Idols .... American and Other

I gotta believe that everyone has a pretty good idea about idol worship and God's position on it but lets start here

"You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. ⁵ You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me." - Exodus 20:4-5  (NLT)

That is a big big thought to unpack.  We can bottom line it as God saying do not worship idols! But it is clear there is more to it then that.  This is a big issue and an almost precursor for us, of the possibility of us losing our way and falling victim to the idols!  We are not to worship them, bow down to them.  I think we need to unpack the idea of worship and bowing down.  Let's have a look at the definition of Merriam-Webster 

1 : to honor or reverence as a divine being or supernatural power

2 : to regard with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion

This is a good start! Honour and reverence AS A divine being.  Well we are aware that the only Divine Being is God! So worship should be saved for Him.  Further more, worship means to regard someone with great respect, honour and devotion..  If we start applying these thoughts to our daily lives how often can we be guilty of worshiping false idols! Aren't we often guilty of regarding our favourite celebrity or sports heros with extravagant respect and honour? We have all shown extravagant devotion to our favourite television show, not missing a single episode, dvring, downloading whatever it takes to stay up to date.  Let's not even get started on how we treat money! Talk about extravagant devotion!

"And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles." - Romans 1:23 (NLT)

Geez that is not a legacy I want put on my head! But yet here we are worshiping all the false idols that exist in our world, the pop princess, the athletic superstars, the latest netflix drama. 

I think that worshiping God, keeps our head looking upwards, and not getting lost in the chaos and chasm of this world. The distractions and the greed!

"Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world." - Colossians 3:5 (NLT)

It is easy to see that greed can easily be the distraction that takes us away from God, if the devil did have a secret weapon, it would be greed!  I don't think there is anything that can pull us away from God, distract us from Him, and move us away from Him than greed!  Greed forces us to put "ourself" first, to ignore what God wants from us, and for us!  Greed leads us away from the things we want for ourselves, our hopes, our dreams! Greed takes us away from God!

"They were always greedy and never satisfied. Nothing remains of all the things they dreamed about." - Job 20:20 (NLT)

Greed destroys who we are, we begin to focus on the things we want, and ignore the things we need!

"Such is the fate of all who are greedy for money; it robs them of life." - Proverbs 1:19 (NLT)

Greed and worshiping idols robs us of life, takes away all the God has promised for us. 

"And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires" - 2 Peter 1:4 (NLT)

Just don't let the human desires of greed and idol worship corrupt you and leave God's promises unfulfilled.  I know for me, I have to work hard to curb my own idol worshiping, catch me missing a Patriots game, the latest episode of Big Brother and rocking my Tom Brady jersey! The thing I think I need to focus on is distributing my time, but ensuring that God's time remains God's time.  That I take time to worship my Creator and acknowledge all that He does for me!  Keeping my head aimed towards Him, the distractions of greed and idol worship will not pull me away.  Well, at least I hope so! But let's be honest, I am human and I am so thankful for Jesus!

"Listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins."  - Acts 13:38 (NLT) 

PRAISE GOD!!!!! 

There is something about Jesus

In reaffirming my life to Christ and to God, I have had a few of my friends ask me about Jesus and what the deal with Him is. How is Jesus both man and God? If Jesus is God, who was in heaven when He was on earth? To be honest those are question I struggled with as I was growing up before I was saved. As my spiritual self grew, and I found myself connecting with God the answers started to be provided to me. Faith started opening the door to understanding.

When discussing our faith future with my fiancee at the time, talking about who was going to marry us and whether we wanted to raise our children in faith, we began to explore our options as both of us felt a connection to God (we were both raised Roman Catholic). We slowly began to dismiss a lot of the options out there, for various reasons which eventually lead to Christianity. Which easily became the place we both felt we belonged. Now I can be honest and say that I started going to church and playing the role (sort of) but had not completely bought in to the idea of living like a true Christian. But none the less I had started down the path, and answers started becoming available to me the first in the form of a fictional book called The Shack by William P. Young.

