Month: October 2011

Spiritual Depression, the quest.

by jwswift22, posted in Spiritual depression

In the interest of bringing a degree of objectivity I will answer some basic questions as to why I am reading “Spiritual Depression” authored by D. Martin Lloyd Jones.

Why do I want to read this book?

There are a few reasons, but certainly at the outset, the very combination of the first two words in the title of D. Martin Lloyd Jones book “Spiritual Depression” reach out and grab me. The stark honesty of that combination of words placed together speaks to my human soul where two realities often meet in my innermost being, that which is “Spiritual”, and that which is, “Depression”.

The title then actually brings me a small and immediate sense of relief in the fact that it authenticates a condition that is seldom (if ever) shared in conversation between people yet is often part of a person’s experience.  There is something in that alone that brings a breath of reviving.

The second reason, which quickly follows the first, is found in the last part of the title which  is (Its causes and its cure)  which promise insight and hope for the person who will sit down with the good Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones and  undergo a thorough examination and submit to receiving prescribed medicine.  (Lloyd Jones was a medical doctor before becoming a Theologian-Pastor.)

A third reason, which is surely the most objective, is that I have never read this book, though it has been in my personal library for years. I’m not completely sure how I even came to posses it.

Now I come to a few more honest questions.

Why don’t I want to read this book?

(Yes, why haven’t I read this book despite the fact that I have owned it so long?)

The first reason for not wanting to read this book, ironically, comes from the first two words of the title, Spiritual Depression. It seems much like a piercing light that threatens to exposes the rather darkened corners of the inner human experience, and not just any experience but one I know. So there is the relief of exposure on the positive side and the agony of exposure on the other.

Another reason, in the same irony and in a continuation of the same thoughts comes from the second part of the title “its causes and its cure”.  There are really two promises here, one to search for the roots of the problem and the other to remedy the problem but, (and this is the hard part), these promises in order to become effective, require a commitment from the reader; (in this case myself), a commitment to submit to the tools and process of perhaps radical surgery and all without the aid of either local or general anaesthetic.  In the economy of spiritual realities there can be no dulling of either pain or joy.

So I move forward hopeful, committed and with a slight perspiration on my brow as I currently sit in the waiting room of a pastor- theologian- physician, D. Martin Lloyd Jones, who had in his lifetime upon earth, served the Great Physician Jesus Christ in bringing health to people just like you and I for the purposes of God and man.

Spiritual Depression

by jwswift22, posted in Spiritual depression

I am endeavoring to read through Spiritual Depression by  D. Martin Lloyd Jones.

I plan on reading, learning and then commenting on it.  This is not a review or a critique but an exercise.

Here is a great link with some audio of Lloyd Jones preaching. (I am not selling the book and do not profit from the advertisement of it).

Enjoy-

Thinking Critically

by jwswift22, posted in culture

Have you ever been in the middle of watching a news program, sitting in a classroom  or (been caught up in an infomercial) and suddenly thought ,” Wait a minute, what am I being fed here? I am not  just being informed but  subtly told how I should think, feel, and react to the information being presented”.

With the infomercial we catch on pretty quick ( but it’s so tempting to believe that we too could have those rock hard abs in just 4 weeks with only 30 seconds a day of the ” Ab-maestro”).  We want the abs, they want our money, usually in just 27 easy payments of  $14 (plus shipping and handling).

But who really goes for that stuff anyway?  Actually,enough people buy that stuff to allow the seller to pay for hour-long commercials.  Yeah.

We may have little respect for the authority of the infomercial but when we have a person in a trusted  position of authority on our television, such as a news anchor person, a  popular talk show host,  or a beloved teacher in a classroom, our tendency is to accept  what we are hearing somewhat uncritically. In  all of these situations we are lead in a particular direction or to come to a particular conclusion. That’s how we become informed positively (or misinformed).

Often we are told what to believe or what to accept. It is always subtle and we end up  buying not only into the news facts but the bias presentation of  the news story. The background banter between the anchor and co-anchor as they shake their head or nod to one another in approval to the stories developments or outcome.   We are expected to swallow more than  the facts we are expected to agree with the presentation itself , after all, the people presenting the bias are authority figures, they carry weight, they reflect the “proper opinion” don’t they?

Persuasion is a  good teaching tool but critical thinking looks past the apparatus to weigh the facts , sometimes to bring those facts in contact with other facts left out of the argument and to simmer those facts together to find critical truth.

