I was talking to Erico yesterday... I told her i wanna join C4C bible study in the coming school year cuz I found that my bible knowledge is too poorly lacking.. It's sad to say but I believe this is the one big reason that I haven't grown spiritually in the past while...
It's true. I do have daily devotion. I do read the bible during the devotion. I do reflect on the verses I read... seems like it's only reasonable that I should gain something over time... "I should gain something over time..." ? once again, like Alan Yu described.. as a consumer attitude..
Here's my understanding of such consumer attitude. (it might not be correct..) If I go to church, I expect to gain something from the sermon, the Sunday worship -- if that becomes my focus instead of worshiping God ... I am consuming the Sunday worship. Likewise, in a daily devotion, if I always expect to gain something from it and expect God to reveal something to me, I am consuming the devotion. ....In both cases, I am consuming God. ?
Now I know why I am always stuck.
So ...
...
God, Please Empty me
Please ... Consume me...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
What can I say? ?
...
Reflections
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Does God want us to consume?
ReplyDeleteIs it really bad to be a consumer?
I agree that having a consumer attitude in worship, serving etc all the time is not healthy. But our faith, in a way, is about consuming...
God consumes us in our daily worship through our work/ life; we consume our faith to gain power to face challenges in life...
We do want to gain sth from sermon. I do. I want to listen to God. I want to hear Him through His servant, our pastor.
what does "consuming" mean??
Good questions.
ReplyDeleteWhat does "consuming" mean? In English, it means more than 消费 (to expend or use up). It also means absorbing, engrossing, devouring ... according to the online dictionary http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/consuming
Thing about it now... it's quite interesting. When I talked about "us/me consuming", I was thinking more from the 消费 perspective. Yet, when I talked about "God consuming ", I was thinking as completely taking in.
Somehow, to me, "consuming" seemed to be different if it comes from us/me than comes from God.
It's interesting.. haha.. I really want to find out why I would have such a bias, when thinking of this "consuming" issue.
Maybe I mixed in too much of my own feeling/opinion about the consumer attitude (never satisfied and always complain?) in the business world? and ppl consumes only when they have the needs. ...
But if you ask me Is it really bad to be a consumer? I would say No, it's not. There are different kinds of consumers, even in the business world. (ok, i have a feeling that what i am going to say now will be contradicting with what i have said above. but anyways...) I guess you are right on that the motive of "consuming" makes a difference. Do we consume just to satisfy our needs and wants? Or do we consume to be enabled to make/do something better? ...
I guess when it comes to faith... it's good to consume in a way that our focus is on God rather than our own benefits. We/I would want to consume God so that we/I can completely take Him in as He do. ...
mmmmm... to consume or not to consume, that is not the question? ...
The question is how?
...