Faith (Belief as a Virtue) by C.S. Lewis Doodle (BBC Talk 17, Mere Christianity, Bk 3, Chapter 11) 

I started drifting from God about a month ago and yesterday I repented. I’m glad I came across this video. Also interesting because I bought Screwtape Letters a couple weeks ago and I don’t even like to read, but I’m thinking I should read that book now

Thanks for sending this comment, it made me smile. As as a boy I would have loved this sort of thing and it surely would have helped at high school!

This may be of comfort to you: Charles Spurgeon, 'Morning and Evening' (Modernised Version). May 13 "You are my portion, O Lord, Psalm 119:57 This evening, believer, look at your possessions, and compare your portion with the lot of your fellow humans. Some of them have their portion in the field - they are rich, and their harvests yield them a golden increase; but what are harvests compared with your God, who is the God of harvests? What are bursting barns compared with him, who is the Husbandman, and feeds you with the bread of heaven? Some have their portion in the city- their wealth is abundant, and flows to them in constant streams, until they become a very reservoir of gold - but what is gold compared with thy God? You couldn't live on gold; your spiritual life could not be sustained by it. Put gold on a troubled conscience - would it help? Apply it to a desponding heart, and see if it could stop a single groan, or lift one grief? But you have God, and in him you have more than gold or riches ever could buy. Some have their portion in that which most men love--applause and fame; but ask yourself, if God isn't more to you than that? What if a thousand trumpets blew your praise, would this prepare you to cross the Jordan in your death, or cheer thee in prospect of judgment? No, there are griefs in life which wealth cannot alleviate; and there is the deep need of the dying hour, for which no riches can provide. But when thou hast God for thy portion, you have more than all else put together. Every want is met in Him, whether in life or in death. With God for your portion thou are rich indeed, for he will supply your need, comfort thy heart, alleviate your grief, guide your steps, be with you in the dark valley, and then take you home, to enjoy him as your portion forever. "I have enough," said Esau; this is the best thing a worldly person can say, but Jacob replies, "I have all things," which is a note too high for worldly minds. (RU-vid removes my cut and pastes sometimes, so I will send another copy typed out).

This may be of comfort to you: Charles Spurgeon, 'Morning and Evening' (Modernised Version). May 13 - Evening Thou art my portion, O Lord. - Psalm 119:57 Look at your possessions, believer, and compare your portion with the lot of your fellowmen. Some make their living in the field. They are rich, and their harvests yield them a golden increase. But what are harvests compared with your God, who is the God of harvests? What are bursting granaries compared with Him, who is the Husbandman who feeds you with the bread of heaven? Some do their work in the city. Their wealth is abundant and flows to them in constant streams, until they become a very reservoir of gold. But what is gold compared with your God? You could not live on it; your spiritual life could not be sustained by it. Apply it to a troubled conscience, and could it reduce its pain? Apply it to a desponding heart, and see if it could stop a single groan or lessen one's grief. But you have God, and in Him you have more than gold or riches could ever buy. Some obtain their livelihood through that which most men love - applause and fame; but ask yourself, is God not more important to you than that? What if thousands of trumpets loudly blared your praise? Would this prepare you to cross the Jordan or cheer you in the face of judgement? No, there are griefs in life that wealth cannot alleviate; and there is the deep need at your dying hour for which no riches can provide. But when you have God for your portion, you have more than all else put together. In Him every need is met, whether in life or in death. With God for your portion, you are rich indeed; for He will supply your needs, comfort your heart, assuage your grief, guide your steps, be with you in the dark valley, and then take you home to enjoy Him forever. "I have enough" (Gen. 33:9), Esau said; that statement is the best a worldly man can say. However, Jacob replied, "God hath dealt graciously with me, and...I have [all things, more than] enough" (v. 11), which is a note too high for carnal minds to understand.