This book began my journey (little did I know I was going on a journey) to an important place, to another book, the book containing the Word of God and salvation. It's funny how God leads you places and you have no idea you are going there until you get there. But let me not digress, lets focus on Jesus and who He is.

The bible tells us that God created us in His image.

"Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Genesis 1:26-27 (NKJV)

The first thing of note is that God says OUR image, so He is obviously commenting on the fact that there are parts that make Him up. But if we want to ignore that fact based on translations or something fine no problem, lets focus on the word image. Now we like to consider image to mean that we look like God, but there is a deeper message here. His image is a reflection of Him, a capacity to reflect Him. An ability to be like Him. One of the most important things that we as Christians are supposed to do is love, so that means we must be able to love like God, which then implies God must love. Well, before we existed who did He love? This is where Jesus and the Holy Spirit come into play. Jesus is God. Jesus is God because God's love is perfect and the perfect love unites two completely making them one. Jesus exists in a perfect love unity between Himself and God. So that Jesus is God and God is Jesus. Just as in the case of a husband and wife whose love unifies two human beings into one, thus is the perfection of the love between God and Jesus. Jesus is the beloved Son of God who is wholly a part of Him.

"...“This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!” " Mark 9:7 (CEB)

So Jesus is God! But, how is God a man seems to be the next big question that everyone asks. This is where the book that I mentioned earlier seemed to pick up my lack of understanding, hopefully I will be able to share it with you as clearly as I was able to understand it. We are all defined by our abilities not by how we chose to limit ourselves. A bird who chooses to walk rather then to fly is still a bird. The same can be said for God. If He chooses to walk on earth as a man, His choice to limit Himself does not define Him. Jesus was born to Mary on earth.

"Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod." Matthew 2:1 (NLT)

Jesus made this choice, to be born and live on Earth as a man, in order to pay the ultimate price for us as humanity. Before Jesus, humanity was forced to live under the law as given to Moses, but as human beings we would always fall short of that because it is our nature to sin.

"In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin." Romans 7:25 (NLT)

We would always fall short of the law because we could not help ourselves. The law would never be able to save us, we would run out of sacrifices before being able to guarantee salvation for ourselves. We needed help, we needed a Saviour. This is why Christ came to earth. He came to be the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God was going to pay the price that none of us could afford.
His life was the price He paid to save all of us. God indeed loved us all so much, that He was willing to make this sacrifice for the world, and for us, us sinners.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" John 3:16 (KJV)

The bible, the Word of God, tells us this in no uncertain terms. There is no ambiguity and no beating around the bush. Jesus was sent to earth as the sacrifice to save us from our sins, because the law as given to Moses was not going to.

"The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins." Romans 8:3 (NLT)

This is the point where I am moved to tears. So this perfect, sinless God sent a part of Himself, His Son, Jesus to earth to suffer and die upon a cross, a death so painful they invented a word to describe the pain. Excruciating was a word that specifically described the pain of dying on the cross, the pain of being crucified. So this sinless, perfect Lamb of God that had been perfectly connected to God since the beginning of time absorbed the sins of the world, the sins past, present and future, into Himself. As He filled up with our sins He was separated from God, so much so He screamed in anguish that He was alone and God was not with Him.

"And about the ninth hour (three o'clock) Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?--that is, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me [leaving Me helpless, forsaking and failing Me in My need]?" Matthew 27:46 (AMP)

How awesome is the love of our God? He was willing to pay the ultimate price for us, for me for you and for all of us. Willing to suffer and die on a cross, the most painful way to die, in order to pay the price for our salvation. The Lord, our God has paid the price for our salvation. We are saved once we receive Christ. Once we become aware of our sinning nature, God has told us to admit our sins and repent and we are forgiven.

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Romans 10:9 (NLT)

We are saved, we have been purchased at a price. Our God loves us. This should inspire you and fill you with joy. That God cares so much about you there was no sacrifice to great for Him to make to get you. There really is something about Jesus, something great!

Praise God!