C S Lewis Quote

“The Christians are right:

it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery

in every nation and

every family since the world began.”

– C S Lewis, Mere Christianity

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George MacDonald – born

ON THIS DATE

George MacDonald was born 12/10/1824, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  He was a Congregationalist who pastored at Arundel, Sussex until some theological controversies led to his resignation.  He thereafter supported himself by lecturing, tutoring, writing and occasional preaching.  Though often in poor health and poverty, his writings show a faith in God.

C S Lewis acknowledged a debt to MacDonald calling him his “master.”  The cheerful goodness demonstrated in his works captured Lewis’s imagination and convinced him that righteousness was not dull.  MacDonald died 18/9/1905, at Ashstead, England.  

 

MacDonald Quotes:

“Doing the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.”

 “To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”  

“Man finds it hard to get what he wants, because he does not want the best; God finds it hard to give, because He would give the best, and man will not take it.”  

“A beast does not know that he is a beast, and the nearer a man gets to being a beast, the less he knows it.”

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Lewis – born

 

ON THIS DATE

Clive Staples “C. S.” Lewis was born 11/29/1898 at Belfast, Ireland.  Few modern (a relative term J) thinkers (another relative term L) have impacted our day more.  Atheist turned Church of England, his fictional and non-fictional works lead toward Christian thought.  A university don, he was at Oxford (1924-54) and Cambridge (1954-63).  His Screwtape Letters are good (must think backward!) as are Miracles (1947) and Mere Christianity (1952).  His allegorical The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) is considered a classic in children’s literature.  This theologian’s death (11/22/1963) was overshadowed by the murder of JFK that same day.

Lewis Quotes:

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

“A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.”

“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”

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C S Lewis – said, Sep. 2, 1946

“Apologetic work is so dangerous to one’s faith.

A doctrine never seems dimmer to me than when I have just successfully defended it.”

 C S Lewis is said to have said the above on this date, 9/2/1946.

 Lewis was a great writer.  As a man with a BA in literature and an MA in Biblical literature, I have a lot of respect for him. 

 I would surely characterize him as a thinker.  I see him as a seeker after truth. 

 But – – – Does he, in his own words, call himself an “apologist”?  Or, or is this a label with which some “would be apologist” wishes to dub him?  If he did not title himself with this debatable term no one else should. 

 Christ calls us to proclaim.  TRUtH needs no apology.   

 

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C S (Clive Staples) Lewis – birth, Nov. 29, 1898

Now another point.  There is one bit of advice given

to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews

in the Old Testament, and by the great Christian

teachers of the Middle Ages, which the modern

economic system has completely disobeyed.  All

these people told us not to lend money at interest:

and lending money at interest—what we call

investment—is the basis of our whole system…I

should not have been honest if I had not told you

that three great civilizations had agreed…in

condemning the very thing on which we have based

our whole life. 

                   – C S Lewis, Mere Christianity (NY: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1952), 80.

C S (Clive Staples) Lewis was born this date, 11/29/1898, at Belfast, Ireland.  He eventually became a Christian (Church of England).  He was a scholar, a writer, and a professor at both Oxford (1924-54) and Cambridge (1954-63).  His writings have become “modern classics” Screwtape Letters (1942), Miracles (1947), Mere Christianity (1952).  And even his allegorical The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) are classics to multitudes of children.  Lewis died 11/22/1963 but most Americans were so taken up by another death we did not notice the passing of one of the greatest modern writers.

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C S Lewis – wrote, Jul. 21, 1958

…He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others—not because He has favourites but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong direction.  Just as sunlight though it has no favourites can’t be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as in a clean one.  

                – C S Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: The Macmillan Co, 1945), 12.

If you picture Time as a straight line along which we have to travel then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn.

                – C S Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: The Macmillan Co, 1945), 16.

…God has no history.  He is too completely and utterly real to have one.        

                – C S Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: The Macmillan Co, 1945), 17.

Christ says “Give me All…I want You. I have no come to torment your natural self, but to kill it…” 

                – C S Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: The Macmillan Co, 1945), 40.

We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go in indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.

                – C S Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: The Macmillan Co, 1945), 42.

C.S. (Clive Staples) Lewis is said to have written on this date, 7/21/1958,  

“What the devil loves is that vague cloud of unspecified guilt or unspecified virtue,

by which he lures us into despair or presumption.”

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George MacDonald – birth, Dec. 10, 1824

In God’s Kingdom…a man’s salvation rarely comes without the prayers of another who labors unseen.  

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 19.

 

Never did his face light up when he spoke of the Son of God, of his death, or of his resurrection.  Never did he make mention of the kingdom of heaven as if it were anything more venerable than the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 61.

 

For God is love, and love is that which is, and was, and shall be for evermore – boundless, unconditional, self-existent, creative!

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 117.

 

The heart o’ both king and cobbler’s in the hand o’ the Lord…

 – George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 147.

 

Ignorant people go abut always asking why God permits evil.  We know why!  So that we might know – really know – what good is like, and therefore what God himself is like.

– George MacDonald, The Minister’s Restoration (Minneapolis: Bethany House Pub., 1988), 206.

George MacDonald was born 12/10/1824 in Scotland.  He was a pastor but also a writer.  His pen influenced the later pen of C S Lewis.

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Leslie D Wilcox – death, Dec. 2, 1991

…There is no holiness for man unless it is based on the holiness of God.

                – L. D. Wilcox, Profiles in Wesleyan Theology (Salem, OH: Schmul, 1985), 65.

 

There is always in it [act of sin] an attitude of defiance and rejection of authority and the decision to go “one’s own way.

                – L. D. Wilcox, Profiles in Wesleyan Theology (Salem, OH: Schmul, 1985), 145.

 

…One thing that will mark Christian perfection…will be a willingness and readiness to apologize…

                – L. D. Wilcox, Profiles in Wesleyan Theology (Salem, OH: Schmul, 1985), 251.

 

The application of perfect love…is like buying a new tool…you must learn how to use it.

                – L. D. Wilcox, Profiles in Wesleyan Theology (Salem, OH: Schmul, 1985), 260.

 

There is no scripture to support their theory of separation of rapture and revelation…proponents are mostly Calvinists.

                – L. D. Wilcox, Profiles in Wesleyan Theology (Salem, OH: Schmul, 1985), 311.

 

Leslie (L D) Wilcox died this date in South Carolina.  He was a pastor, a professor, a conference president, and a published author. I had the privilege of sitting under his teaching at God’s Bible School. In my early years of teaching he encourage me toward C S Lewis.  See also Power from on High, Beyond the Gate, Be Ye Holy, and Beacons for Youth.

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C. S. Lewis – death, Nov. 22, 1963

What God begets is God…What God creates is not God.

            – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 5.

 

…God has no history.  He is too completely and utterly real to have one.        

            – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 17.

 

When He said, “Be perfect,” He meant it…It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg.  We are like eggs at present.  And you cannot go in indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg.  We must be hatched or go bad.

             – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 42.

 

It cost God nothing, as far as we know, to create nice things: but to convert rebellious wills cost Him the crucifixion.

            – C. S. Lewis, Beyond Personality (NY: Macmillan, 1945), 55.

 

Clive Staples Lewis died this date. He had taught at Oxford (1924-1954) and Cambridge (1954-1963) universities. In his early thirties, Lewis was converted to Jesus Christ. He is best known for his children’s classic The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956), and for Screwtape Letters, Miracles,and Mere Christianity.  Lewis was born 11/29/1898, Belfast, Ireland.

 

 

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