Aren’t you glad we live in an age of user-friendly technology? You could go to Wal-Mart right after this service, purchase a relatively inexpensive laptop computer, plug it in, fire it up and with no previous experience understand how to use it in no time. Computer companies intentionally make their product so user-friendly that a chimp pushing buttons could almost operate one. They’re getting easier and easier to use because the companies want to sell to more and more people.
How different this is from the early days of computer technology. When I was in high school back in the 1980s we had computer programming classes. You’d accomplished something fantastic if you could program one of those machines to play Pong. I never took a computer class back then because I thought they were too complicated and I’d never need to use one. A friend of my, who attended computer classes in college back in the 80s, told me of the stacks and stacks of programming cards he carried to class each day.
The user-friendly computers of today are fast, easy, and cheap. This works for the consumer because the product gets better and better for a lower price. The companies make them this way, not because they love us, but because they need us to by their merchandise. It is our mutual need that spurs companies to create user-friendly technology and us to consistently buy the newer models they offer.
What works great for the economy, though, is devastating when we try to use the same approach toward God. If we begin thinking that God needs us in any way we human beings have a tendency to reshape Him into a user-friendly God who we can manipulate. I’ve heard people say that God created human beings because He was lonely and needed companionship. That’s nonsense. God has always existed in community: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If you start with the idea that God needs our companionship, you’ve got a God who’s a suck up to get a relationship. He pleads with us to come to Him and will overlook all offenses just to be with us. The idea of God’s gracious, undeserved invitation to relationship goes out the window. Some people think that God needs us do evangelism. Nonsense! He generously allows us to be a part of His saving work, but He doesn’t need us. Paul’s conversion through a vision of Christ is proof that He doesn’t need us. If we erroneously think He needs us to reach people for Christ, we’ll conclude that He’s obligated to empower and bless our efforts no matter how half-hearted or ridiculous.
If God needs us for anything, it opens the door that He can be manipulated by us. He’s not user-friendly, though we have a tendency to make Him so.
That’s really what happened at the Tower of Babel. The flood wiped away the Garden of Eden and God no longer walked among men. The natural conclusion was: “If He’s not down here, He must be up there somewhere.” The tower, according to the description in Genesis, was a ziggurat. It was a stairway between heaven and earth. It served no other purpose than to allow God to descend from heaven so that He could receive the offerings of the people in the temple below and bless them for it.
Why did the people build this structure and the accompanying city in the first place? In their own words it was …
“…so that we may make a name for ourselves for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” Genesis 11:5 (NIV)
There was nothing inherently sinful about their desire. They wanted the same things that we do: a life of significance and security. To make a name for yourself means that you contributed something lasting to the world, something that made an impact. We all have this drive. They also did not want to scatter because their was safety in numbers. Their togetherness made life easier and much less risky. There’s nothing wrong with these two desires. The problem was that they let the drive for security and significance cause them to create a more manageable God.
They wanted God’s blessing because life was and is tough. They also wanted His presence because life is meaningless without His stamp of approval. But by building the tower they were attempting to manipulate God to come down to them. God came down, not to do their bidding, but to rock their world. If you honestly believe you can manipulate God, you’ve convinced yourself that He needs something from you. If you believe that God has needs, you’ve reduced Him. You’ve made Him smaller. If God has become user-friendly He’s no longer really God.
What you may have been taught in Sunday school is wrong. The builders of the Tower of Babel were not trying to ascend into heaven themselves. They were attempting to manipulate God into coming down and blessing them. In so doing they lost a proper understanding of who God really is. Think of it this way: before the flood humanity corrupted itself; after the flood humanity corrupted God or at least their understanding of God. The Tower of Babel is the first recorded instance of paganism. Paganism occurs when God has been reduced to a more manageable, user-friendly form.
