Mere Christianity

Book 1 Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe

Chapter 1: Law of Human Nature/Right and wrong

a) We quarrel about who is in the right.b) Physical Laws (gravity) are factual, describe how things act/respondc) Law of human nature describes how we should actd) Comparison of moral teaching; not significantly different – what a totally different morality

would be (admiring selfishness)e) None of us are really keeping the Law of Nature

Genesis 3:4-5 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Romans 2:14-15 Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.

Questions:

1) Can you recall a time where you recognized right vs wrong without having to be taught? Tom: First BB gun

2) Give some examples of basic rules of fairness?

Matthew 7:12 “Golden Rule”

3) Example of a totally different mentality/moral code? Tom: Survivor TV show

Chapter 2: Some Objections

Herd instinct

judging between instincts

Picking the weaker rather than stronger instinct

Impulses/instincts are sometimes suppressed and sometimes encouraged by moral law

1. Can you give an example of an action that is good in one instance and bad in another? (Sex, anger, …)

2. Think of the Good Samaritan story. What if the Good Samaritan had come upon the robbers while they were in the act? Why do you think Jesus did not tell the story this way?

Psalm 7:11 Matthew 21:12 – 13 Colossians 3:8 James 1:20 Proverbs 29:11 Psalm 37:8-9 Micah 6:8

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Social Convention

Convention (left side of the road) vs real truths (mathematics)

Is one morality better than another? - comparison means there is a standard

Differences of morality vs differences in beliefs about facts (witches example)

Titus 1:15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

Chapter 3: Reality of the Law

We break the Law; being imperfect, not being what it ought to be – has implications

A stone is a stone; a tree is a tree; they follow the physical laws (law of nature) here the law is not distinct from what happens

With humans you have the facts (what they do) and something else (what they ought to do)

Explain it away as “stone is wrong shape”; inconvenient to you

Example of bus seat; traitor/double agent

Many examples of doing things that do not pay dividends

1. What is an example of an action you have witnessed or heard of that stands out in your mind as virtuous?

Good for the whole of humanity

Restatement of the law of human nature (men ought to be unselfish)

Matthew 5:39-44: But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

1 Corinthians 13 : 4-8 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Chapter 4: What lies behind the law

What this universe really is and how it came to be there

Materialist view: matter and space exist; always have; by chance produced thinking creatures

Religious view: what is behind the universe is a mind, has purposes, prefers one to another

Science cannot answer between them: observes what is there; whether there is anything behind the things that science observes – something of a different kind “why is there a universe”

One thing we know more than what we can learn from external observation - Man

Someone from the outside not knowing our language would not see any evidence we have a moral law

If there is a power outside the universe it could not show itself as one of the facts in the universe

It would have to be shown internal, as an influence or command of behavior

Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.

Romans 9:20 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[a]

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”declares the LORD. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Colossians 2:2-3 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

1. In what ways does God stand outside of our point of reference?

2 Peter 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

John 4:24 “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 10:25 See multiple translations: Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me,

Chapter 5: We have cause to be uneasy

The universe he has made (external): artistry and a very dangerous and terrifying place

The being behind the universe (internal) is intensely interested in right conduct; do the right thing; not soft (indulgent, sympathetic) “hard as nails”

We have not yet gotten to a Person who forgives as being good.

If it is a pure, impersonal mind then we do not like Him and do not want to be on His side. Yet part of us is on his side – we want to do right

At the bottom unless He detests the bad, he cannot be truly good. So then He must hate most of what we do. Our only comfort and the supreme terror

We are getting to the need for repentance

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

James 1: 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Romans 7:22-23 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Hebrews 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

1. In what ways do you struggle with the concept that God is good? 2. What was the area of your life that you were first convicted of that made you realize you were a

sinner and in need of the grace of God?

