Back to Idols

(Pre-requisite for reading this is to read post of April 22, 2008)

Can our modern-day idols really do anything for us? Anything that that amounts to anything good?

Our jobs, I suppose, do some good - we provide for our families. But then, are we not putting family before God if all what we mostly think about is making a living?

(Folks, this line of thought is surprising me too. It is not coming from my own wisdom.)

Ephesians 4:28 says “Let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.” You see, the purpose of work is to give.

God’s written Word is our guide. We need to read it - not go by what we think it says.

Back to idols - God sounds a lot like a lawyer in Isaiah 41:21-22:

“Present you case,” says the Lord
“Bring forth your strong reasons,” says the King of Jacob.
“Let them [idols] bring forth and show us what will happen;
Let them show the former things, what they were,
That we may consider them
And know the latter end of them;
Or declare to us things to come.

Let’s stop there and consider what God is saying.

He is saying that idols - man-made things and ideas - cannot come close to giving us the insight and wisdom that the living Word of God can.

They cannot tell us why things happened in the past and what the outcome will be. They cannot tell what is to come as the Spirit of truth can:

“He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak to you of his own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come." John 16:13

Idols cannot prophesy. (Maybe, "prophe-lie" as Pastor is fond of saying.)

These age-old thoughts certainly sound contrary to some new-age philosophies. such as the "The Power of Now." I have not read any of Tolle Eckhart so I am admittedly pre-judging.

Just beware, reader, that one man’s packaged deal does not become your idol.

Beware that one woman - such as Oprah, first with "The Secret" and now with "A New Earth" - does not replace God, or even coexist with Him, as your source of wisdom, worthy of your praise and worship.

Remember, God said, “For I the Lord your God am a jealous God.”
Is God jealous of Oprah?! (More about God’s jealousy another time.)

Continuing with Isaiah speaking and writing for God, He challenges idols:

Show the things to come hereafter
That we may know you are gods
Yes do good or do evil, [Do something, anything!]
That we may be dismayed and see it together*
Indeed you are nothing,
He who chooses you is an abomination.
Isaiah 41:23-24
* - That makes us stare, amazed. (The Living Bible)

Sorry, Oprah, but God is pretty clear about not wanting to share the stage.

These things need to be said, people. It's not all about: Be nice to your neighbor. Let's put the First Commandment first.

Click on "# comments" below to give your input,good, bad or ugly.

Yours truly,
Elizabeth

We are like grasshoppers

To begin where I left off - I left off a part of a verse in my last post. After Isaiah 40:22a “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,” comes Isaiah 40:22b: “And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.”

That’s us folks. We’re inhabitants of the earth. We’re like grasshoppers, tiny and insignificant compared to His Greatness. He is the Giant sitting on the curve of the planet, able to crush us. We’re at His mercy.

It’s a good thing God’s mercy is not like our mercy.

The Greek word for mercy, eleos (Strong’s Concordance #1656) means not only "an outward demonstration of pity," but also “a sympathy that expresses itself in helping a person in need instead of remaining completely passive” (note in Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible, p. 2083).

He wants to help us. That is what the gospel is all about. His whole plan is to rescue us. He wants to gather us as chicks under his wings, as sheep in his fold.

In our own strength we’re as insects - striving to survive, then dying.

His plan is and always has been to rescue us, free us from ourselves, our bondages, our captivity by the things of our Egypt, our world.

And to enter into His rest, His land of milk and honey. To take us back to Eden.

Wow - that’s not where I intended to go at all. Back to the topic of grasshoppers and/or God’s plan next time.

From little ‘ol me,
Elizabeth

Who's Your Idol?

When God said “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” He meant it. “You may worship no other god than me,” says The Living Bible.

In the next verse, Exodus 20:4 God tells us: “You shall not make for yourselves a carved image. . .you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.“ (NKJV).

But haven’t we done that, spiritually speaking? We may not have carved an image out of wood and covered it in gold (as in Isaiah 40 :19) - but we have our idols - we try to serve two masters. It doesn’t work. (See Luke 16:13.)

So what is a modern-day idol? It can be anything that dictates our moves, around which we plan our days, but most of all that dwells in our minds. It can be a person, a job, an activity, a drug, a thing, a TV personality - even a family member, a friend.

Are you more interested in who’s going to be the next “American Idol” or who God wants you to talk to today?

What are you looking forward to? The next episode of ”Lost”? Your next payday?

Is your paycheck your idol? The answer to all your problems? It often does not even pay the bills - in which case - they are what occupies your mind.

God said,
“They will say, ‘Arise and save us’
But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves.
Let them arise,
If they can save you in time of trouble” (Jeremiah 2: 27-28)

So many times God warns us against idols. He says we are harlots when we stray from him and flaunt our attention elsewhere. (See Jeremiah 2:20 - Go ahead, read the whole chapter.)

I am in hope that readers will realize that the Old Testament is as alive and relevant as the New Testament to us in these times. Maybe more so. It supports the age-old story, the good news, the gospel. God never changes. He still wants to rescue us from our slavery.

"Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth"
(Isaiah 40:21-22a)

It has been said that Isaiah 40 -55 contain the real gospel. I will be reading and studying and sharing those chapters here.

Let God reign in your heart today,
Elizabeth

Here I am. . .

{I apologize for not getting to that “powerful message from one of my pastor‘s recordings” as I said I would “next time” on April 9th. It turns out that relaying his words requires some thought and leads me to studies of my own - Now I have too much to write and have to assimilate it first.}

I saw a song on video a short time ago when I was at the Z-launch in Houston in February. It’s a song we often sing in the church I attend. The music and lyrics are very moving:

Here I am to bow worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that
You’re my God

You’re altogether lovely,
Altogether worthy,
Altogether wonderful to me.

