Beholding is a way of becoming

          Beholding is a way of becoming.  We all take on the likeness of that which we admire.  This is the doctrine of sanctification in a nutshell.  If our gaze is preoccupied with our idols we will become like them.  "Those who make them (idols) will be like them, and so will all who trust in them." ( Psa. 115:8)  The Bible teaches that idols are unreal, they are nothingness.  If we are consumed by idols, we become like them, we become immersed in nothingness.  We become empty vessels.  

          But, those who are consumed with Christ are focusing on what is real.  After experiencing the reality of Christ who would want to return to the emptiness of illusionary idolatry?  What is your obsession?  Imagine what we might be were we obsessed with Christ?  The more we behold him the more we become like him.  

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

God as Psycho-therapist

             We fail to perceive the true glory of God because our perception of God is diluted. We no longer approach God in fear and trembling, overwhelmed by his incomprehensible power and purity. We now approach God as if he were the grand psycho-therapist who sits behind a booth like the Peanuts character, Lucy, waiting to give advice for 5 cents worth of penance.

                 We try to fit God into our mold of practicality. We believe His true glory is too far 'out there' for discovery. We abandon our search for his glory because we fail to see how it might be practically applied to our lives? We have replaced the spiritual with the sensual. We deceive ourselves into thinking that a good meal or good sex will satisfy us in ways that knowledge of his true glory never could. Thus, we have replaced spiritual depth with sensate shallowness. Might we pray, along with Moses, "Lord, I beseech thee, show me thy glory." (Ex. 33:18) What greater thing might a creature do than attempt to know who God is?

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

The Glory of God

Isaiah was completely undone when he got just a glimpse of the glory of God. “I am ruined,” he said (Isa. 6:5) 

Nietzsche once said that when things move away from God they become “carved out”, less real. The dilemma of man is the lightness of his own reality, we seem to be barely here, constantly on the verge of being snuffed out like the flickering flame of a candle. 

The glory of God is found in the weightiness of his reality, the impossibility of his non-existence. We are nearly crushed when we are brushed by the heaviness of his glory. God dwells in a place where we cannot go. He is "holy, holy, holy" and chooses to remain transcendent, hidden from us, less we be crushed by his holiness. "…who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see." - 1 Tim. 6:16

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.