tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541750424301079707.post7670699193563075860..comments2023-12-30T17:48:30.014-08:00Comments on Mark's Musings: The Shack: Making God in our own imageMarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12218349188104332410noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541750424301079707.post-86288360008840217322017-01-07T15:48:15.741-08:002017-01-07T15:48:15.741-08:00Thanks!Thanks!Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12218349188104332410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541750424301079707.post-21801727511885050562016-12-29T19:26:43.213-08:002016-12-29T19:26:43.213-08:00I just finished teaching a series on the attribute...I just finished teaching a series on the attributes of God. Tozer's book was instrumental in setting the tone for the series. Excellent blog. Keep fighting the good fight, Mark clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541750424301079707.post-57206905826793160722016-12-28T17:42:59.679-08:002016-12-28T17:42:59.679-08:00What comes into our minds when we think about God ...What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. <br /><br />The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. <br /><br />For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church....<br /><br /><br />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... <br /><br />That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us. Compared with our actual thoughts about Him, our creedal statements are of little consequence. Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God. <br /><br />A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plumb the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God. <br /><br />It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for the professed believers something amounting to a moral calamity." <br /><br />The above passage is an extract from the book, "The Knowledge of the Holy," written by A.W. TozerAvishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12776227217379417456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541750424301079707.post-25111472150750020502016-12-28T17:32:35.029-08:002016-12-28T17:32:35.029-08:00Thank you for insights. Someone gave us that book...Thank you for insights. Someone gave us that book or else it was left in a rental we own when they moved out...I don't know. We have it, but did not buy it. I have never had any desire to read it. Now I, for sure, do not want to read it. A. W. Tozer was right in what he said, "No religion has ever been greater than it's idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. for this reason the gravest question before the church is always God Himself. and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he is in his deep heart conceives God to be like. That our idea of God correspond as nearly as possible to the true being of God is of immense importance to us." There is so much more that he says about this thought in his book "The Knowledge of the Holy." Avishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12776227217379417456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8541750424301079707.post-85754715102934238232016-12-28T15:02:36.140-08:002016-12-28T15:02:36.140-08:00Mark, you might be interested to know thaat the He...Mark, you might be interested to know thaat the Hebrew, Aramaic (the language of Jesus) and Greek languages use a feminine noun for Spirit. Only Latin, the language of the male dominated early Roman Church uses a masculine noun. Hence I would suggest Young's choice of a female as a metaphor of Spirit.<br /> Dylan Morrison https://www.blogger.com/profile/17891934670553652674noreply@blogger.com