Friday, May 9, 2008

screwtape-29

Wow this chapter 29, reminds me the reason we needs the serenity prayer.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can;and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.Amen.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;in all your ways acknowledge him,and he will direct your paths.
Proverbs 3, 5-6

Screwtape wants the Cl to live in despair, but he knows through God's power , giving us strenght and encouragement ,it doesn't last long. God doesn't want us to live in fear or be discourage. I think the Serenity Prayer speaks for its self. Just remember these words in the time of discouragement.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Screwtape-28

I like this chapter because it talks about fear. Scretape tells Wormwood about how important it is for humans to fear things so that they can be defeated. However the bibles tells us that God doesn't want us to have the spirit of fear but he does wants us to be of good courage.Screwtape tells Wormwood that hatred is best combined with fear. He says, "cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful-horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember;Hatred has its pleasures. It is therefore often the compensation by which a frightened man reimburses himself for the miseries of Fear. The more he fears the more he will hate."[pg160] This is another form of distraction from God. Because when you fear something or someone , you will eventually starts to hate it or them. This can cause you to lose hope , become depress, and feel defeated , all the things the devil hopes for. God doesn't want us to have this fearful type of behavior, he wants us to put our fears aside and for us to trust in him so that we may over come thoses feelings.God hasn't giving us the spirit of fear ,but he has giving us the spirit of love and courage. The bible tells us not to fret because of evil doers, however it does say, be of good courage. (Psalm-27) talks about how to defeat the spirit of fear.

Friday, April 25, 2008

scrwetape-25

In this chapter screwtape, talks about a new way of distracting humans. He suggest that it's ok if they choose to become Christians as long as they are distracted with other things to keep them from connecting their souls with God. He has came up with Fashion . We all know that ,although people may love God ,they can loose their purpose when it comes to fashion. Fashion is another way of competing against one another, how distracting is that. In order to keep up with fashion , a person will have to spend money, sometimes money they don't have. Oh , here it is , the trick ;spending money puts you debt,debt causes you to become depress. The love of money is the root of all evil. The distraction from the devil never end.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Screwtape-24

In chpt 24, screwtape talks about how to keep the patient distracted from God by keeping his mind focus on other things such as ; love and his social life.He tells his nephew that the patient is under some degree of illusion as to his own place in it. Under influence of 'love' he may still think himself unworthy of the girl, but he is rapidly ceasing to think himself unworthy of the others. This is to say that the devil goal is to find your weakness and drive on it until you are confused about what's real and what's not. Once the devil knows you have doubt, he will drill in your mind negative thoughts which causes you to believe those things are true about yourself. This can leave you feeling unworthy and depressed. Sometimes we get so caught up in love that we forget about whats important to ourselves. Love can be a good feeling but it also can be very dangerous too, we sometimes lose ourselves in the process of loving others, this is an vicious act of the devil. Just remember love not suppose to hurt, it suppose to feel good and enjoyable.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

screwtape-20

In this chapter , screwtape finds out that the patient has falling in love. He's angry at his nephew for allowing this to happen ,because it appears to be true love and it's with a christian woman. He rather for him to marry someone unequally yoked, so that they are unhappy throughout their marriage. He prefer him to marry a prostitute or a sinful woman , so that this will keep him distracted from God. The devil sometimes makes people lust after the wrong person in order to destroy their lives and the lives of others. So many types we lust after people because of their beauty and their valuables, not taking the time out to know who that person really are. Sometime when we fall in love we are blinded by a feeling whereas we forget to find personal connections and goals of one another.Marring for just a feeling ,beauty or great sex can lead us to years of unhappiness and suffering.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Screwtape-14

In this passage, the devil goal is to distract the patient by discouragement . His goal is to make people soak in self pity, by keeping them from being aware of their inner strength . He wants them to focus on their faults so that they are not praying to God for help. So many times, we find ourselves distracted when facing a crisis. We develop self pity or give up too easy instead of praying to God about our situation.We need to learn to let God work out our problems for us ,instead of throwing in the towel to quickly and putting ourselves down. The devil wants you to have low self esteem and give up easy so that you won't succeed in life. Just remember its harder to pull yourself out of a depression state, but it feels better to encourage yourself and others no matter how things are looking. Always put God in control of your life and things will work out.

Friday, March 7, 2008

screwtape -8-11

The chapter I chose to talk about is chpt 9. So many times when a people are feeling down and out, they turn to other things to make them feel better or suppress their pain,such as;another person, sex, drugs, alcohol or personality disorders. Those things are only temporarily and a distraction in their lives.This is exactly what the devil wants them to do ,so that he can win their souls and destroy their lives.God knows that we are going to go through changes and situation in our lives, so that's why he wants us to trust only in him and to know that he will always be there for us no matter what. Don't let the devil trick you, because it's only a trap. Don't turn to something else to make you feel better that will cause other problems for you later. You should try to find other solution that are positive and work them into your life.