At The Border

9 Responses to “Idolatry in America”

1. I’d love to post a comment about how angry I am at the sin of idolotry, but I’m too busy staring at this brightly-colored, glowing screen and trying to figure out how to remoce this small plastic box with tiny voices in it from my ear… Besides, it wouldn’t be very godly of me to rage on a blog, would it?

   Josh Blunt
   December 6th, 2007

2. Idolatry…I like to talk about it.

   Let me say first with utmost certainly that all of us are idol worshipers sometimes and many more of us are idol worshipers most of the time.

   To really see it this way I think we need to really understand what idol worship is. To me idol worship is giving something praise, recognition, time, effort, energy on a level beyond what we give to God directly. I’ll give you two examples:

   Work: many of us devote an amazing amount of time to work…at a great loss to our own spiritual pursuits, family relationships, etc. Work is an idol when the essential benefits of work (security, more money) are gained while the other essentials of life (knowing God, loving family) go neglected. Can we really say ‘I work hard for my family’ when the family doesn’t even enjoy our love?

   Leisure: many of us devote an amazing amount of energy to things like video games or Fantasy Foot Ball or movie watching. Most of us (myself included) spend more time doing these things than studying God’s word or serving God’s people or expanding the Kingdom. But even worse, our affections toward these things are much more intense than our affections toward God. We will shout for joy when our team scores a basket, we will scream at our team when they don’t, we will spend 4 hours in a row playing Halo 3…but we can barely muster up a heart-felt prayer during worship.

   So to me it’s very easy to see that all of us worship idols sometimes and some of us worship idols most of the time.

   So I wonder if we can all be honest here and beg God to change our hearts?

   tony
   December 7th, 2007

3. Guys, awesome comments.

   Tony, totally agree. it is our HEARTS that need to change. Why is it that the things of the world so easily arouse desire and longing in us? Why does the prospect of community worship or time set aside for worship sometimes leave us feeling flat, bored and uninterested?

   I wonder if that’s why some of the church is importing so much of the world into its programming, preaching and promo?

   Administrator
   December 11th, 2007

4. Adam:

   Why do we fall for the world’s idols? Why are we pushing to bring those into our worship?
   That’s the million dollar question. I think there are two sides to this coin:
   Side One:
   We lack the raw ‘abide in the Lord’ kind of faith, the necessary faith that is content to seek a God that we can’t see, taste or touch. It’s a raw faith, a faith that is not afraid to cast prayers and worship into open space and believe that God hears and cares. This raw faith is really needs to come first. We really need to come to ‘nothing’ to find that great something. We need a real raw faith that is found in the silent times, in the times when there is no stimulation, nothing more than nothing. Because that is where we realize that God is always there, even when “nothing” is. That is when we truly learn that there is no such thing as nothing.
   We ask questions like “Where is God?”, or “How do I experience Him?” or more along your lines Adam “How do we enhance the presence of God in our worship and/or preaching?” Those questions come out of place of never experiencing God in the still, small and powerful ways that only true intimacy with him afford.
   Side Two:
   We fall for the world idols because they are very powerful and convenient.
   Powerful: Let’s face, the world never looked so good. I was watching a Hi-Def football game in a hotel room two weeks ago and I stood mesmerized for a full 15 minutes. And I don’t even like football (and I don’t’ have cable at home or a hi-def television). But I was just blown away at the “quality” of the idol in front me. It’s just awesome stuff. And I couldn’t even imagine what some of the virtual reality stuff looks like. Or what another channel would have offered me in that format.
   Convenient: One example, lust. It used to be that if one wanted to engage in a sexual sin, one had to really take on some risk. They had to go a public place, have real contact with a person, risk being caught, etc. But now, it’s so easy to worship the sex God without ever getting caught. It’s very convenient.
   Bottom line: The world is offering up idols like never before, very attractive idols in a self-serve format that is hard to pass up.
   It’s just a miracle of God that any of us even strive for holiness and contentment in God at all. I guess it’s really true that he who has begun a good work in us is faithful to complete it. Otherwise, I’m toast.

