Screwtape Letters - Week #9

Well, you've hung in there, and with this writing, we are completing C.S. Lewis' classic, The Screwtape Letters. Thanks for staying with it; I know it proved a difficult read for some of you.

Before introducing the next book, I want to comment on the final letter that Screwtape writes to Wormwood and then make a concluding remark on the book as a whole.

In the final letter, Screwtape is obviously angry at Wormwood because he lost the "patient" to the Enemy, and the man went to heaven. He rants and raves about the patient's experience of heaven, and his ranting exposes some of the mystery of the Incarnation: God as Man, and God indwelling humans, and humans dwelling in God. Because of this wonder, we are the only created beings that have the privilege and honor of standing upright before the Creator God and knowing Him personally and intimately. Screwtape says, "The degradation of it! - that this thing of earth and slime could stand upright and converse with spirits before whom you, a spirit, could only cower..."

Speaking of the patient's entry into heaven, Screwtape says, "He saw not only Them; he saw Him. This animal, this thing begotten in a bed, could look on Him. What is blinding, suffocating fire to you, is now cool light to him, is clarity itself, and wears the form of a Man."

I cried as I read this chapter - what will it be like to stand before Him and look on His face?! A favorite verse of mine is Revelation 22:4 "...they shall see his face..." For the follower of the Lamb, the greatest motivation for persevering in God and seeking to live a life with a fascinated and expanded heart is to look on His face and see His joy and satisfaction over His Bride, gathered from every tribe and nation of the earth.

One reason I love The Screwtape Letters is that it exposes what it means to be human, loved by God and hated by the devil. The devil's hatred is primarily toward God, but because he can't touch God directly, he goes after humans, and we are the "apple of God's eye." Whenever we are hurt, God suffers. A strong message that comes forth through Screwtape in this book is the extravagant and incomprehensible love of God for weak humans!

So, Holy Spirit of God, continue Your work of revealing the heart of the Father for His children. Lord, I pray that You will leap over the barriers and obstacles that keep us from You and from knowing at the heart level what the length, width, breadth and height of Your love is in Christ Jesus. Thank You that You hear and answer our prayer, in the name of Your Son Jesus...


In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen
This is our next book, and I'm encouraging you to read the Prologue and Introduction to this little book just so you are acquainted with the author and what's behind his writing it. Nouwen was a Catholic priest, which will explain some of his vocabulary. I have read many, many of his books, as have countless Christian believers (both Catholic and evangelical); he was obviously a man who knew God intimately in the Lord Jesus.

This book is simple and short; it could be easily read in one sitting, but in order to get more out of it, I would encourage you to take it slowly and pray over it as you read. Please feel free to make any comments you may want to on these opening sections about what may have struck you about the man, Henri Nouwen.

Screwtape Letters - Week #8

How quickly a week passes! It's good to increasingly rest in the Lord's finished work and in that place of utter trust, we learn to be fully present to God and to one another each day. This is a lifelong journey into fullness and well worth making!

First this week I want to make short comments on Chapters 26 and 28:

• Chapter 26 is a wonderful look at living in the "flesh" and doing so in such a religious-looking way...
• Chapter 28 addresses the reality that what takes the most perseverance in life is the marathon of life ("The long, dull monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere").

Sandwiched between these two letters is a chapter (27) that gives focus to prayer, the means by which we truly know our Creator and Father; and in that intimate knowing, we are enabled to recognize the flesh (false self) at work in all its disguises, and we gain inner strength to persevere in the marathon, finishing well.

In the early part of the 27th letter, Screwtape instructs Wormwood of the importance of encouraging "false spirituality"; in other words, working at making the patient think that simple, petitionary prayer is not true prayer. If Wormwood can't succeed at keeping the patient from prayer that asks for his daily bread and for the recovery of the sick, then he is to try to arouse doubts on the grounds of happenstance about whether his prayers really are effective.

