Jared Longshore's Blog, page 25

Real Though We Can’t See Them

‘You don’t think—not possibly—not as a mere hundredth chance—there might be things that are real though we can’t see them?’

‘Certainly I do. Such things as Justice, Equality, the Soul, or musical notes.’

‘Oh, grandfather, I don’t mean things like that. If there are souls, could there not be soul-houses?’

C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

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Let Him Ask

Back in the 1970s a man named Laurence Peter developed a theory called “The Peter Principle.” It claimed that, within hierarchical organizations, individuals are regularly promoted past the point of their compentency. A man functions well enough at a certain level. But then he gets promoted to a positoin in which he is relatively incompetent. This is obviosuly to be avoided. And one way to avoid it is to abide by the teaching of James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom let him him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).

Now you can lack wisdom because you are simply unwise. Or you can lack wisdom because you have matured and advanced to new levels of responsibility. You are a wise man who has never faced this kind of battle before, and it is time to level-up. James has this latter example in mind because he adds that God gives liberally and upraids not. He means that God is a generous giver of wisdom, who will not find fault with you when you keep coming back to ask Him for more. When you do so, God supplies that wisdom and individuals, families, organizations, and communities rise to new levels of virtue, dominion, sanctification, and glory.

Now, anyone who has spent a good bit of time considering organizations or hierarchies will likely say, “Steady now. There is a lot of truth to that Peter principle. It is rare that people actually enlarge thier capacity and competency.” Granted, it is rare. But it is only rare becuase it is equally rare that men ask God in faith to give them wisdom. God stands ready to give you that wisdom and liberally so. But will you ask?

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Table of Abundance

Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). This is contrasted with the theif who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. The theif would erase you. He would remove your being if he could. He would take away what makes you you and leave you but a shell of a man, on the border of being nothing. But the Second Adam came so that you would be truly human, so that ruined nature would be restored to the full.

So the life you live must be a life of addition. You must add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperence, and to temperence patience, and so on. Many have flamed out and locked up because they have pursued this life of addition apart from faith in Christ. They have experienced what every engine experiences which tries to run on no oil.

So don’t make that mistake. Christ gives Himself to you at this table. He does not merely give you the tools you need to succeed. This bread and wine does not simply enlarge your capacity to go and live life to the full. This bread and wine is fullness of life. Christ is the One who is fully alive. This bread is kindness. This wine is charity. You will add neither to your life if you go looking for them outside of this God man who was slain for us. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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The Naturalism ‘Hangover’

It comes partly from what we may call a ‘hangover’. We all have Naturalism in our bones and even conversion does not at once work the infection out of our system. Its assumptions rush back upon the mind the moment vigilance is relaxed. 

C. S. Lewis, Miracles

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Feeding Your Faith

The Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstatiation teaches that this bread transforms into the body of Christ. So the bread itself which you put into your mouth is the body of Christ. We reject this teaching and teach rather that the bread itself remains bread as you chew, and the body of Christ remains in heaven where He is sat down at the right hand of the Father. One objection that might come our way runs like this, “I, for one, don’t want to feed on a similtude. I don’t want to eat and drink that which has but a resemblance to the real thing. Unlike you Calvinistic Protestants, I want to taste the real thing.” 

How should we reply to such an objection?

The first thing to say is that while we do not believe that this physical bread is transformed into the body of Christ, we manifestly believe in the real body of Christ. His body is in heaven where it still bears the scars of our salvation.

Secondly, we do not feed upon the wind here at this table. By teeth, tongue, and jaws we feed upon the bread on the table. And by faith, we feed upon the body of Christ. 

Do not make the mistake of thinking your faith can be fed by faith, or that your faith can be feed my mere ideas, or concepts, or rituals and liturgies themselves. No, the food for your faith is the real body and blood of Jesus Christ. 

Yes, this is a mystery. You can know it to be the case. But you will never be able to get your mind all the way around it. The real Christ seated in heaven feeds your faith with Himself. Would you have greater faith? Would you have more abudant life? Then come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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What Naturalism Cannot Accept

Naturalism without ceasing to be itself, could admit a certain kind of God. The great interlocking event called Nature might be such as to produce at some stage a great cosmic consciousness, an indwelling ‘God’ arising from the whole process as human mind arises (according to the Naturalists) from human organisms . . . What Naturalism cannot accept is the idea of a God who stands outside Nature and made it.

