Christians: When you have a High view of God does that necessarily mean that you...?

The natural consequence of knowing and obeying God is that He becomes greater and greater, while we become less and less as we yield control of our lives to Him. Just as John the Baptist knew that “[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30), so the Christian grows to reflect more of Christ and less of his own nature. Luke sums it up best when he describes what Jesus told His disciples: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Luke 9:23-24). The cross was an instrument of death, and Jesus encourages us to take up our cross in order to put to death our old sin nature upon it. God wants us to forget about this world and all its temporary pleasures and be obedient to His Word. Jesus is the living Word (John 1:1), and the Bible is God's written Word. Therefore, conforming to the Word of God is conforming to Christ.

It is important to realize that becoming more like Christ starts by receiving Him as Savior from our sins. Then we grow in our knowledge of God by reading the Bible daily, studying it, and being obedient to what it says. This process causes us to grow and occurs over an entire lifetime in Christ. Only when we have entered Heaven for eternity with God does this process reach its culmination.

God has made it abundantly clear when he said that my most righteous works are like a dirty rag unto Him.

And, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

While I put God on a very high level, no matter how low I put Him He would still be much higher than I will ever attain.

When you have God that has always existed, and exists in a place without time, that just spoke and everything came into being, I am about equal to nothing.

Yet God has told me in His word that even if a sparrow was to fall from the sky He will know and that he knows the number of hairs on my head, so I know that I have some value in His eyes.

There has been an expression going the rounds for some time now, "God is good, all the time, all the time God is good. I only try to be like Christ, I am not like Him.

A lot of problems would simply not happen if we did what you outline here.

If we kept that difference in our heart, hour by hour, think of the pain and

misery we could be spared!!

I definitely think this is true, but don't keep that difference in mind

nearly enough, especially when that 'bump in the road' comes.

Oh, a change, and that would be a good time to see the difference

between 'His ways' and my ways.

And aren't we aiming for, hoping that our ways might become His ways?

And then those 'bumps' can help us make adjustments. But, at the time,

it is not often viewed as a necessary adjustment.

No, I don't believe so. God made us in his own image, and through baptism he makes us his adopted sons and daughters. As sons and daughters of the King, we have a great standing in his kingdom.

I have read the gospels carefully, and I find no intimation that we are dirt, rags, or worms. If we take the words and example of Jesus as the blueprint for a perfect life, we not only do not detect abject self-loathing in his model, but rather quite the opposite. To the extent that we are in harmony with Christ's work, we are the light of the world.

Cheers,

Bruce

Well we Christians acknowledge the truth of scripture when we freely admit that without him, we are, have and can do nothing at all.

Hope that answers your query but it's a bit vague.

Jhn 15:5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Compared to God, we are but filthy rags.

Jer 9:23 ¶ Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise [man] glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty [man] glory in his might, let not the rich [man] glory in his riches:

Jer 9:24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I [am] the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these [things] I delight, saith the LORD.

I know a lot of Christians that say they are nothing. God wants us to love ourselves. The Bible says to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. A "High View" of God does not mean that we have to feel "low and unworthy." In saying that, we need to trust God and allow Him to work in us and lead us. Live for Him not for ourselves. It's about God, not us.

Yes, but either way, I don't think that you can have two "high views" one would have to be lower than the other, as for me I put God above myself.

What? That's crazy talk? My thoughts on this is the more we learn and understand and associate with and practice in our own lives, the closer we come to God and the more we become like him.

We come from a putrid drop of semen and end in a place of dust, maggots, and worms. What are we compared to the Supreme King? Our lives are His to do with as He sees fit.

You can view yourself as important, but most Christians believe that God should come before everything including themselves, and that they should think of him as more important than themselves.