Saturday, January 22, 2011

What I'm reading.

One of the books I am reading right now is "A Work of Heart" by Reggie McNeal. Here is an excerpt:

"David was honest with God. He did not pretend in his conversations with God, playing games to avoid confronting the truth about life, about his circumstances, and about himself. He felt he had nothing to hide from God; rather, he viewed his life as an open book. For this reason, David did not feel a need to sanitize his prayers. He brought to God the raw stuff of his heart, uncensored, untidied up. He was not afraid that God would be repulsed by his heart, because God, knowing his heart, still wanted communion with David."

This kind of brutal self-honesty is foreign to the culture we live in. At the same time how could we be any less honest and still seek out the presence of God? If we really believe he is God, then naturally he already knows the worst about us. Yet, as Reggie points out, he still wants to spend time in relationship with us, and not just in relationship, but in a community that includes willing sacrifice on both sides. Sacrifice that is beyond what would be dictated by the relationship. No other religion claims a relationship between man and God in which God is willing to give something up to get close to man. It is always man who must give up something he values to reach God, except for in Christianity. Only in Christianity is the God wanting to be in community with his creation so badly that he is willing to be humble.

Read about it in Philippians 2, verses 1-8.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=phil%202:1-8&version=NIV

-Dave

Psalms 25:9
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

No comments:

Post a Comment