Bethel Book Club discussion

Well, the clouds are parting some – especially after page 44. I’ll be honest, following along the first few pages this week was a bit of a challenge. But once he launched into a more focused discussion of Christianity, things got easier to follow. A few things jumped out at me this week:

1) I loved his view of the world being an enemy-occupied territory and that attending church is like having a secret wireless with our friends which is why Satan wants to prevent us from gathering. He realizes that if he can us separated, we might believe that we have lost the civil war and that he has won. Therefore, we must fight against the things that try to separate and divide us as the church and know that our General has won the war already!

2) I loved p.48 where he says that there is a difficulty in disagreeing with God since He is the source of our ability to reason in the first place. So, when we argue with Him, we are arguing with the power that makes you able to argue at all….Good luck with that!!!!! LOL

3) I really liked that last section this week from pp.53-59 on Atonement and how he illustrates it. Especially the part about how we need God help us to do something that is not in His nature which is to surrender, suffer, and submit. But if God became a man, He could and He did! What insight into this explanation of atonement!!!!!!!!!

I hope that the clouds are parting for you as well and please add your thoughts and reflections to the conversation…

Steve

Since I specifically stated in my week 2 comments that it "makes my head hurt" I especially appreciate the little nudge God planted on page 41 through Lewis' explanation of the complexity of Christianity.
And, in addition to complicated, reality IS odd, isn't it!
I also love the idea that "you can be good for the sake of goodness..." but not the other way around.
The references to conceit and intellectual snobbery are spot on! Some people that I know to be intelligent and kind truly believe that they have "outgrown" God--as though faith is only for children, or those incapable of complex thought!!
And then we get to the really good stuff!!! The possible explanations... The idea that God can be the absolute authority and still allow things to happen outside His will is hard for most non-believers, I think. But as anyone who's ever held a position of authority knows, it happens all the time. Free will is what makes us who we are, for better and for worse.
The idea that we (humans throughout time) are trying to run the machine of life off the wrong battery is a perfect explanation of what eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge was all about, and we all continue to do it.
Pg 52 is underlined and starred and highlighted. Jesus is God, because it was the only way.
I honestly found myself in tears reading the last few pages. We are but rebels who HAVE to surrender and the idea that He lends us a tiny sliver of His reasoning powers so that we can think!!! He shared a drop of His love so that we can love others! WOW!!!
Finally, my "aha! moment" from pg 59. I was just having a conversation with my niece (7) and nephew(5) in which my niece said she didn't like swim lessons and was going to teach herself how to swim. My nephew giggled and said, "That won't work!!! You don't know how, so you can't teach yourself!" ...But here I am (much older than 5 or 7) and still thinking I can think and love and do all on my own.

I really liked his explanation about good and bad and the order of created beings. Good and bad could not be created at the same time, because how would you know what was good and what was bad. There must a law or expectation set to know what is good and bad. Satan was created good, but he became self-centered and fell away to the bad side, against Gods rules and expectations.

I also liked the discussion about free will. I think this is a challenging part to explain and comprehend. I liked how he taught about free will. God wanted people to have free will in their lives. He wanted people to have happiness, enthusiasm, and a strong desire to follow Him. The only way this could happen was to give people the option to choose to follow Him. God knew many would make an unfortunate choice in life. God wants us to be excited and enthusiastic about serving Him!

“This process of surrender - this movement full speed astern - is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than simply eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means “killing” your self, undergoing a kind of “death”...we love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hands.” 🤔- CS Lewis

This section spoke to me the most. The process of “unlearning” the self and the flesh and the world. That is our daily challenge and war within.