Idolatry

Dictionary.com defines idolatry as "excessive or blind adoration, reverence, devotion, etc." (As well as a religious worship of idols)

To limit our understanding of idolatry to the latter--religious worship of idols--will limit our understanding of what God commands.

In Exodus God commands us to "have no other gods before [him]." God says in Deuteronomy that it is an abomination to him.

The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold [that is] on them, nor take [it] unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it [is] an abomination to the LORD thy God. --Deut. 7:25

Another part of Deuteronomy testifies to God's hatred of idols. "Neither shalt thou set thee up [any] image; which the LORD thy God hateth."


Those who practice it forget God. (And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish. --Deut 8:19)


It is a virtual forsaking of God to pursue idolatry. Jeremiah 2, starting in verse 9, talks about God's people turning away from Him to that which is unprofitable. God tells the heavens to be appalled, to be shocked at this fact:

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13 ESV

That is an interesting, and true, picture painted. Two evils have been committed. The first one was the forsaking of God, the fountain of living waters. The other one was trying to fill the void. They created cisterns to collect water, but the cisterns were broken and hold no water, thus leaving them constantly empty, despite them pouring water into the cistern from varying sources.

Is that not so with us? Isn't it that we have forsaken God and created replacement to contain our joy and happiness and comfort and love? With God out of the picture, we then flock to different mediums for those things: friends, family, money, popularity, pursuing talents, even work. We spend long hours with whatever medium we find to fill our cisterns. We have found different springs for the same thing: memories of friends, thoughts about friends, or hanging out with friends; fantasies about money, gaining money; enhancing out talents, boasting our talents, dramatizing our talents.

The moment we find something we think is filling our cisterns, we try to drown ourselves in it. But our cistern is broken. All the joy, all the comfort, all the happiness we have been accumulating only seep out the cracks and holes. Nothing stays for very long and we feel empty; no, we are empty.


This is obsession. This is idolatry.

My youth pastor, in the devotions writes for our youth group, ended yesterday's Bible Study with this:

What is your delight? (What makes you happy? Or what is your passion?)
What/who consumes your thoughts?
For what or whom would you do anything?
This is your god!

That stuck out to me. That was the biggest thing that I've been struck with in my devotions in a while. Because every answer was the same. What made me happy, what consumed my thoughts, what I would do anything for was all the same thing. And it is my god.

And that was convicting. I don't know why it is as much as it was, but it is. I know idolatry isn't simply worshiping idols. And I know I've had other gods in my life (namely facebook as of late), but it feels different. A sharper sword, a deeper wound. Perhaps because facebook is a byproduct of my "new" god. Perhaps because this "new" god is the root of other gods in my life.


Having a god that is not God Almighty is an abomination to God. God hates it.

Having a god that is not God almighty is drawing my away from God. And when God is out of the picture, I no longer have a cistern in my heart, so I must resort to making my own. But I am finite and weak and I construct one that is broken. Regardless, I seek my "new" god and worship it, spend time with it, reverence it, all the while hoping it fills my cistern. I realize it is still empty, so I spend more and more time. I entertain imaginations(paranoia) that somehow is another form of trying to fill the cistern.

God says to flee idolatry, to have NO other gods.

I just looked up the word "flee" as far as the meaning the Greek text had. It was interesting. Apart from the obvious of quick departure, it said to seek safety by flight or to be saved by flight. So, it appears to have an even more urgent message than just running for your life, but to run as if you are flying.

Think about that. God hates idolatry so much he tells us to fly away from it.

Matthew 6:24 states that:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

I looked up the Greek word for "mammon" as well as the dictionary definition of it. The Greek word has an Aramaic origin, evidently a confidence as exemplified as the personification of wealth. The dictionary defined it as riches personified as an evil or a deity.

I think it might be referring to a security, a confidence. We are capable of personifying things to the level of a deity--a god--for the sake of security. Some choose wealth, others choose other things. While the confidence could be attributed to only the deification of wealth, let us not limit it to wealth itself. Our deified confidence can be placed in non-monetary possessions, in relationships, in personal strength, etc.

When we serve our deified confidence, we love it above God, and we cling to it while despising God.
On the other hand, when we serve God, we love him above our Mammon, and we cling to Him while despising it.


