Counterfeit Gods: God’s Test for Idols!
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Emptiness of Everything”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
About weekly I will go out to our backyard pool and take a strip of paper from a bottle and stick it in the water. The various parts of the strip change colors to show how balanced the water is chemically. It tells me if the chlorine levels are good, the Ph levels are OK, or the level of acidity in the water. Unless the water is turning green (which it has!), it would be hard for me to tell what was going on in the water without the test strip to identify if things were OK or out of balance.
Do you ever wish there was a spiritual “test strip” that we could put in our mouths and depending on the colors presented on the strip would tell us what parts of our soul were in balance and what parts were out of balance?
It might be a little disconcerting to see the read out of such a strip!
While there are not strips, there is Scripture that helps to diagnose what is going on in our hearts. God has recorded both teaching and examples to help us discern, should we be open to it, if we have counterfeit gods in our lives and what they are.
In Sunday’s message (link to listen above), we looked at the story of Abraham and how God tested his heart to see if he held Isaac in first position or the Lord. I’ll let you listen to the message to hear that example. Let me give you another. Also from the life of Abraham, but this time with his nephew Lot and his wife.
Lot lived in a very wicked community of Sodom and Gomorrah. It was obvious that the hearts of people in those cities loved self, sex and stuff way more than they loved God. God let Abraham know that he was going to destroy the city. Knowing that Lot lived there, Abraham pleaded with God to spare the city and bargained down to an agreement that God would spare the city if he could find ten God-fearing people there.
The sad thing is, he didn’t.
So he sent two of his angels to warn Lot and his wife and two daughters to get out of the city. The destruction would be swift and dramatic. However, the Lord said, “Do not turn around and look at the destruction for if you do, you will die.” Why so dramatic? I know I would be curious to flee to a safe zone and turn around and watch fire from heaven consume the city. When would be another time you would get to see that? That wasn’t the point. The point of warning Lot and his family to NOT turn around was to determine if their hearts were more settled in the Lord, or they were longing for what they left.
Lot and his daughters passed the test. His future sons-in-low didn’t, nor did his wife. Sadly God sent the judgment he promised. Here’s how it went:
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
…23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
What would you have done? Thought God was joking like the sons-in-law? Hesitated like all of Lot’s family? Looked back like Lot’s wife?
Here’s the point of the test. Whenever your heart is drawn to things of this earth, let go and let your love and loyalty always follow the Lord. He will never let you down. He will save you from destruction. He will always carry through on his promises.
The Lord is ALWAYS the right answer when our hearts are tested!
Apply: How is the loyalty of your heart being tested today? What makes simply trusting the Lord difficult? Pray for the strength of the Spirit to simply follow the Lord!
Prayer: Lord when my heart is tested, lead me to always fear, love and trust you first! AMEN.
Counterfeit Gods: What are the idols in your life?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Emptiness of Everything”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods.
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Genesis 31:19;34-35 When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household gods. …34 Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel’s saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the tent but found nothing.
35 Rachel said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.” So he searched but could not find the household gods.
After Jacob had spent about 20 years working for his uncle Laban, Jacob left with his wives and children and headed back to his father Isaac. (You can read the full account in Genesis 28-32.) On the way out of the house Rachel grabbed the household gods and hid them in the bags she was carrying. These icons were probably cultic objects, perhaps still connected with the worship of Yahweh, but done improperly. Some suggest they were in the form of past family members used to communicate with the dead. Whatever they were, they were valuable to Laban and Rachel wanted to keep them.
When Laban pursued Jacob to find them, Jacob promised that if they were found on any of the family members, their life would be taken. Whether Rachel knew it or not, her life was on the line so she feigned her monthly period to sit on the bag holding the objects until Laban left. She hid her gods and didn’t want Laban or her husband Jacob to know about them.
There’s more to this account, but here’s the question: What gods are you hiding that you don’t want those closest to you to know about?
Perhaps you are not hiding them in a saddlebag and sitting on them so no one finds them, but perhaps they are hidden away in the recesses of your heart, hoping that no one will really find out. Even hoping that God won’t expose them to you.
The interesting thing about these “household gods” is this: 1) they were family gods…obviously perpetuated from generation to generation, b) they seem to be used in congruence with the worship of the true God, yet were a distraction or a deviation from true worship and c) they were valuable.
So, what are the idols in your life?
- Look at your family tree. Are there things that show up not only in your heart but in your family’s history that continue to distract you from a full worship of the true God?
- Look at the things you prioritize that you “justify” time with the Lord in worship, in prayer, in Bible reading that you think are “OK” to pursue in congruence with worship of the Lord, yet are a distraction or a deviation that move your trust somewhat from the Lord to this item or object.
- Look at what is valuable to you. What do you protect? What do you treasure? What do you freak out about if you lose it or it is a possibility you will lose it?
Perhaps there are idols in your “saddlebag” that you are sitting on that you hope no one will find.
God knows. That’s all that matters.
Consider these words of King David to his son Solomon:
“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought” (1 Chronicles 28:9).
Rachel feared her father’s reaction if he would find her gods. Our Lord lovingly calls us to let go of the counterfeit gods because he knows the deception they create diminishes the blessing he desires to give.
It’s OK. Let go of the family gods, the “valuable” idols and allow the Lord to fill even more fully the void they leave.
Apply: Tim Keller in his book, Counterfeit Gods, suggests these questions to discern the idols in your heart. Ask yourself them. What do they reveal?
- What consumes my imagination, my heart, my passion?
- What, if I would lose it, would make my life hardly worth living?
- What do you spend your time, energy and resources on without much thinking about it?
- What do you depend on in life to give you significance?
- What do you depend on in life to give you security?
