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Many people I know have taken the awesome, powerful Jesus of the Bible and shrunk him down. For many, Jesus resembles a genie in a bottle -- they believe that he exists to serve us -- we let him out when we need him, we give him our demands and expect him to grant our wishes -- and then, we put him back in the bottle until the next time we need him.
We want a deity that is manageable. We want a God that we can explain and control. The tendency of many Christians (and myself at times) is to re-make Jesus, to have the kind of Jesus that I can accept; the kind of Jesus that fits my way of thinking; the kind of Jesus that makes sense in the 21st century. We fashion a Jesus that accommodates our lifestyles and never confronts us. Inevitably, when this happens, we create a Jesus far different than the one portrayed in Scripture. Blaise Pascal wrote, "God made man in his own image, and man returned the compliment." And, in many respects, we have re-shaped and created a God in our own image.
That may be that the great sin of the church in our generation is the trivializing of God.
The Jesus Christ, in whom the fullness of deity dwells, is not to be boxed in, airbrushed, made over, tamed, changed, explained or explained away. I am deeply convinced that the way you live will be a direct consequence of how you see God.
He is the CEO of the universe and when you begin to grasp how big and majestic and magnificent and powerful He is, you can never be the same. Your perspective will forever be different.
Our spiritual forefathers always warned us that there are two foundational truths that we must hold in equal balance: God's distance and God's nearness. “I am a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and I am not a God far away? Jeremiah 23:23 (NLT)
Jesus is the creator of all, ruler of all and absolute sovereign over all that exists.
Consider for a moment the size of our universe which He created.
It is so vast that it takes a beam of light (which travels some 700 million miles per hour) over 100,000 years just to cover the length of our galaxy called the Milky Way. And our galaxy is only one among billions in the known universe. If the sun were hollow, 1,300,000 earths could fit inside. A star named Antares (if hollow) could hold 64 million of our suns.
"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. Everything has been created through him and for him. He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together." Colossians 1:15-17 (NLT)
True Christianity is not about adding Jesus to my life. Instead, it is about devoting myself completely to Him -- submitting wholly to His will and seeking to please Him above all else.
"His kingdom that cannot be destroyed, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. For our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:28-29 (NLT)
Those realities should lead us to worship him in humility and awe. These two reminders from God's Word should challenge you to constantly be aware of God's greatness and majesty, challenging you to give praise and honor to Him by seeking His will and honoring Him with your life.
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Finding Faith is written and compiled by area pastors. This week's column comes from Pastor Mark E. Riley of Flemington First Church of Christ.