God demands our entire being. "I beseech your brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service." (Rom 12:1)

God seeks to be number one in our lives. Not 2, not 3, but one. Whatever is number 1 in our lives is our god. When it isn't God Almighty, it is an idol. And when we serve and worship idols, God is displeased. God is appalled.

When we love idols over God, we--by the word of Matthew 6:24--hate God. When we hold fast to our idols, we despise God. We are not serving God when we are serving our idols. God wants supreme devotion, not left-over crumbs of our worship.


Has something come to the forefront of your mind while reading this? Has God highlighted a god(or more) that you have placed above Him?

This is a new moment in life, a new beginning. Put off the old man. Flee,run, fly away from your god. Renew your thinking, or love, your desires. Immerse yourself in God's word, in God's love, in God's grace. And put on the love of God. Put God as the first in your life.

Nothing in life can be better accomplished, gained, controlled by having it first in your life. It is only when God is first that those other things can blossom appropriately, grow rightly. Serve God and you will have your needs met.
Serve God and you will have the void in your heart filled.
Serve and love God and you will drown in God's love.


Put God first. Seek safety from idols by flight. Focus on God. Pursue God. Worship God. Obsess over God. Love God.

Submit

Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the Devil and he will flee from you.
Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Satan's ultimate goal is to discredit God. And the "easiest" way he found to do that was to attack His servants. Satan will continuously attack us so we can wallow in self-doubt,pity,etc. He will attack us so we dwell on the things we've done. He will attack us so we will break the laws of the land. And the moment he can get us to turn our focus off of Jesus and onto ourselves; the moment we lose faith; when we stop trusting God; when we stop pursuing God's love because we're too caught up pursuing the love of others(Even if the love of those we are pursuing already exists)...that is the moment Satan has victory.

We can get so wrapped up in trying to make sure good things happen to us, to make sure we are loved, to make sure we have friends, to make sure we are accepted. Or we get so wrapped up in our sin, so wrapped up in regret, depression, despair, hatred of our past, disappointment in our perceived future, and discouragement in our present.

This thinking, this wallowing, this self-inflicted pain we immerse ourselves in is our giving Satan the victory. We are throwing our freedom out the door, letting Satan guide us with every wind of self-doubt or self-judgment.

God has given us victory over sin. God has given us the strength to live godly lives. God has given us the power to resist Satan. God has given us the love we desperately seek. God has the comfort we desire. God has the forgiveness we need. God has the wisdom we long for. God has the satisfaction. God has EVERYTHING we need to live the lives He wants us to live. Everything. The home, the Bible(whether fraying or brand new), the friends, the intelligence, the whatever. If we -needed- it to live godly lives, we have it already. Might we need something in the future? Sure. But right now, this very moment we have -EVERYTHING- we need to be the Christians God wants us to be. Freedom, forgiveness, power...all rests in God's outstretched hands. All we have to do is claim it. All we have to do is lean upon God's everlasting arms. All we have to do is trust the Lord with all our hearts, and lean not unto our own understands. And in all our ways acknowledge HIM, and He shall direct our paths. We need to commit our ways unto the Lord, and trust also in Him, and He will direct our paths. We need to commit our ways to God, and He will give us the desires of our heart.

Just submit to God. Resist the devil, and He will flee from you. Don't let Satan give you thoughts that turn you away from God. Turn TO God at those times. Don't let Satan dig up your past, reminding you of things you did. You are FORGIVEN if you asked God to forgive you. God has forgotten them, so why don't you?
Don't let Satan dictate who you are, what you do, what you desire, what you seek, what you pursue. Don't let Satan skew your vision of friendships you have, relationships you have with family or adults. Don't let Satan trick you into thinking someone doesn't love you over petty things. Don't let Satan distract you from living for God. Don't let Satan have dominion over you. As a child of God you are not his puppet that He can do whatever he wishes with. The only string he has tethered to you is the one you attach to yourself. He has no authority over you. Jesus Christ lives in you.

Submit. Pursue God. Resist Satan.

When I was typing this on another medium, my focus completely changed from me and my problems to God and His goodness. I mean, I still am/was struggling with different things, but it wasn't on the forefront of my mind.

And I think that is an example of this entire post. Satan wants our focus off of God and onto ourselves. God wants our focus off of ourselves and onto Him.

