Pastor Chris begins a new series that we'll revisit throughout the year; engaging with scripture and the unique insight of writer & theologian C.S. Lewis. If we desire true and lasting transformation in 2017, it begins from the inside out; with the renewal of our minds, and hearts shaped by obedience.
Text
Romans 12:1-2
2 Corinthians 10:1-6
2 Timothy 4:5
Philippians 4:8
Screwtape says, “the softest road to hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without sign posts.”
-C.S. Lewis
“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been born in God’s thought, and then made by God is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.”
-George Macdonald
“What then is the good of—what is even the defense for—occupying our hearts with stories of what never happened and entering vicariously into feelings which we should try to avoid having in our own person? Or of fixing our inner eye earnestly on things that can never exist…? …The nearest I have yet got to an answer is that we seek an enlargement of our being. We want to be more than ourselves. Each of us by natures sees the whole world from one point of view with a perspective and a selectiveness peculiar to himself…We want to see with other eyes, to imagine with other imaginations, to feel with other hearts, as well as with our own.”
-C.S. Lewis
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.”
-C.S. Lewis
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
-C.S. Lewis
“But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”
-C.S. Lewis
"The neural changes that we found associated with physical sensation and movement systems suggest that reading a novel can transport you into the body of the protagonist," neuroscientist Gregory Berns said, according to a report in the journal Science Codex. "We already knew that good stories can put you in someone else's shoes in a figurative sense. Now we're seeing that something may also be happening biologically."
-Emory University Science
Reflection
Will you commit to joining the first "Ecclesia Book Club"? We'll be considering each of these books as a community over the coming months, and each of the authors will be joining us to teach at some point this year. We'll be getting copies of each at a discount, so don't purchase them online now as we'll have them available onsite. More details to follow.
The Prodigal - By Brennan Manning & Greg Garrett
The Answer To Our Cry - By Rick McKinley
Chase The Lion - By Mark Batterson
Finding The Lost Art Of Empathy - By Tracy Wilde
Worship Set
Tis So Sweet
How Great Thou Art
In Feast Or Fallow
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
Future/Past
Even My Darkness