We all need God; but not the commercialised God; not the TV evangelist God; not the false prophets of God; and, not so much the 'tweeted' God. The truth is:
"We don't like the feeling of being left alone." ~Ravi Zacharias
Where God makes himself known within each and every person, when they are boiled down to their indivisible parts, when all their anger against God is subdued, and they may speak plainly without need of self-protection, is in the existential basis of life.
When all distractions have decayed away, then the need of God is known.
When we are allowed to focus on our humanity, beneath the veneer and common intrigues of human life deeper than politics and established religion, there is a hunger throbbing in the heart. This is the need of God. And no other way is there but faith to live this road.
When we run without God, denying our innate hunger for direction, meaning, purpose and hope, we inevitably begin to swing like a pendulum between two sardonic and sadistic poles: pride and sensuality.
CHOOSE YOUR FLAVOUR OF SIN - 'UP' OR 'DOWN'
We all waver in sin between both pride and sensuality.
Pride, or more aptly spiritual pride in this class, is a predilection of the ascender; the person who is legalistic and judgmental by nature, and there is a little of that bubbling beneath every Christian, Muslim, and Buddhist. Then there is sensuality; the tendency of the descender. This person cannot stand religion and does not know God because they are blinded to their living need. The ascender has put them off. And into the gods of sensuality they go, denying the substance or identity of their existence.
Self-deification and pantheism are the great problems of this age - of all ages. In all ages we have struggles with either pride or sensuality or both.
THE SUPREME CALLING - FOLLOW JESUS OF THE GOSPELS
People can only be assigned positions over us if we allow that to take place, or if God does it (John 19:11). Likewise, why would we seek to gain an advantage over another in any way, unless by pride or sensuality?
True humanity, though, is not an up-or-down affair; it is truly egalitarian.
There is no emphasis on the ascender or descender. Pride and sensuality, as the foci captivating people, become more irrelevant before the transcendent light of God cast into people's lives. Where God lives, falsity dies.
What takes the place of pride and sensuality? It is freedom that takes its place; the freedom to worship in Spirit and truth. Then, we may know ourselves as we truly are.
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There is a great need of God - the one and only, true and living God - amongst all people. Though religion can be more distractive than attractive in our day, there is, and always will be, a great need of direction, meaning, purpose, and hope in people's lives. Only God can fill that otherwise eternal void.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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