It's Not About You! (Or Is It?)
When God acts for his own name's sake, I sometime hear that as him saying: "I don't care about you!"
I recently heard a sermon on Ezekiel 36:22:
“Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you profaned among the nations where you went.’”
The take away from the sermon was: “It’s not about you!”
Now, I'm not sure how that phrase strikes you, but for me, it’s like the pastor just slapped me across the face: “Hey, dummy, God doesn't care about you, he cares about his reputation. He only cares about his glory!”
The fact that I interpret it this way says a lot more about how I think about God than it does about God or the sermon I heard.
See, in our fallenness, we constantly believe the original lie: “God is a jerk!”
So when God says, “It's not for your sake that I will act.” I hear him saying, “I don't care about you! I only care about myself. You are just a means for me to show how powerful I am!”
But then the book of Ezekiel tells us the story of God's chosen people going into captivity because of their disobedience—their idolatrous, exploititive, unjust ways—and God rescuing them.
Why tell us this story? So that everyone can know that God doesn't rescue people because they are good people who deserve it, but because he is a good God who loves us no matter what, and he will never stop loving us.
That's the reputation he's interested in preserving! That's his glory!
God wants everyone to know what he's really like, a good father who will love his children no matter what they do. No matter how badly they behave.
Of course God will still discipline his children (because he loves them!) But what's really important to remember is that he is nothing like those petty, pagan gods who demand that you stroke their egos before they give you any gifts.
So it's true; God's doesn't save you because you are obedient. It's not a response to your good behavior. God's love is all about you, and everyone else!
Provisions for the Road
Heal & Deepen Your Relationship with Your Kids!
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Food for Thought
Things the team found interesting this week, no endorsement implied.
Artificial Negligence: Why are college administrators so eager to adopt AI?
By Dennis M. Hogan at The Hedgehog Review
When our conversations about AI in college remain tethered to the idea that students might use it to cheat, we miss the larger context in which executives view AI, first and foremost, as a labor-saving (and labor-disciplining) device.
Anxious vs Avoidant Attachment: Key Differences & Test
By The Attachment Project
Discover the key differences between anxious and avoidant attachment styles. Learn to identify your attachment pattern with clear examples.
The illegal bestseller that shaped more than our language
By Joshua Bloor at Seen & Unseen
Read the story of William Tyndal's English translation of the bible. From the article:
"It is easy in retrospect to view the book-burners as villains. Yet the church and crown sincerely believed that an unmediated text would unravel society. In one sense, they were right to be nervous. Something does happen when ordinary people get direct access to the founding text of their civilisation. They start to compare what is written with what they are told. When ordinary people gain access to the text for themselves, power, and the monopoly on meaning, begin to crumble."
