Your God Is Too Small

"Your God is too small," a friend told me. He said that most of my problems in life could be chalked up to my small view of God. At first, I thought that was absurd. I was offended! My view of God wasn't too small! Yet, as I thought about it, he was right. God is so magnificently gargantuan that my finite mind had no chance of fully grasping his enormity. But my biggest problem wasn't my ability to wrap my mind around God. It was that I had shrunk him down to something manageable. Something like... me. He was just a little smarter and bigger.

I don't think I'm alone, at some time in our lives, we've all shrunk God down. J.B. Phillips offers a few ways we make God too small.

• The Police Officer: God is our inner voice that tells us what's right, wrong, and makes us feel guilty when we've sinned. He speaks to us, but only to remind us to stay in line.
• Wise Old Man: In this view of God, he's a grey-bearded old man that has seen a lot. He is really smart, and we'd benefit greatly by heeding his wisdom. Because he's old, he is also old-fashioned. This type of God is respectable, but not one you would worship.
• Hippy God: This view sees God as wearing Birkenstocks, chill, and antiestablishment. He's just sitting back and letting things happen. He doesn't really care about much of anything, except, like, don't be mean and stuff to people man.
• Get Out of Hell Free Card: This is when a person sees God as a means to get to out of hell and into Heaven. In this view, a person doesn't really care about worshiping God. They just don't want to go to the hot place.
• The CEO God: This God is a pretty big deal. He's CEO of the whole universe! But because of this he doesn't have time for the small details of us creatures. Because he can't be bothered with it, he has a bunch of minions to take care of the small stuff. While he mostly has things in his control, occasionally, something goes haywire. But it's ok! He's a genius. He'll fix it!

Ok, I could go on, but I think you get the picture. In this new series, I hope we can stop shrinking God down and see him closer to who he really is (At least as much as our human minds are able). I am so excited about this series because I truly believe it will help you with your doubts and answer some of life's biggest questions. Questions like, "If God's all-powerful, why is there so much evil in the world?" "Who is Jesus?" and "Who am I?" All of these are connected to God's greatness.

I can't wait to worship our great God with you tomorrow at 10 AM!