Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Worshipping Yourself
Milt Stanley links to some amazing words:
Well, the fact of the matter is, He is both. The problem is we are all too stupid to know what our real desires are.
Did you ever want something for Christmas so bad that you thought you would die if you did not get it. Think Ralphie and BB gun in that movie that we have all now seen so many times we can recite it better than scripture. (Yes, that is a bit of a dig.) Did it ever end up being far less fun than you thought? My chemistry set comes to mind. And all you really get is disappointment. I did far better chemistry buying crap on my own than that pre-packaged and entirely too safe piece of fluff. (I made gunpowder in first grade, on my own - find that in a chemistry set!) And what passes for a chemistry set these days - forget about it!
Anyway, think about how we live our lives in that perpetual state. We keep wanting something and reaching for the wrong thing. We create little gods when what we want is GOD.
Your little gods may not be mammon - I know mine aren't. But they are there. For me its knowledge. Sometimes I encounter people that behave in fashions I cannot understand, and they refuse to explain themselves. I get obsessive. It is the puzzle I must solve.
What's your little god? What are you doing to find the real God that lies behind the desire?
The God Evangelicals claim allegiance to in our day is just as unknown, in the sense he is hardly recognizable when compared to the God of the Bible. Many of us are quick to point out the obvious excesses and extremes of those who are blatantly peddling their wares on TV and radio in the name of God so they can sit in gold plated chairs, drive Rolls Royce’s and Bentley’s, and enjoy lavish lifestyles at the expense of the ignorant. Meanwhile the God we profess to know, while slightly more moral than the one of the “you write it and I’ll cash it for Jesus” crowd, is a dependent weakling compared to the God of Holy Scriptures.How do we approach God, as a means to an end, or as the end itself?
The God of the vast majority of self proclaimed “Christians” is one who thinks humans are the center of the universe and his chief purpose of being God is to make them happy and prosperous. You know, the God Joel Osteen supposedly speaks for every Sunday on TV. You don’t hear much about God followers being thrown to the lions or being sawed into from Osteen and others like him. Even those who don’t approve of Joel Osteen because of his perceived weakness on “sound doctrine” still largely buy into his grand idea of a man centered world populated by people, each of whom can have a heavenly father who is no more than a supernatural concierge who is waiting to supply their next wish list.
Well, the fact of the matter is, He is both. The problem is we are all too stupid to know what our real desires are.
Did you ever want something for Christmas so bad that you thought you would die if you did not get it. Think Ralphie and BB gun in that movie that we have all now seen so many times we can recite it better than scripture. (Yes, that is a bit of a dig.) Did it ever end up being far less fun than you thought? My chemistry set comes to mind. And all you really get is disappointment. I did far better chemistry buying crap on my own than that pre-packaged and entirely too safe piece of fluff. (I made gunpowder in first grade, on my own - find that in a chemistry set!) And what passes for a chemistry set these days - forget about it!
Anyway, think about how we live our lives in that perpetual state. We keep wanting something and reaching for the wrong thing. We create little gods when what we want is GOD.
Your little gods may not be mammon - I know mine aren't. But they are there. For me its knowledge. Sometimes I encounter people that behave in fashions I cannot understand, and they refuse to explain themselves. I get obsessive. It is the puzzle I must solve.
What's your little god? What are you doing to find the real God that lies behind the desire?
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