Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Idolatry

Matt Redman: Heart of Worship



Matthew
8:21‭-‬22 ESV

Another of the disciples said to him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."

New International Version
"'Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your¹!
Thank you Jesus! This man Phil was in line this morning and my hands were freezing because my first cup of hot water was cooling down. So, guess who was privileged to be asked to get me hot water? LOL Thank you Phil! Thank you for giving me hot water, and thank you for being so nice and accepting my card! I pray you will be encouraged by the reading!


That's not all! Also, yesterday I had to stay a little bit later aStarbucks because I had to go to therapy. ay caregiver left already so

So, yesterday, I had to wait a little longer because I had to go to therapy. And, I really needed some hot water. So, I asked this lady Maggie and she totally hooked me up and helped me out. Thank you Maggie I pray that you will be
encouraged by my writings. My caregiver also gave one of my cards I heard to the Tasha. Girl I pray you will be encouraged find that writings.

Also, yesterday my caregiver started talking to somebody about how cool their headphones were. Then, we gave this nice person a card. Aisha. I pray that you will also be encouraged by my writings!

Today, I want to speak about idolatry. Maybe, you guys are like me and the first time I heard this word I really had no idea what it meant. Besides the obviousw, of the word being the worship of idols. I would also want to add it's like giving more clout or seniority over another person, place, thing. Something of the like in place of God.

Oh, I need to give a shout out to Sandy! When I got to therapy yesterday, I also gave Sandy my therapist a card. Thanks girl for accepting my card. Thanks for being my follower on the spot!

Sorry about that. Back to the writing. Oh yes, idolatry. Just by reading the definitions I shared, just sounds so bad. I see why God really hates this. Do you?

I'm not going to call myself out or anyone else for that matter. I'm just going to say I do it. Perhaps, we all do it but I don't know everybody's hearts. But, God does. And, he knows that there are times I fall into doing that. 

Basically, if there's a time you set apart really for you and God then leave it. Don't push it off to the side because your favorite television show is going to come on. Don't make God wait until it's convenient for you. Seriously, do you understand we are the ones that have to wait. That time belongs to God. 

Think about it. Do you think God deserves so much more time then what we actually give him. So, yeah putting that football game, or maybe that family party, or just a friend in need would like to talk, ahead of God's time is what we call idolatry.

Leaving God's presence to entertain one of the other pleasures in life ticks God off. And, doesn't that make sense? I'm sure he does get pretty mad.

Bottom line is well first of all don't do the more obvious form of idolatry. Don't worship other idols handcrafted stuff. Don't make Idols out of other people places or things

I am going to end this writing with a story I know I've shared three times or more already, on this blog. It is just so very encouraging to me and I hope it will be for you guys too!

This is the story about my cousin-in-law Martin from California. Like most men from the months of September to February he enjoyed sitting in front of a television ready to watch football. Watching football became like an idol. He was convicted by that. So, you know what this guy did? Heq didn't even have to but he felt that it was messing with his relationship with God and walk with God. This guy took the game of football out of his life!

What about you guys?What about you Sam?

Is there something in your life that you noticed has now become like an idol? Do you think you may be needing to do some life cleaning out of some stuff that is hindering your time spent with God?

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