The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis s1

The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9

Letter # _XXI – Summary Title: Our False Sense of Ownership – All Belongs to Him

You are not your own; you were bought at a price 1 Co.6:19

The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. 1 Co 10:25

My times are in your hands. Ps. 31:15

Teach us to number our days aright. Ps. 90:12

Where, except in the present, can the eternal be met? CSL

To Him all physical events and all human acts are present in an eternal Now. CSL

Strategy Matrix

Area of Life

/ Devil’s Advice / God’s Way / Questions, Observations and Strategies
Intellect / Moral assault by darkening his intellect
Attack patient’s peevishness / Seek Wisdom
Be patient / Prov. 4:7
Claims on Life / Encourage patient to feel injured when claims are denied. / Every living soul belongs to me / Ez. 18:4
Time / Make him claim: My time is my own
Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of 24 hours. / Time is a gift from God
Man can neither make, nor retain one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift.
Ownership / The sense of ownership in general is always to be encouraged.
Much of modern resistance to chastity comes from men’s belief that they “own” their bodies.
Produce sense of ownership not only by pride but by confusion.
My dog, my servant, my wife, my father, my master, my country, my God.
Teach men to say “my God’ in the same sense they say “my boots.” / The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.
My times are in your hands.
Teach us to number our days aright. / 1 Co 10:25
Ps. 31:15
Ps. 90:12
Possession / The Devil claims possession / All belongs to God (now and forever)
A man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps. / Rev. 4:11
Prov. 16:9

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 Paulo&Adriana ©

Assignment for the Class

Discuss

1 - What do we think belongs to God and what belongs to us?

2 - How do we react when people take away our time, friends, things, etc.

3 - If all belongs to God, how can we claim ownership of anything?

Propose 3 actions on how we can minimize the Devil’s attack on our sense of ownership?

1 –

2 –

3 –

BreakPoint Commentary - September 28, 1998

Fighting Logicide - The Death of Language - by Charles W. Colson

It's time for a BreakPoint pop quiz. First question: What's the meaning of the word "is"? Second question: What does the word "alone" mean?

Well, most of us thought we knew what these words meant. After all, we use them every day. But the president's now much publicized recently taped testimony has caused a lot of people to question the common meaning of words. It's an indication that one dangerous effect of the Lewinsky scandal is not the everyday use of vulgar words, as bad as that is, but the vulgar MISuse of everyday words.

In his testimony before the grand jury, the president was asked about the truthfulness of the statement, "There is no sex of any kind," which his lawyer Bob Bennett gave in the Paula Jones deposition. But the president answered: "It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is." There was no sexual activity at the time the statement was made, Clinton said, so his words "there is no sex" is a true statement.

This semantic nitpicking didn't stop there. When asked if he'd been alone with Miss Lewinsky, the president said it depends on what is meant by the word "alone." Alone in the room? Alone in the suite of rooms? Alone in the White House? Who's to say what

"alone" means?

And then there's the president's tortured definition of sex . Through his obfuscation, the president has made the definition of simple words confusing and complicated. As Anne Carlson of Time magazine said, Clinton was slicing the baloney so thin you could

see through it.

Now a lot of people think Clinton's strategy is comical, but it's no joke. We really should be more outraged than amused, not only at Clinton but also at what his behavior represents.

The president's semantic wiggling embodies one of the most insidious Effects of postmodernism: the deconstruction of language. Our Postmodern culture denies that words have any meaning apart from their specific cultural context. Remove them from that context and they can mean anything to anyone.

President Clinton is not only cynically trading on this Trend; he's also contributing to it: the kind of trend that leads people to say the Bible doesn't mean what it says, or the

Constitution doesn't mean what the Founders said.

But when we destroy the meaning of words as simple as "is" or "alone," we threaten our very ability to communicate with one another. With no agreed-upon definition, everybody

speaks his own language and only you can know what you really mean.

Just think what this does to democracy and civil society. Without an agreed-upon language, there can be no understanding of the common values that tie us together. Our ability to maintain civil discourse, in forming shared values, is put in peril.

And there's something else at stake. In John 1:1, Jesus is called the logos, the Word, meaning the plan of creation. The Word is absolute. It embraces the truth of creation and it's understandable and communicated to us through Jesus and in God's Scripture.

So, anything that debases language makes communion with God more difficult. That's why Christians must be at the forefront of this battle against what C. S. Lewis so pointedly

called "logicide." And we need to help our neighbors understand that the president's inartful dodges aren't just about politics or getting away with something.

They are the apotheoses of deconstruction, which, carried to its logical extreme, undermines the ability to maintain a responsible society.

Rivermont Presbyterian Church

Sunday College and Career Class

One Day Retreat

Seeking God’s Will in a Complex and Changing World

(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

When: November 7, 1998

7:30 AM – 8:30 PM

Where: Winnridge, Amherst

Cost: $15 (includes three meals and snacks)

Format: Discussion Groups on Several Topics

(covering: academic, professional, romantic and family life issues)

Please sign up today

October Memory Verse

Romans 5:1-8

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured His love into our heats by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.