Man’s natural inclination is to humanize things in order to
equate to them. Children give toys and
inanimate objects character traits in a pretend world. Adults extend this same phenomenon but under
the guise of logic and reason, attempting to down-play anything they do not
understand as non-existent. Those that
do not believe in Christ as a God who saves us, throw out His virgin birth,
miracle based life’s work, and testimonials of all those who witnessed His
physical presence after His death. The
most they are willing to acknowledge is His teachings on love and
self-sacrifice, minus anything that would make Him divine. They leave the man and throw out the God
because they cannot equate to a God.
But this portrait of Christ, though inaccurate, may be less
detrimental to His character and image than those who do claim to believe in
His divinity and mission in saving us – yet they humanize Him to such an extent
that He would tolerate and even participate in evil in its various forms. Even some Christians are not convinced of His
virgin birth, miraculous life’s work, or purported resurrection. Christians who contemplate the possible
“truth” of the Divinci Code, or the gospel of Judas or Mary, of the idea that
perhaps Christ was either gay with John the Beloved, or fooling around with
Mary Magdalene the prostitute (town slut).
These weak minded believers so pollute and humanize our God that they
inadvertently accomplish stripping Him of any divinity more effectively than
those who simply deny Him outright.
We cannot equate to a God.
Cheating and having sex is something we can equate to. Living an entire life based on service to
others, having the power of creation itself within you – but choosing to live
without ever using it for your own self-interests is something we cannot equate
to. So for some, instead of admiring and
aspiring to emulate Christ’s perfect example, we denigrate him with lowered
expectations and weak faith. The worst
part, is that we lose His message of love, generally in favor of a guilt laden
self-created message of judgment and condemnation to take its place.
It is funny how little we understand about God, about being
God, or what God is like. We think we
“know” God because we read scriptures.
But scripture tells us that the chief rebel of the universe Lucifer, now
Satan, never even aspired to be anything more than simply – “Like” the most
high. Satan craved the worship, power,
and abilities of God, but even the 3rd highest created being of all
time so far, was smart enough to know, that the best he could ever hope to do,
was to be “like” God. He could not
possibly BE God, let alone surpass God.
Satan’s highest ambitions reflect a better understanding about being
God, than our purported “knowledge”.
Because we refer to God in a family based analogy does not
ever limit Him in any way. It elevates
us. Calling Christ our brother, and God
our Father helps us to understand our relationship – it does NOT define the
Nature of either of them. We are
encouraged to talk to God as we would talk to a close friend. He does know everything about us. He is the only one who can read our thoughts,
decipher our motives, and judge our actions – past our words and what it may
look like. He is close to us, and
desires a relationship based on friendship with us. But He is ALWAYS God. We are less than ants. Because God chooses friendship with an ant
does not make God any less, it makes the ant worth a bit more.
Once this process that God has started for our
reconciliation with Him is complete, we will have all eternity to begin to
understand what God is. What it means to
be God. And even after eternity passes,
our minds will only begin to understand it.
It is simple physics that the finite cannot define the infinite. The created cannot define the boundaries of
the Creator. We have only our
perspective. Our limitations, both self
imposed, influenced by evil, and inherent within us keep us from comprehending
the infinite nature of our God. Our lack
of full knowledge is no excuse to attempt to bring God down to our natural or
debased natures; rather, it should serve as inspiration to reach up to what we
know about His.
We can lose a sense of awe or of reverence when we so
familiarize ourselves with our ‘buddy’ God that we forget just Who our ‘buddy’
is. Hollywood has been no help with this
either. The entire horror genre is based
on a ‘scary’ evil which man either fights alone (the total absence of God from
the concept) or fights in the name of a benign, unsympathetic and only
marginally paying attention God. Movies
like the Exorcist, or End of Days, paint man as the hero fighting in the name of
a God, but do nothing to show God engaged in the battle. The way Hollywood describes it, when
something evil this way comes, there is no God, or only a wimp God to look to
for defense. Thus the image of God
becomes one of “what good is He in a fight?”
The truth is so entirely different, and real life so
entirely more terrifying. Beyond the
immediate scope of human eyes is a world of the supernatural. In it are two remaining forces diametrically
opposed to each other. They have been at
war since rebellion broke out in the Universe.
The evil side rivals any imagery of monsters you have seen in a movie
and has intentions far more graphic and horrific than any you can imagine. They would gladly inflict all of this on you
in a moment’s notice. But here is where
Hollywood preconceptions must be put to an end in order to reflect
reality. Angels and to some extent
demons (former angels now corrupted by years of absence from God and intent to
do evil) are scary beings when put next to humans. Were we to fight them physically we would
lose flat out. But God is not us. He is not constrained to some limits in His
power, majesty, and love. Against Him,
NOTHING can stand – not all of the hate in existence, not death itself, no
power seen or unseen has any shot at standing in opposition before Him for even
a nanosecond.
This fact would severely change the plots of most Hollywood
horror films. How good would the movie
be, if the human hero merely called out for help from our Creator God, and the
opposing monster was obliterated completely and permanently in less than a
nanosecond? Note that man had no part in
the destruction of evil as we are way less than effective in this. But God’s destruction would be immediate, and
permanent. No chance for any sequel in
the scripts written to reflect reality.
Where the tension enters the picture is mans seemingly limitless ability
to flirt with evil without ever calling for God’s help to destroy it. In this we are all collective experts. Rather than flee from evil we approach
it. Rather than call down the eternal
destruction of evil, we allow evil to do tricks for us, through us, and with us
– until we reach a point we don’t want its destruction. Yes this would be the first reality based
horror movie of all time. It might
restore a bit of God’s honor to know just how powerful He is, and if nothing
else, would depict man for his own true nature and the reason why evil is
allowed to exist in this world of ours – chiefly because we let it.
Our God is more than our buddy, more than a loving Father
figure, more than a brother who has always been there for us. Our God is the source of infinite power,
infinite love, and infinite grace. His
ability to destroy is unmatched, but He is not known for that, He is known for
His ability to restore, to heal, and reconcile through forgiveness with a stiff
necked, self centered, self absorbed group of ants. The infinite has reached out in love to show
the finite how much it is valued by its creator. The whole story of the gospel is a love story
from cover to cover. It is not about
judgment but of redemption. It is not
about eternal separation from God, but eternal proximity. We are not destined to fail, but have already
been selected for Salvation. I praise my
God of creation and restoration, and ask that He absolutely destroy the evil
that lurks within me, and within the world around me…
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