Laurie

Creating God in Your Own Image

Meditations in Motion

“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” – Anne Lamott

Yes, how many times have I created God in my image, often to win an argument only occurring in my own mind?

Too many of us use religion to exclude, harass and treat with contempt those who frighten us. The Bible tells us that “God is love“, to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you“, and “Blessed are the merciful“.

Let us treat everyone with love, even the undeserving, the unwashed, the impure and the vulnerable.

“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” – 1 John 4:20

Please click on the following link to read more funny or inspirational one-liners. One Liner Wednesday

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I am linking up with Holley Gerth for Coffee for Your Heart,Worth Beyond Rubies, Debbie at Dare 2 Hear, Reflections From Me for A Blogging Good Time, Random-osity for Little Things Thursdays, It’s a Small Town Life for Thankful Thursday, Crystal Storms for Heart Encouragement, Be Thee Inspired, and Kristin Hill Taylor for Porch Stories.

58 comments

  9. Hi Laurie! Such a great reminder that we are all undeserving of God’s glory, And only through the blood of Jesus are we made worthy. To say it with humor as this quote does, is simply wonderful. God bless!

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  14. Spot on! (imho) 😉

    I think it is so very easy to slide from: “And God created man in His Image;male and female created he them.” to: i’m in the image of God so whatever i think must be what God thinks.

    There are so many reminders of the need to be humble and to not think too highly of one’s self in Scripture but some will even find a way to be proud of themselves and feel ‘superior’ for showing how hugely humbled they are (to God maybe, not so much to His Children!) 😉

    I suspect there would be a number of believers who would not get Anne’s irony of her use of the hate analogy and accept there are some people God hates.

    But then again, the Flood He sent did wipe out many thousands (millions?) of people…. I confess to seeing the temptation myself on the odd occasion! 😉

    On a different slant to the quote. Mankind is now not all that far from creating life in our own image, from self-organising silicon chips and synthetic skin/hair… we as a race are moving from simply playing God with our and other life forms to actually copying Him. If i’m right (and i hope i’m not) the results might be far from what we think we are going to achieve. It is possible we might be responsible for creating a Demi-God life-form who could throw us out of Eden a second, potentially fatal, time.

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    • I had to laugh when I read the part of the comment where you talk about “humble”. I have often thought the same thing but didn’t express the thought as well as you just did. I am reminded of this verse from Matthew “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

      My middle son used to work in computer programming in Artificial Intelligence. I think that’s scary, too!

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      • The Matthew verse is one i remember well. 🙂

        AI is a fascinating, if somewhat worrying topic. I have been giving some serious thought to it of late particularly as it may relate to ‘consciousness’. Just what would a machine consciousness look like, think like and then be able to do?

        It also got me thinking about human consciousness – how is it possible from a (very big) clump of inanimate atoms?

        I decided that the atoms by themselves could not have achieved it by my present level of understanding of the physical world.

        There has to be another force at work – one science has not yet defined, maybe one that has been ‘known’ of though for millennia?? 😉

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      • I have been thinking a lot about consciousness lately, too. It is a fascinating topic. I think I might have to get some books to read up on it.

        Like

      • A good idea! 🙂

        When you think about it (pun intended) it’s probably quite important to us to understand our consciousness a little better! 🙂

        I may need to do a post or seven on what i learn about it?

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  15. I love this, Laurie. Anne’s quote cracked me up. Kindness is so powerful, isn’t it? And being kind to those who are different from us, who are antagonists, who don’t like us? That’s reflecting Jesus to them, I think. Great post!

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  18. Hello, I agree with your post 100% . People tend to forget we are equal and everyone is entitled to their religion. Being kind and loving your neighbor should go without saying. Enjoy your day, have a great weekend ahead!

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  22. I love the quote from Anne Lamott. She is a favorite author of mine and I love following her on Twitter. Thanks for linking up today. I always appreciate it.

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