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"GOD" AS YOU UNDERSTAND HIM? |
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ACTIVITY II
GENERAL COMMENTS
Two ants were trudging wearily back to their anthill after a hard day of scavenging in the desert. Suddenly they came upon a huge object right in their path, stretching to the horizons both right and left. After struggling to its summit, the first ant was dismayed to see a second one just like it only a few feet beyond. Recognizing that these strange elongated structures were not a natural part of the desert, he exclaimed, "What in the world are these things and why are they out here in the middle of nowhere?" The second ant knowingly replied, "Why these things are called ‘rails’. I’m told they were placed here by great living creatures, maybe big insects---I don’t know, who also have created machines that move at fantastic speeds along these rails, so powerful and intelligent that they could easily destroy our whole anthill if they chose. Furthermore, I believe it is all true because I felt the vibration of one of their machines a while back."
With this, the first ant angrily scoffed, "That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard; I felt a vibration a while back too, but I could never believe such creatures exist unless one of them is willing to pay me a special visit to explain to my satisfaction just how such an incredible machine could work. The only ‘higher power’ I’m concerned about is the anteater that comes around here from time to time".
So you see that even ants, given the very same evidence, can still have different beliefs and different ideas of "GOD" as they understand him. Since one was right and the other wrong, you would be well advised to give some serious thought about who your "GOD" is.
We need to think about SPIRITUALITY in a way that is broad enough to consider the possibility of a "higher power" outside of ourselves. Furthermore, with such formidable internal struggles as those surfaced in ACTIVITY I, would anyone seriously desire to strive for a relationship with a "GOD" whose power and knowledge are not at least as great as our own?
At last count there were something over 5000 distinct religions in the world. While there are a few people who may believe that all of these religions visualize the same "GOD", simply defining alternative paths to Him, a serious review of the subject will reveal they do not. In fact there are many different ideas of "GOD", and many different understandings of the same "GOD" even within a single religion. For example, though most people see their "GOD" as the creator of the universe, some see their religion and their "GOD" as a "support group", or another type of "higher power". These many ideas of "GOD" have caused this WORKSHOP to allow for "US" to think about our "GOD" in a variety of ways.
In fact, even the Bible recognizes that people are motivated by different ideas of spirituality, by the following statement:
"For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of GOD except the Spirit of GOD". (I Corinthians 2.11).
We can understand from this that the spirit of a man relates "horizontally" to other people and to things of this world that can be perceived, whereas the Spirit of GOD relates "vertically" to the GOD of the Bible. Therefore, this WORKSHOP has been developed in such a way that it will allow "US" to think about "GOD" as we understand Him in either of these two ways.
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THE ATTRIBUTES OF "GOD" AS YOU UNDERSTAND HIM |
Just as ACTIVITY I was set up so you could evaluate yourself, some kind of method is now needed for you to set down your ideas concerning "GOD" as you understand Him. This is a necessary step in our search for greater SPIRITUALITY because the attributes of "GOD" in terms of His ABILITY, LOVE, and JUSTICE will always determine the type and degree of a relationship (thus SPIRITUALITY) that you can achieve with Him. For this reason, you are asked to think about each of the following three attributes of "GOD" as you understand Him.
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HOW MUCH ABILITY DOES YOUR "GOD" HAVE? |
| none |
unlimited |
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| 0 |
10 |
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Express the ABILITY of "GOD" as you understand Him on the above scale in the following three ways.
1) Power: How much raw Power would your "GOD" have to overcome the obstacles of life around you and to make changes within you as
required?
(Place a "1" somewhere on the above line between 0 and 10)
2) Knowledge/Wisdom: How much Knowledge would your "GOD" have of the whole array of life’s problems and circumstances confronting
you, and then how much Wisdom would He have in applying His Power to deal with them?
(Place a "2" on the above line somewhere between 0 and 10)
3) Presence: How much of the time could your "GOD" spend listening and attending to you personally? A 10 would indicate His continuous,
undivided attention.
(Place a "3" on the above line somewhere between 0 and 10)
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HOW MUCH LOVE DOES YOUR "GOD" HAVE? |
| none | unconditional | |
| _____________________________________________________________ | ||
| 0 |
10 |
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Express the LOVE of "GOD" as you understand Him on the above scale in the following two ways.
1) Concern: How much genuine Concern do you believe that your "GOD" has for you? A 10 would indicate that you believe it is
unconditional, i.e. independent of what you might or might not do to deserve it.
(Place a "1" somewhere on the above line between 0 and 10)
2) Fellowship: In addition, would your "GOD" like to have a personal on-going relationship with you so that you could get to know Him more
intimately?
(Place a "2" somewhere on the above line between 0 and 10)
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HOW MUCH JUSTICE DOES YOUR "GOD" HAVE? |
| none | uncompromising | |
| ____________________________________________________________ | ||
| 0 |
10 |
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Express the JUSTICE of "GOD" as you understand Him on the above scale in the following two ways.
1) Law: Does your "GOD" have an absolute set of standards (Do’s and Don’ts) and to what degree is it applied to everyone impartially?
(Place a "1" somewhere on the above line between 0 and 10)
2) Law Enforcement: To what degree does your "GOD" enforce His Law that is on His "books" to ensure that His form of
JUSTICE will prevail? (A 10 would indicate that His Law Enforcement is uncompromising which means that if you or anyone violates His Law in any way at all, even one time, there will be some form
of Law Enforcement, i.e. punishment)
(Place a "2" somewhere on the above line between 0 and 10)
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QUESTION |
Is your "GOD" the "GOD" of the Universe? ___________
the "GOD" of the Bible? ___________
another "GOD"? Who or What? ___________
Each of the above ideas concerning the attributes of your "GOD" was posed so you could answer them without necessarily experiencing them personally.
