Elvis has left the building

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by OBW

Outside of the general statement that we are made in the image of God, and then the NT references to the church as the body of Christ, I do not believe that there are verses anywhere that simply say the purpose of man is to express God.

I'm not even sure that there is any verse (or verses) that says anything like "the chief end of man is to enjoy God." (I'm sure I miss quoted it. But even if you quote it right, I don't find it.)

I don't think it is a bad thing to say that it is important to enjoy God. And not finding any verses that support such an oft-quoted portion of a major catechism is not grounds for distrusting all things Christian. Or suggesting that God and evil are incompatible.

I can assure you that I have read through most of the arguments claiming that they are not compatible and all I can say is that some brilliant people checked their minds at the door before they came up with them. I'm constantly blown over by the amount of air rushing through their supposedly solid arguments.

I came across this post of OBW's; it is part of this long thread, not all of which I followed with full understanding. But this post stopped me because it is so antithetical to everything I grew up hearing in the local church.

Where does the idea come from that we are to express God? I understand expressing God through our words and actions (helping others, clothing the less comely with more honor, those kinds of things) but "expressing God" was not really spoken of in the local churches in those terms. Of course I heard all about "divine attributes expressed through human virtues", but as usual, it was a catchy repeatable phrase that never meant much and didn't ever get into personal examples and human life applications. What does it mean to express God in terms of the local church teaching? What does it mean to express God in terms of teachings outside of the LC? Of course in the LC this is yet another burden of something we "must do" according to every ministry excerpt we read, but what does it actually MEAN? These seem like obvious questions but unbelievably there was no place available in the LC for these questions to even germinate.

Where does the idea come from that we are to enjoy God? I actually always had trouble with this phrase and never understood how I was supposed to do it all the time. To me it conjured up the thought of having to split my mind between consciously remembering God and His positive qualities and being thankful for them or appreciating them, and simultaneously paying attention to whatever task in my life was at hand. I could never do it and it was never really even explained either. "Just enjoy God", or "just enjoy the Lord all day long". Great - what does that actually MEAN and how on earth are you supposed to do that?!?!

Of course this was mixed in with statements along the lines of "don't try to figure out if you are in the enjoyment. If you think you are, you probably aren't. If you don't think you are, you probably are. Don't try to figure out if you are or not!"

Ohhhhhhhhhkay. That kind of mindspin never sat well with me.

If there aren't verses to support that we should express God (and in our actions I believe there are.....after washing His disciples feet Jesus told them to also do the same, etc), and if there aren't verses to support enjoying God (although obviously God loves us and wants us to love Him.....it follows that you enjoy someone you love)......then what IS a better-defined purpose of man? Is it less ethereal than the LC teaching and more concrete and on the ground having more to do with our interactions with others? I.e. is it literally to love God and love each other? Does the focus on "express God" and "enjoy God" actually end up taking you away from the true "central lane" of God's intended purpose for us on earth?

All that may not be totally clear; sorry, hopefully it is clear enough.

Trapped