Wednesday, May 04, 2011

CS Lewis on Heaven

Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. (Mere Christianity)

In speaking of this desire for our own far-off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name.

Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited. (Weight of Glory)

Friday, April 08, 2011

Creed by Steve Turner

Steve Turner is an English music journalist, biographer and poet. He has been writing since the 1970's and has appeared in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, and The Times. This is his satirical poem on the modern mind. Brilliant!

Creed
by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don't hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything's getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there's something in horoscopes
UFO's and bent spoons.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson
What's selected is average.
What's average is normal.
What's normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and
bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors .
And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It's only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be
the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear

State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man
worshipping his maker.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Sticking Around

I was raised by my mother who loves the Lord very much.  I grew up attending her Christian church and heard about the love of God from pastor's sermons and Sunday School teacher.  Back then, Christianity was comfortable and familiar and it did not really require me to talk to other people except for the occasional fellowship singing, which was always very awkward really.  I was a shy boy growing up and I rarely talked with anyone.  When I went to High School and College, I did not care for the Lord anymore.  School gave me the chance to come out of my shell and excel in my studies.  Church life became a chore, a necessary inconvenience.  When invitations to youth camps and retreats were given to me, I thought of excuses to not join.  At that point, I felt Christianity was increasingly getting uncomfortable and unfamiliar.  When I looked at my churchmates, I saw absolutely nothing in common with them and I sought the solace of my school and barkada.  School, with all its secular ideals and crazy friends was home.  Church was more like an embarrassing family you are afraid to introduce to your friends.

It all changed when I had to work in Manila after College.  Alone in a big city, I was lonely and spent most of my time to myself.  One time a good Christian friend lent me a book called "Can Man Live Without God?" by Ravi Zacharias.  It started within me a desire for God.  Soon, I was attending Sunday evening services in CCF St. Francis because it was the nearest church to where I lived.  I knew at that point that I needed to get right with God.

In 2008, I came back to Cebu for good.  Together with my ex-girlfriend Vanessa, we went to CCF every Sunday.  Then as now, we heard constant encouragement from the pastors to join small groups which they called Discipleship Groups or DGroups.  I thought it was a good thing to join, but I was too shy.  I knew I had to share my life with other people and I did not care for that.  I felt it was too messy, too inconvenient.  I also thought I was very busy, but really I watched TV for hours.  Drawing from my childhood experience of Church, I felt it was best to keep it at a purely-Sunday morning basis.  After that, I can get on with my life being a Christian.

Soon, I was tired of a boring life without any spiritual breakthroughs.  I've grown weary of my habitual sins and felt I needed to have people around me who can help and check on me.  Along that time, Pastor Steven already saw me as a regular churchgoer and chatted with me before the services started.  He always encouraged me to join a DGrp.  Soon after that, Vanessa and I dropped two pieces of paper in the tithebox with our contact information.  Soon a guy named Caloi texted me and scheduled me to join his DGrp.

My first DGrp meeting started with only three of us.  I shared briefly about myself, making sure not to go very personal, and listened to the other two.  Each one talked quietly and assuredly.  No one was argumentative.  They were brutally honest yet remarkably humble.  So these were Christian men, I thought.  Although there were only 3 of us, I made a commitment to God and I decided to stick around.  I came back week after week. 


Slowly the group grew as more and more men joined us.  Eventually, it became so big that we had to break into smaller groups.  Soon, Caloi challenged me to lead the group.  Obviously, I felt ill-equipped, pretentious and embarrassed to take on the task.  I prayed about it and was convinced that that was what the Lord wanted me to do.  I made a commitment to God and I decided to stick around.

Right now, I lead a group of nine men who I love as my brothers.  I did not want to share my life at first, but when I learned to open my life to them, they opened their lives to me and blessed me tremendously.  Every week, I get a front row seat to the story that God is writing in their lives.  I saw God move the heart of my brothers to love only Jesus and seek fulfillment in Him alone.  I prayed side by side with my brothers and waited with them for the Lord's answers to their prayers.  Some were answered, some were not.  In all their victories, we celebrated together; in their times of need, we prayed earnestly.  As for me, I have broken down in front of my brothers confessing to them my weaknesses knowing with absolute certainty that I will not be judged but will only be prayed for.

Last year, before I got married to my ex-girlfriend and now wife, Vanessa, my Dgroup brothers threw me I think the world's most wholesome bachelor's party.  Crossing over from singlehood to married life, I feel comfort in knowing that wherever I may be going in life, I have my gang of Jesus-lovers who will readily encourage me, pray for me, and also rebuke me when needed.


This is one of the greatest joys of my life: I used to know about God, but now I know God for myself.  I see Him in the lives of my brothers, he is dwelling in their praises and ever present in their times of need.

Looking back, I think I would have missed a lot if I had not dropped my contact information in the tithe box.  I would have spent years alone as a Christian, with no one to help me grow in the faith.  I would have missed out on Christian men who will pray for me in my weakness, and whom I can pray for in turn.  Indeed, it is easier to run the race of the faith when you run side by side with friends who love the Lord.

Share your life to Christians, make a commitment to God and decide to stick around.