Learning to Walk Holy

In a recent blog comment Tom posted a gem from C. S. Lewis’ twisted little satire Screwtape Letters. It forms a nice complement to the previous Lewis quote. Here we see how Lewis articulates the Christian’s growth in godliness when the desire to obey has vanished but the intention to obey has not. Multiple themes converge here in this rich, little paragraph. I commend it to you for your slow contemplation.

“He [God] leaves the creature [believer] to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot ‘tempt’ to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” (p. 40)

Calvary’s Magnetism

From Arthur J. Gossip’s book on preaching, In Christ’s Stead (1925):

“It was not for nothing that Christ said so confidently that always if men see Him dying for them, He will win [“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32)]. Certainly it has not always been at Calvary that their hearts have been most moved. It makes an interesting study to note how different generations have been won mainly by different things in Christ. … And yet in every age there are always those who cannot come within sight of the Cross without being thrilled and moved and won, for whom that is the deepest and most appealing of all facts. And nobody, surely, can remain face to face with it quite untouched. Get them in sight of Calvary, pause there, saying little, hushed and reverent; enable them to look, to see it, make it real to them, not just an old tale that has lost its wonder and its stab, but a tremendous awful fact.” (142–143)

Preaching to Thin Pews

I know that a number of you who read this blog are pastors of small churches (thanks for reading!). Tonight I came across this from Arthur J. Gossip in his book on preaching, In Christ’s Stead (1925), pages 27–28. I thought I would pass it along:

“…religion is by far the most interesting subject in the world, and the people prove it by the way they flock to hear about it, even yet [1925]. Take any other theme you choose, politics let us say, and through a heated fortnight at an election time you can gather eager meetings. But let them continue, in scores and hundreds of places in the cities, week in and week out the whole year round, and what size would they be in a year? But you—oh, you at times will be grumpy over thin pews. Watch yourself then; be sure that that is really zeal for Christ, and not, as is much more likely, merely hurt pride that stings you. Never rail at a congregation because it is small. It is not the fault of those who are there. And in your deeper moods you will stand gazing in amazement at the folk coming back, sitting there looking hopefully toward you, not yet discouraged, it appears, by the sad persistent failures of the past, apparently still sure that God is going to break through all our imperfections to them.”

[HT: T-Bomb]

Warning

The following video contains images may not be suitable for those suffering from bibliomania. Viewer discretion is advised.

Al Mohler – Study Video by Together for the Gospel on Vimeo

HT: JT

Deliver us from morality

C.S. Lewis:

“…In reality [William] Tyndale is trying to express an obstinate fact which meets us long before we venture into the realm of theology; the fact that morality or duty (what he calls ‘the Law’) never yet made a man happy in himself or dear to others. It is shocking, but it is undeniable. We do not wish either to be, or to live among, people who are clean or honest or kind as a matter of duty: we want to be, and associate with, people who like being clean and honest and kind. The mere suspicion that what seemed an act of spontaneous friendliness or generosity was really done as a duty subtly poisons it. In philosophical language, the ethical category is self-destructive; morality is healthy only when it is trying to abolish itself. In theological language, no man can be saved by works. The whole purpose of the ‘gospel,’ for Tyndale, is to deliver us from morality. Thus, paradoxically, the ‘puritan’ of modern imagination—the cold, gloomy heart, doing as duty what happier and richer souls do without thinking of it—is precisely the enemy which historical Protestantism arose and smote.”

Source: English Literature in the Sixteenth Century Excluding Drama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1944), 187.

HT: D-Math

Shalom’s Linchpin

If I had a list of favorite books for 2009 I would likely put this one at the top.

Graham A. Cole, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP, 2009), 229-230:

The God of the Bible is the righteous God of holy love. The trouble is, however, that we have become paradoxically the glory and garbage of the universe. Our great need is peace with God, and not just with God but also with one another. …

There is no shalom, however, without sacrifice. Peace is made through the blood of the cross. The atoning life, death and vindication of the faithful Son bring shalom by addressing the problem of sin, death the devil and wrath definitively. Sacrifice, satisfaction, substitution and victory are key terms for understanding God’s atoning project in general and the cross in particular. Eschatologically speaking, the realization of the triune God’s reconciling project will see God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule living God’s way enjoying shalom in God’s holy and loving presence to God’s glory. …

The broad notion should humble us at the thought of a righteous God of holy loving purpose who, in love, has never abandoned his wayward creatures but in a plan of rescue has begun to reclaim the created order and will in the end restore creation to himself and to his glory. Love is the motive, glory the goal. The narrow one brings us to Christ and his cross. He is the linchpin of the plan. We are brought to a real Christ, to a real cross, to a real cost.

