Do you think that all GOD wants are sacrifices-empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to Him!
Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 (The Message)
"God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him in the midst of loss, not prosperity."--John Piper
I think this is why people struggle with God. It is not God so much as it is those who say they are his children, we really are a terrible mirror. So my prayer is that they might be able to look past us, to see Jesus.
No, Brother, let me gently and lovingly say you missed it completely this time.
It is God! People don't just struggle with God, until God overcomes the hostility, hatred, and enmity in their heart, people who do not know God hate God. They born-God haters with hostility toward the God of the bible.
Their deeds are darkness and they love the darkness and they will not come to the light, because they hate the light.
They may point to a believer who is inconsistent, struggling with sin, a mask-wearing hypocrite, or as you have said, a terrible mirror and say aha, look at that. But what they are doing is finding one more reason for their hatred of God.
God must overcome that hostility and remove that enmity by His Holy Spirit because of the work of Christ on the cross in order for them to begin their struggle with God as they grow in the grace and knowledge of his dear son.
Yes, we can be poor mirrors no doubt. But not one of our actions will good or bad will cause people to struggle with God.
I appreciate your comment and the spirit in which it is given, and I agree that there are those who whole-heartedly hate God.
But I also think that there are some who are just lost in the confusion, standing between the God-haters and the true believers. So what these folks most often see, in a legitimate search for God, is a message that portrays something other than God. So that when they become "disciples," in reality they become twice the sons of hell of those they follow.
I was not thinking of an atheist when I wrote this, but rather of the seeker who walks into a church searching for truth and then hears something other than the truth. Don't they then walk out thinking, "So that is what God is all about?"
Good fodder for my next post, a story from my past of an encounter with some "Christians."
3 comments:
No, Brother, let me gently and lovingly say you missed it completely this time.
It is God! People don't just struggle with God, until God overcomes the hostility, hatred, and enmity in their heart, people who do not know God hate God. They born-God haters with hostility toward the God of the bible.
Their deeds are darkness and they love the darkness and they will not come to the light, because they hate the light.
They may point to a believer who is inconsistent, struggling with sin, a mask-wearing hypocrite, or as you have said, a terrible mirror and say aha, look at that. But what they are doing is finding one more reason for their hatred of God.
God must overcome that hostility and remove that enmity by His Holy Spirit because of the work of Christ on the cross in order for them to begin their struggle with God as they grow in the grace and knowledge of his dear son.
Yes, we can be poor mirrors no doubt. But not one of our actions will good or bad will cause people to struggle with God.
I appreciate your comment and the spirit in which it is given, and I agree that there are those who whole-heartedly hate God.
But I also think that there are some who are just lost in the confusion, standing between the God-haters and the true believers. So what these folks most often see, in a legitimate search for God, is a message that portrays something other than God. So that when they become "disciples," in reality they become twice the sons of hell of those they follow.
I was not thinking of an atheist when I wrote this, but rather of the seeker who walks into a church searching for truth and then hears something other than the truth. Don't they then walk out thinking, "So that is what God is all about?"
Good fodder for my next post, a story from my past of an encounter with some "Christians."
It is a bit of a convoluted mess when you consider that WE are the body of Christ. Theoretically folks should see Christ when they see His body.
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