Idol worship
The month of July brings so many
images to mind for so many people. Summer is in full swing, vacations are up
and running, summer camps are roaring and just getting strong. In America July
brings memories of Independence Day. A celebration of all things USA takes a life
of its own. I would like to stop at this point and say for the record, I love
this country. I served this country for 14 years of my life in the U.S. Army. I
have the form 214 honorable discharge and commendation awards to prove it. Our
form of government and democracy is what I am counting on to allow me to write
this blog post. With that in mind I will like to tell you that I hate when
worshiping God has to take second place to worshiping country, when any “God
and country” holiday falls close to Sunday. Before you stop reading the rest of
my post and send me all your “here is why you are wrong Rick or Go move to
another country” emails, here me out. In the book of Exodus 20:1-6 God says
this: “Then God spoke all these
words: I am the LORD your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Do not have
other gods besides Me. Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape
of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under
the earth. You must not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your
God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the fathers' sin, to the
third and fourth generations of
those who hate Me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and
keep My commands.” I
am not a legalistic guy by any means. I am just pointing out that this first
commandment has to be honored at all times in our worship services. More often
than not we come to worship that Sunday and we see the bulletin with so much
red, white and blue that it looks like a parade program instead of a church
service. There are acknowledgements about our country’s accomplishments before
announcements, before prayer, before the sermon and after, not to mention the
six patriotic hymns that glorify our country and place her at the same level as
God. I’ve seen it, I’ve been there, and it just saddens me. We designate one day
of the week to worship the creator of everything and we take his stage away
with what? We already are limiting ourselves to one hour of sharing the gospel
with someone in our congregation, who came lost to our church that day. Instead
we speak with pride about what our country has done and how great we are and
how on the surface God has blessed us more than any other country. Don’t get me
wrong that is a good thing to do; Sunday’s worship service it is just not the
place or time for it. Perhaps we need to re-define worship and respect; we
should respect and honor our country, but we should only worship God. I know
many of you can quote scripture that calls for honoring the king and the nation
or government, but none of them say to do it during corporate worship time. In Mat 22:36-40 Jesus was asked; "Teacher, which commandment in the law
is the greatest?" He said to him, "Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your
mind. This is the greatest and most
important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as
yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two
commandments."(HCSB)
Maybe you can relate with this video from my friends the Skit Guys; http://skitguys.com/videos/item/idol-worship.
Idol worship is not
just golden calves; it is TV, movies, actors, video games, politics, country,
boyfriend, girlfriend, Facebook, etc. worshiping anything that is not God. I am
not saying that you can’t have any of these things in your life. In and of
themselves they are not bad. When they take away from your appointed time with
God (Bible study devotions, prayers time, worship) then you have to take a step
back and see how to get back to Worshiping God only.
