I don't really read a lot of blogs - if I am wanting to read a very long piece on the computer, I print it out and curl up on the couch to read. On the computer I can't concentrate very well sitting up straight and reading long, thought provoking, spiritual stuff - which is why, normally, I steer away from deep issues on my blog. Blogs, to me, are more for entertainment - does everyone agree - or for good information - or pictures. I'm extremely visual - extremely. LOVE PIX. I'm reading a biography now and continually go to the pictures in the middle of the book. I want more pictures. It's a biography of Lilias Trotter. So, I've googled her to get more pix. Having a hard time finding them. She was a missionary to North Africa. Amazing story.
Anyway - I'm going to finish what I started.
Final words in last post:
"You used to be molded, you used to be fashioned, you used to be controlled by good desires that had become inordinate. That's what the word means - out of order - too important to you - good things. "- Tim Keller on 1 Peter 1: 14
and I said....
The question I have to ask myself, says Elizabeth;
Is there something that is good and normal, but it is too important to me?
Am I shaped and molded by it,
or am I shaped and molded by the Holy Spirit indwelling me?
Am I ready at any moment to let go of anything He asks me to let go of?
The following is what I am going to finish posting which is a direct quote from Tim Keller's CD regarding vs. 14 of 1 Peter:
" Tom Oden - Prof. at Drew - 'Everybody has to live for something - Everybody has to have some central value that is the basis on which we make decisions'
'There is something that is your ultimate value, your ultimate reason for living - it could be attractiveness, it could be approval of people, it could be power, it could be anything - but everybody's got to have something that you live for -
That central value is that something without which you cannot receive life joyfully.'
- Thomas Oden
So - if you don't have that - your life falls apart.
T.O. says, 'now, you can either make God your central value which is an infinite center or you can put something finite in the way, something finite in the center - and when that happens - to the degree on which I center my life on a finite value instead of God, to that degree I relate to my past with guilt and to my future with anxiety. My relationship to the future will be one of anxiety to the degree that I have idolized finite values. Anxiety becomes neurotically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite values that properly should have been regarded as limited. If the thing I'm living for is money or if the thing I'm living for is my children or if the thing I'm living for is the Republican party or the Democratic Party I'm always going to be experiencing anxiety because those finite values cannot last. And so I will always feel threatened. On the other hand my relationship to the past will be one of guilt. Guilt becomes neurotically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite values that properly should have been regarded as limited. Why? Because if you've decided that 'the only way which I'm going to be able to look myself in the mirror is because of this value - I will achieve - I will be loved - I will look good' - whatever you decide that you've got to have in order to have meaning in life - when you fail those standards - finite gods NEVER FORGIVE - ever - You're always down on yourself.'
I have guilt in my life to the degree that I idolize finite values. I have anxiety in my life to the degree that I idolize finite values. And that's what Peter is talking about. What he is saying is; Life without God necessarily means I am driven by inordinate desires - good desires for good things that now fill me with anxiety and fill me with guilt."
That's all. That's all I have to say about that.
And I'll return to my less indepth subject matter in the next post.
There are stories to go with some of the songs I select.
I feel like I need to write about that.....at some point.
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