I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sins upon that cross

The last two lines are repeated in a different emphasis, until the words
get you.

I was amazed when on the video, during the repetition of the last two lines
the following words (or ones like them) flashed on the video:
LUST
GREED
ARROGANCE
GLUTTONY
POVERTY - When that word came up I was stunned – POVERTY, a sin??
I thought. It was as if I were “whacked up-side the head” (as they say in
West Virginia) by the Holy Spirit.
Later I realized that the list above are not necessarily sins, but
strongholds. Or bondages. We are enslaved by such things. They can be
our idols. (God had a lot to say about idols – about His people deserting
Him. I’ll write more about that another time)
I had realized that I had a “poverty mentality” – that I was thinking more of
my needs, all those bills to be paid, than almost anything else. Try as I
would to have Jesus be my first thought at any given time, I had to fight the
battle in my mind.

I am reminded now of one of the scriptures (in red letters) that began bringing me back to God -

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that
They may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

I am on a personal campaign in the War against Poverty. Would anyone care to join me?

Feel free to leave comments for this and/or earlier posts, next to the time stamp below.

In Christ,
Elizabeth

But first, a Sidebar. . .

I met a great group of God’s people the other night. How can I say so definitively that they are people of God? Because they were doing the work of God.

As my pastor said recently, “God may ask you to lay hands on someone and heal them, or he may ask you to build a hospital.” These folks are building churches along with the kingdom of our Father.

They are a group of Baptists from South Carolina, from Rocky Knoll Baptist Church in the city of Walhalla - I like saying that name. Eight vehicles full of people from age 2 to 75 came to help build Friendly Baptist Church - that’s the name of the town too - Friendly, W.Va., on the waters of the Ohio River.

These folks brought their gifts: skills, money, materials, craftsmanship, and their hearts. The children gave up their spring break; the adults, their time off paid work. They put God’s work first.

They walked the streets of Friendly and Sistersville and were not ashamed to talk about Christ. They spread seeds; we are meant to water and spread seeds too.

These folks inspired me. I need to listen more. I need to be quiet to hear the still, small voice of God that is telling me what to do for Him in small and great ways every day.

That is living for God, dying to self. Not what we give up or stop doing - but what we do to carry out gospel - the good news that Christ told us to spread. As Samuel said, “to obey is better than sacrifice” (I Samuel 15:22).

Be a blessing to someone today,
E.T.
P.S. The website for Rocky Knoll Baptist Church was under construction today, but try visiting it soon.

My Credentials

This is Riga, the beautiful capital of Latvia. More pix and expressions to come. . .

I am here to serve God, the great I AM. So I do not want to focus on me other than as a vessel, a carrier of God’s Word.
I am the clay; He is the potter. I am yielding, being molded into whatever shape God has in mind.
I’ve twisted away, to be sure. But always return to be centered. My spirit knows what makes my world go ‘round. For He is the Creator, I the clay…

I have many notebooks, pads, and pieces of paper full of notes written at church and from my own meditations over the past thirty some years. There are possibly hundreds of cassette tapes in various cubby holes in my house and car - recordings of the teachings of the services I missed, or wanted to listen to again, or wanted someone else to hear. That’s after taking many tapes back to church to be recycled. I’ve been taught by men and women of God for more than thirty years - but not as I have been taught in the past three years.

The man who heads up our church has brought men and women from around the world to our little town in West Virginia. He has been around the world himself, and God has plans for him to teach in 50 more countries.

He is a scholar who is always telling us to read and study the Bible for ourselves. He has many Bibles of various sizes and colors, of different translations. And he reads them; studies them. He reads books of other great men of God - St. Augustine, Lester Summerall, Smith Wigglesworth, John Lake, and many others. His pasttime is reading & studying. His vocation commands him to read and study - and listen.

He didn’t choose his vocation - he was chosen. He hungers and thirsts for God’s word; then he shares it with us, and I’d like to share it with you.

Until next time, when I'll share a powerful message from one of my pastor's recordings. . .
Elizabeth

My "credentials"

I am here to serve God, the great I AM. So I do not want to focus on me other than as a vessel, a carrier of God’s Word. I am the clay; He is the potter. I am yielding, being molded into whatever shape God has in mind.
I’ve twisted away, to be sure. But always return to be centered. My spirit knows what makes my world go ‘round. For He is the Creator, I the clay…

I have many notebooks, pads, and pieces of paper full of notes written at church and from my own meditations over the past thirty some years. There are probably a hundred or more cassette tapes in various cubby holes in my house and car - recordings of the teachings of the services I missed or wanted to listen to again, or wanted someone else to hear. That’s after taking many tapes back to church to be recycled. I’ve been taught by men and women of God for more than thirty years - but not as I have been taught in the past three years.
The man who heads up our church has brought men and women from around the world to our little town in West Virginia. He has been around the world himself and God has plans for him to teach in at least 50 more countries.
He is a scholar who is always telling us to read and study the Bible for ourselves. He has many Bibles of various sizes and colors, of different translations. And he reads them; studies them. He reads books of other great men of God - St. Augustine, Lester Summerall, Smith Wigglesworth, John Lake. His pasttime is reading & studying. His vocation commands him to read and study and listen. He didn’t choose his vocation - he was chosen. He hungers and thirsts for God’s word, then he shares it with us, and I’d like to share it with you.
Until next time,
God be with you
Elizabeth

Here's a picture of Riga, the beautiful capital of Latvia. I have much to share about that chere