Let me step right out there, a little further on the edge!
Once you take off the religious glasses we all wear, strip the moralistic veneer from our behavior, and scrape the ethical varnish off our thoughts of God, He begins to become REAL! But, having said that, it’s no easy process because you have to kill the ego, the false self that we all think we are! So, let me lend your ego a knife, your thoughts of God a new vista, and maybe even liberate the females in your life.
I’ve often wondered why the Bible presents God as a MALE. Since I was one, it never was a pressing issue for me though. God forbid HE would be a SHE! But, let me begin by taking you back in history (since I am one of those students).
Hundreds and thousands of years before Christ, back in antiquity, most of the Gods were Goddesses. Why shouldn’t She be? It was the female from whence life came. We guys came from their belly. Life, blood flowed from their bodies. But as we approach the time of Christ there is a movement from matriarchy to patriarchy, and it is through the lense of patriarchy that we have viewed the world in the last 2,000+ years!
Why, since God is Spirit?
I believe the answer to the maleness of God comes from the heart and mercy of God. God had two gender choices (not three) and He chose (the the Jews who wrote the Old Testament) to be known as a MALE- Father God. It is just natural for women to be nuturers. Women understand transformation far better than men as they see it happen in their bodies, changing a seed into a human being. They are naturally more predisposed to spiritual things.
Thus to portray God as MALE is the ultimate “this doesn’t work” picture. It’s like coming up with a story of a God who comes to earth , is humiliated, wrongly accused, and is crucifiednaked. It’s not the story I’d write about a God! And it’s all about how a MAN (Jesus) could call the other MAN- Abba Father! And we have received that Spirit as the Romans 8:15 tells us.
It seems as though God does everything the opposite of our natural thinking (well, Duh), and therein is where I am going with my message this Sunday! But lest I leave you confused; I am affirming the need for the Bible to proclaim God as MALE, Abba Father- Daddy God, while I am also affirming Him as pure Spirit. Handling that “And-Also” contradiction is of course fascinatingly alive and fresh. Unfortunately though, most Christians are not. I pray we will BE!
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