God is NOT Like Us and It Is OK!

Confession time. I have been saying and teaching something for years and it isn’t true. In fact, pretty much most pastors have been doing it. Is it an evangelical Christian thing? Eh...no, I don’t think so. “Buddy Jesus” seemed to come out of the progressive side of the Church. Does it really matter where it came from? No...

Here it is: You can’t have a personal relationship with God like God was your friend.

God is not like us.

I have been thinking about this since I produced a recent video entitled “How to Know God” on YouTube and taught about Gary Thomas’s 9 Spiritual Personality types in his book, “Sacred Pathways.” We can know God, just not like we have been led to believe.

God did make you unique AND God really, really does like you and me, and loves us!

But God ain’t like us and we need to get that out there. And I confess, I have felt so impressed upon to make God “real” to people that I have many times forgotten just how important it is to remember God is God (and in the most basic Christian theological understanding of God - it ends there, though some will want to ask about where God comes from but that is philosophy and not Chrisitan theology or Christian spirituality. In the beginning, was God - no other being(s) (Genesis 1 and John 1)).

These words from Numbers 23 are foundational to this understanding God isn’t like us at all...

God is not a human being, that he should lie,

or a mortal, that he should change his mind.

Has he promised, and will he not do it?

Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? (Numbers 23:19 NRSV)

God has revealed himself not so much in the Bible as God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ (so the whole New Testament unpacks this idea. Jesus is both GOD and human.) and then, shared with humankind, the very presence of the Divinity in the Holy Spirit. Even more, God offers to be present with our spirit as we journey this life IF we want.

For me, I don’t want a God like us. Oh, man! No wonder we all have such issues and hang-ups with God - if God was really like us, how terrible would this God be after all. I have come to understand if I really understand and comprehend God, then maybe it is me who has created this God in my image. God has made you and me in ways we can know God but not like we think; not like us. This is good. What is far more important is to know God knows us and “...even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:30)”

Prayer is not like talking to a friend. Listening to God involves so much more of our attention than we are willing to give most days! Spending time with God doesn't mean we're sitting in the deer stand together swapping stories or taking long walks on the beach. These and so many more practices point out this relationship is DIFFERENT. It is NOT a bad thing just a different thing because GOD IS NOT LIKE US!!! So let us stop treating God just like a buddy, stop ghosting on God and take God at his word - God is not a human being...thanks be to God!

Do No Harm, Do Good, and Stay In Love with God Jedi Pastor Ken