God Hides Things For Us, Not From Us

When People are Big and God is Small is written by Edward T. Welch. Welch is a professor of Practical Theology at Westminister Theological Seminary. In addition to being a professor he also serves as a counselor, a faculty member, and the director of counseling and academic dean at Christian Counseling and Education Foundation. Welch has added his expertise to the field of counseling and theology by contributing to multiple books. Welch’s contributions do not end with books but expands to writing more than ten articles for the Journal of Biblical Counseling and other periodicals. Welch earned a M.Div degree from Biblical Theological Seminary and a PhD in Counseling Psychology (Neuropsychology) from the University of Utah. Drawing from his education and experiences, Welch possesses plenty of reputable credentials to warrant attention and discussion to his book, When People are Big and God is Small.

Not the least of my problems is that I can hardly even imagine what kind of an experience a genuine, self-authenticating religious experience would be. Without somehow destroying me in the process, how could God reveal himself in a way that would leave no room for doubt? If there were no room for doubt, there would be no room for me.-

Do we Love and Listen to God’s Command because we really do love Him or because we fear the consequences?

Some adults may live much of their lives with a literal faith. Stage three is group faith Young people start to value the importance of friendship and often come to view God as one who treats them much like a trusted companion. Stage four is person faith. People strengthen their faith by questioning earlier beliefs. Stage five is mystical faith. At this stage of faith the awareness of God’s inner presence leads one to become more aware that God also dwells in others. Interfaith dialogue now becomes not a threat but an opportunity for new understanding. Stage six is sacrificial faith. Jesus, Dorothy Day, and Archbishop Romero are examples of this sacrificial faith. Such people display radical and consistent commitment to the doing of God’s will that is uncompromised by concern for personal security.

Michael J. Himes, in his book Doing the Truth in Love, describes theology as a way of “talking about God.” Talking about God brings many questions to mind: how do people talk about God when God is a mystery? How do people converse about what they do not know for sure? Many may think theology is inherited and even theologians talk about what they have learned from doctrines and the history they have been taught. Even though theologians know very little about God aside from what they studied, they still know it is important to talk about God. As Himes states, “God is simply too important to us not to talk about.” Although theologians are still figuring out the mysteries of God, they attempt to put forth their opinions and ideas about God in order to inspire people to find their own theology.

Faith operates in a unique way by providing the average, the noble, or the distasteful with a means to understand the world we inhabit. However, our worldly experiences also operate as a means to understanding the complexities of our faith. For St. Augustine, faith provides more questions than answers, but consequently leads to his life as a bishop and eventually sainthood. For some, however, the Bible provides the answers to all the questions that go unanswered by common sense. In St. Augustine’s Confessions, Augustine is able to further understand himself and his faith in Christ by reflecting on anecdotes of his past. Conversely, the Bible’s use of etiology provides spiritual justification for physical realities.

In the era of continuously new technology, we are completely and utterly impatient. God does not work according to us, for he has his own clock that runs on perfect and flawless timing. We must learn to be still and listen for the guidance of is presence. In J.I. Packer’s aricle, “What does it mean to be in the presence of God?”, he knowledgably states that, “Every child of God invariably goes through this feeling of losing God’s presence from time to time, like a landlord who has left his house and gone away on business for a while. He has not left the house completely empty, for, if he had, he would have taken all his belongings with him. But because he has left all his furniture and belongings in that house, does it not mean that he will return once again? Any believer knows that there are times of spiritual leanness when perhaps the Lord determines to test our faith. Does He not push us through the winnowing flames of affliction that we might be all the more pure” (1)? The use of the landlord metaphor gives us an extremely accurate representation of God’s presence. Because God is all knowing, and we are not, we will have doubts because we are human. It is critical that we learn that if we have doubts about God’s presence, we are not fully trusting in God. Personally I believe that our generation is the furthest from God. What our generation need to figure out, is that feeling God’s presence

From Augustine of Hippo to Theodosius Dobzhansky, Christians have a strong intellectual heritage. At one point, we stood on ethical and intellectual high-ground. Unfortunately, throughout recents years, we have stripped the Gospel of much of its power, and without realizing, have fallen into the abyss of today’s naturalistic and empirically subjective society. As Moreland claimed, in this new age society, progress has replaced wisdom. Progress is not measured in a moral or purposeful sense, but in the increase of technology and freedom from natural restraints. It has become assumed that scientific knowledge is the only type of knowledge, or at least the most superior form. According to secular sources, the only knowledge we can have about reality is empirical knowledge gained by the hard sciences.