Many of us fall into the same trap as the Tower builders. Don’t let the drive for security and significance cause you to create a more manageable God. When you do, you’re playing with paganism. But here’s the good news: when you attempt to reduce God, he’ll enter into the picture and reduce you because He loves you and doesn’t want you to attach yourself to a cheap imitation.
Playing with Paganism
Let me show you some examples of how we reduce God and make Him user-friendly. For the first two, I’ll use my own life. I’ve flirted with paganism a time or two.
God-in-the-box
As a teenager, I pretty well had the whole God-thing figured out. I was omniscient as many teenagers are today. I believed there was a God, the big man upstairs watching my back. He didn’t really govern my conduct except to not steal (in conspicuous way), not kill (never mind reputations), and be nice (according to my definition and as long as I felt like it). God was my personal Jack-in-the-box. I didn’t want Him around most of the time, but when a need arose I’d crank the handle and - “Pop goes the weasel!” - out comes the big man upstairs to meet my need. I had God-in-the-box or so I thought.
In the span of about 1 year God ripped my box in two. My grades were terrible my freshman year at Appalachian State University. After one semester I was on academic probation, which means they can ask you not to return if things don’t improve. I brought God out of the box and prayed for good grades. I prayed to pass those exams that I refused to study for. I prayed to make it though those math and chemistry classes in which I chose to watch TV and waste time rather than complete my assignments. Guess what happened. I failed most of my classes. ASU invited me to either attend summer sessions and improve my grades or not come back. If didn’t come back. But I started wondering what happened to my God in the box.
That very summer my parents’ divorce finally became official. At that point if was a relief. But I wondered why God didn’t come through and fix my family when I’d been praying for Him to do so since the age of 15. I cranked the handle. I summoned God to my rescue. Where was He?
The most decisive and painful tearing down of my paganism occurred in October of that same year. My older brother was involved in an early morning automobile accident. He’d been drinking, had fallen asleep behind the wheel, and wrecked his care about three miles from home. His head trauma was so severe that the doctors at Baptist hospital induced a coma to try to keep his brain from swelling. The crash was on Sunday and by Thursday brain scans revealed no activity. I went into a stairwell and made a deal with God. “If you’ll heal my brother, I’ll go into the ministry.” I walked away completely confident that my God would come through. He didn’t. Not in the way I expected. The next day my family tearfully gave the okay to take my brother off life support and he died. It was the last time that my family was together.
My world turned upside down. God was not who I thought Him to be. I didn’t question His existence, but I did begin search for who He really is. Less than two years after that horrible event, though a series of witnesses and events, God introduced Himself to me through the person of Jesus Christ.
Although I bowed the knee to the one true God, my attempts to reduce and manipulate Him did not stop there. I continued playing with paganism and He became the …
God of my success
God is really being “sold” on these terms today. The TV preachers and Christian authors will tell you that God is committed to making you healthy and wealthy. Send in your seed faith vow and He is obligated to make your business prosper, send you a Lexus, provide you a mansion, heal your diseases, and save all of your family members. Some will tell you that God’s great purpose is to help you fulfill your dreams. You’ve just got to change your negative way of thinking, get past your past, and have your best life now.
I bought into that line of thinking, but I spiritualized it a little more. For years I sought security and significance through the church. In my twenties I wanted to make a name for myself by being the best preacher boy the world had ever seen. When that no longer satisfied I went after church planting. I sought security and significance through building a growing, cutting edge church. When our attendance at one event surpassed 200 in under two years, I felt certain that God was on my side and committed to my success.
Within a month the erosion began. Several key leaders left the church, including my own mom. (If you ever want to be humbled, try explaining to someone that you ran your own flesh and blood off from the church.) Our attendance began to plummet. Where was the God committed to my success? I was, after all, trying to reach people for Him? Wasn’t I?
