{"id":129557,"date":"2024-05-30T12:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T16:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=129557"},"modified":"2024-05-30T18:49:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T22:49:08","slug":"ct-an-excerpt-on-risk-worship-and-spiritual-growth-from-the-expectation-gap-the-tiny-vast-space-between-our-beliefs-and-experience-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=129557","title":{"rendered":"(CT) An excerpt on risk, worship, and spiritual growth from\u00a0The Expectation Gap: The Tiny, Vast Space between Our Beliefs and Experience of God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What if most of the stories in the Bible are designed to&nbsp;<em>primarily&nbsp;<\/em>evoke a worship encounter with God rather than a self-improvement task list? We would do well, particularly those of us in production-based cultures, to be suspicious of our relentless need to improve and grow. If we\u2019re reading the text with our minds always thinking we have something to work on, we may be missing the heart of God. Maybe God is less concerned with our improvement and more concerned with our worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The text clearly shows we can stay in the boat, watch our friend almost drown, and still end up worshiping Jesus. Now&nbsp;<em>there&nbsp;<\/em>is a sermon waiting to be preached! \u201cFriends, this week, I don\u2019t recommend stepping out in faith. I recommend staying in the boat and watching your friend take steps. You\u2019ll end up worshiping Jesus either way!\u201d<\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2024\/may-web-only\/further-along-by-now-expectation-gap-excerpt.html\">Read it all<\/a>.<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thinking about God inspires risk-taking for believers. \u201cThose who believe God will protect them from negative consequences feel more confident in pursuing potentially dangerous or uncertain activities because of a perceived safety net.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/txVid49FsT\">https:\/\/t.co\/txVid49FsT<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveStuWill\/status\/1736511043957109041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 17, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if most of the stories in the Bible are designed to&nbsp;primarily&nbsp;evoke a worship encounter with God rather than a self-improvement task list? We would do well, particularly those of us in production-based cultures, to be suspicious of our relentless<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=129557\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology","category-theology-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129557"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129561,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129557\/revisions\/129561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}