{"id":120,"date":"2012-05-28T09:16:38","date_gmt":"2012-05-28T09:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meditations.kafkasworld.com\/dir\/?p=120"},"modified":"2012-05-28T09:16:38","modified_gmt":"2012-05-28T09:16:38","slug":"more-and-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/28\/more-and-different\/","title":{"rendered":"More and Different"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
More and Different
\nCopyright 2011 by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n

We so need God to be more and different from anyone we have ever known, including ourselves. Every human being that we have been appointed to know in this life sooner or later turns out to have feet made very much of clay. Based on our experiences with parents, leaders, mentors, \u201csignificant others\u201d and friends most of us seem to be forever having to relearn the dual lessons that no one on Earth is perfect and that someone who is perfect is exactly what we most require.<\/p>\n

We can be eternally thankful that some of the very definitions of our God describe a Being who is absolutely perfect, absolutely able and absolutely loving. More than that, we can be equally thankful that this God is made fully manifest in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

One thing that is clear from a careful reading of the New Testament is that, whatever the 12 apostle\u2019s experiences were of the Son of Man during the three years they were physically with Him He never left these men disappointed. Were they perplexed at times? Yes. But disappointed? No. It is not in God\u2019s nature to disappoint those who seek him through His Son. It is impossible for a perfect and perfectly loving Deity to do so.<\/p>\n

It is so easy for us not to viscerally appropriate this truth. The abandoning earthly father, the rejecting pastor, the betraying spouse-our experiences with all these, and many more, flawed, fallen human beings condition us to expect the same from God. So does the realization of our own inability to live up to the standards of our accusing consciences. Everyone, including ourselves, disappoint us in some way in the end. Without the Lord it is a lonely and despairing end indeed.<\/p>\n

But then Jesus comes into our lives in the unique way He does for each unique person. When He does one of the first things He reveals to us (if we let Him) is that He will never leave or forsake us. As we go on in Christ through the years we come to realize that we do not want to ever leave or forsake Him either. Perhaps the best and simplest reason we don\u2019t leave Him is that we now know that He won\u2019t leave us.<\/p>\n

I believe Homo Sapiens were created by God with an innate desire to find a perfectly whole answer to the need for completion. We cannot rest until and unless we find that answer in Christ. Pascal\u2019s \u201cGod-shaped hole\u201d really does exist in the hearts of each and every one of us. It cannot be filled except by the One who is \u201cmore and different\u201d than anyone we have ever known, or ever will know, among our fellow human beings.<\/p>\n

We simply need more than other people, even other children of God, can give us. That is no more and no less than God can give us, if we are open to receiving it from Him and Him alone.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More and Different Copyright 2011 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved We so need God to be more and different from anyone we have ever known, including ourselves. Every human being that we have been appointed to know in this life sooner or later turns out to have feet made very much of clay. Based… <\/p>\n

Read more More and Different<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-christian","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6GkOA-1W","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/20\/thanksgiving-and-enjoyment-which-comes-first\/","url_meta":{"origin":120,"position":0},"title":"Thanksgiving and Enjoyment: Which Comes First?","date":"April 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanksgiving and Enjoyment: Which Comes First? Copyright 2012 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u00a0 Are we not more thankful to God for the good things in our lives because we do not enjoy them enough? Or is it more that we do not enjoy them as much as we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":318,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/11\/24\/better-than-we-could-ever-dream\/","url_meta":{"origin":120,"position":1},"title":"Better than We Could Ever Dream","date":"November 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Better than We Could Ever Dream by Shea Oakley All rights reserved God\u2019s perfect will for us is better than our greatest idea of what that will is. This is important for believers to remember when it seems like the best thing we can imagine for ourselves is insufficient to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":112,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/25\/the-paradox-of-redemption\/","url_meta":{"origin":120,"position":2},"title":"The Paradox of Redemption","date":"May 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Paradox of Redemption Copyright 2011 by Shea Oakley All rights reservedPerhaps the greatest paradox in human history is that the thing most worth our having is something we can never earn, something we can only receive purely as a gift. This is the reality of salvation in Jesus Christ.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":434,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/11\/28\/born-to-trouble\/","url_meta":{"origin":120,"position":3},"title":"Born to Trouble…","date":"November 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved \u201cOur spiritual growth and emotional maturity occur in opposition to instinct-against the grain of our natural inclinations.\u201d Barry Grosskopf The author of this quote is not a Christian but he succinctly defines the essence of the sanctification process. The battle between the flesh\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/31\/thanking-god-for-the-wrong-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":120,"position":4},"title":"Thanking God for the Wrong Thing","date":"May 31, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Thanking God for the Wrong Thing Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved We are to give thanks in all things, not for all things. It is a mistake to thank God for intrinsically evil happenings in our lives. God can bring good out of such events, and for that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50,"url":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/25\/dealing-with-mystery\/","url_meta":{"origin":120,"position":5},"title":"Dealing with Mystery","date":"April 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Dealing with Mystery Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved. The famous Christian author John Bunyon once wrote the following: \u201cThe mysteries and contradictions which the Christian revelation leaves unsolved are made tolerable by hope.\" No one who has read the Bible with an open mind can honestly say that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1494,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sheaoakley.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}