I often find it helpful to read and learn what others have said about our faith and the church. I thought that for this newsletter, I might include you in a bit of that study. I’ve been looking, again, at C.S. Lewis’ great book, Mere Christianity. (Some of you may remember we conducted a small group study on this book some time ago).
Presently I am reading the section pertaining to recognizing God’s work in us and in the church. It serves as a great reminder that ultimately, Christ’s purpose with the church is to point people to Himself, by way of our love for others. Christ enables this love, he enables our transformation, and he enables us to see beyond ourselves to Him.
Here is what Lewis had to say:
“The real Son of God is at your side. He is beginning to turn you into the same kind of thing as Himself…
Some of you may feel that this is very unlike your own experience. You may say, ‘I’ve never had the sense of being helped by an invisible Christ, but I often have been helped by other human beings.’ That is rather like the woman in the first war who said that if there were a bread shortage it would not bother her house because they always ate toast. If there is no bread there will be no toast. If there were no help from Christ, there would be no help from other human beings.
… But do not forget this. At first it is natural for a baby to take its mother’s milk without knowing its mother. It is equally natural for us to see the man who helps us without seeing Christ behind him. But we must not remain babies. We must go on to recognize the real Giver. It is madness not to. Because, if we do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is going to let us down. The best of them will make mistakes; all of them will die. We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us, we must honour them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being; not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand: but do not try building a house on it.”
May we continue to represent Christ well to others and see Him revealed in all kindness that bestowed upon us.
Blessings,
Pastor Tim