Good morning and happy Tuesday. It’s been such a treat to have a few dry days in a row where you can actually venture outside. I read that it was the wettest September in 86 years and is now officially the rainiest Fall season (Sept 1 – Nov 30) on record! That’s a lot of rain. When we left for Maui, North Texas was experiencing one of the biggest droughts in history and lakes were drying up. It doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon.
We continue to knock off little projects around the house. When we bought it, the house had not especially been taken great care of, so it has been a chore to correct many simple things. We’ve also taken advantage of the mild temps to tackle some outside projects before it gets cold. We built a privacy fence in the backyard, are having our trees trimmed and are cleaning up some old landscaping in the backyard. One step at a time. It’s a blessing to be able to beautify the home that God has given us!
This morning we’re in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and Paul is talking to the church at Corinth about idols. “therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry.” (1 Cor. 10:14) Today we have a tendency to think of idols as little statues of some other God that we put in a shrine and kneel before. I think this is one of satan’s greatest deceptions. Listen to one of the greatest definitions of idols that I’ve ever heard. In fact, when I heard it we were at a church service in Hong Kong and since I had no other note paper I wrote it in the front of my bible. I’ve referenced it many, many times since then. Now I look back and I realize it was God telling me to write it down and keep it close as a constant reminder that idols are everywhere and can snare us at every turn. Here’s the definition:
“The decision to govern our own lives always leads to idolatry; where something other than God receives our worship and rules us.” The Vine church, Hong Kong, S.A.R. July 2018
Wow, what a definition. We as sinners are in constant rebellion towards God and left to our own devices we will ALWAYS create or locate an idol that will replace God in our daily walk. We know well the story in Exodus of the golden calf. After Moses went up Mount Sinai, the people thought he had abandoned them and panicked. They immediately gathered all their gold and crafted a golden cow and began to worship it by offering burnt offerings to it. They were so ready to ‘create’ something to worship when God seemed distant to them. But today our idols are so much more subtle than little golden cows. What is it today that replaces God in our lives and receives our time, money and attention?
I always discussed this topic frequently with the students and young adults I worked with as a time of reflection to introspect the current state of our lives. You see, idols can creep into your life with perfect silence you have to listen carefully for them. I‘ve also heard an idol defined as “anything that comes between you and God.” Our group would go in a circle and name the things in our lives that were ‘getting in between us and God.’ If you do this exercise you have to be willing to be brutally honest. One of the first questions is about time. How much time do you spend with God and how much time do you spend on your ‘idol’. If there is a great divide here it’s a good sign there could be a problem. It’s also important to note that you can have more than one idol in your life.
In fact, in Acts 17, when Paul first walked into the city of Athens he notes that he saw “the objects (plural) of your worship and even an altar with the inscription, ‘to the unknown God.’ (Acts 17:23b) You see the Athenians had a God for everything. They had to make sure they covered every base, so if they saw a need they created a new God to fill it. They were even so prepared that just in case they missed a God they had developed a ‘God with no name’ as safety measure. You see, the more idols in your life, the easier it will be to keep adding them. There is one God and He should be the center of our lives and be the sole receiver of our worship. “you shall have no other gods before me.” Ex 20:3
So what are some of the answers that I would always hear during the discussions with the youth and young adults? What are the things today that can come between us and God? What are some of the things in this world that can ‘receive our worship and rule us? Here’s a few:
Yourself (pride), your family, your job, your cell phone, “your” ministry, alcohol, school, money, sports, sex, Facebook, your kids, TV, your car, exercise, video games, fear, your spouse, food, your image, your house, your pastor, social media, politics, your success, Netflix. These are a few, the list is endless.
Now, there is not inherently anything wrong with any of these items. There is also not anything wrong with golden cows. Unless they receive more time, and worship from you in your day than God does. Take the time to ask yourself these simple questions to see what it is that you treasure:
Where do I spend most of my free time?
What kept me most busy last week?
What consumes the bulk of my mental and emotional energy?
Where do I spend most of my money?
What activity negatively affects the relationships in my life?
One of my favorite endings to any book in the Bible is the way that John ends 1 John. “Little children keep yourselves from idols.” (1 John 5:21) John covers some amazing doctrinal truths in 1 John but he chooses to wrap it all up in a simple summary that he knows can save us from great turmoil in our walk here in this world. This world in which we are told that satan rules. (John 14:30) There is much placed in this world that can pull us away from God. Little by little things can garner your worship when it should be focused on the God that sent His Son to die for the World so that we can have eternal life with Him.
I pray your worship time today includes the most pivotal of all worship, spending personal time in God’s Word.
And remember John’s message, “little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
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