Perceptions Form Relationships
This was the video introduction to our new series entitled “This Is Our God.” I loved going back to the neighborhood I grew up in to shoot this video with Matt. I’ve got lots of great memories from Central Avenue.
I don’t think anyone would argue that our relationships are formed by our perceptions of each other. The story I told in the video above of the Ormond family is one of hundreds of examples I could give of how this has played out in my life.
And our relationship with God is no different.
Nothing in all of life will impact your relationship with God like the way you think of God. Everything in your life consciously or unconsciously comes back to one thing: Whom do you visualize God to be in your heart?
So in this message series and the blogs I write on this topic my main goal is to get you to ask yourself two questions:
1) What do you think about God?
2) What do you think He thinks about you?
If you’re looking for another resource to help you go a little deeper with this topic I’ve found Chip Ingram’s book God: As He Longs for You to See Him
It’s probably better I don’t answer your questions but I loved the video and the story with it. The fact they were making movies and that those movies triggered your imagination was quite entertaining.
Sounds great, Pete.
How we view God and what we believe God to be like deeply impacts our relationship to God and one another. As important as it is to reflect on God via the classical articulation of God’s divine attributes (i.e., immutability, omnipotence, etc), we should also focus on the revelation that God provides of Himself in the witness of Scripture
Many people readily acknowledge that classical ideas about God have been heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, specifically Aristotle. This does not automatically make them wrong and unhelpful. However, we should bare this in mind so as not to try and force these ideas onto the picture of God we see in Scripture; a God who is dynamically and personally involved in the whole of our lives.
What we see God saying and doing in Scripture, specifically in and through the person, life and ministry of Jesus, and through the activity of the Spirit, ought to form the basis of our understanding of and relationship with the Triune God and others (The Trinitarian relationship forms the basis of our relationship with God and others).
The typical approach used in our attempt to understand and experience God often comes through concepts that, may not be completely inaccurate, but may also present a picture of God that can sometimes be foreign to the picture of God we see in Scripture. If this happens, the Scriptural picture should trump the philosophical one.
Wow…way too long. Must be the caffeine
Blessings as you work through this series with your community at Cross Point.
Peace.
Thanks so much for sharing Jeff. Great stuff.
I grew up on Central Avenue, too; Brownsville, TX, but still Central Avenue.
Really interesting thought, that our relationships are formed by our perceptions of each other. I can see how true that is.
I posted something on Facebook last week, asking people what they would want to know about Satan (we’re doing a series called Jesus vs. Satan). One response I got was totally out of left field. A guy asked, why did Satan kill significantly fewer people than God?
Then, as I was reading from the Old Testament, the thought struck me, if we would go into reading the Old Testament with the truth that God is perfectly just, it makes perfect sense.
The man’s question was based off a perception that God isn’t as good as He claims to be, and Satan isn’t that bad (or that neither even exist).
I’ve had a really hard time with this lately. I know that God is good and that he loves me and wants the best for me, but honestly, my life is so good right now that I don’t want to say, “Because of who you are, I trust you completely,” because something in me believes that if I say that he’ll test it. Does that make sense? I know that my fear is rooted in an unhealthy perception of him, but it’s hard to let go of what feels like control. So I guess I’ve just been asking him to give me gentle reminders to take another step towards trusting him completely. But anyway, thanks SO MUCH Pete, for what you do!!
Love this Brandon. I think we all wrestle with this at some level. Glad you’re asking these tough questions of your life!
I loved this video and the message on Sunday, Pete. So many times in my life, I’ve formed the wrong perceptions of people, only to be humbled and find out that I was wrong. As a result, I’ve missed out on some potentially amazing relationships.
I did the same thing with God until I was 23 years old. Throughout my entire life to that point, I lived with an unhealthy perception of who He is, which resulted in a strained/mostly non-existent relationship. It took a significant experience in my life for me to dive into His word and find out for myself.
Today, I’m truly thankful for a church and a community of believers that has taught me who God really is and how much He wants to have a relationship with me. I love Cross Point’s heart and the amazing impact it has had on me and the people around me.
I’m now singing “It’s a small world after all…” When I saw the Ormond name, I wondered if it was the same ones that we knew…they worked alot with the Sword of the Lord making movies in the early ’70′s that would literally scare the devil right out of me and my Sissy – we were 4 & 8 at the time!
