This is an excerpt from a specialist in General Relativity named Charles W. Misner, he is an American physicist and one of the authors of Gravitation. His specialties include general relativity and cosmology. His work has also provided early foundations for studies of quantum gravity and numerical relativity. (Wikipedia) He is talking about Albert Einstein's attitude towards organized religion,
"I do see the design of the universe as essentially a religious question. That is, one should have some kind of respect and awe for the whole business. It's very magnificent and shouldn't be taken for granted. In fact, I believe that is why Einstein had so little use for organized religion, although he strikes me as a basically very religious man. He must have looked at what the preachers said about God and felt that they were blaspheming. He had seen much more majesty than they had ever imagined, and they were just not talking about the real thing. My guess is that he simply felt that religions he had run across did not have a proper respect for the Author of the universe."
This was said about 50 years ago...
This quote has griped me so much that a 'secular' scientist has a deeper revelation of God than most 'holy' preachers! I was in a prayer meeting the other morning and one of the guys there saw a picture of a glass box, and in that glass box were our perceptions of who God is and what He is about, the next thing He saw was God taking a hammer and smashing that glass box to smithereens, shattering it completely. What he felt was that God is wanting to shatter our preconceived ideas of who He is, which is mostly caused by a religious system that has not allowed or given the saints (not in any form of leadership) in the church any room to believe Go for more. For many years the church leaders were the only people in the church who had access to the word and they preached what best suited them, what kept them in their positions. Thankfully today we have free access to the word of God at the cost of many brothers and sisters lives. Sometimes I feel we take the word for granted, it is easy for us, we just walk into a Gospel Direct or something, pick one off the shelf and take it home. There are some villages in the remote parts of Laos, Cambodia, China, Korea that share 1 tattered bible between the whole village, and that is if they are blessed enough to even have a bible. They have to hide the bible in the ground during the day in fear that it will be discovered and they will be arrested and possibly killed. We have it easy, and because of that we have lost our 'respect and awe for the whole business'. We talk about what we want to hear, we seek preaches who will preach a 'comfortable' message that won't interfere with our comfortable lives or our annual snowboarding holiday. We probably know we keep God in a box but we don't mind too much because if we didn't it would mean we would really have to take this Christian seriously.
God is looking for those who will utterly lay down their lives for Him, for those who will count their loss as His gain and be overjoyed still! He is seeking those who will delight themselves in Him, for those who will desire that He would make their way straight in Him. Those people are the next Livingston's, and Carey's, Jim Elliot's, Charlotte "Lottie" Moon's. Those are the people God is going to use because they desire whole-heartedly to align their lives with the King, that they would decrease and He would increase!! We need to throw off our box-like thinking and expect great things from God, as William Carey said, "We need to expect great things from God, and attempt great things for God." We will not be much like our King if we don't spend much time with Him. Allow His grace and love to wash over you, everyday I ask God to forgive my small mindedness and shallow faith because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing impossible for Him and there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can separate me from His love!! If I could just believe what great things He would be able to do through me, these idle sticks that don't burn for him. Imagine what He would be capable of through us if we could just get out of His way and allow Him to full reign in our minds, hearts, and lives.
I found some great encouragement on this in Hebrews 9: 14 "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" How amazing and faithful is our King, that He offered Himself unblemished to God that He might set us free from our guilt and shame so that we may serve the Living God. We are in right standing with the Father, we can "boldly approach His thrown of grace " (Hebrews 4:16) because Jesus has made the way open to us, no more rituals, no more law that condems, only law that sets free, grace that sets us free to "serve the Living God." My prayer is that the Lord will help us in our unbelief, that He would awaken our hearts and eyes to the full measure of His glory and majesty.
One last thing :) here is one of my favourite quotes by Jim Elliot who was martyred in Ecuador,
"God, I pray Thee,
light these idle sticks of my life
and may I burn for Thee.
Consume my life, my God,
for it is Thine.
I seek not a long life,
but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus.God, I pray Thee,
light these idle sticks of my life
and may I burn for Thee.
Consume my life, my God,
for it is Thine.
I seek not a long life,
but a full one, like you, Lord Jesus."
#justathought
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