Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis

My church is hosting a book club called Advent Books. Our next read for the month of May is

C. S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces. I posted the following on Advent Books Blog to heighten the

interest in it for the members, maybe you also could read along with us. I post different kinds of

information about the book during the month leading up to the book club date, and also (for some)

write a study guide to go along with it. Till We Have Faces is one of Lewis's best. Read

the following to see what Eugene Peterson says about Till We Have Faces. Enjoy~

I came across this quote in a new book, Practice Resurrection by Eugene Peterson, on Till We Have Faces, and was thrilled! In the back of Practice Resurrection, Peterson has an appendix of recommended books called, "Some writers on the Practice of Resurrection," he then offers this synopsis of Till We Have Faces:

"There are no shortcuts in growing up. The path to maturity is long and arduous. Hurry is no virtue. There is no secret formula squirreled away that will make it easier or quicker. But stories help. By means of story we are immersed in the intricate complexities of person and places, sacrifice and trouble, failure and achievement, laughter and tears, to say nothing of the intricate simplicity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that word by word, day by day, gives form and beauty-the Genesis good, and very good!-to it all. But we must stay in the story as it is being told, give consent, and not impatiently or angrily go off and improvise our own. The Biblical story is our most comprehensive story for doing this. Other storytellers step in from time to time to help us find ourselves in the story. C. S. Lewis is one of our great storytellers. His Narnia Chronicles and Space Trilogy baptized our imaginations so that we could get a better grasp of what is involved in living the Christian life in our time and place. The last novel he wrote, Till We Have Faces, he thought was his best. I agree. But it is also the most difficult the most demanding. The root of the difficulty is that it is about the most demanding of human tasks, becoming mature, growing up to the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ."

Rare Jewel of Christian Contenment by Jeremiah Burroughs

Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs

Sovereign Grace Publishers, 99 pages.

Months ago I was reading Christian Classics along with Tim Challies at Challies.com. I had read the previous classics that he was highlighting on his website, but for some reason life took over and I never finished the book on contentment. I have recently picked it back up and, I can't emphasize it enough, every word, every phrase, every sentence is jam packed with profound wisdom. He wrote in the 1600's and his thoughts are just as relevant today as ever. Have you ever struggled with being content? I have and I am.

He writes as a teacher writes to his students, giving them outlines, with headings and sub-headings. Chapter 5 is titled How Christ Teaches Contentment, and the outline is I. The lesson is Self-denial, II. The Vanity of the Creature, etc...etc....Good stuff. I read it in the mornings along with my Bible reading. Even though it is only 99 pages long, the print is horrendous. With my eyes I practically have to have a magnifying glass to read it! But well worth it.

I would recommend you reading it, and if you need Bible Study material it would be very helpful to glean from on the topic.

What's on Your Nightstand?

I just found a new site for book lovers through Holli at Homeschooling in the Heartland.  It is called 5 Minutes for Books  and once a month she has a "What's on Your Nightstand?" post.  It looks so fun.  I just don't know if I have the memory to post once a month on a consistent happening, but I am willing to try.  

I have a stack of books about two feet high laying right now on my floor next to my nightstand.  Most of the ones that are easy and light reading do not stay there for long.  It is the ones that are thick, and sometimes daunting that stay on the floor for so long.  They are books that I really, really want to read, but I just cannot get through them quickly.  Most of them are non-fiction or historical in nature, novels can so often be zipped through.  

Yesterday I made out a list for my computer in order to concentrate more on these books than on the fiction that I have been reading as of late.  

Here is the list that is on my floor which stands for my nightstand. Check out the blog to see if you would like to participate as well.  

1.  The Expositor's Bible Commentary

2.  The Black Book of Communism

3.  Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

4.  Real Christianity by William Wilberforce

5.  Revolutions in Worldviews Ed. by Andrew Hoffecker

6.  The Heritage Guide to the Constitution

7.  The Doctrine of the Christian Life by John Frame

8.  From Age to Age by Keith Mathison

9.  Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin

10.  The Stalin Archives

I hope to be reading for eternity...........................Lynn

Letters to Malcolm; Chiefly on Prayer by CS Lewis

One of my favorite authors is CS Lewis.  I have read almost everything that he has published with the exception of Letters to Malcolm.  Recently,  my friend Sondie had posted on her blog that she was in the midst of reading it.  Well, I looked up on my shelf and there it sat just waiting for me to read it as well.  I pulled it down and engulfed it within hours.  Lewis is having a series of dialogues with a friend named Malcolm.  This book is a little bit different from your normal pick up at a Christian Bookstore Book on prayer.  It is more of a philosophical, metaphysical discussion that is peppered with profound statements on prayer.  On page 21 he says, 

"We have unveiled.  Not that any veil could have baffled this sight.  The change is in us.  The passive changes to the active.  Instead of merely being known, we show, we tell, we offer ourselves to view.  To put ourselves on a personal footing with God could in itself and without warrant, be nothing but presumption and illusion.  But we are taught that it is not; that it is God that gives us that footing.  For it is by the Holy Spirit that we cry "Father."  By unveiling, by confessing our sins and 'making known' our requests , we assume the high rank of persons before Him.  And He, descending, becomes a Person to us.  But I should not say 'becomes.'  In Him there is no becoming.  He reveals Himself as Person:  or reveals that in Him which is Person."  

Lewis is a master at taking the philosophical underpinnings of a concept and masterly

crafting the metaphysical with the here and now, the application, the practical. Have you ever

thought of yourself as being "unveiled" in prayer? It brings to mind the wedding ceremony where

the groom pulls back the veil of his beloved to reveal her face. Isn't that always a poignant moment?

Then Lewis says that God is the God of the personal. He is a person. He is not a concept, fate, or

destiny. He is a personal God who personally unveiled Himself to us in the person of Christ the

incarnate one. God became man. Therefore we can approach the throne, unveil ourselves and have

no fear. God cares about us personally, because He is a person. God the Father, God the Son, and

God the Holy Spirit have been having personal communion throughout eternity past and present.

This is the Theological perspective that gives us the assurance that the God of the Bible is not

just an "emanation" of a god, He is not just an impersonal "force," He is not us! If any of these

things were true He could not be a God who personally tends, loves, and delights in His

children.

Lewis has insights like this one throughout the book. Read it and chew on it, digest it, and

meditate on it. Not only all of those things, but then...Pray.

I love Books

Lynn's book montage

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