#24. It’s Not Brain Surgery! Or Is It?

If you met a brain surgeon who didn’t attend medical school because he thought the classes were too difficult, and studying anatomy charts was boring, would you let him open up your skull and perform a delicate operation on your brain?

For some things there are no shortcuts to learning. Although we can Google anything these days and feel as if we are an expert on the topic, some things are only learned the old fashioned way – through many years of reading and studying.

In his book, The Knowledge Of The Holy, A. W. Tozer says, “It is not a cheerful thought that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being of God.”

I have met many Christians who have not actually read the Bible. They may go to church regularly, listen to sermons, and even read some daily devotional books, but they haven’t actually read the Bible. They may have a few favorite verses memorized which they take out and use when they need to prove a point.

Maybe they think the Bible is too difficult to understand or they feel it’s boring. Or maybe they are just lazy. They want someone else to do the hard work and then tell them everything they need to know. They just want to read the Cliff notes.

Like brain surgery, knowing God is a subject which demands a proper education. Where you get your facts from can be the difference between life and death.

A Christian who has not read the Bible is allowing someone else to answer the question, “What is God like?” Tozer says, “What is God like? What kind of God is He? How may we expect Him to act toward us and toward all created things? Such questions are not merely academic. They touch the far-in reaches of the human spirit, and their answers affect life and character and destiny.”

What has influenced you in forming your mental image of God? I have heard some people refer to God in terms of an angry father figure, who is just looking for a reason to punish His children and exert His power over them. Perhaps they have allowed some fire and brimstone preacher to shape their mental image of God.

Some go to the other extreme, and embrace the magic genie image of God, who should grant all their wishes and keep every little annoyance and inconvenience far from their path. They may not attend church, because they haven’t found one which agrees with their idea of what God should be like. Instead, they find a feel good televangelist who will tickle their ears and tell them what they want to hear – that God only wants them to have good things in life, and wants them “to rise above their obstacles, and to live in health, abundance and victory.”

2 Timothy 4:3-4 warns of that very thing. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true.”

“It is a grave responsibility that a man takes upon himself when he seeks to edit out of God’s self-revelation such features as he, in his ignorance, deems objectionable.” (A.W. Tozer)

Be careful who you let influence your thinking about the very nature of God. Don’t allow yourself to be deceived. Although God has not provided the answers to all of our questions, many of His attributes have been revealed – some through nature, some through Scripture and some through His Son.

When Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us,” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

“Christ walked with men on earth, that He might show them what God is like and make known the true nature of God to a race that had wrong ideas about Him.” (A.W. Tozer)

Some of the attributes of God which have been revealed include the following: God is all-powerful, and ever-present. He knows everything. He is sovereign and controls everything. God is holy, and righteous. He is absolute truth. God is love, and He is merciful. God is just and faithful, and He never changes.

“When we return to God, even if our sins were as great in number as all mankind’s put together, still God would not count them against us, but would have as much confidence in us as if we had never sinned.” (Meister Eckhart)

God says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Start seeking after the truth. We live in a ‘land of Bibles’ so get one and open it and read it. You may be surprised at what you find in there. Millions are looking for answers in the wrong places. They seek a system to understand themselves, find inner strength and clarity and live genuine lives.

This billboard I drive past almost every day sums it up perfectly!

Blessings,

Sue

NEXT POST: #29. The Purchase Contract

 

 

 

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The Beginner’s Guide To Reading The Bible

The Attributes of God By Josh McDowell Ministries