I’m just finishing a book called True Faced. The premise of the book is that there are two paths that we can choose as Christians. One is a road called “Pleasing God” the other " Trusting God." Although the book is in no way UR in its content, I have been wondering if the road we choose leads us closer or further away from UR. I also wonder if the two roads aren’t the ones that the Bible speaks of as being the broad way and the narrow way.
My first thought is that “without Faith, it is impossible to Please God!” Faith in God and Pleasing God are two sides of the same coin. And then the old hymn comes to mind “Trust and Obey, for their’s no other way to be happy in Jesus…”
In the book, what contrast is he really trying to draw?
Concerning the “narrow way”, that analogy was drawn in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus highlights draws a line between good and bad attitudes, doctrines, and practices. I believe that Jesus is saying that the narrow way that leads to life is the convergence of good attitudes, good doctrine, and good practices. One can have good attitudes, but if one doesn’t put any feet to them then it results in death. One can have good practices, but if one’s attitudes stink then such will lead to death. One can have good attitudes and practices, but bad doctrines will hinder one from walking in the good attitude and good practices.
That which leads to life is truly narrow, the convergence of right attitudes, right doctrine, and right practices. It’s like a ridge with steep drops on both sides, easy to fall off on either side.
Paul’s prayer in Colossians goes thus:
I am asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of Him. May you be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might for all patience and endurance with joy, always giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to partake of the inheritance of the saints in the light . . .
I don’t know about the book you read, but while I’ve often heard people say there’s nothing we can do to make God love us more or less (and I believe it), it does seem that it is possible to please or displease Him. No doubt this flows from behavior that flows from our trust (or lack of) in Him. Still, pleasing Him is important. If we love Him, we will want to please Him. We just need to do it in a way that is, well, pleasing to Him.
Sherman, I think he is basically saying what you are, that without faith (trust) its impossible to please God. He is pleased by our trust. I think what these guys are saying that religion defines pleasing is what we do for God and trusting is accepting what He has done for us. The more we try to please Him, the less trust we show in what He has done for us. He is pleased by our trust not our actions. Of course our trust will have feet.
It seems to me that one is passive and one is active. Trusting God is passive in that one is relying on God for something or waiting on God to do something, while pleasing God involves some expression or action on our part, such as obeying or serving God.
So I do not see a conflict in doing both.