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Archive for August, 2014

On Forgiveness

Posted in Uncategorized on August 27, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 
 
One of the most unpopular of the Christian virtues is laid down in the Christian rule, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Because in Christian morals ‘thy neighbor’ includes ‘thy enemy’, and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies.
 
Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. ‘That sort of talk makes them sick,’ they say. And half of you already want to ask me, ‘I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’
So do I. 
 
I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do—I can do precious little—I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.’ There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms.
 
Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

 
Again we find a very simple admonition that is exceedingly difficult to implement. It is difficult because we do not want to do it. Yet, without such forgiveness, both the wrongdoer and the wronged are locked together in a negative state. That’s right, even the wronged is trapped without forgiveness of the wrongdoer.
 
So let us release our feelings about those who hurt us to God. Then we can release all parties from the darkness and both will be freed.
 
In forgiveness,
Z gardener

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On Sin

Posted in Uncategorized on August 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

 
[The demon Screwtape writes:] Even of his sins the Enemy does not want him to think too much: once they are repented, the sooner the man turns his attention outward, the better the Enemy is pleased.
 
The Screwtape Letters. Copyright © 1942, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

It is really rather simple, but also very hard. God desires that we admit and turn away from sin while asking forgiveness. It is also God’s desire that we not dwell on our sin, but when repented, that we learn from it and then forgive ourselves.
 
There are no shortcuts and we must take each step. Then, we can live in our Eden with joy and gladness, which is our Father’s great pleasure.
 
Turning away,
Z gardener

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On Self-sufficiency

Posted in Uncategorized on August 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »

They [Adam and Eve] wanted, as we say, to “call their souls their own.” But that means to live a lie, for our souls are not, in fact, our own. They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, “This is our business, not yours.” But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives.
 
The Problem of Pain. Copyright © 1940, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright restored © 1996 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

They, like we, fell victim to the illusion of separation from God (sin). There is no separation from God, or each other, only the illusion of separation. Even death itself does truly separate us from each other; it only appears so to our limited sensory perception.

When we fully understand this and give our “selves” to God, we are simply acknowledging the Father that created us. Then we are able to live in communion with God and each other. That is living in Eden here and now. It is also shaping and developing our heaven above.
 
 Depending on God,
Z gardener
 
Author’s note: One of our gardeners has taken his heavenly throne. Please keep his family in your prayers. Z.

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On Excessive Self-Awareness

Posted in Uncategorized on August 21, 2014| Leave a Comment »

You are of course perfectly right in defining your problem (which is also mine and everyone’s) as ‘excessive selfness’. But perhaps you don’t fully realize how far you have got by so defining it. All have this disease; fortunate are the minority who know they have it. To know that one is dreaming is to be already nearly awake, even if, for the present, one can’t wake up fully. And you have actually got further than that. You have got beyond the illusion (very common) that to recognize a chasm is the same thing as building a bridge over it.
 
Your danger now is that of being hypnotized by the mere sight of the charm, of constantly looking at this excessive selfness. The important thing now is to go steadily on acting, so far as you can—and you certainly can to some extent, however small—as if it wasn’t there. You can, and I expect you daily do—behave with some degree of unselfishness. You can and do make some attempt at prayer. The continual voice which tells you that your best actions are secretly filled with subtle self-regards, and your best prayers still wholly egocentric—must for the most part be simply disregarded—as one disregards the impulse to keep on looking under the bandage to see whether the cut is healing. If you are always fidgeting with the bandage, it never will.
 
A text you should keep much is mind is I John iii, 20: ‘If our heart condemns us God is greater than our heart.’ I sometimes pray ‘Lord give me no more and no less self-knowledge than I can at this moment make a good use of.’ Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted—i.e., keep on fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the right way. Walk—don’t keep on looking at it.
 
 
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

Walk – don’t keep looking at it. I would add, run, don’t walk. God does not want us constantly beating ourselves up. We are to accept our wrongdoing for what it is, repent (turn away) from it and move on. Caution: without acceptance and repentance, it is not possible to walk or run away from our failures.
 
Accepting and repenting and moving on,
Z gardener

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On Humility

Posted in Uncategorized on August 20, 2014| 1 Comment »

You may remember I said that the first step towards humility was to realize that one is proud. I want to add now that the next step is to make some serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues. A week is not enough. Things often go swimmingly for the first week. Try six weeks. By that time, having, as far as one can see, fallen back completely or even fallen lower than the point one began from, one will have discovered some truths about oneself. No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. 
 
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. 
 
We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means—the only complete realist.
 
Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
 

Doing the right thing, for the right reasons and in the right way (righteousness) is among the hardest of human endeavors. Even harder is turning away from temptation; to leave undone, that which should not be done. 

In this writer’s experience, that is best accomplished by avoiding temptation, rather than trying to resist or overcome it; which only brings pride back into the mix and is likely to fail.  
 
Humility guides us to understand and accept our weakness, and says to us, “do not walk that path, it is full of temptation”.  However, if confronted with temptation, we must seek God’s help first and resist with all our capability…then “run, Forest, run”!
 