Lewis goes on to expound on how we humans understand time and how God is related to time. It's an intriguing look into how God can be a Sovereign God and yet allow humans to genuinely exercise free will. It also helps us understand why negative past events continue to influence us in the present unless God, Who lives in the "unbounded Now", heals and erases the effects of those events. Lewis says in another of his writings that time does not heal wounds, only God does that.

Lord, thank You for gracing and honoring us with the privilege of prayer through which we know and are known by You and experience Your healing touch. Come by Your Spirit and teach us to pray, and in that place of rest and dialogue with You, may we increasingly walk in the Spirit and find in You the endurance to run the race well to the end. We bless You with thanksgiving today!

Questions for this week's reading: Chapters 29-31

1. Note the final comment of Screwtape's Letter #29: "...the act of cowardice is all that matters; the emotion of fear is, in itself, no sin and, though we enjoy it, does us no good." What does that mean to you? Have you seen yourself as a coward because you felt afraid about something but went ahead and acted in spite of the emotion of fear?
2. The final letter (Chapter 31) is wonderful! It's about heaven and being in the presence of God Himself and the angels. What about that chapter may have spoken to you about God and the hope we have of heaven?

One more reminder that we'll move on to Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Jesus the first week of August. Next week I'll probably include a couple of questions on the Prologue and Introduction of the book. The Lord bless you this week as you find inner rest in His finished work!

P.S. to Screwtape Letters - Week #7

I'm resending this because there was evidently a problem with the sending

of it earlier, and you got only the first couple of lines...however, it all got

published on the blog site, so you can go there if this one doesn't

publish properly. (Nita)

This week I'd like to make an attempt at answering the comment made this week by one of you about "hedonism." It was about Screwtape's observation about God: "He's a hedonist at heart." (Thank you, Anonymous, for the definition!)

I alluded to the topic of pleasure in an earlier chapter but I feel it bears repeating because of our tendency to see Him as austere and hard to live with, constantly disappointed in everything and everyone. If you read the context of this comment by Screwtape, you'll see a side of God's nature that isn't often focused on: His joyful and pleasurable heart and His delight in His children's pleasure, simply for the sake of enjoyment. Screwtape groans as he says of God, "He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least - sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, making love, playing, praying, working..." He goes on to say that pleasure is only advantageous to the evil forces when they are twisted; i.e., when they take the place of God in human affections.

While the work ethic that we are trained in has some good points, it has been exalted to the point of practically eliminating any enjoyment of simple pleasures purely for the joy of the moment. Consequently, most of us Americans don't know how to receive freely and genuinely enjoy the gifts He pours out extravagantly on us daily simply for our enjoyment. We are losing our ability to pause our activity and not have to be doing something "productive" always. As Henri Nouwen so beautifully puts it: "The problem of modern living is that we are too busy...to notice that we are being blessed."

If it's true that the living God is a God at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psa. 16:11) and One who wants us to know Him in this respect, then the Psalmist's well-known words in Psa. 46:10 make a lot of sense: "Be still (at leisure), and know that I am God..." Perhaps one of the ways that we really know Him is by cultivating the inner capacity to freely receive His love and gifts without any striving on our part. It's learning, by His grace, to live fully in the present, and the regular practicing of His presence is a key way to expand the heart's capacity for Him and His gifts.

Holy Spirit, breathe on us even now Your love and desire for Jesus...empower us to pause and consider that He is present with us right now, and in this, open our hearts to greater capacity to receive and enjoy Him and the pleasures that are at His right hand. Thank You that You hear our prayer and that You desire good things for Your children!


Questions for this week's reading (chapters 25-28):

1. Early in chapter 26, Screwtape makes an intriguing comment: "The grand problem is that of 'unselfishness'. Note...the admirable work of our Philological Arm in substituting the negative unselfishness for the Enemy's positive Charity. Thanks to this you can teach a man to surrender benefits, not that others may be happy in having them but that he may be unselfish in forgoing them..." Can you think of ways in which you have made choices that have more to do with your trying to be unselfish than with whether or not others are happy with what you have chosen? (Note the example Screwtape gives further into the chapter about "having tea in the garden.")

