Jun 18, 2010

The Creation of Idols

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3

These words from Exodus are well known, but not always well understood. As the Israelites wandered the desert, God gave them commandments to follow to keep them faithful to Him. Most people believe that because they have never cast a golden calf and bowed down to worship it as the Israelites did, they therefore have never worshiped an idol. What too few people realize is that this verse clearly tells us, “You shall have no god before me.” This means that anytime we have put something ahead of our devotion to God we have, in fact, placed an idol above God.

Are idols only things like friends, movies, music; physical things of importance? Not at all, in fact, many things that seem good can become idols. Our feeling can become idols, and so can our love for a child, or spouse. Our education can become an idol, or our skills and talents. We can make ourselves idols, or even a mentor, or pastor can become our idol. Physical objects are not the only things that can become idols to us, but anything that takes the highest place of importance in our life is an idol. In The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis writes:

"No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God’s hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods."

God not only desires, but deserve our worship; to be our number one priority. What do you choose? What in your life is higher than your devotion to God; your relationship with Christ? What can you do to change it?

Lewis, C.S. The Great Divorce. New York: Harper Collins, 2001. Print.

12 comments:

chad said...

It's August 24th... you haven't posted! What's the dealio!

Just sayin'

: )

Nicole said...

I know I know, I'm a slacker!! But I posted something new so I'm reforming!

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