Dear Jesus, Thank-you. You've given me a sister who I can talk to, besides Arni. Help us to learn more truth. Amen.
Okay. page 22-last sentence and carried onto page 23. This is the crux of my argument about God and his other-centeredness. To me, the authors got this right. Satan would go after God, claiming in his deception what God is ...but is not. God is not self-exalting, self serving, self-aggrandizing, self-glorifying.
page 23 Yes. Satan deceives humans about God's Character.
There is a misapprehension about God. In the book "Friends not Servants," Graham Maxwell tells how he surveyed one person, a children's sunday school teacher, who said she tried to teach positive stories about God to the children and "stay away from some of the more ferocious aspects of Him." : (
Reminds me of the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird." The children think they understand who the evil in their neighborhood is...after all, he "fits" their explanations. But in the end, the true character of the "evil man", is revealed, "made known"--he is the sum of innocence, is a savior of Scout, the little girl, despite how he was treated by them, and the one who was always reaching out wanting to be a friend from the very beginning.
Page 24-25. Definition of glory, righteousness and Holiness by me: other-centeredness. Replace these words with the word other-centeredness and it becomes clear. Clearly his character is other-centeredness--but the authors never say it. They only say what Satan says he is--self centered. Love is other-centeredness. Just ask any successful married couple. The 10 commandments are a prescription from the Great Physician to become other-centered. and when that happens a person becomes holy because he or she becomes more and more like God.
Page 26 His character is to be made known. It is other-centeredness.
page 29 Exodus 34:5-7 All the attributes can be summed up in the phrase other-centeredness.
does not clear the guilty because being other centered He lets them have free will...there is good and bad in the universe-- we choose-- he honors our choice...
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children....Only in the sense that in punishing, he is trying to "set" straight, guide, protect "and keep" the willing-- He is relationship building, trust building, friendship building with his children -- never tearing down his children. So, His punishment is never the "end game." Sin itself is the "end game." True punishment (for lack of a better way of saying this) comes from sin. The wages of sin is-- "the tearing down and destruction of faithful relationship building between God and a man or woman, the destruction of a friendship with Him, the destruction of trust of Him, the destruction of a life and having anything to do with him or his other-centered ways, building without God a self-aggrandizing, self-absorbed, self-centered"-- death.
page 30 MB 46. Replace the word "glory" with the word "other-centeredness" and see if it gives the character of God even more
clarity.
page 30 6t 221 We are supposed to be representing God's character to the world. How do we show it? How do we show his glory? How do we show His holiness? How do we show His righteousness? Show it for what it is...His other-centeredness. We are other-centered to Him as he is with us. " For God So loved the world that He "GAVE"...... "Thank-you Father, I have done what you sent me here to do, I have made you known." John 17: 1-6
page 30 MB 46. Replace the word "glory" with the word "other-centeredness" and see if it gives the character of God even more
clarity.
page 30 6t 221 We are supposed to be representing God's character to the world. How do we show it? How do we show his glory? How do we show His holiness? How do we show His righteousness? Show it for what it is...His other-centeredness. We are other-centered to Him as he is with us. " For God So loved the world that He "GAVE"...... "Thank-you Father, I have done what you sent me here to do, I have made you known." John 17: 1-6
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