Friday, March 14, 2008

- Thoughts from Tozer

So I'm going to start out with a post on a thought about my spiritual walk. I've been re reading Tozer's Pursuit of God for about the 5th time.



So here it goes.



I believe that I can make a solid argument that there are three dimensions of growth. These include knowing, loving and experiencing God, knowing, loving and experiencing self (the redeemed) and finally knowing, loving and experiencing others. So in summary, the vertical relationship with God, the horizontal relationship with others and the singleton of relationship with self. The first two are an easy sell and the third is a bit more indirect. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he said the first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. The second is to love others as you would like to be loved yourself which I would say is obviously about loving others but their is an implied healthy loving of self...note I'm not talking about selfish hedonism.



With that said I'll get to the point. I believe that a negative of technology and the availability of knowledge we are running into a new problem. The new problem is a form of intellectual gluttony. So I would say the following:



When our knowledge of God exceeds our submission to God, these three facets of growth are impacted negatively.



1. In relation to self: I have become gluttonous, where gluttony is defined as using something that God designed to be used in balanced moderation is rather consumed in excess with an adverse affect.



2. In relation to others: I have become a hypocrite, where hypocrisy is defined as knowing and telling others what to do but not doing it myself. And hypocrisy is one of those labels that most damages a cause. It is widely accepted that if I can prove someone a hypocrite that it is quite acceptable to discount that person's knowledge as impractical. A real shame when it comes to being a witness to others regarding the Christian endeavor.



3. In relation to God: I have discounted grace and counted Christ's work as incomplete. To pursue more knowledge then I have submisson to means that I have manufactured a standard of knowledge that neither Christ or grace have supplied. Thus I create an unneccessary and self empowering rather than God fulfilling standard for my own achieving maturity and qualifying.



So there it is.



In Brief: When knowledge exceeds submission I become gluttonous to myself, a hypocrite to others and to God I discount Christ.





Feedback?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nick, Nick, Nick...Look Brother I'm thick as brick compared to you, This point about intellectual gluttony, Is right on! I think I'm there....The self centered way we all want to be heard, but no one wants to listen...with each new discovery from what we learn from the Bible Should come a new repentance....

speaking of repentance & knowledge I wanted to get a message to your out of town freind, first I think I acted bit like a Jack ass towards him and his gift, could be that head knowledge "puffs up thing" The Bible talks about. I am really concerned for him, and others who are following the false teachings of Rob Bell, you see I think I handled myself poorly, but I still think he is off base pushing a man centered Christanity, even on a tee-shirt. Check out this critique on Rob Bell's teaching about God putting his faith on us...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wSAEezBc3s&feature=related

"In Brief: When knowledge exceeds submission I become gluttonous to myself, a hypocrite to others and to God I discount Christ."
Wow and I thought you thought I was negative about myself...Look here is how old low selfesteem bob would say it....The more I learn about God's Holyness, the more convinced I am that I'm completly lost and without hope, this confirms my terminal hypocrisy before, during, and after receiving God's grace. it is in this broken state (realization)that I focus on Christ's act of love on the cross, that motovaes me to share the gospel to a lost and dieing world. I Discount myself
And put on Christ. Self is dead.

I'm weak on writting, hoefully you can make sence of it...Love you man! Bob