I know my perception of God and how He sees me have changed so much over the years, for a much better relationship with God has come by realizing who I am in Him…love the book of Isaiah for answers to those questions!
Hope to listen to the podcast soon!!!
If God called me…could I work with your production crew? Awesomeness.
An acquaintance and his wife have taken in a troubled 18-year-old to help her finish high school after she’d been thrown out of her own home.
Their challenge (she hadn’t been raised in a Christian home) is to help her understand that what they are doing for her is a reflection of God’s love for her – and that it is grace and does not need to be repaid.
The young lady is having trouble understanding this concept because every gift her biological mom gave her was followed with the admonition, “remember, you have to pay me back for this.”
Yikes. Talk about having your relationship with God impacted by your earthly relationships!
Great video Pete – blessings to you and Cross Point through this series.
1) I think God is awesome. Not in the neatoriffic way that we’ve denigrated the word awesome but the mind-blowing awe-inspiring way. God continues to blow my mind and the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
2) I think God thinks I’m pretty awesome. Mostly because He lives in me. He is my hope of glory. I guess I’m kind of awesome by proxy. And that is not in a conceited way, but in a “I did absolutely nothing for this but I’ll take it” way.
As I rereading The Pursuit of God by Tozer, I am forced to take another step and go beyond what I think about God and venture into what I know about God.
Knowing involves experience whereas thinking can be speculation or conceptualization in the abstract. That doesn’t mean that we don’t ‘think’ on those things that we have experienced because we do.
But how much of our thoughts about God are left to our imaginations instead of a realization of personality to personality?
Pete, how do we experience what Tozer would define as God’s Manifest Presence in order that we may know Him instead of just think about Him?
These are great questions, Tony. I have been struggling for a few years now with the differences between thinking, knowing and believing.
To me, thinking is abstract and concept based. Knowing is certain and proof based. But believing… which is the crux of Christianity… is hypothetical and hope based.
Yet, most sermons seem to emphasize the first two so that people will feel certain and secure. Or pastors emphasize faith without any knowledge, leaving people wondering how to address the concrete questions of agnostics and atheists.
I will, perhaps, be scratching my head for all eternity over these issues… ;^)
I loved the video this Sunday and laughed as it made me remember some of the things my brothers and I did on our street growing up. We were the kids who the cops had to come talk with about dialing 911 excessively due to the random kidnapings we were sure were happening in our neighbors various garages. And the blood we found on the driveway of a neighbor down the street? It belonged to the elk they’d just skinned. LOL…
thanks for posting this. the video really made me think about realationships & my responsibility in them and my own with God. looking forward to hearing the podcasts all the way over here in AZ!
Sounds like an awesome series… i’m going to have to try to catch it.
The video is great and really true. Its a good thing to think about and contemplate when trying to find out who you are to God and who he is to us.
A couple weeks ago I wrote a blog on that very subject. Pretty much my perception and how I describe my relationship with God. I didn’t realize that this was not everyone’s perception until I started getting such adverse feedback. Everything from powerful to idealistic to borderline hogwash.
Great video Pete. The story about the Ormond’s is hilarious. And how true it is what you say that we our relationships are impacted by our perceptions of each other & God. I grew up fearful of God, built up I think as a result of relationship with my dad, but now have a much better view of God (& my dad).
Someone shared with me once that “I’m God’s favourite” (as we all are) and this is now how I think about Him…
I’m going to have to tune into the videos of your messages. Nice work again Pete…
Your post got me thinking about a quote I heard from Mark Hall of Casting Crowns. He said, “You can say what you think, but you live what you believe.” I could give you a long list of things I think or even ultimately know to be true about God. I know all the right answers. Where the rubber meets the road is if I believe them, or maybe I should say if I’m BELIEVING them. I think that’s where those perceptions come in. I often perceive that certain things I know to be true about God aren’t true because in my current situation they don’t look very true. If my perceptions are wrong, the truth gets clouded and my relationship goes sour. That process of thinking vs. believing has been really vital when I’m trying to give my relationship with God an honest look.
Really appreciate you and your heart, Pete. Looking forward to this.
I hope God thinks of me with pleasure. I hope I make Him smile. I hope He sees that I love Him more than life. I know He must but I also know my heart is deceitful. What if none of those things is really true?