Romans Eight | NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be met fully in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation- but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to son ship. And by Him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, we are heirs- heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same, way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies? Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For you sake we shall face death all day long; 

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

the guest of honour, rises to reply

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS | C.S. Lewis

Lewis adds, Screwtape Proposes a Toast, at the conclusion of his Letters upon an invitation from The Saturday Evening Post. Screwtape's audience for this toast includes university demons in training to win souls for Satan. Throughout the toast, Screwtape highlights vulnerable entrances into the human mind as he preps the next generation of devils. 

Here are some excerpts for chewing...

On equality:

"No one must be different from himself in voice, clothes, manners, recreations, choice of food. 'Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I-it must be a vile, upstage, lah-di-dah affectation. Here's a fellow who says he doesn't like hot dogs-thinks himself too good for them no doubt. Here's a man who hasn't turned on the jukebox-he must be one of those highbrows and is doing it to show off. If there were the right sort of chaps they'd be like me. They've no business to be different." (lewis, 199)

On that same principal as it relates to education:

"The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' These differences between the pupils--for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences--must be disguised. This can be done on various levels. At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing the things that children used to do in their spare time. Let them, for example, make mud-pies and call it modelling. But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work. Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have--I believe the English already use the phrase--'parity of esteem'. An even more drastic scheme is not impossible. Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma--Beelzebub, what a useful word!--by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age-group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coaeval's attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON THE MAT.

In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I'm as good as you has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anway the teachers-or should I say, nurses?-will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste time on any real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance amoung men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us." (lewis, 203-204)

... no weepy, no hurt or pain, no suffering

... no darkness, no sick or lame.

let the songs of Heaven rise to You Alone

serenity

the glad surrender

There must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others better than yourselves. Look to each other's interest and not merely to your own.

Let your bearing towards one another arise out of your life in Christ Jesus. For the divine nature was His from the first; yet He did not think to snatch at equality with God, but made Himself nothing, assuming the nature of a slave. Bearing the human likeness, revealed in human shape, He humbled himself, and in obedience accepted even death-death on a cross.

From Elisabeth Elliot's Discipline: The Glad Surrender

Christianity teaches righteousness, not rights. It emphasizes honor, not equality. A Christian's concern is what is owed to the other, not what is owed to himself. (elliot, 81)

A second reason for confusion in the matter of respect, in addition that over the definition, is the current notion that everyone deserves tit-for-tat equality. This is one of the excesses of democracy, which ought not to be confused with Christianity. The truth is that not everybody has a right to to everything. A child has the right to be taken care of. An adult has not. An adult has the right to vote, get married, be taxed. A child has not. (elliot, 79)

Honor is given. It is not taken (elliot, 79)

Honoring those who are our rightful superiors by virtue of holding positions of authority over us takes the form of obedience. The servant is not greater than his lord, the student than his professor, the child than his parents. In each case, when obedience is offered first to Christ, obedience to the human superior will be rendered much easier. The standard of service ought also to be vastly improved. (elliot, 83)

His was the "right" to be taught, which right, like every other, has its limitations. The right to be a student is not the right to be a friend. If he becomes the professor's friend, that is a privilege. (elliot, 83)

lot

photos of our newly flourishing garden. and the butterfly [alfred] who joined us today. 

white, climbing gardenia

knock out roses, a baby

hibiscus

web

knock outs, hiya!

the fallen

alfred came back, again & again and again & again

23

William Shakespeare

As an unperfect actor on the stage,

Who with his fear is set beside his part,

Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,

Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;

So I, for fear of trust, forget to say

The perfect ceremony of love's rite,

And in my own love's strength seem to decay,

O'ercharg'd with burden of mine own love's might.

O, let my books be then the eloquence

And dumb presagers of my speaking breast,

Who plead for love, and look for recompense,

More than that tongue that more hath more express'd.

O, learn to read what silent love hath writ:

To hear with eyes belongs to loves fine wit.