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Letting Go of the Eternally Useless by Rick Warren "For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever." 2 Corinthians 4:18 As C. S. Lewis observed, "All that is not eternal is eternally useless." As we prepare for our Decade of Destiny, it is important to remember that life on earth..

The Great Divorce is a work of fantasy by C. S. Lewis that portrays Christian perceptions of the life after death allegorically, specifically one individual's journey from hell/purgatory ("the grey town") to heaven and salvation. It is complementary to Lewis' earlier book The Screwtape Letters, which portrays an individual still in life being subjected to demonic mental manipulation in order to..

Book Four Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity 11. The New Men In the last chapter I compared Christ's work of making New Men to the process of turning a horse into a winged creature. I used that extreme example in order to emphasise the point that it is not mere improvement but Transformation. The nearest parallel to it in the world of nature is to be found in the ..

Book Four Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity 10. Nice People Or New Men He meant what He said. Those who put themselves in His hands will become perfect, as He is perfect-perfect in love, wisdom, joy, beauty, and immortality. The change will not be completed in this life, for death is an important part of the treatment. How far the change will have gone before dea..

Book Four Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity 9. Counting The Cost I find a good many people have been bothered by what I said in the last chapter about Our Lord's words, "Be ye perfect." Some people seem to think this means "Unless you are perfect, I will not help you"; and as we cannot be perfect, then, if He meant that, our position is hopeless. But I do not thi..

Book Four Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity 8. Is Christianity Hard Or Easy? In the last chapter we were considering the Christian idea of "putting on Christ," or first "dressing up" as a son of God in order that you may finally become a real son. What I want to make clear is that this is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort of spec..

Book Four Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity 7. Let's Pretend May I once again start by putting two pictures, or two stories rather, into your minds? One is the story you have all read called Beauty and the Beast. The girl, you remember, had to marry a monster for some reason. And she did. She kissed it as if it were a man. And then, much to her relief, it really ..

Book Four Beyond Personality: Or First Steps In The Doctrine Of The Trinity 6. Two Notes In order to avoid misunderstanding I here add notes on two points arising out of the last chapter. (1) One sensible critic wrote asking me why, if God wanted sons instead of "toy soldiers," He did not beget many sons at the outset instead of first making toy soldiers and then bringing them to life by such a..