God doesn't sell well
God as a product does not work. We present God as a product and He isn’t. We sell that God loves us and thus He must want what we want. This merchandising of God has invaded the entire church. Advertising is about image far more than content. The advertising agency wants you to use their brands and to be committed to their brands. And thus they all try to convince me that if I chew a certain chewing gum, that I will be thin, handsome and that pretty girls will be attracted to me. That is
so not real. That is
so much an advertising campaign. We do this with God all the time.
We polish up God and try to make Him all kinds of things that He isn’t. God isn’t into happiness for instance, but much of the talk I hear and read in Christian circles makes me think that God is fairly consumed with my happiness quotient, much as I am. God isn’t into materialism like we say He is . . . in fact He was pretty hard on the rich in general throughout most of Scripture. God isn’t into investing in people to get more out of them (but He is interested in them as a person). God isn’t overly interested in human physical health like we are . . . I mean what is a puny 80 years in a worn-out physical body compared to eternity? I actually do not think we believe in eternity too much either, but that subject will probably be its own blog eventually . We spend incredible resources in keeping our physical bodies as pain-free as possible, and alive as long as possible. Like I said, I don’t think God is concerned about these things. These are not the themes in Scripture.
It seems much more honest if we would stick with the biblical themes rather than the cultural obsessions. We should ask God to Father us, not give us what we want (I think Miller said it this way). Then I think God would be as responsive as any father worth his weight in salt would be. I am a very responsive father, yet compared to God, I am a terrible father. While my three teenagers think I am a “way cool daddio” (to quote one of them), I am not in the same league as God. “ Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
Now that is a God we don’t have to sell.
We polish up God and try to make Him all kinds of things that He isn’t. God isn’t into happiness for instance, but much of the talk I hear and read in Christian circles makes me think that God is fairly consumed with my happiness quotient, much as I am. God isn’t into materialism like we say He is . . . in fact He was pretty hard on the rich in general throughout most of Scripture. God isn’t into investing in people to get more out of them (but He is interested in them as a person). God isn’t overly interested in human physical health like we are . . . I mean what is a puny 80 years in a worn-out physical body compared to eternity? I actually do not think we believe in eternity too much either, but that subject will probably be its own blog eventually . We spend incredible resources in keeping our physical bodies as pain-free as possible, and alive as long as possible. Like I said, I don’t think God is concerned about these things. These are not the themes in Scripture.
It seems much more honest if we would stick with the biblical themes rather than the cultural obsessions. We should ask God to Father us, not give us what we want (I think Miller said it this way). Then I think God would be as responsive as any father worth his weight in salt would be. I am a very responsive father, yet compared to God, I am a terrible father. While my three teenagers think I am a “way cool daddio” (to quote one of them), I am not in the same league as God. “ Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
Now that is a God we don’t have to sell.