Spiritual Reflections
So, much of my journey here has been a journey of faith, and of getting to learn more about the God I claim belief in. And I realize that I have among my friends and family those who share my beliefs and those who do not, and I respect all of you equally. But I wanted a place to share these reflections, and I thought instead of creating a separate space, that I would intersperse them here on this blog under the heading “Spiritual Reflections”. I am careful not to force my beliefs or opinions on people, so if this is not what you were looking for from my details of Africa, feel free to skip over these entries. For those who choose to read on, I welcome comments, debate, correction, insights, etc. It is all a journey of learning who we are, and who God is, and I welcome and value your thoughts. Peace and love to all of you.
So today, I have decided to cite a couple of interesting comments I found in the secular music world. The first one is a lyric from a song by Jethro Tull, which I found interesting:
“And I asked my God a question, and by way of a reply, He said ‘I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday’”
And another quote from a song entitled “I’m Free” from the rock opera “Tommy” by the Who:
“If I told you what it takes to reach the highest high,
You’d laugh and say nothing’s that simple
But you’ve been told many times before
Messiah’s pointing to the door,
But no one has the guts to leave the temple.”
Now both these artists seem to grasp something that I’m starting to come around to. The God I profess my faith in, whom I believe to be the creator of the universe, of the heavens and the earth, is very easily misunderstood and misinterpreted. He is different than the God I have sometimes heard about in church, or in readings. I won’t say that the presentation of God that I’ve seen is wrong. Saying it was incomplete would be a better description. But this is not surprising. God has depth and breadth beyond human grasp. To paraphrase CS Lewis, if Christianity or God were simple to grasp, it wouldn’t be much of a faith.
I’m trying to begin to understand the Old Testament (OT). I’m reading a book entitled “The Bible Jesus Read” by Philip Yancey, and this seems an appropriate way to look at the Old Testament, as it was scripture for not only Jesus, but all of the New Testament authors. As I begin to glimpse (in some ways for the first time, even though I’ve read the OT before) the God that is presented in these pages, I am fascinated. Before, when I read the OT, I tended to focus on the characters and their stories. Noah and the Ark, Moses and Aaron and the Exodus, David and Saul, Job, Solomon. (I never really grasped the prophets, and that’s really a couple of months away before I tackle them in earnest.) What was bothering me as I read through the stories again was how awful many of these people were. Abraham prostituting his wife, Jacob deceiving his father and taking away his brother’s birthright and blessing. This was only in Genesis. I hadn’t got to David the murderer and adulterer (the man after God’s own heart?) yet. But I was questioning what God was trying to show me through these characters. If one is to believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, then there must be a purpose. I’m beginning to grasp that the point of the stories is not the characters, but to show how God works. God is the main character of the Old Testament, and is a different God than one would like to think of.
My dad will often ask “How can people fear a God who loves them?” I tend to believe that this reverent fear is not only appropriate, but necessary. Here is a God who is holy and perfect, and cannot tolerate sin. In fact, people who approached Him without reverence in the Old Testament were promptly killed. He has the power to give, and the power to take away, and He does both in abundance.
The chapter I’m reading right now is dealing with Job. Yancey talks about how the book is commonly looked at as a book about suffering, but what he sees is a story about God proving one man’s faithfulness when there is no reason for faith. God allows Satan to take everything away from Job, and trusts that Job will continue to be faithful. As Yancey concludes, it appears that God is more concerned with our faith than with our comfort.
If this is taken as truth, it changes my view of time on earth. We are not promised earthly riches, but we are promised eternal blessings. We are on earth but a few moments in light of eternity. And it would seem that our earthly choices have eternal consequences. Having an eternal focus changes my perspective on things. It changes priorities, it changes focus. I care more about helping people than making money. I see earth as a testing ground, where God can determine our obedience, and reward us in the heavenly realms according to our faithfulness on earth. I fix my eyes on the unseen. The ability for me to make Godly decisions is directly related to whether or not I look at things from an eternal perspective. I will explain why I think that this is necessary in my next post. Later I will also write about Jesus, as I strive to learn more about this guy who railed against religious people (Pharisees and the like), and preferred the company of prostitutes and simple people who would just listen, the guy who turned water into wine at the end of the party where people had already drank much, who healed people but rarely ever gave people what they asked for, and who did all sorts of other scandalous things that I don’t yet understand since I don’t know much about the time and place where He lived. I hope and pray that I will continue to learn more about God and His plans here on earth, and how I can serve Him. I pray the same for those of you who also choose to follow Him. He is a good God, but certainly different than the one I’m used to hearing about.