Sometimes we do take the focus off of our problems and place them on different things: music, video games, writing, taking pointless quizzes on facebook, doing projects. Some of those things aren't necessarily wrong to take our attention off of our problems, but what happens when we stop doing those things? Satan attacks again and we begin to wallow in our problems.

But, if we had chosen to instead, or primarily, change our focus onto God, then by the time we "stop focusing" (Say we were praying or reading our Bibles) and Satan attacks us, we have the built up power of God to resist Him. And when we resist and resist Satan, it begins to be futile for him to attack. He will either eventually stop attacking at the point(since it no longer is a weak point) and find a new place, or just stop and wait until you take your focus off of God and test to see if it is still weak. If it is, he will continue to drive his teeth into our wounds. But, if we have a resistance, then he will recoil and reconsider.

So, focus on God. Focus on His love, His power, His forgiveness, His freedom, His mercy, His friendship, His pursuit of your love, His pursuit of your friendship, His pursuit of fellowship with you. Focus on God. He wants to speak to you. He wants you to speak to Him. He wants to guide you, help you, comfort you. He wants to sing over you with joy. He wants to bless you. He wants to be your Father, your friend--best friend, your counselor, your rock, your shield, your fortress, your strong tower that you run to for safety. He wants to be the power burning in you. He wants to be the desire of your heart. He wants you.

He died for you, sacrificed for you, bled for you. We needed light, and he gave us light. We needed love, he gave us love. We needed shelter, he gave us shelter. We needed life, he gave us HIS life.

Why do we let Satan take our thoughts from God's excellent majesty to our petty problems. Does God care about our problems? I don't know, but not as much as he cares for us. The Bible says to cast our cares, our problems, our anxieties, our troubles, the things that keep us up at night, the things that make us cry or want to cry, the things that GNAW at our hearts. He wants us to cast those upon himself because he cares for us. He loves us. O! how he loves us!

Can you honestly remain in self pity, self fear, self anxiety when you think about God's love? Can you really worry about friendships that may or may not be shattering all around you? Can you really think thought after thought about what you've done. Can you really listen to what Satan says you are? Can you really let yourself believe Satan's accusations?

You are not what Satan says you are if you have asked God to be forgiven.

You are not a liar. You are not a thief. You are not a murderer. You are not a bigot. You are not hateful. You are not a terrible friend. You are not a failure. You are not an idiot. You are not anything that Satan makes you believe. Why would he make you think you are something you are: forgiven?

So lift up your face. Wipe those tears away. Remove your hands from your broken heart and let God bandage it up. Let God embrace you with his love and majesty. Let God saturate himself in your thoughts. When you let God fill your mind and thoughts there will be no room for Satan's thoughts. You won't have to be paranoid about relationships with anyone, you won't have to worry about a job, or that you aren't qualified to serve God. You can resist Satan. You can submit to God. You can draw nigh to God. And guess what! When you draw close to God...God will draw close to you. It's not a one-sided action. Every step you take closer to him, he takes a step closer to you. God wants to be with you. God wants to fill your life, you heart, your mind with his love, his power...with Him. He loves you.

Dont. Let. Satan. Have. His. Way. You are forgiven. You are free. You are no longer under the dominion and bondage of sin and Satan. You can resist him.

Focus on God.

O how He loves us!

Have you immersed yourself in the love of God today? Have you allowed the wonder of his love wash over you, to drench you in the awe of it all?

Sometimes I let paranoia, instead, wash over me. I question my friendships, I question my relationships, I question everything. And it really tears at me. I hate it, but I seem to find myself allowing paranoia to question my friendships.

But, today has been a good day, despite disappointing circumstances. I was able to do a Bible study, pray, and even read a portion of Psalm 119. I was able to set up time-management applications with my friend, and kind of began an accountability system to make sure we are doing what needs to be done with the time we have.

But even at that, paranoia crept in.

However, I turned on music and the first song I began to listen to was about God's love for us. I began to feel the love of God.

Nothing can separate us from God's love. And nothing compares to it. Even in the midst of sorrow, disappointment, discouragement, paranoia, feelings of having no one who loves you--even in all of that, God's love is so great for us. And if we let his love rain down on us we can experience it. If we do not obstruct it, we will get drenched, soaked, in his love.

His love is incredible. It is his love that drives our love for him. It is his love for us that drives us to live for him. It is his love for us that drives us to live holy lives.

