The Implications of "I Am"
I will be as straight forward as I can from the beginning of this post, my intent in this blog is to provoke thought on something that caught me off guard recently.
Not too long ago, I was reading "The Call" by Os Guinness. It's a great book that breaks down what it means to be "called" by God Biblicly. In the book Guinness attempts to destroy some long held ideologies about ministry and works to develop a new framework in which to think about Biblical calling. Early on in the book in a chapter titled "Let God be God", a statement is made about how God needs to hold His right place in our lives for us to understand our calling.
As we search the scriptures, we find this idea about God holding His right position in our lives many times. Guinness begins to devolop his point by sharing a part of George Steiner's novel, "The Portage to San Christobal of A.H". In this classic novel by Steiner, the fictional story of Hitler plays out with Hitler escaping from Germany and being hunted down by Nazi Hunters. As Guisness describes, at the end of Stiener's story, Hitler finally speaks and this is where Guisness hopes his readers will cling to. As I read the next few lines that resounded with Guiness in Stiener's story I was very provoked in thought. What Hitler says in this novel, even though purely fiction, really struck a chord with me. As I read I began to think on the topic of the implications of I AM. Hitler comments to the Hunters who had just caught him that he was not the true criminal but that the Jews with there perfect God were instead. Hitler cries that they are the actual criminals. As the story progresses, Hitler goes on to tell them in different points "Was there ever a crueler invention, a contrivance more calculated to harm the human exsitence than that of an omnipotent, all-seeing, yet invisible , impalpable, inconceivable God?" And that with the Jews creation of this God came "the creation of the ideal standard that no one can live up to". It is not a shock to me that I had never thought about such a point. I mean I like to think that I meditate on major implications of my faith quite often, but this one had never crossed my train of thought!
This story, as I said before is a fiction, but probably holds much truth in the way that people view the God of the Bible. A God that can never be reached, seems impersonal and has come and set a standard on our lives that can never be reached. What a horrible thing to do...to set the bar so high that no man may obtain it. I would presume that Stiener, the writter of the novel that Guisness discusses, is not the only one to hold these questions.
So where do we go with this? And what implications does God, the I AM have in our lives and in the world around us? How do we approach the idea, that with such a perfect God we now have to own up to our failures because a perfect God does not fail thus rendering the failures ours? (This idea stands a long distance from the idea of a man made God that has flaws). I believe the thing that most consumed my mind was the thought that as belivers we rejoice in our inability because we hold fast to hope in the One who is able...that being the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To the unbeliving world around us though, the thoughts of I AM might not be too far from or in a slightly different varation to that of Stiener's in his novel. So again I will say, I write this for the purpose of provoking thought of the implications of I AM in the world around us.
One thing I do know, and I will end on this note, is that I AM in the form of Jesus Christ stepped down into this world and died on a cross for our sins and shortcommings and was resurrected so that we might Glorify him as a personal, loving and just father who has personal and intimate relationships with his children. Through the death and resurection of Christ our hope is in Him and we can have confidence knowing we will never be good enough but that He is all suficient.
Steve
Not too long ago, I was reading "The Call" by Os Guinness. It's a great book that breaks down what it means to be "called" by God Biblicly. In the book Guinness attempts to destroy some long held ideologies about ministry and works to develop a new framework in which to think about Biblical calling. Early on in the book in a chapter titled "Let God be God", a statement is made about how God needs to hold His right place in our lives for us to understand our calling.
As we search the scriptures, we find this idea about God holding His right position in our lives many times. Guinness begins to devolop his point by sharing a part of George Steiner's novel, "The Portage to San Christobal of A.H". In this classic novel by Steiner, the fictional story of Hitler plays out with Hitler escaping from Germany and being hunted down by Nazi Hunters. As Guisness describes, at the end of Stiener's story, Hitler finally speaks and this is where Guisness hopes his readers will cling to. As I read the next few lines that resounded with Guiness in Stiener's story I was very provoked in thought. What Hitler says in this novel, even though purely fiction, really struck a chord with me. As I read I began to think on the topic of the implications of I AM. Hitler comments to the Hunters who had just caught him that he was not the true criminal but that the Jews with there perfect God were instead. Hitler cries that they are the actual criminals. As the story progresses, Hitler goes on to tell them in different points "Was there ever a crueler invention, a contrivance more calculated to harm the human exsitence than that of an omnipotent, all-seeing, yet invisible , impalpable, inconceivable God?" And that with the Jews creation of this God came "the creation of the ideal standard that no one can live up to". It is not a shock to me that I had never thought about such a point. I mean I like to think that I meditate on major implications of my faith quite often, but this one had never crossed my train of thought!
This story, as I said before is a fiction, but probably holds much truth in the way that people view the God of the Bible. A God that can never be reached, seems impersonal and has come and set a standard on our lives that can never be reached. What a horrible thing to do...to set the bar so high that no man may obtain it. I would presume that Stiener, the writter of the novel that Guisness discusses, is not the only one to hold these questions.
So where do we go with this? And what implications does God, the I AM have in our lives and in the world around us? How do we approach the idea, that with such a perfect God we now have to own up to our failures because a perfect God does not fail thus rendering the failures ours? (This idea stands a long distance from the idea of a man made God that has flaws). I believe the thing that most consumed my mind was the thought that as belivers we rejoice in our inability because we hold fast to hope in the One who is able...that being the Son of God, Jesus Christ. To the unbeliving world around us though, the thoughts of I AM might not be too far from or in a slightly different varation to that of Stiener's in his novel. So again I will say, I write this for the purpose of provoking thought of the implications of I AM in the world around us.
One thing I do know, and I will end on this note, is that I AM in the form of Jesus Christ stepped down into this world and died on a cross for our sins and shortcommings and was resurrected so that we might Glorify him as a personal, loving and just father who has personal and intimate relationships with his children. Through the death and resurection of Christ our hope is in Him and we can have confidence knowing we will never be good enough but that He is all suficient.
Steve
Guess noone wants to tackle this one! I think an important issue is raised in this post and it is that we (as christians) don't often think about how other people think about God or Jesus. A lot of times we might say that they don't understand or they haven't received God's gift for their life. And while this might be true, it is not because of God that they don't believe. It is because of christians. We don't take the time to understand where people are coming from. And if they are against Christ we don't want to know why, we just try to cram Him further down their throat. I'm not trying to christian bash here, but it's a reality that is out there that a lot of times we don't deal with very well. I AM is just as Steve described, but people don't look at God that way. They view him as distant and this high standard setter. It is not until we take the time to 'care' that we notice this and can alter our actions (with the Holy Spirit's help of course) in such a way that might help them to look at the way they see God a little differently. I'm guilty. I go about day after day without even as much as a thought, let alone an action, about what the person next to me might be thinking or going through in their life. If I truly cared for the souls of the lost would I say "How's it going?" and mean it. And so it's not an issue of beating myself up over it, but it's an issue of intentionallity. If we are not intenioinal as christians to seek God and His plan everyday then we become caloused to what He wants us to do, say, etc. We might think it's sad that people don't understand the gift we have been given and that everyone has access to, but the real question is whether or not we're willing to do something about it.
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