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Archive for November, 2013

Common Rules of the House

Posted in Good Morning on November 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
I hope no reader will suppose that ‘mere’ Christianity is here put for- ward as an alternative to the creeds of the existing communions. . . . . It is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted.
 
But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable. It is true that some people may find they have to wait in the hall for a considerable time, while others feel certain almost at once which door they must knock at. I do not know why there is this difference, but I am sure God keeps no one waiting unless He sees that it is good for him to wait.
 
When you do get into your room you will find that the long wait has done you some kind of good which you would not have had otherwise. But you must regard it as waiting, not as camping. You must keep on praying for light: and, of course, even in the hall, you must begin trying to obey the rules which are common to the whole house. And above all you must be asking which door is the true one; not which pleases you best by its paint and paneling.
 
In plain language, the question should never be: ‘Do I like that kind of service?’ but ‘Are these doctrines true: Is holiness here? Does my conscience move me towards this? Is my reluctance to knock at this door due to my pride, or my mere taste, or my personal dislike of this particular door-keeper?’
 
When you have reached your own room, be kind to those who have chosen different doors and to those who are still in the hall. If they are wrong they need your prayers all the more; and if they are your enemies, then you are under orders to pray for them. That is one of the rules common to the whole house.
 
If we continue to pray, to try to obey the common rules of the house and to refuse to stay in the hall: we will find our room and all we need within. This room is our Eden, created by God for us. As long we continue to pray, obey and not stay in the hall of indecision and self, we will find our room in Eden. Then we must pray for those who have yet to find it.
 
Praying and obeying; not staying,
Z gardener
 
 
 
 

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God Is Here

Posted in Good Morning on November 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

 
An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God: God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God—that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him.
 
You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying—the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on—the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. So that the whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bed- room where an ordinary man is saying his prayers.
 
The man is being caught up into the higher kinds of life—what I called Zoe or spiritual life: he is being pulled into God, by God, while still remaining himself.
 
There is nothing ordinary about ordinary prayer. It is the miracle of the triune God manifesting itself in every aspect of our being. It is our goal, our God within us and our God beside us.
 
So, the next time we pray our “ordinary prayers” just remember that we are demonstrating the miracle of God’s existence, his presence in our being and his advocacy for us. Then, open your eyes and recognize the Eden God gave us and inhabits with us.
 
God is here,
Z gardener

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On Progress

Posted in Good Morning on November 6, 2013| 1 Comment »

 
The word repent means literally to “turn around”. One can never get to the right place going in the wrong direction. No matter how fast one might run, how hard or how long; to get to the right place we must go in the right direction. That is why it is essential to turn around quickly when we determine that we are going the wrong way. The longer we take, the farther we must walk to get back.
 
Turning signal ready,
Z gardener

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On Feeling

Posted in Good Morning on November 5, 2013| 3 Comments »

 
I think the thrill of the Pagan stories and of romance may be due to the fact that they are mere beginnings—the first, faint whisper of the wind from beyond the world—while Christianity is the thing itself: and no thing, when you have really started on it, can have for you then and there just the same thrill as the first hint.
 
For example, the experience of being married and bringing up a family cannot have the old bittersweet of first falling in love. But it is futile (and, I think, wicked) to go on trying to get the old thrill again: you must go forward and not backward. Any real advance will in its turn be ushered in by a new thrill, different from the old: doomed in its turn to disappear and to become in its turn a temptation to retrogression.
 
Delight is a bell that rings as you set your foot on the first step of a new flight of stairs leading upwards. Once you have started climbing you will notice only the hard work: it is when you have reached the landing and catch sight of the new stair that you may expect the bell again. This is only an idea, and may be all rot: but it seems to fit in pretty well with the general law (thrills also must die to live) of autumn & spring, sleep and waking, death and resurrection, and “Whosoever loseth his life, shall save it.”
 
Each revelation is a new beginning full of joy and delight. Yet, the hard work of living that revelation leads to greater joy…and more hard work. The key is to “renew our minds” daily and rising to each new revelation.
 
Author’s note: After a brief hiatus, today the Good Morning begins a new spiritual journey citing quotes from the great Christian spiritual writer/author and one time atheist, C.S. Lewis. As before with author Emmett Fox, Z Gardener will post Dr. Lewis’ daily devotional followed by this writer’s epilogue (In italics). As always, it is this writer’s prayer that the Good Morning Garden will be a place of peace, joy and blessings for all who enter therein.
 
Peace, joy and blessings,
 
Z gardener

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