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Is God Too Comfortable


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#1 Niles Comer

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Posted 07 September 2010 - 05:56 PM

Is God too comfortable being contentedly contained in our American Christianity? Has the God Who burned brightly in a bush, flaming afire without consuming the brush, become too tamed and timid in our faith? Have we tamed the Lord of the Universe, setting Him nicely into doilied boxes, sitting upon the shelves of our lives and our churches?

Have we made (or remade) God into an image we can handle rather than letting God make us into an image He can live through powerfully and compassionately?

And if so, is the reason we’ve done this ‘redecorating job’ because we have surrendered to the American Dream rather than to the Cross of Jesus? Preferring the comfort and security of replacing a Living Faith with the religiosity of Sunday morning services, polite hymns, Wednesday bible study groups and an endless supply of ‘inspirational’ CD’s of “How To” sermons spoken by ‘famous’ Christian authors? With so many “how to” books and CD’s, is it any wonder some people think Christians don’t know how to do anything…that is without a ‘how to’ book. Last time I checked the Scriptures are adequate, complete, living and active, able to pierce both body and soul…

Is your image of God able to be written in a 15 minute sermon, penned into a notebook, or contained on a single sentence bumper sticker?

Or is the God you believe in and follow a Maverick Who breaks down the barriers, boxes and bindings we’ve built for Him?

I don’t want a God Who is smaller than my dreams, my hopes, and my fears. I hunger for a God Who loved us so deeply and infinitely that He chose to come and “dwell among us” as one of us to show us a better way. For God has shown Himself to me in such a complete way, such a holy (wholly other) way, that I’d surrender completely, without reservation, to Him. And it’s more than just a belief for I know He lives.

God is the God of all comfort (this I can attest to in truth), but He is far from being a God Who has become too comfortable. For God is calling us out of our comfort zones into a life of complete and total surrender, because even the best life you could dream for yourself pales in comparison to the Life that God desires for you.

And the Love that has been poured out in and through Jesus, through the cross, and through the resurrection, that Divine Love is still alive today, burning brightly, waiting to sear our hearts with a passion for God’s Dream.

May it be so.

In God’s disturbing & comforting Grace,

Niles

(Originally published: http://www.paintedso...too-comfortable)



a comforting & disturbing Grace
http://lukefour18.wordpress.com

#2 Julie Daube

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Posted 08 September 2010 - 02:47 PM

Wow!! I LOVE this! The God that I follow is indeed a Maverick who loves us far too much to allow us to remain in our comfort zones. He is a God of wonder and might who could never be contained in the narrow little boxes we have sought to build for Him. Thank you SO MUCH for posting this! What a powerful statement about the incredible, amazing God we are privilaged to serve!

#3 Travis Richey

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Posted 19 September 2010 - 03:16 AM

I know that I find myself defining God, framing Him in human terms, placing Him in a box of my own design. I have to remind myself not to allow that to happen, and I thank you for posting this as another reminder. I try to remember to read those last chapters of Job, for to me they are that reminder that God cannot be defined by me in my humaness.

Beginning in chapter 38 as God begins to speak and says, "Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me." and running into the last chapter as Job realizes what I need to continually remember, "Then Job replied to the LORD : "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. "You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.' My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Job learned by experience, Who God is. Before these events, Job knew God by head knowledge, and now he knows God in his heart and in his spirit. I believe that from this moment forward, Job worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth, just as we are called to do, and not from routine traditions that we tend to fall into. I know that I need to remember that God Is. Not that God is (fill in the blank), but that God Is. He introduced Himself to Moses and the Israelites as I Am that I Am. He did not say that He was I Am (fill in the blank). I need to remove my self-made boundaries that I try to place around God, and allow Him to be God, my God, and to earnestly seek after Him. And like Job, I need to understand that God is an Awesome God, LORD God Almighty....and yet still ABBA Father. God Is.