The quick version of it: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BTQj__dZ_Ng.html

I think it's the old word for glands or hormones which, if in a disordered state, can affect one's mood.

Check out the video description notes to this video. That is indeed one of Lewis' important meanings.

@@CSLewisDoodle Ah. I see it now. Thank you, good sir.

Here's a reading I was given yesterday on the subject by A.B. Simpson which might help: "It is not necessary for us to believe that the Holy Ghost inspired the wicked words which the Bible records, the ungodly speeches and the foolish utterances contained in the Book of Job, and many such things. All that is necessary was that it should give a correct record of what Job's wife and Job's friends really said, and even of the devil's wicked speeches. The speeches were inspired by the devil, but the record of them was inspired by the Holy Ghost". In terms of Bible contradictions, could you give me one of the biggest ones you struggle personally with, but one you found yourself, in your own reading of the Bible, (not one borrowed from the internet) and perhaps we can nut it out together? Prophecy CAN be hard to understand and most baffling before the events, even in one's own life. As Simpson said: "The ancient prophet declared in one place that Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, should be carried to Babylon, and in another place, he declared that Zedekiah should never see Babylon. It looked like a discrepancy at first, but history literally fulfilled it. Zedekiah, blinded by Nebuchadnezzar before he reached the city, entered it as a captive, but never saw it with his sightless eyes. Thus has God been confirming His Word as the ages have come and gone."

​@@CSLewisDoodlejeremiah 4 10 and hebrews 6 18 and genesis 22 1 and james 1 13 The septuagint and the masoretic text have the first one but not always the second but the only one that doesn't have the first is the Latin vulgate which has the second.

​@@CSLewisDoodleUpon recent consideration of these verses for my previous comment no less I have stumbled upon an old favorite bible version of mine, Young's literal, and it doesn't have either contradiction. Your comment very well may have saved my Christian faith thank you.