Book 2 What Christians Believe

Chapter 1 Rival Conceptions of God

Atheist: all religions are wrong

Christian: all religions can contain some truth; how they differ from Christianity is our right/wrong

Pantheism: God beyond good and evil: depends on point of view: He animates the universe; the universe almost is God; if it did not exist He would not either

Judeo/Christian/Muslim: God invented & created the universe and makes a distinction between good and evil

CS Lewis as an atheist: “If a good God created the world, why has it gone wrong?”

How do you know it is wrong? A fish doesn’t feel water as wet.

If there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be a word without meaning.

Romans 1:25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

Collosians 1:16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

Acts 17:22-31 So Paul stood in the midst of the [a]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; 26 and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, 27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and [b]exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ 29 Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge [c]the world in righteousness [d]through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men [e]by raising Him from the dead.”

Chapter 2 – The Invasion

Real things are not simple; (atoms that make up a chair)

“‘Religion’ should be simple” – religion is God’s statement to us about unalterable facts concerning His nature

Reality is odd; not neat; not obvious; not what you would expect (planets around the sun)

The problem – the universe contains much that is bad and apparently meaningless

Dualism: good power and bad power exist independent, battling it out in the universe in an endless war

1. Do you have any cultural examples of Dualismthe “Force”

a) What do we mean by good and bad -> standard -> made by the real God -> one is in right relation and one is not

b) Bad for badness sake – in reality we have no experience, cruelty being closesta. Sadists – sexual perversion /cruelty causing sensual pleasureb. Opportunist – money, power, safetyc. Badness is spoiled goodnessd. The bad power gets his good things to desire or his impulses to pervert from the good

power; part of the good power’s world; created by Him or some power above bothe. Bad power must exist, have intelligence and will. Must be getting them from the good

power.

Christianity: compared to dualism

a) a civil war, a rebellion and we are in the part occupied by the rebelb) The rightful king has landed, in disguise and is calling us to sabotage

John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks [a]a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of [b]lies.”

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and [a]have it abundantly.

Chapter 3 The Shocking Alternative

Authority and accordance with will (clean your room, voluntary)

Free will makes possible God’s plan of love between him and creation

Joshua 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Rev 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

2 Timothy 2:26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

Gal 5:16-17 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want.

Why not make beings incapable of disobedience? Would that be better?

Disagreeing with God is like cutting off the branch you are sitting on

The better the “stuff” one is mad of, better right or worse wrong

How did Satan go bad? Genesis 3:4-5

God’s revelation:

1. Conscience2. Good Dreams 3. Selecting a people and communicating with them4. Then the real shock: becoming a man

Jesus’ Claims

1) Forgives sins Luke 5:20 paralyzed man through the roofLuke 7:48 woman who washed jesus feet with perfume and her hairMatt 9:2 paralytic on bedMark 2:10-11 same as Luke 5:20God alone forgives sins - Isaiah 43:25 “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

2) Always existed John 8:58 58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

3) Other claims John 14:6 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 6:46-58 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

4) Humble and Meek Matt 11:28-30 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

5) His enemies’ opinion of Him : John 10:31-33 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” 33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Jesus cannot be considered just a “good teacher”

Matt 12:24-28 24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Luke 11:20 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Chapter 4 The Perfect Penitent

His Death and coming to life puts us right with God/gives us a fresh start

1. Must I hold to a specific theory on how it does this?a. When you are hungry, eating a meal will help. Don’t need to know nutrition theory.b. The thing itself is infinitely more important as theories of how it worksc. Description of an atom; mental picture of truth: the mathematical formulad. God’s formula: Jesus was killed for us; His death washed our sins; by dying He disabled

death itselfe. Something unimaginable from outside shows into our own world

Hebrews 9: 25-26 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.

