I used to share a quote every Monday, but stopped the routine. I may try to make it an every Monday thing again. We’ll see. Generally, I don’t go searching for a quote but share something I stumble upon while reading books, blogs, magazines, etc.
I have concerns about the evangelical terminology “relationship with God” – Don’t get me wrong, I do believe we can have a relationship with God but it seems that evangelicalism can tip this too far in one direction. A post where I elaborate is here: Problems with saying you have a “relationship with God”…maybe we need new terminology?
The quote below has a similar theme:
It is possible, in our pursuit of intimacy with God, to:
1. Allow our familiarity to degenerate into flippancy.
2. Fail to remember His transcendence by placing extreme emphasis on His immanence.
3. Lose sight of His holiness.
4. Overemphasize the subjective fruit to the exclusion of the objective foundation.
5. Fail to come to Him on His terms.
6. Lose sight of the distinction between Creator and creature.
Sam Storms
www.enjoyinggodministries.com.
** While I have written some things to automatically post, I won’t be checking into my blog this week – so I will not be able to “approve” any comments left until I return. Have a good week and thanks for following my blog!
This reminds me of the whole Abba/Daddy/Poppa thing. My understanding is that Abba, while quite a familiar term, does not come anywhere near to equating with Daddy/Poppa.
http://theaquilareport.com/abba-is-not-daddy/
Cheers,
Tim
Thanks Tim! That link is exceptional and I agree. In a class I recently took that covered Romans, the Prof went on a rant and shared similar thoughts on how Abba is NOT daddy. I like the title “Expressing intimacy while preserving the dignity of God” and how it says “to call God ‘Abba, Father’ is to speak to him with reverence as well as confidence” – this is the balance we need, rather than drifting into extremes of lacking reverence or lacking confidence.
Just came upon this article on the same Abba/Daddy issue. Thought you’d appreciate Tim. Fact Checker: Does Abba mean Daddy?
That article is excellent, Laura. Thanks for the link.
Hi, these things are worth considering. But in the end I think I mostly disagree (sorry!). All that you and Sam says would be true – except that God offers us grace that goes beyond all those considerations and jesus gives us licence to think of God as our father, some would say as our dad. Of course there are dangers in that, but i feel the greater danger is to overemphasise the opposite side – and God seems happy to accept those dangers.
Thanks for your thoughts unklee. For me, it is not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with the quote (or my thoughts), but just that the particular caution each person needs to hear may vary depending on their church background, the Christan culture they are a part of, and their personality type too. There is that “tension” or balance between God’s immanence and transcendence, and it can be easy to drift too far either way. In the particular culture that surrounds me in my area of the USA, I find that Sam Storm’s points are on target and the caution points desperately need to be heard. I’d say this is a common problem in much of American evangelical culture, and I frequently observe the problems he points out.
However, I grew up in another area of the USA where evangelicalism was a minority – a more formal and transcendent perspective of God was emphasized and the idea of a relationship with God was very foreign. In fact, when I lived there, you had to do a great deal of spiritual work explaining to people that a relationship with God was even possible! Some sadly thought it was almost heretical to think of God in a relationship type of way. So, I’ve experienced both extremes and the problems that can result either way…
Dear Sister Laura in JESUS, Thank you for this blessed message. Babu