(1 of 1) I really love the kinds of difficulties you mentioned. The solutions, when God sends them to you, are quite amazing and (WARNING) they can spawn whole careers! I use a literal Bible for my personal reading as well (the KJ3 Bible) which solves most of the translation problems at first glance. (The other one in this category is the one indicating God does not repent, yet surprisingly He "repents" that He made man like He did). But I have had so many problems like this solved by God in prayer, a new one hardly ruffles the feathers anymore. (Usually, you can tell a lie, but how it makes you feel - sweats etc. Your body reacts to the lie even before your mind figures out what the underlying lie actually was). Don't doubt God's goodness, have faith and get excited! What gold is lying at the bottom of this seeming contradiction? Your faith grows with every answer to prayer and the answers can be remarkably swift sometimes and drop into your lap from a clear blue sky within hours. Some simmer for a bit longer. There will certainly be more of these types of seeming contradictions coming, especially in one's own life - your life can become a living Bible story. But hold steady like the patriarchs and prophets before you, and you will have a story to tell. Regarding Jeremiah 4.10, what is so interesting about this book, is that it not only records Jeremiah’s prophecies, but also Jeremiah’s responses and shock reactions to God’s words coming out of his own mouth. The context provides some help (chapters 1-7). Chapter 1. Jeremiah recounts God’s call to him many years earlier. Jeremiah has been called from the womb. Jeremiah reacts, and God tells him his young age is no obstacle. He, though a boy, will prophesy the destruction or planting of whole nations! Chapter 2. God gives Jeremiah his first recorded prophecy to Jerusalem under King Jehoiakim, a loving reminder to the Judean nation of their old faithfulness during the early years, though it says some very tough stuff about Judah’s sin, and subtly predicts Judah’s exile in the last sentence. Chapter 3. The message seems to work, as Judah appears to heed the message and returns to worshipping God. But in verse 1 God rejects that repentance! He warns Judah He will not hold back his anger forever. God then asks Jeremiah if he understands why He rejected their repentance (3.6). Judah’s repentance was half-hearted (3.10), and was done with falsehood and deception. The people of Judah are only faking it, while continuing to sin as before. God asks Jeremiah to prophecy to the northern tribes, the Kingdom of Israel, that had already been taken into exile by Assyria (116 years before). Apostate Israel had worshipped God through golden calves and not as commanded before God’s footstool, the Ark of the Covenant, in Jerusalem, but God says that they were more honorable than Judah! They at least didn’t fake their lack of repentance. God promises that if they turn to Him, even now in exile, they will return to Judah and be reconciled to them. God then reveals their response prophetically in exile, a full repentance! (3.25) A total acknowledgement that their own sin had caused their complete devastation. Chapter 4. Jeremiah prophesies to Judah and Jerusalem a second time (4.1-4.4) to really repent, to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts, or else He will release his anger against Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah is probably expecting, and hoping - wishing and praying - for Judah to repent fully at this stage and then THIS comes out of his own mouth! Prophecy #3. The great army is on its way! The ruin will be so great that every leader, priest and prophet shall be amazed and astounded. Jeremiah reacts! He naturally believed Judah would repent as it happened before in his youth - King Josiah had led the nation from the depths of idol worship, and even male prostitution operating out of the very Temple of God (!), to a nationwide repentance with the re-discovery of the Scriptures (2 Chron. 34.33). At that time, after their repentance, utter ruin was postponed (2 King 22.20). Jeremiah himself had delivered some promises by God of peace on repentance (3.15,18) and God promised the eventual reconciliation with a repentant Israel, but also some predictions of Judah’s ruin (2.37). Jeremiah moans, and accuses God of deceptively promising peace, when in reality, the knife is an inch from Jerusalem’s very throat! The city is going to be ruined which he didn’t expect. In fact, it is not deceptive and no contradiction. Both are true, but the peace and reconciliation of Israel and Judah will occur AFTER Judah’s total ruin. Jeremiah is quite like Jonah in some ways. Jonah loved his own people, and didn’t want the blessing of his country’s main enemy, Jeremiah loved his own people, and didn’t want his own nation’s destruction. God then shows Jeremiah that the hot wind from the desert is coming (used in harvest process), but this is not a wind to winnow and not to cleanse grain, but to ruin and destroy. It’s a metaphorical hurricane coming, an army of war horses. God prophecies through Jeremiah (4.14-18), calling them to repent, the besiegers are on their way and your own deeds have caused this. Jeremiah reacts once again in devastation. “My bowels! My bowels! I convulse in pain...” (4.19-21). He is shocked pronouncing these judgements of ruin, but he can not keep silent - God’s Word is pouring forth. He was called from the womb and appointed to “root out, to tear down and to destroy, to build and to plant”, but he quite obviously didn’t think he would be heralding the ruin of his own country, and the success of her mighty enemy. God replies to Jeremiah again (Jeremiah 4.23-31). God is not going to repent of the destruction this time. It is too late - no more postponements as before. Because God is seeing their true motives and hearts. Chapter 5: Jeremiah needs some emotional help and his eyes opened. God tells Jeremiah to go around Jerusalem’s streets. If Jeremiah can find ONE good person, he will pardon the whole city. God thinks they are all faking repentance. Jeremiah can’t find one, single, righteous person in Jerusalem, and he reacts, saying ‘These are only the uneducated, let me try amongst the leaders and wise folk’. But he can’t find one there either! (Jeremiah 5.5). Both great and small are corrupted! Jeremiah acknowledges that Judah’s own behaviour has cause this ‘wolf of the desert’ (Babylon) to destroy them. There apostasies are numerous and He outlines them (Jeremiah 5.5b-6). God’s response is to ask Jeremiah, “Shall I not call them to account for this (wickedness)?” (Jeremiah 5.9). Jeremiah now agrees with God and gets emotionally back on message. We now see a new and interesting aspect. The battlelines have been drawn. Jerusalem has gone from honouring Jeremiah (2 Chronicles 25.25) to disbelieving Jeremiah (they do not want to really repent in reality), and now have taken the words of their own prophets instead which confirm what they want: “It is NOT God speaking through Jeremiah, and, not any evil thing shall come on us; We shall not see sword or famine”. God states the Jerusalem prophet shall become wind; their words are all temporary, and will all be disproven as false comfort. In the next chapter, God goes on, and says that the nation has a serious wound, and their false prophets have healed it sightly. They are saying “We shall have peace”, when there is no peace. I.e. the false prophets have put a covering over the untreated wound, but it is not disinfected or stitched up to heal in reality. God says the Benjamites, the guards of the walls, if they really saw what was happening in Babylon, ought to blow the trumpet of the city announcing enemies on the horizon ahead of time. Jeremiah is also a spiritual watchman and he is doing what they will not. Chapter 7.1-15. Then comes one of Jeremiah’s most famous prophecies. Jeremiah was initially accepted, now he is solidly rejected by all the rulers, priests, and prophets of Jerusalem. God sends him to the gate of the Temple. He undermines their false belief that the existence of God’s Temple in their city alone will save them. It has turned into a Den of Thieves, rather than as it was meant to be, a House of Prayer. Then comes the dreaded Chapter 26! So if we go back to Jer. 4.10, if you take the “deceptive” interpretation as correct, how had God been “deceptive” before the 3rd prophecy of ruin? Jeremiah has given 2 prophecies declaring God’s word: Judah's sin, and the coming exile of the people of Jerusalem (Jer. 2.37). Also God’s anger against Jerusalem was pretty clear (Jer. 3.5, 12,4.4). So hardly deceptive. Yes, God had predicted a future peace and regathering of Israel and Judah, but that is on the other side of Judah’s devastating destruction and ruin. Jeremiah was obviously expecting and desperately hoping for a real repentance and another postponement of the destruction, as he had experienced in his youth.

