I'd like to as you a question: Who is God to you?
Please, don't mis-interpret my question. I'm not here to start a theological argument on the validity of your statement or your religious leaning. I'm not here to say you're wrong and I am right. I guess, what I really am asking is who defines God to you?
I ask this because I've come to realize that in my own personal walk, I've defined and re-defined God based on what I can grasp at that moment. Wait! Let me clarify- it's not like Im giving traits to God that aren't in the Bible, quite the opposite, I do end up defining God based on my understanding of God in the Bible.
But you see, that was it. If we just take one or two aspects of God (say, just love & grace) and redefine God to just those two (for whatever reasoning we may have), we have re-created the biblical revelation of God to our own man-sized version of God with Truth.
Yes, truth. But partial truth.
Bishop Cesar Punzalan said that the idols we should fear aren't those that can be captured in the images around us, nor should it be the material treasures that take the place of God in our heart. What we should be most wary of is the idolatry of our own version of God. When we take part of who God is and make it the wholeness of who God is to us, we have just recreated God. We have denied all the other aspects of God which the Bible describes Him.
I believe that a lot of people who seek Christ only find partial truths of who He is. We tend to focus too much on the feel good aspects of Christianity. Not that I haven't fallen prey to this trap. I have. And the scary things was, I was never really aware of it until I decided to let God define Himself. It is hard. Letting go of so much of church culture and tradition and just letting God do all the necessary re-arranging and re-defining.
I keep telling my friends that ever since I joined my current ministry, God has been on a road of de-constructing and re-constructing my concept of Christianity; now more so Christ.
It is very uncomfortable. I guess that's why alot of us prefer to make God man-sized. Because it is something that we can embrace. It is comfortable. It fits our lifestyle. It sounds pleasant. It negates the harder aspects of God that we struggle to understand. His jealousy. His righteous anger. His justice.
I recall during the Puritan phase of Christianity, the pendulum was swinging towards the aspects of God that alot of us don't even dare to touch. It can't be blamed. I also think that focusing on God's justice and righteous anger without the context of Grace and Love also negates the fullness of who God is. Why? God is both Grace and Justice, Righteous Anger and Mercy, Love and Rebuke. We can't just separate one from the other because it's easier to understand, or it makes more sense to us now.
Do you know what the tragedy about all of this is?
Because of our own re-definitions, factions have been forming, chasing at each other's throats. The Bride of Christ is splinterring, attacking itself. And I can just imagine Satan sitting back and watching with glee as Christianity falls upon itself, rendering the Bride incapable to reflect and radiate Christ to the world in its fullness.
Will we continue to let pride, arrogance and comfort splinter the Bride of Christ?
Will we continue to let our human intellect capture and digest the fullness of who God is and reduce it to what we like and don't like about God? God is God.
Kinda funny if we let our pets re-define who we are. We aren't God's pets, but we are His creation. It is kinda funny if the creation re-defines it's creator into something it can easily accept and adjust to.
I pray that may we all take time to ask God to search our heart and ask for the humility needed to let God reveal who He is to us.
May God define Himself to you.
-M-