Contradiction? No. Misunderstanding? Yes.
Lately I have been working my way through CS Lewis’s classic, The Problem of Pain. In it there is one line that I lifted out of its pages and plugged into my Twitter timeline – and after that there started some dialogue with a fellow (we’ll call him Pete) who believed that the statement was contradictory and who subsequently mocked it as such.
Well, either this Pete is a very intelligent man and CS Lewis was an idiotic fool or, quite probably, the quote I twittered was most likely misunderstood.
Speaking on the necessity of God’s love for us and of the characteristic of God’s love for us, Lewis wrote “[that it is because God] already loves us… Continue reading ...
Quote: God doesn’t promise Christians an end to their troubles
When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well … he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along – illness, money troubles, new kinds of temptations – he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing [God] means… Continue reading ...
Your love is like a beetroot stain
There are many grand, romantic, humorous and satirical quotes on the topic of love that anyone could find nowadays. It seems that we toss the word ‘love’ around quite freely – perhaps we have even diluted it to an extent – so that it becomes just something that is so abstract as to be almost meaningless or at least devalued. We say things like ‘I love Nutella’, or ‘I love my cat.’ What we really mean, of course, is simply that we really like the object of our ‘love’. Yet scripturally, love means something much, much stronger than for what we give it credit. Truly, there is no greater love, as the Lord Jesus says, than to give up one’s life for another.
CS Lewis wrote about the variations… Continue reading ...
‘If God says “No”, will I still be happy?’
I saw this question just this morning. I can’t say I know exactly what it is that it’s trying to say, but it did get me thinking a little. (Rare, I know 
)
When weighing up such a question, I guess we need to consider the implied assumption(s) – if there is one or any. Once we have some idea as to the motivation for the question, we should then be able to best address it. But let’s start with the possible assumption.
The author of the question could be implying that only an affirmative from God will make them happy. (Don’t misunderstand – God is really the only person who can fulfill every deep-seated emotional, physical and spiritual need that a person can have.) Hence, the… Continue reading ...
Quote: Hell is God’s honouring of our freedom of choice
Hell is God’s great compliment to the reality of human freedom and the dignity of human choice.
GK Chesterton, journalist, philosopher and Christan apologist.… Continue reading ...
The Spaghetti Monster, an invisible pink unicorn and a teapot walk into a bar …
In case you’re not aware, the title of this post alludes to those fanciful arguments of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Orbiting Teapot which are used by some anti-theists to posit that theists ultimately have no truth for their beliefs (the argument being that anyone can say what they like if it can’t be proved empirically hence undermining theistic beliefs which are assumed to simply be acts of fancy). All three illustrations are essentially the same and are really just re-hashes of each other. All very well and good; they are constructs to try and refute blind faith. And I support, in general terms, the refuting of blind faith.
And yet those who know I’m a Christian would immediately jump up and down… Continue reading ...
Getting your head out of your proverbial
At times when God feels far-distant in your life and when all appears hopeless and lost and beyond recovery, beyond repair and out of reach, a friend brings a new perspective. More than such a friend, a friend who’s own walk with God is strong and tried and tested – such a friend as this proves a tremendous blessing.
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:
If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up! (Ecc 4:9-10)
Such a friend can help you realise that your head is so far up your proverbial with your own trouble, that he can gently show… Continue reading ...
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