Sunday, September 3, 2006

Yancey Quote 2 -- God Is God: Me? Not So Much

Hey, Y'all,

Hope you're having a rejuvenating weekend. Back to our second quote of Yancey's--he said that he'd realized while pursuing his hobby of hiking that "God is God, and we are not." The first passage that came to mind was God's reply to Job (at the end of the book of Job--chapters 38-42 basically, but they can be summarized by verses 4-6 of chapter 38). God sat quietly and allowed Job and His friends and wife have their say, and then when they'd said what they had on their mind, God finally replied:


"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone?..."


We run the risk of taking God out of context and picking and choosing characteristics of His to emphasize while minimizing others; we humanize Him, which is good to a certain extent, but then we forget that He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and Holy, wholly committed to the life and death struggle against sin and its effects (and its proponents as well).

We extol His grace and love while often forgetting that very love and grace call us to a better life, to grow into His Way, and that that Way is often at odds with what the prevailing culture around us says is "good" and "right."

So yeah, it's true, "God is God"--but is He my God? He's my savior, but is He the Lord of my life? Does He rule there, or do I have someone or something else on the throne of my life? Am I growing into His way, or am I headed down the way of my choosing?

More on this soon...but today, you've been prayed for...

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