Lessons Learned from Writing a Book

Most of my blog reading is compacted into a day at the end of the week but there are five blogs I read every day and Trevin Wax’s Kingdom People is one of them. As of today Trevin’s new book, Holy Subversion: Allegiance to Christ in an Age of Rivals (Crossway, 2010) is in stock at Amazon and other bookstores. Can’t wait to read it. He began writing the book in the summer of 2007 and the final edits were approved in May 2009 making it about a 30-month process from start to stock. Today on his blog Trevin shares 5 lessons he learned during the course of writing:

1. Writing is harder than most people realize.

2. Writing is deeply personal.

3. Every writer is deeply influenced and inspired by others.

4. Authors are never fully satisfied with the final product.

5. It is difficult for the Christian author to realize where book promotion ends and personal ambition begins.

Billy Goat Trail

…And hike we did. Today my son (8) and I traversed the 1.64 mile Billy Goat Trail. It was the first time either of us had finished the strenuous trail. And it was a huge achievement for him to finish in 72 minutes. The BGT has some nasty drops and and requires jumping over some some fairly dangerous rock gaps and formations. But those areas also provide a stunning view of the Potomac. A beautiful winter day filled with warm MD sunshine!

Here are the hike stats thanks to a G3 iPhone and the RunKeeper app:

Monday

Monday is my day off and for me typically the most intense day of writing. I hit the keys with vehemence, like Jillian Michaels is yelling at the back of my head.

But not today. Today is family hike day.

Says William Wordsworth:

UP! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain’s head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow. …

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

Update

The emails have slowed from a steady stream to a trickle from readers wanting to know what in the world happened to my list of favorite books of 2009. I take that as a sign that you already know what I am about to say: There will be no list. I did not forget, honest I didn’t. Time slipped away. [Christianity.com did ask for my list of favorite books of the decade (2000–2009) and I’ll let you know when they post it (but expect no surprises).]

I did read books in 2009. Without counting I would guess that I finished twofold the number of books last year than any other single year of my life. For a bibliomaniac it was a hallowed year.

If 2009 goes down as the year of reading 2010 will go down in my life as the year of writing. I am now under contract with Crossway to write a book of my own and have until November before I am guilty of breaching that contract. It is an honor to work with Crossway. For years I have haply photographed and promoted what they publish. Being a contracted author is a great honor. Author; that word seems so out-of-place and foreign; it reminds me of the stun I felt at the word father when my firstborn was still enclosed in the womb.

To date the project has progressed nicely. Being stuck in a blizzard over the Christmas break provided me the final 15 hours I needed to finish the book’s outline and since the beginning of January I’ve been writing the first draft. This morning I finished chapter 3, well finished what Anne Lamott calls the sh[odd]y first draft. Another 22 of those remain. I figure my book will call for about 1,000 hours of labor.

Labor is the word. The labor of writing is articulated well in William Butler Yeats’ poem “Adam’s Curse.” The poem is especially dear to me because my wife is my primary editor. Yeats and his love sit together to edit one isolated line of poetry for hours. “Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.” He says that to work at editing words is at least as laborious as the work of scrubbing concrete or breaking stones in a quarry. As a former carpenter I can say that the mental labor of writing and rewriting (and then pulling the stitches, deleting what you’ve written, and starting all over) trumps the toil of hauling concrete blocks and pounding framing nails into the skeleton of a second story overhang. I’ve done both. Writing is the harder of the two. But writing is also the most magnificent.

So what is my subject matter? I can’t divulge that yet (insert deflating tire hiss noise). In the months ahead I plan to reveal more about the book.

Back to the shadows and to that splendid labor.

Blessings!

Tony