2. Why not just pardon us? What purpose does the death of an innocent man (Jesus) serve? a) Paying a debt, rather than judicial viewb) Repentance is tough doingsc) Catch: the more you need it, the worse you can do it; the only one who can do it perfectly

doesn’t need it3. With His help – what does that mean?

a) Putting a bit of himself into us; parents tracing lettersb) The road we need God’s help on the most is one he has never had to walk

4. Suppose He became a man?a) You and I can only do it completely if God does it in usb) He must become a man to do this; then we can share in His sufferings

Hebrews 4:15-16 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.Philippians 3:10-11 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.Romans 8:17 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.1 Peter 4:13 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

5. If He is God, does His suffering and death lose all value because it was “too easy”?a. Helping with lettersb. Saving a man from drowning

Theological term for theories on how it works - Atonement

Chapter 5 The Practical Conclusion

The next step in evolution, beyond man. Christians believe it is Christ and the new life which began in Him being put into us

2 Corin 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Ordinary life was acquired through strange process: pleasure, pain, danger

New life: baptism, belief, Holy Communion

Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."

Mark 16:15-16 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

John 3:16

Matthew 26:26-28 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins

Luke 22:19-20 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

John 6:50-58

Arrived at by His authority

Being good to please God or gain approval of good men? Christian view: God will make us good because He loves us instead of God loves us because we are good

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Christ acting in and through us; part of His body; physical sacraments like baptism and Holy Communion; we were meant to be more than spirit; God likes matter; He invented it

1 Corinthians 12:12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

What about those outside? If you want to help them, join the body. Cutting off a man’s finger is an odd way to get him to do more work

Why the secrecy? Why not invade in force? He is giving us a chance to join His side freely (Frenchman)

2 Peter 3:8-9 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God is going to invade, all right. The chilling conclusion on pg 65.

Book Three Christian Behavior

Chapter 1 The Three Parts of Morality

Rules and Obedience instead of ideals and idealism

a) High ideals because you think you are betterb) Nothing very fine about getting your math correct; every mistake causes trouble to others and

selfLuke 17:7-11New International Version (NIV) 7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

The human machine going bad; Individual / Group / Direction

Fleet of ships destination

Instruments in the orchestra and musical score

Revelation 14:9-11 ESV)But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:10-14New International Version (NIV)10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Society focuses on fair play, harmony; neglects the other 2

As long as I do not run into another ship

Cannot make me good by law

Romans 7:7-8 7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”[a] 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.

Without good men you cannot have good society

1 Corinthians 5

What if he does not own the ship

Colossians 1:16 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

Individual sin trajectory extrapolated to eternity

Individual vs civilization or society; which is more important from eternal vs societal viewpoint

3 Departments

1. relations between man and man2. things inside each man3. relations between man and the power that made him

Chapter 2 The Cardinal Virtues

Prudence – “right thinking” intelligence ; thinking things through; grown up head with child’s heart

Matthew 10:13-18 English Standard Version (ESV)13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.Luke 18:15-17 English Standard Version (ESV) 15 Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”1 Peter 1:13 English Standard Version (ESV) 13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action,[a] and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.1 Peter 4:7English Standard Version (ESV) The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.1 Peter 5:8English Standard Version (ESV)8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Temperance – going the right length and no furtherProverbs 25:28 English Standard Version (ESV) A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.1 Corinthians 7:9 English Standard Version (ESV) 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.1 Timothy 2:9English Standard Version (ESV) 9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire,

Justice – fairness; honesty; integrity; keeping promises

Luke 8:15 English Standard Version (ESV) 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.Luke 11:42 English Standard Version (ESV) 42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

Luke 19:17 New International Version (NIV) 17 “‘Well done, my good servant!’ his master replied. ‘Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’

Fortitude – courage with stick to it ness; gutsLuke 9:23 New International Version (NIV) 23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.Romans 5:3-5 New International Version (NIV) 3 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.James 1:2-4 New International Version (NIV) 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

When it starts to describe you it moves from a good action to a virtue; three wrong ideas attached to actions1) As long as you do the right thing it does not matter why you did it

Matthew 15:8 New International Version (NIV) “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.Matthew 22:37New International Version (NIV) 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

