ACTIVITY III
GENERAL COMMENTS
We may not all have the ego-shattering experience of a man by the name of Isaiah when he first came into the presence of his "GOD", nevertheless, his story serves to make a point.
Isaiah, an Old Testament prophet of the Bible, had already received prophetic messages from his "GOD" for several years. However, when he was brought into a close relationship with this "GOD" for the first time, he discovered that he was still unprepared. We might say that Isaiah’s spiritual journey really did not begin until he was, on that occasion, brought into a direct confrontation with his "GOD" as he was caught up into heavenly places. Then from his SELF-CENTERED nature he cried out, "There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." (Isaiah 6.1-13)
On that occasion, Isaiah was horrified to discover that his human nature was totally inadequate to deal with the nature of this "GOD" with whom he must relate. Fortunately for Isaiah, his "GOD" was also One of LOVE, for his guilt was removed and sins forgiven before communication was required.
Of course "GOD" as you understand Him may not be so demanding of you before communication can begin. Nevertheless, a question must still be considered. What does your "GOD" require of you before you can have a relationship with Him?
Based on your previous self-evaluation in ACTIVITY I and your ideas about your "GOD" in ACTIVITY II, it should now be possible to determine just whether and how you might begin to have a spiritual relationship with "GOD" as you understand Him.
Since you are a certified card-carrying member of the human race, you will recall from ACTIVITY I that you are SELF-CENTERED. This is not something that you can change, it's just an inherent part of your humanity. Therefore the first question to be answered is whether or not "GOD" as you understand Him will be willing to begin a relationship with you based on the fact that you may have a different nature from His. That is, your nature is SELF-CENTERED but His nature is GOD-CENTERED. In other words, His TEMPERAMENTS, ATTITUDES, DECISIONS, and BEHAVIORS come from His own unique nature. Since His nature may be quite different from yours, it is not at all clear at the outset that He will want, or be able to take you as is.
Fortunately, your evaluation of "GOD" as you understand Him will now permit an answer to this question. This is so because you not only viewed His attributes of ABILITY, LOVE, and JUSTICE independently, but you also had ideas about the way that your "GOD" will tradeoff between His attributes of LOVE and JUSTICE. As it turns out, the way in which your "GOD" is willing to balance these two attributes against one another is key to understanding what kind of a relationship you can have with Him.
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ACCOMMODATING "GOD" |
Let’s look at each of the four ideas of "GOD" back in Chart IV of ACTIVITY II, from which you were asked to choose earlier. Go back to ACTIVITY II and review the nature of the "GOD" on the right side of Chart IV. We might say that this is an idea of "GOD" who will always ACCOMMODATE to your situation. Since His attributes are greater than your own, He is well aware of your shortcomings, but He will always forgive you when you fall short of His standards and appeal to His mercy. This means that He will accept your SELF-CENTERED nature as is and without change, although repeated requests to forgive the same trespass might shame you and motivate some self-improvement in that area of your life. Over the years, this idea of "GOD" has been most popular with a majority of WORKSHOP participants.
A good "support group" with whom we can share ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS without fear of rejection is one example of this type of "GOD". This "GOD" is easy to have a relationship with because there is no danger of ever being condemned or rejected. Thus SPIRITUALITY in the form of guidance and acceptance are His clear virtues. However, a relationship with Him does have one drawback. Since He places no demands upon you beyond your own ability for change, the internal conflicts which stem from your SELF-CENTERED nature will remain unabated unless you choose to work on them yourself.
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JUDGEMENTAL "GOD" |
Just as "right" is the opposite of "left", this idea of "GOD" in Chart IV has been just about as unpopular as the previous one has been popular. Only rarely have WORKSHOP participants had this idea of their "GOD", although oddly He seems to be the one typically portrayed in movies, television, and the like, where someone’s religion is the topic. Since this "GOD" always administers Law Enforcement (punishment) before forgiveness, He has characteristics that we sometimes associate with an angry "GOD".
With monastic lifestyles on the decline in the 20th Century, a good example of someone dedicated to achieving SPIRITUALITY with this type of "GOD" is increasingly difficult to find. However, any philosophy stressing religious duties, or devotion to Him by asceticism and self-denial, pleases this type of "GOD". Others sometimes see their "GOD" in this way if they view Him more as a "force" than as a "person", because Law and Law Enforcement then seem to become more of a mechanical thing.
