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!!!!! 

Now I eat humble pie ...

Once I was the King of Spain as Moxy Fruvous once said, well, actually I was the king of Arrogant Island, but know I definitely eat humble pie.  It was my arrogance and my ego that was one of the most defining characteristics about the person I used to be.  I thought I could never be beaten, that nothing can defeat me, and I could overcome any obstacle or challenge in my way. It was all me, I was great.  Well, that changed, suddenly, when my world came crashing down around me and I fell to my knees crying out for help, I realized I could not overcome anything, I realized there was someone stronger, and powerful than me, God.  I remember, when it all went down, and I was crying to my pastor, totally broken, he looked at me and said, "For the first time in you life, you have been humbled" Those words resonated with me, and since then, EVERYTIME I take time to read my bible and spend time with God, I keep being reminded to stay humble.  Humility is an important aspect of Christianity that I think gets overlooked by many Christians.  If we are humble in our faith, humble in our lives how then can we judge someone else? How can we think we are better than someone else? This is a thing we are very guilty of, it is so sad to see and hear my Christian brothers and sisters, pointing fingers and calling people sinners or not good enough.  That is not who we are, that is not who Jesus was when He was on earth, nor who is everyday.  We, are humble servants of the Good Lord, Almighty, we should exalt Him, not ourselves, sing His praises, not our own.

"For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”" Luke 14:11 (NLT)

 
These were Jesus's own words. Humility is important.   Jesus, who had no reason to be, was the most humble of all people, in fact, He was so humble, He washed the feet of His disciples:

Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. ⁴ So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, ⁵ and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. John 13:3-5 (NLT)

That is so powerful to me, that is just ... wow.  The Father had given him authority over everything and that He came from God and would return to God, so He washed the disciples feet! Praise God, He gives us the example of how to be humble, by being humble Himself.  How great is our God? He gives us the example of what we are supposed to do.  Yet, we chose not to follow that example, we chose to exalt ourselves, speak about how great we are and pass judgement on others, force them to live up to the standards we impose on them. Convincing ourselves that we are the judge and jury because we set such a high standard in out lives. It funny because the warning is laid out in Proverbs, if you take the time to see it.

"Too much talk leads to sin.
    Be sensible and keep your mouth shut."  Proverbs 10:19 (NLT)

I know I could probably keep my mouth shut more.  It seems the more I talk or brag the harder I almost inevitably fall. It funny that we seem to look at ourselves as perfect, and the best Christian ever, but the minute we point the finger at someone for doing something "wrong" we have lost all footing.  Bragging about ourselves and making ourselves seem righteous is not Christian living at all.

In fact, in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul began by saying:

"Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ" Ephesians 3:8 (NLT)

This is the guy that wrote MOST of the New Testament and he is calling himself the least of all of God's people, then who am I to say I am anything more?  He goes on in Romans to plead with us Christians:

"Because of the privilege and authority^[a] God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us" Romans 12:3 (NLT)

Honest evaluation is something that I know I would probably shy away from, I want to think I am always righteous, I am always walking to right path, but I do stray, I take my eyes off what I should be looking at, my thoughts aren't always on things that are good, and righteous and worthy of praise. I have been known to cuss out a driver who is driving too slow, or who cuts me off.  Truthfully a whole lot worse too.  It is in accepting our faults, our failures that we start to be humble.  It is when we realize that it is not me that is doing things but the grace and blessing of God that has given me the strength to succeed, that we become humble.  Once we become humble and realize how much we rely on God, how much He does for us and how everything good in out lives are blessing from Him the more He will do.  The more He can come into our lives and be the wind inside our sails. Jesus said it Himself

"God blesses those who are humble,    for they will inherit the whole earth." Matthew 5:5 (NLT)

  

The warnings about being full our ourselves are all over, our most important job on this planet is to love each other, pride is not a loving action, being a bragger is not an action of love. So, again, because all the our life lessons seem hidden (well not so much) in Proverbs, this seems like the perfect way to close my thoughts

"Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honour" Proverbs 29:23 (NLT)

I know I want honour, especially honour from God!  I think humility was the greatest lesson that I learned when I was forced from my throne as king of arrogant island, and I am so glad that I was dethroned!

PRAISE GOD!!  

I ain't never scared!

Our lives are sometimes filled with so many mistakes and disappointments that we can become quite overwhelmed.  So often trials and tribulations convince us to give up our goals because it is too hard or too much.  All sorts of voices whisper, we are not good enough, we are not talented enough, or even, we do not deserve it.  But God, has told us that is not true.  He has said He has our back.  God will support us and give us the ability to over come all things.  

