We are afraid that if we stop and really look at God in his Word, we might discover that he evokes greater awe and demands deeper worship than we are ready to give him.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that engaging deeply with God’s Word may challenge our current level of worship and understanding.
David Platt's quote highlights the fear many people have about truly examining the scriptures and confronting the reality of God's majesty. It suggests that such an encounter may reveal the profoundness of God's nature and the depth of reverence that is required, which might be more than what we are currently prepared to offer. This notion invites reflection on the importance of sincere engagement with spiritual texts and the worship that should accompany that understanding.
In practice
During a church service, this quote can remind attendees of the importance of approaching scripture with reverence.
So what is the difference between someone who willfully indulges in sexual pleasures while ignoring the Bible on moral purity and someone who willfully indulges in the selfish pursuit of more and more material possessions while ignoring the Bible on caring for the poor? The difference is that one involves a social taboo in the church and the other involves the social norm in the church.
The price is certainly high for people who don’t know Christ and who live in a world where Christians shrink back from self-denying faith and settle into self-indulging faith. While Christians choose to spend their lives fulfilling the American dream instead of giving their lives to proclaiming the kingdom of God, literally billions in need of the Gospel remain in the dark
What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us?
A high view of God’s sovereignty fuels death-defying devotion to global missions. Maybe another way to put it, people, and more specifically pastors, who believe that God’s sovereign over all things will lead Christians to die for the sake of all peoples.
[...]there is no injustice in God. The injustice lies in Christians who possess the gospel and refuse to give their lives to making it known among those who haven't heard.
God involves us in his missions not because He needs us, but because He loves us. And in His mercy He has invited us to be involved in His sovereign design for the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
I am and always will be a Muslim. My religion is Islam.
When you leave a man alone with his Bible and the Holy Ghost inspires him, he's going to be a Catholic one way or another, even though he knows nothing about the visible church. His kind of Christianity may not be socially desirable, but will be real in the sight of God.
I was raised in an evangelical Methodist church. Evangelical meant that though you had been baptized and made a member of the church on Sunday morning, you still had to be 'saved' on Sunday night. I wanted to be saved, but I did not think you should fake it.
In the Church, and in the journey of faith, women have had and still have a special role in opening doors to the Lord.
The angels surround and help the priest when he is celebrating Mass.
Being around a church culture, even leading a gathering of believers, I've gotten pretty good at predicting what's going to happen in a church service.
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