2) God wants more than simple obedience; he wants people of a certain sort Jeremiah 31:33New International Version (NIV) “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.I will be their God, and they will be my people

3) Only for operating in this present life – virtues are qualities for our future life - that when fulfilled bring deep happiness pg 81

Chapter 3 Social Morality

Do unto others: reminded rather than instructed

Not situational: for all men/all times

Feed the hungry – not lessons in cookery

Read the scriptures - not lessons in Hebrew or Greek

The job is on us – the laymen

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

1 Corinthians 12:13-26New International Version (NIV)

Clergy: look after what concerns us who are going to live forever

Christian society:

No passengers or parasites No luxuries or adds to buy them No swank Obedience to authority Cheerful, full of singing and rejoicing, courteous, no busy bodies

May not like all of it; each of us wants to make our own version; ie. Fighting against each other for Christianity

Interest/”usury”; private money lending vs economic system

Charity (giving to the poor) is essential part:

frightening parable about the sheep and the goats

Matthew 25:31-46 New International Version (NIV)

Why everyone should work: to be able to give to the poor

Ephesians 4:28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

If it does not pinch or hamper us, it may be too small Fear (insecurity) or pride

To give I must love my neighbor, I must love God, I must learn to obey Him. Driven on to something more inward – from social to religious matters. Longest way around is the shortest way home.

Chapter 4 Morality and Psychoanalysis

Christian specification for the human machine – what a good man is

Christian morality as a technique for putting the human machine right

Moral choice: the act of choosing, feelings, psychological outfit, “raw material of his choice”

Normal vs abnormal

Humans judge by exterior; God judges by moral choices

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees;[a] for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Matthew 15:11-20 11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”12 Then His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?”13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. 14 Let them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.”15 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Explain this parable to us.”16 So Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not yet understand that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Bad psychological material is not a sin but a disease. It does not need to be repented of, but to be cured.

Mark 5:1-20 Demon possessed man

Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved with psychological outfit, bad upbringing and then power of Himmler? That is why Christians are told not to judge; we only see the results which a man’s choices make out of the raw material.

Luke 21:2-4New International Version (NIV)2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

After the body dies: pg 91

1 Corinthians 3:10-15New International Version (NIV)10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

With all of the choices of your life you are turning the central thing into a heavenly creature or hellish creature pg 92

Right direction leads not only to peace but knowledge/understanding. When a man is getting better he understand more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.

Chapter 5 Sexual Morality

Chastity vs Propriety

Believe all the good you can of others and make others as comfortable as you can

Chastity is the most unpopular of Christian values; which is wrong Christianity or our sexual instinct

Matthew 5:8

Matthew 5:27-30

1 Thessalonians 4:3

1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Collosians 3:5

Ephesians 5:3

Galatians 5:19-21

Romans 13:13

1) Food analogy; eat for 2 not 10; 2) Replace strip tease with bacon or mutton3) Continue are people starving or does appetite grow by indulgence4) Eat things that are not food or do other things with food instead of eating it5) Sex is Nothing to be ashamed of vs the state into which sexual instinct has now got is nothing

to be ashamed of6) What if food was the main interest of our lives and spent time looking at pictures of food and

smacking their lips7) We must want to be cured; even the want is difficult

a. Warped nature; devils who tempt us; cultural propaganda – any desire is “normal and healthy”

b. Surrender to desire leads to impotence, disease, jealousy, lies, concealment8) Impossible to do;

a. we ask for God’s helpb. He keeps us dependentc. Fatal error is to be content with anything less than perfection

Matthew 5:20, 48 New International Version (NIV) For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

9) Misunderstanding of repressionsa. Pushed into subconscious (usually at an early age)b. Not involved in conscious decisions by adolescents/adults

10) Animal self vs Diabolical self

Chapter 6 Christian Marriage

Man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism/lock and key/violin and bow