Although this "GOD" claims to possess LOVE, the ever-present threat of punishment usually causes the devotee to be far more concerned about self-improvement than about true fellowship with Him. He, like the ACCOMMODATING "GOD", requires no change to begin a relationship with Him. However, the level of SPIRITUALITY you will be able to achieve will be quite dependent on the extent to which you are able to suppress your SELF-CENTERED flaws in His presence.
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DEMANDING "GOD" |
This DEMANDING "GOD" in Chart IV is quite different from the previous two types. He is unwilling to make compromises between His LOVE and JUSTICE in the way He deals with you, even though some of His attributes are still less than perfect. If your "GOD" is of this type, He will demand that your nature change from your present SELF-CENTERED one to one that is GOD-CENTERED like His. Since He will not compromise to accommodate your lower standards and is unwilling to favor either His LOVE or JUSTICE over the other, your spiritual standards must be raised to His higher GOD-CENTERED level.
Now of course if your "GOD" has attributes only modestly above your own, self-improvement could possibly achieve this result. However, the more likely situation is that you will see His attributes as much higher than yours, making it impossible for you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps to attain His level of acceptability. In that event you must turn to your "GOD" in FAITH, asking Him to produce the necessary changes in you. If your "GOD" is something less than the (10,10,10) shown in the Chart, you will undoubtedly be moved to elevate your standards by some combination of FAITH PLUS SELF IMPROVEMENT.
Actually this idea of "GOD" is the one visualized by the vast majority of religious people in the world who are sincerely and dedicatedly pursuing a relationship with "GOD" as they understand Him. If this is your idea of "GOD", you would undoubtedly understand Him to be uncompromising, high above you, willing to change you because of His LOVE, yet demanding that you do your part through self-improvement to attain maximum SPIRITUALITY. Remember, this "GOD" will not compromise so a relationship with Him cannot begin until He first changes you, or you first increase your acceptability by self-improvement. People who have this DEMANDING "GOD" are not usually certain just how much improvement is required or sometimes, even who is responsible for the first step. Consequently, they generally will be moved to begin what they trust will be a combined effort by trying to deal with those problem areas of their lives needing improvement.
A recollection of Chart I in ACTIVITY I will recall that it divided "US" into BASIC HUMAN NATURE and PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT. Remember that our BASIC HUMAN NATURE includes our TEMPERAMENTS with our emotions; it is what we are born with and cannot be changed. Nevertheless it can and does influence our PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT as we encounter all sorts of people and circumstances in the culture where we live. Consequently, our PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT is formed during our lives and is therefore subject to change. It is in this part of "US" where PROBLEM ATTITUDES come about, poor DECISIONS are made, destructive BEHAVIORS/ADDICTIONS occur, and internal conflicts exist. Hence, it is here where corrective actions must be taken before SPIRITUALITY can begin if your idea of "GOD" is this DEMANDING "GOD".
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SOVEREIGN "GOD" |
If your idea of "GOD" is that (10, 10, 10) One in the center of Chart IV, the news is both good and bad. The good news is that He can do anything He wants to do anytime He wants to do it, and that His LOVE for you is unconditional. But the bad news is that you are unacceptable to Him in your present form, because He is both perfect and demanding, but you are not. Clearly, this particular idea of "GOD" puts Him in a separate category from the others. He must be referred to as SOVEREIGN because He is unsurpassed, supreme, transcendent, and uncompromising. His perfect GOD-CENTERED nature is as high above "US" as the heavens are above the earth. Therefore, it is out of the question for you to even attempt to approach His infinite standards by a self-improvement program. Therefore if SPIRITUALITY is ever to become possible with this "GOD", you can do absolutely nothing to achieve it; He must do everything!
Such a limiting restriction prompts the question, what would we have to ask Him to do? The answer to this question will make more sense if the differences between your SELF-CENTERED human nature and His SOVEREIGN GOD-CENTERED nature are illustrated.
Would it be possible for someone to have an on-going "spiritual" relationship with a pet turtle? The turtle would have to
come to understand its master’s deepest thoughts and genuine concerns for it. It would have to understand its master's desires for an intimate lifelong friendship with it.
What a silly line of thought!!! Yet, let’s press the question and ask, just why is it so silly?
Well, its silly when we begin to think about a turtle’s nature compared with that of a human being. A turtle has some kind of a "basic turtle nature" that causes it to have certain "attitudes" about the OUTSIDE WORLD, make "decisions" in some way known only to turtles, and then act on those "decisions". If our understanding of a turtle’s "psyche" leaves something to be desired, think about the problem that a turtle must have in trying to understand a human being.
