Showing posts with label idolatry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label idolatry. Show all posts

Friday, April 26, 2013

The tables have turned.




Jeremiah 50:4-5, 20, 31 NLT
“In those coming days,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel will return home together with the people of Judah. They will come weeping and seeking the Lord their God. They will ask the way to Jerusalem and will start back home again. They will bind themselves to the Lord with an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.
In those days,” says the Lord, “no sin will be found in Israel or in Judah, for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
[to Babylon]
“See, I am your enemy, you arrogant people,” says the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Your day of reckoning has arrived— the day when I will punish you.

Jeremiah 50:34 NLT
But the one who redeems them is strong. His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. He will defend them and give them rest again in Israel. But for the people of Babylon there will be no rest!


-------------

Go? Stay? Flee? Settle? Return? If you have read Jeremiah with me then you might be asking yourself what is consistent with God. It seems like his instructions keep changing. And in one chapter it appears Babylon is God's servant doing his will, bringing judgment on the idolatrous and unfaithful people called by His name. Then at the end of the story God is judging Babylon for destroying Jerusalem even though it seems like God told them to do it and made them powerful enough to do it.
Here is what hasn't changed.
Don't serve idols!
Do listen to God. 
Don't be stubborn and set in what you think is right or what you want.
Do seek God and be willing to trust him instead of 'best practice.' If best practice and received wisdom lead you to trust something more than you trust God you are setting yourself up for judgment.
Get ready to change.
Be prepared to live without sin.
In one way or another everyone in the known world was going to be judged by God for thier sin, idolatry, and proud unwillingness to obey God.
God raised the nations up and God tears them down. God uses their warmongering ways to accomplish his judgment and then judges then for their warmongering ways.
But God promises a time when his people will not sin and will rest.
When Jesus came he offered this clean heart and rest to us as well.
Don't be hard hearted like the nations.
Serve God. Trust him. Obey his word. And live in anticipation of restoration, sinlessness, and the promised rest.

https://soundcloud.com/wkbode/consider-the-following-tables


Tuesday, April 09, 2013

One single choice

Isaiah 43:10-13, 25 NLT
“But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be. I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord. “From eternity to eternity I am God. No one can snatch anyone out of my hand. No one can undo what I have done.”
“I—yes, I alone—will blot out your sins for my own sake and will never think of them again.
__________________________________
Often imitated but never duplicated, there is only one God. People have been inventing God's since the Garden of Eden, when the serpent created a god that lied. Eve imagined a god that jealousy withheld good from her.
But maybe the coup d'etat of God making is when man himself claims to be God.
One of my favourite bands, Audio Adrenaline(AA) sings about it in their song,  'My God'
--"There's a man over there standing on the street
He says I'm a god! but I think he's a freak
Many different men aren't just what they claim
A moonie a morman a man from Mars
A little off track but have nice cars--"
Still for all the supposed divine confusion, there is only one God. There is only one God and you must answer to Him.
But this single Supreme Being has always had a plan to save His people.
Jesus is God! Jesus is the saviour Isaiah wrote about in chapter 43.
Let's go back to those song lyrics of AA,
"My God is the only God
He's the only God that lives.
He loves, He cares, He makes, He shares
And eternal life he gives
He took the pain and shook the chains
And rattled all of Hell.
Now you may think I'm crazy
But only time will tell."
It seems a lot of people in the world are investing a lot of time, money and emotion making false gods. Competing and contradictory imaginary universe rulers have been made to control the masses and placate guilty consciences. But there will only ever be one God. Over and over God has proven he alone is God, but never moreso than when he died on the cross and rose from the dead.
Let me be indulgent one more time and share one last bit of lyrics from Audio Adrenaline's song 'My God':
"There's one important thing that you should know
Jesus Christ paid the price
We all think it's nice
Spread His arms and died for man
But we're not doing all we can
We need to go to our work and our school
And tell all the people that Hey! God rules!"
So there is one God. And as you read this you are faced with one choice. How will you respond to God's exclusive claim? Will you keep making and following false gods or will you worship the one true one?