{"id":226,"date":"2010-09-06T18:13:45","date_gmt":"2010-09-06T23:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.barbdahlgren.com\/?p=226"},"modified":"2010-09-06T18:13:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-06T23:13:45","slug":"making-god-in-our-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=226","title":{"rendered":"Making God in Our Image"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The creative power of people is truly phenomenal. Just look what they have invented to change how we live. Airplanes make it possible for even those of modest means to travel the globe. The Internet connects us with the world. Electricity keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. In fact man\u2019s creative genius is so remarkable he thinks he has the ability to make God into his image.<\/p>\n<p>Many have the unrealistic notion that God likes what they like, hates what they hate, thinks how they think, and reacts the way they would react in any given situation. They have given God a face lift \u2013 a nip here and a tuck there, so He can be a reflection of them.<\/p>\n<p>Now instead of us existing to glorify God, they think God exists to glorify us \u2013 to lavish us with comforts and fulfill our dreams. Like a big sugar daddy in the sky, all we need to do is tell Him what we want and He will take care of it. Their God doesn\u2019t want them to struggle so He will give them success not perseverance, instant happiness not joy, and prosperity not a job opportunity. Wanting us to have a good time He will say, \u201cDon\u2019t do my bidding, but do your own thing. If it feels good, do it!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some go to the other extreme thinking God is a dominant being bent on controlling and forcing us into His will. After all, isn\u2019t that what they would do if they were all powerful? Here again they are creating a god patterned after themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Do we really want to worship a god we can control, or one who controls us? Either extreme misses the mark.<\/p>\n<p>God is God! We can choose to believe in Him or not. He created us with free will. Our inventive mind manipulations will not change Him into something else. He does not think like us. He does not like what we like, just because we like it. He does not hate what we hate, just because we hate it. He does not react how we react, just so we can justify what we do.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, we should be striving for the reverse \u2013 to align our thinking with His. We should be learning to like what He likes, hate what He hates, and react the way He would react. Spending time reading the Bible will help us know how to do that.<\/p>\n<p>Our thoughts are not God\u2019s thoughts (Isaiah 55:8). In the end it doesn\u2019t really matter what we think because what we think doesn\u2019t alter the truth. God\u2019s word is truth. So whether we think it\u2019s true or not, God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that those who believe on him would have life (John 3:16). Salvation is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8). God is love (1 John 4:18).<\/p>\n<p>Mankind is creative and inventive, but he will never be able to make God into his own image \u2013 no matter how hard he tries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The creative power of people is truly phenomenal. Just look what they have invented to change how we live. Airplanes make it possible for even those of modest means to travel the globe. The Internet connects us with the world. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/?p=226\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbdahlgren.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}