Sex outside marriage – chewing without swallowing

For life; divorce is an violent operation for desperate remedy

Justice – keeping promises; respectability attached to marriage without the price; imposing “high and hard” duty of chastity on those who have not yet wished to be merely honest

Being in love; those who are “in love” have a natural inclination to bind themselves in promises. Love songs all over the world

Reasons for remaining married if they are no longer “in love”

1. Children2. Protect the woman3. Feeling is not a basis for life; who could live in that for even five years4. Quiet love; deep unity maintained by the will; strengthened by habit; reinforced by grace; the

engine of love: where being in love was the explosion that started it

Two distinct kinds of marriage: gov’t versus Christian so one knows which one

Why man as head?

1) In the final state, someone must be2) Protect others from the intense family patriotism of the wife

Genesis 2:23 English Standard Version (ESV)23 Then the man said,“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”[a]

Matthew 19:2-9 English Standard Version (ESV) 2 And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Ephesians 5:25-33 English Standard Version (ESV) 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Chapter 7 Forgiveness

Something to forgive as in the warMatthew 6:7-15 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 18:21-22English Standard Version (ESV)21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Matthew 5:43-48New International Version (NIV)43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

1) Start easier (simple addition not calculus)2) Love our neighbor as yourself – what does that mean?

a. No fondness or affection for myselfb. Self love makes me think myself nice, not the other way around; so apparently I do not

have to think my enemy is nicec. In my clear-sighted moments I know that I am a nasty one and can look at my actions

with loathing. So apparently I am allowed to loathe and hate some of the things my enemies do. Hate the sin, love the sinner.

d. Silly? – one person to whom I had been doing this all my life – myselfe. Story of atrocity – then not quite true. Reaction:

i. Reliefii. Disappointment

iii. Determination to cling to the first story; wishing enemies as bad as possibleiv. Leads to hatred/dark side – God, friends, ourselves

f. I subject myself to punishment; honorable thing to doi. Enemies can be punished

ii. We may have to punish, but not enjoy itiii. We must feel about our enemy how we feel about ourselves; hope they can be

cured; in fact, wish for their goodiv. We love ourselves simply because it is yourself.

Chapter 8 The Great Sin

Loathe when they see in others; hardly imagine they are guilty themselves

Non-Christians do not consider it a vice, but do not show the slightest mercy in others

The more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others

Pride or self-conceit versus humility

The utmost evil; through it the devil became the devil

Test is how much you dislike pride in others

Rich, clever, good looking versus richer, cleverer, better looking

Power is what Pride really enjoys

Chief cause of misery in every nation, every family since the world began

Enmity between man and man, enmity to God

Terrible question: how can people eaten up with Pride claim to believe in God and appear themselves very religious? Worshipping an imaginary god.

Matthew 7:21-24New International Version (NIV) 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

If we feel we are good, better than someone else – I think we are being acted on, not by God but by the devil

Real test of being in the presence of God is, either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small dirty object

Not animal; purely spiritual; far more subtle and deadly

Avoid misunderstandings:

1) Pleasure in being praised is not Pride; pleasing someone is good; delighting in yourself is bad. Do not care what others think is not good, unless it is because you are trying to please God more. Don’t lose a small vice to gain a huge one

2) Proud of a son or daughter; seeing others succeed good; attaching to yourself bad. Don’t love and admire them more than God

3) God is not worried about his own dignity when He forbids pride. He wants you to know Him; wants to give you Himself. Take off the sily ugly fancy dress and be transparent and free

4) Humility is not a greasy, smarmy person who tells you they are nobody. Cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him

Proverbs 11:2 ESV When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:5 ESV Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 29:23 One's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Galatians 6:3 ESV For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Proverbs 27:2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

Proverbs 26:12 ESV Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

James 4:6 ESV But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Jeremiah 9:23 ESV Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,

Philippians 2:3 ESV Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Romans 12:16 ESV Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

1 John 2:16 ESV For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Proverbs 8:13 ESV The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

2 Timothy 3:2 ESV For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

1 Corinthians 13:4 ESVLove is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

Proverbs 11:12 ESV Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.

