Sunday, January 16, 2011

Too Lofty For Me….

This weekend...in between bouts of January "spring cleaning"....I found three quotes that string together nicely.  And so, in this post...I am stringing them.

I found two of them on annie's facebook feed.  The other came from notes I was looking through....excerpts from a garage sale book  I found a summer or two ago.  Spiritual Notes To Myself by Hugh Prather.  It was a quarter at the garage sale....totally worth

it. And now the quotes...

God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints ~ A W Tozer

Hmmmm...election, predestination, sovereignty….guess these things fit in the Psalm 139 too lofty for me category.  At one point I wanted to know.  Correction.  At one point, I demanded to know.  How His Sovereignty interplays with our will.  The purpose of evil.  Why is there suffering? At lot of stuff just does not seem fair in this physical realm.  In fact, it seems downright unfair.  Even though in life I haven't personally gotten the short end of the stick too many times, I can get pretty offended for those who have.  And I still...ten years later....don't have definitive answers.  Just a handful of theories, musings..... ponderings. Guess  I am not theologian material...but I'm pretty sure I'm not nearing sainthood either. 

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair ~ G K Chesterton

That does seem like a better plan since demanding answers is a bit like beating your head against a wall.

And the quote from Spiritual Notes To Myself?

Here I am moving from point A to point B to point C in a fog.  But God gently replies "Take my hand and I will lead you out of the fog"  Then I get stubborn and say, "you didn't answer my question."

We ask God which apple we should buy, and think divine Love leaves the one with the rotten core for someone else.  We may even think God saves one or two from the crash and leaves all the other to burn to death.  We actually believe that what favors our body is a sign of God's grace.

Do I really think god doesn't know my question? Hugh Prather

Of course he knows our questions. And in due  time....when God deems us ready...he will will whisper the answers…..

6 comments:

Rhonda said...

Hi Sis Cindi,

I enjoyed reading the quotes and your thoughts. :)

On Universalist forums, something beautiful happens to transform a human heart, I've seen. Once a person realizes (comes to full realization--not just with the mind, but with the heart that is Spirit activated,) that God loves all people--the heart opens up, not only toward God's magnanamous love, but also toward all.

Its just a marvelous thing to behold.

For me, I believe God does indeed answer our questions; I believe He wants us to know Him as completely as its possible for a human to know Him. What we're ready to receive at a given moment will determine how much that is, of course. He knows, and He won't go any faster or expect more than we can handle.

I don't believe He will ever encroach upon our self-will/free will. We're pre-determined, I believe, only because we are His Creation, and that desire to love and be loved by Him is born into us. He put that there. He also allowed us to have choices, (a mind of our own) that He is pleased to give so that when we receive, we WANT to. He's so very patient. After all, He has no time restraints. Eternity stretches before us. :)

Bless ya--rhonda

kc bob said...

Liked that Chesterton quote.

Cindi said...

rhonda said:

For me, I believe God does indeed answer our questions; I believe He wants us to know Him as completely as its possible for a human to know Him. What we're ready to receive at a given moment will determine how much that is, of course. He knows, and He won't go any faster or expect more than we can handle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part of me agrees with what you've said here. Part of me sort of disagrees. Maybe that is because it does seem like he withholds answers...but perhaps he is actually whispering the answers to us but we don't have the ears to hear what he is saying. Or perhaps some things will always elude us while we are encased in this human form...?

Keith has always said that the focus should be on knowing Him and not the answers. Perhaps they are one in the same? Or perhaps when you know Him the answers to your burning questions don't seem so important.

Not sure...but thanks for the comments

Cindi...

Cindi said...

Bob...
Can't remember how I found it...as is often the case in my web journeys...but I think I looked up Chesterton quotes (my interest being piqued by the one in my post) and I came upon a quote website called WinWisdom. Diverse, varied, ecclectic quotes from all kinds of sources. Link -

http://www.winwisdom.com/homepage.aspx

And 10 pages of Chersterton quotes.

http://www.winwisdom.com/quotes/author/g-k-chesterton.aspx


I didn't get through all of them (one can only tarry so long on a trip through cyber space) but I did find two that I liked enough to add to my quote file...

A dead thing goes with the stream. Only a living thing can go against it.

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

Also..I got a kindle a few months ago and on Amazon, there are a bunch of free Chesterton books available for the kindle. I've loaded a few on my kindle. Haven't had the time to read them.

Someday.

Blessings to you...Cindi....

kc bob said...

I have a soft spot for him Cindi. A Chesterton quote changed my life 3 years ago when I posted about him.

Cindi said...

I read your post...very touching. I love quotes and think they can be lifechanging. I've said before they encapsulate so much truth in so few words. As far as Chesterton, I actually wrote something else about him a while back. Are you familiar with the play he wrote called The Secret?

http://mercynotsacrifice.blogspot.com/2009/09/secret.html

Blessings...
Cindi...