Embrace it. Immerse yourself in it. Let it wash over.

Insult(random thoughts in this entry)

I wonder if one of the bigger(est?) insults is someone lying to your face and you know for a fact they are lying(and perhaps even they know you know they're lying).

Perhaps rather injury as a better word? It definitely is a painful blow for someone to lie to your face and you see right through it. Especially if they know you know, and yet they continue lying.

--Break of thought--

I wonder how God feels when we tell him we love him, even though we don't really. I mean, Jesus said for those who love Him to keep his commandments. That's how we show our love.

In other words, if we aren't showing our love...is there really any love at all?

"I love you, God" could be the most grieving words for God to hear when he can see straight through your wall of insincerity and falsehood; when he knows you are lying and in fact don't love him.

Who are we fooling. God is truth. God is all-knowing. When we lie to God, it's not like he is getting the wool pulled over his eyes.

Freedom

Freedom starts with a choice, continues with a choice, and ends with a choice. Freedom from sin is possible to have, but until you choose it, you won't be free. Once you choose freedom over slavery to sin, you won't retain it unconditionally; you must choose to continue to live in freedom. Each and every moment you live is lived in decision to this. Freedom or slavery--your choice.

But freedom can end as quickly as it started all with a single choice.

Freedom from sin is always present and offered. It's always within grasp. It is your choice to live in it, or to live out of it.

32 thought provoking questions

Here is a pick-and-choose listing of an original 18 thought provoking questions I found off of a website. I would credit them, but there are some stuff on the website(not nec. in the post) that I wouldn't necessarily endorse/condone.

1. What do you regret most so far in life?
2. How can you apply the lesson you learned from that regret to your life TODAY?
3. If you lost everything tomorrow, whose arms would you want to run into? Does that person know how much they mean to you?
4. What would people say about you at your funeral?
5. What small thing could you do to make someone’s day better?
6. What do you believe stands between you and complete happiness?
7. (This begins a list from a new site) If you had a friend who spoke to you in the same way that you sometimes speak to yourself, how long would you allow this person to be your friend?
8. Are you holding onto something that you need to let go of?
9. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
10. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
11. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?
12. In the haste of your daily life, what are you not seeing?
13. Do you own your things or do your things own you?
14. What personal prisons have you built out of fears?
15. If you left this life tomorrow, how would you be remembered?
16. Beyond the titles that others have given you, who are you?
17. When does silence convey more meaning than words?
18. How have you helped someone else recently?
19. How are you pursuing your dreams right now?
20. What’s the next big step you need to take?
21. Are you taking it(or preparing for that step)?
22. If today was the last day of your life, would you want to do what you are about to do today?
23. What did you learn recently that changed the way you live?
24. Excluding romantic relationships, who do you love?
25. What’s been on your mind most lately?
26. What did life teach you yesterday?
27. Who makes you feel good about yourself?
28. If not now, then when?
29. Are you holding on to something that you need to let go of?
30. Are you a slave to dress, friends, work, or habits?
31. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?
32. Is it possible to break a habit without changing our underlying thinking? Is it possible to break a habit without establishing a new habit to replace it with?
    
    
    

Shield of Faith

Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Have you ever wondered why faith was associated with the shield in this "parable" of armor in the Christian life?

Upon meditation, I think it is because when you decide to first take the step of preventing your heart from being stained with sin, you have to choose the right defenses.

Will power alone is not adequate. Because eventually our strength will wane.

But when we let God empower us, the defenses hold.

That's when faith comes into play. Human nature pushes us to believe we are capable of doings things on our own(until proven otherwise, but even then sometimes we want to believe we still can do things alone).

To have a shield that will quench the fiery darts of Satan, we need faith. Faith in God that He will give us victory. (Deut 20:4; Psalm 44:6-8; Luke 10:19; 1 Cor. 10:13; 1 Cor. 15:57; 2 Cor. 2:14; 2 Thess 3:3; Heb. 2:18; James 4:7-8; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:3-5) [Please take the time to read those verses.]

You cannot have victory in your own strength because there is no faith. And without faith, we have no shield. And no shield means everything that Satan throws at us will hit us.

When we give up the foolishness of self-sustaining victory, we are able to trust in God and have faith in Him to give us the victory, to withstand the fiery darts of the devil, and to resist the devil.