Monday, February 17, 2014
Who Do You Worship?
Mark Daniels quotes another blog post on the greatest idol of them all:
But the problem is worse than that - we in the church cater to that ultimate idol. We worry about "turning people off" if we emphasize sin too much. We cater our worship times and services to people's schedules (we serve them instead of them serving God.) In an effort to bring people into the church, we feed the beast that keeps them out. Sometimes it seems as if Joshua won the promised land not be conquering it, but by moving in and sacrificing to Baal and telling people about Yahweh. Isn't that why they had to wonder the wilderness for so long? Are we in the wilderness know. Daniels friend goes on:
church idols self
The real problem with being full of yourself, is not that it is tacky, rude, or boorish, but that it is deadly idolatry. It is a kind of self-cannibalism, really, for your own insatiable appetite for yourself will simply consume you from the inside-out, piece by piece. The god of yourself can never fill you up; you cannot add an inch or an hour to yourself or your life; you cannot bestow more than you already have, but, instead, you are emptied of everything you were given, by devouring yourself, one bite and one breath at a time.As I read that I could not help but reflect on how many idols we do worry about - money, fame, social media - but that those idols reflections of the idol that is really the problem. The idol of self.
But the problem is worse than that - we in the church cater to that ultimate idol. We worry about "turning people off" if we emphasize sin too much. We cater our worship times and services to people's schedules (we serve them instead of them serving God.) In an effort to bring people into the church, we feed the beast that keeps them out. Sometimes it seems as if Joshua won the promised land not be conquering it, but by moving in and sacrificing to Baal and telling people about Yahweh. Isn't that why they had to wonder the wilderness for so long? Are we in the wilderness know. Daniels friend goes on:
When the Lord demolishes the idol of yourself, He does so not to shame, embarrass, or humiliate you, but rather to be your God and give you life. He tears down, in order to build up. He wounds, in order to heal. He kills, in order to make alive. His goal is not to get even or get revenge, nor to teach you a lesson, nor to punish you, but to save you from yourself, for life with Himself.There is an interesting circles within circles thing here. The church, interested in its own survival, feeds the beast of self-idolization. Has the church become so self-interested that it can no longer save individuals from themselves? And yet, the news is as good as it gets:
The Lord does not "put you in your place," as you deserve for your hubris, but He has taken your place in humility, and emptied Himself, and made Himself nothing, in order to raise you up, to fill you with Himself and His good Spirit, and to give you His own glorious place with the Father.What I find most disturbing is not that we fail to spread this good news - but that we do so because we fail to comprehend it ourselves.
church idols self
