“And we know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” (1 John 4:16 NLT)
“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4 NKJV)
“For it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16 BSB)
Daddy has been teaching me something lately that I felt in my heart is needed by someone else out there. Maybe it’s you…
Here is the question that I asked that opened the door to what He has been teaching me, “Daddy, why is it that so many people can read Your Book and have so many different interpretations and come to so many different conclusions?”
Here is the answer I heard in my spirit, “It is because most people interpret what they read based on their preconceived image of Me, themselves, and other people.”
From that starting point, the Spirit has been challenging every ounce of “religious thinking” in me as He is teaching me Who my Heavenly Father is (Daddy), who I am (a Son of God), and who other people are (His children and my neighbors). I am going to start by taking a look at how I see God. My image (perception) of who, and what, God is will color how I see everything else (after all, I am made in His likeness and image).
For many years the religious world painted the picture of God, the Almighty Creator of the heavens and earth, as a stern, even cruel, taskmaster just waiting for those He created to step out of line so that He could exert His authority and put them in their place. Knowing that fear will initially halt “bad” behavior, it was exploited in order to keep people in line. When introducing the “lost” to their need for “salvation” a “hellfire and brimstone” approach was used to tell people that they had better “turn or burn.” One of the most famous sermons on record was entitled, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” For a season this approach seemed to be very effective as the masses flooded the alter to pray the “sinners” prayer. But where were they 5 years later? With so many getting “saved”, why were churches empty, and many closing their doors as people stayed away in droves?
The trouble with this lopsided view of God, and approach to reaching people with the Gospel ( I must admit I have always struggled with how this approach fits in with the definition of “Gospel – “Good News”), is that while many ran to the alter to be “saved”, few ever grew into a relationship with the One to whom they were running. It appeared that many who initially ran to the One whom they hoped would spare them from eternal damnation were soon running from him in fear of retribution for their less than perfect ways. When the foundation of a relationship is fear there is little, if any, intimacy. Without intimacy, a relationship becomes all about rules and expectations. And as I have heard it said, and have seen it lived out, “rules without relationship brings rebellion.”
Today, there is a reactionary movement taking place in rejection of this previous distortion of the image of God. While there is complete justification for this reaction, I have found that when my primary goal is to correct error, on most occassions I overreact and create a new error. Now it appears that we are trending in recreating God into the image of Santa Clause. He has been devalued to the point of being a “Cosmic Bell Hop”. “Happiness” is the mantra of the day. Self fulfillment is top prioty. Frank Sinatra sang about it many years ago, “I’ve gotta be me.” I have been in far more conversations than I can count in which I have been told something along the lines of, “I don’t agree with my children’s thinking, and it breaks my heart to see how they are living, but at least they are happy. After all, that’s what really matters.” Is it? Is the “Pursuit of Happiness” truly a pursuit that brings eternal value? God is Love. God is Good. God is Holy. Balance is the key to truly seeing God as He is.
Yesterday, while visiting family, I had a brief, yet powerful conversation with my brother in-law. He is currently the Paster of a local Church after years of serving the Lord as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. In our coversation he shared that he believes many people view God as a “Grandpa” rather than a “Father.” A “good grandpa” is there to bless, play with, and create happiness in the lives of his grandchildren (I am a grandpa – “Papa”, and I love to “spoil ’em and send “em home”). Papa leaves the “tough stuff” (correction and discipline) to the father. A “good dad” does not prioritize their kids “happiness” above the more critical aspects of life. It may make a child “happy” to drink a gallon of soda before bed, but a “good dad” curbs that behavior even if he is making his child sad. I think you get the picture.
It seems we each create God in the image that we desire, in order to validate the way that we want to think and live. No judgment, no expectations, just let me be me. Or, here are the rules, follow them or pay the price. The pendulum keeps swinging from side to side. We create an image to manipulate and control, then we create an image to justify and validate. A God to be feared, or a God to be used to my benefit. So what is the true image of God?
While I am far from reaching a definitive conclusion (He is far beyond my limited comprehension) I am getting to know Him better each day as I ask Him to reveal Himself to me, instead of trying to tell Him who, and what He is.
So far He has revealed Himself to me as my Daddy (my Heavenly Abba Father) who is…
…Love (revealed most clearly through His plan of redemption that He planned for me long before He created all that He created – we call that salvation);
…Good (His goodness changes the way I think and act to position me to receive His very best in my life – we call that repentance); and
…Holy (He is set apart from anything that degrades, corrupts, or decreases perfection thereby hindering His desires and designs to be completely fulfilled in His creation – we call that sanctification)
He has also revealed, and confirmed through a number of other voices, that the clearest way to see Him as He truly is (His perfect image) is to look at Jesus. We will do that tomorrow as we expand on…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 189: “Can You See Me Now?” (Peering through the Looking Glass of “Image”) Part 2 “Image of God”