discipled living

No Idols AllowedThe “people of God” were continually found struggling against themselves and their allegiance to El Elyon (God Most High).  The people of The Bible were caught up with the courtship of idols.  The same allure of the illicit continues today, overwhelms and seduces reason and outwits the best of wisdom.  Idolatry is subtle and cunning because it does not come in the form of carved images and we do not offer blood sacrifices to our idols today.

God says of humanity and our incessant desire for idols,

“The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power.  Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies!”  Jeremiah 51:17&18 (NLT)

Today, sex is worshipped, money & conspicuous consumption are worshipped, and “star-powered” personality is worshipped.  The demands of these idolatrous religions are heavy, their burdens are not light.  They are exacting task masters who promise pleasure, but in fact only offer dulled, numbed senses and bondage to the Flesh. 

These godish idols like those of Biblical History are mere fabrications of the depraved human imagination.  We possess the beautiful capacity to see what is not, and call it into reality through the vividness of our thoughts.  Our subconscious minds can not distinguish between something experienced in reality and something vividly imagined.  Both the actual experience and the vivid imagination are registered as memories. 

And so, we create gods wherever we desire, on the stage, in the pulpit, in public office, in our bank accounts.  Our weakness and our strength are found in the Living God’s gift of creative imagination.  Both Faith and Fear find their power in this gift.  Worship and praise of the Only True and Living God as well as the false gods, the inanimate idols is seated in the power of our imagination, our creative ability to see. 

John Calvin said of idolatry,

“Man's mind is like a store of idolatry and superstition; so much so that if a man believes his own mind it is certain that he will forsake God and forge some idol in his own brain.”

We must rely upon the truth of God’s Word to maintain the proper perspective. God has given us the power of intellect and the profound gift of creative imagination. We are vessels filled with power, but the power is not our own. (2 Corinthians 4:7).  If we shine, it is because we are reflections of Him and that He is the Light (John 1:4) 

We keep the proper perspective and overcome contemporary idolatry by, “keeping our eyes on Jesus on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”