It is somewhat frustrating, especially after thirty plus years of preaching, that many folks still have questions, doubts, disillusions, inadequate, and uninformed views of God. It is even more disheartening that after being a Christian for over forty years, studying for and in the ministry for thirty-nine, and preaching to myself those thirty plus years of sermons, that I am one of those folks.
I've discovered a lot about God from other people's questions and wonderments as well as my own. I've learned a lot a big theological words to more adequately "explain" God, most of which I've forgotten. The more I think I know, the more the knowledge acquired points to greater knowledge yet discovered. But I now have a few simple categories I use for my own questions, struggles, and wrestlings and I use these to try and answer those questions and wreslings which come from others. It is really too simple, but it helps me get started.
Questions about God, His timing, His nature, His purpose, and the presence of evil and suffering in the world aren't always easily gotten hold of. The questions and concerns about God also lead to the same kinds of questions about mankind. So I start with the doubt, the question, the concern, oh , who am I kidding.... I start with the pain, the insult, the loss, the lack (especially of quick help), and the seeming lack of justice and cry out to God: where are You? why did You let...? when are You going to .... Then I look at my categories of assessment which are: High-High; High-Low; Low-High; then Low-Low.
These stand for a high view of God and a high view of man; a high view of God and low view of man; a low view of God and and high view of man; a low view of God and low view of man. These categories are in themselves inadequate, especially when taken to extremes, but helpful to me. As you can probably surmise, the low view of God coupled with a low view of man can be disastrous, even depressing. If God is so disinclined to help and has no power to help (low view) and man has no purpose or plan for his existence and is just a lowly worm of a sinner, then hope is gone and there is not much to live for. A low view of God and a high view of man can lead to control freaks and narcissitic egotists. After all, God is so weak or uninvolved that those who are so gifted can help Him along. A high view of God coupled with a low view of man makes a person feel that God is out to get him and that he can never please God. This, too takes away hope, incentive and causes one to hide from God in various ways. A high view of God and of man's place in God's kingdom can be much healthier but even this one can put God so "high" (immanence) that only mystics can catch a glimpse of Him occasionally. Such an austere God, who needs?
So what do we need? How about an adequate view, a true view, a revealed view of God. Our inadequate views of God say more about ourselves than they say about God. Views and conceptions of God derived from our pain, our circumstances, our fears and our doubts will always lead to more pain, more poor choices in tough circumstances and more fear and doubt. In his classic, Your God is Too Small, J. B.Phillips points out a number of inadequate mis-understandings of God that humans hold to. The resident policeman-God is going to get you if you mess up; the grand old man-a heavenly doting grandfather who gives us stuff; a managing director, a meek and mild kindly old gent; a God-in-the-box- one that has been tamed and stuffed in our church's programs and by-laws. Phillips has half a dozen more inadequate views. I highly recommend the book, but where do we find the truth about God?
There is hope. There is only one way a Grand, Holy, Spiritual God could be known--that is that He wants to be known and reveals Himself to His creation. God has revealed Himself in Jesus. There on the pages of scripture is the portrait, the picture, the embodiment of a Holy, Perfect, Loving, Caring, Compassionate God who redeems fallen sinners, who rights wrongs, who executes justice, who elevates, who lowers, who knows our frame, that we are but dust but turns dust into resurrection bodies and opens not just the doors to heaven, but His very heart to those who want to know Him.
In this God there is hope. There is Peace. There is Joy. There is Love. There is Life because there in the manger, in the carpenter shop, by the sea of Galilee, on the Cross is Jesus. As a matter of fact, the only place you won't find this God, is in the grave.
What is your view of God this day? Is this a day you need your reservations or his Revealation in Christ?
Colossians 1: 9-20,
Cos
(okay, now go back and read the scripture!)
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