Given the fact that God was humiliated in His earthly life by being born in a manger in a barn, being laughed at and mocked at for claiming to be God, and being crucified naked with two thieves all to save your wretched, filthy, unholy and unacceptable soul, makes God very arrogant, don't you agree?
Please try to keep in mind that the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing: foolishness. Also, unless you are in a relationship with The Holy Spirit, the following will also be meaningless:
No, sometimes it seems too hard, but I heard someone say, one day, listening to a rather direct and hard-hitting sermon, "It's tight, but its right." That helps me to accept The Word of God, especially when it seems harsh on my flesh, and so I have remembered it.
Actually, for those of us who believe God's Promises, we are told that we will only pass through 'the valley of the shadow of death,' and I have actually never heard of a case of anyone ever being bitten by the shadow of a dog, so I am not worried about death. I have an endless hope, not a hopeless end, as those who must partake of the second death do.
Actually, we are told to thank God in everything. Not FOR everything, since He only gives good gifts. Our praise and worship, especially when we are beaten down by life's circumstances, opens the windows of Heaven, and gives God license to bless us. He inhabits the praises of His people, and I want God to be as close to me as possible. There are a lot of wolves out there, and the blessings and goodness are just pouring off of God; I would love to have more of them spilling onto me. Sometimes I can't see how He could possibly bless me more, but He always likes to out-do Himself. That's just the way He is.
We are told that men are made in God's Image and Likeness, and that God is conforming us to The Image of His Son; to say anything less would be a lie. God does not NEED props, but I believe that the praise men give Him does lift Him up. Also, in Heaven, He has to be lifted up, because everyone wants to be able to see Him, at all times, and there is always a big crowd around the throne; so being High and Lifted Up is a good thing for the spectators, too (actually we're participators in Heaven, when we praise and worship Him).
His ressurrection and His ascension into Heaven are very real, too. There were probably more witnesses to His ascension, than to His crucifixion. I am a witness that He is alive. He lives in me. Also, His Words are Spirit and they are Life, to them that find Them.
God is not trying to impress you, He is trying to explain to you what praising Him is and what it does. That is how you can come to an understanding of Him, by listening to someone writing to you using His Understanding and His Spirit. He says, "Come, let us reason together." He wants to reason together with you.
Faith without works is dead faith. If some 'slob' is only giving God lip-service, he already has all the reward he will ever get, the 'feelings' he gets from praising; but that is not all that God looks at. He does not see in a limited way like we do. He sees the thoughts and intents of the heart, He knows our motives behind every single word we say. He knows where we are coming from, and He knows our destiny.
Singerian,
From that response, the great mystical spirit of the universe has told me you are not ready to get it all right. So you have to come back as a Poop Beetle and start working your way up again.
