SEPTEMBER 2019 1

in many ways he is just like us…onlymore advanced. 2) Dealing with God successfully

involves treating him like otherhumans whom you want to impressand please. God is “in charge”—likeour parents were when we were youngand like our boss is at work. So dowhat he wants and be on your bestbehavior when he is “around.” Thatwill keep him happy. 3) Dealing with God successfully

involves “not waking him up” bydoing things he does not like. If youwake him up he will not be happy andneither will you.But God begs to differ with the

way in which we pigeonhole himand turn him into a more“manageable” God. “For my thoughts are not your

thoughts, neither are your ways myways,” declares the Lord. “As theheavens are higher than the earth, soare my ways higher than your waysand my thoughts than your

thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9, myemphasis). Our ways and our thoughts are

not one and the same as God’sways and thoughts. God has hisways and his thoughts areincomparably higher than ourways and thoughts. God is notlike us. God is something different.

Way better—in fact he is perfect.He is higher and more noble andgracious—filled with love, mercyand grace. He is eternal andimmortal—we are not. It might

seem obvious that his ways andthoughts are higher than our own,since he is Creator and we arecreatures, but our thoughts andways don’t always assume that tobe true, do they? As a young boy, I used to sit with

my mother on my grandmother’sfront porch, on North 8th Street inHerington, Kansas, as we lookedinto the summer sky. Herington wasand still is a small Kansas town, soneon signs and city lights didn’thamper the magnificent heavenlyspectacle presented without chargeeach night of the summer.As we sat there, often surrounded

by fireflies, my mother would tellme that my father (who was killedwhen I was only 15 months old)was one of those stars twinkling upin the sky. My mother was myultimate authority for everything atthat time, so for a number of yearsI thought my father whom I neverknew was “up there” with God.

PLAIN TRUTH ®

w w w . p t m . o r g

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inside

Heart and Soul p2

Blessings and Curses? p5

My Cousin Valerie p7

Quotes & Connections p8

SEPTEMBER 2019

Volume 84, Number 5

“You can safely assume you’vecreated God in your own image whenit turns out that God hates all thesame people you do.”—Anne Lamott

rom the beginning of timehumans have busiedthemselves with attemptsto bring God down to earth—to shrink him and make

him easier to understand—to makehim more human. The OldTestament is filled with examplesof golden calves, shrines in highplaces and sacrifices and offerings(some required as a part of the oldcovenant and others not so much).Appeasing and pleasing God wasvery much a part of the mindset ofthe old covenant and of course verymuch a part of how humansnaturally perceive God. The basic human mindset about

God goes something like this: 1) Of course God is more powerful

than we are and much smarter…but

CHR I S T I AN I T Y W I THOUT THE R E L IG ION ®

F

By Greg Albrecht

CreatingGod in Our OwnImage

But as I matured and grew, Irealized my father was not atwinkling star any more than SantaClaus delivered presents to all thechildren of the world on one night.But the idea of God being “up there”stayed with me. Perhaps you havehad some similar ideas about God.The vast majority of people who

believe in God believe he is in asingular, precise heavenly location.God is way too small for mostpeople. I once heard animpassioned preacher explain tohis congregation that “God is about6’2” and he weighs about 220pounds—about the same as myheight and weight.” We do love to shrink God down

to our size—we do love to makeGod into our image and ourlikeness. The preacher was doingwhat most humans tend to do—hewas making God over into animage that is about the same size aswe are—maybe a little bigger and alittle smarter, but not that much. I never knew my earthly father,

and while I was taught about Godfor many decades of my life, I nowrealize much of what I was taughtwas erroneous, so I never reallyknew much about my heavenlyFather either. By the grace of God,over the past few decades, I havegrown in Christ to know myheavenly Father. Have you ever thought about the

huge difference in knowing aboutGod and knowing God? One way to think about the

difference in knowing about God andactually knowing God is to thinkabout the love we humans canexperience. One can read aboutlove and learn about love—sometimes the knowledge isaccurate and sometimes it ismythical and mystical. Knowledge, to the degree it is

accurate or not, is just knowledge.But when one actually experiencesand is immersed and is head-over-heels “in love,” one realizes thedistinction between knowing aboutlove and being in love.

Many people thinkof God as confinedto heaven—sittingon this throne whileangels are constantlyscurrying around,giving him reportsabout breaking newsfrom all over theuniverse—especiallywhat is going onhere on earth. Many people

perceive God, afterhearing thosereports, leaning over, looking outhis huge heavenly picture window,peering down at all of us here onearth and frowning. Sometimesthey think God must shake hishead in disappointment. Their Godis too small—he is a disenchantedGod who is far away and ashamedand disappointed in them.

