Viewing Jesus through dirty glasses.

Have you ever worn eye glasses or shades (my term for sunglasses)?  I think we all have at one point or another.  If you wear them for awhile and take them off and look at them you will notice they get dirt specks, spots, and smudges pretty easily, in fact you get them without even noticing it at the time. These things just build up over time and you dont even notice it till you take them off.  When I take my glasses off and see all the dirt specks, spots and smudges I think wow why didn't I see all this while i was wearing them?  I mean its pretty bad.

Wrong thinking is kind of like the dirt specks on your glasses.  It slowly builds up most of the time without you even thinking or seeing it until your walking the trash out to the curb and fall because you dont see the hole in the driveway.   All the pain now in your elbow and arm could have been easily prevented just by having clean glasses.  Problem is you didn't know you had dirty glasses because it was a slow build up over time that you didn't notice till it was too late.

Wrong thinking is the same thing.  Wrong thinking builds up slowly over time without you knowing it until you fall down and then its too late.  I want to talk a little bit about one item of wrong thinking us men can have.  The wrong thinking is this, "Viewing our Heavenly father through the eye glasses of our earthly dad."

I have a real good friend (lets call him Mike) who I grew up with.  Mike had a dad who was not a great guy.  His dad was not only loud and pretty obnoxious he wasn't real nice to Mike.  His dad went through periods of time where he beat Mike and verbally abused him.   Mike told me there were times when his dad would just leave and not come back for weeks on end.  Nobody knew where he was or where he went.  It was pretty scary for Mike and his mom.  Growing up with Mike I knew it was an area that bothered him deeply.  It would bother anybody!  Mike got hurt so much he decided that even though his dad might be able to hurt him physically he wasn't going to hurt Mike emotionally no matter what his dad said or did.  He put up a wall of security as he called it whenever his dad was around him.  After high school my friend couldn't wait to leave home and start college as far from home as he could get.

Several years ago I was able to get back in touch with Mike.  It was great catching up with him and seeing how he was doing.  Mike turned out to be pretty successful.  He is married and got a couple boys now.  From what I know he seems like a real good dad to his kids and isn't anything like his dad.  Mike is a Christian and is a leader in his church.  We were talking some time ago and I asked him about his dad and how it effected his Christian walk.  Even though we were talking on the phone you could immediately tell he became a little chocked up.  He told me his dad prevented him from having a closer relationship with Jesus for many years after high school.

Mike told me for years he viewed God, the father, as he viewed his dad.  The Bible refers to God hundreds of time as the father.  Mike having wrong thinking and not knowing it began to see God through his eyeglasses of his dad.  He told me the following things.

• My dad was mean, so God the father was mean in making me go through it
• My dad left me, God the father will leave me too
• Nothing was ever good enough for my dad, I believed nothing will ever be good enough for God the father as he is perfect.

The list went on and on.  Mike told me he went through countless years of viewing God in these ways.  It effected him in his personal relationship not only with God but with his wife, friends, co-workers, boss and his kids.  I understood what Mike was saying as I know I did the same thing.  I at times viewed God the father through the dirty lenses of my dad.  Think of it this way.  Lets pretend you have a chance to see God.  You are standing looking at God but you cant see him as the strong, magnificent, glorious God he is because your glasses are dirty.  The dirt is a metaphor of your earthly dad that is human and has faults like all dads do.  Here is the thing you will never be able to see God for who he is through the eyeglasses of your dad.  No matter if you had a great dad or one like Mike had; All dads are imperfect and have sin and there is no way to see God the father through the prism of your dad.

No matter how much you know about God the father; until you see him as a strong loving, caring, God who only wants the best for you and will not harm you, you will not be able to have the kind of relationship with him that he desires.  Most importantly you will not be able to love him to where he can set you free from wrong thinking.

Mike told me he was never able to take his glasses off and clean them, Mike told me God did it for him and Mike now sees God the father for who he truly is.