Proverbs 30:12 ESV There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth.

Proverbs 25:27 ESV It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one's own glory.

Proverbs 12:15 ESV The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

1 Timothy 6:4 ESV He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,

1 Peter 5:5 ESV Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Romans 12:3 ESV For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Proverbs 25:14 ESV Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.

Obadiah 1:3 ESV The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”

1 Corinthians 10:12 ESV Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

Proverbs 15:12 ESV A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.

Matthew 23:10-12 ESV Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Revelation 3:17 ESVFor you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

2 Corinthians 10:18 ESV For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Chapter 9 Charity

Charity is alms as Poetry is rhyme Love in the Christian sense – not a feeling but an act of will Not “like” but ”Wish our own good” “Liking” can help but when overdone can hurt “spoiling a child” Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as though you do You will find you like more people as you do Works in the opposite direction also Good and evil increase at compound interest; small good acts today can be a strategic point for

later; trivial indulgence in lust or anger is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead for enemy to attack later

Same principle for our love for God. “If I was sure I loved God, what would I do?” then go do it. He will give us feelings of love as He pleases.

John 13:34-35 ESV A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Mark 12:28-31English Standard Version (ESV) 28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

John 15:9-13 ESV As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John 14:23 ESV Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 ESV If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

1 John 4:7-8 (ESV)7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 Timothy 1:5 ESV The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

Chapter 10 Hope

Hope is not escapism – thing Christians are meant to do

Great Christian heroes’ who have done the most for the world thought most of the next – their minds were occupied with heaven

Luke 11:2English Standard Version (ESV)And he said to them, “When you pray, say:“Father, hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come.

Matthew 6:19-21English Standard Version (ESV)19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Colossians 3:1-3New American Standard Bible (NASB)3 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 [a]Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Aim at heaven and you get the earth thrown in – aim at earth and you get neither

Health is a good example – you get health when you want other things more – food, games, fun, open air

Find it difficult to want heaven; we are not taught in school to recognize it

Acute want for something that cannot be had in this world

Question: How do you recognize the want for heaven?

2 wrong ways and 1 right way to deal with this:

1) Fool’s way – blame the things themselves and keep trying2) Way of the disillusioned ‘Sensible Man’ – give up and repress ‘cry for the moon’; tends to create

sense of superiority3) Christian way – creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for them exists; earthly

pleasures were meant not to satisfy it, but to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. Do not despise them or be unthankful for them – on other hand, never mistake them for the real thing

Ephesians 5:28-32New American Standard Bible (NASB) 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Do not worry about facetious people who try to make it ridiculous (harps, streets of gold) if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups they shouldn’t talk about them

Music most strongly suggests ecstasy and infinity

1 Corinthians 2:9English Standard Version (ESV)9 But, as it is written,“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”

Romans 15:13English Standard Version (ESV)13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 5:1-5New American Standard Bible (NASB) 5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and [b]we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but [c]we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Chapter 11 Faith

Faith as a virtue

Hebrews 11:6

Belief in the face of emotion/mood/imagination – could add circumstance

Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

Examples:

1) Anesthetic2) She’ll be different this time3) Learning to swim

Teaching your moods ‘where they get off’

Prayers, study, attending church; renewing your mind

Romans 12:1-2New American Standard Bible (NASB) 12 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.

Higher sense:

Practicing virtues; fighting against temptation

Those who resist temptation know how strong it is

Those who are serious realize they fail

1) We are not taking a test – blow this idea to bits 2) Even if we did we would only be passing by the good things God has placed in us

Like a child asking his father to give him money to buy him a present

‘Once a man has made these two discoveries God can really get to work’

Chapter 1 Making and Begetting

Things understood by non Christians

144T-Things known only afterward... as a Christian

145T-Practicing Christian virtues is baby steps

145T-Realizing our bankruptcy (Martin Luther " being desolate")

to be found in Jesus Christ , we have no ability whatsoever to please God, utter failure as a Christian, how totally naked spiritually

Rejoice! God has brought me to the place where I can begin to function the way a Christian is supposed to function: Resting in Christ alone, instead of in myself.

