Continuing with C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity
'This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become-and so on in a vicious circle for ever.'
True?
When you treat someone badly once and there is no reprimand, no regret it gets easier to treat them badly again. When others are treating someone badly and you DO NOT want to put yourself on the spot for fear they'll treat you badly, it's easy to go along with their behavior. How many people go along with something that is wrong just because of that kind of fear? We like to believe we would be among those who would stand up for the person being abused regardless of what happens to us, but that isn't always the case. I'm not saying there are not exceptions to this, but the fact remains that 'the more cruel you are the more you will hate, the more you hate the more cruel you will become'. These are facts that we'd rather overlook if we can. We want to dispute them and cite all the contrary goings on, but in the end we know it's true.
Continuing on...
'Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.
The smallest good act to-day is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or, anger to-day is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.'
Compound interest, not there's something we really need to think about a bit. We question how we are to become more like our Savior, more like how we know He wants us to be. He preached the sermon on the mount, He preached over and over giving us instructions in CHRISTIAN LOVE. His Apostles, His Disciples went on to be moved by the Holy Spirit and continue that instruction to us and we KNOW HOW our SAVIOR wants us to treat one another. We are NOT left in any doubt. We are not left floundering and wondering about how we should behave, there is really no question about it.
When we do NOT live as we are told we should live the consequence is a continued spiral further and further away from that mark. When we do live as we are told to live, the consequence is our growing ever closer towards the mark set before us.
The problem we face is that it's NOT easy to live as we are told to live, it does NOT come natural to us. If it did come natural to us we wouldn't have to be told to do these things, we would do them automatically. We are told to LOVE ONE ANOTHER, to LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS, to LOVE OTHERS- why are we being told to do this if it was something we do all the time? It's NOT automatic, it's NOT natural to us. We are told to STRIVE to enter in at the STRAIT GATE.
Luk_13:24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
We do we have to strive if it's something we do without striving?
We are TOLD how to behave because we do NOT behave that way.
Do you tell a child to behave when he's already behaving? Maybe as a way of warning you might, but you're doing it because you KNOW there is a very real possibility that the child will misbehave and you want to ward off that happening. If you know for a fact someone is always behaving, and hasn't misbehaved then the chances of your telling them to behave would be very slim, you'd have no reason. If you know someone has misbehaved in the past then you would instruct them to behave because you have good reason to believe they would misbehave.
We have misbehaved…terribly, and we are told to behave.
We are told to behave in certain ways.
We don't find it natural to behave in those ways.
We need help in order to behave.
We need to strive to behave.
We need our SAVIOR to forgive us when we misbehave and we MUST continue to STRIVE to enter in at the STRAIT GATE, not the WIDE gate which is very easy to find and walk through.
Admonished, we must LISTEN.
We must strive to do good, NOT to gain salvation, but to do as our SAVIOR would have us do. He will save us, we must strive to live as He wants us to live!
C.S. Lewis--
'Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.
The smallest good act to-day is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or, anger to-day is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.'
The little decision you and I make EVERY DAY are of such INFINITE IMPORTANCE.
Do you believe that? We should believe it because it is TRUE.
How true it is that the smallest good today will have a ripple effect of good for later.
The opposite of course is true as well.
Any TRIVIAL INDULGENCE in lust or anger today IS the LOSS of something important later on.
Our spiritual enemies know our weaknesses and build upon them. They use us and our actions as building blocks getting them higher and higher in order to knock us down and the higher and higher they build upon our little evil acts the greater our fall will be later.
We MUST let GOD work IN US, only through HIS power can we live. He will give us the victories we need, every little victory that He gives us builds upon something that we can only imagine later, all to HIS GLORY!
May God bless us and keep us IN HIM. May we LIVE in HIM. May we make choices that will have us living the life that HE commands that we live. It WON'T come naturally so don't waste time hoping it will. I fear we spend way too much time wanting it all to be natural to us. CHRIST IN US is our HOPE our SALVATION.
All in HIS LOVE!
