one thought
October 28, 2010
We were made in God’s image.
Why do we live as though He is made in ours?
Is it just me,
or are you guilty of doing this too?
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@rachieannie says:
everyday. and all the time. so convicting!!
Because it’s easier.
It’s a whole lot easier to make God into what I believe than it is to seek the mind of Christ and allow my own beliefs, heart, and actions to be transformed — so that I would align with the desires of my Father. It’s just easier to assume:
If I’m a protestant, so is God.
If I’m a premillennialist, so is God.
If I’m a Baptist, so is God.
If I know turning the cheek is only a metaphor, so does God.
If I believe miracles don’t happen anymore, God doesn’t do them.
If I believe Catholics are going to hell, it’s because God’s sending them there.
If I like infant baptism, God intended it.
If I think everyone should close their eyes when they pray, it’s only because Jesus closed his.
If I’m a Republican, God invented that party.
If I believe same-sex marriage should be against the law, God’s writing legislation even as I write this blog post.
If I believe we should only use one cup during communion, God’s wondering what took me so long to side with him on this incredibly important issue.
If I believe instruments are wrong in worship, it’s because I’ve seen God’s fingers in his ears, trying to block out their noise.
If I like to dance when I sing, you should see God get down.
If I believe I should kiss dating goodbye, God jingled his keys and told dating to go start the bus a long time ago.
If I want to buy a really expensive car and “use it to God’s service,” that’s why he gave me that money.
If I’m tired of my marriage, God just wants me to be happy.
If I think Texas should’ve won the national championship, God’s wearing orange.
i hope it’s alright that i copied from a post i wrote a while back. here’s the full post:
http://jamesbrett.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/making-god-in-our-image/
@gritandglory says:
yes. yes. yes. and yes! thank you for this, james.
Precisely all of the things James said!
We want God to be ALL things to ALL people so everyone can be “happy” with Him.
Because letting Him be who He says He is makes us….
Sinners
Destined for Hell
Deserving of the pain we endure
Believing IN Him does’t equate to simply believing Him….which is why we feel the need to twist Bible interpretations to fit our lifestyles.
I could probably explain how the Bible makes everything I do “ok”…..we do that….it’s much easier than making ourselves “ok” with Christ.
A challenge I needed today…..thank you!
@sonnylemmons says:
James: thanks for saying what I was going to say, and for saying it better.
It’s all about ego. It runs completely counter to the One, the Creator, who GAVE UP all that we, the creations, would WANT it all. I want God to be like me, so I can feel better about myself.
If God agrees with me, then this is a God I can worship. Anything else is too different, too extreme, and – well – wrong.
@gritandglory says:
just wrecking to think about, isn’t it?!
Yeah…I’ve been reading Louis Giglio’s i am not but I know I AM this week. We try to make God who we want Him to be as a cover from our inadequecies and yes ego, but the thing is when we let God be who He really is fully, we find the freedom and power we long for in Him.
It’s so easy to get things confused….
The good thing is that God IS knowable and he left us a book written by him to help us out in that department. Plus everywhere we look nature is reflecting his Glory. The problem is that we have a tendency to want to put God in a box of our design. We ALL do it. The challenge is to continually seek him with every fiber of our being and ask him where we need to change. That’s the hard part – we tend to say easily point all these problems in other people and focus on their shortcomings instead of honestly asking about ours – “God, where in my life can I better reflect you?”
@gritandglory says:
“God IS knowable” — amen! i love that He not only desires to be known, but invites us into that process and provides so many things to enable us to know Him more…
Ouch. Boy did I need to hear this today! Nothing to add here except to say thank you. Both for this post and your entire blog. You will never know just how much your honesty in telling your story has encouraged me.
@gritandglory says:
really?! wow. thank you for telling me. really. especially today… i needed to hear that.
@XCWATERBOY says:
ohhhh. way to stick it the pluralists of society. haha nice. good thought.
every. day.
@TomMartinATL says:
Because more times than I care to admit I find myself more concerned about a trinity (me-myself-i) as opposed to The Trinity (Father-Son-Holy Spirit)
@gritandglory says:
oooooh. i love the way you put that, tom!
totally guilty of this.
@JanetOber says:
True … we are made in his image, but how do we know what his image is or isn’t?
Yes, we learn a lot from the Bible, but the Bible doesn’t always answers all my questions …
@gritandglory says:
good question, janet! we see glimpses of Him throughout scripture and even in the people in our lives, but who is “I AM” really?!
@kamriereed says:
because it is all about me.
It is about me being the one to love others instead of God showing his love through me. I conform God to who I think he should be and go with that.
This reminds me of a song by Gungor called God is not a white man Awesome song that makes me laugh and think.
The one thing I cannot do very well is define who God is. I was just thinking through this the other day …
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…” – Ephesians 3:20
Absolutely, and I needed to be reminded of it regularly–thanks for the reminder.
I do this and I think it is because of my own reasoning sometimes. I cannot fully comprehend some of the things that are spoken of in the Bible and so it makes it easier to mold Him into what makes sense to me. Of course, whenever I do that, I can sometimes miss out on experiencing the great things that God really can do.
Something that’s been going through my mind is Job 42:5 where Job is saying, basically, that he thought he knew God before, but now, after all he’s gone through, he *sees*. And how Isiah had a whole new understanding of who God is after seeing Him and wailing, “I am undone!” And how Jacob had a whole new understanding of Him after the dream God gave him about the ladder from heaven.
So what I’m trying to say is, I think I make God into my own image instead of seeing Him as He really is because I don’t really see and know *Him.* And therefore don’t see and know myself as He sees *me*.
Or maybe it’s just fear and unbelief. Idolatry. Eyes on man more than Him. Or myself. Or is it just a seriously pea-sized brain that can only comprehend Him so much. Maybe all of these….
(Kinda all over the place there…. sorry.)
@thevelvettrunk says:
Girl, I was JUST praying about this today over a friend. Praying that we’d believe God to be GOD! HUGE, POWERFUL, UNSTOPPABLE…. He’s NOTHING like us and I just want to live believing Him to be BIG, you know?! =)
Hugs,
Mel
@mandythompson says:
dang girl. that’ll preach…
@gritandglory says:
if only i were a preacher…
Because the world tells us to. It’s easier that way. We don’t ruffle so many feathers when we deify ourselves as opposed to God. It’s a bit sad when our faithful pursuit of glorifying God and His image is thought of as ‘radical’ or ‘counter-cultural,’ when it should just be what we do normally.