"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. 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. 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 our main focus. We are to focus on Christ and put Him at the head of our churches. (Read Colossians 1:16-18) 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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I read today of the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Judah. They had kings that tried to right the ship of state but their efforts were not enough and the kingdom fell. I can go back to one thing that is written over and over again, even about good kings that explains the ultimate downfall: "The high places were not taken away." For example, in 2 Kings 12:2-3: "And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all of his days wherein Jehoida the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places." The "high places" were where real idolatry took place. In the hearts of many of the Jewish people the "high places" replaced the temple; therefore, they continued to stand and were not taken away. This can be said about things in our lives as well. We do well from day to day, but there is that "high place" that has become so much a part of our lives that we hardly know it's there, and if we know it's there we don't see it as being so bad. I will not define any "high places," because you know what yours are. Quite often we do not have victory in our lives because of some "high place." The same can be said for our corporate fellowship, the church. We do well but there is that "high place" that somebody's grandaddy put in the church, so we leave it there. What we need to do in both cases is to pinpoint the "high place" and remove it. Let's do it.
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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