A Piece of Kake

This entry is part 3 of 12 in the series Missions

Are you a cat or a dog?

If you believe that Christ died because He loves you, the Bible applies to you personally, and worship is a part of life, you just might be a cat.

And that isn’t a good thing at all.

“Cat and Dog Theology” was the lecture topic for last night’s Perspectives class. Although I’d heard former Perspectives students refer to this theology, it was enlightening to learn about it myself.

Basically, cat theology is all about us. It takes the view that the Bible is about what God has done and will do for us. Although there are plenty of verses that reflect God’s desire to love, save, and bless us, we often miss the big picture in our search for ourselves as the main character in the Bible.

If you believe that Christ died to bring glory to God, the Bible is about primarily about God, and life itself is worship, then you’re probably a dog, which is just want you want to be.

The Bible reveals the priority of God’s glory throughout. It’s why Christ died and it’s the greatest source of purpose and joy in a Christian’s life:

Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name ” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” (Romans 15:8, 9)
For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written,
“THEREFORE I WILL GIVE PRAISE TO YOU AMONG THE GENTILES,
AND I WILL SING TO YOUR NAME.” (John 12:27, 28)

Missions and evangelism should boil down to the primary point of making God’s name famous. The more people who have a relationship with God based on His grace, the more people there are to bring glory and praise to His name, both now and in His eternal Kingdom.

The cancer killing the church today (and that means us) is our focus on ourselves. As the teacher last night emphasized, our ultimate goal in life is often to get from birth to death with as much safety, comfort, and ease as possible. This is how cats live—and it’s no different from most non-Christians in America.

Dogs, however, live for their master because they know it’s about Him more than anything else. They are willing to endure suffering because they “entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Pet. 4:19). They truly live what they believe because they’ve found God to be the greatest treasure in the world, far more precious than safety, comfort, money, possessions, or human love.

I know I fall far short of thinking and living as a dog, but I hope that Perspectives and Love Ethics will help me learn that I’m not the center of the universe. Instead, the purpose of existence is to establish significance through glorifying God as I operate by His principles of love.

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