Mere Christianity

“God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.”

“One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up.  This is not the Christian way.”

“We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.”

“Christianity has not, and does not profess to have, a detailed programme for applying ‘Do as you would be done by’ to a particular society at a particular moment.  It could not have.  It is meant for all men at all times....”

“As long as you are proud you cannot know God.  A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

“If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step.  The first step is to realize that one is proud.”

“Do not waste time bother whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did.  As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”

“Love ... is not merely a feeling.  It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by ... the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God.”

Washington

Well, I'm in Washington DC!  I move into my apartment tomorrow, and I start my internship on Tuesday.  I'm pretty excited.  There's so much to do here.  It's going to be a great summer.  Here's a few pictures:

My aunt in Alexandria.

Union Station

The US Capital

Mere Christianity

“They know the Law of Nature; they break it.”

“Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness.  It therefore has nothing (as far as I know) to say to people who do not know they have done anything to repent of and who do not feel that they need any forgiveness.  It is after you have realized that there is a real Moral Law, and a Power behind the law, and that you have broken that law and put yourself wrong with that Power—it is after all this, and not a moment sooner, that Christianity begins to talk.”

“Of course God knew what would happen if they used their freedom the wrong way: apparently He though it worth the risk.”

“He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.”

The Screwtape Letters

Quotes from The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis:

“’If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?’”

“It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality, our best work is done by keeping things out.”

“One of our best weapons [is] contented worldliness.”

“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....  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.”

“For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity."

“The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift.”

The struggle of will

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.  For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.  But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.  So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.  For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.  But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

Wretched man that I am!  Who will set me free from the body of this death?  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Romans 7:14-20, 24