American Idols part 2

It might seem that if we are working for God, everything about that activity  is good and God-centered.  Yet, at times, even our “service” or “ministry” can become an idol.  If I get too caught up in “my” agenda for “my” ministry and “my” service for God, I have begun to worship the work rather than the Lord I’m working for.  I need to ask myself when was the last time I laid my service before the Lord in prayer and really listened to the thoughts nagging around the edges of my mind?  When was the last time I asked Him to show me how to handle certain situations?  When was the last time I asked Him to show me His priorities for His work?  A good barometer of my attitude is to assess my response to interruptions.  The interruption may be from God, leading me in a slightly different direction, or forcing me to add something I hadn’t thought about.  God always knew I would have this interruption, however inconvenient, and He allowed it.  It has its purpose.  Its been said that if an American in ministry encountered a burning bush, he’d either douse it or hurry around it and continue on his way.  How sadly true.  God doesn’t speak in literal burning bushes anymore, but He has burning bush equivalents in our lives, and we need to stop and listen to what He is saying through them.

American Idols

When people look at the second commandment, which forbids us to have idols before God, we tend to think of developing world cultures and the little wooden statues of gods.  We think this commandment no longer applies to our “advanced” culture, where we ”know” these little gods are meaningless.  But do we “developed” people have idols in our lives?  The biblical definition of an idol would be anything which takes the place of God in our lives.  That definition makes the question easier to answer, and more uncomfortable to face.  Its been said we could determine our idols by looking at our calendars and our checkbooks.  What gets our time and our money besides God?  Some people call their hobbies, habits or addictions their idols.  I think it goes much deeper than that.  I think as we look at the West, we will see several deeply entrenched idols.  Here are some I acknowledge.

“People pleasing” (which could also be called “political correctness”), means I make another person’s approval more important than God’s approval.  I will take the line of least resistance and refuse to speak truth, do the expedient rather than the right thing, or develop the habit of doing whatever I believe will please somebody else, instead of seeking God’s will and pleasure.

“Being somebody” means I want people to look up to me.  I may seek leadership in every situation, I may kill myself working harder than anyone else in order to get attention, I may seek celebrity status, try to achieve “success” (whatever that means), or try to climb the ladder of whatever tower its leaning on.  This keeps me from concentrating on what God desires for me.  This also keeps me from many opportunities to serve God and others, because far more opportunities to serve are quiet, unnoticed and unrewarded.

“Self-fulfillment” is another idol.  Seeking our personal happiness, well-being, fun and excitement, and meaningful relationships, becomes an end in itself, rather than the outcome of seeking God and His will for my life.  “I Did it My Way” is the statement of faith of too many of us idol (self) worshippers.

Materialism is the most all-encompassing idol of the Western World.  Not only do we spend an inordinate amount of time ammassing wealth, we chase our tails keeping up with the Joneses.  Another form of materialism is seeking our security in anything material or worldly such as financial plans, science and medicine, or the government instead of seeking it in God.

Ultimately, none of the things listed above satisfy us.  That is because we are looking for something else to fill our need for relationship with God.  The idols won’t fulfill us anymore than we can live solely on candy.  We just need to be aware that God and His desires for our lives have to come absolutely first.  If He is not first in our hearts, we will just eventually “run out of gas”.  Look at the celebrities we see all over the television and newsstands.  How happy are they, really?  How many messed up relationships, addictions and mental health issues do we see among the rich and famous?  If celebrity, money and success brought happiness, you’d think these folks would be happier than average people, and instead they seem to actually be less happy.  As an old saint once said “Only the love of God will satisfy the hungry heart of man”.  Anything short of the love of God, whether it be the love of people, the love of attention, the love of possessions, the love of material security, or the love of self, is as hopeless as having a little wooden statue for a god.

Marvelous

I read something today that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  When I was in college, way back when, I accepted without question the idea that human cells evolved from simpler cells, which started in an organic pond struck by lightening.  Well, you know the story of all that.  What I never sort of “put together” was the biology of the cell which I studied in those same years, and the believability of the evolution story.  Today I learned that that microscopic (electron microscopic) human dna is a whole lot more complex than 46 little helixes.  If these microscopic helixes were unwound and laid end to end, they would extend about 28 feet!  Thats out of a cell thats microscopic itself!!  And all this replicates itself every time the cell divides!  Whatever I might wish to believe, or not believe, the idea this all happened through random processes just defies reason.  Some say it takes faith to believe in a designer.  I think it takes more than faith to believe the sheer irrationality of this all happening by chance.  It takes less faith to believe that Stonehenge happened by chance through some as yet unknown natural processes (look at the Scandinavian and other stone circles) than to believe the human cell happened that way.  Yet, when I suggested we’d never looked at the possibility that Stonehenge might have happened without any intelligence behind it, people acted as though I were insane.  The same thing can be said of the human cell happening without Intelligent design.  Why does no one think that is insane?