Think about the most controversial subjects (Rights of the unborn vs pro-choice or, intelligent design verses evolutionary theory)  we are told what opinion is politically correct , all through  the presentation of facts, and  our little boat is pushed out onto the waters of society adrift along with others and floating on popular opinion. This creates societal peer pressure. In fact these are almost of no controversy anymore due to the continued political correct agenda of the presentation of news media.

Teachers will be marking your paper. Now there’s incentive to tell them what they want to hear. If it is a paper written on a controversial subject like rights of the unborn vs pro-choice . You can bet the pressure will to be to toe the line and weight the discussion to the popular opinion. ( Would an ethics class even consider this topic?) I wonder.

Or try postulating the concept of Intelligent design in a classroom exploring the theory of origins and evolutionary theory.

It is a theory isn’t it?  yet there is no other postulation to be brought to the table?  I mean stuff to make you think!!!

Think about the effect that political correctness has had on the exchange ideas in the public forum. In the space of  one single generation people  have made a 180 degree turn on some  the major issues of life and world-view.

We are not to be conspiracy theorists and we may have to be careful about what we say to whom ,or we will have no voice at all, but certainly we posses our own mind and with this amazing mind we have a tremendous capacity to think critically and to own what we believe and not just be drifting along with no purpose and no well thought out world view and conviction on important issues.

So watch the news, ( maybe turn off the infomercials and the talk-show host) and hear your teachers but own you mind and own your convictions don’t give them away to the world.

Have you read C.S Lewis; lately?

by jwswift22, posted in C.S.Lewis

The Writings of C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, have been highly publicized through the production of the  movies that have come out over the last few years. (I saw most of them twice and I think I enjoyed them even more than my children, though we all loved them).

But there is no substitute for reading the stories first hand. C.S. Lewis is and will always be one of my favorite authors.

In fact I  distinctly remember reading the stories, (starting with The Magicians Nephew )  to my son. I was jumping around the room speaking with different voices and an English accent. I could see his eyes widen and his expression change as the stories characters were literally leaping  of the page. ( well I was leaping). Several times as my wife was reading to my daughter in the other room or doing night-time prayers, I could hear them saying ” What on earth is going on in there” or  What are they doing in there?”  Chairs were falling over, I was leaping ,I  would knock on the wall to represent the knock on a door and so on, to enhance the story’s imagery. ( I was often reminded that we were to be settling the children down, not winding them up). Sometimes my daughter would want to hear the story I was telling, not mom’s.  She was always welcome but was more on the quiet side and would get up and leave if we were getting out of hand.

Reading both My sons expressions and the book I would heightened the sense of suspense at the appropriate times. Working with the words of Lewis, I made the bad characters sinister and the good characters noble. I made the children in the book wonder filled and Aslan, well there was no doubt who Aslan represented. He was Powerful, Good, Eternal and a Saving Lion, not a tame lion mind you, but a good Lion.

I loved that time.

C.S Lewis  had a way of opening up the gift of imagination in the way he tells a story. He once was a thorough going atheist and I respect him for that because when he came to faith, he came to it in God’s timing through a mind that was willing to engage great truths without backing down. He was willing to accept where  the evidences pointed him, and no doubt God was calling Lewis see Him as He is. He allowed the weight of the crisis ” That God indeed exists and can be known” to settle on him for his good.

Lewis once convinced and committed, then used his gifts to tell  “The Great Story”.

Here is Lewis in His own words speaking about his allegorical writing in the time in which he lived,

“until the theologians and the ordained clergy begin to communicate with ordinary people in the vernacular, in a way that they can understand, I’m going to have to do this sort of thing.”

Today of course the pulpit does communicate to the ordinary people in the vernacular ( at least in the protestant denominations that I know) but C.S Lewis contribution  to the fabric of Philosophical thought ,faith and story telling belongs to the church of believers, he is one of our dear brothers who  I love to read.

If you ever want to get into some serious C.S. Lewis though you have to read his other works.

Here are a few suggestions

Mere Christianity  http://www.amazon.ca/Mere-Christianity-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652926

Surprised by Joy  http://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Joy-Shape-Early-Life/dp/0156870118

The weight of Glory  http://www.amazon.com/Weight-Glory-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060653205/ref=pd_sim_b2

A grief observed  http://www.amazon.com/Grief-Observed-C-S-Lewis/dp/0060652381/ref=pd_sim_b8