You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape? The words compelle intrare, compel them to come in, have been so abused be wicked men that we shudder at them; but, properly understood, they plumb the depth of the Divine mercy. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.
C.S. Lewis
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
christianity true false importance infinite important thing
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.
faith christianity religion sun
Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage
christianity story king calling disguise great part
An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons - marriage, or meat, or beer, or cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.
marriage people moment christianity wrong individual bad special things reasons nose meat beer christian give cinema
In a sense, it (Christianity) creates rather than solves the problem of pain, for pain would be no problem unless side by side with our daily experience of this painful world, we had received what we think a good assurance that ultimate reality is ri
pain christianity sense reality experience world problem good ultimate side
The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.
christianity religion good god love christian
To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
forgiveness christianity forgive god christian
It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
ambition christianity joy strong desires imagine sex child creatures sea drink offer infinite lord ignorant weak
The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature.
literature writing art christianity world good writers integrity christians christian
My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such a violent reaction against it?.. Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if i did that, then my argument against God collapsed too--for the argument depended on saying the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my fancies. Thus, in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist - in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless - I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality - namely my idea of justice - was full of sense. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never have known it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.' ~C.S. Lewis
idea man light christianity sense self-awareness meaning reality morality world justice universe dark words bad reaction eyes creatures find speak exist act found call argument part cruel god fancies atheism
That is why I often find myself at such cross-purposes with the modern world: I have been a converted Pagan living among apostate Puritans.
christianity world living find morals modern pagan atheism
chance skepticism work mind men faith home christianity feeling direction words humility divine night son mercy eyes depth picture open escape wicked liberation england compulsion trinity accept god love atheism thing
[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.
faith christianity obedience benevolence
Redeemed humanity is still young, it has hardly come to its full strength. But already there is joy enough in the little finger of a great saint such as yonder lady to waken all the dead things of the universe into life.
faith christianity humanity
We do know that no person can be saved except through Christ. We do not know that only those who know Him can be saved by Him.
faith christianity spirituality compassion jesus salvation god
Showing 1 to 15 of 68 results
You must log in to post a comment.
There are no comments yet.