Quote of the Day

I’m currently reading The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies.  This quote from chapter 2 made me wonder if my view of God is high enough or big enough.  It’s much more convenient for people to maintain the low view of God that is expressed in the first paragraph below.  Having a low view of God allows people to have the false perception that God is small, God is controllable, etc.  This is a God they can be much more comfortable with.  Verses like Exodus 15:11, Deuteronomy 10:17, & others talk about a holy and mighty God.  Do people often ignore verses like these because they’re uncomfortable or because taking them seriously would mean they’d have to seriously rethink their understanding of God?

A Low View of God

Many Christians-whether through their own ignorance or as a result of being poorly trained-downplay the holiness of God.  God’s name is maligned and blasphemed in the culture around us, and it seems that Christians have increasingly absorbed the world’s understanding of a God who is fun, who exists for our benefit, and who can be the butt of endless Jokes.

When believers do not understand God’s holiness and allow this doctrine to shape their faith, they cannot understand his hatred of all that is sinful and, thus, the need for discernment.  God’s holiness lies at the very heart of the need for discernment.  Our passion for God’s holiness, our desire to keep ourselves pure from sin, will motivate our practice of discernment.  The greater our understanding of God’s holiness, the greater will be our understanding of the importance of discerning truth from error.  We will desire to cast off all that is wrong so that we can be unsullied, unspoiled by sin.

The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment (Page 49-50)