Not Faith, But Christ

“Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.

Our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith maybe: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’”

— Horatius Bonar

C.S. Lewis on Masturbation

Here is What C. S. Lewis said about Masturbation

I agree that that the stuff about ‘wastage of vital fluids’ is rubbish. For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: sending the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides.

And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifice or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival.

Among these shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification is ever imposed on his vanity. In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself.
Do read Charles Williams’ Descent into Hell, and study the character of Mr. Wentworth. And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.

The true exercise of imagination, in my view, is (a) To help us to understand other people (b) To respond to, and, some of us, to produce art. But it has also a bad use: to provide for us, in shadowy form, a substitute for virtues, successes, distinctions, et cetera which ought to be sought outside in the real world — e.g., picturing all I’d do if I were rich instead of earning and saving.

Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters (which I think bad in itself) and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres.
After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little, dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison (Lewis, Yours, Jack, 292-293).

In a later letter to a different man, C. S. Lewis wrote this about masturbation:

The evidence seems to be that God sometimes works such a complete metamorphosis and sometimes not. We don’t know why: God forbid we should presume it went my merit.

He never in my unmarried days did it for me. He gave me–at least and after many ups and down, the power to resist the temptation so far as the act was concerned. He never stopped the recurrent temptations, nor was I guarded from the sin of mental consent. I don’t mean I wasn’t given sufficient grace. I mean that I sometimes fell into it, grace or no.

One may, I suppose, regard this as partly penal. One is paying for the physical (and still more the imaginative) sins of one’s earlier life. One my also regard it as a tribulation, like any other. The great discovery for me was that the attack does not last forever. It is the devil’s lie that the only escape from the tension is through yielding.

… Disgust, self-contempt, self-hatred–rhetoric against the sin and (still more) vilification of sexuality or the body in themselves–are emphatically not the weapons for this warfare. We must be relieved, not horrified, by the fact that the whole thing is humiliating, undignified, ridiculous; the lofty vices would be far worse.
Nor must we exaggerate our suffering. We talk of ‘torture': five minutes of really acute toothache would restore our sense of proportion! In a word, no melodrama. The sin, if we fall into it, must be repented, like all our others. God will forgive. The temptation is a darn nuisance, to be born with patience as long as God wills.

On the purely physical side (but people no doubt differ) I’ve always found that tea and bodily weariness are the two great disposing factors, and therefore the great dangers. Sadness is also a danger: lust in my experience follows disgruntlement nearly always. Love of every sort is a guard against lust, by a divine paradox, sexual love is a guard against lust. No woman is more easily and painlessly abstained from from, if need be, than the woman one loves. And I’m pretty sure purely male society is an enemy to chastity. I don’t mean a temptation to homosexuality: I mean that the absence of ordinary female society provokes the normal appetite (Lewis, Yours, Jack, 307-308).

Its a Hurrying Bustling Age

The best writing is writing that transcends times and ages. This morning I found myself reading some brief thoughts from J.C. Ryle on the importance of self-examination, and though his words were written in the late nineteenth century, they are perfectly appropriate to our day. They offer an important challenge.

Let me counsel every true servant of Christ to “examine his own heart” frequently and carefully as to his state before God. This is a practice which is useful at all times: it is especially desirable at the present day.  When the great plague of London was at its height people [noticed] the least symptoms that appeared on their bodies in a way that they never remarked them before. A spot here, or a spot there, which in time of health men thought nothing of, received close attention when the plague was decimating families, and striking down one after another! So it ought to be with ourselves, in the times in which we live. We ought to watch our hearts with double watchfulness. We ought to give more time to meditation, self-examination, and reflection. It is a hurrying, bustling age: if we would be kept from falling, we must make time for being frequently alone with God.

I was also struck by another of Ryle’s warnings, this one against being drawn in by false teachers.

Let me entreat every true hearted servant of Christ “not to be deceived by the superficial disguise” under which false doctrines often approach our souls in the present day. Beware of supposing that a teacher of religion is to be trusted, because although he holds some unsound views, he yet “teaches a great deal of truth.” Such a teacher is precisely the man to do you harm: Poison is always most dangerous when it is given in small doses and mixed with wholesome food. Beware of being taken in by the apparent earnestness of many of the teachers and upholders of false doctrine. Remember that zeal and sincerity and fervor are no proof whatever that a man is working for Christ, and ought to be believed. 
Peter no doubt was in earnest when he told our Lord to spare Himself, and not go to the cross; yet our Lord said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan.” Saul no doubt was in earnest when he went to and fro persecuting Christians; yet he did it ignorantly, and his zeal was not according to knowledge. … It is an awful fact that, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Of all the delusions prevalent in these latter days, there is none greater than the common notion that “if a man is in serious about his religion he must be a good man!” Beware of being carried away by this delusion; beware of being led astray by “serious-minded men!” Seriousness is in itself an excellent thing; but it must be seriousness in behalf of Christ and His whole truth, or else it is worth nothing at all. The things that are highly esteemed among men are often abominable in the sight of God.

