Monday, October 01, 2007

Bend Me, Shape Me

Bend me, shape me....

Have you noticed that it seems as if everyone out there is trying to mold God into a "god" of their own making? I think at one time or another, if we are honest with ourselves, we want to mold God into what might be pleasing to us or "comfortable." We want to make just a little re-adjustment here, clip a little there. I have heard people say, "Oh I don't think that's what God meant...Things are different today...That's old fashioned thinking." People just want to bend and shape God to fit their life style...or you could even say that people want to create a "god" in their own image.
Our society and culture screams at us through all the various media that "this" is the way it should be or "this" is reality. I think of the various movies that have been out in the last several years that have glorified sin or turned what God names as sin into acceptable normal every day behavior.
Just a few examples:
The Bridges of Madison County - glorified adultery into a "love story."
Oceans Eleven - made the bad guys (the thieves) the good guys.
The Matador - made an assassin a "nice" guy...murder just a job.
Broke Back Mountain - a "love" affair between two men, glamorous, sad, acceptable.

In The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer points out that every time we take our eyes off the God of the Bible, the result will always be a desire to "mold" God into the kind of "god" we want.
"When He [God] speaks in the first person He says, "I AM"; when we speak of Him we say, He is; when we speak to Him we say, "Thou art." Everyone and everything else measures from that fixed point. "I AM THAT I AM," says God, "I change not." 1

God must be our "fixed point." It is God alone that never changes. Hebrews 1:12 "...But you remain the same, and your years never end." God is the great I Am. He is the Potter and we are the clay...NOT the other way around!

Isaiah 64:8 "Yet, O Lord, you are the Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand."

The only way to keep our eyes fixed on Him, trust Him, and know who the great I Am is, is to be in the Word and allow Jesus, who lives in the believer, to live His life through us. If we do this there is no way we would ever want to mold God into our image!

Love God for who He is and rejoice! El Shaddai - all sufficient One, El Elyon- God Most high, Adonai- Lord Master, Elohim - the Creator, Jehovah-shalom - the Lord is Peace, Jehovah-shammah - the Lord is there, Jehovah-Rapha - the Lord who heals. He is ALL that and so much more!!

MaryAnn

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