"He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight."" Luke: 16:15
The issue today deals with viewing God as the vending machine or the one who leads us to greater things than Himself. The reality is that THERE IS NOTHING GREATER THAN GOD HIMSELF.
On detestable -day 4 - I said that, "God is in control and we CANNOT put him in a box. We need Him, and He didn't come here to lead us to someone greater or some more fantastic idea."
John Piper has said that, "God is most glorified by us when we are most satisfied in Him." God will be glorified, and we can most seek His glory by finding him the most satisfying "thing" we strive for and long for. We do not seek Him to get something else, unless that something else is in him. He is our joy, as David Crowder has sung, and so we seek Him to find joy, but in him. To seek God to get a better job, or more money, or healing, while it may be a place we start with God, he will lead us beyond that. If we stay there, we are functioning as an animist. Animists sometimes seek to appease the spirit world to deal with what plagues them. They may do so by wearing an amulet to ward off an evil spirit. If we seek God just to ward off evil spirits, then in some way he has become a type of amulet for us. We cannot stay there. Obviously there will be times we need him to send away and defeat evil spirits in our lives, and he is the only one who can (our status as his children give us authority that comes from him that we exert when we command evil spirits "in the name of Jesus"). But if we constantly only turn to him as the solver of our problems, if we just use him to "get" peace and etc, how are we treating him differently than an animist? But to find joy itself in God himself is a different thing. Then we are exalting that which is worthy, God himself, and not using him, but finding completion in him. He is the end. Francis Schaeffer has said, "It is not that there is a moral absolute behind God that binds man and God, because that which is farthest back is always finally God. Rather, it is God Himself and His character who is the moral absolute of the universe." from He is There and He is not Silent. As we search for one thing that leads to a better thing, etc, or for a truth that leads to deeper truth, we end at God himself. He is not the way to a higher thing or greater this or that, he is the end of our search. So if we are searching for joy, ultimately it is God himself. He is life, hope, joy, freedom, etc, all ideas that find there fulfillment and reality in God. And so it is for Him we search.
Sometimes in our philosophical posturing or in trying to construe an idea from scripture that is sort of says, we venture into this form of using God. We value to ideas or systematic theology or philosophy we created more than we value God himself. We feel content because we think we can fit ideas of God or his word into some understandable form.
I think it will be difficult for some of you to see that you do this, that you use God. So let me ask some questions that might ferret this out.
What do you think more about, a) statements men have made about God, or b) what he says in his word?
What makes you more glad, a) communing with God or b) a hearty philosophical discussion?
Do you worry more that a) you might lack some agreement with a confession or summary of theology, or b) that you don't make disciples or seek the face of God enough?
Do you pray about a) all kinds of things at many times, or do you mainly pray b) when things are bad?
Do you a) balance your prayer life with praise and worship and thanks, or b) do you mainly pray to get things from God?
If your answers were clearly a, b, a, b, b- you are more at a place of using God. Be honest, there is no point in justifying yourself. Jesus knows who we are. He wants to change us. The key to me is asking God to make Himself the focus of our thoughts and desires. Colossians 3:1-4 NIV "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things, for you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory." Our hearts and minds are set above (not a on a generic heaven, but "where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." It is where Christ is. Earlier in Colossians a wonderful passage says the following: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority." Colossians 2:6-10 NIV So what fills our waking thoughts and heart, our desires and longings? Ideas about God, ideas from mankind? Politics? Or God himself? The glory of God and his greatness? The mercy and grace of God?
Oh, God, cause your people to worship you and find in you their longing and fulfilment, their glory and wonder, the end of all their seeking and searching.
No comments:
Post a Comment