Sadly whenever we come into conversation about Christianity it becomes ravingly clear a lot of the time that somebody got there first. People think God is the boring bit of religion that was thrust on them in School assemblies. God is the person that dresses up priests in frocks and then gets them to speak in old fashioned English that nobody understands anymore. God is the person that came up with lots of restricting rules about how we behave. God is hard right; or just hard and always right!!
If there was a God and He got hold of me He would make my life a misery; and anyway no intelligent person believes all that rubbish anymore. Christians are just a load of hypocrites anyway. Who needs God?
Well fortunately, no one, if the above is an accurate description. However, the good news is that those for whom Christianity is alive and well, and based on knowing a God who is profoundly loving, the above caricature bears NO resemblance at all.
In the next few videos John and Lou discuss some common held misconceptions about the God of the Christian faith.
God is not a Killjoy, or breathing out Wrath.
God is not judgemental, but He is scapegoated.
God is not boring or irrelevant.
Sadly, I have said in my counselling room on various occasions that the biggest barrier to Christianity can be the christians themselves!!
We are called to be reflections of Jesus, His representatives on earth. The understanding that each Christian is on a lifetimes’ journey into that reality may help our appreciation of what we see portrayed.
I have come to believe that one of the reasons God does not always rescue His children from pain and trauma is that it is usually through the challenges and difficulties of life that we learn patience with ourselves and compassion and kindness to the people around us. This video explores what people see when the theoretical is not really in sync with the practical outworking It can be VERY off putting!!