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“You shall have no other God’s before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol...” It has been said that anything which becomes an object of adoration and devotion in place of the Lord God Almighty or even in competition with Him is considered to be idolatry. Yaweh is very clear about such practices. In Ezekiel 6:3-5, the Lord warns, “I Myself am going to bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places... and I shall make your slain bodies fall in front of your idols.....I shall lay the dead bodies of the sons of Israel in front of their idols...” Pretty serious language from the Lord who will not stand for idolatry. John concludes his first epistle thusly, “Little children (church), guard yourselves from idols”. We were at one time all practitioners of idolatry. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Thessalonians, “You have turned from idols to serve the living and true God” If we are not careful and purposeful in ‘serving’ the true God and Him only, we tread dangerously close to the abominable practice of Idolatry, that is, loving and adoring anything other than the creator of all, Yaweh. The forces of evil distract our attention from worshipping the one, true God by raising idols such as the entertainment idol, the sports idol, the politics idol and the news/information idol. Another potential devious graven image of today is cloaked in red, white and blue. As saints saved by the blood of Christ, we worship the true and living God remembering that he added us to His Kingdom, the Church of Jesus which He built upon the rock solid fact the He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. He did not build America, nor any other nation. His Kingdom is everlasting and not even of this world. God may bless any nation He chooses when it conforms to His word, but we are foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God. As Americans we can choose to love our country and the freedom we enjoy, we can choose to defend this republic so others will have the same liberties. In fact, I am proud to be an American. I love what the flag represents, but it must never become an object of adoration lifted before the face of God. We will speak the Gospel message, the good news about Jesus the Christ and worship Him, alone, in spirit and truth.
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It has been claimed that we live in the greatest revolution ever witnessed by the human race. Almost everything is in constant change. From medical science to economics, politics even warfare, to education, entertainment and exploration. Advances in technology drive these radical changes. My children have no idea what an eight track is and my idea of a tweet is a little yellow bird. So how does the Lord’s Church adjust progress and how do we keep relevant to the times? We will, or first importance, make certain we stay on the “old paths” neither turning to the right nor the left. Psalm 25:4 “Make me know Thy ways O Lord, Teach me Thy paths, Lead me in Thy truth and Teach me, for Thou art the God of my salvation”. The almighty God has a way, a truth, a path that we must travel in obedience to Him as our act of worship and adoration. We must allow Him to lead us along His way through the life example of Jesus. To truly love the Father is to remain in Him and to walk with Him for “all the paths of the Lord are lovingkindness and truth.” (vs10) God’s will must never be tampered with. His eternal and unchanging mandates according to His covenantal promises are the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. The methods, by which we achieve them, however, are subject to change. In fact, successful evangelistic tactics 150 years ago are most likely ineffective today. Strategies of witnessing must change and remain applicable to the times, without corrupting the truth of God’s will. Preserving man made traditions of the past for the sake of routine or custom can propagate a mediocre and dissatisfied church. People are craving a dynamic spiritual life filled with truth and power supplied by the word of God. The Father seeks true worshippers to worship Him in spirit and in truth. The church has been left with the freedom to do just that, even in a progressive world. The potential power to effect the world is within our reach, under a humble, genuine leadership and a church fed up with complacency, lethargy and despair. People with a zeal for the cause of Jesus will make the church great again and change their world.
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