Cocktail God

I was recently reading someone's thoughts online that pertain to their spiritual journey. This person claims all faiths lead to the same thing. Call it what you may--the Divine, God, Buddha, Goddess Mother, this individual believes it does not matter what you believe. It does not matter what you call "your god". They believe we are all on a spiritual path of enlightenment and if you hold to one truth you are closed minded and intolerant. While I understand there are many who believe this way, because I believe the Bible is the only truth--I was greatly troubled by what I was reading. What troubled me most is that this individual seems so sincere and claims to be earnestly seeking after God.

So I prayed to God after reading this. I reminded Him that His word does state that if you seek Him, you will find Him. Throughout the Bible we are told to draw near to Him and He will draw near to us. How can this person be searching so diligently and be so lost? God answered my prayer in my reading later that morning.

Here is what I read that day from Erwin Lutzer's The Kind Is Coming: Preparing to Meet Jesus:

Lutzer tells of a time he met a non-Christian woman who was telling him how much she loved Jesus. She loved him for the miracles he performed, because he loved children, etc. Lutzer then asked her, "Do you also love Him because He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could be forgiven and know God?" The woman told Lutzer she had never thought of that before.

Lutzer explains, "Yes, you can even love Jesus for the wrong reasons. What a tragedy to know Shakespeare but not as a man of literature; to know Newton but not as a scientist; to know Jesus but not as a Savior and King."

God reminded me that day that we can think we are seeking God, but in reality we are just practicing idolatry. We can be creating our own truth, creating an image of the god we want, or be on a spiritual journey that is all about our own ego. I call it a "cocktail god," with a little bit of these qualities from this religion, a few from this other religion over here, and then several characteristics I made up myself. The opposite of this would be shedding off what we want God to be and looking to an exterior source to reveal it to us. Through Christ's ministry on earth and through the Scriptures, we can know who God is and shed off the things we've made up in our head about Him. If you today are seeking any diety other than the One who is the Savior who can save you from your sin--your searching is futile.