When I am weak, then I am strong." not slogan but an experience.

145T-ie recognition that giving back what God already owns

145M-not claims, debts, bargains

146M-experience this as truth - see pg 146 middle "I can't"

146B-the nature of the change in ourselves not the feelings of change

147T-Leaving to God is trusting God with perfect obedience from Christ as or model.

147M-Sharing sonship

147B-trusting that doing what he says will save you

148T-Not wanting heaven as a goal but becoming worthy of heaven because you know it inside.

148M-two views of Christians about Christians (148)

-buying/earning our way (actions)

-Intellectual acceptance that anything is OK you'll get there

ultimately they are two sides of a coin?

149B-We all agree 'love one another' is the first phase to seeing what heaven can be like (the other country)

150 -Goodness becomes the natural state and our attention is on the source

Faith: Mat 8:10, Mat 9:22, Ps40

Deeds: Eze 33:13, Mat 16:27, Luk 23:41

Obedience:1Sa 15:22, Rom 6:16

Trust in God: 1Ch 5:20, Isa 50:10, 2Co 1:9

Goodness: Rom 15:14, Eph 5:9, 2Th 1:11

Bankrupt, spitual nakedness: Gen 3:7

Chapter 2 The Three Personal God

‘I believe in God but not in a personal God’ – more than a person

Christianity offers an idea of what a being beyond personality might be like

All others who claim this make God impersonal (less than a person)

Drop of water in the sea; loses itself

Star Trek – Borg, Landru

Christian idea is for something super-personal (more than a person)

Consider dimensions in geometry (line, square, cube –which is made of 6 squares)

God is 3 personalities that make up one being

Not much good just talking about it – we wish to be drawn into that 3 personal life

Our prayer life: God is the one we seek, God is the motive force inside us pressing us forward, God is the road or bridge that we are moving across to get there

Being pulled into God, by God while remaining themselves

Early Church: in seeking God, they experienced Jesus the God-Man and the Holy Spirit in community

Theology as a science: experimental science

Geology- all man’s initiative Zoology- mostly man but partly animal’s initiative Knowing another human – cooperative/trust/friendship Knowing God – all His initiative

o The instrument is our whole selfo Dirty mirror – horrible nations and their horrible religionso Individually good is not enough; men united in a body, loving one another

Matthew 3:16-17

2 Corinthians 13:14

John 14:16-17

1 Peter 1:2

http://www.gotquestions.org/Trinity-Bible.html

Chapter 3 Time Beyond Time

Consider an author of a book as the maker

Christ’s life as God was outside time; His life as a man was in our time dimension

Psalm 90:2English Standard Version (ESV)2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Psalm 90:4 ESV For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

2 Peter 3:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV) 8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you,[a] not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

John 1:1-4 ESV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ...

Galatians 4:4-5 ESV But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Ephesians 1:7-10English Standard Version (ESV) 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known[a] to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Mark 13:32English Standard Version (ESV)32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

Chapter 6 Two Notes

Exodus 3:13-14New International Version (NIV) 13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.[a] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

From “Desiring God”, John Piper

1. God Exists 2. No Reality Exists Behind God3. God Does Not Change4. God Is an Inexhaustible Source of Energy5. Objectivity Is Crucial 6. We Must Conform to God, Not He to Us 7. This God Has Drawn Near to Us in Jesus Christ

John 8:56-58New International Version (NIV)56 Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”57 “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”58 “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

