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We may imagine flames, smoke, and intense
heat as the word idolatry brings to mind primitive people prostrate before
an image of Molech or Beelzebub carved out of stone, it's arms outstretched
to receive the living body of a crying infant.
We may imagine an Aztec altar ready to channel
the blood of a human sacrifice with a priest holding the still beating
heart over the victim.
Other images may not seem quite so sinister
as we stroll through a museum looking at the carved images of the gods
of long dead cultures.
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We seldom imagine ourselves
prostrate before our own appetites as we attempt to satisfy our cravings
in food, alcohol, or drugs. We're like the cursed pirates in Disney's recent
hit “Pirates of the Caribbean.” We're hungry, but food doesn't fill, water
doesn't quench the thirst, nor alcohol numb our emotions. We want to be
free of the curse, but we can't or won't rely on the blood of the Father's
Son for our release.
Even further from our imaginings is perceiving
the pursuit of wealth, fame, pleasure, or power as idolatry. The millionaire,
the winning athlete, the CEO, or the President of the United States all
seem to have reached the height of success. What is so bad about striving
to achieve that kind of success? |
God is not opposed to success or prosperity.
He is opposed to using the devil's methods to get there.
What are the devil's methods? Here is a short
list: Lies, flattery, fraud, murder, slander, theft, underpaying the laborer,
cheating the consumer with overpriced poor quality goods, convicting the
innocent and releasing the guilty in the court system, withholding justice
from those who can't afford to purchase it, aborting the unborn for convenience.
The list is as long as your Sunday paper. Every sin (conduct and attitude
that God says is wrong because they are harmful) always adversely affects
not only the personal life of the sinner, but all of society. |
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Our deepest motivation
reveals who our god is. What are you willing to sacrifice to serve your
god? Your health? Your family? The welfare of your employees, coworkers,
or countrymen? Reconciliation with the Creator God who is Sovereign over
all?
We only have two choices in this life. We can
worship the only Living God who gives life or we worship the devil with
death as the end result. |
The Apostle Paul exhorts:
"Therefore, my dear friends, flee
from idolatry. I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I
say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation
in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation
in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are
one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
Consider the people of Israel: Do not those
who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? Do I mean then that a
sacrifice offered to an idol is anything, or that an idol is anything?
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and
I do not want you to be participants with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and
the table of demons. Are we trying to arouse the Lord's jealousy? Are we
stronger than he?" I Corinthians 10:14-22
We can't behave as if we consider the devil's
values to be worth more than God's promises and still belong to Christ
as Christians. To say, “I am a Christian” and then turn around and behave
immorally and unethically in any aspect of our lives is the same as Christians
in Corinth who took the symbols of their Savior—the bread and wine, and
then ate a pagan feast in a pagan temple.
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