Re-Presenting God

Not long ago, I was watching a popular church on YouTube. The executive pastor who was on stage cheerfully said, “You may not like how you see God, so we are going to re-present Him to you.” I was a bit shocked and immediately turned from that channel. Now, many of you may not see anything wrong with that statement and may accuse me of being a bit of a stuffed shirt stickler. But I am not sure why we try to put God in our small box, then wrap a bow on it to make the presentation pleasing to ourselves and others. Although, I must admit that I didn’t stick around to find out what the message was about, so I really am not in the position to judge. It could have portrayed God as a merciful gracious Father overflowing with unconditional love, who fulfills His role as a good holy Father with discipline, and who has a generous long-suffering heart that seeks justice and righteousness. They may have portrayed God in a manner that enables us to let our omnipresent omniscient God out of our boxes that limit His complete work in our lives. Nevertheless, what she said made me uncomfortable because I have witnessed so many Christians make God out to be a genie who they summon when things aren’t going their way to put their life back on the track they would like it to be on. Even many of our worship songs are focused on God doing stuff for us rather than His magnificence. We have a self-focused religion that distracts us from an intimate relationship with a glorious God which leads us into a great deception.

And with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

Sometimes we prefer to believe the lies and then we become entrapped by the father of lies who is satan himself. If the lie makes us feel good, well that is what we want to hear. However, God is not pleased with those who do not love the truth. The truth sets us free, yet, we rather live trapped by the delusion, so God will send us a deluding influence to allow us to continue to believe the lie. Do you not see what is going on today? Do you not see how many Christians have strayed from the Bible to believe a different type of Gospel that offers only temporary good news, but eternal damnation? Okay, yes. I have heard it before. “A loving God would not send His creation to hell”. Oooooops, there goes another word that is considered not apropos in Christian circles – to hell with hell, let us gather around the fire and sing Kumbaya and do whatever we like, whenever we like, however we like and ask God to bless it while never mentioning the dire consequences of disobeying God.

If you are upset by some of what I have written, please forgive me. My intention is not to be offensive, but know this – the Word of God can be very offensive to those who do not desire to live by it. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

I just want us to understand that we must be careful about re-presenting or rebranding God to attract people to the church. The fact is we can have a packed building empty of God’s presence. Yet, if God’s presence is lacking, then it is not a church, it is just a structure built on a shaky spiritual foundation.

I love watching Nigerian Christian movies because I garner some great spiritual lessons from them. In the film I watched last night, the pastor’s wife wore provocative clothing to attract the younger people and that caused a whole host of problems because they too were following their leader and their skimpy clothes propelled them into immoral behavior. You might say that man looks at the outward appearance while God looks at the heart and if the heart is in the right place well no one has to worry. (See 1 Samuel 16:7) Even so, in this movie, God was not pleased and He appeared to the lady and called her “Jezebel.” No woman would want to be called this, especially by the Lord. I even have to check myself too. Could I possibly be sending a wrong message about Jesus through my mode of dress? We may be happy with our clothes, the way we talk and the things we do. But, are they pleasing to God and are we representing Him in the right light as His followers? Many of us may say we are doing God’s work, but He is not pleased with our actions.

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23

It is true the heart is what matters. However far too often we use our good works as a masquerade to mask our selfish motives. We are going after our own evil desires while asking God to bless our self-indulgent pursuit of them. These very actions may be a curse leading us and others straight to hell.

Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Mathew 10:28

That was what Jesus said. It is time for us to stop being men pleasers, but instead we must fear the Lord and please Him being His representatives who present Him in truth. However we portray the Lord must be in line with the Bible in its entirety, and not just random Bible verses selected by us to underpin our mis-representation of Him while we are trying to re-present Him to attract others. We are supposed to present the Truth who is Jesus Himself. We do not need to alter His character to suit our culture, instead we should present Him as the Truth to influence the culture. Our staged shows of smokes and mirrors are merely gimmicks that evoke emotionalism, and in it a deep intimate relationship with a holy loving God seems to be lost. We need to usher people into this transformative relationship. On the other hand, our world strategies may be attracting people to us.

And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Let us be like Paul and present nothing except Jesus Christ while being circumspect in using worldly wisdom to deliver our message, which could prove to be more harmful rather than good. When we fear the Lord and seek His presence, we will demonstrate His Spirit and His power which will attract people to Himself and there will be no need to re-present Him.