God disciplines those whom He loves and uses those whom follow His commandments. Jesus was hanged on a cross and crucified so that we would have the opportunity to be saved. He suffered for us, so we should take up our cross on a daily basis and follow Him. Christians must submit to Christ in order to be used by Christ. When a person submits to Christ, the Holy Spirit will empower him to be used of God. If a person does not submit to Christ, then the Holy Spirit will be quenched and the Christian will be disciplined by God. Disciples of Christ do not receive salvation because they obey God, but they obey God and submit to Christ because they have salvation (Rogers, Adrian, 2005).

Understanding that God has made requirements allows believers to understand that God requires those statutes to be kept and that by His expectations mankind will be judged. Peter understood this in Acts 5:29 when he stated, “We must obey God rather than men.” God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33) therefore He would not provide random, nonsensical rules to follow, but a pattern laid out that leads believers to a home in Heaven. In Philippians 3:17 Paul states, “Brethren join in following my example and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in

Over the span of four months, each week I would regularly meet with a former colleague of mine by the name of Terrion Austin. Terrion recently moved from Nebraska to Tennessee, due to his job opening that presented itself that would allow for him to be closer to both him and his wife’s family. Terrion reached out to me over the summer, due to the fact that he was extremely unsure in his faith. He felt that whenever he read the bible he was never felt satisfied once done reading. This frustrated him tremendously. In addition to his frustration, Terrion was often confronted by members from his job that would frequently ask him questions that he did not feel he could answer. Moreover, his inability to answer did not come from a lack of knowing the bible; however, it was quite the opposite. Terrion, like most young Christian, grew up

Do you ever wonder if what you about to do is right in the sight of God? Do you have questions that you seek answers to from God’s word? We all get in situations when there appears to be no clear answer to satisfy that what we are about to participate in is right. The truth is that oftentimes our life is built around things that aren’t wrong; they just don’t have any spiritual value. We should ask ourselves, “How does this help me grow spiritually?” Is what I am doing or want to do going to benefit me in my Christian life? Will I glorify Jesus by doing it?

This is the mistake that we make so often as believers. We don’t study our spiritual enemy. We trust too much in our own strength and ability. Just because we are saved, sanctified and filled with the precious gift of the Holy Ghost, does not mean that we don’t need to study our enemy. It does not mean that we can’t learn from the spiritual battles that our brothers and sisters in Christ have won against him.

My journey with God started in February of 1993, when I went to a ladies’ conference in Columbus, Texas. It was while the speaker was explaining that she knew there were some of us out in the audience, who felt guilty about something they had done in their past, and they did not feel that God could forgive them for it. But then she quoted from God’s word; “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, not principalities, no things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39 NASB) The speaker continued on to say that all we need to do is

My mom once told me when I was young and ignorant, “Faith is the foundation of a beautiful friendship with the one person who will always remain by your side”. These words were expressed even more profoundly every Sunday in the echoing corridors of a small church by a priest I had yet to know or even care about. Preaching with his perplexing words in which I could only muster barely a fourth of my full attention span listening to. Thus, the term faith did not exactly resonate with me until many years later. My early years were filled with the teachings of the bible in Sunday school and later on as well in middle school during Friday night sessions. Unfortunately, my mom was an extremely strong enforcer of our faith for she was also raised Catholic from birth, but my dad on the other hand has a more scientific approach to how the world came to be. The years I spent in Sunday school blurred into an everlasting line of bleak nothingness just a ticking clock waiting till an end. Even today I do not remember anything that occurred within those taxing sixty minuets of constant bible studies it’s as though I lost the key to the inner workings of my childhood. Nonetheless, there have always been unbelievably great role models in my faith such as my mom, youth ministers, and friends who encourage me to be open to my faith. However, it’s always been my own restrictions that prevent me from furthering my relationship with God. So when my sister suffered her first severe