I think the person Jesus Christ, my living Lord and Savior, defies our complete understanding. We cannot "figure God out" and place everything we know into a neat system or ethic and call it all done. Every time people have tried to do that, God has stubbornly got in their way and blown the doors off of their system.
- That is what happened to the prophet Jonah when he thought God should only care about the people of Israel, but found God loved even Israel's enemies.
- That is what happened to the Jews when they went into exile in Babylon and found they could worship and know God away from Jerusalem and the destroyed temple. God's power and presence wasn't limited to geography.
- That is what happened to the Pharisees when they encountered Jesus. In order to honor God they devised a rigid way of life filled with rules that guaranteed they would not violate God's commands. Yet they found out that in their pursuit of God they missed the real spirit of His laws.
Tim Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods writes:
An idol is something that we look to for things only God can give. Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god. This occurs when people rely on the rightness of their doctrine for their standing with God rather than on God himself and his grace. It is a subtle but deadly mistake. The sign that you have slipped into this form of self-justification is that you become what the book of Proverbs calls a "scoffer" (131).Have you ever made an idol out of Jesus? I have come close a time or two.
What do you do to make sure you stay true to Jesus and not someone's (or your) construct of Him?
So glad we stayed on this subject for another week.The thing is, see the phrase "when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god" and "when people rely on the rightness of their doctrine for their standing with God" in the blog? Well, reminded me that, given the opportunity with soneone whose opinion I respect,and if I have a question about a certain subject,I ask what we teach, as a church , on that subject. Because God holds us responsible for how we use our time, finances, and lives in general,shouldn't we be interested in what we teach, as a church? Not to make an idol of it, but to be sure we understand,and believe it agrees with the Bible? Am going to do another comment,below, on a more positive note!! HSM
ReplyDeleteIn Answer to the question posed at the end of the blog, I was reminded of something I had read in Dr.David Jeremiah"s book, Spiritual Warfare.He wrote,"Instead of walking around trying to be a better Christian, you need to let your heart fall in love with Jesus again. Instead of trying to do better in your Christian walk, you need to learn to love God more.When you learn to love the Lord through His word, through prayer, through worship,and through interaction and accountablility with other Christians, it will change your life.You won't be running around trying to figure out how to change your life and be "righteous."You will simply be so in love with the Lord that you will want to live to please Him." HSM
ReplyDelete