Isn't that how we unwittingly but often view the Bible and our spiritual beliefs? How much is our title "Christian" just brand loyalty? It makes sense, satisfies our intellectual and existentual questions, and we have peace and warm fuzzies.
Recently, I had an awful experience. Forgive me for not making this clear, but because it is so deep, it is hard to explain. I'd gotten a spiritual spanking via a friend (quite unknowingly on his end) by realizing I had my priorities all out of wack. He reminded me that the Bible didn't talk about alot of things, but it did frequently talk about one thing, relationships. This is so important to God, that that is the focus of the two greatest commandments. "Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Matthew 22:36-40
Wow. That's it. Love God. Love others. The most important things. I could go on and on about the second, but I think we often (I know I do) forget the first much more than the second.
Love God. That's the most important. Oh, sure it is. I know that! I love God! What God? Which god? The god in your brain? I was shocked once when I read somewhere about someone who would stare up at the corner of their bedroom when praying. Sounded similar to me. I won't stare up at anything in particular, but my prayers seemed to be just formulations of thought in my head and not directed to a specific person, but rather a hazy god. Have we ever stopped and tried to fathom the very real existence of God? This is what I meant by the awful experience. It is truly terrifying when you start to realize that all this is not just words and ideas, but reality. REAL reality. Sorry I can't explain more, but some things refuse to be put into words.
I'm still on this amazing journey to knowing God, but I want to share several quotes that have helped me. I hope I didn't overload, but these all are just so powerful!
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
-- Shakespeare, Hamlet Act III, Scene III
I gave in, and admitted that God was God. --C. S. Lewis
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get neither comfort or truth, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. --C. S. Lewis
Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important. --C. S. Lewis
This could be taken a step further to say: "God, if nonexistent, is of no importance, but if He is real, He is of infinite importance. The only thing He is not is moderately important." Now translate that into your life!
Human beings must be known to be loved; but divine beings must be loved to be known. --Blaise Pascal
Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself, and he's not at peace with himself because he's not at peace with God. --Thomas Merton (as quoted by Ravi Zacharias)
God is like the sun. You cannot look at it, but without it you cannot look at anything else. --attributed to G. K. Chesterton
Nothing is important - except the fate of the soul. --G. K. Chesterton
You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. --C. S. Lewis
When a man has found something which he prefers to life, he then for the first time begins to live. --G. K. Chesterton
God cannot give us a happiness apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. --C. S. Lewis
The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried. --G. K. Chesterton
How does finitude express the infinite; how does the dirty describe the clean; how does the impure talk about the pure? When you and I can't keep our hearts clean for a solitary hour, how can we do justice to the description of who our loving God really is? --Ravi Zacharias
To realize God's presence is the one sovereign remedy against temptation. -- Francois Fenelon
The most important thing in your spiritual life is your prayer life. If you fail there, you will fail everywhere. --Ravi Zacharias
(On giants in the faith) Every man who has been successful in his spiritual life has been successful first in his personal life alone with God. --Ravi Zacharias
If you're a praying Christian, your faith in God will carry you, if you're not a praying Chrisitian, you will have to carry your faith, and you will get thoroughly, thoroughly exhausted. --Ravi Zacharias
What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when He catches us, as it were, off our guard. -- C. S. Lewis
HEAVEN AND HELL by Francis Thompson
| Quote: |
| 'Tis said there were no thought of hell, Save hell were taught; that there should be A Heaven for all's self-credible. Not so the thing appears to me. 'Tis Heaven that lies beyond our sights, And hell too possible that proves; For all can feel the God that smites, But ah, how few the God that loves! |
The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. --C. S. Lewis
excerpts from THE HOUND OF HEAVEN by Francis Thompson
| Quote: |
| I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes, I sped; And shot, precipitated Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat--and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet - "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me." I pleaded, outlaw-wise, By many a hearted casement, curtained red, Trellised with intertwining charities; (For, though I knew His love Who followed, Yet was I sore adread Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside) ... Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat - "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me." ... Nigh and nigh draws the chase, With unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed majestic instancy And past those noised Feet A voice comes yet more fleet - "Lo! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me." ... Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me." |
And, if you're still interested, here is a really good article:
RZIM's A Slice of Eternity 12/15/05
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