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QUESTION |
Have you personally experienced your "GOD"s ABILITY?________
LOVE? ________
JUSTICE? ________
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QUESTION |
Look at your ideas of "GOD"s JUSTICE. If you regarded Him lower in Law Enforcement than in Law, did you consider the possibility that the full impact of His Law Enforcement, i.e. punishment, might not occur at the time of the offense but rather at some later time?
Do you wish to change your first idea of His Justice?
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QUESTION |
Have you also considered the possibility that some form of Law Enforcement, i.e. punishment, may have occurred at the level of your spiritual self rather than the level of your physical self? (This could be possible if your "GOD" is a spiritual Being)
Again, do you wish to change your first idea of His Justice?
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ATTRIBUTES OF "GOD" AS OTHERS UNDERSTAND HIM |
You may be interested to compare the way your ideas of "GOD" as you understand Him relate with those of other WORKSHOP participants in the past.
Most participants give their "GOD" very high marks with respect to His ABILITY. If He is less than a 10, it is almost always because they feel they have not always sensed His Presence or because their "GOD" is a "support group" involving other people with similar problems.
Again most participants give their "GOD" a 10 or near that for LOVE. When they see Him significantly lower in LOVE, it has been generally because some severe problem has befallen them and they didn’t sense that their "GOD" helped or was even with them through the difficulty.
The big difference has come in participants’ evaluation of the JUSTICE of their "GOD". Although most give Him high marks on ABILITY and LOVE, many seem to struggle with the issue of JUSTICE and usually see their "GOD" lower in that area than the first two.
Do your ideas generally agree with the average or are they different in some important respect? Yes ___ No ___ If Yes, How
______________________________________________________________
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FOUR IDEAS OF "GOD" IDENTIFIED |
In any case, the way that "GOD" as you understand Him deals with this "tension" between His LOVE and JUSTICE will strongly influence the kind of relationship you can have with Him. Rewarding SPIRITUALITY requires that you be on good terms with your "GOD", so that He is accepting you and is willing to show you His LOVE and provide His guidance as you face life’s problems. Certainly His sense of JUSTICE and the way He handles the business of Law Enforcement when you break His rules constitutes a potential threat to that relationship, and thus to SPIRITUALITY itself. Perhaps this is one reason why many WORKSHOP participants perceive their "GOD" to be willing to deflate His JUSTICE so as not to interfere with His LOVE for them.
The way your "GOD" handles this balance between His LOVE and JUSTICE is vital to your SPIRITUALITY. Chart IV below provides you with another way in which to think about this very special issue. This Chart is based on the assumption that the attributes of your "GOD" are greater than your own. If His LOVE and JUSTICE are both greater than yours, a question arises: When you fall short of your "GOD"s standard of JUSTICE by violating His Law, just how does He react? Chart IV shows three possible ways He could deal with you.
The area on the right side of the Chart defines an idea of "GOD" who has the very same levels of LOVE and JUSTICE that your "GOD" has, but always puts His LOVE over His JUSTICE when He must make a decision regarding the way He will deal with you. In other words, this idea of "GOD" is fully aware that you have fallen short of His standards and may allow the incidental effects of your violation to befall you as the world takes its toll, but understands that His standards are beyond your ability to achieve.
He is therefore ready to immediately forgive your trespass when you ask Him, on the overriding basis of His LOVE for you.
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"GOD" AS YOU UNDERSTAND HIM? |
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The left side of the Chart defines an opposite idea of "GOD" as you understand Him. This idea of "GOD" also has the very same levels of LOVE and JUSTICE that your "GOD" has, but takes an opposite view from the previous one. When you fail to meet the standards of this idea of "GOD", He may still LOVE you but will execute His Law Enforcement against you first, then possibly forgive you later after you have paid the debt for your trespass. With this idea of "GOD", JUSTICE will prevail over LOVE whenever He must make a decision between the two.
Of course this leaves a third area in the center of the Chart that defines a third possible idea of "GOD" as you understand Him. This idea of "GOD" again possesses the very same levels of LOVE and JUSTICE that your "GOD" has, but is unwilling to handle the tradeoffs between them as in the previous two cases. With this idea of "GOD", He is unwilling to put either His LOVE or JUSTICE ahead of the other. Therefore He is forced to come up with some other way of dealing with you in regard to His treatment of these two attributes.
The (10,10,10) within this center area would be an idea of "GOD" with the very highest levels of ABILITY, LOVE, and JUSTICE (10, 10, 10) that you could possibly ascribe to Him.
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QUESTION |
Based on these four ideas of "GOD", which idea do you now believe best describes "GOD" as you understand Him?
The idea of "GOD" on the right? __________
The idea of "GOD" on the left? __________
The idea of "GOD" in the center? __________
The (10,10,10) idea of "GOD" in the center? __________
Give some serious thought to this question before you continue because your answer will be very important with respect to,
the requirements to begin a spiritual relationship with "GOD" as you understand Him,
and,
the spiritual growth which you will be able to achieve with "GOD" as you understand Him.
These two subjects strike at the heart of SPIRITUALITY and will be discussed in more detail in ACTIVITIES III and IV.
Questions and/or Comments
