Response

You say that you have opened your mind and have taken God "out of the box." But what if in doing so you have actually put God into your own box. You say that you did not "feel" right when you heard that God was a jealous God. If you take that feeling and use it as the basis for what you think God should be like you have already "made God in your image" which is something that you are actually arguing against doing. Whenever we come up with ideas of God based on how we "feel" God should be we have already made a god in our image. And this god that we have made can be very comfortable. It can make us feel good. We can use this god when we want to and get rid of him or change him when we, ourselves change. But this god that we have made for ourselves is not God, far from it. It is not until we humbly seek God with love that we can begin to see him for who he is. Everything that we can know about God is what he has revealed to us. The attributes of himself that he reveals to us are complete and unchanging. It is who he is all the time. So when the bible tells us that God is love(1 John 4:8) and that God is jealous(Deuteronomy 4:24) we should accept God for who he tells us he is and not try to tell him who he should be based on our feelings.

Assignment week 1

Welcome, brothers!  In order to prepare for this week's assignment, please read chapters 1-3 of the book, "The Knowledge of the Holy." 

Your assignment is:

1. Watch the video

http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/11849/GOD_is_Jealous_of__OPRAH/.  Oprah Winfrey is commonly called the leader of the largest "church" on earth.  Her followers number in the millions, a gigantic collection of people ranging in belief from New Age thought to nominal Christianity.  Even many born again viewers regularly tune in to her various broadcasts imbibing not only her social commentary, but her religious beliefs as well.   

2.  Write a 200 word response to this quasi-Christian leader, using Tozer's logic from your reading (but put in your own words).  It should be respectful (no name calling or insults) but firm, employing scripture with sound reasoning.   

3.  I will play "Oprah's Advocate" and argue back to each one of you.  You are allowed one counter-response to me.  

4.  Complete the assignment by Thursday of this week.

--John