PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS
MERE CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER 7: Let's Pretend
Before starting, number your paragraphs 1-13
Paragraph 1:
What happens in the story of the man who wears the mask?
After you do this lesson, come back and answer the following question: which of the 2 stories best represents the Christian life, Beauty and the Beast or the mask?
Up to this point Lewis has been trying to describe facts about God. What does he want to talk about now?
He wants us now to focus not only on prayer but on which prayer specifically?
Paragraph 2:
Before going any further, ask yourself the question: "How often do you say the Lord's Prayer?" Jesus says that when we pray we are to pray the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1). After I realized that Jesus commanded this, I started praying this prayer every morning. In fact I work through this prayer. It has changed my prayer life because it has me pray about things I would have otherwise not prayed about; also, it helps me put into perspective my life and what God wants from me.
When we say these words, we are dressing up like who?
Yet what shows us that we are not truly sons of God?
Paragraph 3:
How does Lewis illustrate this second kind of pretending with pretending to be friendly?
"Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to _________________ behaving as if you _____________ it already."
How does Lewis again illustrate this with children pretending to be grown-up?
Is it bad for children to pretend like this?
Paragraph 4:
How should you respond whenever these thoughts enter your mind?
In other words if when you are praying you feel that God is telling you to go vacuum, go vacuum! In prayer many times God speaks to us. To continue praying and drumming up a "spiritual" feeling defeats the whole purpose of prayer if God is actually speaking to you while you are praying.
The classic example of this is Moses praying at the Red Sea. He tells God: "We've got troubles. The Red Sea is behind us; the Egyptian army is before us. We're trapped. God, we're in serious trouble . . . " God says: "Moses, you've got to be quiet. You've got troubles. The Red Sea is behind you; the Egyptian army is before you. You're trapped. You're in serious trouble and I won't be able to tell you what to do as long as you're talking!" (my paraphrase of Ex. 14).
Paragraph 5:
Is this the same thing as your conscience telling you what to do? Why or why not?
When you are following your conscience, you are primarily thinking about right and wrong. When you are seriously trying to be like Christ, what will you try to do?
Instead of it being like obeying a bunch of rules, what is it more like?
Is it easier or harder to do than obeying a set of rules?
Paragraph 6:
What part of you does not like this process?
Paragraph 7:
What are some of the ways Jesus works through?
Paragraph 8:
Do these carriers or mirrors have to be good Christians?
If God spoke through the mouth of a donkey, then He can speak through anybody, even that person who irritates you or drives you crazy!"
Usually though, whom does God use as carriers of Christ?
When 2 Christians "carry" Christ to others, have they simply doubled their impact?
Paragraph 9:
What must we do and what must we not do?
If we do not recognize the real Giver, what will we end up doing?
What is going to happen to us if we rely upon human beings, even the best of them?
This has been one of my biggest issues. I have tended to rely upon people too much; the result is that I have been sorely disappointed. It wasn't their fault though because they were human; they couldn't be anything else. The fault was mine because instead of relying upon them who were human I should have been relying upon Jesus.
Paragraph 10:
Paragraph 11:
What DO they mean?
What is the living Christ doing to you right now?
Does He do these things to us for only a moment at a time?
What happens to you permanently if all goes well?
Paragraph 12:
Lewis says that he makes this discovery about himself many times when he is praying. What does he discover 9 out of 10 times whenever he is confessing his sins?
What excuse immediately springs to his mind?
What is the best evidence for what sort of a person you really are?
When do you normally see rats in the cellar?
If suddenness does not create the rats, what does it do?
The suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered person; what does it do though?
Now the cellar of my soul is out of reach of my conscious will. What kind of change do I need?
What questions do I need to ask of my "right" actions?
Can I change my motives by direct moral effort?
Who alone can make these changes in my life?
In the story The Voyage of the Dawn Treader the little boy Eustace acts so much like a beast, he actually turns into one, specifically a dragon. He doesn't like this change at all. So he takes his giant dragon claws and rips away at the dragon scales on his body. No matter how many dragon scales he scrapes away, there are always dragon scales beneath them. Finally, he gives up. It is at that time that Aslan the lion (Jesus) shows up and offers to rip the dragon skin off him. Eustace submits to Aslan. It hurts Eustace whenever Aslan rips off the dragon scales; however, he does emerge from the process a brand new little boy. .
Paragraph 13:
In a sense what might you even say God is doing?
What does God see and what does God say?
Is it really all that strange for God to pretend that we are truly sons of God?
How do the examples of the mother and the dog owner illustrate this principle?
Book Four
Chapter 7
What happens in the story of Beauty and the Beast?
When we pray "Our Father," what place are we putting ourselves into?
When we say we're sons of God, it's almost like we are pretending. What 2 kinds of pretending are there?
What happens many times whenever you are dressing up like Christ?
When you are pretending to be like Christ, Christ is at your side doing what?
During all this process what is Christ doing?
How does Lewis respond to the person who says that although he has never been helped by the invisible Christ, he has been helped by other people?
According to Lewis who are mirrors or "carriers" of Christ to other men?
How does Lewis compare the baby taking its mother's milk with the man being helped by another man?
What is the NT always talking about?
What idea are you to put right out of your head?
If all goes well, 2 things will happen. What is the first thing that will happen?
Lewis fears that he has been misleading us into thinking that we are the ones who did everything to become like Christ when in fact God is the one who does everything. What is it at the most that WE do?