Oklahombres

hile cleaning out my computer the other day, I came across this text clipping that pretty much says it for me these days.

“That is why I often find myself at such cross-purposes with the modern world: I have been a converted Pagan living among apostate Puritans.”
C. S. Lewis

The above portion of this post has sat in my drafts for a couple three weeks due to a busy schedule. For that reason this quote has been running through my thoughts a good bit, so I have had time to mull over it before completing this post. Although it still does resonate with me quite a bit, I find it to be a two-edged sword. I find myself on both sides of the quote; with one thought the converted Pagan, and with the next thought among the apostate Puritans.

You do realize, don’t you, that pretty much all of life is based on a continuum? Nearly nothing is black and white. Sure, there is objective reality with God, but with man, broken and fallen, every issue is gold mixed with dross. I find myself criticizing my apostate Puritan brethren at one point, only to find myself the apostate Puritan at another point.

So where is the path through this mess we call The Christian Walk? How do you perceive yourself just as broken as the rest, just in different places? Of course love would be the quick answer, but one-word answers are easy to spit out yet impossible to put into practice—perfectly. Maybe patience would be a good one-worder, but I, like you don’t have time for that. I’m sure endurance supplies no solution, because I see myself wearing down, wearing out. I fear my mileage is about to out last my warranty.

There is one word that will suffice, but is still no easy answer. All good answers, although simple, are never easy. Jesus. We need to look more to him and less at those around us. When we do look at our brothers and sisters, we need to look for Jesus in them. Love him and look for the blood mark on them and love them.

How this is all acomplished ventured into is also simple yet difficult. Here two words lead the way: prayer and Scripture. We need to spend more time with our Savior via these two modes of communication. Be honest with yourself. Couldn’t you spend more time in prayer and Scripture reading?

I’ll be honest. I know I could.

ere’s a couple of jewels from a podcast I heard a couple of weeks ago:

Atonement is a non-negotiable concept. What do you put in its place? What happens is the gospel becomes “I can have a personal relationship with Jesus.” The devil has a personal relationship with Jesus! What kind of a personal relationship with Jesus, and what is the ground of that personal relationship? Obviously being a Christian involves having a personal relationship with Jesus, but there’s content to that relationship that defines that relationship and to just call it a personal relationship I don’t think is very helpful.

R. C. Sproul on The White Horse Inn; An Interview with R. C. Sproul, from September 7, 2008

And then there’s this. The quote is even more powerful when you realize its author is a theologian from a mainline denomination.

You just haven’t said “salvation” when you say “self-esteem.” Thank you, Robert Schuler. And you haven’t said “the good news of Jesus Christ” when you’ve said “I have found a way to help your marriage work.” In Christianity you’ve got to sit and learn the language.You’ve got to sit and learn the vocabulary, and the grammar. Christianity in a way is like learning a new language, and if you’ve ever tried to learn French, you know you’re not just learning different labels. You’re learning a different culture. You’re moving through the words into a different world. So I’m not much on the translation mode. That is the old, I think now, discredited liberal project of the 19th and early 20th century that many of us mainliners realize takes you nowhere. It’s an incredible thinning out of the gospel. It is so disheartening to see evangelicals now jumping on that and buying it. We’re all liberals now.

William Willimon, on The White Horse Inn; An Interview with R. C. Sproul, from Septermber 7, 2008.