My error clicked into place about a year after the erosion began. We planned a wonderful Christmas Eve service. I’d read that’s one of the best times to attract unchurched people, so I had high expectations. We prepared and primed our members, “Go celebrate with you family and then bring them on out for the service.” The worship service was quite good, but the attendance was dismal. Not a single unchurched person showed up. Neither did most of our members or attendees. I drove home frustrated and angry at God. I asked, “Lord, what was the point of that? Why did our efforts accomplish nothing?” He responded, “You worshipped Me didn’t you?” That’s when it finally occurred to me that I was using God for my success. He had to correct my paganism. I’ve repented of using God to attract a crowd to build my self-esteem.
God is not committed to our success. He’s committed to His glory. Try to use Him for your purposes and He’ll tear your playhouse down.
I think Christians are playing with paganism the most today when they put …
God in a corner
We’ve reduced God when we think that we can confine Him to certain areas of our lives and exclude Him from others. Most of you know that Laura and I met working at North Myrtle Beach on a campground ministry. Part of our responsibility was putting on Wednesday and Friday night skit and song shows. One drama that I remember vividly involves a guy becoming a Christian and immediately Jesus enters the stage and starts walking with them. At first the new Christian is overjoyed and they invite Him into various parts their home. Then the phone rings and an invitation to a party is extended. The new Christian wants to go, but they realize Jesus is going to follow, so they decide to stay at home. Then the doorbell rings and it’s a group of friends inviting the new Christian to a night out on the town. Jesus is still following so the new Christian reluctantly decides not to go. Finally, an old flame come to the door and seductively invites the new Christian out to a good time with her. Knowing that Jesus will follow, the new Christian says, “No Jesus, you can’t come with me. Stay here!” As Jesus attempts to follow him out the door, the new Christian pushes Him back and says, “I’m sorry to have to do this, but you just can’t come with me.” At that point the new Christian crucifies Jesus all over again, so that He cannot follow him out the door.
The skit send a powerful message of how many of us try to live. We want to confine our walk with God to certain areas like worship services and Bible studies and fellowship events. But we don’t really desire God’s companionship in the car or at work or in front of the TV or you name it. That’s God in a corner and it’s paganism.
Some of us want God to improve our health, but not change our attitudes. We earnestly ask for a promotion or raise, but we’re quiet about that sinful habit that we enjoy so much. When we ask God to work for us, but not on us we’ve relegated Him to the corner. That’s paganism. And, as the old saying goes, He’s either Lord of all or not Lord at all. You can operate that way, but I assure you God will eventually intervene and expose the very thing you are trying to hide. What you do, say, or think in the dark will be brought into the light. You might as well give Him full access now, so that the issue can be resolved quietly and privately.
Our God is not a user-friendly God. He needs nothing from us, therefore He cannot and will not be manipulated. Don’t let the drive for security and significance cause you to create a more manageable God. Don’t let paganism become your operating principle.
That’s what happened after the flood. The land was cleansed, but life became tougher. Life spans diminished significantly. The land reverted back to a wild state. The people were desperate for security in this new environment. Their shortened lives drove them to seek significance in a hurry. God’s intention was that the nations reach out to Him. Instead they tried to manipulate Him. Humanity corrupted God and paganism took hold. But God had a plan. He confused the language so that one line of human beings would preserve a right understanding of Him. God reintroduced Himself to the nations through Abram a descendant of that godly line. He would later be named Abraham and become known as the father of all people from all nations of the earth who come to God by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the full revelation of God.
Don’t let the drive for security and significance cause you to create a more manageable God. Cast aside your user-friendly version and find the real God revealed in the pages of the Bible. Those aren’t just strange and heart warming stories. They’re telling you who God is. Seek Him in prayer and let Him align you to His will and open your ears to His voice. Join Him on the journey of discipleship, following wherever He goes. If you want security, find it in Jesus. If you want significance, find it in Jesus.
Our God is not a user-friendly God, but He is still the source of our security and significance. In the book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, author C.S. Lewis depicts Jesus as a huge lion named Aslan. The children in the story are somewhat taken aback when they earn that the ruler of Narnia is a lion:
“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”
“That you will dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver; “if there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