So today, I have decided to cite a couple of interesting comments I found in the secular music world. The first one is a lyric from a song by Jethro Tull, which I found interesting:
“And I asked my God a question, and by way of a reply, He said ‘I’m not the kind you have to wind up on Sunday’”
And another quote from a song entitled “I’m Free” from the rock opera “Tommy” by the Who:
“If I told you what it takes to reach the highest high,
You’d laugh and say nothing’s that simple
But you’ve been told many times before
Messiah’s pointing to the door,
But no one has the guts to leave the temple.”
Now both these artists seem to grasp something that I’m starting to come around to. The God I profess my faith in, whom I believe to be the creator of the universe, of the heavens and the earth, is very easily misunderstood and misinterpreted. He is different than the God I have sometimes heard about in church, or in readings. I won’t say that the presentation of God that I’ve seen is wrong. Saying it was incomplete would be a better description. But this is not surprising. God has depth and breadth beyond human grasp. To paraphrase CS Lewis, if Christianity or God were simple to grasp, it wouldn’t be much of a faith.
I’m trying to begin to understand the Old Testament (OT). I’m reading a book entitled “The Bible Jesus Read” by Philip Yancey, and this seems an appropriate way to look at the Old Testament, as it was scripture for not only Jesus, but all of the New Testament authors. As I begin to glimpse (in some ways for the first time, even though I’ve read the OT before) the God that is presented in these pages, I am fascinated. Before, when I read the OT, I tended to focus on the characters and their stories. Noah and the Ark, Moses and Aaron and the Exodus, David and Saul, Job, Solomon. (I never really grasped the prophets, and that’s really a couple of months away before I tackle them in earnest.) What was bothering me as I read through the stories again was how awful many of these people were. Abraham prostituting his wife, Jacob deceiving his father and taking away his brother’s birthright and blessing. This was only in Genesis. I hadn’t got to David the murderer and adulterer (the man after God’s own heart?) yet. But I was questioning what God was trying to show me through these characters. If one is to believe that the Bible is divinely inspired, then there must be a purpose. I’m beginning to grasp that the point of the stories is not the characters, but to show how God works. God is the main character of the Old Testament, and is a different God than one would like to think of.
My dad will often ask “How can people fear a God who loves them?” I tend to believe that this reverent fear is not only appropriate, but necessary. Here is a God who is holy and perfect, and cannot tolerate sin. In fact, people who approached Him without reverence in the Old Testament were promptly killed. He has the power to give, and the power to take away, and He does both in abundance.
The chapter I’m reading right now is dealing with Job. Yancey talks about how the book is commonly looked at as a book about suffering, but what he sees is a story about God proving one man’s faithfulness when there is no reason for faith. God allows Satan to take everything away from Job, and trusts that Job will continue to be faithful. As Yancey concludes, it appears that God is more concerned with our faith than with our comfort.
If this is taken as truth, it changes my view of time on earth. We are not promised earthly riches, but we are promised eternal blessings. We are on earth but a few moments in light of eternity. And it would seem that our earthly choices have eternal consequences. Having an eternal focus changes my perspective on things. It changes priorities, it changes focus. I care more about helping people than making money. I see earth as a testing ground, where God can determine our obedience, and reward us in the heavenly realms according to our faithfulness on earth. I fix my eyes on the unseen. The ability for me to make Godly decisions is directly related to whether or not I look at things from an eternal perspective. I will explain why I think that this is necessary in my next post. Later I will also write about Jesus, as I strive to learn more about this guy who railed against religious people (Pharisees and the like), and preferred the company of prostitutes and simple people who would just listen, the guy who turned water into wine at the end of the party where people had already drank much, who healed people but rarely ever gave people what they asked for, and who did all sorts of other scandalous things that I don’t yet understand since I don’t know much about the time and place where He lived. I hope and pray that I will continue to learn more about God and His plans here on earth, and how I can serve Him. I pray the same for those of you who also choose to follow Him. He is a good God, but certainly different than the one I’m used to hearing about.
posted by Chuck @ 3:43 AM
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