation in being good.  Ewww.  He suggests that we keep on trying so we can know more and more how much we need God. 
Because of this, I choose to respond to this scale in a similar way to Jesus.  When someone said, that Jesus was good, he responded, "Why do you say that I am good?  No one is good except my Father in heaven."  (Mark 10:18, Lke 18:19) That doesn't let me off the hook for my behavior, but it does give me the freedom to understand and rely on God's grace.  I know that I will fall short of all that I can be if I only rely on myself.  However,  by relying on Jesus I can get off of the hamster wheel of trying to earn grace, and be free of the stranglehold of legalism.  I don't have to worry about trying to exceed the scribes and Pharisees (teachers and judges of the law) to enter the kingdom, I will throw myself on the mercy of Christ. 
By the way, now that I am a mom myself, I understand better what she meant when she told me to do my best.  She was asking for effort that was commiserate with the situation and the leading of God, the model of Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.  Still it's a lot to ask, but at least with God, I know that anything is possible. 

Death as a Kindness???

Lent 2012  A Clean Heart, Create in Me
Thursday, March1st   Happy New Month!           Psalm 138:8

Does repentance need to be a burden?  Are these trials a necessary evil that must be endured?  C.S. would say definitely, yes.  As usual I both agree and disagree.   There are those that believe that all trials are given to us by God to sharpen us and  show our never ending need for grace.  While I believe that God will use all events to the good of those who love God, I cannot recognize a God that rains pain on those who love him in the name of our good.  We are the ones that turned from God and chose sin over joy.  We are the ones that brought these trials upon the world.  How dare we blame God for our sinfulness?  I do agree that "repentance is no fun at all," but I believe that the bringing death to our sinful ways is a kindness.  So these trials may instead be methods of healing, seasons of strengthening, and opportunities to show God's power, grace and love.  I will accept a kind of death to those selfish parts of me that keep me from all that God has created me to be.  Instead of grieving those losess, I will seek that kind death that brings me into new life.  Lord, help me grow closer to you through my repentance.  Let each of these thousand little deaths be a kindness.  For where there is less of me, me, me there can be more of You, my king.