(2 of 2) A.B. Simpson pointed out, that 'foolish utterances' in Scripture are not inspired, although you need them too in Scripture to understand the prophet’s heart and soul, and to give you some context to the events. Jeremiah WAS perfectly inspired in his prophecies, but a number of times between prophecies like v10, he does 'mouth off' (which is not inspired by God), and bitterly complains, sometimes against God, sometimes he even rebukes God and God has to correct his error. (Who among us has not had God "adjust" or break our set plans for Him? - Isa. 55.9) Jeremiah humbly lets his scribe record his own sinful words, and its divine correction many times. "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?" (Jeremiah 12:5) Ouch! "If you repent, I will restore you, if you speak good words rather than *worthless* ones you will be my spokesman. You must influence them; do not let them influence you!" (Jeremiah 15:19). OUCH! So we have here: Jeremiah speaking of himself - usually prefaced by an "Alas", or "Ah" or "My bowels" or a "Why?" (uninspired by the Holy Spirit but an accurate and honest account); Jeremiah prophesies and proclaims truth about God in the Third Person (God is...) or gives a message directly to Judah in the Second Person; Jeremiah prophesies as God in the First Person (I, Me); Jeremiah prophesies as a figurative person or persons. I.e. Sometimes as the prophet, or Judah personified, sometimes as the voice of Collective Israel (which are all in exile), as when he voiced their future repentance in Christ (3.25). (Some Bibles use separate paragraphs in Jeremiah which make the distinctions more obvious - the TNIV Bible) If it helps any, I found that I gained a better understanding of Abraham's greatest test, when I connected Abraham's greatest weakness up to that point to it - he feared death more than his fear of God and sacrificed Sarah to save himself (twice even! Gen 12.10, 20.2). Obviously, God is a killer, but that act is not murder. 3 slides - facebook.com/photo/?fbid=418333916022&set=a.417132251022.217648.533841022

Hi. C.S. Lewis talks about this here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-56HO390emvc.html