   Tony
   December 11th, 2007

5. Adam:

   Why do we fall for the world’s idols? Why are we pushing to bring those into our worship?

   That’s the million dollar question. I think there are two sides to this coin:

   Side One:
   We lack the raw ‘abide in the Lord’ kind of faith, the necessary faith that is content to seek a God that we can’t see, taste or touch. It’s a raw faith, a faith that is not afraid to cast prayers and worship into open space and believe that God hears and cares. This raw faith is really needs to come first. We really need to come to ‘nothing’ to find that great something. We need a real raw faith that is found in the silent times, in the times when there is no stimulation, nothing more than nothing. Because that is where we realize that God is always there, even when “nothing” is. That is when we truly learn that there is no such thing as nothing.

   We ask questions like “Where is God?”, or “How do I experience Him?” or more along your lines Adam “How do we enhance the presence of God in our worship and/or preaching?” Those questions come out of place of never experiencing God in the still, small and powerful ways that only true intimacy with him afford.

   Side Two:
   We fall for the world idols because they are very powerful and convenient.
   Powerful: Let’s face, the world never looked so good. I was watching a Hi-Def football game in a hotel room two weeks ago and I stood mesmerized for a full 15 minutes. And I don’t even like football (and I don’t’ have cable at home or a hi-def television). But I was just blown away at the “quality” of the idol in front me. It’s just awesome stuff. And I couldn’t even imagine what some of the virtual reality stuff looks like. Or what another channel would have offered me in that format.

   Convenient: One example, lust. It used to be that if one wanted to engage in a sexual sin, one had to really take on some risk. They had to go a public place, have real contact with a person, risk being caught, etc. But now, it’s so easy to worship the sex God without ever getting caught. It’s very convenient.

   Bottom line: The world is offering up idols like never before, very attractive idols in a self-serve format that is hard to pass up.

   It’s just a miracle of God that any of us even strive for holiness and contentment in God at all. I guess it’s really true that he who has begun a good work in us is faithful to complete it. Otherwise, I’m toast.

   Tony
   December 11th, 2007

6. Sweet analysis, Tony. And your ending point is so true: We must trust that God is at work. The Holy Spirit presides over and works within our sanctification as much as our regeneration!

   Administrator
   December 11th, 2007

7. That’s so true!

   This notion of “make a decision for Christ” or “once saved always saved” is very theologically vacant. I see in Scripture that we atleast need to be the following to get to heaven:

   Believe in the Lord (Acts 16:31)

   Receive Christ (John 1:12)

   Repent (Acts 3:19)

   Obey Christ (Hebrews 5:9, John 3:36)

   Become like a child (Matt 18:3)

   Deny self (Mark 8:34-35)

   Love Jesus more than anyone else (Matt. 10:37)

   Be free from love of possessions (Luke 14:33)

   And this is just some of stuff we need to be doing perpetually every second of our life to see God and be acceptable to Him.

   So yes, sanctification is something I need divine help with. I “prayed the prayer” seven years ago and I’m still praying.

   Tony
   December 11th, 2007

8. Hey Tony:
   Great thoughts here. I would put all those things you listed under the “Symptoms of Salvation” category. The early American Puritans were constantly compiling lists to help people know if they were truly saved. The issue was not: “Do these and you will be saved” but “If you are doing these things and you find yourself wanting to grow in them, then that’s a sure sign that you have been saved.”

   Obviously, salvation is a work of grace, something based in God’s eternal work of election. A total mystery to we mortals. So, in that sense, if someone is truly saved, then they are always saved.

   Agree?

   Administrator
   December 13th, 2007

9. Agreed.

   Salvation is a present-perfect reality (sanctification).

   I think of it in terms of a question: How could someone of their own will ever lose something they, of their own will, could never get anyway?

   Some would say that God’s absolute freedom is a negative in that we can’t freely choose, but the flip side is that we can’t lose. I like to say: We can’t lose what we can’t chose.

   But the fact that we want it so much is evidence that we are chosen.

   You pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down my brutha?

   twoodall
   December 16th, 2007