Concepts of God

Who really is God or what is our concept of him?  Even more, how does our concept of him help us aim our hearts to God.  How can I know His love and love Him?  In essence, how do I worship  the true God?

I am going to reflect on some of the popular misconceptions of God found in the little book Your God is Too Small by J.B. Phillips and The Attributes of God, by A.W. Pink.  In the coming weeks it my hope that these reflections might increase our desire, knowledge, and love for the God who disclosed himself in humanity.

Does your concept of God resemble something like a  ”resident policeman?”  Phillips argues in his first chapter that many have developed an experience of God through an “inner voice” we call our conscience.  It can be our omniscient “party pooper.”  It goes with us everywhere and seems to spoil all our fun.  It seems that the conscience’s usual tactic is to snooze while we indulge or binge ourselves on something, and then the next hour, conversation, or morning commute, we are racked with guilt, feelings of unhappiness, to the point of self-hate.  Worse it stays with us like a dark cloud ruining our day maybe week and controlling the way we love others or even treat people whom we stand in line with at the grocery store.

Our conscience feels as though God is speaking right to us.  ”Ugh,  I shouldn’t have done that or said that.”  We need to try harder or work off that misdeed committed yesterday.  So we do.  We go off and volunteer time somewhere.   We give $5 to the homeless guy with the sign.  Then we feel better about ourselves, and that little voice goes quiet.  It feels like God is happy with us … for now, or until we mess up again.  So God becomes like that cop who makes his appearance on the freeway and we wonder … how long has he been watching me or following me.  Deep down we know our conscience may be right, but is our conscience God speaking to us?

Should we interpret our conscience as God, or at least the medium by which God speaks?  Not exactly.  Our consciences were created originally to see God and play in his world.  But in our lapsed world from God the human conscience is sufficient just enough to condemn us.  Due to our rebellion from God our conscience has been distorted and our apprehension of God now is disfigured.  God appears to us like our own reflection in the carnival mirror at the country fair.  When we gaze into it, the image is horrifying.  We see shapes that are hideous and gross caricatures of our true image.  Simply put, our consciences are sufficient just enough to give us a sense of an eternal standard to the degree that we don’t like what we see, feel, or sense, about ourselves and God.  As the apostle Paul argued we are without excuse to live as though God doesn’t care about how we live.  And it will be our consciences that will be the evidence that will be brought against us in the courtroom of God’s justice.

Not only are they tainted by sin, but our consciences have been handled by others.  As children we developed a sense or vision for what is good from our parents and family. We have collected a snowball of convictions handed down to us.  Our consciences are like “Playdough.”  Our parents did so many great things like teaching us to share, be honest, and to brush our teeth.  Yet, we also inherited all their failures.  These impacted our consciences and so our image of God.  Our Dad’s taught us that God is a regulator and tends to be uninvolved.  Our mothers taught us that God is micromanager and at times has fits of anger for our annoying habits.

No wonder God seems to some of us like that highway patrolman.  He is overbearing.  He is uninvolved unless we do something wrong, then he is at times tired of us.  He is that nagging presence we prefer to ignore or suppress.  Right?

So our consciences can can be accurate to the point of condemning us but can also cast a very hideous portrait of God.

That being said, God should not be measured or known through our conscience.  Our conscience rightly used should lead everyone to repentance and away from self-reliance.  Freed from the self-made prisons of our conscience we know God through the bible and especially through Jesus.  Thankfully, we find that he is not uninvolved, but very involved, so much so that he gave up the eternal majesty to enter our world and mess.  Thankfully, he is not overbearing, but kind, patient, and very generous with our failures – even to the point of our impatience in his own death for us.  Jesus is the concept we should aim our hearts and worship.

Next time you are invited to go off to a quite place and listen to His voice,  like we were told to do at youth camp, instead open your bible.  Look for Jesus there.  Let him speak to you there. Jesus is our “resident intercessor.”  He knows all of our failures, which sends shivers down our spine.  But his voice can be strong and corrective but always assuring, kind, and filled with promises.  His voice actually enters into our conscience to heal with the same Words that created worlds, even our life.  We draw near to His voice by faith again and again until we match that voice with His face … we behold his glory.

“The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”  John 10:3-4