WHAT DO WE BELIEVE ABOUT GOD?

A stupid question if ever there was one.  We are Christians, are we not?  Therefore we believe what the Bible says about God.

But do we?  Someone very rightly said, and I paraphrase, “What we believe about God determines how we live.”  If we believe that God won’t hurt a fly, meaning that He does not take sin seriously, then we will live lax lives, and we’ll enjoy ourselves, temporarily at least. 

If we believe that God wants us to be in cliques, then we will make sure we form cliques within the church and protect their membership by not welcoming outsiders into our circle. 

If we believe that God is more interested in and committed to the 'upper-crust,' then we will want to behave as if we too are 'upper-crust.'

If our god is a snob, then we will want to be snobs, too.

If our god is worldly in outlook, fashion-conscious, driven by current trends, we too will become like him.

Do you see the pattern?  What we believe about God determines how we live and behave.   

Remember Jesus said, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”  He told us that if we love the world and the things of the world, then the love of the Father is not in us.  Paul told us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, (Rom.12:1,2).  He also told us that Christ came to deliver us from this present age (Gal.1:1-5).

Now is it really the case that we do not believe in the God of the Bible but in a god of our own making?  But that’s too hard a saying.  Why?  Because that makes us idolaters, and no idolater has any place in the Kingdom of God.

How does that strike you?