InSPIREd Sunday - Thinking About Prayer

 

 First United Methodist Church
Red Wing, MN

Some Thoughts on Prayer, C.S. Lewis:

"Prayers are not always - in the crude, factual sense of the word - 'granted.' This is not because prayer is a weaker kind of causality, but because it is a stronger kind. When it 'works' at all, it works unlimited by space and time. That is why God has retained a discretionary power of granting or refusing it; except on that condition prayer would destroy us. It is not unreasonable for a headmaster to say, 'Such and such things you may do according to the fixed rules of this school. But such and such other things are too dangerous to be left to general rules. If you want to do them you must come and make a request and talk over the whole matter with me in my study. And then - we'll see." - C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock.

Looking back over my life, I am so grateful for the times that God said, 'No' in answer to particular prayers.

'We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.'  Romans 8:28

That would be ALL things, including God's answer, 'No.'

 In Him is LIFE.

Linked to InSPIREd Sunday

and Roses of Inspiration

Have a blessed Lord's Day!

Sunlight on Sunday

Early morning sunlight through the blinds

'All right, Christianity will do you good - a great deal more good than you ever wanted or expected. And the first bit of good it will do you is to hammer into your head (you won't enjoy that) the fact that what you have hitherto called 'good' - all that about 'leading a decent life' and 'being kind' - isn't quite the magnificent and all-important affair you supposed. It will teach you that in fact you can't be 'good' (not for twenty-four hours) on your own moral efforts.

'And then it will teach you that even if you were, you still wouldn't have achieved the purpose for which you were created.

'Mere morality is not the end of life. You were made for something quite different from that. J.S. Mill and Confucius (Socrates was much nearer the reality) simply didn't know what life is about. The people who keep on asking if they can't lead a decent life without Christ, don't know what life is about; if they did they would know that 'a decent life' is mere machinery compared with the thing we men are really made for.

'Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear - the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.

'When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.' The idea of reaching 'a good life' without Christ is based on a double error. Firstly, we cannot do it; and secondly, in setting up 'a good life' as our final goal, we have missed the very point of our existence.

'Morality is a mountain which we cannot climb by our own efforts; and if we could we should only perish in the ice and unbreathable air of the summit, lacking those wings with which the rest of the journey has to be accomplished. For it is from there that the real ascent begins. The ropes and axes are 'done away' and the rest is a matter of flying."   -   from C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

I Corinthians 2:6-10, The Message:

"We, of course, have plenty of wisdom to pass on to you once you get your feet on firm spiritual ground, but it’s not popular wisdom, the fashionable wisdom of high-priced experts that will be out-of-date in a year or so. God’s wisdom is something mysterious that goes deep into the interior of his purposes. You don’t find it lying around on the surface. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. The experts of our day haven’t a clue about what this eternal plan is. If they had, they wouldn’t have killed the Master of the God-designed life on a cross. That’s why we have this Scripture text:

No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this,
Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—
What God has arranged for those who love him.

But you’ve seen and heard it because God by his Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you."

This is the life we can have here, now - in Christ.

***

 Lucy, Day 2
(okay, I promise I won't keep doing this!)

Have a blessed Lord's Day!

This post is linked to Sunlit Sunday 

and Shadow Shot Sunday

Music of the Season

With all the beautiful sacred music of the season available to us through CDs or live performances or even Pandora.com, it is sometimes easy to get caught up in the music itself, as though it is an end in itself. But it's not.

C.S. Lewis makes the following statement in The Weight of Glory:

'The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things - the beauty, the memory of our own past - are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited....'

That made me think of the beautiful cathedrals and abbeys I love to visit. But I am reminded that it is not the structure itself, nor the builder, nor the skill developed by the builder, nor the architect, nor the vision of the architect that should inspire awe. Rather, it is the Creator, the One who has created both the architect and the builder, Who gives the vision to the architect, the One Who gives the ability to the builder to develop the skill. The beauty, the power, the majesty that come through them through the magnificent cathedral or abbey - give us that feeling of longing that will never be satisfied by anything less than The Source Himself, Jesus Christ.


Colossians 1:16   'For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him.'

Romans 11:36   'For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.'