Continuing Yesterday's Thoughts... - C.S. Lewis view

While I was leafing through some of the devotionals in the bookcase, I picked up "A Year With CS Lewis" a devotional purchased with a Borders' gift card several years ago....a gift from Beth and Emily. The entry for September 6th seems to go right along with what I posted about yesterday. He begins the quote by talking about the claim of God and the claim of culture...and how the claim of God is "infinite and inexorable." Yet we live in an everyday world, don't we? He goes on to explain:

.....it is clear that Christianity does not exclude any of the ordinary human activities. St. Paul tells people to get on with their jobs. He even assumes that Christians may go to dinner parties, and, what is more, dinner parties given by pagans. Our Lord attends a wedding and provides miraculous wine. Under the aegis of His Church, and in the most Christian ages, learning and the arts flourish. The solution of this paradox is of course well known to you. "Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

All our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest, and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not. Christianity does not simply replace our natural life and substitute a new one; it is rather a new organisation which exploits, to its own supernatural ends, these natural materials. - from "Learning in War-Time" (The Weight of Glory)

Sort of goes along with what Hannah had to say yesterday. Do everything as unto the Lord....

From Jesus Calling

From Jesus Calling...devotional reading for September 5th....

Do everything in dependence on Me. The desire to act independently--apart from me--springs from the root of pride. Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from me you can do nothing; that is nothing of eternal value.

I always thought that line from scripture was the ultimate grand slam...you can't do a damn thing without Me. You can't do squat!!! Yet the simple addition of the words "nothing that is of eternal value" sort of changes the meaning of the verse for me. If we live out of our carnal nature (ego) with occasional (or not so occasional) appearances of the pain body to further complicate our lives (and the lives of those around us) we cannot achieve anything of eternal value.

And from another devotional type writing of "old" by Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian's Secret To a Happy Life...about this topic she says:

I was present at a meeting where the leader opened with reading John 15, and the words, “Without me ye can do nothing,”*struck me with amazement. Hundreds of times before I had read those words, and had thought that I understood them thoroughly. But now it seemed almost as though they must have been newly inserted in the Bible, so ablaze were they with wondrous meaning.

“There it is,” I said to myself, “Jesus himself said so, that apart from Him we have no real life of any kind, whether we call it temporal or spiritual, and that, therefore, all living or doing that is without Him is of such a nature that God, who sees into the realities of things, calls it‘nothing.’ ” And then the question forced itself upon me as to whether any soul really believed this statement to be true; or, if believing it theoretically, whether any one made it practical in their daily walk and life. And I saw, as in a flash almost, that the real secret of divine union lay quite as much in this practical aspect of it as in any interior revealings or experiences. For if I do nothing, literally nothing, apart from Christ, I am of course united to Him in a continual oneness that cannot be questioned or gainsaid; while if I live a large part of my daily life and perform a large part of my daily work apart from Him, I have no real union, no matter how exalted and delightful my emotions concerning it may be.

and she sums it up in the last paragraph...

If, then, thou wouldst know, beloved reader, the interior divine union realized in thy soul, begin from this very day to put it outwardly in practice as I have suggested. Offer each moment of thy living and each act of thy doing to God, and say to Him continually, “Lord, I am doing this in Thee and for Thy glory. Thou art my strength, and my wisdom, and my all-sufficient supply for every need. I depend only upon Thee.” Refuse utterly to live for a single moment or to perform a single act apart from Him. Persist in this until it becomes the established habit of thy soul. And sooner or later thou shalt surely know the longings of thy soul satisfied in the abiding presence of Christ, thy indwelling Life.

Jesus declared that if we abide in him, we will bear fruit and that our fruit will abide (John 15:16)...be of eternal value.

Shifting Gears....

The purchase of a small devotional book last night at Borders entitled Jesus Calling by Sarah Young...is what sparked all of these changes here on this (probably never read by anyone) blog...including a name change from Savior of All, Condemner of None to With My Utmost Devotion. I've written a bit about the book on my other blog...and will probably write more about it there..and here. This purchase made me think of all the devotionals I have picked up over the years, most of which I have only leafed through...and the devotionals I have checked out from the library and leafed through. Many of sentiments contained within these books do not jive with my personal beliefs, but even then, a post is born. In hearing/reading that which we do not believe, what we do believe becomes clearer.

This blog has a different purpose than my other blog...Mercy Not Sacrifice. The purpose of Mercy is to educate myself..and then pass on what I have learned to anyone who might be interested... including links and quotes etc. And there is much pondering and musing. Personal anecdotes are included but not as the main theme of the post. Usually...but I often digress, since I am afterall, the Queen of Digression...so I can't even say that is always the case on Mercy...but usually. As a rule?

This will be a more personal blog. Let's just see where that rabbit trail meanders off to. And for an even more personal blog...one which I do not put out there for public consumption, I have one on WordPress called WTF. Fill in the letters of the acronym. It is what it appears to be :) Many times things happen in my life that inspire me to utter that acronym. It is a private blog...the sole purpose of which is to help maintain my own sanity.

So anyway...this is the beginning of a busy Saturday (which will officially start as soon as I gain the momentum to get up from this couch) I will post on one of the daily entries in Jesus Calling later.