I have found myself waging war against the trinity of me, myself and I for over forty years now. Instead of God being the center of the universe, I enjoyed putting myself in that place of prominence. God does not share preeminence with anyone, and in His great mercy for us, He matures us to the point where we gladly step aside so He can regain the throne in our lives. My battle with myself began in Ukraine.
I selflessly sacrificed for the greater good of humanity in order to save two poor children from the clutches of certain despair in order to give them a better life in "land of the free and the home of the brave." In other words, God called my wife and I to adopt two teenage children in Ukraine and we naively said, "Yes." We knew it would be difficult, but in the back of my mind, I knew my superior parenting skills and silver-tongued debating abilities would win them over and all would be well. Me, myself, and I began to do battle with God, and I was losing.
Real life set in once we arrived home. Instead of being the greatest Dad in the universe, I became the biggest dunce in the universe in their minds. I found myself complaining to God about how much I had done for them and how they were treating me. God out of His great love and compassion for me would whisper these words, "Now you know how I feel."
I would say to God, "I sacrificed everything for them. They don't even appreciate all that I have done for them. They treat me like trash. They are so selfish. Their lives would be so much better if they would obey me." In all my complaining to God, all I would receive was, "Now you know how I feel."
I learned a lot about God and myself from our adoption. I realized that God had feelings, and I realized that I was really selfish. No one talks about God's feelings. The Scriptures are ripe with God's feelings (Love, anger, jealousy, crying, and more), but someone, somewhere told us long ago that feelings were bad so we have discounted discovering the depths of God's emotions.
Once I started looking at life from God's perspective, I realized He was teaching me about RELATIONSHIPS. God wants a real relationship with us. Jesus told his disciples, "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:5 NASB)." Imagine being a friend of Jesus. I wonder how many friends Jesus really has in the world today? When was the last time we asked Jesus how He was doing today? Or asked, "What did You do today, God?" Or maybe stopped to ponder, "Lord, how does it feel when I don't obey You, or don't appreciate all You have done for me, or treat You terribly, or ..."
We believe in a risen Savior who is alive and calls us friends! How would your relationship be different if you removed yourself from the center of the universe and started focusing on a relationship with God?
Practical Theological Seminary is a two-year journey with Jesus. You will learn the depths of the Scriptures, but most importantly, you will discover a real friendship with Jesus. Apply now for the Fall semester before our Old Testament class is full.