A turtle’s inability to relate to its master goes far beyond its inability to talk. Even if it could talk, the chances are it would have nothing worthwhile to say, nor could a person share his thoughts with it because a human being operates on a far higher level than a turtle. A person relates spiritually to the OUTSIDE WORLD in ways that are totally beyond the ability of a turtle, therefore having a "spiritual" relationship with a turtle is silly to even think about.
But the point is simply this; we are as "turtles" to a SOVEREIGN (10, 10, 10) "GOD". We really have nothing worth saying to Him that He doesn’t already know and taken steps to deal with, and are woefully incapable of understanding His thoughts. So our human nature is primitive by His standards; in effect we’re "tuned" to a different and much lower "wavelength" than an infinite "GOD" and we’re stuck with it --- or are we?
Our situation would be impossible were it not for the fact that this unique SOVEREIGN "GOD" also has unlimited ABILITY. Therefore, SPIRITUALITY with this "GOD" could occur if He decided to simply give "US" His GOD-CENTERED nature. However, there would be no point in Him doing that unless we first decided to submit to Him so we could profit by the change.
Consider the steps that would have to occur before we could have a spiritual relationship with this SOVEREIGN "GOD".
Step 1: We would initially have to accept His terms for such a change. He would have to destroy the appeal of our SELF-CENTERED nature, since it could have no value in a relationship with this SOVEREIGN "GOD".
Step 2: He would then have to make "US" brand new spiritual persons, possessing His perfect GOD-CENTERED spiritual nature.
Step 3: He would then have to put "US" into a spiritual relationship with Him so that a new fellowship could begin.
Now this process as described is already available to you if you have chosen this SOVEREIGN "GOD" to be your "GOD", since He is the "GOD" of the Bible. To show that this is the case, compare the steps given in the Bible with the ones given above, for a relationship with the "GOD" of the Bible.
Step 1: "For sin’s power over "US" was broken when we were immersed to become a part of Jesus Christ; through his death the power of your sinful (SELF-CENTERED) nature was shattered."
"Your old sin-loving (SELF-CENTERED) nature was buried with Him by immersion when He died---"
"For you have become a part of Him, and so you died with Him, so to speak, when He died---"
"Your old evil (SELF-CENTERED) desires were nailed to the cross with Him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin’s control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin".
(Romans 6.3-7)
Step 2: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (new spiritual person); old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
(I Corinthians 5.17)
Step 3: "But GOD, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places (for fellowship) in Christ Jesus."
(Ephesians 2.4-6)
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SUMMARY |
By putting together what we’ve learned in ACTIVITIES II and III, we are in a position to summarize the main points covered in those ACTIVITIES:
People have many different ideas about "GOD" and the way they understand Him.
However, the way in which your "GOD" handles the tradeoff between His LOVE and JUSTICE is vital to your relationship with Him, and key to how rewarding it will be. For example,
(ACCOMMODATING "GOD") If your idea of "GOD" is that He is willing to simply accommodate to your human nature by favoring His LOVE over His JUSTICE, you can have an easy, non-demanding, spiritual relationship with Him, but one in which SPIRITUALITY will probably produce little change in your life.
(JUDGEMENTAL "GOD") On the other hand, if your idea of "GOD" is that He favors His JUSTICE over His LOVE, then any relationship you have with Him will probably be troubled and unrewarding, because it will be based more on fear than on love.
(DEMANDING "GOD") If your idea of "GOD" is that He is demanding but that you must do your part to measure up, you may find SPIRITUALITY to be rewarding, but will probably never be sure whether you’ve done enough to be fully accepted by Him.
(SOVEREIGN "GOD") If your idea of "GOD" is that He is perfect both in His LOVE and JUSTICE, SPIRITUALITY can become most rewarding and life-changing, when you come to realize that your efforts will always fall short of His standards, and that you must depend completely on Him for any changes required for His full fellowship and approval.
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YOUR SPIRITUALITY DESIRES |
We’ve outlined four principal views of "GOD". These four views will include the vast majority of people who seek for some form of SPIRITUALITY. After studying this section of the WORKSHOP, who do you want your "GOD" to be?
ACCOMMODATING "GOD" _____
JUDGEMENTAL "GOD" _____
DEMANDING "GOD" (limited attributes)_____
SOVEREIGN "GOD" (10,10,10) ______
Questions and/or Comments