Prayer: Lord, expose every idol in my heart. Open my heart to let go of them and trust you fully. As you fill the void they leave, lead me to realize that what you give is far greater than anything I thought my idols would provide. AMEN.
Counterfeit Gods: What is an idol?
Devotions this week based on the Message: “Counterfeit Gods: The Emptiness of Everything”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Tim Keller entitled, Counterfeit Gods. You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
“I don’t have idols!”
“You can look in my house…no statues…no icons of other gods…I don’t have a problem with idolatry!”
Ever thought this?
Perhaps it is our knee-jerk reaction when we hear the first commandment God gave, “You shall have no other gods besides me.”
We got the first one, right? We can move on to commandments two through ten.
Or can we?
Depends on how we define an idol.
If we simply define an idol as anything fashioned out of wood, stone, or metal that represents a god other than the God revealed in the pages of the Bible, perhaps many of us can claim we have “no other gods.” However, if we define an “idol” as Tim Keller does in Counterfeit Gods, we are not so quickly off the hook.
Consider this definition:
What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.
A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living. An idol has such controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving “face” and social standing It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty and brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry….An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, “if I have that, then I’ll feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then I’ll feel significant and secure.”
“Anything in life can serve as an idol, a God-alternative, a counterfeit god.”
Anything. Even the good things of life have opportunity to take first priority in our hearts and lives and become spiritually harmful. The temptation is to shift our love and trust from the true God to some thing or some one.
God’s desire is that we find the joy, peace and security we are looking for in him. The first and greatest commandment is not for stroking God’s ego, it is for bringing blessing to our hearts.
So let’s embark on this journey, allowing God’s Spirit to expose the counterfeit gods in our heart so that we may find more fully the blessing of loving God “with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, ALL our mind and ALL our strength” (Mark 12:30).
Apply: Walk through your house. What things do you see or interact with (things or people) that perhaps are taking priority over your relationship with God?
Prayer: Spirit of God, expose the counterfeit gods in my heart and enable me to love the LORD my God, who has so graciously loved me, with ALL my heart, ALL my soul, ALL my strength, and ALL my mind. Amen.
Eat This and Live Forever!
Devotion by Mike Geiger originally published August 27, 2012 on www.whataboutjesus.com
For this week’s Sermon from Cross & Crown (CLICK HERE)
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51)
“What’s for dinner?” “I’m hungry!” “Can we stop for something to eat?” Each day Americans spend 67 minutes eating or drinking as their primary activity and another 23 minutes eating or drinking while doing something else… an hour and a half…each day.* Wouldn’t it be good if someone could invent food that could sustain us longer than a few hours?
We are blessed in America to have many options for food. People in other countries crave just enough to keep them alive. Food is what our bodies need…yet, even with food…even good food…we eventually die.
How strange it would be if there was a link at the end of this devotion to say, “CLICK HERE FOR FOOD YOU EAT AND WILL LIVE FOREVER.” You may click on it out of curiosity to see what scam was making money off a cheap marketing ploy. We all know there is no food that you can eat and live forever…or is there?
Jesus shocks the normal paradigm with the claim, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:51). What? Really? Could it be?
Jesus knows that we were created by God to live forever in a perfect relationship with God. Sin ruined that and now even though we eat, we still die. No longer would the good food of creation sustain life forever. While much food is very good, it will never provide for our deepest need…our spiritual hunger. We need a solution to get rid of our guilt, overcome physical and eternal death, and give us any hope of giving account to a perfect God. We could never find it, yet Jesus provided it.
He gave himself for the life of the world. His actions were perfect…for you. His physical death was in payment for sins…yours. His resurrection assures us that as he now lives, body and soul, we too will live.
This is Jesus’ promise to you. Believe it. Enjoy “eating” of him every day. Take in his teaching from the Bible. Learn more about who Jesus is and what he’s done for you. “He who feeds on this bread will live forever!” (John 6:58).
Oh, and click on this link to read more: CLICK HERE FOR FOOD YOU CAN EAT AND LIVE FOREVER!
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for giving yourself, your life, your death, your resurrection for me. Help me to carve time in each day to “taste” how good you through the pages of the Bible. Nourish my soul through this spiritual food so when my earthly life ends, I can have the confidence I will live with you forever!
*Opening statistics quoted from http://blogs.usda.gov/2011/11/22/how-much-time-do-americans-spend-eating/
Are You Connected with God?
Devotion by Mike Geiger originally published August 20, 2012 on www.whataboutjesus.com
For this week’s Sermon from Cross & Crown (CLICK HERE)
John 6:41-47
At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.
Are You Connected with God?
Find God within. Find God in nature. Find God through meditation. We can’t find God. Our society is filled with thoughts and ideas of how to connect with God. Inside each individual, whether they acknowledge it or not is the desire to know God. But how? God seems so distant, so elusive, so intangible that to really connect with God…is that possible?
The confusion is not recent. The words of John 6:42 indicate that individuals at Jesus’ time were confused when they saw Jesus and knew he grew up in the family of Joseph, yet he claimed to come from heaven…from God. How could a human being make this claim? Because he wasn’t just a human being. He was God. As the angel Gabriel told Jesus’ mom Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) Joseph was an earthly father figure, but Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father. This was a miracle of God becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.
So how do we connect with God? We connect with Jesus Christ. We connect with his words and his teaching. As Jesus said, “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.” This is a connection you don’t want to miss! For whoever connects with God through Jesus Christ and places his trust in him, is the person who will enjoy heaven forever.
We can enjoy God’s creation in nature. We can focus our minds through meditation. But ONLY through Jesus Christ can we truly connect with the one and only true God.
(To further discover Jesus Christ and your connection with God through him, visit www.whataboutjesus.com)
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for coming from heaven to live, die and rise again for me. Come to me to through your Word to connect me with you, my Saving God, forever. AMEN.