Alexander Schmemann's For the Life of the World

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I liked this passage. It really brings together that the world is meant to reflect God,and that instead of seeing it as a prohibition from God, look at it as a pointer to God. While this is true, I don't think that the world should become our God. If food IS getting between us and God, we should not let it keep its hold, and break it through fasting, dieting, etc. I think this also ties into the fact that everything physical has some sort of spiritual connection too. such as when Elijah made the offering to God on Mount Caramel, Elijah literally sacrificed to God, he sacrificed water which was a huge necessity back then. I believe that has a spiritual connection, and God honored that. I also like his point on how the sin is to no longer be hungry for God. In another book, I read that it is literally like our appetite of food. If we feast on sweets and sugar foods, we wont want to eat our bread and meat because we are so used to the immediate satisfaction of the sweets, and so we get stuck in this cycle and become spiritually sick, fat, and inactive. This is where Satan wants us, but not God. So, we must break the cycle, and go for a while without sweets, and begin eating the meat, and drink the waters that God offers us. I believe this is seen as fasting, not just reading, but studying God's word, and praying earnestly to learn more about God, and this will make us spiritually strong.

G. K. Chesterton

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In this passage, Chesterton understands the modern people's worldview as dead and reduced as a simple cycle. He instead reveals an alternative vision to where instead, every time an egg is laid, God, like a child, is saying ,"do it again, again", so the world does it again for Him. When saying this, Chesterton means that the world is not stuck in a life cycle, but instead everything in the universe is alive and working one after another for God. This is vastly different than the lifeless mindset of the worldview today, and is important that we keep our minds today open to life, and not hard and fast rules. We have grown tired of the jaw dropping marvels around us, while God still sees it with that awe ans joy that we should, but have grown tired of due to sin. Before reading this, my worldview was that the world was amazing, but not alive like Chesterton. I believe that if everyone saw things like this, the world would be even more lively with a respect with the world around us that it deserves.

Ending Tozer

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1) I believe that when we say God became incarnate, that he came, robbed in flesh to us.

2) This tells us that God, when He came to pay for our sins, that He wanted to make sure that when our debt was payed, the sacrifice had to go through every stage of life, so it would be acceptable.

3) I believe God did come and experienced every part of life, and made it through without sin. Although this is true, how he made it through without sin is unknown to me. Was he basically just activating his "God form" when He needed to not sin, or was he just still all knowing, and was able to avoid sin? This is still unknown to me, and I doubt anyone will know for sure til we are in Heaven.

Tozer final chapters(22,23)

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1) I believe this is true, and when Tozer mentions fee in this sense, it is not just the ability to do what ever he wants, but also independence from everything, and this is due to the fact that everything is a part of creation that he made, not because he needed to, but because he wanted to. This is true, because is God did depend on something, then that something would be the real sovereign rather than God, kind of like when a nation is under siege, the opposing nation is the real sovereign of that city due to the control of necessities like food and reinforcements, likewise, if someone were to take control the necessities of a god, then that someone would be ably to be the real one in power. On the other hand, other than independence, if Tozer did just mean care free, then if anyone were to be freer, they would have an attribute better than God, and therefore have the potential to be better than God.

2)Yes, it does, this is a great analogy, because it gives the impression of man's free will, but not a hindrance of God's will. Although we are able to do just about what ever, we can't stop God from getting to the destination, or the end times.

3)I believe this is mostly true, because all of these imperatives are steps for us to become more like God, but I also believe there are things missing such as time in the Bible, and fellowship with God and other people, but other than that, I believe all of these are great. I believe that Being filled completely with the Holy Spirit, due to the fact that other than the Bible, we have nothing to guide us unless we are filled, and are able to have the discernment that comes with being filled.