“Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” (Colossians 1:10 NLT)
Imagine you’ve been married five years. You have one child and another on the way. You’re happy, content, and anticipating living the rest of your life with your spouse and kids. Then you get a knock on the door, you open the door, and to your surprise, there stands your spouse (or so you thought). “Why did you knock on the door? Why didn’t you just come in like you always do?”
A conversation begins and the truth is finally revealed, this person isn’t your spouse at all. The truth is the person to whom you are married is an impostor. The person you intended to marry, who now stands before you, was in an accident and has been hospitalized and unable to communicate for the last five years, and only now has had the opportunity to contact you to explain why they weren’t able to come to the wedding.
They know nothing of your present situation, only that they still love you and can’t imagine life without you. So many unanswered questions. What do you do? Who is the person to whom you’re married, the person with whom you’ve built a life, whom you’ve grown to love and respect.
What’s the issue in this situation, the basis upon which a decision must be made? Your mind is racing: “But they look exactly like you! I thought it was you!”
What’s the point? Many professing believers in Jesus have “married” the wrong god! They sound the same! They “look” the same, at least as we imagined they’d “look!” They use some of the same terms to describe themselves! You’ve followed them for years, but they’re not the God of the Bible.
The Lord first gave me this idea as I prayed for a dear Mormon family I’ve grown to love very much but can’t seem to find a way to get them to consider for themselves they’re “married” to the wrong god. To hear them speak, they genuinely believe they are loving and serving the Jesus of the Bible, when in reality, they’ve been duped and are living a lie. Their “Jesus” isn’t God, he’s half-man and half-god, not the God-man of the Bible.
Then the Lord prompted me to look further. How many in the churches of America and across our world, are following a god of their own creation. A god of prosperity, or a gentle, white-haired old gentleman rocking away in heaven wringing his hands wondering how to get the world under control. Or a vicious, violent, mean-spirited god who can’t wait to take revenge on the worthless minions who take up space on planet earth.
Why is that even important? Because if we have a wrong view of God, we can never see the God of the Bible or ourselves correctly. To misunderstand who God is, is to misunderstand the purpose of our own life, the reason God allows us to have breath in the first place.
Many have built very comfortable “Christian” lives on a lie, believing they’re running their own lives, they just need “god” to help them out when they get in a jam; otherwise, their attitude is: “I’ve got this! I just need ‘god’ to give me respectability and help me smooth out the rough spots.”
The fruit of our lives, ultimately, will bear the truth of who we’re really following, the God or god to whom we’ve really pledged our life. Who is it for me? For you? Let’s look at this more closely in tomorrow’s post.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 