Do It Again

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."

              -G. K. Chesterton

Imagining Oranges

"The good things even of this world are far too good ever to be reached by imagination. Even the common orange, you know: no one could have imagined it before he tasted it. How much less Heaven."

           - C. S. Lewis, in an August 1956 letter to a certain Mrs. Johnson

Hat Tip:  Dane Ortlund

Dogma and Drama

“We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine — ‘dull dogma,’ as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man — and the dogma is the drama. . . . This is the dogma we find so dull — this terrifying drama which God is the victim and the hero. If this is dull, then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting? The people who hanged Christ never, to do them justice, accused Him of being a bore — on the contrary; they thought Him too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround Him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have very efficiently pared the claws of the Lion of Judah, certifying Him ‘meek and mild,’ and recommended Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.”

~ Dorothy Sayers, quoted by Michael Horton in The Gospel-Driven Life (Grand Rapids, Mi.; Baker Books, 2009), 63-64.

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

Feeling Scripture

Thinking about this quote I saw last week from Jared Willson at The Gospel-Driven Church: 5 Ways to Feel Scripture.

"My conviction is that evangelicals by and large have lost their ability to feel Scripture. The great irony is that now when the Bible is more available than any time in history, we are perhaps more biblically illiterate than any Christian generation in history.The great opportunity in this, of course, is that our generation is now extra ripe for biblical transformation and a revival in commitment to the deep well of Scripture."

I have always suspected that our problem is not so much feeling Scripture as in thinking Scripture. We are certainly a biblically illiterate generation. However, most people I know seem to relate almost entirely to the Bible through their feelings. What a passage means "to me" is what is important, and that seems to be determined almost entirely by how it makes one feel. What we need is a return to thinking about Scripture, and a reuniting of feelings to be based on what God actually says in His Word, prior to our personal reaction to it.

However, to give Jared credit, he went on in his post to discuss the rules of hermeneutics (the science of Biblical interpretation), and I agreed with what he then said. Therefore, I don't think he was using the word "feel" in the way I would usually use it. I think what he meant is that the objective truth of Scripture that we learn and know in our minds must impact our feelings and imaginations in order for that truth to change behavior. That is truth!

What do you think?