"I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."
When God says that He is a "jealous God," He is not speaking from insecurity. He is speaking out of concern for people who ignore Him, or worship other "gods." In the USA we are not overrun with "graven images," but we have surely come up with some good substitutes. Today, we have secularism. The strategy of secularists is to take all spiritual, or religious, things out of our society and put our Christian witness into a church ghetto. Secularists are doing a good job of helping destroy our country and God is not pleased, because "He will not give His glory to another." Closely tied to secularism is atheism. It appears to me that the national religion is becoming atheism. They have succeeded in getting the Bible and prayer out of schools, and have succeeded in some quarters in getting condom distribution in schools. Say what you want, atheism is a religion today. Atheists have put their faith in the hope that there is no God. Then there is materialism. To a certain extent, we are all guilty of this. We are as guilty as the atheists and the secularists. We are enamored with "things" to the extent that we run up credit card debts that we cannot pay back. (By "we" on the credit card issue I don't mean Mary and me. She pays off the credit card every month.) Now I'm really going to meddle. "churchanity" is a "graven image." What is churchanity? Notice that this replaces Christianity. In churchanity we put buildings and programs ahead of Christ. Buildings and programs are important, but they are not to be our focus. We are to focus on Christ and put Him at the head of our churches. (Read Colossians 1:16-18) The final "graven image" is doctrinal compromise. There are churches and preachers that have done away with Biblical doctrine and have replaced it with secular doctrine. The guide for churches is the Bible, and if the Bible condemns something every time it is mentioned, then it does not belong in a Christian church. There are other "graven images" but these are on my mind at the present time. Isaiah 42:8 is still true: "I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." He still means it. It is worth mentioning again that God is not insecure because of the things that we put into His place. God knows that we need Him and that no one can love us and give us security like He can. There is really nothing that can effectively take the place of God in our lives. We need the Lord above anything or anyone else in the world. Meditate on your life and where your loyalty lies, and if you have what could be called a graven image, discard it and concentrate on the Lord – Who alone can be your savior. Bro. Joe
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In the last article I gave a good example of leaven. (see article below) In Matthew 16 leaven is used as a bad example. Jesus told His disciples in verse 6: “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Because they had taken no bread with them, they thought that Jesus was referring to that. Jesus reminded them of the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand. A lack of bread was not a problem for Him. In verse 12 we see that they understood: “Then understood they how that He bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” The point was that if the disciples allowed themselves to be influenced by the Pharisees and Sadducees, they could not teach Christ’s doctrine. Bad doctrine has the tendency to spread just like good doctrine. We need to be careful what we allow into our doctrinal stances. Of course, people change their minds on doctrinal matters from time to time and no harm is done, but if the change takes away from the gospel that the Bible teaches it causes great harm, and, like leaven, will ruin the fellowship. What the Pharisees and Sadducees taught was based on the traditions of men, not just scripture. For example, in the case of the Pharisees, their doctrine included their own righteousness. They were self-righteous. An example of bad leaven from the Sadducees is that they rejected the doctrine of resurrection and life after death. They accepted only the first five books of Moses – the Pentateuch. Also, they did not believe in angels. It is obvious why Jesus did not want this leaven to start its secret work among His followers. Jesus wanted His followers to know that it did make a difference what they believed and , for that matter, what they allowed into their lives. Just remember that bad things spread like leaven and cause great harm. This should say something to us about what we allow into our minds and hearts.
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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