1 Corinthians 12:12-31English Standard Version (ESV)12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves[a] or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts,[b] yet one body.21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Chapter 7 Let’s Pretend

a) Pretending in two forms 1) deceit 2) imitation to become like b) Even though it may seem cheeky since we know we are not good like God, we are commanded

to do it

Galatians 3:27

Romans 13:14

1 Corinthians 4:16, 11:1

Ephesians 5:1

1 peter 2:21

1 John 2:6

Hebrews 6:12

c) Christ does the real work; best we can do is allow him to

Phillipians 2:12-13

Galatians 2:20

Matthew 5:14-16

Matthew 7:7

d) Rats in the cellar; keep turning the light on

Chapter 8 Is Christianity Hard or Easy

Demands of conscience; either give up trying to be good or ‘love for others’ in a discontented grumbling way make yourself a “martyr”

Christ says ‘Give me All’ ‘Take Up Your Cross’ and ‘My yoke is easy’

Luke 9:23-26New International Version (NIV)23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

Matthew 11:28-30New International Version (NIV)28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

We try to let our heart and mind go their own way while behaving chastely and humbly

‘thistle cannot produce figs’

Matthew 7:15-20New International Version (NIV)15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Luke 6:43-45New International Version (NIV)43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

James 3:9-14New International Version (NIV) 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

When you wake up each morning and wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals

Listening to the other voice; letting that larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. Standing back from natural fussing and fretting; coming in out of the wind.

Church exists to draw men to Christ; to make them little christs.

The universe exists for this.

Colossians 1:15-18New International Version (NIV)15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Romans 11:33-36New International Version (NIV)33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and[a] knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?Or who has been his counselor?”[b]35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”[c]36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Chapter 9 Counting the Cost

Christ wants to make us perfect

Matthew 5:46-48English Standard Version (ESV)46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers,[a] what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

1 John 4:18English Standard Version (ESV)18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Romans 12:1-2English Standard Version (ESV) I appeal to you therefore, brothers,[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.[b] 2 Do not be conformed to this world,[c] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect

1 John 3:9English Standard Version (ESV)9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's[a] seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

Toothache & dentist analogy

1) Any other examples? Tom – math homework

‘Whatever it costs you, whatever it costs Me, until my Father can say that He is well pleased with you like He is with Me. This I can do and will do. I will not do anything less.’

Father happy with baby’s first steps, but not satisfied with anything less than a grown son. “God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.” – George MacDonald

Luke 14:25-34Living Bible (TLB)25 Great crowds were following him. He turned around and addressed them as follows: 26 “Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does[a] his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters—yes, more than his own life—otherwise he cannot be my disciple. 27 And no one can be my disciple who does not carry his own cross and follow me.28 “But don’t begin until you count the cost.[b] For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if he has enough money to pay the bills? 29 Otherwise he might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh!30 “‘See that fellow there?’ they would mock. ‘He started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!’31 “Or what king would ever dream of going to war without first sitting down with his counselors and discussing whether his army of 10,000 is strong enough to defeat the 20,000 men who are marching against him?32 “If the decision is negative, then while the enemy troops are still far away, he will send a truce team to discuss terms of peace. 33 So no one can become my disciple unless he first sits down and counts his blessings—and then renounces them all for me.

We may not have asked for it, to be made in the creatures He wants. But He is the creator.

Just as a human starts out as an only a few cells, if we were conscious we may not have wanted to be made into babies.

Other side is we should not imagine our own unaided efforts to carry us through even the next 24 hours as ‘decent’ people. If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. No act of heroism is going to make us as perfect as His final intent.

We should not be surprised that we are going to have a tough time.

James 1:2-4New International Version (NIV)2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Romans 5:3-5 New International Version (NIV) 3 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

1 Peter 1:6-9New International Version (NIV)6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Analogy of God building a house to live in.

…a dazzling, radiant, immortal creature , pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror reflecting back to God perfectly His own boundless power and delight and goodness.

Backup Scripture References for later:

Luke 14:27-33 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— 29 lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? 31 Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. 33 So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.

Romans 5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 7:9 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.

1 Timothy 1:5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.