The Hell of Hell is Hell

People, what can we to do about all our sinning sin?
Strive to keep the rules of religion so God will not condemn?
And when we fail at keeping the rules and feel the guilt and shame
As religion on us lays, by playing the blame game.
Oh...you didn't read your Bible enough, pay enough tithes or say the "sinners prayer"
And now hell fire stares you in the face, causing you much despair.
In it you will spend year after year, world without end...no wonder the religious gospel causes so much fear.


The gospel of hell-fire is not the Gospel of Grace,
Don't despair from fear that you will go to such a religious place.
Jesus did not teach such a despicable cruel doctrine.
That was devised by man, and is man's concoction.
Don't be trapped in religious deception used to keep you under its control.
God loves you with a love that can never be bought or sold.


God has dealt with the issue, there is nothing for us to do about sin.
So discover God's Ocean of Grace and Love, launch out into the deep and swim there-in.
Instead of being a Hater and a Judg-er, you will be be a Grac-er and a Lover,
Your judging judgement will no longer condemn, because Grace and Love covers sin.
Relax in His Grace and Love because He no longer has an issue with the sin of sin,
Realize that hell does not await you on the other side for you to suffer in

Recognize that on the cross Jesus paid the price for you to be free,
Turn from your haughtiness and selfishness in acknowledgment of what He finished on the tree.
Don't be like the religious people of His day and refuse to accept His Love and Grace
Accept it, and the hell-fire that you imagine will melt right before you face.
You will stop fearing the God who loves you for He has your sins covered,
So break free from all man-made doctrines and deceptions that has you smothered.


Rejoice that Christ the Savior did not come to condemn you in your sin,
He came to destroy the effects of sin in your life and the hell that it causes therein.
That God should love such a sinner as I that He would on a tree die,
To remove the fear of death and the fear of the religious hell-fire lie.
Rejoice in Him that you are not going to that religious place,
And minister to the people you meet the good news of His Wondrous Love and His Amazing Grace.

Jesus did not die so you could manage you sin...He died to DESTROY sin!

 

- Glenn Regular

The Future is Not Like the Past for God (or us)

Everyone agrees that we are not free to change the past. No sane person would claim, for example, that I can now make any free choices about whether John F. Kennedy will be assassinated or not on November 22, 1963. This deed, like all past deeds, has already been accomplished.

Now consider, if God has always foreknown what I will do in the future, then he certainly knew this on November 22, 1963. His knowledge of my future would thus have been among all the facts of reality that God knew on November 22, 1963.

Suppose for the sake of argument that God decided to reveal to us everything he knew to be true on November 22, 1963. Suppose that on this date God sent down a book from heaven containing all of this information entitled God’s Book of Known Facts. Now, if everything you will ever do in the future is listed in this book given on November 22, 1963, and if you are not free in relation to anything in the past, is it not obvious that you could not be free with regard to anything in your future as well? Your whole future is settled in the past—right there in God’s Book of Known Facts.

Suppose you read about your future in this book. Let us suppose that among many other things, you read that you will choose to cheat on your taxes on April 12, 2017. This was written on November 22, 1963. Wouldn’t you now feel the truth that you are no more free to decide your future than you are free to change the past—for you now see your future is past? How could you possibly believe that it was still up to you to resolve whether or not you would cheat on your taxes on April 12, 2017, when you know it is not up to you to resolve any settled fact about November 22, 1963?

Think of it this way. Freedom is the ability to choose between various possibilities. You are free to cheat on your taxes or not only because it is possible for you to cheat on your taxes or not. But if the fact that you will cheat is written in God’s Book of Known Facts, and God can’t possibly be wrong, then it is not possible for you not to cheat on your taxes. Hence you cannot be free to choose between the possibilities of cheating or not cheating. In other words, you can’t be free.

Someone might respond by claiming that God would not reveal such information precisely so that we will remain free. But this response is simply admitting that we only feel free because we are ignorant of the truth. If we are truly free, morally responsible agents, our freedom cannot simply be a feeling based on ignorance. If we are truly free, our ability to determine our future must be rooted in reality. It must really be the case that you could choose to cheat or not cheat on your taxes. And this means that what we will freely do cannot be among the facts recorded in God’s Book of Known Facts on November 22, 1963.

If we are truly free, God’s Book of Known Facts must be open to additions recorded with each free decision we make, just as God “added” fifteen years to Hezekiah’s life in response to his prayer (2 Kings 20:6). If we are truly free—if this is in fact part of the way reality really is—there can be nothing beyond possibilities to be recorded until we choose to act on one of those possibilities. We freely create the fact and then God records it.

If we possess authentic self-determining freedom, then our future must be fundamentally different from our past. The past is unalterable. There are no options for us, which is why we are not free in relation to it. There are not “ifs” or “maybes.” Everything about the past is definitely this way and definitely not any other way. If we are free, however, our future must be different from this. It must in part consist of realities that are possibly this way or possibly that way. Our future must be, at least in part, a realm of possibilities. And the God who knows all of reality just as it is and not otherwise must know it as such. He is not only the God of what will certainly be, he is also the God of possibility.

