A quote by C. S. Lewis

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.-C. S. Lewis

The Real Enemy

James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

In the book Sir Knight of the Splendid Way, a sort of Pilgrim's Progress, the knight, Sir Constance, on his way to City Splendid, finds himself fighting against his greatest enemy, the Black Knight, inside of castle Joyous. Finally after a long and bloody sword fight in the great hall, with members of both sides watching, the great enemy, the Black Knight, falls to the ground, about to slay him, Sir Constance takes of his foe’s helmet, and looks into his own face.

…

As the gun is not the cause of death, but rather the depravity of man, so is the body not the cause of lust, but rather the sin in the heart of the one who gazes. Anger is not something directly caused by circumstance, but rather by our own sinfulness. If most causes for anger were examined, the idea of becoming angry over such a thing would be so ludicrous as to be laughed at.

Sin is found in the heart of mankind. The grape is not evil, nor is money, intoxication with one or the making of the other an idol is. The internet is not the problem, what it is used for is. The enemy is ultimately ourselves. We cannot reform the world without first being ourselves cleansed. We cannot battle the enemy until we have first brought ourselves under subjection through the power of Christ.

First Corinthians 9:24-27 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Lighthouse

We all love the classic picture of the lighthouse at night, waves crashing at its base, the thundering surf pounding the rocks beneath it, while from its tower a light shines forth across the water. At sea, a weary and battered crew fight the waves, and the light from that lighthouse shows them the way, not only to avoid the rocks, but also to find the harbor.

How few things are more like unto Christ, than a lighthouse? How mad the sailor must be, that would willingly reject that light. And yet all men, in their natural state, reject the lighthouse, and attempt the find their own way through the sea. If they were allowed to go on, they would join the others that had trod that path before them, from Cain to John Doe. None that has ever rejected the lighthouse has survived the rocks or found the harbor; the point that must be doubled is too treacherous. And yet no man ever, having received the effectual calling, and setting sail to the port to which the lighthouse directs the way, has ever been rejected, nor been left to drift.

Do we not serve a great God, master of the waves, the sea, and all that in them is?

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Industry

“The enemy are active and industrious, we must be so too if we expect success.”

Stonewall Jackson.