Windows On The Soul

"This, indeed is probably one of [God's] motives for creating a dangerous world - a world in which moral issues really come to the point.  He sees [...] that courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger, will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky." C.S.Lewis - " The Screwtape Letters " ----xxxXxxx---- Ps.118:6 "The Lord is on my side. I will not be afraid: what can man do to me?" Judges 7:3 "...proclaim "Whoever is fearful, let him return and depart early from Mt. Gilead...22,000 departed, 10,000 remained" Mt.26:41 "Watch and pray that you will not be tempted: the spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is week" 1 Sam.17:32 "...let no man's heart fail because of him (Goliath)..." Jn.4:35...

Among the many miracles of construction of the human body, is the wonderful structure of bones, muscles, flesh and skin. Without bones, we would be mere blobs of flesh, unable to stand or move. Without flesh and muscles, the bones would collapse into a heap. Although each individual bone is rigid, the skeleton being a jointed structure, is not rigid. It relies on pairs of muscles and sinews connecting pairs of jointed bones, with opposing muscles maintaining perfectly balanced tension. Further, the flesh and skin cover the harsh, hard bones, with the soft, flexible, cuddly exterior to the world. Paul's analogy of the body to the church, in many ways also applies to our individual spiritual "bodies". We must have a skeleton of doctrine, rigid in part, but jointed and movable, kept strong and in balance by the paradoxes of Righteousness and Mercy. Then our doctrine must be clothed with the warm, soft, tender "flesh" of love as our face to the external world. --...