{"id":836,"date":"2008-07-29T12:36:24","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T12:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/07\/god_as_a_concep.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:45:29","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:45:29","slug":"god_as_a_concep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2008\/07\/god_as_a_concep.shtml","title":{"rendered":"God as a Concept"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I was getting ready to eat my homemade Skyline Chili<\/a> for lunch, I was thinking about blogging and writing and life and what comes next on the blog. It occurred to me that I view God as a concept<\/em> more than God as a being<\/em>. I can’t exactly remember the tie in between all of that, but there it is nonetheless.
\nWhat I mean is that I think of God as a set of ideas to embrace – truth, integrity, love, grace, respect – rather than God the Father or Jesus my brother. I understand that I do have a relationship with Him and that He is real, but I tend to treat Him abstractly<\/em> rather than than relationally<\/em>.
\nThinking of God this way isn’t wrong as much as it’s incomplete. He is truth, integrity, love, grace and respect and more, but to leave it at that and forget that He’s both my Father and Brother strips my experience of Him of it’s intimacy. Following Him then becomes cold hard obedience or a philosophical exercise rather than loving submission or respect or … The flip side is to embrace the loving Father and forget that He is ruler and King with authority and, frankly, rules. It’s not an either\/or, it’s a both\/and.
\nAny of our relationships can become this way, and I suspect if I psychoanalyzed my relationship with my wife or parents I’d find some parallels here. That’s too much to think about over chili, though.
\nWhat are your thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was getting ready to eat my homemade Skyline Chili for lunch, I was thinking about blogging and writing and life and what comes next on the blog. 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The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them. \"Not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles, papers and lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Articles, papers and lessons","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/articles-papers-and-lessons"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":561,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/09\/god_the_biggest.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":1},"title":"God: The BIGgest Difference","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"This is something I've been meaning to post for months. This first appeared in our church newsletter this past spring, and most recently at Disciples Today (subscription required). The day that Ryan was baptized was an amazing one at church. It was the first baptism at a church service in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":310,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/04\/the_upper_room.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":2},"title":"The Upper Room","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"April 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Matthew 26:20-35, Mark 14:17-28, Luke 22:14-39, John 13:1-38, 14:1-31 Luke 22:19-20 - Growing up in a Presbyterian church, each time we took communion the pastor would recite these verses or something very similar. Even though my current church doesn't do this (and we take communion every week), they still ring\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/01\/jesus_teachings.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":3},"title":"Jesus’ Teachings","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"January 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Matthew 16:13-28; Matthew 17; Matthew 18:1-35; Mark 8:27-38; Mark 9:1-50; Luke 9:18-50; Luke 17:1-10 Matthew 16:24-27 \/ Mark 8:34-38 \/ Luke 9:23-26 - I have often heard this passage used to teach that we, as disciples, ought to do something. Pick up your cross meant to evangelize or to submit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2007\/12\/luke_1.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":836,"position":4},"title":"Luke 1","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"December 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Time to put my money where my mouth is on m Bible study. I've decided that a study of Jesus is in order. I don't recall doing a study of Luke, which means it's been a long time, so that's what I'm going to do. 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I don't believe that he is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1444,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions\/1444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}