Reformed, Book Reading, Apple Loving, Beverage Snob, 21 Year-Old Husband, In Need of Grace.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
A Big View of God Pt. 2: Why is it important?
Q: “What is the chief and highest end of man?”
A: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever.”
You may be wondering to yourself what that actually means or why having a big view of God is even important. By the very definition of His nature, if God is to be God then he must be at the center of all things. He must be worshipped. Whether we like it or not, we are all worshippers. We may worship shoes, sex, money, cars, spouses, iPhones or even ourselves, but in the end we all worship something.
Now we must ask ourselves a couple of questions.
What do I worship and why do I worship it?
*Hint* think about where and what you spend your money on and what you spend the most time thinking about*
What is truly worthy of worship?
And while these are all good things that God has given us, can they truly be ULTIMATE things? Money gets spent, sex loses it’s excitement, shoes break, iPhones become outdated, and significant others are just as fallible as ourselves. In short, idols fail.
Despite our idolatry (giving other things the status that only belongs to God) and tendencies to forget who God is, He remains the only thing that is actually deserving of worship. How can worshipping and enjoying God be the chief purpose of our lives if our God is impotent and lackluster? We must have a HUGE view of God if He is truly worthy of worship. If we fail to have a big view of who God is, we can’t truly worship Him.
What about God makes Him worthy of worship in your mind? *post your thoughts*
Scriptures to meditate on:
The first post in this series can be found HERE.
God therefore bestows a gift of singular value, when, for the instruction of the Church, he employs not dumb teachers merely, but opens his own sacred mouth; when he not only proclaims that some God must be worshipped, but at the same time declares that He is the God to whom worship is due; when he not only teaches his elect to have respect to God, but manifests himself as the God to whom this respect should be paid.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
A Big View of God
When you hear the word “God,” what do you think of?
An old man?
A King?
Jesus?
A spirit being?
A warrior?
A father?
A cosmic sky fairy?
A creator?
Lately I’ve been thinking that far too often, our views of God are far too narrow or even non-existant. We thank Him for the gifts in life and damn Him for the trials. We thank him when we win Grammys and forget about him when we lose. More often than not, we only recognize Him when we accomplish something or need His help.
What would our lives look like if we had a big (maybe even massive) view of God? How would we view our blessings and our curses? Would we thank Him in both? Would we even be thankful for both? How would we view sin if our views of God were vastly expanded?
These are questions that we should be taking seriously. And if you are a skeptic that finds these thoughts to be silly, I’d like to challenge you to think about the possibility of God and what implications come along with the idea of a massively huge God.
Over the foreseeable future, this will be a topic I will heavily be exploring and writing about: having a BIG view of God. I’ll be writing about what a big view of God looks like, what it implies, give examples of people who had massive views of God, and practical ways to expand your view of God. This should be a challenging, yet exciting topic to explore and I believe it will big growth in the lives of those who join me on this journey.
For now, think about your view of who God is and post your thoughts… If you don’t know where to start, read Psalm 9.
Some Great Perspective On The Gospel From Calvin
What would happen if we thought about the Gospel in the same enormous scope?
*click on any of the text/title to head over to Tullian’s Post*
How little repentance there is in my life, and how many sins I have to repent of…
Took a nice hike through the San Juan National Forest today.
Shot from our trip yesterday to Mesa Verde National Park.
