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Dale's Blog - Entries tagged "God, substitutes, idolatry, faith"Substitutes for GodI profess to be a lover of God and a follower of Jesus
Christ. It is a process that began decades ago and continues to develop. However,
in my more honest moments, I recognize that too often I love God poorly and
follow Jesus inconsistently. If there really is One true God – Father, Son and
Holy Spirit – who is personal, all-powerful, all-knowing, and omnipresent, even
to the edges of the ever-expanding universe, the implications for life are as
mind boggling as is His greatness.
If the story goes beyond the greatness of His being to the
greatness of His love … if He literally gave His own life to save mine, I am at
a loss for words and means to express my gratitude and His worth. Reason alone
would indicate that this God would be the focus of my thoughts and my
affections. Pleasing Him would be the goal of my work and play. My
relationships with others would mirror the love and grace He has extended to
me.
My reality turns out to be unreasonable as I allow substitutes
to take the focus of my thoughts and affections … as I substitute pleasing
myself and others for pleasing Him … as my relationships with others too easily
become about how they affect me rather than how they reflect Him. The writings of C.S. Lewis and Tim Keller have reminded me that all sin is at its core idolatry - substituting something or someone for God. The constant
battle of my flawed state is to accept no substitutes for the One who
substituted Himself for me.
There will be many who do not accept my presuppositions
about the God I describe. However, if those presuppositions are true, as I have
come to believe, the implications are unavoidable. I wonder if they would be
more inclined to accept that God if they were to see those implications lived
out in my life and the lives of those who profess to love God and follow Jesus.
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Dale's Blogby
Thoughts on God, Life, Church and Whatever Comes to Mind that's Worth Writing About -
What if there really is an all-powerful omnipresent Creator God who knows us and for some odd reason wants to pursue a relationship with us anyway? What might be some of the implications for life? At times this blog will wrestle with some of those implications. If you would like to be notified when new entries are posted, click on the orange RSS feed button at the bottom of this column.
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