You know what Build'a'Bear is, right? You go to this store, and can customize your stuffed animal. You can pick the shell, how full you want it stuffed, the clothes, the name, etc. You walk out with a personalized bear- one that you made to fit your desires and wants.
While I might not want to admit it, sometimes I attempt to go to "Build'a'God" and get a customized God. I want God to do something, be like something, or stand for something particular, and I look for scripture, etc., to back up why God is what I want Him to be. But the Build'a'God store doesn't exist.
The bear is personalized, God is personal.
Did you catch the difference? God is personal, in that through Christ's death and resurrection we can talk with Him anytime, any place. However, God cannot be personalized. We can't customize God. It's all or nothing.
People (myself included) try to customize God all the time. The church down the street teaches that God is only a loving God, and that Hell isn't a real place. They also say that the events in the Bible didn't really happen, but that it is true (how that works I'm not sure...).
I have good friends who attend my church and who I went to school with who argue that God really doesn't have a problem with gay marriage, abortion, divorce, co-habitation, etc. because the Bible was written back then, and parts of it don't apply anymore.
I try to justify my lack of witnessing with the "I don't have contact with many unbelievers" excuse. Ok, then make some contact, stupid.
We can't customize God to fit our opinions. It's all or nothing. If we are going to say that we believe and have a relationship with God--THE God, the God of everything-- then we have to accept that there is a real heaven and a real hell. That God loves but he cannot look on sin. That the Bible is just as true today as it was then.
We cannot diminish God's sovereignty, omniscience, and total power by accepting and teaching the parts of God that we like and disregarding the rest, try as we might. But if you take away hell, heaven loses its purpose. If you pick and choose the parts of the Bible that should be followed, we attempt to censor the Almighty God. The Build'a'God store will never exist because it can't exist.
We can't customize God's influence in our daily lives. If we say we are true followers of Him, then His principles must influence our speech, our thoughts, our actions, our entertainment activities, our food choices, our politics. We can't take Him as God of our speech but kick Him out of our politics. We can't take him as God of our daily actions but put Him in the closet when we watch a movie.
It's all or nothing.
While I might not want to admit it, sometimes I attempt to go to "Build'a'God" and get a customized God. I want God to do something, be like something, or stand for something particular, and I look for scripture, etc., to back up why God is what I want Him to be. But the Build'a'God store doesn't exist.
The bear is personalized, God is personal.
Did you catch the difference? God is personal, in that through Christ's death and resurrection we can talk with Him anytime, any place. However, God cannot be personalized. We can't customize God. It's all or nothing.
People (myself included) try to customize God all the time. The church down the street teaches that God is only a loving God, and that Hell isn't a real place. They also say that the events in the Bible didn't really happen, but that it is true (how that works I'm not sure...).
I have good friends who attend my church and who I went to school with who argue that God really doesn't have a problem with gay marriage, abortion, divorce, co-habitation, etc. because the Bible was written back then, and parts of it don't apply anymore.
I try to justify my lack of witnessing with the "I don't have contact with many unbelievers" excuse. Ok, then make some contact, stupid.
We can't customize God to fit our opinions. It's all or nothing. If we are going to say that we believe and have a relationship with God--THE God, the God of everything-- then we have to accept that there is a real heaven and a real hell. That God loves but he cannot look on sin. That the Bible is just as true today as it was then.
We cannot diminish God's sovereignty, omniscience, and total power by accepting and teaching the parts of God that we like and disregarding the rest, try as we might. But if you take away hell, heaven loses its purpose. If you pick and choose the parts of the Bible that should be followed, we attempt to censor the Almighty God. The Build'a'God store will never exist because it can't exist.
We can't customize God's influence in our daily lives. If we say we are true followers of Him, then His principles must influence our speech, our thoughts, our actions, our entertainment activities, our food choices, our politics. We can't take Him as God of our speech but kick Him out of our politics. We can't take him as God of our daily actions but put Him in the closet when we watch a movie.
It's all or nothing.
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