'This same spiritual law works terribly in the opposite direction. The Germans, perhaps, at first ill-treated the Jews because they hated them: afterwards they hated them much more because they had ill-treated them. The more cruel you are, the more you will hate; and the more you hate, the more cruel you will become-and so on in a vicious circle for ever.'
True?
When you treat someone badly once and there is no reprimand, no regret it gets easier to treat them badly again. When others are treating someone badly and you DO NOT want to put yourself on the spot for fear they'll treat you badly, it's easy to go along with their behavior. How many people go along with something that is wrong just because of that kind of fear? We like to believe we would be among those who would stand up for the person being abused regardless of what happens to us, but that isn't always the case. I'm not saying there are not exceptions to this, but the fact remains that 'the more cruel you are the more you will hate, the more you hate the more cruel you will become'. These are facts that we'd rather overlook if we can. We want to dispute them and cite all the contrary goings on, but in the end we know it's true.
Continuing on...
'Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.
The smallest good act to-day is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or, anger to-day is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.'
Compound interest, not there's something we really need to think about a bit. We question how we are to become more like our Savior, more like how we know He wants us to be. He preached the sermon on the mount, He preached over and over giving us instructions in CHRISTIAN LOVE. His Apostles, His Disciples went on to be moved by the Holy Spirit and continue that instruction to us and we KNOW HOW our SAVIOR wants us to treat one another. We are NOT left in any doubt. We are not left floundering and wondering about how we should behave, there is really no question about it.
When we do NOT live as we are told we should live the consequence is a continued spiral further and further away from that mark. When we do live as we are told to live, the consequence is our growing ever closer towards the mark set before us.
The problem we face is that it's NOT easy to live as we are told to live, it does NOT come natural to us. If it did come natural to us we wouldn't have to be told to do these things, we would do them automatically. We are told to LOVE ONE ANOTHER, to LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS, to LOVE OTHERS- why are we being told to do this if it was something we do all the time? It's NOT automatic, it's NOT natural to us. We are told to STRIVE to enter in at the STRAIT GATE.
Luk_13:24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
We do we have to strive if it's something we do without striving?
We are TOLD how to behave because we do NOT behave that way.
Do you tell a child to behave when he's already behaving? Maybe as a way of warning you might, but you're doing it because you KNOW there is a very real possibility that the child will misbehave and you want to ward off that happening. If you know for a fact someone is always behaving, and hasn't misbehaved then the chances of your telling them to behave would be very slim, you'd have no reason. If you know someone has misbehaved in the past then you would instruct them to behave because you have good reason to believe they would misbehave.
We have misbehaved…terribly, and we are told to behave.
We are told to behave in certain ways.
We don't find it natural to behave in those ways.
We need help in order to behave.
We need to strive to behave.
We need our SAVIOR to forgive us when we misbehave and we MUST continue to STRIVE to enter in at the STRAIT GATE, not the WIDE gate which is very easy to find and walk through.
Admonished, we must LISTEN.
We must strive to do good, NOT to gain salvation, but to do as our SAVIOR would have us do. He will save us, we must strive to live as He wants us to live!
C.S. Lewis--
'Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance.
The smallest good act to-day is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or, anger to-day is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.'
The little decision you and I make EVERY DAY are of such INFINITE IMPORTANCE.
Do you believe that? We should believe it because it is TRUE.
How true it is that the smallest good today will have a ripple effect of good for later.
The opposite of course is true as well.
Any TRIVIAL INDULGENCE in lust or anger today IS the LOSS of something important later on.
Our spiritual enemies know our weaknesses and build upon them. They use us and our actions as building blocks getting them higher and higher in order to knock us down and the higher and higher they build upon our little evil acts the greater our fall will be later.
We MUST let GOD work IN US, only through HIS power can we live. He will give us the victories we need, every little victory that He gives us builds upon something that we can only imagine later, all to HIS GLORY!
May God bless us and keep us IN HIM. May we LIVE in HIM. May we make choices that will have us living the life that HE commands that we live. It WON'T come naturally so don't waste time hoping it will. I fear we spend way too much time wanting it all to be natural to us. CHRIST IN US is our HOPE our SALVATION.
All in HIS LOVE!
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