Leaving undone,
 
Z gardener

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On Immortality

Posted in Uncategorized on August 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I think that Resurrection (what ever it exactly means) is so much profounder an idea than mere immortality. I am sure we don’t just “go on.” We really die and are really built up again.
 
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume II: Family Letters 1905-1931. Copyright © 2004 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

I am sure human consciousness does go on, retaining all that it is and has become. There can be no other reason for our conscious and subconscious memory except that we continue to exist in all aspects of ourselves except the physical aspect.

I am equally sure that it will be an existence far beyond our current state and beyond our current comprehension, but still understandable and experienced as “us”, yet transformed completely, reborn. Even now we shape that existence by our conscious choices and actions day by day.
 
Let us shape it daily with joy, kindness, hope, charity, peace, forgiveness and love. Then, our Eden below will begin to reflect our Heaven above where we will be in total joy and direct communion with God forever. 
 
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world! 
 
Living eternity,
Z gardener
 
Author’s Urgent Request For Prayer;
 
A dear friend, fellow gardener and child of God lies critically injured today with grave prospects. Please pray for Pat, for his family and those who love him. Please ask that he recover and finish his time with us here. Thank you. Z.
 
 

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On the real meaning of heaven—enjoying God forever

Posted in Uncategorized on August 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »

. . . Of course Heaven is leisure (‘there remaineth a rest for the people of God’ [Hebrews 4:9]): but I picture it pretty vigorous too as our best leisure really is. Man was created ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ Whether that is best pictured as being in love, or like being one of an orchestra who are playing a great work with perfect success, or like surf bathing, or like endlessly exploring a wonderful country or endlessly reading a glorious story—who knows? Dante says Heaven ‘grew drunken with its universal laughter.’
 
Being in Heaven is to exist in total communion with God and all others in a state of joy. They number of ways to experience Heaven are as varied as the number of souls who exist therein; as is the path there. An infinite God has created a path for each individual soul that has ever existed, exists now or will ever exist. if it were not so, God would not be God. He has also prepared an individual Heaven for each. 
 
Brothers and sisters, let us begin practicing here for our Heaven that awaits us. The more of our Eden we inhabit here, the more of our Heaven we affirm.
 
Building heaven,
Z gardener
 
The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Yours, Jack: Spiritual Direction from C. S. Lewis. Copyright © 2008 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

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On Faith

Posted in Uncategorized on August 13, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods ‘where they get off’, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of Faith.
 
The first step is to recognize the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?
 
Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. A Year With C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works. Copyright © 2003 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
 
Yes, we must feed our faith each day. Without proper care, attention and focus; faith, like every human activity, will wither and fade. It is the nature of the universe, and that is good. For if we could set our faith on auto pilot, it would not require our conscious participation, That would leave out human will and that is not good.
 
You see, we must choose God and good. Neither is possible without our consent. So today, let us act, think and feel our faith, so it is as alive as we are.
 
Choosing God,
Z gardener

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On The Holy Spirit

Posted in Uncategorized on August 8, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It is quite right that you should feel that “something terrific” has happened to you (It has) and be “all glowy.” Accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that they are only greetings, not the real gift. I mean, it is not the sensations that are the real thing. 

The real thing is the gift of the Holy Spirit which can’t usually be—perhaps not ever—experienced as a sensation or emotion. The sensations are merely the response of your nervous system. Don’t depend on them. Otherwise when they go and you are once more emotionally flat (as you certainly will be quite soon), you might think that the real thing had gone too. 

But it won’t. It will be there when you can’t feel it. May even be most operative when you can feel it least.

From The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III
Compiled in Words to Live By

The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy 1950-1963. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Just as “falling in love” produces such wonderful and beautiful feelings, the glow of new spiritual life is sublimely enchanting as it should be. And just a real love is the product of first love, so is the gift of the Holy Spirit the product of being reborn. It is new life and light in all its glory and it is to be fully experienced.

It is not the thing however, but just the experience of it entering our lives; the rush of sensory perception accompanying  the Holy Spirit. The thing itself is the “still small voice” that abides in us; not the sound and the fury accompanying Him, but His actual voice itself that whispers righteousness to us. It is the whisper of our Father guiding us to our destiny as children of God.

“Then He said, ‘Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.’ And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:11-12)

Leaning in and listening to God,

Z gardener

Author’s note: Another new gardener is blessing us with his presence in the garden today. He is a long time friend, devoted husband and father who is courageously facing his life with a determination to hear and follow the “still small voice”. Proud of you brother and welcome to the garden. SF

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On Holiness

Posted in Uncategorized on August 4, 2014| Leave a Comment »

If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life: but He means to get us as far as possible before death.
 
Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

Without God, we are lost. With God we are perfected. 
 
Yes, it will take all of this life and some of the next to fully manifest our status as children of God. However, the outcome is certain if we stay the path. If we do stay on course we will be able to say each day. “I am better today than yesterday, but not as good as I will be tomorrow.”
 
Seeking holiness each day,
Z gardener
 
Author’s note: Today we are blessed by the presence of a new gardener. He runs a major company and conducts his life in accordance with God’s will. Welcome to the garden brother.
 
Blessings,
Z

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