The First 100 Days

The first 100 days reveals the national dive into the socialist pool.  I have been through this and I know how it will turn out.  I lived in England in the eighties and early nineties.  It was a time of high prices, high taxes, high unemployment and a nearly bankrupt economy on every level.  Even the most basic government services were in desperate straits.  Unemployment among the under 30s was 40%.  The National Health Service all but gave up on those over 65.  What we in America would consider basic emergency care was unavailable even in medium size cities.  The Emergency rooms were there, but so understaffed that people routinely died who should have received care.  As they would say in England, “we have equal access to waiting queues, not care”  That was just the health service.  Other services were in equally dire situations.  The populist crowd wanted government to run business so it would be more fair–whatever that means.  However, government just isn’t good at business.  Social engineering has consequences for the economy when it gets too ambitious, and eventually the engineers kill the golden goose.

Earth Day

I just can’t get excited about Earth Day.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love the earth.  However, Earth Day is a spiritual holiday.  Earth is honored.  Earth is reverenced.   Earth is praised.  Earth is given gifts.  Earth is given service.  Earth is, well, worshipped.  On any other day, secular is the rule.  If we’re going to go to the extreme of worshipping Earth, on this one day when the secular rule is set aside, why not worship the Creator of earth.  Earth, after all, can do nothing.  It doesn’t think, it doesn’t speak, it doesn’t create.  God does everything.  Doesn’t God deserve a day of worship for making this home for us we call earth.  Then perhaps we’d take better care of it in honor of the One who created not only earth, but us as well.

The glory of God

There’s a Christian praise song which has in its chorus “Show me Your glory”.  I don’t think the author of the lyrics knew what they were asking.  If we really saw the glory of the Lord, we would die.  We can no more survive God’s glory than we can survive a thermonuclear explosion.  Our earthly bodies weren’t designed for heaven.  Those who saw the Angel of the Lord (as opposed to the actual Glory of the Lord) fainted until revived and strengthened.  Even Moses, who saw visions, couldn’t look on God and live.  In our spirit, and later, with our new immortal bodies we shall see Him.  And we shall know Him: God, who is Love.

Agnostics and Honesty

Is there a God?  Lots of people who don’t want to commit themselves to either belief or atheism, will just say “I don’t know.”  Is this honest?  An interesting way to approach this question would be to ask “Do you live your life as if there is a God, or do you live your life as if there is not a God.”  An honest agnostic, who truly does not feel they know, at the present, whether God exists, would surely want to err on the side of what is right.  If indeed God exists, they would want to please Him, and would study nature, philosophy, and world religions trying to discover what God is like.  So, to avoid displeasing the possible God, they will seek out goodness and morality as far as their conscience reveals it to them, and keep searching for an answer to their question.  If indeed the person is not honest, and  is in fact a practical atheist, they will live their life for their own self-interest with never a concern for the existence of God, and they will not seek an answer to the question of God’s existence.

God and Sex

These two words seem odd being used together, but think about it.  Either God made sex or he didn’t.  If God made sex, and there’s every indication of design in the sexes and reproduction, then sex has a purpose.  The creation account says “God made humankind in His image.  Male and Female He made them.”   It doesn’t take a genius to understand that male and female are made for each other, their bodies are made for the sexual act, and out of that comes the continuation of the human race.  It would seem the purpose in the creator’s mind is family making.  If one acknowledges this truly amazing wonder has to be more than some kind of blind chance occurrence, then one must conclude that God has plans and cares about His  purposes.  All other alternatives to family thwart his plans, whether it be artificial sex between same sex partners, the use and abuse of persons seen in all kinds of degrading sex, or the destruction of human life following human conception. If we humans say “my body”, “my life”, “my rights”, we ignore the wishes of the Creator in favor of our self satisfaction, and become either idolators who worship at the altar of self (”I decide whats right for me”) or functional, practical atheists.

Human Rights

During all the hoopla about human rights at Durban II, one can’t help but wonder where human rights come from.  Who decides what rights people should have?  Do the majority decide as in a democracy?  If they do, their numbers give them the strength to decide for the minority.  Do the elite decide rights as happened in communist dictatorships, monarchies and other central governments?  If we believe some rights are due to all humans, where do we get that idea?  Is it just an arbitrary human decision that changes with times and cultures?

In the United States our founders decided certain rights were “inalienable”, meaning not needing explanation and not to be taken away.  Do people today realize our founders believed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were bestowed upon us humans by God?  Today when so many people disbelieve God, question God’s existence, or otherwise live as though He doesn’t exist, where do they get the authority to declare what is a human right, who gets rights and under what circumstances?  Its just the opinion of the majority isn’t it, the tyranny of the powerful.  Without God, thats the best we get.

Without God, the right to life is determined by the powerful against the weak.  If the weak are a nuisance, they can be dispensed with.  Look at abortion, infanticide of disabled babies, euthanasia and the like.  Without God liberty is nonexistent.  Without God, there is no pursuit of happiness for all, just pursuit of self-interest by the powerful.  Without God, human rights is as arbitrary and changeable as the winds of cultural fad.

A Dream House

Recently I toured a number of very beautiful homes.  Some were so especially delightful, I felt upon exploring them that I had somehow truly come home.  They almost felt like something I had once designed for myself, or a nearly forgotten home I’d long ago lived in and loved.  They brought out such pleasant emotions!  I believe the mansions God has promised–the ones Jesus said he is preparing for us in Heaven will be like that.  We will love every detail of our heavenly homes, because Jesus knows every detail of what we love.  Homes we have loved here may be a foretaste of our forever homes in Heaven.