Gods Among Us

The creeds, the Greeks, and the Muslims, they preach of a God intransigent, nebulous, and other.  They teach of a God beyond need, a state of pure being, a character so flawless that it can't be hurt.  Kind of like a rock.  A God as inorganic as possible while still being "alive".

Why do we worship the idea of something being "above need"?  Does it make something great, that it could spit upon or heal us without it making a difference?  

I would rather worship something that needs me.  To exist as a part of something greater, both beneficiary and benefactor.  I don't want to be a leech.  And a leech cannot worship its host, for it neither comprehends nor appreciates it.  Nor can the host ever really have love for the parasite, entirely dependent upon him for its existence.  Yet many would have us formulate our relationship to God as parasite/host.  Because that makes God more powerful, for him to not need us.  This is the same psychological distancing that pro-abortion advocates do- calling a fetus a parasite, in order to keep it as a second-class creature.  Except now it is man calling itself parasite, to keep it second-class to God.

You do not marry a woman because she doesn't need you.  Of course, you want her to be independent, but would you want her to be in a state of sovereign apathy towards you forever?  As love grows, dependence does also.  This is why it hurts when we lose someone we love.  Understanding that God is hurt-able would stimulate one to guilt, and empathy would stimulate one to repentance.  It is thus profitable to keep God at a nice theological distance, to keep our consciences from bothering us.

We are afraid of making God human.  We are afraid of making humans gods.  And we drive this wedge between the almighty and us just as far as it will go.  We make up doctrinal justifications after the fact, but really we're just afraid.  If we get too close to God, after all, then our reality starts changing.  And who wants change?

Wouldn't want God to get too close.  Wouldn't want God to get too real.

----compass----
Exodus 33:11 - The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend

John 17:3 - And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

“Why then, since God could have created cocreators, would he choose to make us creatures? Why did God choose to make us his everlasting inferiors?”
At that point one of them said, “God’s very nature forbids that he should have peers.”
I replied, “That’s interesting. For us God’s very nature requires that he should have peers. Which God is more worthy of our love?” (The Highest In Us, Truman G Madsen)

Hardened Hearts

The reason most of us keep sinning is because we don't want to overcome our sins.

Change isn't nearly so hard as building the desire to change.  Once the desire is in place, change is easy.

Talking about how to overcome sins is addressing the wrong problem.

Philisophical Baggage

Secular philosophies upon subjects like free will and moral relativism are very tidy, but examined closely you will never find such ideologies alive in their advocates. A moral relativist will protest injustice and unfairness. A Determinist will demand accountability from himself and those around him. An Atheist rejects nihilism. Antinatalists are rarely themselves unhappy.

Dead philosophies versus living water. An idea that gives no life serves only to salve one’s conscience or inflate one’s ego.  The gospel is meant to be alive in you and propel you forward, not help you to hide.  We would do well to ask if our pet philosophies and ideas actually propel us, or are they merely convenient intellectual constructs to address problems leveled at us, heuristics to smooth over the bumps in life?  Such things may have their place, but that place is generally a rather small one.