Monday we talked a lot about what exactly the glory of God is from a biblical perspective. That was a very fun lesson, lemme tell you. It's funny that how skewed my perspective was on even that. I always thought that God's glory was something that was difficult to see, that you had to be extra good and maybe you'd see it. Come to find out that God's glory is literally everywhere, I just needed to open up my eyes and really analyze how different things, from the flower in the field to Superman Returns, all really do reveal God's glory. Moses, speaking to the Israelites, scorned them, saying, with exasperation I imagine, that even though they'd seen so many signs and wonders from the Lord, even though they had beheld Him in His glory like very few people had before to date, their eyes and ears and heart were closed to being able to understand it. I feel like this is how I've spent much of my life: searching and searching for God's glory when it's always been right there in front of me. Now that my eyes have been opened to that little detail I'm nearly overwhelmed, day by day, by the incredible glory that is all around me. I simply ask myself, "how does this (insert object/person/movie/event) demonstrate the character of God. In so doing I've suddenly had an appreciation for things that I used to ignore; I've never been so enamored by a sunrise, regardless of how breathtaking, like have been every day since Monday.
The rest of the lesson really focused on the main world-views of the world, shown chronologically as they became prominent. It was really interesting seeing it put that way, each new world-view that developed was direct reaction to the one held in the previous generation(s). What I really liked about the way world-views were talked about in this class was that the life giving qualities and qualities that brought death were both discussed in order to put emphasis on the fact that God does not fall on the side of Marxism or Gnosticism or Pantheism or Animism, or ANY other "ism" out there. God has a Kingdom mindset, and as Christians we need to be focused on the Kingdom and obtain a pure Kingdom mindset. We shouldn't be rooting for anything less than that. After all, Jesus talked about the Kingdom more than anything else. But enough preaching, I'ma step off my newly found soap box.
Friday we talked only about the Kingdom and what it looks like, as best as is humanly possible anyways. The thing that really struck me most is the fact that God, though King, is our Daddy. Now obviously I knew this already, but for some reason I had a hard time getting my heart to wrap around this. I suppose it's because so often we're always saying things like, "you gotta put God first," or, "you gotta spend time alone with God and read your Bible," etc. The thing is you don't "gotta" do anything. God is literally our Daddy now. He adopted us for crying out loud; that was the entire point of the cross: to give us open access to RELATIONSHIP with our Daddy in heaven. Imagine being a parent and your child spending time with you, or thanking you for all you do, or asking to play catch because they think they "gotta." I have siblings, and that has to do for me for now, but I know that if they did anything with or for me with that mindset regardless of how much effort they might put into the activity it would not bring me joy, it would hurt me. This is exactly what I've done to God, perhaps my entire life, and He loves me so much more than is humanly possible and so is hurt ridiculously more by my feeling that way than I can ever understand.
God knows how long I had this attitude, and the whole time God was trying to break through my arrogance and religiosity to tell me that He loves me and just wants me to be His son. I don't have to put on ANY sort of performance to please Him. Again, I do not have to try to please my Daddy. He watches me have fun playing volleyball, or reading my Bible, or going to a movie, or just goofing around with friends and He is absolutely delighted in me, and so happy that I am having fun. This was further imprinted upon my heart when our instructor said, "don't ask God for more of Him, He's already given you ALL of Him. The problem is that you haven't given Him all of yourself." By me trying to perform for a score I was withholding from God the freedom of an open relationship with His son. This lesson also offered me an alternative point of view on those who don't believe.
This world is like an orphanage. Every single person out there who doesn't know God is without a Father, and God sent His son to die on the cross in order to fill out all the legal paperwork for God to adopt the world. The problem is that so many people have such a skewed perspective of the guy that's trying to take them out of their orphanage and bring them to His mansion. It's up to those of us who have let down our walls of pride enough open up to God to try to direct these misguided people to the Father. Every single person is not simply a potential friend, they are a potential brother or sister; prince or princess; priest or priestess; son or daughter of the Most High.
It's incredible to me how it took so long for this lesson to finally hit my heart. I know I've heard that God is a loving Father countless times. I suppose that it's always been connected in some way to a "gotta." At least in my heart. I can't express it enough: it's so freeing to view Him as my Daddy; I don't have to do anything to gain His approval or love. It makes it so much easier to reach out to others when I don't feel like I "gotta." It also makes it more effective because I lose my agenda when I interact with others. By default, because of the overflow I'm experiencing, I'm salt and light to everyone I come across.
Anyways, I "gotta" cut myself off here or else I'll keep going for another eight paragraphs. I really hope that my testimony touches someone who reads this. We don't "gotta" do ANYTHING for God. I know that sounds radical and unbiblical, that's your religiosity and pride speaking. We get to do things WITH God. This week we're being taught about the Father heart of God. Soooo stoked! So I'm sure I'll have a ton to write about this weekend
Feel free to leave comments, I changed the settings so anyone can, I believe. God bless you all. And please be praying for me to keep going deeper. Also for finances, as I'm a little short on the whole money aspect of things, but my Daddy is awesome and I know that He loves to give us gifts and watch our faces light up.
Oh, and here are some pictures of the base and stuff.
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