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March 09, 2005
A.N. Hare...
So, according to Mike last night, all great Christian theologians have to publish their musings with their first two initials...hmm. So I should be publishing blog entries as A.N. Hare? Well, I don't suppose I'll ever be a great Christian theologian, but I have been itching to share with you all some things I've been reading from C.S. Lewis and A.W. Tozer. I'm not writing any major commentary on the quotes, for that, you'll have to actually converse with me...
C.S. Lewis in the Introduction to The Four Loves
"Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?"
"We may give our human loves the unconditional allegiance which we owe only to God. Then they become gods; then they become demons. Then they will destroy us, and also destroy themselves. For natural loves that are allowed to become gods do not remain loves. They are still called so, but can become in fact, complicated forms of hatred."
C.S. Lewis on Friendship
"You will not find the warrior, the poet, the philosopher, or the Christian by staring into his as as if he were your mistress: better fight beside him, read with him, argue with him, pray with him."
"Friendship is--in a sense not at all derogatory to it--the least natural of loves, the least instinctive, organic, biological, gregarious, and necessary."
Now this is my FAVORITE thing I read from Lewis recently...
"But in friendship, being free of all that [affection and eros], we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years' difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, strictly speaking, for a Christian, there are no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group of Christian friends, "You have not hcosen one another but I have chosen you for one another." The friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each beauties of all the other. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men; by friendship God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived from Him, and then, in a good friendship, increased by Him through Friendship itself, so that it is is his instrument for creating as well as for revealing. At this feast it is he who has spread the board and it is he who has chosen the guests. It is he, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and should, always preside. Let us not reckon without our host."
ISN'T THAT A WONDERFUL QUOTE?
Okay, now for some Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy...
"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."
"The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him."
"Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe."
"We want a God we can in some measure control...The God of contemporary Christianity is only slightly superior to the gods of Greece and Rome, if indeed He is not actually inferior to them in that He is weak and helpless while they at least had power."
READ THIS NEXT ONE...it will kick your butt...it did mine...
"Probably the hardest thought of all for our natural egotism to entertain is that God does not need our help. We commonly represent Him as a busy, eager, somewhat frustrated Father hurrying about seeking help to carry out His benevolent plan to bring peace and salvation to the world...Too many missionary appeals are based upon this fancied frustration of Almighty God. An effective speaker can easily excite pity in his hearers, not only for the heather but for the God who has tried so hard and so long to save them and has failed for want of support. I fear that thousands of young persons enter Christian service from no higher motive than to help deliver God from the embarrassing situation His love has gotten Him into and His limited abilities seem unable to get Him out of. Add to this a certain degree of commendable idealism and a fair amount of compassion for the underprivileged and you have the true drive behind much Christian activity today."
Zing, Mr. Tozer! Zing!
"Let us not imagine that the truth of this divine self-sufficiency will paralyze Christian activity. Rather it will stimulate all holy endeavor. This truth, while a needed rebuke to human self-confidence, will when viewed in its Biblical perspective life from our minds the exhausting load of mortality and encourage us to take the easy yoke of Christ and spend ourselves in Spirit-inspired toil for the honor of God and the good of mankind. For the blessed news is that the God who needs no one has in sovereign condescension stooped to work by and in and through His obedient children."
Can I get an Amen?!
Man, these guys psych me up...
I hope this gave you all something to ponder today. I definitely recommend reading both these books, but if philosophical/theological stuff isn't your cup of tea, I hope you enjoyed some of these highlights.
Posted by Autumn at March 9, 2005 09:29 AM