Other Gods<\/b><\/p>\n
What other gods could we have besides the Lord? Plenty. For Israel there were the Canaanite Baals, those jolly nature gods whose worship was a rampage of gluttony, drunkenness, and ritual prostitution. For us there are still the great gods Sex, Shekels, and Stomach (an unholy trinity constituting one god: self), and the other enslaving trio, Pleasure, Possessions, and Position, whose worship is described as \u201cThe lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life\u201d (1 John 2:16). Football, the Firm, and Family are also gods for some. Indeed the list of other gods is endless, for anything that anyone allows to run his life becomes his god and the claimants for this prerogative are legion. In the matter of life\u2019s basic loyalty, temptation is a many-headed monster.<\/p>\n
Your Father Loves You by James Packer, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, page for April 17<\/p>\n
Buddist Temple<\/b><\/p>\n
Hideyoshi, a Japanese warlord who ruled over Japan in the late 1500s, commissioned a colossal statue of Buddha for a shrine in Kyoto. It took 50,000 men five years to build, but the work had scarcely been completed when the earthquake of 1596 brought the roof of the shrine crashing down and wrecked the statue. In a rage Hideyoshi shot an arrow at the fallen colossus. \u201cI put you here at great expense,\u201d he shouted, \u201cand you can\u2019t even look after your own temple.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today in the Word, MBI, August, 1991, p. 23<\/p>\n
Scratch the Surface of Success<\/b><\/p>\n
God often allows the ungodly to amass great wealth\u2014to their destruction. But if you are one with whom God is dealing and if you put the pursuit of riches (or anything else) before service to Christ, God may take away those riches (and other things) until you turn to Him.<\/p>\n
Some years ago Donald Grey Barnhouse was counseling a young woman on the sidewalk in front of Tenth Presbyterian Church following an evening service. She said she was a Christian and that she wanted to follow Christ. But she wanted to be famous too. She wanted to pursue a stage career in New York. \u201cAfter I have made it in the theater, I\u2019ll follow Christ completely,\u201d she said. Barnhouse took a key out of his pocket and scratched a mark on a postal box standing on the corner. \u201cThat is what God will let you do,\u201d he said. \u201cGod will let you scratch the surface of success. He will let you get close enough to the top to know what it is, but He will never let you have it, because He will never let one of His children have anything rather than Himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Years later he met the girl again, and she confessed that this had indeed been her life story. She had dabbled in the stage. Once her picture had been in a national magazine. But she had never quite made it. She told Barnhouse, \u201cI can\u2019t tell you how many times in my discouragement I have closed my eyes and seen you scratching on that postal box with your key. God let me scratch the edges, but He gave me nothing in place of Himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christ\u2019s Call To Discipleship, J. M. Boice, Moody, 1986, p. 154<\/p>\n
Quotes<\/b><\/p>\n
\u2022 Trusting people, possessions or positions to do for me what only God can do. Jer. 17:5 – B. Gothard<\/p>\n
\u2022 Idolatry is worshipping anything that ought to be used, or using anything that ought to be worshipped. – Augustine<\/p>\n
\u2022 Today\u2019s idols are more in the self than on the shelf.<\/p>\n
\u2022 That for which I would give anything and accept nothing in exchange is the most important thing in my life. Whatever that is is my god. cf. Isa. 44:6\u201320. – J. McMath<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
False Values<\/b><\/p>\n
Though we do not face a pantheon of false gods like the Israelites did, we face pressures from a pantheon of false values\u2014materialism, love of leisure, sensuality, worship of self, security, and many others. The second commandment deals with idols. This may be something that most of us can\u2019t relate to\u2014unless we include life goals that revolve around something other than God Himself. What is the object of our affections, our efforts, and our attention? Where does the majority of our time go? On what do we spend the greatest amount of our resources?<\/p>\n
Today in the Word, June 14, 1989<\/p>\n
The Specialists<\/b><\/p>\n
In The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen retells a tale from ancient India: Four royal brothers decided each to master a special ability. Time went by, and the brothers met to reveal what they had learned.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have mastered a science,\u201d said the first, \u201cby which I can take but a bone of some creature and create the flesh that goes with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI,\u201d said the second, \u201cknow how to grow that creature\u2019s skin and hair if there is flesh on its bones.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third said, \u201cI am able to create its limbs if I have flesh, the skin, and the hair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I,\u201d concluded the fourth, \u201cknow how to give life to that creature if its form is complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thereupon the brothers went into the jungle to find a bone so they could demonstrate their specialties. As fate would have it, the bone they found was a lion\u2019s. One added flesh to the bone, the second grew hide and hair, the third completed it with matching limbs, and the fourth gave the lion life.<\/p>\n
Shaking its mane, the ferocious beast arose and jumped on his creators. He killed them all and vanished contentedly into the jungle.<\/p>\n
We too have the capacity to create what can devour us. Goals and dreams can consume us. Possessions and property can turn and destroy us\u2014unless we first seek God\u2019s kingdom and righteousness, and allow Him to breathe into what we make of life.<\/p>\n
– Nathan Castens<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n
Three Biblical Rules<\/b><\/p>\n
Goudzwaard\u2019s three basic Biblical rules:<\/p>\n
1. Every person is serving god(s) in his life.<\/p>\n
2. Every person is transformed into an image of his god.<\/p>\n
3. Mankind creates and forms a structure of society in its own image.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Other Gods What other gods could we have besides the Lord? Plenty. For Israel there were the Canaanite Baals, those jolly nature gods whose worship was a rampage of gluttony, drunkenness, and ritual prostitution. For us there are still the great gods Sex, Shekels, and Stomach (an unholy trinity constituting one god: self), and the … Continue reading “Idolatry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}