MISALIGNED. Since when was following Christ about your or my opinion?

As I was looking through a few Christian blog articles this morning I was reminded very quickly that many of the views held today by professing Christians are biblically off base – and not just a little. For example, one blog title said the author refers to God as “Sam”. Another article says that God is a woman. Another author was sharing his disagreement with the fact that the bible is the infallible word of God.  And these are Christian writers?  How can that be?

I believe these views, along with thousands of others, stem from this one simple fact:  Many Christians are not comfortable with the real, direct, and Holy God of the bible and prefer to create a god that makes more sense to them. They attempt to humanize Him and reduce His glory. They want to make Him fit into a culture-friendly mold. In their opinion, the God of the bible is too strict, too ancient, or has set the bar too high for the average person to live comfortably and still serve Him. So they invent another god – a more popular, up-to-date god that makes them feel better about the way they live.

With the varying degrees of not-biblical ideas and views about God and about being a Christian in general, it serves us well to ask our own self the question:

Who exactly are we serving…  God or god?

Maybe we don’t refer to Him as Sam or think of Him as a woman, but do we worship a god who is ok with our addiction, with our jealousy, or with our pride? Do we serve a god who allows our lust remain unchecked because he understands our ‘human nature’? Instead of serving the God of grace and mercy and love, do we serve the gods of grace and mercy and love, believing the real God would never judge us because He knows how hard it is to live holy?

God, the one and only true, has identified Himself well in His word. Contrary to what some may say, the bible is infallible – it is absolute truth. That means what God says about Himself is true. What He says about His love, grace, and mercy is true. And what He says about sin in true. In this we should find comfort because God doesn’t expect us to ‘figure Him out’ or uncover the mystery of what He requires. He lets us know plainly. Because of His word we know that He alone is God, that He is in charge, that He is perfect, and He is our Father. A Father who loves us with all His heart – so much so that He died for us.

God was loving enough to provide a written letter to us explaining who He is, why we were created, why we fell, and how we are redeemed.  We don’t have to spend our life debating those things. We just have to take Him at his word and choose to live for Him.

Is that what you’ve done or have you been drafted into the debate?

And by the way, I don’t call Him Sam. I call Him Father.

 

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Photo by Antony Theobald, Flickr.com – License