—adapted from God of the Possible, pages 120-123

The False Sinister Religious Doctrine

The false sinister religious doctrine that is propagated that says: If I am faithful God will bless me…If I do this, God will do that for me… If I serve him, then my business is going to prosper… if I tithe, I will be blessed of God… The doctrine of “Divine Retribution” is the idea that God will return blessings for good doing and vengeance for wrong-doing. In short, God rewards people for being good and punishes people for being bad. In simplistic terms, divine retribution sees all negative situations as God’s punishment, and all positive situations as God’s blessings. This thinking is a spillover from the pre-cross law keeping gospel.

Retribution is defined as recompense for merits. Sadly many religionists approach God’s faithfulness with the mindset of self-righteousness and retribution. We fear that something will happen to the things that we love the most, and so we stand on God’s side only to be blessed in everything. The truth is that if we love God for who He is, then He will take care of the rest. We are not in relationship with Him because we want to be blessed; but because we love Him. A lot of people, serve God because they fear suffering, they fear losing their possessions, these people don’t have their hearts fixed on God, and their love is on the material things.

When we serve God only because He can bless our do's and don'ts, then what we are really doing is trying to manipulate God for the good of the things that we love. But God is not interested in that, He wants us to love Him because of Who He is and wants a love relationship with us, not because of everything that He give us. The doctrine of retribution says that God is only faithful when we are faithful to Him. This means that God’s faithfulness is limited to our own capabilities of being faithful. If this were true God would never be faithful to us. But! God is always faithful and can never be unfaithful!

The Bible says in 2Tim 2:13 that even when we are unfaithful God remains faithful, because faithful is Who He is, not just merely something that He does. God would still be called faithful even if we had never been created. We are the object of God’s faithfulness, and what we give back to Him is gratitude, thankfulness and love. God is faithful to us based on the completeness of what Jesus has done, as His righteousness is imputed in us by God’s grace. Thus our faithfulness is because of God has already done, not merely because of what He will do.

Jesus came to set us free from the bondage of the fear-inspired and performance-based religion..."you do" or "else." The burden of life under the yoke of the Lord Jesus becomes light and when our living life is gratitude and thankfulness for His love and grace. When we understand that, we’ll be able to declare the words of Habakkuk 3:17-18, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

God’s nature is unchangeable (despite what we do or not do), Jesus’ was the express image of God and His work was complete, and we can rely only on His righteousness, His love and His grace. God’s love and care for us is, and will always be, based on the obedience of His only Son that bore the cross for us. Because we disobey does not diminish His love for us one iota, we think it does because we distance ourselves from God instead of running to His open arms of love and forgiveness!

The wrath of God is satisfied...the retribution of God is finished and to fear-monger people with your fear-mongering that God sends natural disasters or terrorist attacks because He is mad and upset, is a diabolical lie and an affront to God's goodness and character.

- Glenn Regular

Why Does God Need Prayer?

The main purpose of talking to God (that’s all prayer really is) has little to do with asking for things. It’s to build a faith-filled, loving relationship with our Creator and Redeemer. What kind of relationship would I have with Shelley (my wife) if the only time we ever talked was to make requests of each other? Not much of one, I suspect. And so it is with God. The main function of prayer is simply to be with someone you love: to talk, to listen, or to simply “commune” with your Creator.

Asking for things—what’s called “petitionary prayer”—is simply one minor aspect of this total relationship. It’s not that God needs our petitions to be informed or empowered to do anything. He’s already as good, as concerned, as informed, as powerful as He can be. But because a loving relationship with Him is His highest agenda for us, He constructs the order of things such that a loving relationship with Him will be facilitated. And thus He ordains that some things will only be done through prayer.

Because God has love as His highest agenda, He gives us some say-so in the universe. We must have this if we are to be self-determining persons, and He must have self-determining persons in His creation if He wants to love to be creation’s goal. We humans have a good deal of power to determine the outcome of things, to have some say-so in our little corner of the universe.

Petitionary prayer is simply the spiritual aspect of the “power to influence” that God gives us. In the same way that God ordains that He will not do everything He’d like to do on a physical level—in order to give us freedom—so too He ordains things so that He will not always do what He’d like to do on a spiritual level. And he gives us this spiritual say-so for the same reason He gives us say-so on a physical level: to facilitate our freedom, our personhood, and thus a real, loving relationship with Him.


A genuine relationship, I believe, can only occur where there is personal interaction between two persons, where there is give-and-take between both parties. In other words, any genuine relationship requires that both parties are to some extent empowered over and against the other. This is as true in our relationship with God as it is in our relationship with other people. God doesn’t want to be the only one calling the shots. Monopoly by one person—even if that “person” is God—always squashes the personhood of others. So God ordains things so that we are to some degree empowered in our relationship with Him. He ordains things so that we can actually influence the Creator, not because He needs us, but because He wants us. And petitionary prayer, in my view, is the principle means of this human-to-divine influence.

- Greg Boyd