2. In the first part of chapter 27, Lewis makes some wonderful observations about prayer. What do you understand that he's trying to communicate about prayer through Screwtape?

3. Chapter 28 is full of great insights into worldliness. What are things about humans that Screwtape informs Wormwood about in order to help him draw his "patient" into worldliness before he dies?


Have a blessed week in the Lord!

Reading Schedule for "In the Name of Jesus"

It's been good to get more participants making comments - thanks to all of you! And thanks for your input about the next book to read together. It looks like Henri Nouwen's In the Name of Jesus has narrowly won out, so we'll go with that one next. It's very short, however, so I'll let you know now that the book after that will be Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together.

Just so you know, Nouwen wrote In the Name of Jesus for people in leadership; however, the principles in the book are applicable to everyone.

The posting of July 28 will be final comments that I'll make on Screwtape Letters, so the reading schedule for In the Name of Jesus will be as follows:

Week of July 29 - August 4: The Prologue and Introduction
Week of August 5-11: Chapter One
Week of August 12-18: Chapter Two
Week of August 19-25: Chapter Three

These books can be gotten on Amazon.com or at a local bookstore...

Screwtape Letters - Week #6

Thanks for the comments some of you are making...check the blog for the latest comment I made in which Sue and I are asking you all to help me decide between two particular books I have in mind to read next, ok? I'll go with what you all have to say about it...

This past week's chapters were #17-20, and I'll share one quote from Chapter 19 that is a fundamental truth about temptation for the believer. Lewis (through Screwtape) gets to the root issue underlying the other issues that are discussed in these chapters (such as gluttony, sexualuality, patriotism, etc.):

"Leave them to discuss whether 'Love', or patriotism, or celibacy, or candles on altars, or teetotalism, or education, are 'good' or 'bad.' Can't you see there's no answer? Nothing matters at all except the tendency of a given state of mind, in given circumstances, to move a particular patient at a particular moment nearer to the Enemy or nearer to us."

Ever since the fall of man as recorded in Genesis 3, humans have debated and argued issues; within Christianity there is a wide divergence of opinions about most things. While there's such a thing as healthy debates, my experience and observation is that most of it is not life-giving because it's rooted in the desire to be "right" at the cost of closeness to God and to our brothers and sisters in Him. In the Lord Jesus we have the option to choose life (the tree of life) over always having to figure out what is "good" or "bad" (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) when faced with different ways of thinking. Most the time, it's simply different ways of seeing reality rather than one person being right and the other wrong. (I'm not applying this to clear foundational Biblical truths - in that we are unwavering.)

Ultimately, as Lewis teaches, what most matters to the devil is to move the "patient" away from God and nearer to the kingdom of darkness. So any diluting of emotional and spiritual energy away from pursuing the true God through whatever distraction (even good ones) will serve the evil one's goal of distancing the believer from God and consequently, from others.

Holy Spirit, come and alert us when we opt for operating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; strengthen us in the inner man to live from that place of abiding in Jesus Who is the Tree of Life.


Questions for this week's reading - chapters 21-24:

1. In chapter 21 how does the evil one use a sense of "entitlement" to make us discontented in life?
2. In chapter 22 what does Screwtape mean when he says of God: "He's a hedonist at heart"?
3. If the devil can't eliminate spirituality from a person's life, what will he attempt to do with that spirituality (chapter 23)?
4. In chapter 24 what does Screwtape name as the "strongest and most beautiful of the vices"?

Keep sending your comments, even if they are very simple and short - those are sometimes the most profound! The Lord bless you and strengthen His life in you this coming week; He is the Lord, the only Creator, and so we gladly and willingly bow in worship to Him always!