It is sometimes suggested that religion involves
selecting the unseen rather than the seen.
Actually, it is quite impossible to select the unseen. Before an object of faith can be selected, it
must been seen. That is why Jesus
referred to God as Heavenly Father. For
us to choose God, we must have some image in mind regarding our choice. Before selecting Jesus as a savior, we must
have an image in mind regarding the nature of a savior. The pushed to the corner nature of that image is Christ the crucified—the image of someone willingly dying for our
sins who nevertheless forgives us leading to freedom from enslavement to past ethical blunderings. Choosing false
gods also involves imagery. If we
worship success, we worship not an abstraction but very clear images of what success
means for us. If we worship ourselves,
we have a clear understanding of the profile of our own righteousness, or more
correctly, self-righteousness. Therefore,
when one questions the object of their worship, they need look no further
than the object of their dreams. We should
ask, are these images of heaven or of the evil one? This involves unearthing the underlying relevance
of the images we worship. In the last
analysis, we need ask do they serve divine love or rather serve to undermine it?
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