"... If God is for us, who can ever be against us?" Romans 8:13 (NLT)

We must remember this in our everyday lives, we have been given the ability to stand against all things in Faith.  Faith is our strongest weapon against all out trials, tribulations and temptations. With God and faith nothing is impossible, this is promised to us as Christians and followers of Christ.  Jesus, Himself, told us with faith there is nothing that is impossible for us, and it wouldn't even take endless amounts of faith, just the smallest amount of real faith would make all things possible.

 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20 (NLT)

"Nothing would be impossible" that is a huge statement, NOTHING! That is because nothing can stand before God.
 
“I have sworn by my own name; I have spoken the truth, and I will never go back on my word: Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to me.” Isaiah 45:23 (NLT)

God has you back, you should fear nothing! Have faith, pray diligently to God and you will over come all roadblocks put in your way.  There is fear, of course, but God has given you all the armour and protection you need.  You have access to the full Armour of God

"Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil." Ephesians 6:11 (NLT)

The enemy wants us to fail, wants us to feel downtrodden and defeated, because it is as these time where he can build strongholds in our hearts, when we feel defeated and lost, they enemy is winning.  He is succeeding in separating us from the unfailing love of God. But we are never lost, never out of sight of Jesus, He told us, He will leave the 99 to come and get us.

“'If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? ⁵ And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. ⁶ When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away!'" Luke 15:4-7 (NLT)

 I declare, God will never leave you alone, you are never defeated, you are never lost. God had you in the palm of His Hand. 

"Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands;" Isaiah 49:16 (AMP)

God will never forget about us, or leave us alone, He has given us the means to fight any battle that lays before us, we have spoken about the full armour of God already, but He has even described it to us, and told us how to wear it correctly.

 ^"Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God " Ephesians 6:14-17 (NKJV)

Stand therefore, not run, not hide not be afraid but stand! Stand up to anything and everything that confronts you and tries to defeat you.  You will notice that there is no armour for our backs, because we are never intended to run from things. God has our backs, we shall walk boldly and righteously into battle, against temptation, addiction, lack, sickness, evil and hate.  Through Christ, we are promised victory. We have nothing to fear, we should never be afraid, should never be scared.

 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)

 You can overcome everything that is standing in your way today, tomorrow and always.  God, has your back! 

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!

Grace - Not just for meals anymore

The funniest thing I have found on my journey as a newly saved Christian, is when talking to my friends and family they all have no idea (and well neither did I) what the Grace of God is. Laughingly most admit, that they just figured that grace was that little prayer you said before meals at Christmas and Thanksgiving. WOW what a delusion. How many of us have lived in fear and shame because we were not aware of the Grace of our Lord?

"So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" Romans 5:21

"Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.” Titus 3:6-8

Praise the Lord, how awesome is that. We are given right standing with God which results in eternal life through Jesus, simply because of God's wonderful grace. Grace we are given simply by asking for it. There is no prerequisites, no test or exams, no hoops to jump through, no minimums and no maximums. God wants to give you His grace simply for being you. He loves you just the way you are and wants to bring you to salvation just as you are right now. You have nothing to do to get His grace but to ask for it.

"for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved" Romans 10:13

"And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is—free and undeserved" Romans 11:5-7

You have nothing to do but to call to the Lord ask for His salvataion and you will be saved by His grace. That is the best part of our God, He loves us so much that He asks nothing of us, and there is nothing we can do to deserve His Grace, we are blessed with His grace simply because of His kindess and love

I know in my experience there is no feeling in the world like being wrapped in God's grace. In the lowest moment of my life, the moment I was truly saved by God (even if in that moment I didn't know it right away) I felt His grace. It was a feeling of warmth that embraced me like a warm sweater, a tingling sensation that over whelmed me and comforted me. A calm wave that brought peace to my whole person. I try to explain that feeling to those that have asked what grace really is. I have gotten a little feedback from friends who have found those moments of grace when they were surrounded by fear or insecurites and God wrapped his grace around them and let His peace flow. It is in moments like that when we can turn to God, and ask for salvation and turn our lives over to Him, where the promise of life everlasting with Jesus Christ is a guarantee. Really, how great is God? Our God is awesome. His love and grace is never ending and totally unconditional. His mercy is new and fresh every morning.

Glory to God.

I hope in some small way this will help lead you to Him, who ever you are, where ever you, no matter what baggage you bring. God loves you and wants to bring you home.