Taming God

In The Chronicles of Narnia, a question is asked of Mr. Beaver about Aslan, the lion.

"Is he safe?"

“Safe?" said Mr. Beaver."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe.
But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

The same meek Jesus who held little children and forgave sinners is also called "the Lion of Judah." Many people are uncomfortable with that description because we prefer a tame god. The world wants a god that is "safe," one they can pet and brag about, then set on a shelf when he is inconvenient.

We wrestle with doctrine and theology until our minds are satisfied. We can't rest as long as there are unraveled threads we cannot comprehend. And there are always threads.

So we reinvent Him. The Lion of Judah is reduced to a tabby cat.

The Bible calls this apostasy. When men cannot fathom Jehovah and his ways, they give up and make him into their own image. They tame him.

Are you guilty of it?

• Do you ever feel the need to apologize for God?

(All that messy business in the Old Testament. Maybe God was a bit uncivilized back then, but He has learned from his mistakes.)

• Do you skip passages that make you uncomfortable and don't mesh with your adopted doctrinal statement?
  

("But we like our church this way!")

• Do you harbor pet sins, assuring yourself that God understands and knows you're "working on it?"

(Why do we assume that a holy God who hates the sin that murdered his Son will overlook ours?)

Unless we are willing to hear the mighty roar of a righteous God, unless we are willing to entrust ourselves to those claws that could tear us apart if they chose to, unless we are willing to face Him as the Lion of Judah we can never truly know Him as the Lamb of God. That tabby cat you're worshiping has no power to save you from anything.

Is God tame? Is he comprehensible? Is He safe?

"No. But He's very good. He's the King, I tell you."

How Often?

Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily.

• So how often do I need to offer myself to God?

• How often should I ask God to search my heart?

• How often should I...?

Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily.Daily.

I am surprised at the number of times I am asked these kinds of questions. One major reason so many professing followers of Christ live in such defeat--never experiencing the power and joy God longs to give them--is that they are surviving on leftovers and hand-me-downs:

Leftover commitment.
Leftover dedication.
Leftover victories.

Hand-me down inspiration.
Hand-me-down values.
Hand-me-down insight.

If the Apostle Paul said he had to "die daily,"(I Corinthians 15:31) then how much more do we regular believers need to stay current in our relationship with God?

Just as dangerous is the current tendency to rely on books by others who have experienced God, rather than enter into that experience yourself. There are thousands of great books out there, but none can take the place of the living Word of God to speak to your heart, convict you of sin, and draw you closer to Him.

Would a marriage last if the partners only affirmed each other once a season? Would you be able to fully commit yourself to someone you'd only heard about through the grapevine? Could your body remain healthy if you only ate once or twice a week?

A friendship with only sporadic interaction is at best casual. Heart friends are cultivated by spending a lot of quality time together, going through things together, encouraging each other, and remaining faithful to the relationship. And God longs to be your heart friend.

There is no substitute for a daily re-commitment of yourself to God. If His "mercies are new every morning,"(Lamentations 3:23) that must mean we need them every morning.

We can't lay our fleshly desires on the altar before God and forget about them. They'll jump off! That commitment you made to Christ last spring has to be freshened every day, or it grows stale and your love grows cold.

So what's the secret to keeping your relationship with God the most vital thing in your life?

A daily offering of yourself to Him. Daily allowing His Spirit to search your heart for problem areas and getting rid of them. Maybe it wasn't a problem yesterday, but today is a new day. Don't let it get started.

How often do I seek God?

Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily. Daily.

Do You Have Your Own God?

A member of my Life Group made a comment last week that has played through my mind all week. He said that God is so personally involved in each of our lives that it's almost as though we each have our own God.

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He's right, but how many professing Christians don't really realize it.

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One major difference between Christianity and man-made religions is that our God is a personal God to each of us. Notice I did NOT say He is "different things to different people." That's the idea many unbelievers prefer. Some love the idea of creating their own gods in their own images. How many times have you heard someone expound rather rapturously, "I believe god is the flowers, the sky, the summer breeze, and within each of us...blah, blah..." Sounds pretty enough for a Hallmark card, but it's utter rubbish.

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God created those things, but He is NOT the equivalent of those things. The apostle Paul warned about people who "worship the creation rather than the Creator."

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Creator God didn't set the planets in motion and then retire. He's been working in and through his creation every moment of every day and yet is able to whisper personally to each of his children who are quiet enough to listen.

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How empty it must be to spend your life chasing after Buddha's ideals, Mohammed's vicious writings, or some fake god who's small enough to fit inside a flower. Those ideas are all man-made. A relationship with God is God-made, undeserved by us, and totally impossible without Him providing the means to attain it.

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I fear too many people who profess to know Christ only know Him in the general sense, a mental acknowledgement that the facts stated in the Bible are historically accurate. John Wesley said, "Mental assent is Satan's best tool for keeping us from God."

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The kind of relationship God wants with each of us is personal. He knows your every thought. He knows your dreams and your hurts and wants you to bring them to him. And when your heart is pure before him, He speaks in that still small voice---just to you. He tells me something different than he tells my Life Group friend, because He's talking to me.

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Do you have your own personal God? Not a god of your making; a relationship of His making.

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If you're only worshipping a corporate figurehead, you're missing the whole point. If you stand in church and sing to the podium, if your prayers seem to hover near the light fixture before crashing back around your ears, if you've never heard His still small whisper and known His voice as certainly as you know the voice of your best friend, then you're missing out.

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You don't have to anymore. Click on the right sidebar with all the question marks. And then let me know if you have any questions. Imagine what He wants to say---just to you!

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