Why speak about idolatry? Why care? I think I have found a very curious understanding that is changing the way I look at the Lord and put Him in His rightful place in my life... as truly #1.
Here is a scripture that I came across while studying about what happened to the children of Israel when they started worshiping things in God's creation instead of God:
Why should the nations say,"Where is their God?"
Our God is in the heavens;
He does whatever He pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their
throat.
Those who make them are like them;
so are all who trust in them.
(Psalm 115:2-8)
When I read the last sentence, it hit me. The idea in this scripture is that you become like what you worship! It is NOT the question of IF we are worshipers, but it is what are we worshiping? If you supremely worship (or obey, fear, emulate, honor, reverence, love) anything other (or more) than Jesus, you may actually be committing idolatry! We tend to think of idols as little or big statues or images, but they can be ANYTHING that is either good or bad that is not Jesus - but is something He created that sits in the supreme throne of your heart. The explicit thought expressed in the latter part of this scripture in Psalms is this: What ever you worship or trust in - you will become like it. So, I believe, in this case, the converse is also true: If you worship/trust in God, you become more like Him. This is another excellent reason to worship and trust God in all areas of our lives because we become better Christ emulators/imitators (a/k/a Christians)!
As I started looking at EVERY one of my own choices of how I spend my precious and finite time and resources as forms of worship, it helps me to realize what I am worshiping or where my heart is... I ask, "Why am I doing such and such?". Is what I am doing pleasing unto God? If not, why am doing this? To please myself or someone or something else? Is it because I fear losing my pride, something or someone else other than God? Is it because I am obeying my appetites for myself, someone else other than God? I submit, that in asking myself these questions, I realized what/who I ultimately feared, reverenced, obeyed, emulated, honored, loved - thus sat in the supreme throne of my heart - the source of the human will! If the answer was anything/anyone but Jesus, I discovered that God was not truly God to me in that part of my life! I don't know about you, but there is not anything more terrifying to me than to realize that I allowed myself (wittingly or not) or something else in His creation to be a supreme god to me in ANY part of my life~!
This is why I believe that God is a jealous God and pride is one of the most harshly sentenced sins in the Bible - it was for that very reason that Lucifer was cast out of heaven! It is a prideful heart that makes one's self god over God Himself!
To the converse, various other scriptures come to mind:
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." John 4:23-24
One of the Pharisees tested Jesus with a question, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" (Matthew 22:36 NIV). Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV).
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, the fool despises wisdom and instruction - Proverbs 1:7
I love Proverbs. It is a book that is stuffed with practical wisdom for everyday life. I found it interesting that in the very first chapter it gives us the KEY to the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. In Proverbs 1:7 it says that fearing (to hold in awe, to be ultimately controlled/influenced by, worshiping,
Fear is not just fear itself in the western view of the word.
The biblical context of "fear of the Lord" is
Fear is not just fear itself in the western view of the word.
The biblical context of "fear of the Lord" is
- To be in awe of
- To be controlled by
- To emulate
- To honor
- To reverence
- To respect
- To love
- To submit to
- To obey
- To be humble to
- To be teachable
Who/What do you fear?
Who/What do you want to impress?
Who/What do you want to honor?
Who/What do you want to obey?
Who/What do you want to submit to?
Who/What do you hold most precious in Life?
Who/What do you live for?
Who/What do you allow to control your behavior?
IF the answer is Jesus, you are beginning to grow in wisdom
IF the answer is yourself or anything else He created (person or thing), you are going to end up a fool.
The Bible says to call no man a "fool". I believe this is so because all everyone but God sometimes plays a fool - no exception to the rule. (Isn't there a song about this?) To me its kind of like God saying to us, "I don't want any of you foo's callin' each otha' foo's!" He says it in another way... Before you start trying to get the splinter out of your brother's eye, try getting the beam out of your own eye first!
God's answer to finding wisdom out of our foolishness is in 2 Chronicles 7:14 in this particular order:
- Humble yourself
- Pray
- Seek Him
- Turn from your wicked ways
Many people make the false assumption thinking they have to turn from their wicked ways first/before they humble themselves, pray and seek God.
This is critical to understand the order here because, I can be sooooo bound to "gods" of pride, money, sports, sex, food, blessings, seeking other's approval, self will, fame, friends, etc (ALL of these can be very good things if kept in the proper context of the scriptures) that we have been unwittingly/blindly/ignorantly worshiping for so long, that we have NO POWER OF OUR OWN to break those loooong attachment bonds! It can be very painful, but the freedom, joy and peace you get WAYYYY out weighs the bondage or our yoke of idolatry.
By submitting to, praying, worshiping and seeking Him first, we are then able to BREAK those bonds miraculously with HIS help!
He simply will not accept being second place in ANY part of our life! If He is going to be God in your life, He must truly be allowed to be God in your life.... anything else that is allowed to take preeminence over God in your life is idolatry.
God must be first and top priority in every facet of your life. Anything else is less than what is TRULY His rightful place. This is sin. Based on my understanding of the scripture, SIN is: Anything that is less than 100% perfection - this is completely out of our realm of human fallen nature to attain!
To say we are righteous or holy is so arrogant, ignorant and foolish. The Bible calls Christians "sinners" that are saved by grace and also states that "All our righteousness is like filthy rags"- Is 64:4-8. We are to "press toward the mark" with everything that is within us, but we must also realize that we don't just kind of need, but we require Jesus' blood and help to cover us to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not that any should boast in himself of his works, but in Jesus' complete work at Calvary. We need His grace to be sanctified and holy. Jesus should be our heart's focus for our righteousness, then the fruits of the Spirit will naturally manifest itself in the Christian believer.
By believing in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, and that He is God and accepting the fact that you are a sinner and that you need/want Him to be Lord God of your life, then you repent/turn from your wicked ways, you will receive His Spirit in your life. Your sins are then applied to Jesus' blood in baptism in His name and are atoned/covered by His death that He already paid the price for. You are then free from the judgment of sin because "while we were yet sinners" and all jacked up, Christ died to take the judgment and punishment for the sins of all men (mankind)!
That is true love because He loves us even though He did/does NOT NEED us. That is truly perfect love. We humans usually love for a reason. So we should love Him because He first loved us! He loved even those who were murdering Him - He said "forgive them for they know not what they do" while they crucified Him! This is an amazing, unfathomable and infinite love that we finite beings cannot fully comprehend! He truly deserves all that He asks of us and much, much, much more!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment