Right Thinking about the Holy – 06/13/2019

WARNING PREACHY…

Exploring the Holy…

Right Thinking about the Holy – 06/13/2019

The best book on the Holiness of God that I have read so far is A W Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy.  The basis for my thoughts today come from this book.

What is God Like? 

The greatest thought the human mind can entertain is to wonder what God is like.  For us to truly and humbly think upon such a thing is to seek divine understanding into the reality of all that we humans are, and all that we may hope to ever possibly be.  When we humans, as creatures, sincerely see ourselves as the created instead of the creator we learn that we fit into the order of the universe as we actually should instead of always seeking to fit into a mold that was never meant to be.  And when we finally fit into the universe as we should then we have peace (shalom) which passes all understanding instead of seeking the many ways that we humans seek to find shalom in this world.

How we answer… 

How we answer the question of what God is like is to understand what opinion we have of God.  Tozer writes “Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.  Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow.” (Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy; chapter 1)  He states that our main modern problem in the church is that we have a low opinion of God - one that dishonors His dignity.

Further, when we speak of God our answers are always limited that uses limited human words to express a limited human idea about an eternal God of infinitude.  For God is not like us and His greatness demands that only His equal can ever really understand what He is like.  Never the less, we proceed to seek after to discover what God allows us humans to understand by our imperfect means.

“I wanted you to see what real courage is...  It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win but sometimes you do.” ~Atticus Finch on Mrs. Dubose: To Kill a Mockingbird; 1960

Personally, this scares me…

I’m fearful of seeking God in earnest because I am afraid I will find Him.  I’m not so foolish as to believe that I will ever see Him face-to-face but even getting a glimpse of His back like Moses, or His glory like Isaiah, or when Peter caught the fish Jesus lead him to, or when Paul was met by Jesus on the road to Damascus would scare me.  I’m not so much afraid of the experience of His greatness but rather the demand of his greatness that would be on my life.  It seems to me that men who had a real encounter with the Holy God were forever changed; my fear exists because I am presently comfortable in my life and if I’m honest, I don’t really like to be put upon.

I know my fear is my own self-preservation kicked in, and I know that I should desire more of God rather than the status quo and I’m fearful.  My humanity is comfortable, still though, I can’t help but desire to know what God is like and believe that my discontent with this world and can only be relieved after I seriously and humbly seek and discover His Holiness. 

Father, help me to get past my fear and to encounter You.  And please be gentle me.  Amen

QUESTIONS:

Do you really want to find God?  We all say that we do but aren't you just a little afraid of finding Him?