I am very passionate about the Idea of God not being a body of philisophical ideas but a relational personal God.
If you begin to speak of the cross, for example, without mentioning love I believe you have missed the whole point.
There, first of all, was no change in God's mind about how He will relate with people when he sent Jesus and when jesus referred to Him as Abba. This Abba view of God was always desired of us. If you believe that God created Man in "In His image" (as it states in Genesis)and you believe that man is relational than where do you think this relational capacity originates? If you conclude that our relational character comes from God than you must conclude it came from the very beginning.
Read Micah 6:8.
I believe that God is very involved with the lives of his people and obedience is the the end in itself that he desires. I submit that the scriptures are clear that God cares not just for Himself but actually cares for His people, is actually involved in our lives. Why else would God care so much about poverty and opression. Obedience to Him is not some posession for His gratification in and of itself. The reason God commands obedience is because it leads to the restoration and unity and perfection of His great world.
If God only wanted us to "bow down" he might not have given us "free will." We know God is a lover because of his obsession over our motives and where our hearts are.
read Matthew 15
We are described in scripture as His bride.
Read ezekiel 16
God wants a "personal relationship" with His people and most of all He wants His people to be healed.
6 comments:
Wes,
I think this is a great post. I think that you brought up some very true points. I agreed with everything that you said, I just wanted to say something that I have been thinking about latley. I think that when we talk about healing, complete healing cannot take place anywhere where love is not present. I think in broken relationships, without true love for the other, healing will almost be impossible in its entireity. Just a thought. Great post!!!
Yes, and amen, only sometimes it is hard to believe that this is love, this life I'm leading...
then again, can an infant equate the sharp pain of a vacination needle with love? can a toddler equate mommy saying no to a cookie while she is fixing dinner with love? I'm so glad that Jesus clarified matters by urging us to call God "abba".
Wes - thank you very much for posting this. I have read it a few times and just haven't responded. I'm still not sure exactly how to respond.
I did read the scripture references too.
I do have another question though -and I'll just post it here if you don't mind...and don't feel like you have to answer it...
but -
and this is a sincere question that crossed my mind a few days ago while reading - so this is not a sarcastic question - it is sincere...
If God is all powerful - why did he have to send Jesus to sacrifice his life for human sin? Why couldn't God design a religion or design His relationship with him so that sacrifice was never needed. Why did He make it so people had to sacrifice lambs at all...and then later he sent Jesus to be the "sacrificial lamb"? Why didn't he just make it a relationship where sacrifice like lambs or Jesus wasn't necessary...where only obedience and love was necessary? Does this make sense?
I made one gramatical error above (I'm tired) - I meant to say "Why couldn't God design a religion or design the relationship we have with him so that sacrifice was never needed."
Oops sorry one more time...by sacrifice above I mean - the kind that required real lamb sacrifice and later Jesus as the "sacrifical lamb". So sorry - I need sleeeeep
well that's a tough question. I don't know that God really made it that way. maybe man made it that way. The one way to defeat Sin is to deal with it. That's why Jesus came, simply to deal with Sin, sadly His death was the only way to accomplish that goal.
Jesus died for alot of reasons. He died not just for a sacrifice but also to bear the impending punishment of israel. He would later be vindicated and marked as the messiah, the son of David, through the raising of the "New" temple which in a hebrew mind would link directly to the son of David.
God promised to give David a house (family, son) where the LORD God would dwell among His people. It was not merely in a life that the Son would be made manifest but in the raising of the temple, the resurrecting of the Son of David (adopted as son of God) the Christ was marked. Christ Died to do save His people from their own punnishment, which they brought upon themselves.
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