C.S. Lewis on "Church Shopping"

“You mentioned casually in your last letter that the patient has continued to attend one church, and one only, since he was converted, and that he is not wholly pleased with it. May I ask you what you are about? Why have I no report on the causes of his fidelity to this parish church? Do you realise that unless it is due to indifference it is a very bad thing? Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that ’suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.”

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, Letter 16

The Lord’s Prayer (Jesus Creed Style)

Because we love God, we say:

Our Father who art in heaven,

Because loving God means that we yearn for God to make his glory known, we say:

Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Because loving God means we love others as God loves others, we long for all to have the necessities of life, and we say:

Give us this day our daily bread.

Because we love others, we seek to unleash God’s grace of forgiveness and say:

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Because we love others, we long that they will love and live God’s will, so we say:

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Because we love God, and because we love others, we lift our hearts to God and say:

For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Forever and ever. Amen.

We say this today because we love God and love others.

(Thanks to Scot McKnight for this)

Reading…

As you can tell by looking at “What I am Reading” on the sidebar I have the habit (some would say problem) of reading too many books at once. I must say though that I am greatly enjoying The Suburban Christian; I read the first half of it quickly this afternoon at Caribou, and hope to finish it tomorrow. I am planning to read it again and blog on it over the next week or so.