Category: The Christian Spirit

Reflections on living as a disciple of Christ.

Advice from Screwtape

  

In C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, a senior devil—Screwtape—gives advice to a junior devil—Wormwood—under his tutelage. Reading this “advice” provides excellent insight into how God works in our lives. For instance, on the subject of prayer, what might a devil say? Here’s one possibility: Whenever they are attending to the Enemy Himself we are defeated, but there are ways of preventing them from doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them… Read more »

Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

  

Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863 that started the national holiday. Keep in mind that he issued it in the midst of the most horrible war ever fought on American soil. Yet he wanted the nation to remember all the blessings God had bestowed. Lincoln wrote all of this own speeches and proclamations. He had a way with words. In my Civil War class, we examine a number of his speeches, and students come away impressed with his… Read more »

Bigotry & Pride

  

I knew when I wrote yesterday about the homosexual appointments Obama has made in his administration that I might get some negative feedback. As I said, I broached the subject with open eyes. I did receive one comment, and I debated whether or not to post it, but eventually decided against it. While I have no problem discussing differences of opinion, those opinions must be stated in a way that doesn’t descend into name-calling. I will, however, address the two… Read more »

C. S. Lewis on "Hope"

  

Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not [as some modern people think] a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought… Read more »

Moral Choices

  

More insight from C. S. Lewis: People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, “If you keep a lot of rules, I’ll reward you, and if you don’t I’ll do the other thing.” I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into… Read more »

To the Evangelical Left: Please Rethink Your Principles

  

The presence of the Sojourners organization at the so-called One Nation rally last Saturday is disturbing to me. Sojourners says it is an evangelical organization, yet it found common cause with communists, socialists, homosexuals activists, and assorted other radicals at this rally. The leader of Sojourners, Jim Wallis, claims to want to bring civility back into the political debate. Is that what took place last Saturday? Civility? Not by any definition of the term with which I’m familiar. While Wallis… Read more »

C. S. Lewis on Morality

  

There is a story about a schoolboy who was asked what he thought God was like. He replied that, as far as he could make out, God was “The sort of person who is always snooping round to see if anyone is enjoying himself and then trying to stop it.” And I’m afraid that is the sort of idea that the word Morality raises in a good many people’s minds: something that interferes, something that stops you having a good… Read more »