When I was younger I had an incorrect view of God. My view of God is now correct, but still incomplete.
- An incorrect view is to not see God as loving. An incomplete view is to not fully understand how loving he is.
- An incorrect view is to not see God as powerful. An incomplete view is to not fully comprehend his power.
- An incorrect view is to not see God as gracious. An incomplete view is to not fully fathom his amazing grace.
Incorrect & incomplete. There is a big difference.
Dallas Willard says this about one’s view of God in The Divine Conspiracy…..
Central to the understanding and proclamation of the Christian gospel today, as in Jesus’ day, is a re-visioning of what God’s own life is like and how the physical cosmos fits into it. It is a great and important task to come to terms with what we really think when we think of God.
Willard goes on to include this description of God by Adam Clarke…….
the eternal, independent, and self-existent Being; the Being whose purposes and actions spring from himself, without foreign motive or influence; he who is absolute in dominion; the most pure, the most simple, the most spiritual of all essences; infinitely perfect; and eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing that he has made; illimitable in his immensity, inconceivable in his mode of existence, and indescribable in his essence; known fully only by himself, because an infinite mind can only be fully comprehended by itself. In a word, a Being who, from his infinite wisdom, cannot err or be deceived, and from his infinite goodness, can do nothing but what is eternally just and right, and kind.
Love that description.
An accurate and correct description of God…yes.
A complete description of God….probably not.
How do you see Him?
The Ipiphanist (Show + Tell) blog by Nick Charalambous (@ipiphanist) is fast becoming one of my favorite blogs.
Nick, a former journalist, is now the Web Campus Pastor at Newspring Church. (read more here about how that happened)
Nick’s blog is full of…
thoughts
ideas
questions
challenges
conversations
about how the church can more effectively use technology and the internet.
His latest blog post on Christian community is one of the best I’ve read on the subject.
Here are a few quotes from the post…..
What is unique about Christianity is the church. The church, the body of God, the community of God, gives Christians the power to move beyond mere human “community,” and generally do things that are not in what a typical person would consider their best interests.
The goal of the church isn’t a community or a better community. It is being the church: the field hospital, kitchen and armory of always-continuing skirmishes on the battlelines of a war between good and evil.
Community, as with church, is not a destination. It is not an origin. It is a camp. A fort. A refuge.
And if we’re going to defeat the enemy’s strongholds where they are now – in the web, the living network – maybe we need to start building our “shining cities on a hill” there, just as we built our cathedrals in centuries gone by.
You can should read the rest of the post at Nick’s blog here.
I’m sure blogging will be light over the Christmas break, so I will leave you with this.
A passage of scripture that we have been focused on at church for the past few weeks.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. // Luke 2:8-11 (NIV)
Good news.
Great joy.
For all the people.
Merry Christmas!
So I’ve been thinking about God’s word and how He says a lot of stuff that runs completely counter to our world, our culture, and religion.
our culture says hurry up and really live before you die // He says you have to die before you can really live
the world says seek revenge when you are wronged // He says forgive and love your enemies
religion says strive, attain, perform, don’t do this, don’t do that // He says follow me
our culture says earn, spend, accumulate // He says give
the world says look out for #1 // He says love others as well as you love yourself
religion says clean yourself up // He says I will meet you where you’re at
our culture says you are beautiful if you look like this // He, the King, says he is enthralled by your beauty
the world says you will have problems // He says you will have problems, but your joy may be complete
Twitter was buzzing about iamsecond.com last night.
You have to check out this site.
iamsecond.com is described like this……
I Am Second is a movement where significance in life is a shared value among people of all kinds. Actors. Athletes. Musicians. Business leaders. Your next-door neighbor. People just like you. Their authentic stories here on iamsecond.com provide insight into dealing with typical struggles of everyday living. You’ll meet people who overcame destructive lifestyles. Plus you’ll discover those who’ve tried to go it alone and have failed, yet still found a life full of hope, peace, and fulfillment.
Beautiful design.
Beautiful videos.
Beautiful stories.
And a beautiful message.
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