Hello Fideles Ministries friends. Today we would like to share with you a concern that just keeps resurfacing in our thoughts about raising children in our culture and age. That question is, how do we faithfully present to our children the true Person of the God of Scripture? What is our concern? Two things: first, any and all of us have the unfortunate tendency to begin to mold our perception of God into the image that we are most comfortable with. At some point, our "comfort" may begin to lead us to worship some of the "characteristics" of God that we prefer more than the "Person" of God as He has revealed Himself to be in the Scriptures. As bad as that is for us, the Second Commandment clearly points out that we will pass that error on to our children and even to their children with disastrous results.
Our second concern is about today's culture that our children are growing up in.
"As Michael Horton says, 'Nobody today seems to think that God is dangerous. And that is itself a dangerous oversight'.”
"It’s dangerous because before we yawn at God, we must first replace the majestic, holy, awesome Tiger of Scripture with a domesticated kitten, conformed to the standards of the world, measured by the yardstick of political correctness. Who wants a God who roars, who threatens, who judges? Why not rather fashion a god in our taste — a friendly god we can pet, leash, and export for popular appeal?" says Tony Reinke.
This seems to be not only true of our culture in general, but also of our churches, who in their efforts to "reach out" to unchurched people in a winsome way, are in danger of the same imbalance that we described above. This deprives not only the people they reach out to of a true understanding of who this Holy Person is, but in the meantime deprives their members and their children of the same. Make a little study of church history, this error has been repeated throughout the ages again and again. So, it is important that we individually recognize and moderate for ourselves and family these pendulum swings of imbalance.
To that end we would like to recommend a book and a blog page about that book.
The book:
"Yawning at Tigers: You Can't Tame God, So Stop Trying"
By Drew Dyck
“A strong antidote against a domesticated God.” Matthew Lee Anderson
"When was the last time you were overawed by God’s majesty? Have you ever stood in stunned silence at his holiness and power?
In our shallow, self-centered age, things like truth and reverence might seem outdated, lost. Yet we’re restless. And our failed attempts to ease our unrest point to an ancient ache for an experience of the holy.
Drew Dyck makes a compelling case that what we seek awaits us in the untamed God of Scripture—a God who is dangerous yet accessible, mysterious yet powerfully present. He is a God who beckons us to see Him with a fresh, unfiltered gaze.
Yawning at Tigers takes us past domesticated Christianity, into the wilds where God’s raw majesty, love, and power become more real and transformative than we could ever imagine."
Learn more:
The blog page from DesiringGod. org :
October 25, 2014
Stop Apologizing for God
Article by Tony Reinke
Topic: The Holiness of God
To be sure, to swing in the other direction and over-emphasize the Fear of God versus His Love does not result in the respect He is due. But, it is not so much "balance" that we need either. We need faith to always, actively be seeking the Living Person of God as the waves of cultural change press against us, and as our own personal Providence changes. We worship a real Personal Being with an unlimited depth to His Holy character, never a static set of attributes.
And we need to teach this to our children.
