November 22, 2019

The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity
From the beginning of time with Adam and Eve through time with the nation of Israel and still today, the Lord has said to man; I Love you. Listen to me and you will live. Unfortunately, mankind has frequently responded in one of two ways.
 
For many people the response is to replace God. Man is incurably religious and if he or she does not worship God they will worship someone or something else. The Apostle Paul reminds us of this universal reality in Romans 1 and reveals the fact that man either worships the creator or the creature. The clenched fist raised to heaven in rebellion is manifested in many ways. Some are direct and others indirect, but the message is clear:  I am in charge of my life. I will decide what is right and what is wrong. In today's jargon - I Post...Therefore I am!
 
For others, the goal is to remake God. We believe in the divine, but the deity we have in mind must be responsive to our desires not his demands. Our agenda is to attempt to control God and in doing so we trivialize God making him into a diminished deity, or as Donald McCullough warned in his book, we engage in The Trivialization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity.
The only true and wise God will have none of this. He will not be managed nor manipulated. He laughs and scoffs at those who dare try. (see Psalm 2)  He will not bow to our demands, nor will He be displaced. Any attempt is a form of idolatry.
 
As the old song says, "Trusting in You is so easy to do when I see You for who You really are."
 
We must demand the time to think and develop the habit of thought to seek and see who God really is. When we do, we see that He and He alone is worthy of praise. He is truly awesome!
 
Serving Him with you
Until He comes for us,

Fred