Thank you for signing your comment on Day 4 of On the Hunt for God. You wrote:
Okay, so I carefully followed this Hunt for God series to see if you would ever clarify what you are saying, because you are treading on very dangerous ground here. And your readers are mostly made up of people that I care about, so let's be clear: are you perchance saying that the name we use for God is inconsequential? Are you saying that we can call him Buddha, or Allah, or Hecate, and maybe it's all the same? Please be clear.I have readers in Russia and Germany and Japan and China and Canada and Romania, just to name a few. I have readers in the US that I know and do not know. I care about every single reader; I hope each is encouraged to hunt for God, for I believe that therein lies our best strength for this life.
I had a reader analyze your comment and that person concluded that there is some effort to discredit me, but I am going to assume that is not true. Therefore, I will do my best to respond to your comment and sum up what I hope the series made clear.
We are wired to be on the hunt for God.
There is an utter and true God, spoken through creation, nature, miracles, love and forgiveness, even before we look to a written word.
God cares equally about each person's hunt, and knows each filter and agenda, the sincerity or lack thereof, and the exact way his or her heart might allow utter truth to penetrate.
When we care equally about each person's hunt, regardless of his or her starting point as it compares to ours, then the shift that comes with listening and respect opens the door for God to guide the conversation.
When the utter and true God is given complete freedom to guide the conversation, without our prism of self-righteousness that scatters specks of superiority and seeks to shut down beliefs that don't match ours, He weaves truth and discovery and brings those who truly want to know Him to the meeting place where Love and Forgiveness are presented as the Person of Jesus Christ.
Libby, I am deeply afraid of evangelical shutdown where we dismiss the beliefs of others without listening. God's most appealing quality is His unconditional love. For me, His next most appealing quality is that He always listens, for He knows that, when I feel heard by Him, I feel cared for. He wants to listen to each of us. That is staggering.
He is our model for listening to others. He is not afraid of our beliefs being wrong--He knows the route to Truth. He wrote the Story. He asks that we love others enough to listen; then we are free to hear Him guide us on our way Home...together.
Kind regards,
Debi
