Pictures of God

My notes from the talk I gave at church on Sunday night.

Thursday 27|06|13
14:11 GMT + 2:00
Cala Gracio
San Antonio
Ibiza
Un vaso de Agua

What picture of God do you have? (We all have one)
How you picture God affects how you feel about yourself, and how you feel about the world.

I'm sometimes quite hard on myself, so its easy for me to imagine that God is hard on me too.

Here are some common pictures of God that people have:

Man in the Clouds

Sitting up there. Maybe looking down. Maybe not. This God created the world, then stepped back. Not taking much to do with what goes on. Really not caring who lives or dies.

The School Principal

Waiting to deal out praise or punishment based on how well we have done. We live in fear of being sent to the principal's office.

Naughty Child

This is how the ancient Greeks saw their gods. They were vindictive. Human beings were their playthings. Sometimes we can see God like this nasty piece of work just waiting to hurt us.

Angry Judge
God is angry all the time. God is just waiting for us to step out of line, to do something wrong, so he can swoop down and say “NO!”. This God says Do not! Do not! Do not! Do not have fun! Do not enjoy life!

Puppeteer

Some people see God as a puppeteer – the one who pulls all the strings. This God makes everything happen – giving some people good things and some people bad things. Anything that happens to you, good or bad, is God's fault.

WRONG

These are really common pictures of God. Most of us have these pictures in our heads somewhere. And all of these pictures are wrong. This is not what God is like.

How we picture God affects how we see the world, and how we see ourselves.

The Bible is a book that tells us what God is like. All the stories we read in there are all telling us something about God's character, and how he interacts with us.

Around the walls there are some pictures based on images of God we find in the bible. Take a few minutes to look at the pictures. You may find some of them surprising. Which one helps you most to picture God?

RIGHT PICTURES OF GOD

The bible pictures God as a loving mother, a wise teacher, a fair king, a mighty warrior, a fierce lion, and gentle lamb, a lover who pursues us, a strong tower that protects us, a mother hen, a strong father, the closest friend.

If we want to know what God is like we need to look to the Bible. If we want to know what God is like, we ultimately need to look at Jesus.

Jesus

Jesus came to give us a right picture of God.

Jesus was God himself in human form.

He didn't condemn.

He set free.

He challenged.

He loved.

He healed.

If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus.

Some very religious people, called the Pharisees, thought they knew what God was like. They thought he was a bit like the school principal, giving praise or punishment. And if God was the principal, they thought they were the teacher's pets. The top pupils. The ones who were getting it right.

They thought they knew right and wrong. They thought they knew who was God and who was bad. They thought they knew who was in and who was out. They had a list of hundreds of rules which they obeyed.

But when they met Jesus, when they actually came face to face with God, they hated him. Because he said that God's love was for everybody -not just the religious people. God's love is for everybody, not just those who are getting it right.

God doesn't say “Don't have fun, Don't enjoy life!” Jesus said: “I came that you might have life, and life in all its fullness.”

God doesn't say “Get away from me you terrible sinner”, Jesus says “Come onto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

John

A man named John, who knew Jesus, wrote a letter to a church, and in it he included three words which tell us what God is like. Three words that tell us what Jesus' life and death was all about. Three words that tell us what it means to live as a follower of Jesus. Just three words.

“God is Love”.

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Prodigal Son

I want to finish by telling you a story that Jesus told to explain what God is like. The story is about a man who had two sons. One son asked his father to give him his inheritance – his half of his father's money that he would receive when the man died. This was a terrible thing to do. Like wishing your father dead.
But, the man gave his son the money.
His son left for another country and he wasted all his money. He threw his money around so much he had plenty of friends. But as the money ran out, his friends ran off. Before long the son had nothing. The only work he could get was feeding pigs. This was the very worst job a Jewish person could imagine doing, and he was stuck there. Sometimes he even wished he could eat the pigs food.

Eventually he decided to go home. He knew how much he had hurt and insulted his father, he felt terrible, but he hoped that maybe he could work on their land as a hired hand. At least he would have food.

He decided what he would say to his father:‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

All the way home he practiced it over and over again in his head.

But, when he was still a long way off, his father saw him in the distance, and took off running down the road towards him, collided with him in a hug, kissing him. The son said those words he had practiced, but the father didn't condemn him. He just shouted to servants to bring him the best clothes from the house, the father put his own ring on his sons finger. He ordered that all the best food be brought out and the whole household should have a feast, music and dancing, because his son was lost, but now is found. His son was dead, but now he was alive again.

This is the picture of God I want to leave you with.

The story says that the father spotted the son while he was still a long way off. How? It suggests that the father has been standing every day, watching, just waiting for his son's return.

Is this how you see God?

Waiting for you?

Watching?

Running towards you, while you are still a long way off?

Just waiting for a reunion?

Just waiting to prepare a celebration for your return?

PRAY

Let's take some time in silence to reflect, pray, think, to think about how we picture God.
Pray. Ask God to show you what he is really like. Ask God to give you a true picture.

….

Amen.

Please stay to chat. Tea and Coffee will be served at the back.

If you would like to pray, or just talk about what your thinking or feeling, or what's going on in your life, then just step into the prayer room, and one of us will come and listen, or pray for you.