God is so misrepresented, there are many lies about Him. It is not because He has not left us enough information. We live in an age where God can be whatever you want. It is an age of supermarket religion. Surveys indicate that 92% of people believe in God, but not the God of the Bible. 20% of Australians, according to the census, are church attending Christians (which incidentally outweighs weekend sport attending and TV watching sports people). Church attending however, does not mean weekly. Sadly, even among Christians there are still many misconceptions. Why is that? If 92% of people believe in God, but only 20% attend church on a regular basis, what do the other 72% believe about God?

This world has been through the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, the atomic age, the space age, and the information age. We are now in the garb age. Our generation fulfills their spiritual needs by shopping for faith according to their own needs. They will pick up fragments of Christianity and mix it with scientology, eastern religions or any notions derived from “personal experience.” On this spiritual smorgasbord they seek a god that suites their tastes and a god who fulfills their idea of what God should be like. So many go god shopping. Over 50 years ago that was my plan – at the age of 18, (it was 1972) I set out on a world trip. I was going to investigate every religion I could lay my hands and mind on. I was going to take a piece from every religion and see if I could piece together the meaning of life. Fortunately, God found me struggling through these side alleys.
Manufacturing a god based on our own inclinations and experience is idolatry. Self-made people usually worship their creator. Idolatry is giving respectability to our own opinions about God. We form God in our own likeness and fashion our own ideas about Him. We are a generation that seeks to make God in our own image. The essence of idolatry is bringing God down to more manageable levels. God has been westernized, spiritualized, trivialized, capitalized, commercialized, and paganized. This generation is probably more subtly idolatrous than any other in history. All these ideas about God affect the way we think, worship and live.

True seekers after God must understand God HAS chosen to reveal Himself, but not as WE think He ought to be. God has chosen to reveal Himself in a particular way and so we must put personal preferences away and listen to His revelation. The clearer we see God, the clearer we will perceive ourselves. Our perceptions of God must be guided by His revelation. Perceptions are often the way we interpret the things around us. 80% of life happens between our ears. For instance, there was once a little girl who was prone to exaggeration. She was given a dog for her birthday, but she told her neighbours she was given a lion. Upon hearing about this her mother said, “Sally I have told you not to lie. Go upstairs and tell God you are sorry and promise not to lie again.” Sally went up stairs and after saying her prayers came down again. Her mother asked, “Did you tell God you are sorry?” to which Sally replied, “Yes and God said sometimes He finds it hard to tell my dog from a lion too!”