“Your God is Too Small”A few hours ago I was looking forone of my favorite books—with nosuccess. I’ve been drasticallywhittling down my library of booksbecause 1) I don’t need many ofthem and 2) I am thinking thatnow, in my early 70s, is a goodtime to get rid of a lot of stuff that Ihave accumulated…so others don’thave to later. But, and perhaps this has

happened to you as well, when onestores a book or other item in aparticular place for many years, andthen upsets the entire course ofhuman history by moving ordiscarding said book or item, chaoscan result. “Where did I put thatbook? That book was a keeper—surely I didn’t throw it away!”I finally did locate Your God is Too

Small by J.B. Phillips, but in allfairness, it is a “small” paperback—perhaps one of the smallest books Iown. Ironically, Your God is TooSmall was lost among bigger books. J.B. Phillips was a professor of

Greek, who completed an excellenttranslation of the New Testament,and among other books, wrote thiscompact but profound little book

he titled Your God is Too Small. Hefills this superb little book withstereotypes of God many of us havebelieved—from a policeman to adoting grandfather to a God whodemands absolute perfection to aGod who is forever annoyed andaggravated with us. Many within Christ-less religion

have been taught and consequentlybelieve in an angry God who isupset with them—a small-mindedlittle God who is preoccupied withvengeance and payback, ratherthan the eternal and foreverforgiveness revealed to us in the lifeand ministry of Jesus Christ. Many who are brainwashed

and held captive by religiousmisrepresentations of God are sobusy pleasing and appeasing the Godthey are already convinced about,they have no clue how to find theGod they have never known.So much about God is revealed to

us in and through the teachings ofJesus, but many people completelymiss that God because they thinkthey already know him. Sadly, manywonderful people, with distortedideas about God, are only interestedin reinforcing and conforming tothe distorted God they know. The diluted, diminished and

devalued mini-god of Christ-lessreligion is only concerned withmaintaining the status quo ofreligion.J.B. Phillips wrote Your God is Too

Small to help us take God out ofour pigeonholes and out of thereligious boxes into which we and

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SEPTEMBER 2019 3

The BIG God of unlimited grace andunconditional love cannot be tamed by religiousauthorities, theologians or biblical scholars.

situation as hopeless. They areempty and desperate because theybelieve what they have been told—that God is remote, passive andnon-involved. They believe that God is so small

that he is prone to temper outbursts,and if he really gets upset he willcome unglued, throw a hissy fit andpunish them out of his wrath.

Why Religion Has FailedChrist-less religion has failed toteach and preach a BIG God becauseit has not, in the main, come togrips with the fact that Jesus Christis the core of our faith. Jesus Christis the center of true faith—not religiousrituals, performances, attendance,programs or human virtue. When we focus on Jesus as the

absolute center and core of faith, werealize that our relationship withGod is because of Jesus, not becauseof anything we can ever accomplish. When we focus on Jesus as the

absolute center and core of faith, werealize that God loves usunconditionally, by his grace andbecause of his goodness, not becauseof our deeds and efforts.When we focus on Jesus as the

absolute center and core of faith, wediscover that God’s love is endless.We discover that God’s love is farbeyond anything we can everimagine. We discover that God’slove fills our souls and spirits tooverflowing, so that our lives arefilled with purpose, meaning andsignificance. You and I need a Big God. You

and I have a BIG GOD!We have a Big God who cannot be

tamed or shrunk down to the size ordimensions of a religiousdenomination or its dogmas anddoctrines. • We are given a God, by his grace

and love, whose relentless love is foreveryone who has ever lived or everwill.• We are given a God, by his grace

and love, who loves all people, whodesires to transform and redeem alllanguages, all cultures, all colors andall religions. Thank God he is Godand we are not. q

PLAIN TRUTH

others have placed him, in theprocess deflating, dissecting,diminishing and devaluing him. • We tend to categorize and

shrink God. We tend to mash himup into bite-sized chunks. Wepulverize him in our blender sothat we can digest him more easily. • We prefer a smaller God

because a small God is a God wecan manage, control andmanipulate. A small God is safe—he does what we want him to dowhen we want him to do it.• We like a vending-machine

God who will dispense the answersto our prayers and requests whenwe put it in the right “currency” interms of prayers and efforts. • We like to think of God as a

genie in a bottle whom we cansummon to take care of thosebothersome problems we face. • We like to think that God can

be bargained with like we wouldbargain with a merchant. • We like to think that we can

persuade God like we persuade afriend or family member. • We like to think that God will

be impressed if we do lots and lotsof good things, and in fact he willnot only be impressed but he willbe in our debt—obligated to dowhat we want because of all thegood stuff we have done for him.

God is Big…Really BIGEach of us must examine our ideasof God and ask where those ideascame from and more importantly,are they correct and valid,according to the biblical revelationof God, most of all in the person ofJesus Christ. At the end of all examinations of

our ideas about God, we will realizemany, if not most, of the images ofGod we’ve believed are erroneous.Our God has been far too small.

How big is God?• Big enough to come into our

world in the person of Jesus, and toturn it and all of its religions upsidedown and right side up. • Big enough to overcome a

world of sin, hatred and corruptionby his love. • Big enough to love the entire

world—all of it and all of us—without exception. • Big enough to love us because

that’s who he is, rather than lovingus based on how well we behaveand perform. God is bigger than anything

human religion does to define andconfine him within creeds, beliefs,practices, doctrines, dogmas andbuildings. God is bigger than anyreligious attempt to fence him inwithin denominational boundaries. The BIG God of unlimited grace

and unconditional lovecannot be tamed byreligious authorities,theologians or biblicalscholars. When God grants us

deeper insights intoexactly who he is (andisn’t), we see him as heis, rather than as wehave been taught andbrainwashed. God canand will radicallychange our lives whenwe realize that God isbig enough to handleall our doubts and fearsand to blot out ourshame and guilt. Many today who are

trapped by ideas of asmall God see their

We are given a God, by his grace andlove…who desires to transform andredeem all languages, all cultures,

all colors and all religions.