Session 2: Ironman Week 3 Notes

Review:

What are the limits we put on our image of God? What we think about God shapes who we become. Everyone relates to God based on the images they have on Him

Recovery from Distorted Images of God: Sometimes it can be hard for us to grasp the good of God when bad is happening….when people who don’t believe are doing well….poor thinking can lead to destruction…

Paradigm – “is the framework of all that we think, and feel, and then hold to be true about some aspect of our life and world.”

Paradigms are like the lens, the views we have about life that lead us to what we believe.

Event (objective) – Paradigm(subjective) – Conclusion

Paradigm Shifters:

God given:

• Creation
• Scripture
• History
• Holy Spirit
• Jesus

Outside given:

• Relationships
• Experiences
• Cultures

How to we match the God given paradigm shifters with ones that come from the outside. When we get stuck in a paradigm it can feel like a prison.

What’s most important is not what you think about God, but what God thinks about you. If you ask God, “Am I good enough?”, the world might tell us “no”, but God tells us that we are priceless.

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Paul’s letters are a testament how to paradigms can be shifted.

My wants, desires, dreams limit the size of God because we try to define reality. In turn we need to allow God define our reality.

We are influenced by what goes on in our head and in our lives. When we get trapped in our paradigm it’s because the outside given paradigm shifters hold more water than the God given…we need to change that.

The Enlightenment replaced our awe of God with categorization, which lead to doubts of God’s existence.

Genesis 22 – Abraham is asked to sacrifice his only Son but soon sees God as his provider.

Exodus 15-16 – Gideon wasn’t really excited about being used by God as a valiant warrior, but soon sees God as his shepherd, his banner.

We need to allow our paradigms be reformed into what God wants them to be. God is as God does and He has demonstrated over time that He is worthy of our attention.

Acts 17:24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.”