Does the power of God vest in our practices and structures or in our knowledge of the heart of God?
Energy has a tendency to surge and stabilise, with peaks and troughs throughout its lifecycle. Various things are used to smooth power curves so we can use energy efficiently in our everyday lives.
Spiritually we also face a power curve. When we come to the faith, our locus of power and influence is rooted in the world, and ultimately in sin. We respond to what we see, hear, touch, taste or feel in our emotions. We apply logic and emotional responses to work successfully navigate the world. Those are the skills we are born with and that is all we know, so we do the best with what we have.
Our responses are of course moderated by cultural, cognitive and experiential factors. Thus Abraham, despite his roots, was influenced by his pagan culture. It shaped his traditions, values and responses.
Then God called him: it was the strting point that would trace the two influences of his life. From that moment the still, small voice of God was on the ascendancy and the prevailing voice of his culture began to recede.
Over the ensuing years, the voice of God emerged from the background clutter to become his dominant influence. During the phase of his life that led to him siring a half-son, Abraham faced intense competition between his established concept of truth and his emerging consiousness of the divine. It posed deep dilemmas for him as he wrestled with a relatively unknown God, whose light exposed all his real flaws.
Slowly the voice of God gained the upper hand and through his struggles, clarity and certainty of faith emerged. Then, when his heart was sufficiently renewed, God tested Abraham. In effect the LORD said, "You came out of that pagan world and reached thus far in your walk with me. But now that you can discern between these two world-views, it is time to finally decide which value system to adopt for you and your descendants".
It was an agonising moment for Abraham as he looked truth in the eye and confronted the crux of his faith. He had to dig deep to determine whether the God that he followed was the real thing. In his heart he knew that the sacrifice of children harked back to his pagan roots and confronted the unspoken regrets of his past. "LORD, why do you ask me to do this? This is not you. Have I grown so familiar with you that when you remove your distinctions I can no longer separate you from paganism?"
This is a deep issue. If the things that you presume to define your faith, such as church life, prayer, praise or whatever, was removed, would your faith still stand. The ecumenical movement would argue that our differences are not enough to sustain the divisions between faiths.
Do you buy that? In some ways they are right. There are good people in all persuasions, hard workers, generous, socially active souls that contribute very meaningfully to the world about us. So Christianity most certainly does not have a monopoly on the virtues we deem to define us.
Indeed, if your faith was stripped down to the bones you would feel very insecure, because a lot of Christian practice has become a linus blanket for keeping our faith intact. But, as for Abraham, the stripping away of the veneer represents the tipping point of our faith, where we must finally realise that if God is anything, He is everything and the faith we have is distinguished in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
When we get to the heart of our faith: the heart of God and His deep values relating to love and truth, we can finally say that the curve which describes our faith has become the only voice in our lives, silencing every alternative view. God is not a relative concept, He is the only true absolute by which all truth will be measured.
Knowing Him in such a riveting, personal way is the key to our power: it removes energy sapping distractions, focuses our lives and taps into the zeal of God that consumed the passion of all bible characters.
(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/
Energy has a tendency to surge and stabilise, with peaks and troughs throughout its lifecycle. Various things are used to smooth power curves so we can use energy efficiently in our everyday lives.
Spiritually we also face a power curve. When we come to the faith, our locus of power and influence is rooted in the world, and ultimately in sin. We respond to what we see, hear, touch, taste or feel in our emotions. We apply logic and emotional responses to work successfully navigate the world. Those are the skills we are born with and that is all we know, so we do the best with what we have.
Our responses are of course moderated by cultural, cognitive and experiential factors. Thus Abraham, despite his roots, was influenced by his pagan culture. It shaped his traditions, values and responses.
Then God called him: it was the strting point that would trace the two influences of his life. From that moment the still, small voice of God was on the ascendancy and the prevailing voice of his culture began to recede.
Over the ensuing years, the voice of God emerged from the background clutter to become his dominant influence. During the phase of his life that led to him siring a half-son, Abraham faced intense competition between his established concept of truth and his emerging consiousness of the divine. It posed deep dilemmas for him as he wrestled with a relatively unknown God, whose light exposed all his real flaws.
Slowly the voice of God gained the upper hand and through his struggles, clarity and certainty of faith emerged. Then, when his heart was sufficiently renewed, God tested Abraham. In effect the LORD said, "You came out of that pagan world and reached thus far in your walk with me. But now that you can discern between these two world-views, it is time to finally decide which value system to adopt for you and your descendants".
It was an agonising moment for Abraham as he looked truth in the eye and confronted the crux of his faith. He had to dig deep to determine whether the God that he followed was the real thing. In his heart he knew that the sacrifice of children harked back to his pagan roots and confronted the unspoken regrets of his past. "LORD, why do you ask me to do this? This is not you. Have I grown so familiar with you that when you remove your distinctions I can no longer separate you from paganism?"
This is a deep issue. If the things that you presume to define your faith, such as church life, prayer, praise or whatever, was removed, would your faith still stand. The ecumenical movement would argue that our differences are not enough to sustain the divisions between faiths.
Do you buy that? In some ways they are right. There are good people in all persuasions, hard workers, generous, socially active souls that contribute very meaningfully to the world about us. So Christianity most certainly does not have a monopoly on the virtues we deem to define us.
Indeed, if your faith was stripped down to the bones you would feel very insecure, because a lot of Christian practice has become a linus blanket for keeping our faith intact. But, as for Abraham, the stripping away of the veneer represents the tipping point of our faith, where we must finally realise that if God is anything, He is everything and the faith we have is distinguished in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
When we get to the heart of our faith: the heart of God and His deep values relating to love and truth, we can finally say that the curve which describes our faith has become the only voice in our lives, silencing every alternative view. God is not a relative concept, He is the only true absolute by which all truth will be measured.
Knowing Him in such a riveting, personal way is the key to our power: it removes energy sapping distractions, focuses our lives and taps into the zeal of God that consumed the passion of all bible characters.
(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/
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