C. S. Lewis, Miracles

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The Slothful Upon His Bed

Proverbs tells us, “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed” (Proverbs 26:14). You can envision the man there, rotating like a stuffed pig roasting on a spit. He’s being fattened up for the slaughter. This lazy man is not happy. He is not at leisure. He is not recreating. There is no re-creation here, but de-creation. The sloth is unpleasantly immobile, digging himself deeper and deeper into an abyss, down there where satan is bound. Very often he spins downward while mindlessly scrolling on a smartphone. There is nothing particularly tantlizing about sloth. You may be tempted to it, of course. But you are not tempted to it like the sins of pride, greed, and sexual immorality. So you must know what this particular sin is up to.

R. J. Snell has wisely said that “Boredom is a heresy, declaring God was wrong when he saw the goodness of the world.” The slothful man retreats into himself, refusing to see, taste, hear, smell, and touch God’s created world with gratitude. And it is not as if the world, from which the slothful man flees, is stagnant or passive. This good creation speaks to him in a thousand ways. It reaches out to him. The birds sing to him. The sawdust assaults his sense of smell with its pleasing aroma. The apples beckon him to taste and see that they are good. They hang from the tree as if to politely request to be put into a pie.

But the slothful man trusts his own words more than these words from God. He opts to trust his lying words of despair, hopelessness, and meaninglessness; rather than the true word of God, brought to us by slimy slugs, laughing children, and rhubarb springing up from the ground. 

To all of this, the bed-bound sloth says, “But, there is a lion in the streets.” To which we must reply, “Perhaps so, and if there is, I really would like to go and see him shake his golden mane. We might even get to hear him roar.

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Wine to Gladden the Heart

God’s goodness is seen at every turn. Psalm 104:15 says that God gives us “wine that maketh glad the heart of man . . . and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.” If that is true of bread and wine themselves, how much more true is it of Christ’ body and blood which bread and wine signify? Surely the things themselves are greater than the signs of the things. If your heart has benefited from bread and wine, how much more will your heart benefit from the bread and wine?

So do ensure that your heart lays hold of Him. I’m speaking of the real man, whom you have not seen, but love; the man in whom you believe, even though you do not see Him for now.

He is the One who is nourishing your faith at this table. He is the One who speaks to you here. And He is the One who offers Himself to you now as food and drink. Consider how He has accomodated Himself to you through these visible signs that you can smell, touch, and taste. He knows our weakness. He remembers that we are dust. He understands that our faith simply is not all that it ought to be. And He determined to institute this sacrament to speak to us. He gave us this sacrament through which He gives Himself to us. 

So receive Him and all of His benefits. He comes to you with His strength. And He comes to you with His gladness. He comes to you with His humurous reassurances that He is resurrected flesh and blood, asking you, “Do you have any meat that I can eat?” He comes to you saying that you have already died in Him. And He comes to you saying that you have already risen in Him. He comes to you and all is well. So come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

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His Name on Us

Baptism is administered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is a reminder to us that baptism really is a matter of the Triune God placing His name upon the baptized. God initiates. We love God because He loved us first. We are to acknowledge what He has done, and what He has promised to do. Jesus said that He knew His own. And we must trust Him that He indeed does know them and has laid down His life for them. 

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Peace and Where to Find It

God’s command to us is that we would be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6). And nothing, of course, means nothing. This is a high bar. We all know what it is like to miss this particular mark. But that is no excuse for us missing it. Peace is what must replace worry. Peace is the fruit of the Spirit that involves all being well with your soul. But the very notion that peace is a fruit of the Spirit implies that you cannot simply go out and get it. Peace is something you must receive. It must be given to you.

After His resurrection, Jesus was with his disciples forty days. And the first thing He said when He showed Himself to them was, “Peace be unto you” (Luke 24:36). They responded with terror, afraid they had seen a spirit. But He asked them, “Why are you troubled? . . . Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 38-39). Peace flooded in at that point. Not only had they not seen a spirit. They had seen their likeness raised from the dead. A real man, dead and now raised to live forever, as they would be. While they were still in awe, He underscored their peace by asking, “Does anyone have some meat that I can eat?” Imagine their awe as they watched Him chew and swallow.

Peace comes from the resurrected Christ. You will find it nowhere else. Look to Him and believe His words when He says, “Peace be unto you.” You must see Him by faith, of course. As Isaiah says, “You will keep Him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you” (Isaiah 26:3). So stay your mind and heart on the embodied and risen Christ. He is your peace.

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