Day to day, week to week, month to month or even year to year, our beliefs can remain fixed in a certain ways. We "believe" things because that is what we were raised with, what we feel life has taught us, or that is what our family or church has taught us. We form our lives around those beliefs but I can guarantee you that they are incomplete, and being incomplete, they distort and limit.
I hate to tell you this, but your beliefs about God are currently constrained by what you think you know. What you know may be true, but it is incomplete or your experience of it is incomplete. Paul writes, "we see through a glass darkly" 1 Cor 13:12. When Jesus spoke with and taught people you will notice that He was always telling parables that would interrupt old patterns of thinking so that His Truth could find a way in. He knew that He had to overcome the layers, and to be so bold, the lies, of what people had been taught about God. Let me tell you a secret: Jesus is still doing that with you right now!
For all the truth that you have, there is truth to be found in the opposite direction. If you dwell in the truth, the good and beautiful truth that God is love, then one day God will take you into the fields were He hates (Proverbs 16:6-9) and makes war (Ex 15:3) (Matthew 21:12-17) all with good reason. There are untold facets of God that we will miss if we live in the shallows. We tend to settle into those places, into those beliefs, into those verses, that we are comfortable with: but God loves us enough to hate that! He wants to show us that He is the I AM. That He is beyond our categories and our current thoughts about Him. In the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis writes this:
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
Do feel both alarmed and comforted when one day, perhaps this day, you hear roaring coming from the back of your wardrobe. It is God coming to take you into truth in a seemingly opposite direction. It is God coming to show you the fullness of who He is. He is not safe, but He is good. Prepare for take-off.>
I hate to tell you this, but your beliefs about God are currently constrained by what you think you know. What you know may be true, but it is incomplete or your experience of it is incomplete. Paul writes, "we see through a glass darkly" 1 Cor 13:12. When Jesus spoke with and taught people you will notice that He was always telling parables that would interrupt old patterns of thinking so that His Truth could find a way in. He knew that He had to overcome the layers, and to be so bold, the lies, of what people had been taught about God. Let me tell you a secret: Jesus is still doing that with you right now!
For all the truth that you have, there is truth to be found in the opposite direction. If you dwell in the truth, the good and beautiful truth that God is love, then one day God will take you into the fields were He hates (Proverbs 16:6-9) and makes war (Ex 15:3) (Matthew 21:12-17) all with good reason. There are untold facets of God that we will miss if we live in the shallows. We tend to settle into those places, into those beliefs, into those verses, that we are comfortable with: but God loves us enough to hate that! He wants to show us that He is the I AM. That He is beyond our categories and our current thoughts about Him. In the Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis writes this:
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
Do feel both alarmed and comforted when one day, perhaps this day, you hear roaring coming from the back of your wardrobe. It is God coming to take you into truth in a seemingly opposite direction. It is God coming to show you the fullness of who He is. He is not safe, but He is good. Prepare for take-off.>
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